My Management Philosophy - Notre Dame Club of Chicago



My Management PhilosophyByJ.C. AndersonForwardAfter completing approximately 39 years with Whirlpool Corporation and retiring as Senior Vice President of Operations responsible for over 22,000 employees, I felt a strong desire to capture in writing the basic principles that guided my daily approach and actions.Everyone has a different personality, background, and experience which guides and shapes their management style and approach. I offer the 7 basic principles that shaped my approach to the daily business challenges.Talking … to anyone, anywhere, anytime !!As a leader, you must be accessible to talk with employees … especially those within your direct responsibility. Too many manufacturing plant leaders … or any functional leader for that matter … attempt to manage from the “corner office”. You must realize as a plant leader, delegation is a critical managerial skill; however, you cannot delegate your personal presence on the floor.I always challenged myself to “know” the people that had the most isolated job in a typical manufacturing plant … the 3rd shift punch press operator. This individual works from approximately midnight to 7 a.m. (when most of us sleep), runs a loud metal stamping press, and is required to wear ear protection. Too few plant leaders make it a point to regularly “visit” this shift … let alone take the time to establish a relationship with the 3rd shift punch press operator.The overriding theme of … anyone, anywhere, anytime … is one of discussing issues and/or problems … in the employee’s environment rather than your more comfortable office. An example still remains very vivid to me to help make this point. After discussing this type of personal approach (described in Who Are You? on page 5), I received a call at my house from a Paint Department hourly employee on the 3rd shift at 3:00 a.m. complaining of paint fumes. After she described the variety of steps that had already been undertaken to resolve the issue, I felt a personal visit to the plant was appropriate. Corrections were appropriately made; but the personal action to go to the plant at that time of day, became well known and helped develop a “caring” munication … information is powerful !!The need to effectively communicate … both orally and written … is one of the most critical elements for an effective leader of any size function and/or organization.Employees within your organization need to know what’s going on with the business, the challenges, the projects, your thoughts, your objectives, your frustrations, and most of all your expectations of them.A well-informed employee, hourly or salaried, is on the way to being a more highly motivated employee knowing the focus and, hopefully, the results that are expected from their personal efforts.What to communicate, in my opinion, focuses around the basic premises noted below …The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – be truthful and realistic about the business situation and status. If things are good and a competitive advantage exists, then great. Explain why there is an advantage and what we must do going forward to increase it. On the other hand, if a less than competitive situation exists you must describe that and the necessary actions going forward.Candid – get to the point you want to make quickly … and in understandable terms.Factual – get the facts to your best ability and communicate the facts versus hearsay and rumors.Relevant – ensure the subject is relevant to your function and/or organization.Simple – make sure the communication can be understood by our 3rd shift punch press operator.Bottom line … if the item is not current, factual, and relevant then it probably should not be discussed.Presentation material for employee meetings, project reviews, management reviews should receive a significant portion of your time to ensure your material effectively communicates what you hope to. Some principles that I tried to keep in mind …An effectively developed “picture” (i.e. slide) is worth a thousand words.Matrixes are an effective way to summarize complex informationFewer rather than more slides“Read” your audience. If they have the point or aren’t interested in that particular point, then move on.Understand your time allocation and pace your presentation to complete your pitch … regardless of the number of questions.When faced with multiple direct reports and numerous geographic areas, an effectively used voice mail (audix) system can provide an opportunity to verbally update your organization on a 7 x 24 basis if mitment … your word !!“Dependable” … “reliable” … “delivers” … are words that we strive to have used when people describe our actions. At the basis of this activity, however, is a personal, deep-rooted commitment to stand by your spoken word. You commit … you have said … that I will do this or that and people expect you to be able to back up your words with actions to deliver the committed results.You must have a firm grasp on your personal abilities, your organization’s capabilities, and the surrounding obstacles but then be proactive and make an aggressive commitment. Commitments are part of the daily business world and both large and small commitments should be made every day regarding delivery of a report, project, presentation, and/or financials.Make Decisions … and keep things moving !!The business world revolves around timely and effective decision making. I emphasize two words … timely and effective. As such, I strived to gather and analyze the appropriate information in the appropriate amount of time and make the decision.Your decisions obviously directly relate to your commitments (described under Commitment) and can be large or small and, again, are probably made on a daily basis.The key point is not to unnecessarily ponder, delay, and create paralysis by analysis. Your results are the outcome of your decision making so favorable results will reinforce your decision making process. On the other hand, unfavorable results should cause a reevaluation of your decision making approach and process.Provide Direction … but follow up !!Every business leader requires a substantial amount of information input as part of a decision making process. As such, numerous requests are made internal and external to your organization for reports, evaluations, reviews, etc.The communication … the direction provided … for these requests is key to ensure an efficient process is used to develop the requested information in the requested time period. I used 3 principles in all of my information requests …Ensure Understanding – during the request discussion with subordinate or work group, spend enough time discussing what is desired (format, detail, content, etc.) to ensure that the request is fully pletion Time – initially ask the subordinate or work group for their estimated completion date and if this is within your time requirement, then agree to that completion date. If their date is beyond your time line, then explain your time requirements and reach agreement.Follow Up – the agreed upon date becomes part of your “tickle file” to follow up routinely to ensure progress toward the final deadline date. The ability of the subordinate and/or work group to meet the agreed upon date provides you some evaluation of their time management skills. Continuous missing of dates should be evaluated for root causes.Who Are You ?? … Your people want to know !!Anytime a new leader is appointed, their organization, regardless of size, wants to know as much as they can about them. During the initial month of any new assignment, I would develop a presentation to help the organization understand the items noted below.“Growing Up”FamilyPre-Whirlpool work experienceWhirlpool work experienceMy Approach … pet peeves and likes/dislikesOur ChallengesThis initial presentation was a great “ice breaker” and provided for a natural conversation starter (i.e. I.U. basketball and pigs) at most any time. As a rule of thumb, when walking the manufacturing floor, I would never raise a business issue, but rather start a conversation on basketball, farming, the weather, etc. In most cases, the conversation would eventually get around to an issue that would be resolved during the floor conversation rather than the issue escalating to a grievance/arbitration status.These initial meetings were followed by routine “Business Review” meetings every 3-5 months. These are on company time and considered a critical part of the overall employee communication process regarding business and project status. The meetings were structured for approximately 2/3 presentation and 1/3 Q & A.The Boss’s Projects … Approach ??Any supervisor routinely asks for help in project evaluations, reviews, etc., in the course of the daily business world. My approach with any supervisor has always been much the same as described in Provide Direction with one key exception.To repeat the process … during his request, I will ensure that I understand exactly what is being requested and the time line. The exception has always been to beat the timeline with the requested information.My assumption has been that the requested work is important or it would not have been requested, so I will “burn the midnight oil” to exceed my supervisor’s expectations regarding the timing and quality of the information request.SummaryRight or wrong … good or bad … effective or ineffective, these basic principles guided my approach for 39 years at Whirlpool. My desire is that hopefully, some of these elements will provide the reader a new and/or revised approach to becoming a more effective business leader that will help your organization/business be more successful. ................
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