By Pamela A. Scott

I don’t need to tell you guys this, but I will say it for those who aren’t engineers: Engineers are problem solvers. They see a problem. They want to fix it. And they tell you how to fix it if you don’t let them do it themselves. 

That “fix it now” mentality popped up last week with a client. Here is what happened and how it could have been handled differently. Read, learn, and definitely share with others, particularly young engineers who haven’t learned the lesson yet. 

Situation 

Tom, a well-meaning principal, saw a problem and told June, the office manager, to deal with it. When Tom came in the next day, the problem hadn’t been fixed. He wanted to know why. That didn’t go over well with June, who now resents Tom and is unlikely to help him in the future. 

A Better Way 

Tom needs to remember that not everyone thinks like he does. And not everyone is comfortable confronting a situation head on. Tom says he apologized, sort of. I doubt that June would agree. 

By telling her what to do, Tom “dissed” her, and June likely feels he doesn’t think she knows how to do her job. She probably also took the “deal with the problem” command as an insult to her intelligence. 

Had they had a conversation about the situation, June would have had a chance to admit that she knew the problem existed (saving face) and that she was prepared to address it. She could have offered her solution, which may have been the same as Tom’s. Even if her solution was different, they could have talked it out. She would have felt more respected and probably would work well with Tom in the future.

By Pamela A. Scott

This morning Mark and I were talking about the generation of folks coming out of college and in their 20s. I mentioned some young engineers I talked with at the ACEC/GA conference in June. I was just amazed at their enthusiasm and eagerness to get involved.

Mark repeated what he has said before: We hire them and beat the leadership and enthusiasm out of them over time. We wear them down until they look and act like us.

I would hate to see that happen to the folks I talked with. I would hate to see that happen to ACEC/GA Future Leaders program participants that I get to work with each year.

Our conversation reminded me of this tale.

Subject: Company Policy

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

By Pamela A. Scott

Last week a client asked for ideas on how to handle her project team. Her team is working on a high profile project with tight deadlines. My client, the project manager, has to travel routinely for project team meetings at other sites. She has learned that when she is not there, her staff eases up in their drive to get work done. She isn’t being critical—they work hard and do good work. She was just stymied in why they do that and what she can do about it.

My son, a psych major, equates it to when you have a substitute teacher. Kids act up. The pressure to perform is not as great with a substitute as with their regular teacher.

What’s at play here is the reverse of the Hawthorne Effect. The Hawthorne Effect says that productivity increases when workers know they are being observed. So, when the boss is away, the work pace slows down. It is natural.

Two key learning points come to mind here.

Ideas to Keep ‘em Going

If you the boss want to keep the pace going when you aren’t there, designate a second-in-command to check in with folks. The key is for your staff to know that they are being observed even though you aren’t there. You could rotate this role among the staff, so no one appears to be special. This is not micromanaging—it’s simply playing to human behavior.

By Pamela A. Scott

Even engineers, who are definitely “do-ers” in this world, fall into the trap one client was in this week.

Paul manages an engineering department for a design-build firm. Everyone in the department is working way more than 40 hours a week—some are doing 60 hours or more. That is not the way to run a healthy business. Morale is down. We’ve heard some engineers are looking for other jobs. And we know it’s not the slugs who are looking; it’s the talented people Paul doesn’t want to lose.

Paul and his boss know things are bad. They’re tired, too. My question was: What are you doing about it?

The engineers are overworked. They are making mistakes and missing deadlines. The engineers aren’t real happy. And it’s a tight labor market—they can pick up the phone and get another job almost immediately.

Well, Paul says, we have a full staff meeting every quarter, but we haven’t scheduled one yet. The last one was four months ago.

Why haven’t you had the meeting, I asked.

“We haven’t had time to find time in our schedules,” Paul replied.

This is where Nike comes in. Just do it! Paul and his boss are smart people. They care about their staff. They don’t want the staff to leave. And they would like things to be better.

By Pamela A. Scott

How much conversation is too much?

I’m working with partners who each have different ideas about how long a conversation should last. And what a conversation should entail.

Frank, the COO, believes you ask a person the question that you need an answer to and then you leave. Conversation over. Frank has gotten the information he wanted.

Lewis, on the other hand, sees conversations with employees as a way to build rapport and improve morale. Lewis, CEO of the company, gets engaged when an employee asks a question. Lewis uses that opening to start a discussion that can lead to many topics.

While Frank uses a conversation to get a quick answer, Lewis uses the conversation as a way to find out what’s going on inside his company or with an employee. He’s mining for information—no negative overtones implied.

Which style is better? It depends on what one wants to achieve from a conversation.

But as partners, it is important that Frank and Lewis each respect the other’s conversation style. Frank is getting information. Lewis is building relationships.

From each other’s perspectives, it would probably help if Frank learned to converse more easily with employees. And if Lewis did watch the clock on how long the conversations go on.

By Pamela A. Scott

I was meeting with Sharon over lunch yesterday. She’s been a successful professional for 20 years and now functions as a project manager and part-time business developer. She is considered a leader in her firm, one who might be asked to become regional manager before too long.

However, she freezes up when she thinks about having to make small talk with strangers or people she knows only slightly. Her role requires her to attend networking meetings and to build her circle of contacts.

The key for Sharon and everyone else who dreads networking is this: Ask good questions that get the other person talking about themselves. And make sure they are not questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no.”

In truth, we all like to talk about ourselves. We like to brag about our kids or tell a humorous story about what Fido did. We certainly share stories about our travel nightmares or the weather.

So, try out some of these the next time you’re facing the networking nightmare.

By Pamela A. Scott

Do you think this management team served its employees well?

Our son does what I call in-house customer service for a telecommunications company. Last week the powers that be called the staff together to tell them what was coming up this week. (We like it when people set clear expectations.)

Due to several factors, management portrayed this week as Hell Week (my words).They let staff know that this week was going to be extremely busy and that people would feel the pressure.

They set an expectation that this week was going to be totally miserable. Our son bought into the expectation. He even advised us that he would be under extreme pressure and might not be his usual jolly self.

By Pamela A. Scott

It was a painful conversation to witness. I was meeting with Jennifer and Patrick. They are partners in a small professional service firm. We were discussing things that the business needed and trying to prioritize those needs.

Patrick was quite adamant that the accounting system needed to be overhauled. Now!

Jennifer was concerned that the firm needed to be developing its junior staff. Then she started thinking about more concerns.

“In addition to accounting and training, I’ve been concerned that we may be behind on our policies and procedures manuals,” Jennifer said.