EDWARD DEMING ON BUILDING CREDIBILITY WITH FOLLOWERS
Use this to help you build credibility with your staff.
Edward Deming (1900–93) was the foremost authority on quality improvement in the second half of the twentieth century. A fierce critic of management, which he thought was responsible for over 90 per cent of all the problems, he argued that:
To manage one must lead. To lead, one must understand the work that he and his people are responsible for.
Edward Deming
One of the most pernicious lies about leaders is that, if they can lead a factory, they are equally capable of leading a fashion house because leadership skills are generic and therefore transferable. What rubbish. Leaders must have credibility with their followers if they are to be respected and trusted. Staff will always be suspicious of someone who lacks knowledge about the sector they are working in. In such situations the ‘wannabe’ leader can exercise power and force change through but they will never have any followers.
The same problem exists when a leader moves from one organisation to another, even if it’s within the same sector.
New leaders must learn about their organisation, its history, norms of practice and its culture if they are to be successful and even then they may not be accepted.
WHAT TO DO
- Depending on the number of staff you manage, either find the time to sit with each person individually or select a sample and talk to them. Don’t hold the meeting in your office. Go to where they work and let them tell you about what they do and the problems they face.
- Get a feel for the environment in which the person works. Is it a mad house with phones ringing and constant interruptions or a haven of tranquillity?
- Spend about an hour or so with each person selected.
- Try to share the staff’s experience of the job. Robert Townsend insisted that everyone who worked for Avis Rent a Car must spend two weeks on the car rental desk at a busy airport – no exceptions. He recounts how some senior executives panicked and ran away from customers. Politically elected officials with no experience of the service they are leading should be required to spend time working with front-line staff.
- As you move about the organisation, keep your eyes open and note down anything that strikes you as odd, interesting or unusual. Ask a colleague or trusted member of staff about what you have observed.
- Use meetings as a way to observe how the organisation operates. For example, is it democratic or do one or two powerful individuals run things?
- Use management by walking about (MBWA) as a way to maintain contact and build relationships and knowledge (see Quotation 30) with the wider staff.
- If you are entirely new to the sector, consider having an experienced member of staff shadow you for, say, two or three months. They can discreetly advise you about what passes for normal procedure and/or behavioural norms, and their feedback on how you acted can accelerate your learning.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- How much do I know about what my staff actually do and the problems they face?
- Could I list three major cultural norms that underpin my organisation’s behaviour?