MANAGEMENT
BY
DON TYLER
���Blind��� Managers
Self-awareness is our ability to see ourselves exactly as
others see us. Fully self-aware individuals know how they are
perceived by others and read other people���s verbal and
non-verbal reactions to their comments and decisions with
100 percent accuracy. They do not deceive themselves by
thinking that they are
someone they are not.
In working with hundreds of managers
over the years, I
occasionally am
called upon to try
and coach someone with very little to
no self-awareness. These
are ���blind��� managers because they cannot see
themselves accurately in
any area of their behaviors.
They have convinced
themselves that they are
the most efficient time
manager, the best decisionmaker and a wonderful
people manager, yet fail to
achieve even basic levels of
consistent performance. If
you ask them, their performance is exceptional,
yet the production records
confirm a completely different story.
A feedlot hired a cattle
boss who had fairly good references, but once hired was barely
mediocre in all areas. Records
clearly showed that production
had slipped significantly. The feed
yard manager had provided good
coaching that should have corrected the situation, but no improvement occurred. I spent a day interviewing the cattle bosses��� staff, and
they all agreed that he was totally
ineffective, couldn���t make decisions, lacked sound cattle sense,
and failed to provide consistent
management of the department.
The yard manager and I met
with him at the end of the day, and
he provided detailed descriptions
of all the things he was doing perfectly as a manager. Regardless of
the question, he had the ���right��� answer, but all of his responses were
inconsistent with what his staff had
witnessed���and the records
showed. After an hour and a half of
his explanations and fables of consistent success, the manager and I
Circle No. 117 on Reply
18
FEED���LOT April/May 2013