EMAS Business coach

Alexander Mikheev

OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
 CONTENTS
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PART 1
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PART 25

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PART 6
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PART 29

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PART 11
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PART 36

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PART 15
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PART 40

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PART 20
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PART 45
 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 1

We are going to discuss some instruments in the area of operational management. Please, remember that you
receive information not only from your trainer, but also from each other. You are going to share your experience.
My task is to give you the opportunity to practice this theory and analyze the way you manage, establish
processes, and set goals. You need to make practical conclusions.

Under one of the chairs, you will find a sheet of paper with a special task. Please, check your chairs and tell me
who has the task.

No one found the task. Because there is nothing under your chairs. Let’s think what has just happened. Some of
you have stood up. Some person was the first to do it. Some of you did not stand up at all. What did you have in
your head that moment? What made you stand up?

- Interest.

What kind of interest? It was the following. What was the task? It might be under my chair. Does it cause
interest? Of course. What else?

- The teacher asked us to do it.

Authority of the teacher. I tell you to do something and you have to do it. Other reasons? What thoughts did you
have in your mind? It was interesting what you were going to do. Imagine what you would do if I had told you
that there were $100? Ok.

What happened to you when you didn't find the task or when I told you that there was no any task and your
expectations were not met? Demotivation. If I ask you to do it again?

- We will not do it.

- I think that about 30% still will stand up again and check.

In operational management, even if you have a strategy, clear goals and plans for a year ahead, you distributed
everything for a quarter, a month and so on, still you have to work with people. People, are those who push
processes. If there were no people, there wouldn't be any real processes, they would we written on paper and
that is all. It is important to understand what actions and efforts a manager must make every day to keep
processes moving, in order to inspire and motivate people, create conditions in which they can do it themselves.
We can force a person to take off his sweater, but also we can switch off the air-conditioning, and then he will
take it off himself. So, this is something that we use to create the atmosphere in the company in order to create
motivation and the desire to make achievements and reach the necessary results.

Let's start the development of managerial skills from the following thing. First, you need to be able to conduct
inventory and see your strengths and weaknesses. When we ask the question 'What do we manage?’ we usually
answer that we manage money, resources, people, tasks. If we classify everything, then we will see 4 areas where
we can develop managerial skills. Usually we start from self-management. Why do you think it is so? This is the
thing, which is possible to influence. It is something that is available. You can influence it anytime you need.

The first thing that you need to do is to learn to manage your own brain. It is personal effectiveness. If you can't
manage yourself, then people will not follow you. If you are not stress-resistant, self-organized, if you can't
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manage your time, you are always in a hurry, forget something, study slowly, then it will influence other aspects
of management. That is why the first thing that we are going to discuss is personal effectiveness. May be you
have already had it: Eisenhower's matrix, Pareto principle and so on. It is the foundation.

After that, we are going to develop result management skills. How can we manage the result? There are 2 ways to
influence the result. The first one is planning. The ability to plan. When we set goals, we must plan. For example,
in a year, we want to achieve some certain level or we want to extend the geography. We set goals. They can be
more or less strategic, but still it is planning. If we don't plan, then we will not influence the result. However, if
you have made a decision that in a year you will become different, that means you have a plan.

The second is the vision of tendencies. It is like a good driver, who sees not only the car in front of him, but he
looks forward. He tries to predict the tendency: the place, where the traffic jam will take place, where it is better
to switch the lane and. He does it intuitively or on the basis of his experience he tries to see where the industry is
moving to. He tries to predict. It is one of the methods to influence the result.

Moreover, here we have a skill of result management. If you have set the goals, then everything that you do day
by day is called process management. You set the task, then you check it, you have status meetings, conferences,
you solve some tasks and problems with your employees, you provide resources for them, create standard rules.
All these things represent process management.

Everything would be great if there were machines/computers instead of employees in the company. We would
set up computers once and then everything would work and exchange information all the time. The chance that it
would work properly is 90%. What is the problem in reality, when we have people but not computers? Creative
people, technologists, salesmen, designers, engineers, cashiers. They all have different types of thinking. We need
to learn to manage their brains. Everything is connected with people. It is called soft skills. They include
motivation, team building, mentoring, coaching, and the ability to give feedback, the ability to create the
atmosphere in the team and in the company in general and so on.

I have a student who is a manager in IT company. As he has technical education. He hasn't got any problems with
self-management, he sets priorities in the right way, he studies quickly, absorbs information quickly. He hasn't got
any problems with these things. He can set SMART goals. He establishes processes very quickly, the same with
algorithms, rules and so on. However, he has the following problem. He says:" What should I do with my
employees? Everything would work properly if not for them." No matter what processes you establish, it is
important to make people carry out these processes.

There is an interconnection between people management to self-management. It is feedback. It is some kind of

spiral. Imagine, you have a start-up and there are 4 people in your company. You have developed some
managerial skills, result management and self-management. Maybe there are no many processes; you control
everything in your head. You have enough instruments to manage this number of people and the project, which
the company deals with. Then, one year has passed, and you have 40 people in your company. Now you already
have some structure. There is a deputy, a manager of the group, project managers. Will these skills be enough for
you? No, you have to develop your skills all the time. More than that, if you have new employees, existing
instruments are enough to manage them. Then some time passes, these people become more experienced,
demanding, ambitious, they become middle managers. One of them becomes “a star”. When your employees
develop themselves, you understand that you need to develop yourself too. It is a constant spiral.

Let’s assess your secret competences on a scale of 1 to 10. There are 16 competences. Why do we use a scale of 1
to 10? We don't use a scale of 1 to 5 as at school, we want to avoid marks 2 and 3 like at school. If you have 10
points in some quality, then it is ideal. 1 is weak but still it means you possess this quality to some extent. If you
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have 10 points in some skill that means you are an example to follow. That means that you have achieved
perfection in this competence.

So, self-management. Stress resistance. Please, assess this quality. Evaluate how quickly you switch from
emotions to logic, no matter what has happened: you lost a big client; you have tax inspection, some conflict.
Some people need only several seconds to become able to think and use logic again. In addition, some people
need a half of the day and to take something sedative or to take a day-off in order to do the same thing. This is
stress resistance. Maybe you have some acquaintances, who have 10 points in this competence? This is the
example for you to follow.

The next is authoritativeness. It is your inner core; it is to what extent you trust your own decisions (to promote a
person, to give a leave, to give tasks, to give mandates and so on). You make a decision and you don't doubt that
you did everything right. You trust your own decisions. This is authority. On the contrary, there are worrywarts.

Time management. It is whether you do everything on time or you are in a hurry all the time, whether you do the
work, that you had to do during the day or at home at weekends. Another important thing is whether your
employees keep pace with the time frames. Sometimes it happens so that the boss completes all his work and
goes home at six, but his employees have to work late. For example, he gives a task to employees at 5.45 p.m.
and he goes home. Therefore, it is about not only personal time, but also the time of the team.

The next is trainability/ development. It is your ability to absorb information. Any information: a training, an MBA
course, a refresher training. You can apply it in practice immediately or you need time to think it over and maybe
in a year you will start implementing it.

Leadership, initiative, vision of trends. This is your forward thinking. Do you know where your industry is moving
to? What will happen in a year, or 2-3 years? It is whether you have a notion, judging by some actions, actions of
your competitors, some news, of where it everything is moving to, how it is developing, and what is degrading
and what is developing.

Goal setting, formulation of goals. Are you able to set clear goals?

Planning of tasks and resources. I think that all of you went camping. What is important when you go camping? It
is important to take all the necessary things with you (a tent, something that helps to make fire and so on). It
happens so that some managers don't do planning of resources and only during the process of work they
understand that they are short of resources, people, budget, information and so on. Therefore, it is your ability to
plan your resources properly.

Evaluation of results after making decisions. How quickly or slowly you do it. Can you gather people immediately,
evaluate the results, and make the right decision?

Setting goals to employees. Do people understand you from the first time you tell them something?

The ability to establish standards. There is a metaphor of a standard: a lock-nut. What is its function? A controlling
function. The ability to see weaknesses when you work with clients or information, where you need to introduce
and maintain rules.

Control and assessment of work results. Do you know what your employees are busy with? What did they do
yesterday? Are there certain criteria that you control? Maybe you use total control and you try to control
everything? It is like to grow carrots: you pull out a carrot everyday to check how it grows. Alternatively, vice
versa. You give a month to an employee to sort things out and then you sum up the results.

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 The ability to demand or persistence. Usually it is the absence of strictness. Especially you manage a group of
women, their children are often ill; they need something all the time. You make concessions all the time. The
opposite quality is strictness. It is not cruelty. It means to appear tough in a good sense. That means you demand
to fulfill the task even if you think that you can do it better yourself or you have some emotions connected with it.
This is also the ability to give talks to your employees, critical talks as well.

Motivation of employees. Here we mean non-material motivation. Can you create the conditions to make people
interested, give the task so that an employee will be inspired to do it? Do you remember Tom Sawyer, when he
was forced to paint the fence? What did he do? He changed his attitude to the task. He said that it was a unique
task; you don't have such an opportunity to paint the fence. He gave importance to the task. You need to
motivate an employee with some project, business trip or something else. You shouldn't force him or just give
extra money, you should awake his interest, he must have a desire to do the task.

Teaching/mentoring/coaching. Have you got patience, desire and skill to pass on your experience? I know one
commercial director, who told me:" I would tech my salesmen myself, but I don't have enough patience. When I
do it myself, I want to fire them all or deprive of their premium in 20 minutes after the beginning of the lesson”.
On the contrary, you can teach them the whole day patiently, even if they fail to do something. These are your
teaching abilities.

Resolving conflict situations. Conflict management. You need conflicts. It is like friction force. Without this force,
we wouldn't be able to make steps. Sometimes you need discussions, but not just to make your employees do
what you have told them to do. You need energy, you need new ideas. It is important to avoid turning discussions
into interpersonal conflicts.

When do we need to give ourselves a mark, then compare, and discuss it with a partner?

Once in a quarter, or once in half of a year. I recommend doing it once in half of a year, because within this period
something new happens in the company: new people come; something changes in the processes, the scale of
your actions changes. Once again, if you have 4 people you can give yourself 8 or 10, maybe you are really
effective. However, if your responsibility of tasks, management scoping, money turnover in the business become
bigger, for example, you move to another level in year, you have 40 - 50 employees in the company, and then you
won't give yourself 9, because the requirements to you, as the boss, become higher. It is the same with the car,
which is coming down the asphalt road. Suddenly this appears on the country road and its possibility appears to
be not enough.

When you assess each of the competences, it is useful to understand the following.

For example, time management, or conflict management. You can develop these skills at the level of knowledge
and that is all. You read the book on the necessary topic. You know what Pareto principle is, some important
methods, but you have never used them in practice. We can introduce some competences only at the level of
knowledge. For example, we know the traffic rules, but you have never driven a car in your life.

The next thing is abilities. What is an ability? That means I have tried to do it several times in my life, I did it
successfully several times, but sometimes I failed. It is not a habit yet. I can put my abilities to practice; I have had
such an experience.

The next thing is skills. What is the difference between an ability and a skill? A skill is more automated than an
ability. When I do something, I don't have to think about it. Speaking about an ability, I still think how to do it, for
example:" Ok, here I need to use Eisenhower's matrix" (Time management). Speaking about a skill, I do such
things without thinking. The highest degree of automation is a habit. A skill means "I can do it or not". A habit
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means "I always do it and I can't imagine I don't do it." That means it is already natural for a person to do it, it is in
his blood. For example, if we speak about sales: there is knowledge in the sphere of sales, then abilities, then
sales skills and a habit. Do you know those who deal with Multi-level Marketing? Avon, Oriflamme and so on? Of
course. They have a habit to sell, and it is difficult to communicate with them, because you always have a feeling
that they try to sell you something all the time. Even if they tell you about the place they have visited, it seems
that they stimulate you to do the same and receive something from it. In fact they don't do it on purpose, it is just
their habit. No matter what they discuss, they use sales patterns. They tell you why you need this, how great it is,
then get feedback from you.

It is possible to turn a competence into a habit, but you need a lot of time and repetition as a rule. To acquire a
skill you need to repeat the action at least during 90 days. Then you forget that you can do it, you just do it
without thinking. It turns into your habit. Cognitive habits require more time (Time management, for example).
That is why even when you assess some competence, you can compare it with the scheme and understand to
what extent it is developed.

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 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 2

Dear colleagues, let’s perform one experiment.

I need four volunteers. Who wants to take participation?

Who wants to try yourself as a leader? Ok, Alexander, you will be a leader. The task for you is the
following: imagine that these three people are your salesmen. You have just hired them. You have a
project, where you want them to participate. You need to organize their work in the right way to reach the
goal. They should work as a team. As I said earlier, they are newbies in a company, and they need
attention and help from you. By the way, they might not notice some important moments.

Colleagues, you should put this to cover your eyes. Didn’t I mention that it is a role-play?

Now make a step back and hold each other's hands. The task is to lead them through barriers. That is why
we need masks, so, they will not be able to see them. You, as a leader, should help them to overcome
barriers. By the way, it is your choice to mention the names of barriers or not.

You will be a representative of a customer, and you will count the number of things on which salesmen
step on. Imagine that a planned profit is $1 000 000, and for every item, on which salesmen step on, a
team pay a forfeit. The amount is $100 000.

Moreover, if you have 10 mistakes, it will mean that your profit will be zero. If you make 11 mistakes,
you will pay debts to a customer.

The task of the leader is to plan the actions of salesmen to avoid mistakes. You need to lead them all
together. You can only tell instructions and cannot touch them or move. You can say whatever you want.
It’s possible to motivate them or to frighten. It depends on you.

Let me repeat that your task is to coordinate their actions to pass through these things on the floor and not
to step on them. You have 3 minutes.

Your time is out. You make mistakes, which cost $700 000. That sum will be hold back from the profit.
You can prolong time. So, what do you think?

- No, no, I don’t think so. The project failed.

Now, we are going to listen to everyone. First of all, the leader begins then students and salesmen. Tell us
about the operational management of employees, what have you succeeded from that point of view?

- First of all, I think I should agree with salesmen on some steps and some control points. It would
be better to set some methods or rules.

You mean the rules of tasks setting. What have been achieved?

- Yes, right. I use the method of trial and error. For example, Sasha made mistakes at first, but then
we understood each other and everything was ok. Of course, there were some problems in my
management. I think the misunderstanding took place.
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Let’s sum up. How many mistakes were made? 7 mistakes, it means that you lost $700 000 from the
planned profit plus 2 minutes, which you bought for $200 000. The total sum is $900 000. Let me remind
you that the planned profit was a million dollars, but you received only $100 000.

Unfortunately, you haven’t even completed the project. I mean that your salesmen haven’t finished. Who
is responsible for loosing profit? The leader thinks that it is he. However, why do you think so? Your
salesmen stepped on the items on the floor.

- It was my responsibility to explain the task, and I should have prepared better to it.

Can you tell me what exactly your responsibility is? We are not speaking about someone’s fault. We
discuss the responsibility. What is your responsibility as a leader in that situation?

- I didn’t give the methodology how to deal with it and clear instructions. Perhaps I also forgot to
establish some agreement between us how to implement the task as a team.

What if you have the second chance? What will you make better?

- I think I would practice a bit before doing the task.

Let’s assume that it’s forbidden. You cannot do it. Usually, it happens that we cannot practice before
implementing a real project. For example, our project is to build a house. I don’t think that we will
practice first. It is unreal.

Dear colleagues, I suppose that what the student told makes sense. A leader can refuse from a project if he
thinks that it is impossible for him to implement. In this case, a team is directed to another project or is
dissolved. A leader can count risks and refuse from a project.

- The point is that many newbies in the project management are happy that they receive some
project to implement, but they don’t understand the profitability of that project. Sometimes there
is no profitability in a project, but they don’t know it. Simply, they cannot count the profit. After
that, there are many material losses.

Even if a leader takes that project, the result will depend on his management skills. The number of
mistakes will depend on management of coordinating, controlling, motivation.

Did you formulate a goal to your salesmen? It’s a very important moment. What is a goal here? The goal
here is the following: Dear salesmen, you need to overcome three meters with barriers holding hands with
closed eyes. Barriers are different stationery. You should tell them about the goal. That’s how they could
have a picture in their mind and it would be easy for them to overcome this and for you to lead them.

By the way, salesmen closed their eyes before I put stationary on the floor. That’s the problem. Many
leaders do the same mistake because they are sure that employees know the goal. Leaders give only
commands like “Let’s build”, “Let’s sell”. However, they don’t say what should employee build or sell.
Of course, I am speaking figuratively. In our experiment, salesmen had the idea that there was something
on the floor, but they didn’t know what it was, its size and so on. How many meters they needed to
overcome. Without the goal, employees have the Brain Freeze.

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Now, let’s listen to students. What have you noticed?

- I think the problem here was that salesmen didn’t know how they should move, how they should
make steps and so on. The absence of standard here is noticed. And perhaps, it was the reason for
most mistakes. It is the rule of working according to standard. For example – get your leg up and
lower it vertically.
- To my mind, it’s necessary to explain strategy firstly. In that case, a team will earn some profit.
A leader should tell the strategy to gain better results. For example, we use the method of trial and
error.
- Was it possible to take away all the stationary?

They also couldn’t go round these items. These things represent difficulties in business. For example, you
cannot eliminate your competitors or violate the law. There was nothing you could do with the team as
well. Don’t think that you can hump someone on your back. Let’s not change the rules, but think about
what can we do in these particular conditions. I’m speaking about the leader, what should he do and how
should he manage his team to reach the goal with minimal losses?

- First, speaking about strategy, I think salesmen can overcome this field in two steps. If the first
step was made correctly, than there could be maximum 3 mistakes. If the leader explained to
strong Yuri that he could take small Olga in his hands, there would be 2 mistakes. From the
profitability point of view, that’s how the leader could do.

It doesn’t mean that after making one step they feel under foot 1 item, it can be a few of them. As you
remember 1 item is counted as 1 mistake or they could slip and fall down.

- There was the absence of a clear description of items, which were on the floor. The leader should
describe the number of things, how they looked, their size, shape and so on. Salesmen had no idea
how to put their feet without touching items on the floor. I think it was the main problem. It was
necessary to describe the situation using every small detail. They could tiptoe. That’s my personal
opinion.

Yes, I agree with you. Unfortunately, many leaders forget to make strategy and give goals. They think
that employees know everything. However, how can they know everything if leaders have never told
them anything?
Let’s sum up. First, the goal wasn’t formulated. Nevertheless, the formulated goal could help them. So,
please tell me, would it be helpful? For example if your leader had told you about items on the floor and
described the situation, you would have implemented the task better, am I right?

Tell us about your attitude, your emotions to that task. Let’s begin with Sasha.

- First of all, it was hard for me. It was a huge intention because I held the Olga’s hand and I had to
avoid stepping on the things. I didn’t know what to do.

Let me comment on your attitude, please. When an employee receives a task to get a leg up and then a
leader starts to think what to do next, this situation causes some problems. First of all, it’s the problem
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concerned the authority of a leader. If there are a few situations like this, then the authority of a leader
becomes less. The thing is that an employee supposes that his boss doesn’t know what he wants.
Alternatively, imagine a woman on high-heels in that situation and her boss cannot tell her what to do. It
seems that the boss doesn’t know what he wants. He doesn’t have a strategy and a plan. I’m not sure that
employees will follow such a person. Only one thought appears here – Can we trust that man?

Between the leader and employees should be mutual understanding. They should speak one language and
without using difficult metaphors.

Leader’s loud voice influenced salesmen's motivation. The situation became worse, because the salesmen
were nervous and they felt the absence of willingness to do something.

When an employee makes a task for the first time, it’s interesting for him to do it, it’s an inner motive to
try his own strength. However, motivation becomes lower when a salesman makes a few mistakes
especially when they influence the company’s profit. So, please tell me about the feedback, was it
necessary to give or to receive the feedback from the leader?

I want to say that for employees it’s crucial to know the implementation status, especially when they do a
long-term project or a task. For example, the leader should tell how many steps were left, when they were
in the middle of the road. The point is that employees don’t see the implementation status because they
might not know some details, while the leader understands the whole situation. That’s why the feedback
is very necessary for employees to maintain motivation. Otherwise, it can become lower.

Let’s imagine that you have a customer, and his condition is to implement the task in 3 minutes or to
build a house in 3 months. These are client’s conditions. Speaking about construction, there could be
different issues, like difficult land for building, the necessity of providing some researches on that land or
additional services. I totally agree that it’s complicated and the term is short, but will you agree or not?

Speaking about our exercise, the leader saw the items on the floor and he could change salesmen's places.
Perhaps, this would help.

Ok, these ideas are like life hacks for a leader in business and I think he could use them. Sometimes, it
happens that we just give some commands without any plan.

- It’s better to plan everything before doing something. But here he had only 3 minutes to do the
exercise. If you had given him 2 hours, he would have done everything perfectly and made a plan.

But it’s like a real situation when a leader doesn’t have enough time to prepare a plan, to think everything
over. He needs to act right now and hasn’t got an opportunity to consult with somebody and so on. To my
mind, such a situation happened to everybody. You need to do something without a delay.

Let’s formulate how we can use all the mentioned ideas in business. I speak about the management.
What is the most important thing?

- My colleagues have mentioned that the time was not enough for doing the exercise; I would like
to add that nobody pushed him to start the exercise immediately, that’s why I think he could ask
for a few minutes to develop a plan at least. So, the first important thing is planning. The second

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 one is technology, how to move and make steps. The third is how to manage salesmen. It’s crucial
not to shout, and not to speak loudly. You made the situation worse, because in our exercise,
salesmen had their eyes closed and it means that this shouting could cause nervousness and
confusion. It’s demotivation.
- The leader should begin with strategy. It was better to say what a goal is and game rules.

- I have 5 points. So, I make a conclusion. Well, the first point is planning. The second one is to
describe the situation to employees, giving all the necessary details. The third point is to formulate
the goal; it means what we should reach. The fourth is to develop a strategy, how we need to
move. The firth one is not to doubt your actions. It concerns mostly the leader; it helps employees
to feel confident in a leader. The last one is the feedback from employees.

What do you think about the leader’s attitude to the failures and mistakes of his employees? For example,
in our exercise there were 7 mistakes. Some of you think that it’s crucial not to scold, but discuss
mistakes later with employees. Or there are other variants like to say nothing or to reprimand. Some
people can even fire for that. However, it’s better to discuss mistakes and say how to do something
correctly. For example, the size of steps, the distance between the feet and so on. The leader should give
the chance to rectify a mistake. If you don’t notice employees’ mistakes, irresponsibility appears.
Employees don’t care about their mistakes in that case. Sometimes, an employee doesn’t think about
himself as a part of the company, and the loss of $ 100 000 is nothing for him.

Perhaps it’s better not to tell about mistakes during the exercise, and tell about them after. However, the
leader could use mistakes to correct strategy.

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 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 3

How would you answer the question: “What is the goal of a manager?”

The goal of a manager is to create a system that would work without you or with your minimum involvement. If
you leave on a vacation or if you leave for a month’s training you should ensure that the work keeps going in your
absence the same way as always. If people don't know what to do without you, if they are confused or get into
conflict, if they violate the rules, if they don't know what to do in a non-standard situation and constantly call you
for advice it means that you haven’t created a system, but you have placed yourself in the center of this system
instead. You can see this in the technical field or in sales.

Remember the Black Box model, when you have resources and goals or target indicators as the input and results
as the output. We may be right when we say that a manager is necessary to achieve the sales or production
volume or implement a project. However, he doesn’t do that with his own hands, he acts through his employees.
If you as a company manager or head of the sales department is the core mechanism or drive gear that
everything else revolves around and achieves 50-60% of the result then your system is unstable because it
depends on your well-being and health condition. Nevertheless, it will collapse as soon as you leave the office for
a week. A manager should create a system that keeps working with his minimum involvement.

A manager who does the most part of work makes the company unstable. However, why do we sometimes want
to be in the center of attention? It’s because of our ego. It seems to us that we are the best, the coolest and the
most important people that no one can do without. We think that if we leave even for a couple of hours our
employees will not be able to work properly. Sometimes a manager cannot overcome this psychological obstacle
for a long time and places himself in the center of the system. Obviously, he ends up being 180% busy leaving the
others second-guessed. This system is unstable. It’s an illusion of being occupied when you don’t actually manage.

- Managers in big companies place themselves in the center of the system on purpose thus increasing their
value so that the employer wouldn’t fire them and creating a feeling that everything will go down without
them.

Correct. Especially if we talk about a hired manager - it’s not only about his ego, it’s about security. Every business
owner wants his deputy not only to create the system around him, but to make it autonomous in the end. This is
a psychological obstacle: to create a system that he would be separated from. Take any restaurant. If the system
depends on a chef, this is not a good system. This is only a good job for a chef. If there is no substitutes and if his
competences cannot be divided. Therefore, the manager’s goal is to create a system with minimum involvement.
You will never leave it; you will always modify and upgrade it, but don't get into it. Otherwise, you will be like an
on-the-field coach who plays half the time and tries to understand what to do with the team the other half. There
are examples of coaches who play and train, but they are not good.

What is the manager’s responsibility? What does he do?

He makes decisions: personnel and management decisions. All that a manager does is making decision, small or
big, which lead to gaining profit or bearing expenses. The manager’s responsibility is responsibility for the
decision he makes. Tasks may be complicated from the technical point of view, but it does not imply making
decisions meaning that any employee can do it. It’s only a matter of performance.

Do you know the story about a farmer who hired a worker? It runs as follows. A farmer hired a worker and
decided to test him. The farmer was going to go to the city and gave the worker a task to give the land a tilth. He
gave him tools, showed how to do it and said that the task was difficult, but if the worker would manage to fulfill
it he would stay to work for the farmer. The next day after he returned from the city he saw that everything was
done perfectly. He was surprised, though, and thought that the worker had someone to help him. He decided to
11
give him another task. This time he told him to sow the field. When he returned from the city the next day he
again saw that everything was done perfectly. The farmer couldn’t believe he was lucky enough to hire a worker
like that. Therefore, he gave the worker the third task: to sort out the seeds into three categories: of the best,
medium and low quality. He left. When he came back, he saw that nothing was done. He asked the worker why
he hadn’t done anything. What do you think the worker answered him? He asked him how he should have told
bad seeds from good ones.

Tilling the ground doesn’t require making any decisions, but sorting out the seeds does. It’s hard to do it without
any criteria. Tasks that require making decisions require a manager to do it. An employee may have an
understanding of a product and how to sell it and what discount to offer. However, in a non-standard situation he
will approach his manager. The manager needs to make a decision: whether we do it or not, whether we offer a
discount, or not, whether we work with the client on the specified terms or not. What goes beyond some policy
or rule is a managerial decision? Managerial decisions are made in unpredictable situations and in changing
environment. You cannot be 100% sure whether your decision will work or not. When you choose one candidate
among three present at the interview you cannot be 100% sure that one will do the task and the other will not.
There will still be some uncertainty. This is a managerial decision. Technical decision is when you can calculate
everything using a certain formula.

Managerial decision is always made in a situation of uncertainty when you are not sure whether it will work or
not, whether this product will be demanded or not, whether an employee will be efficient or not, whether the
process will lower the costs or not etc. What does making decisions require from a manager? Apart from
knowledge, vision of the company and skills? It is his personal internal will and courage. When you realize that
millions of dollars are on the line. Signing a document is not that difficult. However, it takes internal courage to do
it. I know cases when people do their job well, but when they get promoted and become supervisors, team
leaders or project managers, take responsibility for their colleagues towards the customer and make decisions it
turns out that not everyone can do that. Someone can and says that it develops potential and adds adrenaline to
the job. However, others don’t want to take responsibility for other people, only for themselves, so they get back
to what they used to do. Being a manager requires a strong will, not only knowledge. You may have a lot of
knowledge, but without internal will it will be hard for you to make decisions. Experience matter, too. It adds to
your confidence.

There are two approaches to achieving a goal. They are applicable to businesses, tasks and projects. The first
approach is “half a loaf is better than no bread”. For example, you sell medicine. You would better fulfill half a
plan than nothing. There are situations when “half a rocket is worse than no rocket”. Even if someone doesn’t
fulfill 0.5 percent the whole project will fail. There are such businesses or tasks. For example, many Russian cities
hosted 2018 FIFA World Cup. If there had been any problems, FIFA would have said that the object was not ready.
In this case, the task requires more responsibility and stress from the manager and his team. When the risks are
high, you need to double check everything. In the first case, nothing would happen if you don't do something. In
the second case everything’s at stake. You can even remember cases when business collapsed after unsuccessful
projects. Reputation is such a strong thing that after a failure it is hard to keep on running the business in the
sphere.

Continuing the topic of the role of a manager, expert distinguish three types of managers from the point of their
mindset. This classification doesn’t show their status or position, it shows their mindset. If you ask a specializing
manager, what he is proud of he will tell you that he manufactures products of the highest quality. That’s because
he is a specialist who grew up from a professional and it’s hard to deceive him. If an employee tells him that, he
needs 3 hours to fulfill a certain task this manager may say that this is a lie, because the task requires 10 minutes
to fulfill. Such a manager is bad at delegating responsibilities and takes the most difficult tasks. In sales he would
take the most interesting contracts and the best clients leaving the others with the background sales. This type of
a manager knows what a good quality is.

Even the plant owner can be a specializing manager because he grew up from manufacturing and has a certain
mindset. Director of a construction company can visit the site every day monitoring the process and examining
every aspect. He is interested in the products and he cares about what they do. If you suggest his going to a

12
different business line, he will say that he doesn’t have enough expertise for that. People tend to develop the
business that they are good at.

The next is a managing manager. He rarely visits the sites. It is easier for him to build up communication, set
tasks, control points, and monitor the activity. If you ask him, what he is proud of he will not tell you that he
manufactures products of the highest quality. He will say that their work is the most coordinated, they have all
their processes lined up and all their employees in their places. He will be proud of processes and people that
work for him. For example, McDonalds doesn’t make the most delicious food, but they make a million
hamburgers per minute all over the world. Your grandmother would make a hamburger, which is much tastier,
but it will take her much more time. There will be certain limits. Managing manager is good at delegating
responsibilities, setting the tasks, monitoring and sometimes experiences problems with motivation, especially if
he needs to show a personal example. Unlike managing managers, specializing managers easily do that. They pick
up the phone and show how to sell, for example. They go to negotiations and show how to conduct them.
Specializing manager takes part in important activities and serves as a supervisor.

Entrepreneurial manager is a completely different type of a manager. He is not focused on the product, people or
processes. He is looking beyond and into the future. If you ask him, what he is proud of he will not tell you that
they have the best product or the most coordinated personnel or processes; he will say that they were the first to
launch it and they will be the first to sell it or to find strategic partners. Why is he an entrepreneur? He takes risks
and sees possibilities that others don't see. He develops and sometimes creates chaos. If the team involves all
three types of managers, the resulting communication may be quite interesting. Specialist wonders why they
even launched new business line in the first place since they don’t know anything about it. Then entrepreneur
says that it’s because no one needs what they have been doing for the last 5 years and they need to start
something new. Entrepreneur gets bored as soon as he understands what kind of product he deals with. He loses
his interest and searches for something new. Usually such people attend conferences and business summits after
which they return to their offices with their eyes wide open and say that they are not doing the right thing and
they need different products and services. They suggest doing something that no one else does and they share
their ideas. However, you need all types of managers, in fact.

I know a manager of an entrepreneurial type who doesn’t have specializing or managing manager in his team.
Every year he launches new business and closes it by the end of the year, no matter what field he chooses:
printing industry, publishing industry, human resources agency, travel agency etc. Some businesses are
successful, some are not. Usually he gives it up when he gets bored. He plays with it for some time and then takes
up another business. However, if he has a specializing manager who will care about the quality of the products,
then he will pay more attention to people they hire, he will increase investments into products and equipment or
into work with the customers. It will give a bigger boost to development.

How does specializing manager see entrepreneurial manager? He thinks he’s crazy and has his head in the clouds.
How does entrepreneur see a specialist? He thinks he is dull and close-minded because the market has changed
and it’s different now and he suggests investing in social media and internet marketing. He is right in a certain
way. Even manager does not always understand entrepreneur, because the latter suggests closing the current
business because he can foresee the stagnation. Manager hired certain people, he built up the process and he
wants to know how the system works without him. However, an entrepreneur often ruins it and creates chaos. All
three managers complement each other, in fact. There will be no development without an entrepreneur.
Alternatively, the development will concern only micro- or small business. Why not, it may also happen. We have
many sole proprietors who are specialists in what they do and don’t plan to open a franchise, create a partner
network or go beyond one town that they operate in.

I have an acquaintance who works in an advertising agency. He used to be a designer and now he is a project
manager and head of a department having 10 subordinate designers. He is a specialist, but according to his job
description, he cannot make up into pages and design things. He should work with a customer, receive technical
assignment, distribute the responsibilities, monitor, scale etc. This disappoints him so much that he makes up into
pages at night when no one sees him. He likes doing it with his own hands. He is a true designer. There are,
however, people who give up their professional activities easily. You may give up your legal practice, for example,

13
and only hire lawyers and legal practitioners to create a partnership network. This is what a managing manager
does.

It is very important to understand your strengths and weaknesses. If you are a specializing manager and you
cannot change it for a long time then you should probably find yourself a partner who needs a specialist like you.
Alternatively, vice versa, if you are an entrepreneur and you lack quality then you should probably find a person
who is good at it. Sometimes there can be transitional phases when a specialist becomes a manager, but you
cannot be all the three types of managers at the same time. If a person takes risks then he is an entrepreneur. If
he stabilizes the system, he is a manager.

Sometimes it is seen in people when they are children: you may not be very good at studying, but you may start
some business, like selling gum or something else to your friends. You get bad marks but you start thinking about
running some business without specializing in a particular field. You don’t want to become a professional.
Entrepreneurs often have very shallow knowledge. They know something about finances, investments,
management, IT. He puts all his knowledge together and sees opportunities. They hire people who are smarter
than they are, who have more expertise, and if they do it properly, they can develop their business.

Now I would like to take a closer look at everyday activities performed by the manager that allow him to build up
a system. The main functions of a manager include planning, organization, motivation and control. What do you
do when you plan? You think and write what you think. You write what indicators you want to achieve financial
indicators, market indicators, how many clients and products you need, how many projects you need to
implement etc. You plan those things and the plans should be ambitious. If your turnover is X, then next year it
should be 2X and so on. This is what you do together with your deputies.

What is the result of planning?

Target indicators and plan, procurement, how many people, partners and loans you need.

What do you do in terms of organization?

You build up a certain process and explain certain algorithms, rules, standards, restrictions, you provide
resources, conduct meetings, set and assign tasks and do something to make people work without your help.

What does motivation imply?

Motivation includes two elements, in fact: material motivation when you establish a motivation system and non-
material or social motivation when you encourage people to accept some challenges and say what benefits they
will get when they fulfill the plan. This is an everyday work with employees when you give them the feedback and
ask about what is important for them.

What does control mean? You monitor the results of activity.

How often do you do that?

Some indicators need to be monitored once in a month, unlike behavior that requires everyday monitoring. In
some companies, it is important that people are not late, in some companies working schedule is flexible because
it is more important for them that their people carry out a certain amount of work. What’s important here is the
optimum number of control indicators. Controlling everything, setting video cameras and recorders and installing
software that monitors an employee’s activity is too much. There are fields that require this. There are those that
don't. People working in creative field do not like everyday control. In this case control is more like a meeting,
brainstorm, discussion during which you monitor the attitude towards the work and whether the employees are
involved in the process at all.

14
 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 4

Your managers are preparing, they are at the planning stage. They are planning resources, workplaces.

Your task is to set goals and tasks. You will be managed and told what to do. They must motivate you. At the end,
you will tell us whether you were motivated to do the task or not. You must pay attention to your feelings, the
way an employee feels in the team. Whether you felt that, you were at team while doing the task. The way tasks
were given, whether there were some rules and standards given, whether you were content with the task, which
was given to you, may be you wanted to do something different. Then, the authority of your manager, confidence
in him. You are a performer. You have to do what your leader tells you to do with your eyes closed. There is a
competition between you. There are 3 teams, consisting of 4 people. At the end of the game, an observer will tell
how the manager executed his work. A customer (this is me) will check the work. I will choose which team has
done their work better.

So, is the plane ready? You make planes. It is important to make it conveyor-belt assembly; no one does the
whole plane on his own.

When you receive all the instructions, all the leaders must leave the tables. You have to make 3 planes of a good
quality, make them the way your leaders have taught you to do.

Your time is over. Now you can share your experience, maybe share some useful tips. All good managers always
think over a negative outcome as well as the positive one. Try to imagine what can go wrong during the process.
For example, a star can be made in a wrong way, may be some important standards will not be implemented. So,
share the way you organized the system. Then we will compare everything.

When the last 30 seconds are left, I will ask you, managers, to enter the room and watch the way your teams
complete the work. You don't say anything, your employees mustn't know that you are here. When the alarm
goes off, and I tell them to finish work. You don't tell them anything, you don't give away your presence. When
they finish and I tell them to stop, you check their work and give feedback. You can praise someone if you want,
then in 30 seconds, employees will open their eyes.

33 seconds are left, dear bosses, you can come in. Don't give away your presence. You time is over! Please, put off
your planes, your eyes are closed. The managers have returned from the business trip, they are going to check the
work and give feedback. Your eyes are already closed. When you have received the feedback, you can open your
eyes.

Managers turn in finished work. You turn in only those planes which you have made during the last 3 minutes.

Let's sum up. Look. This is what you had to do. The customer ordered a plane of any color, there must be a
hatched soviet star on the left wing, and an inscription " Air forces" on the right wing. In addition, there must be a
name and a serial number of the plane, and here must be a date. Let's start from this group. The planes with
yellow wheel arch liners. I see that you have done 2 planes completely. There is no tuning at all on one of the
planes. This plane is made neatly. This plane was made first and this one was made later. You were nervous while
doing the second plane, you made it of second hand materials.

The third group. You have done only 1 plane. This is what you have done. The star is untidy, as well as the
inscription and the shape. So, the is 1 plane, the quality is not very good.

15
The third team, they have made 3 planes. The star is rather untidy. The inscription is ok. From the point of view of
productivity, everything is ok. Here is some additional tuning, right? Well, your task was to make a plane,
additional tuning was not obligatory (at the discretion of the manager). You could do nothing, it was not
obligatory. However, it would be better to make 3 planes of good quality without any tuning, than 1 of bad
quality with tuning.

The first group is the winner.

The last place of honor belongs to team number 2. You have little chance to take a better place. The third group is
the winner.

Now we forget about the planes. We don't learn to make planes, we study management. Dear managers, please,
tell, what has been done successfully from the point of view of 4 functions: planning, organization, motivation
and control. Then your employees will share their impression. Then the observers will tell their opinion, they have
seen the way the managers and the employees worked and they have their own opinion.

The first boss says that from his point of view it was successful speaking about all the functions. He distributed the
tasks according to their competences, in order to cope with the tasks. He told them that they didn't have to hurry,
but they had to do everything with high quality. He didn't focus on the time, because he understood that when
the task is being done, people usually start to hurry. The boss told them not to do it. He tried to support them all
during the process, to see their strong sides and praise them. He didn't tell anyone that they did something
wrong. If someone failed to do something, he suggested how to solve the problem.

The next boss.

Everything was ok there; they made 2 good planes during the training. The boss was leaving the employees with
the feeling that everything would be ok. They made one mistake. Probably he had to assign the assembly of the
planes to 2 people, not to 1 person, but he wanted to avoid confusion and he thought that the task was not
difficult and one person could cope with it.

Why was the productivity so low? He thinks he had to assign it to 2 men. The women obviously wouldn't cope
with it. That means to redistribute the work. They had little time.

The quality was also not good. - When the process started, one of the employees was nervous and failed to do
the task properly. He managed to do it successfully, but it was different when they received the control task.

A manager must develop the system which can work without him (a week, a month, in this case it is 3
minutes).They managed to do the task when you were with them, but they couldn't do the same without you.
What is the problem?

It can be an emotional factor, because his performance technique was good. May be the manager helped him by
hand during the training. If everything is great when the manager is here, but they fail when the manager leaves
them, means that there is no system.

The next manager says that his employees did great work. They were the first who made the planes, they didn't
have any problems during the training. They thoroughly thought through the way to draw beautiful stars and
inscriptions. The problem was that he paid attention to the time left too late. When they made the first plane
and started to do the second one, he realized that it took 2.5 minutes to assemble one plane. They kept calm and
involved the second person into work, his function was to glue the wing flaps, and they started to assemble 2
planes at the same time. The first member of the team already had some experience that was why when he

16
finished the first one, he joined the first person and started to make the second plane. While assembling the
planes, he concluded that other employees couldn’t assemble the planes and they assigned the task to those who
could do it.

What managerial function (planning, organization, motivation or control) was not fulfilled to the necessary
extent? It was time management. The manager didn't check whether they were going to do everything on time.

What about motivation? They had non-material motivation. The manager inspired them.

Now, the opinion of the employees. What advantages and disadvantages can they name? We forget about the
planes. The main thing here is the organization of the process.

As one of the employees says, the process was organized in the right way. They had an assembly line; they sat in
the line so that it was convenient to fulfill the duties. Then the manager distributed the tasks, which were
connected with the goal. He explained everything clearly. Clear allocation of responsibilities. A clear common
goal. During the training, we made 6 planes. Good motivation. In addition, he offered moral support as well.

Another employee says that his leader praised them, explained everything clearly to employees. When they
found out that there were some problems, he replaced one person by another. He gave feedback and didn't
scold.

The manager clearly defined the final common goal and allocated the tasks. The group managed to change the
production process on time, when it was necessary. Non-material motivation was good and effective. The
manager never told that his employees did something wrong, instead of it he suggested what to improve.
Everyone knew his responsibilities and the order of execution of tasks that was why they could manage their
time. During the training, they counted the time, which was necessary to make 1 plane. That was why the
performers knew the approximate time spent on one plane. In addition, they voiced all the processes: started
doing the work, finished doing the work and so on.

It reminded the work of departments in the company. It is important. They also exchanged the necessary
information during the process of work. At the end of every work stage, the manager monitored the results and
then they could pass the plane further to the next employee.

The next is what the observer says. In his opinion, planning was done perfectly. The manager studied the sample
of the plane carefully and noted down the necessary features, which this kind of a plane must possess, before the
group started making other planes. Then he selected resources in the right way. Non-standard approach to
tuning: he used modeling clay; he knew how to use it. The next thing is organization: clear distribution of
functions, quick replacement of specialists where necessary. Then, constant control, help and support. For
example, when an employee couldn't cope with the star, he gave clear instructions what to do. Therefore,
organization and control were good. Motivation was ok. Now the drawbacks. When the customer called the
manager, the group was left without any control. One of the employees had an idea to make the plane once
again, but it means unaccounted resources. They took 5 sheets of paper and made 6 planes. That means that
some unaccounted resources appeared in the company. In addition, the paper was taken from this pile. In that
situation, the manager didn't tell his employees to wait and do nothing. A training and timing were great ideas;
you counted the time spent on one plane. As the result, it influenced the result a lot. I saw that 3 planes were
made exactly on the time planned. The last detail was glued during the last second. Therefore, the difference
between the real time and the planned time was 2-3 seconds. It means perfect time management. Another
positive thing is constant support.

17
The impression of the employees of the next group. The task was clear to them, as well as all the stages of making
the plane, their responsibilities. The manager identified employees' talents and gave tasks suitable for everyone.
However, the workload was not properly distributed: they didn't have time to assemble 3 planes. They needed 2-
3 assembly workshops. The production process was a weak point. Motivation was good.

Have you got any idea what to improve from the point of view of management?

- If we did the same task again we would have 2-3 assembly workshops. It would be better to make some
template, which would help to make the planes and give it to the worker of the assembly workshop.

You didn't have enough instruments, did you? Ok, thank you. Let's listen to the observer. The observer says that
they were motivated but in reality, it was not seen. They made good planes during the training and everything
was done accurately, because the manager told what to do all the time. It is like hand control. That is why they
didn't manage to do the same thing without their manager after the training.

Speaking about the first two groups, the managers were in front of the group, but the manger of this group was
always behind the group, he helped with hands more often than with instructions, it is “family atmosphere".

About motivation: they were interested in the process, but they decided to do everything silently, no one raised
his voice in order not to disturb others. Every member of the group was sitting and waiting for his turn.

The opinion of the observer always differs from the opinion of the performer. The observer sees more than
performers, whose eyes were closed and they were busy with the process of making the planes. The observer
could compare the groups. The opinion of the observer is important because he can see those things, which even
the manager can't see, because he is also busy with the process. The observer is objective. He can say who
worked better and what was missing. It is worth listening to him.

Therefore, the distribution of workload was a failure. That was why the employees became nervous. Still it was a
good job.

The next group. Everything was clear. The goal was set in a clear way. They agreed beforehand to respect each
other and not to interrupt the leader, listen to him and wait for the instructions. When they started the
production process, their leader noticed that they spent a lot of time on making one plane. The manager quickly
made some changes in the production process, another person started to make planes. There are positive and
negative sides. They couldn't test these planes. One plane didn't pass the quality control. The performer had to
remake it. Then he understood his mistakes during the process of work and started to make them in a different
way. They communicated during the process, when one person finished his part of work; he passed the plane to
another person to continue the work. Every stage of work was monitored. They had well-organized
communication. At the beginning, they were given resources. Their manager considered all the demands and
wishes of the employees. There was a fault at the beginning of the production process. The mistake was to make
changes in the process of production.

In fact, organization of production, goal setting, motivation and quality control were good. The approach was
good. The leader worked with each member of the group, they received feedback and had good communication
between the group and the leader. One drawback was that the time was not taken into account and they had
some problems. In general, it was very good.

Your leader prepared you for work well, but you were prepared to work in stable situations. That means that if
the market is growing, you can work there, but if there is some crisis, you can't do it. The fault was not that the
manager set the wrong task, the problem was that one of the members had to remake his plane instead of
18
making a new one. It would be better to postpone that plane and make new planes, and at the end we could
remake it if they had time, then they would make 3 planes.

It concerns the area of responsibility.

The first member of the group could make the second ideal plane, if not for the spoilt plane. He started to remake
it and it took time. Other members were waiting. They felt helpless, they couldn't do anything, but still they coped
with the task. The team assigned one employee to make the wings, though the manager didn't tell them to do it.

It often happens so that when roles change, people need some time to adapt. For example, a person dealt with
logistics, and after that he has to sell; of course he has some problems.

The group says that if they had more time for preparation, they would achieve better results. They made that
managerial decision during the second part of the preparatory process that was why they had such a problem at
the end. They created the second workshop on time and managed to make the necessary number of planes, but
they didn't have time to improve the quality.

When the managers left the room, I asked them to think over the possible problems, which could arise. When a
manager leaves the office, he must always think about the possible problems. One of the employees didn’t have
enough time to practice and he understood that he could have problems when making planes, but still he was
sure that finally the team would have a good product. In addition, he realized that if they had left everything as it
used to be, then they would have made only one plane, but a plane of a good quality, because they spent a lot of
time on one plane. Thus, they decided to add the second workshop.

The opinion of the observer. He says that the planning was not perfect. There were problems with time
management, the employees were a bit nervous, but the manager helped them to cope with it. In general, it was
good. There were clear goals. One important thing is that the leader asked the opinion of his employees what
they wanted to do and what they could do. A good feedback. The manager devoted enough time to every
member of the group. Motivation was great. All the members were motivated even when the leader left them.

19
 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 5

There are several elements are planning, implementation, assessment and control. Ask yourself. What can I do as
a leader to implement these elements?

When we make planning, we formulate a goal, create a plan of realization, describe a technology, and assess a
team. The next element is implementation. Here we formulate a goal for employees, distribute tasks among
employees equally. Sometimes it happens that there are only 2 employees in a sales department, who deal with
sales. For example, we prepare a commercial offer for a long time and manufacturing is doing nothing but
waiting. Here we also deal with personnel training, their assessment, giving feedback and the organization of
interaction. It’s better to pay attention to the interaction between departments. It’s not only some regulations,
but also the employees' willingness to communicate with each other. You can have 20 rules, but they might not
work, because a particular salesman and a particular driver might not want to speak with each other. Assessment
and control mean that you need to become a passive onlooker to assess a situation from different point of view.
If we speak about real life, then it’s necessary not to interfere in the work process and to focus on results. The
point is that the process should work without your participation. You would agree that it’s complicated when you
want to train a salesman and take him on a meeting, but he does the wrong thing and you interfere in that. You
save a bargain, but you ruin the system. A client won’t listen to your salesman, because he lost respect. It doesn’t
help a salesman to study. He will ask for your help every time. A salesman should do it from the beginning to the
end by himself.

These points help you to set and optimize the system. Of course, the system isn’t internal; you need to change it
from time to time or to add something to make it better. It’s crucial not to make you a key element of that
system. The system must work without you or with your minimal participation.

Now I want to discuss “4 types of management”.

I think you faced the situation when some book described the management of Coca-Cola, but actually, it is not
applicable, for example, in a restaurant. Alternatively, what is good for IT sphere isn’t appropriate in
manufacturing. My friend dealt with the producing of gas-fired boiler-houses. It was a very serious business
because many things must be thought over. Actually, it was a project business. Therefore, the manager read
many books about the importance of personnel motivation. In addition, one book inspired him most of all. The
book is called “Motivation”. The book is about the history of success of the most famous hotel in Germany. The
owner of that hotel Klaus Kobjoll wrote the book. You can notice that the book is full of freedom, creativity, and
friendliness and trustworthy. It’s like a family business. My friend started to implement these principles in his
company. So, what did happen in his company? Nothing good. It didn’t work. Moreover, there were a lot of
financial, temporary, and reputational losses.

By the way, I think you saw the ads “Not every yoghurt is healthy”. So, let’s rephrase to make it applicable in the
business – “Not every type of management is applicable in different spheres of business”. So, have a look at the
slide.

We have 4 types of management. The first one is Management by values. It’s the situation when a manager runs
a company in accordance with his and employees’ values. Everything is based on loyalty and trust. There are no
regulations, or at least, employees know about them, but nothing is written down. There are some principles and

20
rules. Where does such management work? Yes, right. It’s applicable in a small business with a family culture;
startup, which consists of a few employees and is developed only by personnel involvement and their dedication.
What are the key skills of the leader here?

It’s crucial to be a broad brow and to provide non-material motivation. This is not the type of management where
you need to develop complicated systems or schemes. It’s very important to send the message, to get the
feedback, and to develop a loyalty team. The management of employees plays a significant part in this type.

The next type is Management by results. This one and the previous type are opposite. The management here is
based on the results of work. Usually, a manager establishes some indicators, which help to assess the results.
Here personnel are motivated by money, some privileges and power. It’s another type of management, that’s
why a leader must be different. A leader should be tough. It’s crucial to have the ability to fire someone without
any emotions or to hire new employees. If a leader is too kind, and he gives a second chance, for example, a
company can lose some profit. My friend, who is the head of a sales department in a company, which is the
dealer in selling cars, told the following: “If we continue to play in the kindergarten, and I have to be a mentor for
everyone, we will lose a hundred million dollars. We cannot afford it. We must decide and act right now”.

Here the following moto will be appropriate: “They don’t leave us, they lag behind us.”

I’m sure you would agree that the quality of this leader isn’t suitable for the type “Management by values”, and
vice versa. Can you imagine what will happen if such a leader works in a company with the type “Management by
results”? Yes, he will destroy the structure of that company. That leader won't care about employees; he will care
only about results. It will sound like this: “If you don’t bring the meat, then go away!” I have told you about 2
types of management and leaders here are different. They have unlike qualities, skills, and characteristics. When
we speak about work’s effectiveness, we should pay attention to the type of management. For example, in a sales
department, the head must be tough.

Other types of management. They are Management by situations and Management by deviations.

Let’s begin with the Management by situations. Mostly, this is work in the condition of changes. It’s a project
approach. Among such companies are IT companies, which develop some new programs; marketing agencies,
which follow client’s conditions. Here it’s crucial that we make something first, and it’s not about money. It’s an
innovative culture. A leader needs to make decisions very fast in the condition of changes. Sometimes he has to
compromise. In some cases, a leader should be loyal, other cases he must be tough.

The Management by deviations is the type, which requires from a leader to be an administrator. Usually, such
bureaucratic companies as banks, manufacturing or government, are referred to that type of management.
There, a leader doesn’t have to reach amazing results or set up meetings every day to encourage employees. The
main point is to look after employees and their work; it means that everything should be implemented on time
and without mistakes and a leader shouldn’t deviate from a certain plan.

You can notice that these 4 types of management can exist within one company, but in different departments. It’s
better to run every department differently.

For every department, there is only one applicable type. Mostly, Management by results is applicable in a sales
department. The leader here should be tough. It’s necessary to require completed tasks from employees.
Perhaps, training there is also a great option. Once, I provided training, which was about negotiations in the
context of debts. That company dealt with rolled metal products. It was 2005. All the employees wore black suits
and had cars with blacked-out windows. The commercial director had a massive gold chain. Moreover, before
training, the director said something like this: “Well, men, I bought a coach for you, because you have problems
21
with your customers' debts. Don’t even laugh or yawn. After training, you must make your indicators better to
prove that you’re worth to work here.” Yes, it is right. It was something like this. So, are you fine with it?

I had to adjust to that situation. Imagine what happens if someone like this leader will work at a creative company
or IT company. It’s not going to work. Every employee will leave if a leader is so tough, serious and persistent.

I cannot say that some type of management is wrong, no, it depends on the situation, company and department.
In addition, I have one more example. My friend had a small consulting business, and there were not so many
employees, he adjusted to working using the type Management by changes. Once he was invited to work as the
head of a department in a big famous company. He had 20 immediate subordinates. In the very beginning, he
didn’t understand what happened in the company and how to deal with it. He tried to use his skills and
experience of Management by changes. However, there was the type Management by deviations. Nevertheless,
he began the first week of his new work with a brainstorm and asked employees to think about ideas how they
could make results better. Of course, every employee was shocked and one of them gave him regulations of their
work. For him, it was hard to understand. I decided to help him; I drew this picture with 4 types of management
and explained it. After that, he understood that it was better not to mix up these types and different types are
applicable in other situations.

In that company, a leader should provide structural information and regulations. The point is that type is more
applicable to bureaucratic structures. I think some of you face it. A leader has administrative functions, like to sign
a contract, to make a report and so on. This is the system, which should be moved on. Different skills are needed
here. It happens that a person worked for a long time in the company, where everything was written down, I
mean regulations, rules and so on. And when such a person started to run a startup, he was astounded to know
that they didn’t have instructions and regulations. It was a shock for such a person to find out that a startup didn’t
have a CRM system, or rules. The leader should have different skills.

I have told everything for you to relate the effectiveness of these instruments with the type of management.
There is no a fake leader; there is a fake type of management. Perhaps, you notice that firstly a startup includes
people, who know each other well, and the type of management here is Management by values. However, when
a startup starts to grow and turns into a huge company, then the type of management changes. There appear
separate business projects, which should have different types of management. Then such a company wants to be
the first on the market and more tough management takes place in this case. It’s not a startup; it’s a serious
company, and its main goal is the result.

That’s why here different systems of evaluating results appear. Sometimes such a company has a few business
units. Does anybody have questions?

So, we have discussed the management cycle. If you don’t make planning, then the organization will be bad. It
causes the lack of resources and the lack of understanding of what employees should do. It happens that 2
employees do the same work. If you fail the work organization, it influences motivation. Employees will conflict
and show dissatisfaction. They will complain about everything. Remember that if you fail motivation, it will be
complicated to control personnel. It’s a very important point, because people tend to hide or lie sometimes due
to the absence of motivation, and you’ll not receive honest feedbacks. By the way, it’s crucial to develop the
system better, so later it can work without your involvement. The cycle of management, which was shown on the
scheme, is the way to organize the system. Regular work according to these four points will help you to leave that
system and manage it as a leader.

22
I mean that you don’t interfere in the process of work; you simply give your employees resources and a goal.
After implementing a project, employees give you a result. Let’s speak about other instruments, which are helpful
in everyday work as well as in planning.

The first one is the goal setting. So, why do you think we set goals? The answer is very simple. Why we do it? Yes,
right, to reach goals. Because without a goal, our actions will be senseless and I don’t think it could lead you
somewhere. What if you work in crisis conditions, and how clear goals help you?

Clear goals help you to focus and not to do unnecessary things.

Now, spread your arms out to the side and get one leg up. Find some viewpoint on the wall to focus on. Try to do
your best to think only about this viewpoint. Freeze your attention there, as you hold it by your hands. Feel that
you stand steady. Now, close your eyes. So, what does happen? You lose your balance. As you don’t see the
viewpoint, you start to lose your balance. Let’s upgrade the experiment a bit. Now, focus on your viewpoint and
make a mental screenshot. Closing eyes, try to see this mental picture of viewpoint.

This experiment was performed to show you that when a boss has a clear goal, it’s hard to shift him from his way.
Every change on the market or some difficult conditions don’t play a huge role for him. If you don’t have a goal,
it’s so easy to go astray. The same situation is here with tasks, which you give your employees.

We can single out three levels of goals from the pint of the goal setting. The first one is the goals of the company
or shareholders. Usually, their goal is money, the increase of margin level, reputation or the market share. They
are the business indicators.

The next level is personal goals of a leader. It’s not always money, a goal can be the massive project or some
challenge. It is crucial to understand that a boss’s goal and a company’s goal should be the same or almost the
same.

It doesn’t matter whether a leader is the owner of a company or he is hired. For example, if a leader wants
stability, but a company’s goal is rapid development, there is a dichotomy. In addition, vice versa. When a
company wants stability and not to make any changes, but a leader wants something new, it also will not work.

Negotiations take place when shareholders and a boss need to find a compromise in setting a goal. Otherwise, a
company will have a lot of losses material as well as non-material. Nobody will be satisfied. That’s why sometimes
a boss can be fired if negotiations don’t give any results. The third one is Personnel goals. Their goal isn’t only
money; they should also have the similar goal as their company, and the leader. Among the goals, there is
personal development, teamwork, leaving something behind, or participation in significant projects. Remember,
that these three levels of goals should correlate with each other.

Let’s play one game. I’m going to describe the idea of the game now.

We need to choose three leaders. Every leader choses a middle-ranking manager. A leader has a goal. It’s a
certain picture/ scheme in the folder. Therefore, a leader will have time to have a look at the goal. He cannot
show it to a manager but explain using words. The condition here is the following: a boss cannot show a goal and
cannot look at it during negotiations. A leader should make a mental picture to remember it before explaining to
a manager. Then if a manager understands a goal, he explains it to an employee.

Now when a manager goes to an employee, you can have a look at a goal also. I ask you not to violate the rules,
and according to them, you can only explain a goal by words. It’s forbidden to write something down. By the way,

23
a leader cannot say the following words – right, left, up, down, and the names of geometric figures. You can use
metaphors for example.

It’s a task for a leader to think how to explain a goal. It’s a creative task. I’m going to give instructions to managers
because there are also some restrictions. For example, they can ask only Closed-ended questions, and cannot ask
open-ended ones.

Therefore, a manager describes a goal to an employee. However, an employee cannot speak at all. It’s possible to
nod ahead, to wink. An employee has a workplace and some resources, while a manager doesn’t know what
resources are. An employee cannot show what he/she does to implement a goal. By the way, I’ll give you
instructions.

Their task is to watch the whole process, give feedback and interfere only if someone violates the rules. Watchers
will have 3 instructions.

We are going to have 3 groups, and others will be watchers. To make everything convenient, employees will sit
here; it will be like their workplace. Managers will come close to them and sit opposite. It’s forbidden to come
closer when you’re not explaining a goal and watch what they are doing. Watchers should follow managers and
watch them. Leaders will stay in the other room, and managers will visit them, it will be like meetings. Leaders will
have no idea what happens here.

This situation happens very often in real life.

You’re going to have 20 minutes to complete the game after reading instructions. At the end of the game, we will
compare the goal in the folder and what employee understands as a goal. It doesn’t matter how many times a
manager will go to a leader and an employee. Just remember that you have 20 minutes. Managers can write
down or draw a goal, but it’s forbidden to show it to anybody. It’s crucial to explain it using words.

Don’t forget that managers can ask bosses only closed-ended questions. In addition, they can write something
down and draw, but don’t show it to anybody. Watchers please follow managers and monitor their observance of
instructions. Employees cannot speak, they just work. They have resources and hands.

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 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 6

Let's sort things out. The first question. What is the game about? Transmission of information, what else?
Delegation, understanding of goals and tasks, perception. All people have different perception. Bosses often use a
lot of terms and their employees don't always understand them. Middle managers understand them. However,
employees usually understand everything literally.

When people do this task, sometimes they make 3D models out of modeling clay and matches. Middle managers
are very creative. They are so creative that the goal and the result differ a lot at the end.

First, let's consider the opinions of bosses, then the observers, who have seen everything from the outside.

Let's discuss the opinion of one of the bosses, what he managed to do and how he sees his role, the role of
middle management and performers.

The boss of the first group says that the task was interesting and he had the opportunity to see himself, as a
manger, as others see him. He has drawn some conclusions concerning himself.

Can it be here, at the level of the boss? May be he took the wrong picture or forgot something. Then here, at the
level of words. Here, at the level off middle management, and even here. We have 5 points.

He says, that if he had a chance he would give the instructions more clearly. He would ask his employees to show
how they understood the instructions.

The opinion of the boss of the second group.

They had a different strategy of task execution. The performers fulfilled the task according to the figure. They had
different geometrical figures on the sheet of paper and were told how they were located on the sheet of paper.
Unfortunately, they didn't have enough time, because they wasted a lot of time on unnecessary movements. The
boss explained the whole picture as clearly as possible, but they were short of time. His expectations surpassed
the real results. He doubted himself more, then his employees. One of the drawbacks was the fact that he didn't
tell them the colors clearly. He didn't expect that they would use matches and modeling clay. He divided the
process into 2 stages. First, he gave the main information, then, he told them about the colors. However, there is
a catch. The color is not important here. Some bosses bother about it too much. It is the same in real work
process: you bother about something too much, but in reality, it is not important.

The boss has more responsibility than others do. It was rather difficult to explain everything. In general, this boss
is satisfied with the results.

The boss of the third group. He considers that they coped with the task, but they didn't have enough time to
make the most important figure. There were many unnecessary movements. He couldn't learn all the necessary
information and tell everything at once and he spent some time on preparation. In addition, it irritated him when
the employees didn't understand what to do.

Where was the main failure? At the beginning of the chain or at the end? He thinks that it was at the beginning.
He understands that if he managed to explain everything in detail, then there wouldn't be any problems. They
didn't have many problems, because the performer did everything right.

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The responsibility of the boss is very high at the first stage of work, when they give instructions and explain
everything.

The impression of the middle managers.

The middle manager of the first group says that that their boss had a creative approach. Instead of right, left, up
and down, he used points of the compass, it helped to understand him clearly. Thus, they didn't have to move
around the table, they didn't have to make unnecessary time-consuming actions. The task was explained clearly
from the first time. There was one mistake, and it was the mistake of the middle manager. When the time was
running out, he didn't give the team the last figures, they were simple.

They wasted a lot of time (10 minutes) on discussions. It was some kind of investment into the result, it
influenced the result positively, but they didn't calculate the time in the right way.

The next performer says that the group felt anxious, but later they warmed up. The only thing, which he didn’t
understand, was that he had to arrange that everything on the sheet of paper, that was why the team confused
horizontal and vertical. If the atmosphere was quieter, and if they had more time, then everything would be
great. More than that there were some limitations. They couldn't ask their bosses any questions, and they had
difficulties with giving feedback. They could ask only closed questions.

The result depends on the way middle managers ask questions and clarify the situation. The boss can speak
vaguely, or just say that you must do the task and that is all. That is why middle managers play a great role here.

The opinion of the member of the second group. They had 2 main problems. They were connected with
communication. It was difficult to choose the right words. They needed to develop some common way of
communication with the boss. They had to use some word-substitutes. Then, the absence of feedback
(performers couldn't use words, they could use only gestures). These were their main problems.

The reason is that bosses read smart books and use many terms in their speech. Bosses and employees perceive
these terms in a different way.

This person lacked the instrument, which is called: “tell me, which one", because performers couldn't speak, they
couldn't use words. The positive thing was that the boss couldn't keep the picture in front of him.

It often happens so that the boss doesn't remember the goal clearly. He can forget something and so on. Speaking
about resources, they clearly understood what they had at once, it was not necessary to explain it twice.

It is a rare case when middle managers get the idea of the resources they have from the first time. Usually they
give tasks and it doesn't matter what resources employees have. They just give them the task and that is all.

Once we had such a situation when I gave resources to the group. There were about 5 matches in the box, it was
not enough. I didn't notice. However, the performer was not confused. He took modeling clay, made sticks, and
arranged them in the right order. He spent more modeling clay, but he didn't even show that he lacked resources.
It is called perceptive. However, there is a problem: you can't be sure that the customer will accept the variant
which you invented.

The opinion of the performers. One of the performers says that he didn't understand what they had to do. He
didn’t know what resources he had. There was no conception, no knowledge, and no clear instructions. They just
had to do something, but they didn't know what and how. Then they had to remake the initial variant of their
work. They didn't understand each other at all. They didn't cope with the task 100% and he felt demotivated.

26
Other performers say the following. One of them liked the way of management, everything was clear, except
what to do with modeling clay. The only drawback was some small inconsistency with the picture. Their boss
came later than others did. The members of the group (3 people) were sitting together. They decided to quit the
job and organized a new company, hired a new person. They realized that probably it is the same in their work:
while bosses are busy with something else, their employees do anything, except work. To avoid it probably you
can give them some task while leaving them.

The difference between this group and the previous one is that this group gave more feedback. The previous one
also had it, but not so much. They used gestures and facial expressions and so on. Performers were rather
creative. Effectiveness depends not only on managers, but on the performers as well.

Now the opinion of the observers.

The first observer thinks that the team coped with the task successfully. They had some problems, but they
quickly discussed them, they had clear explanations, middle managers asked leading questions, they didn't move
around wasting their time, there was a good feedback and communication in general. In addition, the performers
gave a lot of feedback. It was rather difficult to find a proper way of communication but they coped with the task.

The second observer says that any business depends on the degree of obsession with the process. We saw that
the participants were obsessed with the process and did their best to achieve the result. It is possible to achieve
success only when performers are keen on the process. Another important thing was that the tasks became more
and more complicated gradually: they started with simple tasks, fulfilled them successfully, felt satisfaction and
being in high spirits they proceeded to a new, more complicated task.

Let's make groups of 4. Please, make 2-3 conclusions about the task, which we have made. You should say what
we learn from this task and how we can use it in business. Now you must forget about modeling clay and
matches. Think how we can use it in business. We lost an hour, some matches and modeling clay. In reality, the
losses can be significant (you failed the project, lost a customer, some staff members resigned and so on). What
elements of this exercise can you apply in work?

The first opinion. The manager realized that middle management is more important than the boss is, because the
boss can tell you something and disappear, because he has got a lot of other things to do. It is important to have
well-qualified middle managers, because they will explain everything to the performers, they transmit the
feedback from employees to the boss.

Business processes depend on middle managers. Even if the strategy is brilliant, when it is not implemented, you
will not have any positive results.

Some other opinions: there must be a well-organized communication. When top managers give some
information, it is necessary. It is important to check what your employees understand and how they understand
it. In addition, it is even better to check it at some stage of work. Additional control and feedback.

It is very important to have good performers, those who can cope with the task better than their boss can. The
second person in the company is very important. It must be a person who can work properly.

A common goal unites several people as a rule. There are some tasks. Tasks are usually set for a week, a month
and so on. There are also certain assignments, which must be done within the task.

Another member of the team says that the problem is in the way the execution of tasks is controlled.

27
We can control 3 things here: the result (the result of sales, shipment, contracts, different KPIs and so on),
behavior (if the is no result, you watch the way he works and whether he comes to his work). The third thing is his
attitude to work (maybe there are no results, a person does a sloppy job, he doesn't care about the result).

Results, behavior and attitude are the components, which we should control. What must we focus on more? It
depends on the type of management.

If it is management by results, then we focus on results most of all. We control results. We don't even need to
check attendance every day. We don't even control the attitude all the time. An employee can hate his boss,
clients, but still he achieves the necessary indicators.

Management by values. We control attitude. Even if the person hasn't fulfilled the plan, what will we do? Will we
fire him? No, we try to work with him. It is necessary to monitor his attitude to work regularly, check whether he
is involved in the work process or not, whether he is interested in what he does, or not.

Management by deviations. Here we control behavior. You control attendance every day and the time employees
spend at work. In bureaucratic organizations, an employee doesn't make maximum contribution, he is just a part
of the procedure. That is why we don't see the results of one particular employee, but we can see his actions and
behavior, the number of procedures performed. His attitude is not so important here. He can be tired,
uninterested, but he is taught to perform particular procedures automatically and he does it. His main task is to
perform his duties in the right way and that is all. Imagine, you have a warehouse, 100 movers, you set indicators
which they must achieve. They do their work. They must come on time (they must be sober), start their work,
have a break when it is necessary. If there are no breaks, they can hurt themselves or others during the working
process. In management by deviations, you need to control procedures more than other aspects.

Mutual understanding between a manager and his employees is very important. If they understand each other
quickly.

Mutual understanding is very important, as well as feedback. It is important to check whether you understand
each other.

28
 Original course
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT. QUICK RESPONSE MANUFACTURING
PART 7

I want to tell you one interesting case, which concerns management. It was a funny case. When I started to work
as a training coach, I had my own conference room. I concluded an agreement with my friend, who dealt with the
sales of furniture. I decided to purchase 30 chairs and 5 tables. So, we discussed every detail like the size, the
colour, the price and the term. I asked him to deliver it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive my
purchase the next day, and I called him. It turned out that for him “as soon as possible” meant 3 days. However, I
needed the purchase a day after the order.

You see that the meaning of some words can be different. It depends on a person. For example, an accounting
clerk can think that “as soon as possible” is a month, and a marketing manager supposes that it is 5 minutes.
Therefore, you can see that employees of various departments understand differently the words. That’s why the
tempo of work is varying in every department. Nevertheless, we use the phrase “as soon as possible” very often.
It’s crucial to take into pieces timeframes, goals, tasks and etc. We have an illusion that everybody understands us
when we use some terms like “efficient”, “make it agile” and a lot of others. For example, I’m going to say a word,
and you’re going to say what kind of a mental picture appears in your head. So, the word is “a cat”.

I’m sure that some of you think about your own cat, someone pictures parents’ or friend’s cat, or it may be a
special device for rock-climbing, or it’s a tattoo.

Mental pictures and perceptions are so different. Everyone has its own picture of it, although we can touch a cat.
What do you think about, when I use such words as “effectiveness”, “KPI”, “Kaizen”? Actually, once I worked with
a company, which tried to promote the Kaizen principle. They made the inquiry about what people assume
hearing the word “Kaizen”. It turned out that every employee considers this word differently. For one it was a
table with numbers, for other employees it was a graphic or a Japanese training coach. So, see, how differently
we understand words. Imagine that before a word causes a mental picture in our head, firstly, it mirrors and we
receive not the original meaning. It’s just the illusion that we understand each other. It’s a subjective perception.
We use the word “as soon as possible” very often, but some people consider the meaning of that phrase as 1-2
days and for someone it’s yesterday.

To eliminate the misunderstanding, there are a lot of instruments. I’m going to tell you about one of them, which
is SMART. It doesn’t matter if you know this instrument. It’s better to revise it and use it now to avoid problems in
the future. So, the letter S means specific. Tasks must be specific. It means that in the description of a task, the
main word is a verb.

Imagine, instead of telling a verb, while formulating a task, I’ll say a noun. Do you understand something from the
word “a house”? Of course, here questions like “What need I do with a house?” appear – “Maybe I need to build,
buy, sell or destroy.” Alternatively, I will say “sales plan”, and how employees will understand what they need to
do.

Your task is the answer to the question - What must employees do? For example, they need to build a house.

So, the next point is related to the first one. The next is M, which means measurable. Imagine that you receive a
task, which is to dig a hole, but where you need to dig a hole…

The point here is that a task should be measurable. Use the metric system. If you cannot measure a task, an
employee will never do it by himself. I’m sure that an employee cannot fulfil a task as you want. That’s why you
should pay attention here, even when you ask someone to do a reporting. It’s necessary to say how many points
29
should be here and so on. Speaking about building a house, you need to say how many floors must be here. If we
give a task concerning a sales plan, we must clarify that salesmen should implement it by finding new customers
or using new products. There can be many ways to measure something.

The next is A, which is achievable. Besides telling the last two points, it’s important to say about resources. It
means that employees have something that helps them to implement tasks. For example, employees have
computers, a client base, and a training book. These things can help him. They are resources.

If we speak about digging a hole, resources here are a spade or a crane-shovel. Moreover, in addition to
resources, you need to point out efforts.

Every employee strives to use more resources and minimal efforts to implement a task. “Give me a crane-shovel,
a helicopter, a lot of money, a team of builders and I do my best to dig a hole.”

Although, it happens that employees don’t have a lot of resources, and here they are obligatory to do their best
with what they have. For example, to make a sales plan with a small client base.

What does the word “efforts” mean? Right, efforts are personal skills, characteristics and experience. For
example, I set the task to call a client with account receivable. A client owes a company $ 1 000 000. An employee
should do it, but I forget to add that it’s crucial to be calm and delicate with that client. It can happen that a client
will pay that sum of money, but will never work with us again. The task is implemented. However, I don’t want
this; I want that client to remain. Nevertheless, an employee doesn’t know that in this situation he should
demonstrate particular characteristics and skills. A leader should provide such information or maybe in some
tasks, employees should be tough, creative or persistent.

Here we need to pay attention not only to resources but also to the developing certain skills of an employee. You,
as a leader, should tell them about it. For example, “Doing that task, you will improve your leadership skills”. You
would agree that it takes different efforts to dig a hole in summer and in winter, especially if you have only a
spade. Who knows, maybe your employee will develop a robot for digging a hole. I hope you get my idea.

The next is relevant. It denotes that a task must be significant and up-to-date. I advise you to take into account
three moments. The first one is relevance for a company. For example, “That task will help us to conquer the new
market. That project will help us to develop a new product”. Here we speak about the significance for a company.
However, not all of the employees identify themselves with a company. Middle-ranking managers understand it,
but not employees. An employee doesn’t care about a company’s profit. That’s why it’s necessary to explain that
it helps him to make a career, to receive a unique experience, to help a team, or to develop some skills. This is the
second moment, which is significant for an employee. A leader should tell something like that: “I trust you; it’s a
small challenge, which can influence your future career. Don’t bring me down”.

The third one is priorities. Multi-tasking is widespread in many companies. It happens that an employee
implements a few tasks at the same time; moreover, two managers give these tasks.

Sometimes, an employee works in a few projects and receives tasks from bosses. When you give a task to an
employee, it will be better to ask about his current tasks. Otherwise, an employee will implement only simple
ones. That’s why it is crucial to set priorities.

I think you remember The Ohm’s law. To use the path of less resistance. It’s nature. An average person will do the
easiest task from given ones. I advise you to set priorities by yourself, it’s very important.

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The last letter is T. It means that you should provide a time frame. Perhaps, you notice that doing some exercise
during training, a coach gives you a time frame. For example, a coach tells you to implement a task in 20 minutes
or within an hour. It motivates you. Otherwise, if you are told to do something until the evening, probably you will
delay the implementing and forget about it at all. By the way, we should tell not only a certain date, time, when a
task must be done but also ask for feedback. For example, is the phrase “at the end of the week” specific for you?
Usually, that phrase means the evening of Friday. I’m sure that most people think like that. When employees hear
such phrase, as until the end of the week, tomorrow, on Monday and so on, they will delay the implementing of a
task until a deadline.

I told you about feedback because I notice such situations very often. For example, I’m a leader, and I gave a task
to an employee, setting a concrete date and time when that task must be done. I asked him to prepare a
commercial offer and a presentation for a meeting at 12pm on Wednesday. Imagine that I totally forgot about it.
In addition, an employee didn’t say a word to me, because he thought that I didn’t ask because I didn’t need this.
Perhaps he would be right. That’s why you need to give the responsibility for telling feedback to an employee.
Don’t forget to say how an employee should provide that information, for example, to call you or to email. If an
employee doesn’t give feedback that a task is done, then a boss will consider a task non- implemented. Such an
instrument helps you to control employees easily because you don’t need to find them every time they forgot to
give you a ready task. They will report by themselves.

One of my students, who was the head of a warehouse, had a problem with controlling employees. She controlled
every employee so that they would make tasks on time. She spent 4 hours just for that. After training, she made a
board, where every employee put a plus when they did a certain task. It helped her a lot. She didn’t waste time
on controlling. Employees made reports by themselves. If they don’t report, it will mean that they don’t do a task.
It’s kind of motivation for employees. They even called her when she wasn’t at work.

Therefore, these are 5 simple points, which help you to set tasks. When I told you about my situation with
furniture, I made a mistake not telling the concrete date. Such situations can happen to anybody, even if you have
experience in the management.

I’m going to give you homework. Your exercise is to write down three tasks using this instrument. Imagine that
you give these tasks to your employees. Describe them detailed.

In your work, I advise you to formulate tasks in writing form, and don’t forget about SMART. It’s better to give a
printed task to employees. By the way, you can use the SMART system to formulate goals, to set tasks, and it can
be used as a control system.

It helps you to check an employee understands of a task. If he doesn’t get something, then I advise you to spend
10 minutes to explain everything. It is like a contract, and it will be hard for an employee to make an excuse.

If you don’t use the SMART system, an employee can easily get out of it. Of course, it depends on employees.

It may seem that you make all work for an employee giving him a full description of a task. The point here is don’t
describe the work process, and don’t give too many details. You should discuss only the desired result. In other
words, the SMART system is a description of the desired result, as if you make a photo of it. However, don’t speak
about the work process, we do it very often. We give instructions to new employees, but not for others. It’s a kind
of terms of reference.

It’s crucial to explain what efforts are in that task. For example, if it’s necessary to be persistent, you need to
explain it. You and your employee must understand each other correctly.

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Let me give you one example. I have a client, who deals with the land law. Their lawyers make agreements, which
allow building. Lawyers negotiate with different people to get a right on building. The company’s competitive
advantage is that they make such services faster than their clients do by themselves. It will take more than half of
a year to get permission for a customer. The most important moment here is how lawyers formulate goals when
they gather permissions. Imagine if a lawyer has 5 meetings a day, and the absence of concrete goals will lead to
failure. It will be a waste of time because it’s crucial to understand people, with whom there will be meetings. He
has to repeat these until people agree. Without a concrete goal, a company doesn’t cope with its services and
loses clients. Therefore, the profit is zero. My client counted that the wrong goalsetting costs very much. After
that, they begin to use the SMART system. Now a lawyer cannot go on meetings without SMART. Lawyers must
write everything down including the number of documents, the types of stamps, how he will communicate and
persuade people to give permission on the building. Efforts here are not only juridical knowledge but also good
communicative skills. Lawyers are communicators, who are able to find a compromise, to arrange, to make a
situation better.

The clear understanding of goals by employees helps a company to have a competitive advantage. Mostly the
results are implemented.

I want you to have a look at goalsetting more widely. To be more precise, you need to understand the business
process organization. There is a model, called TOTE. It helps to describe and structure any process. You can use it
for business process, decision process, goalsetting process, project implementation process and for many others.

There are 4 points. It means that every process has 4 points. Let’s take the process of purchasing a car. Tell me,
what are you going to do firstly in that process?

First of all, you will determine a criteria result. It means that first, you will think about a brand, a size, a price, a
colour and so on. Probably, you will write it down.

It can take 1 day or a few months. Usually, we buy a car for the whole family. That’s why you need to take into
account their desires concerning a car. When you determined the criteria of a car, the next step is operations. We
can go to a dealer if we want a new car or to find it on the internet. Then we go for a test-drive. Check conditions,
which are offered in a few car dealerships to choose which one is more suitable for us. If we speak about a used
car, then we connect private parties.

Therefore, there is X number of operations, and it is necessary to put them in the right sequence. For example,
signing the contract of buying a car must be after a received loan. Firstly, you should have money to have the
opportunity to buy something.

The next is Test 2. It is a monitoring, control. Here we compare Test 1 and Test 2. Let me explain. Test 1 is a plan,
what we write on a paper or have in our minds. Test 2 is a reality, what actually we have.

If Test 1 and Test 2 are similar, then the next step is Exit. It means that we leave that process. If we buy a car,
which we want, we will not visit other car dealers and monitor the internet again.

If Test 1 and Test 2 aren’t similar, then what do we do?

We return to Operations. The point is that we have a certain plan, and we need to stick to it, we don’t change it
after the first try. We come back to Operations and implement it until Test 1 and Test 2 are similar. We will search
for the desired car until we find it. Sometimes that process can take a lot of time. It happens that you cannot find
the planned car for a very long time, and then you need to change a bit Test 1 to make it more real. For example,
you decide to buy a second-hand car, not a new one. We can correct the price of a car. We optimize criteria in
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Test 1 to make the implementation of process faster. The unfinished process causes stress. It’s like unfinished
repair in a house. For example, you buy a house and repair the floor, after 1 year you paint walls, after 3 years you
buy new furniture, and then you understand that you need to start it all over again.

Perhaps, you face the situation when you must implement 10 tasks, but you have finished none of them. Soon
there is a deadline. Again, it causes stress. What happens when you finished 5 tasks, for example? Yes, right. You
feel relieved. It's not uncommon to hear physiologists talk about getting an "endorphin rush." It’s true that you
calm after implementing tasks. You cross out it from your list, and it means that the process is ended.

Now, let’s talk about problems, which can be in that model. Firstly, problems can happen doing Test 1. There
could be too many criteria. For instance, you want to hire a marketing consultant, and you write down 100 criteria
of your future marketing consultant. Perhaps some of the criteria aren’t necessary for that position. For example,
these unnecessary criteria included a high growth, blue colour of eyes, three tongues, and a tail. Of course, I’m
joking. What will happen if you have too many criteria?

You will search for such a person year after year, and I suppose you will never find him. At the other extreme, you
have few criteria, and for you, the most important thing is that a person should be good and has higher
education. After the first operation, you hired a good person with the higher education. However, in fact, you
invited the random guy in your company because of not using some filters, and you face a lot of problems
concerning that guy. Few criteria cause unqualified process. I suppose you get it.

Other problems can be in Operations. For instance, the absence of flexibility influences process. After making a
list of criteria, we start to look for a perfect candidate calling our friends, and we don’t accept other methods of
searching for an employee. We cannot find a marketing consultant; it means that we cannot leave that process.
Flexibility means the using of different methods to gain something.

Besides calling friends, it’s better to use Head Hunter, social networks, conferences and so on. We include
different ways of searching for an employee.

Let me tell you the difference between a man’s and a woman’s logic. Moreover, everyone can have any of them.
A man’s logic is a clear image of what a person wants. For example, a person makes the list of criteria, and then
starts to implement it, and if Test 1 and Test 2 aren’t similar, a person returns to Operations. I think you notice
that many men have the list of products, when they go to supermarket.

It allows not being distracted on other staff in supermarket, and men buy nothing, but what is written on the list.

What about woman’s logic? If Test 2 and test 1 isn’t similar, they come back to Test 1. For example, a woman
wants a coat, but instead of it buys a trip on Bali. Therefore, after unsuccessful try to buy a coat, she changes the
criteria.

It doesn’t mean that women and men are always like in examples. No, I just want to say that there are two types
of logic and woman can have a man's logic and vice versa.

However, remember, if Test 1 and test 2 aren’t similar, we come back to Operations. Now, let’s discuss how does
it help to organize a business process? Speaking simply, in Test 1 you describe SMART, which is a description of
result criteria. Then you delineate steps, stages, and actions. I advise you to write one employee and other actions
by another person should do it using details because it happens that one action. That’s why write everything
down. Take into account the procedure of transfer. Control points in Test 2 are monitoring. You compare the
similarity of Test 1 and Test 2.

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Do you remember the exercise with the plane? You, as a boss, controlled employees’ work. If something was
wrong, you made them redo it until the planned result and reality would be similar. So, it is monitoring. Due to
the model, you leave the process when the work is done and you are satisfied with the result. It’s called Exit.

This model allows analyzing processes if something doesn’t work, and helps to find problems inside the process.
Usually, problems appear in Test 1 or Operations. Sometimes problems are in Test 2 or Exit. Speaking about the
last one, you simply don’t accept implemented tasks and don’t give the feedback to employees. For example, you
call a company to set windows, and you give them the planned result, which is Test 1. By the way, if you give the
abstract result, which you want to get, then they will ask repeatedly until they get what you want. Then they set
windows, it’s Operations. It’s not necessary for you to check every window; you can accept set windows at the
end of the process. If you leave them, for example, on vacations, the process stops until you return and say that
everything is ok and pay for the services. In addition, you can ask someone to watch for it and end the process by
agreement with implemented work.

If a process stalls, it’s crucial to revise some points from the point of T.O.T.E.

As I said before, it happens that there are too many or few criteria, or there is no necessary operation. Speaking
about Test 2, the feedback cannot be missed. By the way, it’s important to note possible risks, which can
influence the result, that’s why you should add some additional operations. We develop the employees’
responsibility by paying their attention at risks.

For example, if you work in engineering company, the key process consists of getting a request, implementing
work and presenting it to a customer. However, I give you a much-generalized description; you need to describe it
using details. The same situation is with manufacturing and other companies.

You can take the same task, which you used for SMART and describe here. You see T.O.T.E is wider than SMART.
SMART is kind of terms of reference, which relates to Test 1.
It is helpful for those, who have a project work. It’s easy to distinguish terms of references from Operations.
Sometimes we mix up these two things.

This is another view of that model. There are also Test 1, Operations, Test 2, Exit. Everything is the same, but the
image is different.

First of all, I want to ask one question before explaining. So, who doesn’t have enough time to do everything at
work? You can divide every task in 4 levels. These levels represent the types of activity. Technical work is what
you do using your hands. This is what you need to delegate. Administrative work is communications, agreements,
meetings and so on.

Briefly, it’s office work. Analytical work concerns numbers, which represent indicators of results, for example.
The last one is managerial work. It takes less time than anything else, but requires willpower.

If you don’t have enough time, probably, you waste a lot of time for technical work. The point is that you try to
check everything by yourself, to do as much as possible by yourself. This level takes a lot of time and efforts.
However, you need to delegate technical work.

Administrative work can also take time, but here an assistant can fulfill some tasks like interactions between
departments, performing contracts and so on.

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Your attention should be focused on Analytical and Managerial work. You need to have an empty table without
contracts, agreements, and orders. Perhaps, you should have an assistant, who can make analytics and bring
variants for the agreement to you and you make decisions. However, it’s a risk sometimes.

If you are a middle ranking manager, you also need to delegate some work. I don’t mean that you need to get rid
of it. You need to distribute it between people, who can do it well and on time.

It’s simple mathematics, if you waste 4 days to implement Technical and Administrative work, then we have only
1 day to fulfil the others, which actually are more important. I recommend allocating a few hours for solving
strategic issues. I knew one company, which has a special room without windows and internet. Bosses visit this
room without a phone just to do Analytical work without distractions. Calls and requests hinder him. Therefore,
this is the pyramid of boss’s activity. You need to strive to work only with Analytical and Management work and
delegate other work.

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 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 8

Let’s talk about holding negotiations. Negotiations can be of three types: information, operation and problem-
oriented.

Information meetings are held when you communicate certain information to your employees. When you gather
them and set them the goals explaining what indicators they need to achieve, all the goals should be SMART.
Operation meetings are held when you receive information. Operation meetings are held at the beginning or at
the end of the day to monitor the current problems and the way to solve them.

Problem-oriented meetings are held when you need some assistance and you want to involve other people in
solving various kinds of problems. Those problems affect interests of other divisions, not you personally. Then you
gather people you need, maybe 3 key managers or employees. The goal of a problem-oriented meeting is
analyzing the problem and finding a solution.

You as managers probably want your employees to come up to you not with problems, but with solutions,
because you pay them not for creating the problems, but for analyzing and thinking how to solve them. Although
sometimes it happens that, an employee comes to the boss with a problem and asks for help. You start doing his
job instead of him and thinking over his task. The employee will thank you, tell you that you did a good job and
then he will go home leaving you working on his task. It may happen. That is why you need to teach your people
to use their heads and analyze problems themselves.

Some great management guru once said that he wanted employees to use not only hands, however, the heads as
[Link] yet, the heart. Because if the heart works, your brain works even at weekends. If a person cares about
what he does and if he is involved he cannot switch it off. He even works while he’s on vacation and comes back
to the office having tons of ideas. However, the minimum requirement is to switch on the head. How shall we
ensure that? There are five questions that you need to ask your employee in a certain order. Be persistent even if
he resists. Let’s examine those “control points”.

The first thing we do when a problem occurs is spotting it. We find out the symptoms. S stands for symptoms.
Symptoms are indications of a problem measured in some units. If you say that the number of defective goods
has increased, then it’s not a problem yet because there are no symptoms. You need to indicate the exact figure -
3% or 5% of a certain defective product. You need to measure the problem. Like a doctor who asks you what part
of your body aches and what rather ache it is. He is interested not simply in your high temperature, but how high
the temperature is and how long it is holding. After finding out the symptoms you need to ask what causes them.
Employees may say different things, as if you have a decline in sales because of the crisis or magnetic storms or
changes in a market situation etc. He can name some external reasons, but you should remember that external
reasons mean loss of control.

If you blame economics and you admit it then you will lose control over the problem because economics or
weather do not depend on you. You’d better reformulate the question. Ask what you under fulfil. If your clients
don’t agree to your terms it’s not about the clients it’s about how you communicate your terms to them. Maybe
you are bad at convincing them. Maybe you have set too many conditions. Maybe you have increased the prices 3
times and they are not ready for this. You need to understand the cause or a group of causes. Sometimes
managers stop at this point. They find the symptoms and causes or someone to blame and say: “Well, it’s all bad”.
The past and the present form a framework of a problem. However, a professional manager focuses on the
future. He thinks about what they need, what tasks they need to fulfill, what project they need to implement,
what indicators they need to raise and up to what level and he formulates the desired result or says that you
don’t have problems, you have goals, SMART goals or outcomes. Apart from outcomes, we have effects. Why do
we see several clouds on the scheme? They may be numerous and different. For example, our sales in a certain
product group have dropped by 20%. What might have caused it? Appearance of a competitor, laziness of the
36
personnel, defective goods, returns, delays in delivery… Let’s say you have found the cause and it’s defective
goods. We see a 20% drop. What do we want instead of it?

We want either to return to the same level or to exceed it. What effects could there be if we returned to the
same level? It could influence income, profit and the company’s reputation, it could offer new possibilities for
development or launching new products, it could attract new partners. There could be numerous effects,
including negative ones. Even if you have achieved a goal and even if you have numerous positive effects, there
could be one negative effect that would ruin the whole picture. You must foresee possible negative consequences
and think whether it is worth it. It is similar with the risk management is some way.

The fifth point is resources. Resources answer the questions what you should do, how many people you need,
what supplies are required etc. It is highly important to measure the resources. These are the five points that
structure the problem: S for symptoms, C for causes, O for outcomes, R for resources and E for effects.

We focus on 5 points. We find out what the problems is and what their causes are, the desired result and goals,
what we want, by what time, how we are going to measure it, what influence it will have, including negative
effects, and if there is some negative effect that we are not ready for, we correct the goal. For example, we may
say: “Let’s build the object not in three months, but in five, but ensuring the highest possible quality”.

You see, you can specify the stock-taking details, but the resources are selected at the last moment. Imagine that
you come to a doctor with a headache. The doctor prescribes you some pills without finding out the cause of the
problem. The head can ache because of various reasons. It may be the pressure, high or low, which requires
different pills, maybe it’s your tooth that actually aches, thus, you’d better find out the cause: lack of sleep, too
much fun the last night or some chronic condition. The doctor should run diagnostics to find it out. Choosing a
resource straight away is not quite right, as there is a chance to choose one that will not do you any good. You’d
better find out the cause, then you go to the stage of the desired results and effects and select the resources
based on them. After the stage of effects, you go back to the desired results to correct your goals.

You select the resources based on the seriousness of the problem, its cause, ambitiousness of the goal and
possible effects. Only after that, we analyze the resources. After that, you will clearly see what kind of people you
need, what activities to carry out, what projects to implement, what information to use etc.

It’s important that we measure the resources. There is one simple test. What do you think, is the air we breathe a
resource? It’s not. You don’t consider the air as a resource. Of course, it helps us to exist. However, you don’t
consider it a resource because you don’t measure it at the moment. If you dive or go to space having oxygen to
breathe for 20 minutes then you will consider it a resource and constantly watch the clock feeling every breathing
in and breathing out.
When you ask you employee how much time or money he needs to do his job and he says he needs as much as
possible, you should ask for specifications. You will not give him as much time and money as he needs. Resources
are always measurable.

Let me give you one real example. Remember hot summer of 2010 when there were a lot of fires all over Russia.
Amid those circumstances, one entrepreneur received a huge profit. The government revealed unpleasant
statistics on how much damage the fire caused. It was decided to equip all state social facilities with special metal
fire-protecting doors. They announced bidding procedure. One man who manufactured metal doors and who
worked mostly with private customers won this tender and got a large order. He was excited, because his sales
increased 3 times. However, the tender had certain effects on his business afterwards. His production capacities
were limited. He completed the orders with delays. What is worse, he experienced a sharp drop in sales. You see,
he used to work with only one niche - private customers, but when they addressed him, they received a refusal
and were asked to get back to the topic in 6 months. He received marvelous results during those 6 months.
However, when he ran out of orders and got back to his customers he found that they addressed someone else
because they lost their loyalty. From the point of management managed growth is important. If your sales

37
increase 2 times, will your employees cope with such a volume? Will the production capacity allow you to do
that?

- I know how IKEA works. When they place orders with some manufacturing enterprises, they ensure that
those orders are enormously big. They choose one small lamp manufacturing, for example, and flood it
with orders. The enterprise takes loans, extend the manufacturing and then IKEA says that they have got
enough lamps and don’t need any more. However, what about the enterprise that has loans? IKEA buys it
for their needs and their own manufacturing because that enterprise cannot cope with the volumes.

That is because it is not forward thinking and cannot foresee things.

This is actually a good example of shortsightedness. What is the difference between system thinking and linear
thinking? When you think linearly, you see a problem, a goal and resources. When you use systematic approach
you see how these factors are connected, you see beyond, you see possible pitfalls that you don’t see at the
beginning. At this point you should answer the question whether you are ready to take risks like that or not,
whether you are ready that your customer will refuse to work with you or not. Here is another example. One of
the first fitness clubs belonging to a vast international network opened in our city in 2005. We had only gyms until
that time. However, it was the first time when they opened a fitness club offering a wide range of services and
long-term membership. I was lucky to work there as a trainer for the sales managers. I taught them to persuade
the clients to renew the membership for one more year. Now imagine September and a new half-empty club.
After the presentation, the customers were excited and signed the contracts seeing perfect conditions for
working out: they could take advantage of the swimming pool, cycle studio, aerobics, yoga, sauna - you can find
everything you need there. Sales started to increase, occupancy was growing as well. After half a year they over
fulfilled the sales plan, but later a strange thing happened. When the client signed the contract, they saw one
picture.

6 months later, they saw a different picture. In peak hours, they had to reserve a place in a queue to work out.
Everything was occupied. Swimming pool and sauna were absolutely packed. There were not enough lockers. Half
the clients said that it was not what they had signed up for. The clients started to leave. The management of the
club could not understand why it happened. Managers should always foresee things like that and think what can
go wrong. Even if you have 10 positive effects there could be one negative among them that would ruin
everything. Therefore, think whether you are ready for what you plan and whether you need to adjust your goals.
Only after that, you should select the resources. How can you use it? When your employee approaches you, he
usually has a problem that he hasn’t even studied yet. You ask him to tell you more details: how he has
understood that this is a problem and what he has measured it in. Then you ask him what is the cause of the
problem. It is important that you ask questions, not answer them. At first, he will shift in the chair for a bit saying
that he doesn’t know. Send him away to analyze and collect the necessary data. Teach them to think and analyze.
Then tell him to set and formulate the tasks and goals: what he should do, by what time, what it will influence,
whether there can be negative effects, how they can be adjusted and what resources you need, what assistance,
information and recommendations he needs. And if you repeat this procedure several times, then later your
employee will always prepare himself for your questions each time he comes up to you. In the end, it will result in
most employees developing the strategy of thinking. Those guiding questions make your employees think. Don’t
ever answer those questions. You can give him a hint, but it is necessary that he learns to find causes, formulate
goals and foresee the effects seeing negative ones and use resources himself.
What are other ways to use it? You can analyze any organizational problem. Make up a table, similar to the one
you have in your workbooks, and answer the necessary questions in writing. Specify what the symptoms are and
how they are shown, what their cause is, what you want to achieve instead, what the effects may be and how
they will influence your work and what measures should be taken. If you have selected the resources, you may
proceed to actions. What mind traps can we get into? We may be stuck at one stage. Alternatively, on the
contrary, we may skip one stage. We may make illusive long-term plans without considering the actual current
state of affairs. Skipping a stage is possible, however, but only if a problem is simple, like a broken chair. We don't
need to find out the causes, we just need to change it quickly. However, if we break several chairs in a row then
we ask ourselves a question what may be the reason for it. Why, wonder when and after whom they break. In this

38
case, we will try to find out the cause. Maybe we will conclude that we don't need a simple chair, we need a
robust chair or even a bench.

This is just an example. It’s not about business. Where else can we use it? At meetings. You gather about 5 key
employees and you walk away from the main issues of the meeting. Take the role of a moderator. Tell your
people that you have faced one problem that you want them to find a solution to. Name the symptoms, like
increased number of defective goods, and ask for their opinion. Ask production department, logistics, and sales
department. Then ask them about the possible causes. Select the main and most probable ones. Then ask them to
formulate the goals you would like to achieve. Then ask them to think what you should expect if you achieve
those goals by a certain time, what possibilities will open before you and what you can lose. Then you prepare an
action plan: make a list of activities and people in charge of them. This procedure can take from 10 minutes to 1
hour. In fact, you can tell your employees to think about answers to these questions beforehand to save time
during the meeting. However, you should still remain within this structure paying attention to every stage.

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 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 9

Let's practice. One of you have a note with the task under the chair. Please, stand up and look for it. There is a
task under the chair. The task is to hold a meeting with the team.

Let's consider the case with an engineering company. Think of the situation when you have real necessity to
gather your team. For example, you don't meet the deadlines, you fail to deliver a particular object on time. You
were given 2 months to do it, but you will finish it in 3 months if the best happened. What staff members should
attend this meeting? Let it be a foreman, a supplier and a designer. Let's choose the members of the group who
will play the roles of these people. Please, come out here.

You focus on the score model. You check whether the manager follows the structure, whether he deviates from it
or maybe he was stuck at some stage. Write down your comments.

You have "stages of the meeting" in your manuals.

Your meeting must comply with the stages given in the manual. The first group assesses the meeting from the
point of view of SCORE model, the second- from the point of view of stages. You need to go through all these
stages in 15 minutes.

F- Foreman

D- Designer

S-Supplier

B- boss

Boss: "We don't meet the deadlines. We are 1 month behind the deadline. It can result in penalty. We need to
find out the causes of this problem. We must understand the main goal and the way to solve the problem think
over the positive and the negative consequences of the situation. So, let's ask our foreman what has happened."

Designer: "Is the reason that the designer did something wrong?"

Boss: "The foreman is in the center of the building process."

Foreman: "What can I do? Who decided to build in winter? It is hard to ram piles into the frozen soil. We spend 3
week instead of one on this process. I don't know how to finish the project, we are terribly late. The problem is
that we rammed the piles but the underground water pushed them out."

Designer: "Does it mean that it is the fault of the designer? Did I design the project in the wrong way?"

Boss: "No the problem is that we started to build the house in winter."

Designer: "If the project is correct, then it is not my fault."

Boss: "Let's correct the situation. We work inside the building already. We deal with internal networks inside the
house. That is why we don't really care about weather and underground water."

Designer: "The designer made the project; the supplier bought the necessary materials. That means the foreman
didn't do his work properly."
40
Supplier: "The salary and bonuses of the whole team depend on the foreman."

Foreman: "We have problems with pipes, they are of low quality and there are some other things which don't let
us fulfill the plan. The supplier brought bad materials. Some materials we haven't received at all. Drains are not
suitable in diameter at all."

Boss: "Why is it so? Is it because the project is not correct?"

Foreman: "Yes."

Designer: "The project was designed according to common and state standards."

Foreman: "Then why nothing matches?"

Supplier: «Why are you speaking about it now but not at the beginning of the building process? Why didn't you
tell me this, but waited until the moment when the boss decided to convene a meeting?"

Foreman: "You didn't provide us with what we needed."

Boss: "What is your final goal?"

Foreman: "My goal is to deliver the infrastructure facility."

Designer: "It is not your goal; it is the goal of the boss."

Boss: "We all have one common goal. Tell me please, what possible variants to solve the problem do you see?"

Foreman: "The supplier must provide us with the materials which comply with standards. We need them the day
after tomorrow."

Supplier: "We don't have them at the warehouse."

Boss: "The foreman has told us what he needs. Now, there is another question. What negative consequences are
we going to have? For example, how much money will we spend on logistics?"

Supplier: "There are several reasons why it happened. The first is the mistake of the supplier, who provided
wrong materials. The second is wrong assembly. The mistake of the designer who didn't envisage the difference
in diameters. We bought the materials, which were listed in the project and delivered them. Now, it is necessary
to calculate everything once again. In addition, I need the list of materials, which are necessary for completion of
the building process. Tomorrow I will give you the information about the change in the cost."

Boss: "What result do you want to achieve?"

Supplier: "My goal is to provide the foreman with all the necessary materials."

Boss: "The negative consequences have been already discussed. The price of the materials will increase. We must
understand how much it will increase. It is necessary to calculate everything and see whether it is worth doing."

Supplier: "I must understand what resources I need to provide, invite the designer and ask him to check whether
it is possible to use the materials which were bought earlier."

Designer: "I can make changes in the contract within 5 hours."

41
Supplier: "That means the first thing that we must do is to listen to the designer, he must prepare the project due
to which it will be possible to use the materials which we already have. Then I will provide additional materials if
necessary."

Boss: «What must we change in the job description after we have faced this situation in order to avoid such
problems in the future?"

Designer: "Are you sure that it is right to ask a supplier how to change the job description? What is the reason
why we don't meet the deadlines? We haven't found out the reason."

Boss: "Our supplier gave 3 possible variants: the supplier provided defective materials. The problem is not in the
supplier, but in the contractor who sold the defective materials. That means that the way out is to change the
contractor."

Designer: "But what is the key problem?"

Boss: "We have expressed our discontent and discussed the problem; our supplier will change the contractor. We
have 2 solutions to the problem: to spend all the money and to buy new materials, or to make changes in the
project and then we will avoid big money losses."

Designer: "What about the time frames, the people responsible for it."

Supplier: "We carry out an audit of the materials we have and what we can use."

Boss: "The supplier said what he is going to do in this situation. What about you, designer?"

Designer: "I am going to change the project within 5 hours.”

Supplier: "I can buy some necessary things; I make the buyers complaint on the contractor. I need 2 days."

Designer: "Are these timeframes suitable? That means we will be ready in 7-8 days."

Supplier: "Speaking about positive consequences, we will save the reputation of the company.’’

Is that all?

The first question to the boss. What have you received by the end of the meeting? What is the result?

Boss: "Every person, responsible for his department, suggested possible solutions to the problem."

Are the solutions agreed upon? Or all the participants will do what they want?

Boss: "We had some disagreement, but finally we found an agreed solution, which satisfied everyone. Every
subordinate suggested possible ways out of the situation and told how he was going to solve the problem and
how quickly he will do it. I didn't set any time frames. They all shared their opinions and ideas how to solve the
problem. The foreman approved of everything."

Therefore, you have the plan of actions. Who was involved most of all?

Boss: "Our supplier, because we found out that the problem appeared because of the contractor that was why we
had to discuss the problem with a supplier."

Who was involved least of all?

42
Boss: "The designer, because we didn't have any complaints connected with his work. He is just the person who
can help to solve the problem."

Those observers who were monitoring the compliance of the meeting with SCORE model. Does the meeting
comply with the model?

- Yes, they followed all the stages. I think it is necessary to act out such a situation in order to avoid these
problems in the future in our real work. If the problem appears in the company, you will find it out later than your
subordinates will. I think it is necessary to ask your employees to initiate a meeting if there is something wrong,
because they must tell you if there is some problem, but not wait until you notice it yourself.

You mean preventive measures, right? Was the sequence of actions (the problem-the reason- the goal-
consequences - the resources) observed?

-They discussed consequences several times. The beginning was ideal. The problem was announced, then they
found out the reason, some possible solutions, then they started to discuss consequences but then got back to
the solutions and the resources.

They started to look for personal causes of the problem. Causes is what leads to the delay. We shouldn't look for
guilty ones, because it creates tension and conflicts appear. If you want to discuss the problem without
unnecessary emotions, it is better to do it this way: "Let's find the cause of the problem, but not the guilty ones.
Else, it will result in a mess and it will come to a showdown.

If you say that, a contractor lets you down, it is a cause of the problem, but you lose control over the situation in
this case. The real cause is the following and it must sound like this: I missed something while working with the
contractor. We didn't discuss or agree on something and that was why he let me down."May be it is our fault". It
is better to realize it yourself, than to blame the contractor and tell it to the customer. The customer doesn't care
about it, he needs the final result. That is why if you give the cause of the problem; try to look at it from the point
of view of your fault, but not just from the point of view of external circumstances.

- Judging by the content and the course of the meeting (yes, they deviated from the given order sometimes) they
went through all the stages, but they didn't figure out the reasons in a proper way. In my opinion, the problem
has existed in the company for a long time. They must pay more attention to the area of responsibility and bad
interaction between the departments. They must have paid attention to this problem earlier and solved the
problem before the meeting. It didn't happen, that is why the boss must pay attention to it in the future and
ensure interaction between the departments.

The positive thing is that the boss didn't name the causes, he made the employees do it themselves. Sometimes it
is also possible to express your opinion:" I think that the reason is that the interaction between the departments
is not properly established".

The next observer.

From the point of view of stages, they didn't have preparation and planning. It was done on purpose in order to
see all the problems.

- The agenda was announced. There was a problem connected with the roles.

They interrupted each other. There was an interesting thing connected with the discussion: they focused on the
search of guilty people, but not on the solution of the problem. I didn't see that they cared about the interests
and expectations of the client. They were solving their problems, but not the problems of the client.
43
They decided to solve the problems inside the company and then they want to get down to the construction
facility. The priorities are different. However, in fact, the relationships with the client are very important in this
case.

The agenda of the meeting is an important instrument. It was mentioned: to find the solutions to the problem in
order to finish work on time. After that, the discussion deviated from the plan. It is necessary to remind them
about the purpose of the meeting. "The purpose of our meeting is not to find a guilty one", but to find the
solution to the problem. We are not going to look for someone to blame. We have a more important common
goal." You are right; they deviated from the main subject. If something gets out of control (people start criticizing
each other or something else), then get back to the roles, what you expect from the participants, suggest to
express their opinion one by one, but not all together at the same time, to keep to the point and not to speak too
quickly, because you need to write down the necessary points. If you want to make people keep to the point,
then start writing down their words. It will make them think over their words. Imagine, a person is speaking
emotionally, he is saying a lot of words. You tell him that you need to write it down, that is why he must
formulate the main idea. After that, a person will choose the right words. It helps to calm down and formulate the
main ideas. Therefore, these are roles and rules.

The key stage. You can't let them go without the plan of actions, else it will be an idle talk and no results. After the
meeting, they must understand that there are strict deadlines, and what they must do. More than that, they must
cooperate with each other, but not conflict with each other.

You must make the participants of the meeting think in the right way. They mustn't feel hatred or be upset at end
of the meeting. They mustn't spend their energy on unnecessary things. They must think about their further
actions.

Foreman: "It was rather difficult to invent the situation for our discussion. All the participants of the project were
guilty in the given situation. However, the main person to blame was the foreman. When he received the wrong
materials, it was necessary to tell about it to other participants of the process (the designer and the supplier).
Speaking about the meeting in general, we were looking for someone to blame, foremen usually shift the blame
from themselves and wait for further reactions."

In addition, you must take into consideration one more thing: often people speak different languages; they listen
to each other but don't get the conveyed idea. You must take into account this problem. Often you need to
translate your words into their language. The boss is a moderator in this case. It doesn't mean that he must be an
expert in everything (in construction, design or logistics). However, he works with people, his responsibility is to
synchronize and integrate employees. Let's take a hand as an example. Where is the leader here? It is a thumb.
Why?

It makes contact with other fingers more often than other fingers. It helps to make a fist. It is the most functional
in terms of integration. If there is no big finger, then the hand is not fully functional. If there is no little finger, it is
possible to do something with your hand, it doesn't lose functionality.

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 Original course
OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
PART 10

I want to say a few things about involvement. It’s crucial not only to receive the feedback but also to have your
employees involved in the work process. Involvement is sharing a common goal and striving to reach it. For
example, 4 people plant a tree. The first worker digs a hole. The second employee puts a small plant. The third
worker buries it. In addition, the last person waters it. We can see here a clear distribution of work, but no one
knows the results of their actions. Everyone knows only his/her task. Where does such a situation lead? Let’s
imagine that one person goes abroad. So, what will happen? Right, every person will be busy with his task and
won’t care about the task of that person. That person is responsible for putting a plant into a hole. There will be
no result because a tree won’t be planted.

The same situation happens at work. If departments don’t know a common goal, probably they will be confused.
There is no agreement among them in the work process. Such a situation can take a lot of money. By the way, I’m
not sure that you know about the idea of communicative costs. It concerns the relations between departments.

If 2 departments don’t interact with each other or do it badly, although professionals work there, then it will
cause a lot of problems. You see, 1+1 = 0 or =3, it’s synergy effect.

There are two types of costs. The first one is manufacturing costs. Usually, we plan them while producing
products and providing services. For example, we know that for building a house, we need to buy a certain
number of materials, to pay salaries, to make transportation, to take into account unexpected expenses and so
on. Therefore, it means that we think over manufacturing costs. You calculate them before starting a project or
work.

The second type of costs is communicative. We don’t plan them, they happen because of unqualified
communications. For example, three people haven’t agreed on a project or everyone has made a decision by
himself. What can happen? Right, terms can be increased due to the absence of communication, which leads to
losing reputation, money, clients.

As a rule, we don’t plan communicative costs. We can predict and plan manufacturing costs but forget about
communicative ones. Nevertheless, they exist. Moreover, these costs are everywhere, even in Google. It happens
because people work here, not computers. Computers can send information to each other like it is. People may
not come to an agreement. What if such people are very ambitious and work in different departments, where KPI
varies, then there will be huge expenses due to the difficulty to come to an agreement?

If you have a deep look into your company, you’ll find a few cases where two people could find an agreement, but
they didn’t, and the losses were higher in a few times than their salaries. For example, the salary is 1500 $, but
losses are $ 10 000. Using other words, mistakes cost more if the position of a person is higher.

Let me give you one example. Imagine that a salesman and a logistics manager argue about making shipment far
away or not doing it. On the one hand, a salesman is right, because it can help to enter a new market in another
region.

The point is that a salesman relies on the SCORE model. He is sure that this order will help a company to conquer
a new market in the future. However, a logistics manager is against this idea because he thinks from the point of
actual expenses, which company will have because of this shipment. The problem here is that they both are right
45
in some way. That’s why something should unite them. If a company’s strategy is the development of regions,
then this question will be solved easily. Everybody knows that development costs a lot of money, that’s why a
logistics manager will be ok with it and complete the shipment. If we’re speaking about the managers, then they
should find a common goal.

Let me give another example. The situation is the same, but the strategy is to optimize expenses and increase the
efficiency inside. Then a salesman will not participate in projects, which cause risks and expenses.

My point of view is that having a clear strategy in a company helps to find a common language for employees.
They have to try to implement this strategy. It’s above their own desires.

The absence of a common goal/ strategy among managers could lead to problems in the whole company:
employees will argue almost about everything, logistics hate a sales department, a sales department doesn’t like
manufacturing, marketing managers are separate from others and so on.

Every communication inside your company is either profit or either expense. It’s very sad but mostly we don’t
notice communicative costs.

Imagine. I’m a leader and I have an employee. I gave him a task not according to the SMART model. Do you think
it’s communication? Yes, right, it’s vertical communication. An employee implemented a task, but differently, not
as I wanted. Of course, I didn’t like it, I fired him or shouted, and he quitted. Finding and hiring a new employee
will take a lot of time, efforts and money. As you can see, one ineffective communication can lead to such losses.
These are not manufacturing costs, these are communicative costs. For finding a new employee, you need to
publish an open vacancy, to have interviews with potential candidates, to choose one of them, to teach and so
on. You will do all these actions just to restore the situation. It causes many risks.

That’s why a manager should learn how to communicate with employees to avoid such situations. He also should
give clear tasks, conduct conferences and so on. Every company has a hundred of communications every day. I
mean only communications inside a company but imagine how many of them there are outside the company.
Who deals with sales? Yes, a salesman. Imagine if a salesman doesn’t have an agreement with a client, then an
accountancy department will say that it’s nothing. However, from the point of communicative costs, loss of profit
happens. For example, that client wants a company to implement a project, and the profit could be $ 15 000.
Imagine how many losses of profit happen every day because of the lack of understanding of communication
importance. By the way, it’s one of the ways to develop economic thinking.

I recommend you to ask questions to develop employees’ economic thinking. Communication will take a lot of
money if it’s ineffective.

This scheme is about the management of tasks. Dear colleagues, what is the most important thing– a task or an
employee?

Perhaps, some of you think that a task is more important than an employee is. Some of you suppose that an
employee is more important. Alternatively, some of you are sure that it depends on the situation.

Speaking honestly, the importance of task or employee depends mostly on the type of management.

If a company’s type is Management by values, then a company will make an employee satisfied, even if a plan is
not implemented. Vice versa if a company’s type is Management by results.

46
Actually, I have one interesting example, which concerns Management by values and Management by situations.
We have a unique employee, but it’s very difficult to find tasks for him, that’s why we have to figure out
something for him. We pick up a project according to his skills, abilities and knowledge. However, in the classic
management, firstly, we put tasks, and only after that, we search for an employee, who can do these tasks. For
example, we produce something, that’s why we need an employee, who should be good with his hands.

Therefore, to manage tasks, it’s crucial to know how to describe a task through an employee’s competence. Tasks
can be difficult or easy, creative or simple. Knowing the features of a task, we should describe what an employee
should know, understand and do to cope with that. I think you have already done a similar task, but still, they are
different. You have described the tasks of a position of an employee, but we’re speaking about tasks.

There are three categories of tasks, which can be in departments. The tasks A are in the style of “Brains”. It means
that an employee doesn’t have a certain algorithm for implementing a task from that category. It’s something
unique and new. An employee should think about the way to implement such a task. Usually, such tasks are the
most complicated. B tasks are in the style of “Grey hair”. They require a lot of time, efforts and resources. You
would ask about the style, probably. The point is that a person should have a huge experience to implement such
a task well.

The last one is C, which is in the style of “Procedures”. It means that they are more typical and have a certain
algorithm. Sometimes, people call such tasks “Legs”. They mean that an employee should go somewhere using his
legs and do something by his hands. It’s not necessary to have a huge brain here to do a task. Usually, if a
manager has a lot of C tasks, then he gives them to outsourcing. We don’t need to implement them by ourselves
if someone else can do it. Accountancy, IT, manufacturing tasks can be given on outsourcing also.

Therefore, a boss should learn how to formulate tasks taking into account the competence of an employee. Let
me give you an example to help you understand it clearly. The task is the following: to go by car to a place, and
take a briefcase with the package of documents and return with it, so a company locates in the centre of a town,
and a place is in the suburbs. Now, tell me what qualities, abilities and skills an employee must have to implement
this task? By the way, an employee has a car.

For implementing this task, it’s indispensable for an employee to have a driver license. It doesn’t matter for how
long an employee drives a car. However, an employee should be attentive and responsible.

Another example. An employee needs to take a pregnant woman to a hospital, but that hospital is across the
town. Therefore, what do you think about the requirements for implementing that task? To me, there will be
more requirements than in the previous example.

Here, an employee should have the driving experience more than 1 year and, of course, driver license. In addition,
it’s crucial to be responsible, communicative, and careful and be able to make decisions by his own. As you can
see, there are more requirements to an employee.

Let’s imagine that the next task is from A category. The task is the following: to drive a right-hand Land Cruiser
Prada from Milan to Moscow, a passenger is a pregnant woman, and there is an important briefcase with
documents. This is a difficult task. So, what about the requirements?

It is required to have driving experience of a right-hand car more than 5 years. It’s crucial to have a sense of
direction and to orientate on the map, in the case of navigator breaking. A person should be communicative,
responsible, stress-resistant, and hardworking. It’s also required for an employee to have negotiation skills, to be
able to repair a car, to know the law of countries and so on.
47
It turns out that we evaluate the difficulty of task writing the requirements, which will be necessary for
implementing a task. Of course, in three examples, we need a driver, but in every situation, there are different
requirements. For you, it will be easy to distribute tasks or projects if you write down what requirements are
indispensable for task realization. Then you choose a person from your team. It happens that you don’t have a
perfect candidate for a project implementation, then I advise you to split up a project into tasks. It is called tasks
management. You, as a boss, need to evaluate the difficulty of task/project and understand the possibility of
coping with it by your employees. There are no similar tasks. It can be a tender, a cold call, a simple order or a
meeting. They are all different, and cold calls have scripts. However, to conduct a meeting, it’s crucial to have
certain skills like communicative, leadership and so on.

For self-evaluation, I recommend you to take a few positions, like a salesman, a marketing manager, a middle-
ranking manager and so on and write requirements for them according to the categories of tasks. It’ll help you to
give tasks to employees and to motivate them. Even if an employee has 80% of competence, you will tell him that
it’s a perfect chance to develop some skills.

Let me remind you about three categories. The category A means unpredictable tasks. The category B means
difficult tasks, but with some algorithm. The category C means everyday tasks, which are done using scripts. This
self-evaluation helps you to understand which requirements are crucial in these categories, and you will
understand easily who can cope with a task or a project. If no one can cope with it, then you’ll split it up and
distribute between employees.

I notice that there are super experienced employees, who can implement tasks from all three categories. For
example, salesmen are busy with documentation and it takes 50 % from their work time, but they should work
with clients. Otherwise, their time costs much for a company when they deal only with documents or we leave
newcomers adrift. It can lead to losses.

Now, I would like to speak about staff development. It is also related to the categories of tasks. Therefore, there
are 4 types of employees. Every worker goes through these types regarding tasks. The first type is “Beginner”. Let
me remind you that the division concerns a particular task. An employee can work in a company for 5 years, but
do a task in the first time. What are features of “Beginner”? Yes, his motivation is high, he interests in
implementing a task. Usually, we don’t have to motivate him. However, he hasn’t enough skills and knowledge. In
that case, an employee should be taught with the help of instructions, scripts and so on. A boss needs to explain
everything detailed. It’s like the task we did. When an employee didn’t understand you but really wanted to do
the task. Such questions as “What should I do?”, “How I must do it?”, “Why it’s crucial to do it?” are asked by
“Beginner”. They don’t need motivation, it’s new for them and that’s enough. It’s like you feel amazement
arriving in a new town and having a tour here, but for the town residents, it’s boring.

After a few months, “Beginner” turns into “Experienced”. Such an employee isn’t professional, but he has a
certain experience. What do you think about things, which happen with such a person regarding the perception of
the same tasks? That task seems easy to an employee and that’s why he is relaxed. It’s like a person, who got a
driver license a few months ago. The point is that a young driver feels the euphoria that he/she can do everything.
In addition, statistics say that most car crashes happen with young drivers.

Let’s return to business. Such an employee cannot evaluate himself adequately. He thinks that he’s professional,
but it’s not true and you can see it from the objective point of view. He is not motivated; he becomes lazy,
because of two reasons. The first reason is losing an interest, and the second one is the avoiding the responsibility
in the case if you criticize him for not well-done work.

48
As a rule, they try to avoid the implementation of such tasks. By the way, some of the employees stuck in that
type. It happens that they don’t have a growth at work as well as at tasks. They are called “corporate slaves”.
They can have the same functions for 5 years. There are no ambitions.
Nevertheless, there are some employees, who move to the next stage, which is “Stars”. Usually these people are
ambitious. You give them tasks, and after they do it heroic, they turn into “Stars”.
This type is characterized by ambitiousness, and high self-evaluation. Such person thinks that he is better than
others are.

Moreover, “Star” is very sensitive to criticism. It’s hard for him not to be noticed. By the way, don’t mix up “Stars”
and “Fake stars”. The first one at least does something and reaches results. It doesn’t matter how many project or
tasks a person implements. It’s more important than do nothing as “Fake stars”, who have ambitions, but that’s it.
They don’t have the necessary skills, knowledge or experience. I recommend you to be able to distinguish these
two types. I think you know what the superiority complex is. Let me remind you because “Stars” have it. The point
is that such a person isn’t self-assured, but he tries to prove his superiority to his boss, colleagues, and clients by
showing emotions. The sentence like “I’m going to quit, so what will you do without me?” is said often by this
type. Blackmailing happens also. To deal with them, it’s crucial to have an individual approach to this type. If they
prove 3 or 5 times that they can do something, they will be quiet and calm.

After that, they become “Professionals”. Of course, they argue as “Stars”. However, the difference is that “Stars”
beat his breast at. “Professionals” are calm and reasonable. They can easily say something or offer to change
something if they understand that there is something wrong. They can easily ask for increasing terms of a project
due to their experience they understand that set time isn’t enough. While arguing they offer possible variants for
making a situation better. “Professionals” care about a common goal and want to reach it using various options.

By the way, there is a joke about the difference between “Stars” and “Professionals”. Let me tell you to give you a
clear understanding of these types.

“Turkey. Summer. The sea. A man moves along the shore, and he has a bruise on the left shoulder. He is asked
about the reason of this bruise. The reason is that he is a teacher and has to bear many books. Other man moves
along the shore, and he has two bruises on both shoulders. He also is asked about them. The answer is that he is a
management consultant and has to bear a lot of stuff like books, materials because of many business trips. Other
man goes near the sea and he has a bruise at his chest. Of course, he also is asked. After he learns that the man
before him is a consultant. He starts to beat his breast at and shout that he is a consultant, not him”.

Yes, that’s “Stars”.

It’s very useful to evaluate yourself. My point of view is based on huge experience, and I am sure that you pass all
four stages of decision-making. It’s impossible to become “Professional” and not to be “Beginner” before it. I
think you face the situation when you did something very great and went to your leader to boast your
achievements. Beat your chest at while saying, “I did it! I did it!” Anyway, you become “Professional” after your
achievements turn into a daily routine. The same story happens with every new task, which is given to you. First,
you are “Beginner” here, you feel excitement and interest. After a few implementations of the same task, you feel
relax and sometimes do nothing, and here it’s required an additional motivation from your leader. It’s crucial to
explain that the task will help to gain better results and blah-blah-blah, it helps to achieve the next type. As you
become “Star”, the leader needs to change the style of management. It’s required to praise “Stars” more, to pay
attention, to communicate and so on. The leader should give “Star” a challenge, and, please, don’t criticize. It
helps “Stars” to implement a task/a project a few times and become “Professional”.

These are the steps of employee’s development regarding a particular task. You, as a leader, can help him.
49
Unfortunately, some leaders say that “Stars” aren’t needed in their company. Ok, it’s their problem, but they will
hire ordinary employees and have ordinary results. It’s possible, why not, especially when a company doesn’t
need to develop. For example, call centers, “Stars” aren’t needed here. Because the appearance of them will
cause different changing, which aren’t necessary for call centers.

“Stars” are important in the solution of difficult tasks to reach the best results.

In addition, “Stars” behave crazy sometimes, but it’s ok. It’s just a stage, don’t laugh at them. It can last for half of
a year.

To conclude this topic, I’m going to show the behaviour of the leader depending on the type.

Let’s begin with “Beginner” type. Imagine that I’m a leader, and you are an employee, who receives a particular
task for the first time. Speaking figuratively, the task is a pen. What are my actions? Right, I come closer to an
employee, give the task, and check a few times his understanding. It’s necessary to be sure that an employee
“doesn’t drop a task”. A leader should be patient to repeat everything and to explain repeatedly. Don’t forget to
use SMART model.

The next type is “Experienced”. I come closer to an employee, and he gives his hand to receive a task by himself. I
don’t need to put it in his hand. Nevertheless, it’s crucial to check his understanding of that task, because it
happens that an employee can be lazy and listen not carefully. You need to control and ask questions about
possible risks so he won’t go astray.

Besides giving a task, you should ask questions like “What are you going to do?”, “How will you implement that
task?”, “What will you do if you don’t have information?” and so on.

The next type is “Star”.

Speaking figuratively, you need to have an imaginary dance with “Star”. It’s not interesting for “Star” to have an
easy task, but don’t give too difficult task for him also. Because “Star” cannot lose face and he will try to
implement even the most difficult task, but he doesn’t have enough experience for that. I mean that you need to
understand the possibility of your employee. It’s important to interest an employee or make him think about
competition to make him take that task by himself.

The next type is “Professional”. Here the behaviour is simple. You just put a task on the table, and that is it.

For “Experienced”, you should provide arguments and tell about efforts, which are necessary for a task. Don’t
forget to ask questions. “Star” should be praised. You need to support them and emphasize their importance
saying “You did a great job last time. Honestly, I am proud of you, you’re the best!”. You need to stir up their
encouragement giving a more difficult task than the previous ones.

For “Professionals”, it’s not necessary to praise them. They can be insulted. You need to transfer responsibility
and give independence to solve some problems inside that task.

Speaking about “Star”, an employee can even take a phone call during a conference, because it’s a client and it’s
important. You will hear such a person from your office. You will definitely understand that a person is “Star”.
Sometimes, such a mistake as belittling of “Star” happens. Don’t do it, you can demotivate an employee. It’s just
one of the steps; further such an employee will be “Professional”. Such a person can play a key role in a company,
and when his pride is wounded, he can easily quit, which will be a loss for a company. To my mind, you can find a
way to communicate with every “Star”. Use additional materials; it’s like tips, which help you to work with 4 types
of employees.
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I think you watched the movie “Pulp Fiction”. So, main heroes shoot a person, and the boss came and told one of
them to bring a rag, and he answered that he should tell the word “please”. That’s how “Star” behaves.

In conclusion, I would like to remind what we have studied. The following models: SMART, T.O.T.E, SCORE. In
addition, we have discussed the cycle of management, working with different types of employees and
understanding the level of their development and how to behave with these four types.

I wish you a great success, ambitious tasks and projects, and thank you!

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