Fireman or Team Manager

Does your day go like this:

• Plan the six priorities you need to accomplish today
• Open your email and listen to voice mail on both your land line and your cell phone
• Make a choice between doing your work or trashing your day's plan so you can react to the newest fires
• Ignore the fires knowing they will get bigger or spend all day putting out fires
• Repeat the next day

Either course of action results in playing fireman. The only difference is how big the fire will be when you address it.

Bombarded with one tough decision after another to lead organizational transition, many managers barricade themselves inside their office to get their own work done all the while undermanaging the team. The team is not engaged at the same time the customer is demanding an emotional experience. This all adds complexity and cost making it difficult to improve performance.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Imagine what you could do with the wasted time spent constantly attempting to solve the same issues over and over again and the resources spent on mistakes that could have been resolved quickly if all team members were on the same page.

Ask yourself a couple of questions to assess whether you are playing fireman or team manager:

• Are we creating a team capable of collaboration or is everybody acting as individuals?
• Have we developed realistic goals that allow everyone to grow? Are these realistic goals known throughout the entire organization?

If you answered "No" or even "Maybe" to either of these questions, take a look at the white paper titled "Creating S-M-A-R-T Goals" on my website www.leogillen.com.