Productivity, Management, and "Getting It"

According to a study of nearly 1,300 mid-level managers around the world by consultancy Proudfoot, vast amounts of the average manager's working day are spent on unproductive activities.

The Global Productivity Report found managers spent 34 per cent of their time on administrative tasks and just a tenth of their time on training and active supervision of their workers.

Their workers, too, were not exactly buzzingly productive. More than a third of their time – 34.3 per cent – was spent on unproductive activities, up from just over 32 per cent recorded the year before.

This meant workers were spending 1.7 days a week on unproductive workplace activities, it concluded.

Managers spent in total 18.5 per cent of their time on unproductive activities, or the equivalent of just under a full working day per week, it added.

Yet, for every five point increase in the share of time managers spent on active supervision, the productivity of their workers, or at least the amount of time they spent on unproductive activities, improved by one point, the survey also found.

The managers were also asked to list their top six barriers to improving productivity.

Topping the list was a shortage of skilled workers, followed by a lack of good internal communication, red tape, rules and regulations, poor employee morale, high staff turnover and, lastly, the quality of their own supervisors.

Chickens, Eggs, and People Who "Get It"

Let's assume that the survey results are valid and that the 1300 managers represented a scientific random sampling with an acceptable +/-% margin of error.

The managers' list of 'barriers to improving productivity' is formidable. I couldn't help but notice:

1. The quality of their own supervisors. Productive workplaces are all about effective bosses. If this a universal problem then there is a systemic management issue at work globally.

2. Assuming the data are true, managers often aren't required to manage and develop people. They are administering the businesses instead.

3. An emphasis on paperwork would be consistent with red tape and rules and regulations.

4. I never know what good internal communications really means. I've written about it before. "Communications" is a catch-all phrase and one needs to ask probing questions to find out what is really underneath.

5. Well, if there is too much paperwork and not enough management it's not a stretch to see that employee morale would be down, prompting thoughts of leaving the company.

6. I intentionally saved 'skilled workers' for last. The skilled workers thing pops up constantly (think, "war for talent"). There are gazillions of talented people graduating from universities each year along with gabillions of experienced workers looking to make a move (see the research above).

Would someone please tell me:

a. What skills are absent to the extent that there is a seemingly universal crisis?

b. If these skills are in fact absent, what are companies and educational institutions doing--individually and in concert--to impact the situation.

All of the above are so behaviorally interrelated that one has to ask the, "What came first, chicken or egg?" question.

BTW: The answer is good management. In organizations, everything flows from that. If managers can't or won't manage, then one would expect to see this kind of survey result.

What I Am Seeing

Finally, an observation based on daily experience in organizations.

I'm not seeing a shortage of skills. I'm seeing a shortage of people who "get it."

• People who come into work, scan the horizon, and say, "What's happening and how can I be most helpful?"

• People who look at the bigger picture and the connectedness of themselves to the whole.

• People who ignore the fine print in their job descriptions and look at "all other duties as may be assigned" as the operative part.

What's going on in your working world?

Comments

[Travis Branzell]

“What skills are absent to the extent that there is a seemingly universal crisis?” I think that the number one problem is a lack of communication skills on a couple different levels. This is often a flaw in management systems.

1. Managers struggle to get across to their subordinates what they expect of them.

2. Managers don't take the time to ask their subordinates if there is anything they need in order to get their daily tasks completed. Often I think that when a subordinate takes a job and you put work in front of them and walk away, your subordinate is left believing they have been given the tools and have the skills they need to complete their task in timely and efficient manner. As a manager you need to take the time to ask your subordinates if there is anything they need to perform their tasks, and also be open to ideas for new methods for completing various tasks. Couple things can happen as a byproduct of this type of communication……

•it opens doors for more communication
•new, efficient, and productive methods for completing tasks may come to rise by suggestion with this simple communication
•this type of communication ultimately will increase success and most likely boost moral

3. Subordinates don’t communicate to their manager when they are lacking the tools or skills to complete the tasks that are put in front of them, but this is because managers don’t express to their subordinates that they need to come to them and ask for help when they are stuck.

You can’t blame your subordinate for not knowing how to complete the task, don’t have the right tools to complete the task, or that they aren’t qualified to complete a task, because in reality it’s your fault, the manager. If they don’t know how to complete their tasks, then it’s because you haven’t properly shown them how complete their tasks. If they don’t have the right tools it’s because you didn’t provide them with the right tools. You can’t expect them to go seek out the tools and resources….not everyone is a go getter. Sometimes you have to lead the horse to water. If they aren’t qualified to complete their tasks then that is ultimately your fault, because you hired them to a position outside of their qualifications. If an individual has the qualities that you see that are beneficial and useful, but they aren’t qualified for the job, then get them qualified. Get them in the class room or teach them yourself.

Great topic! Thanks again Steve.

[Bay Jordan]

A very interesting post - and comment - with plenty of food for thought.

I wonder how reliable the findings are, because I find it hard to believe that the managers have less unproductive time per week than their employees as:
a) A manager's role is, by definition, less productive; and
b) A manager is likely to spend more time on email, in meetings and on other administrative matters that are unlikely to be productive/add that much value to the organisation.

The findings about skills shortages may be more valid. While the debate about the product coming out of education is an endless political issue that I wouldn't want to get into here, I do not believe that the people coming throgh are any less intelligent or capable than their forebears. Rather I would suggest that this is due to poor recruitment as well as the poor management you depict. The recruitment process focus on competencies identified by the manager and the defined job description rather than the total person of the recruiter and the effort put into finding someone who is neithe runder-qualified nor over-qualified inevitably means there is built in redundancy within the recruitment process.

Having said that, after posting my own blog this morning about a worker who sat dead at his desk for 5 days without any of his 23 colleagues noticing, I think there may well be good grounds for questioning not just the skills but the humanity of the people in the workplace!!

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[Lluc]

As a worker I found vary useful to brief my manager two or three times a week. I brief him for 5 min on the important issues and aks him some guidelines.

We found it quite useful.

[Steve Roesler]

Hi, Travis,

Gee, thanks for the thoughtful and in-depth comment. I'm with you on all 3 items.

"Communications" almost always falls out as the #1 "issue" in organizational surveys. However, that's a catch-all for a multitude of sins. You've classified them in a way that they can be addressed.

[Steve Roesler]

Bay

Thanks for stopping by...always a treat. And I wasn't sure how best to deal with the "dead guy" story after seeing it; it defies rational explanation (has one been offered?).

You and I are on the same page with this one. The key to job satisfaction and productivity is "best fit," which is a hiring/promotion/internal movement issue. There is no shortage of intelligent people but there is a shortage of thoughtful placement when it comes to the right person in the right job in the right kind of organization. In fact, I see too much emphasis placed on "(s)he's so intelligent" and not enough place on "is this a good fit for both of us."

[Steve Roesler]

Lluc,

That is often a wise thing to do; managers don't want to be surprised and they also have a boss who wants to know what's going on.

[Shaun]

Steve...I particularly like the section about "People Who Get It"...An old friend of mine and I would regularly assess folks based on their ability "to get it" (obviously we did!?)...Love your criteria...we also preferred people who executed with a lot of humility....

[Deepak]

Hi, My name is Deepak. I find the article quite intersting and enlightening. I will surely implement the ideas in my work arena. I will also reccomend the articles to my friends/peers, thus they can also be benifitted from this article.
Deepak

[sam samier]

nice,
but is there any way to be more productive with quality i some time feels that being more productive is good but one must also have the quality ...

[sam]

nice article..

I opines, the reason for middle managers giving lesser time to productive stuff is the responsibility showered by senior management...

If you make them accountable and do not by pass them to reach people reporting into them... the productivity will improve..