When I started my operations career, I was put in a management position overseeing a small team of 20. They ranged in age, experience, and personalities that I quickly had to adapt to. In the past, I had managers who were dictators micro-managing my every move and I had managers who were relaxed and left me to my own devices. I always liked the relaxed approach, because it allowed me to work at my own pace and style. So naturally, I took that same approach as a manager.
I was Mr. Nice Guy. I would let things slide, make exceptions, and support my team no matter what. If I had a team member that wasn’t performing, I’d defend them to no end. My thinking was that if I take care of my team, they’ll take care of me.
Every week we would have performance reviews of each manager’s team. Team members would be on the chopping block, and I would spend hours finding ways to get them out of the hotseat. I’d go to bat for each person to no end and try my hardest to save their job. There was no doubt that I had their back, but did they have mine?
Some of those chronic low performers would give me the same story each week and I would give them the same backup in those performance review meetings. To my surprise, it started to erode the culture of my team. Other team members that were performing began to feel neglected. They were working hard, but they didn’t get the recognition they deserved because I spent all my time focusing on how to save my low performers. In return, my high performers started to slack. “Why should I work this hard if I don’t get recognition? Why should I work this hard if John over there is slacking?” The team’s overall performance suffered and then I found myself in the hotseat. There had to be a change.
I had the opportunity to lead a new department and I took it. I had a blank slate to restructure my leadership approach. This time, no more Mr. Nice Guy. I became the manager I had always hated. I was a micro-manager that didn’t provide support when team members were struggling. I would only recognize the top performers and reward them profusely. 40% of my team was killing it, but the other 60% was unmotivated and ignored. This time the cultural problems were not as much of a surprise. The favoritism was clear and most of the team knew I didn’t care if they stayed or not. My team’s productivity was doing well, but this time it was my manager ratings that were struggling. I was in the hotseat yet again.
I was switched around to a few more teams and tried various levels of each approach. Each time, there was a struggle to balance performance with culture. Then I found the sweet spot.
Now my approach was: if you perform you will be recognized, if you struggle you will be supported, but either way it’s always a two-way street.
My top performers were recognized with promotions, shout-outs, and development plans. This encouraged high performance and those in the middle of the pack to perform at a higher level. My bottom performers got my attention, support, and assistance, but if they didn’t show improvements despite all that effort, they’d go on the chopping block and likely get fired. I made it a point to never surprise someone with a termination for underperformance. They always knew it was coming because I would spend weeks with them trying to help them improve and providing them with detailed metrics daily.
I wasn’t known as Mr. Nice Guy, but I was known as a great manager. Someone who would recognize and reward hard work and someone who would go above and beyond to help you improve, but if you couldn’t improve, there was no one else to blame but yourself.
In the end, it was never about being either the good cop or the bad cop, it was about developing a culture of fairness, consistency, and support.
