In Editor/Publisher Mike Lessiter’s blog of November 11, 2024 titled “Roll Call: Integrity,” he quotes his pastor who shared a story about the late Gulf War General Norman Schwarzkopf. When asked about the origin of his leadership style, Schwarzkopf answered, “I never walk past a problem. I never see something going wrong and forget about it. I always stop and confront it right there.”
A look further showed that others cite this same guiding principle as well. The history-making U.S. Four-Star General Ann E. Dunwoody also shared a similar concept.
In her book A Higher Standard, Dunwoody wrote, “Far too often we let little things slide. But just turn on the news and listen as the anchors lament an auto-part defect leading to deaths and multibillion-dollar recalls or a small leak in a gas pipeline causing an explosion that endangers wildlife. Recognizing when something is wrong, big or small, and holding people accountable can save industries billions and citizens their lives. Sergeant Bowen instilled in me instantly that if you do walk by a mistake, then you just set a new, lower standard.”
As managers, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “it’ll be faster to just fix it myself.” And while you may have saved yourself 30 minutes of explaining or training the person who made this mistake by fixing it yourself, you’ve likely cost yourself time in the long run.
Lives may not be in danger as a result of the problem, but headaches and dissatisfied customers or coworkers are likely to follow. When a new person comes onboard, they aren’t going to know every process your business already has in place, nor the details of every customer they are going to work with. As managers, it’s our responsibility to ensure they are getting thorough onboarding and training starting on day one.
As the onboarding process continues, addressing questions and situations as they come up right away paves a smoother path going forward. Where it gets challenging is you often need to do more than simply answer the question. If you don’t provide the how and why of the answer, the individual will never be able to solve the problem themselves.
For instance, if a new parts counter person asked what bin Widget X is in, you could simply tell them where to find it. Or you could walk them through the process of looking up the part in your system, finding the bin on the shelf, marking in the system that the part was sold, and closing out the process. The first option answered their question. The second option showed them how to answer it for themselves in the future. It took more time in the moment, but down the road they are prepared to solve the problem on their own.
I know it’s a mistake I’ve made in the past as both a manager or even just a coworker. Six months or a year later, I find myself being asked the same question and getting frustrated that the individual doesn’t know how to find the answer for themself. And usually, they are oblivious to how frustrating the exchange is because they were never told the problem when it first popped up.
Get on top of the little things because before you know it they’ve snowballed into a bigger problem that now takes more time and effort to correct. Like I said, lives might not be at risk for the types of problems we deal with from day to day, save for some potential service department issues, but tackling it head on will be good for the flow and growth of business — and your blood pressure.
