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A smart manager is not the one who follows-up diligently, but the one who eliminates the need to follow-up. Follow-up is a non value-add activity, on which managers spend a fair proportion of their time.
This is one of those disciplines, if one is able to institutionalize within his team, it will take the effectiveness of the team to great heights. A good performance culture should insist members of the team to report pro-actively on the status of their activities or actions. As an example:
- A 'Follow-up' manager will maintain the list of actions which need to be taken. He calls-up his team periodically to check on the status.
- A 'eliminate follow-up' manager will drive and encourage the discipline, by which the person responsible will pro-actively share the status. Therefore, no follow-up required.
This pro-active sharing will be on the following lines:
- Status at check-points and period: Depending upon the complexity, size and risk associated with an action, one can decide the number of checkpoints.
- Status at the completion date.
- Daily or periodic status on actions which need to be closely tracked.
- Sharing risks to completion prior to the completion date, so that additional help or course correction can be done.
In an ideal situation a manager does not need to follow-up on the status or risk. By this method:
- One will nurture a stronger leadership culture within the team.
- Drive higher level of accountability and empowerment with the team member.
- Saves time for both the manager and the team member.
- Let manager and the team member focus on their own tasks.
- Will reduce the need for status review meetings or at least reduce the time spent.
How to implement this discipline?
Simple way is generally the best way. One needs to define the expectations clearly to the member of the team. This expectation should be ideally laid out for the whole team to-gather. Due to last more than two hundred years of organizational practices, we are wired for being followed-up by our managers. The eliminate follow-up discipline needs a constant drive and perseverance to implement. It should be made one of the key performance parameters and deviations should be highlighted as they occur. Even at the cost of being unpopular, it is worth for a manager.
Eliminate Follow-up does not mean hands-off or delegation
You can be a hands-on without the need to follow-up. For example, if you as a manager are overseeing a critical implementation over a weekend, you can have an hourly (say) status sharing agreement with your team, to keep a close watch on details. However, even in this micro-management, you may not need to follow-up, but attend to the issues or problems.
It is a two-way process
When we talk about follow-up, the rules also apply to the manager or across the peers. A manager should inform the status on tasks assigned to him to his team member, without the need to follow-up. For example, if manager is supposed to be getting the budget approvals on a project, he should pro-actively keep his team in loop. |
