EMPLOYEE’S WORK COMPLETENESS IS EVERY BOSS DELIGHT!
By Tengku Indra
A wealthy man was taking a morning stroll along the beach of Waikiki. Suddenly he was ambushed by three hired killers blowing three shots into his head. He died instantly.
Immediately the Police rushed to the crime scene. Intensive investigations were carried out by the Hawaii Police Department crime detectives.
This is a typical scene of the famous TV series in the late seventies and early eighties - Hawaii FIVE-O!
HABIT OF COMPLETENESS
The detectives conducting the investigations were very thorough, factual, detailed and complete prior to rushing off to the HQ to meet their Head, Steve McGarrett (The late Jack Lord).
When meeting their Boss, Steve, each of them was fully prepared to answer any question or respond to comments from him. They not only provided Steve with the evidence of the crime but also constructed a possible cause for the crime with concrete recommendations on the next steps to take.
They would have habitually weighed the pros and cons of their recommendations with thoroughness and precision before presenting the case to Steve.
Upon hearing their verbal reports, all Steve McGarrett did was just to test the facts by asking a series of searching questions, verifying in depth the findings and challenging rigorously the key recommendations.
At the end of it all Steve MaGarrett would simply say “Let’s go. Book them!”
In short Steve was being decisive as a result of the delegation of responsibilities he gave his men and the freedom to act i.e. Empowerment. His men demonstrated the thinking ability to “dig in” for information by taking full ownership of the task in uncovering the mystery and crafting appropriate solutions for the crime to be presented timely to him.
LESSONS LEARNT
There are useful lessons I learnt from this TV series in the early part of my career in the late seventies. It is about the habit of anticipating what your Boss will question you when you meet him to discuss an issue or problem.
We have to be fully prepared with facts, answers and recommendations without any loop hole.
Our reputation is on the table when we make any recommendation to the Boss! It is not about “picking up the Boss’s brain” but picking up the confidence and courage to be thorough and complete before meeting the Manager.
During that period, I was fortunate to be working for a General Manager at one of the General Electric (GE) plants in Singapore as a Personnel Manager (now called Human Resource Manager).
Jerry, his name was, would ask me a series of questions every time I confer with him on issues affecting the people and organization.
He would normally ask seven typical questions for me to answer and without doubt expects me to have the answers at my fingertips. He would never be satisfied with “half-baked” answers let alone an “I don’t know!” type of response.
Jerry once said, “If you are not part of the solution, you are then part of the problem.”
These seven questions that he often asked are:
1. What is the challenge that is dictating you to take action in the plant?
2. What is the most probable cause of the challenge?
3. What course of action do you plan to take?
4. How do you plan to execute this course of action?
5. What could go wrong with your plan?
6. What is the worst that can happen to your plan?
7. How do you plan to mitigate the downside and maximize the upside?
As a result of this rigorous coaching and interface with my Boss, it was fortunate for me to be able to develop an independent way of thinking, probing skills and always be focusing on finding solutions when a problem arises.
This would deter me from “throwing the monkey” on my Boss’s shoulder which for sure in the case of Jerry, he would throw it back at me.
BOSS’S DELIGHT
I strongly believe all managers want the ease of making decisions by having employees display the full sense of ownership, attentiveness and completeness in their work especially when making proposals or crafting recommendations.
It is a discipline that employees should master in order to gain
the confidence and trust of their bosses.
This discipline is called “Completed Staff Work.”
WHAT IS COMPLETED STAFF WORK?
Simply defined, Completed Staff Work is about the Boss’s or Customer’s perception of the reputation of the work or service quality delivered by an employee.
Quality is seen by how clear, thorough, detailed, and insightful and timely the piece of work is being delivered by the employee.
Submitting a report without making any recommendation; sending an e-mail which does not clearly state what the sender wants as well as making a presentation without much substance and action needed, all constitute in essence incomplete staff work.
Over the years working with thousands of managers and professionals, I find this lack of completeness are displayed not only by inexperienced staff but even seasoned employees.
The Boss has the mind-set that work is one thing but completeness is everything!