Management Proverbs - You Don’t Know
These days, I am fortunate to be an adjunct professor in the Entrepreneurial Program at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Ostensibly, my forty years of collective business experience qualifies me to be so. Not wanting to take a chance on the Administration’s assumptions--re: my value add—I have done a lot of reflecting on my career, knocking the cobwebs off memories long since forgotten. Surprisingly, many of the lessons, examples, and techniques I found helpful to me in my almost forty-year career, I have been able to cull out. Many of them of decent value.
Some of these recollections will find their way into case studies, like when my first boss at Mellon gave me a token bonus in my first year even though, from a number’s perspective, it was generous to do so. I started documenting these “cases.” Other recollections will find their way into a class that emphasizes the 5-10 important concepts of the various business disciplines. Think the first line of Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome” for where I am coming from. And still others are management adages I stumbled, fumbled and bumbled across over forty years that just work. Thus, the management proverbs. With this intro out of the way, let’s get to one of these management proverbs. Afterall, you don’t know what you don’t know…
…which happens to be the full title of this proverb.
Two examples. In one, we eventually find-out what we don’t know (Exhibit B). In the other, we eventually don’t (Exhibit A).
Exhibit A
When we lived in Marina del Rey, we taught OCIA, the faith formation process for adults discerning whether or not they want to become Catholic. In one of our group discussions, Jim, was complaining about some crazy driver that tailgated him on his way to church, honking his horn—in case you don’t know, in NY and LA, honking one’s horn directly controls the speed of the car ahead of you; maybe faster, maybe slower but there is a direct correlation—then proceeded to pass him, cut him off and flip him the bird. This fella wasn’t in our OCIA program. (We’ll get him next year.) “What was wrong with that guy?” our young discerner asked. “Maybe there was an emergency with one of his kids and he’s trying to get home,” offered Cyndy, one of Jim’s classmates. “I used to get mad when stuff like this happened, but now I just figure I don’t know what’s going on in their life at the moment.” And you don’t. An “AHA Moment.” (See “The Grand Piano Principle”)
Exhibit B
Fast forward fifteen years. I am an officer of a company and Jenna provides administrative support and has been doing do for as long as I’ve been involved. Well over seven years. Jenna is superb. Always thinking ahead. Always delivering excellent service to our members. Always courteous and friendly. And then things changed. She did not return calls or answer emails. Totally blew several assignments, one a very important event we were having. She was curt with me and others. I knew Jenna was juggling many balls to support her family but this had never been an issue before. I did not say anything for six months and, as the erratic performance continued, was debating how to approach Jenna. She is a great person, does a great job and I didn’t want to add more balls to an already difficult juggling performance. Which could make things even worse. Then, a colleague called. “Have you heard about Jenna?” I had not. “Well, her husband is going in for a brain scan.” A great example of what you don’t know. We figured out how to address the issue properly.
As managers, and particularly as the caring, compassionate managers we should be, our job is to help our people be their best self. But often, when performance suffers despite our best efforts, there can be the temptation to focus on the “what” and not the “why.” Andy Andrews makes the argument in “The Seven Decisions” that achieving our best selves at work is almost impossible if we have fundamental problems we are dealing with that, for almost everybody, are more important than our job. Our faith. Our spouse. Our children. Our health. Any number of things—those are voluminous—that are more important than work. And, if things are haywire on the personal front, concentrating on getting the accounts payable ledger reconciled is going to be much more difficult that it ordinarily would be.
That’s why good managers need to swear by the proverb that “we don’t know what we don’t know.” Living by this adage achieves many things that lead to success. For one, it forces us to be humble and admit we do not know everything. Humble leaders are the best leaders. For another, given that, admitting “we don’t know” makes it incumbent on us to find out what we don’t know. In the right way at the right time. Number three, when we approach a colleague that is having a performance issue, admitting we don’t know what we don’t know impacts how we begin to discuss the issue with the colleague. Instead of assuming the worst of the employee, we begin from a place of trying to be compassionate and understanding. In normal performance issue situations, that is almost always the best place to start. (There are some that are not the norm!!!) And isn’t this the way it is supposed to be?
Taking the “we don’t know” approach to management does not mean that we sweep performance issues under the rug, ignore them or make excuses for them. But it does mean we try to understand the “why” and not just focus on the “what.” In the long-run, that is the most effective way to help our employees achieve their full potential. It also fosters a culture of humility, compassion and fairness; a culture more conducive to attracting and retaining the best talent. It is also the right thing to do. Running a great company AND being compassionate and fair, will be the subject of the next proverb.
Show A Little Faith.
(Note: The “We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know” proverb applies to many, many things. There will be more to come on this proverb.)