Move Friendship Aside When Manager Falls Short
TEC Worldwide is an international organization of more than 7,000 business owners, company presidents and chief executives. TEC members meet in small peer groups to share their business experiences and help one another solve problems. The following questions and answers are based on discussions at recent TEC meetings in Southern California.
Question: My company fabricates and installs heating/ventilation/air conditioning systems. My problem is an under-performing production manager who has been with me for 10 years.
Since he took on the position (after several years as an excellent installer), the company has doubled in size. During that time we have experienced delays in fabrication and delivery of the equipment, quality has declined, rework costs have gone through the roof and customer complaints have increased fivefold.
I have brought this to his attention three times in the last 18 months, but he has only shown minimal improvement. In addition to being a longtime employee, he’s also a good friend. How can I get him to step up to the plate?
Answer: One of the toughest challenges for any entrepreneur is dealing with longtime, loyal employees who can’t keep up with the growth of the company. Your friendship with the production manager complicates the situation even further.
Your first step and most important step? Do what’s best for the business, said Dan VanderPyl, chief executive of Sonic Air Systems in Fullerton. This situation requires putting your feelings aside and taking a hard look at whether your production manager has the skills, ability and aptitude to get the job done.
“He may know the installation side of the business inside and out,” VanderPyl said, “but managing the entire production process requires a far more complex set of skills, such as organization, scheduling, delegation and people management.
“Just as great salespeople rarely make great sales managers, top production people also may not have what it takes to master these higher-level activities. You also need to find out whether he truly wants the job. It may turn out that he feels overmatched and would welcome a chance to move into a position more suited to his abilities.”
If he appears to have what it takes, perhaps he doesn’t understand your expectations for the job. Do you have a clear, written job description that details the activities he needs to engage in and the results you expect him to achieve? Have you set specific short and long-term goals for the position? More important, have you had direct conversations regarding his lack of performance and what he needs to do to improve? Does he understand that his current level of performance is not acceptable?
Don Dressler, chief executive of Western Growers Insurance Services in Newport Beach, said he wondered whether the employee clearly understands his role as manager.
“Often, people who come up from the lower ranks have a hard time letting go of the ‘doing’ and accepting the managing,” he said. “Managing involves getting results through others rather than doing all the work yourself. This doesn’t mean your guy should stop all activity in the ‘doing’ area. But he may need some coaching on how to delegate and how much time to spend on management activities versus actual production work.”
The hardest part for you may be trying to separate your friendship and feelings of loyalty from your assessment of his professional abilities.
To overcome this obstacle, Steve Driscol, president of Thermal-Vac Technology in Orange, recommended bringing in an outside consultant to evaluate the production manager and the job and determine whether they are a good match. In addition to removing your bias, an outside opinion may make it easier for the manager to accept should the assessment not go in his favor.
“If it turns out your man doesn’t have the skills for the job, you need to determine whether you can train those skills and whether you can afford the time and cost to get him up to speed,” Driscol said. “If not, your only options are to replace him or put someone above him, which means demoting him or moving him out of the manager position. It may be impossible to do either while retaining his friendship. But ultimately, you have to decide what’s more important, your friendship or your business.”
Mike Valentine, president of Tustin-based DMK Inc., agrees.
“It’s a hard fact of life that companies outgrow longtime employees,” Valentine said. “I’ve had to deal with the situation several times during the past 10 years, and it doesn’t get any easier. The only way I’ve found to handle it is to separate your emotional struggle from the fact that you have to run the business. Solve the business problem first, then ask what you can do to help your friend.
“The answer may entail moving him to a different position inside the company,” Driscol said. “Or, you may have to help him find employment with a company where he can use all of his talents and abilities. You may end up with hurt feelings on both sides. In this situation, I’ve yet to see a totally painless resolution. But if you do what’s right for the company and treat the employee with dignity and respect, it always works out in the end.”
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If there is a business issue you would like addressed in this column, contact TEC at (800) 274-2367, Ext. 3177. To learn more about TEC, visit https://www.teconline.com.
