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CAREER CORNER
Round 1 goes to your supervisor [by Bob Goldman] If you want to know what was No. 1 on my Thanksgiving list this year, I’ll be happy to share - a lot happier than I was when grandma kept bugging me to pass the chestnut stuffing. What I gave thanks for this year is that my manager has not purchased Quint Studer’s new book, “Hardwiring Excellence: Purpose, Worthwhile Work, Making a Difference.”
You should be thankful, too. It is Studer’s be-
- the unemployment office.
lief that in order to be successful, managers
sional development. Talk about a horror-show moment. Studer
should adopt a principle used in health care
This is not the point of view of our author,
suggests that bosses can use their daily chit-
facilities called “rounding.”
however, who could use a little “rounding”
chats to “discover whose skill sets need im-
himself, at least, in terms of the theories
provement.” Good heavens! If you had a skill
inside his pointy little head. For example:
set, you’d get yourself a real job. Studer even
“Rounding is what doctors in hospitals have
envisions a boss saying, “We want to keep
traditionally done to check on patients,” writes the author. “The same idea can be used in
1. Employees want a manager who cares and
you in our organization and are committed to
business, with a CEO, VP, or department man-
values them.
helping you excel personally and professionally.” What would you do if your boss ever said
ager making the rounds to check on the status Studer wants managers to “take the time ev-
something that scary to you? I’d faint dead
ery day to make a human connection with your
away - and then I’d need a real doctor to make
While Studer believes that rounding can work
employees and really listen and respond to
rounds.
in a business setting, I am less sanguine. Take
their needs.” Never work. How can you make
my word for it; a heart transplant performed
a human connection with the kind of soul-less
4. Employees don’t want to work with low
with rusty pinking shears is a walk in the
android who climbs the corporate monkey
performers.
park compared to what can happen after a
bars in business today?
of his employees.”
few intimate minutes with a manager who is
Author Studer believes employees don’t like
practicing his cube-side manner.
Ever watch an overstuffed, overpaid executive
working with people who don’t “pull their
And don’t forget - doctors use anesthetic. In
try to relate? It’s as painful for them as it is
own weight.” Totally untrue! We love people
the office, there’s no anesthesiologist to save
for us, trying to pretend to care about their
who are even more terrible at their jobs than
you from the pain of spending quality time
meaningful, executive problems, like the high
we are. It makes us look better. Still, this
with your manager. (Trust me on this. It’s
cost of oil changes on a Bentley.
could be the one advantage of the “rounding”
amazing how executives get upset when you
philosophy. The bosses will be able to identify
bring a little spray bottle of chloroform into a
And we don’t need daily conversations to know
those of us who don’t do any work and then
staff meeting.)
how our managers value us. We can find out to
they can promote us to become bosses, too.
the penny every two weeks in our paycheck.
Hey, if all it takes to manage is the ability to walk around and pretend to look interested,
What makes Studer’s prescription even scarier is that he expects the doctor/manager
2. Employees want systems that work and the
you can sign us up. It’s exactly what we’ve
to delve deeply into the psyche of the patient/
tools and equipment to do the job.
been doing for years.
employee. Probably true, but if you can’t do your job, the
Bob Goldman has been an advertising ex-
“When done properly, rounding is much more
last person you would ever tell is your boss.
ecutive at a Fortune 500 company in the San
than surface face time put in by leaders. It’s
Even if I’ve pawned my computer, smashed my
Francisco Bay area. He offers a virtual shoul-
meaningful.”
telephone and chopped up my desk for fire-
der to cry on at bob@funnybusiness.com.
wood, I’d still tell my boss, “Hey, everything is Exactly the problem. To survive in the work-
great! Never been more productive. I prefer
place clinic we must remain anonymous and
writing memos with a piece of coal. Saves
unnoticed. The more our bosses know about
energy, too.”
our deep, innermost thoughts, the quicker we’ll be lining up at the workplace morgue
PAGE
3. Employees want opportunities for profes-
© Copley News Service