Like me, you probably learnt of the term snowplough (plow) parent when news of the US college admission scandals broke last spring.
Snowplough parents clear the path in front of their children, removing obstacles that could impede their success. They are over-involved in their off-springs’ lives: doing their homework, controlling their schedules, hyper-monitoring their activities and in extreme cases, bribing their teachers. No doubt well intentioned, their meddling prevents their children from experiencing the set-backs and failures that create resilient, high-functioning adults.
Snowplough parenting then, is a bad thing.
Snowplough managing though, is exactly what a manager is supposed to do. The most important – yet often most neglected – part of a manager’s job is to clear the path. That means managing workflow so that people can make daily, incremental progress towards their priority tasks.
There is hard evidence that the single most powerful motivator at work is simply steady progress towards getting stuff done.
Equally, the single most demotivating event is the opposite of progress – setbacks in the path to getting work done.
Researchers say this steady progress by far outweighs any other motivator like financial incentives or well-being initiatives.
Facilitating progress should be the number one priority of a manager. This means sweating the small stuff as well as keeping an eye on the end goal:
- ironing out glitches
- speeding up decision-making
- removing cumbersome processes
- preventing duplication of effort
- stamping out time-wasting
- breaking down silos
- improving communication
- enhancing meeting structures
- higher functioning teams
- having fit for purpose systems
I bet if you ask your Managers what they rate as most important about their job they’ll put a whole bunch of other tasks first.
Can I suggest that a lot of their activities SLOW DOWN progress? They are so bogged down in busy stuff that they don’t have time to listen, to spot problems and nip them in the bud. Allowing these problems to escalate is a proven de-motivator. More time is then wasted managing this demotivation rather than fixing the real problem that caused it.
Managers need to see their role as primarily facilitating the path of the workflow: hiring the best people on the bus then clearing the road in front of them.
Next Step:
Are your people playing whack a mole with all the distractions, glitches and interruptions that stop them getting their real work done?
Are they working longer and longer hours but are less productive? Do they have time to build lives outside work that re-energise them, so they come in focused and creative the next day?
I help teams to become controlled and motivated busy, not crazy busy.
If you want to build dynamic processes in your organisation start by emailing me on zena@zenaeverett.com to discuss a Crazy Busy™ or Crazy Busy for Managers™ session or keynote: https://www.zenaeverett.com/speaking/
Read:
Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer (2011), The Progress Principle, Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work.