Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbor’s roof

Howdy!

I’m new to pod casts, and I picked Manager Tools as one of my first, regular downloads. It’s really making me think about changing the way we do things daily.

I’m sure everyone thinks their situation is different, but I’m not sure I have the right to implement your tips in my situation. Basically, I schedule the work of 100 people in our plant, with zero direct reports, and those 100 folks, through their managers and group leaders, supply the other 1,000 people in our company with parts to make a finished product. In addition, I calculate our internal goals, measure our progress and report our success.

No one works for me, but I’m asked to tell everyone what we need to do to be successful on a daily, weekly and monthly basis as the main part of my job. I have the luxury of asking my peers to help me achieve our goals, but I also have the curse of not being able to directly influence the production outcome if I’m not persuasive.

I’m not getting structured coaching, feedback or 1 on 1’s from my direct manager (the big cheese at our plant), but I do provide data feedback up and down stream to help our managers, leads and employees make better decisions on a regular basis. As long as I’m providing regular feedback, but not receiving it, is it appropriate to try to start some sort of minimal coaching with others to help them better understand, and apply, the information I’m providing?

Remember, these folks wouldn’t be direct reports. I work for the Plant Manager, and, in our structure, the Production Managers work for him too. The Group Leaders work for the Production Managers, and the Production Employees work for the Group Leaders. I supply daily, weekly and monthly history, goals and plans on an open dashboard for all levels personnel to use. If I want to step over a line I perceive, do I do it first up a level or down a level with the most direct upper folks present or not at all?

“Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbor’s roof when your own porch is unclean.” Sitting down to structure this post gave me an idea. I don’t invite those above, parallel to or below me to do anything but help me do what I do better. As I learn what I can do better, there will be some interaction to guide them to do what I need too. It looks subversive in text, but it doesn’t seem inappropriate either. Do you think this approch would help everyone the most too?

-Cantus