Hard Lessons from My First Attempt at Management
Management is very challenging, I found that out quickly during my first opportunity in a management and leadership role. I was only in this position for about 6 months but I learned a lot of valuable lessons. After reflecting on the experience I know where I went right and where I went wrong. This story can be useful for people entering into management and leadership roles no matter what industry or size of operation.
First, let me describe the context. I am a mechanical engineer and was hired into a heavy manufacturing company right out of college. We manufacture a wide variety of building products, taking them from raw materials to finished product all in house. At this time I had been out of school for two years and was working as an engineer in the production department.
“Production” is known as the most difficult department in our plants due to a variety of reasons. The conditions are dirty, hot, wet, and dark. It’s also complicated, consisting of a few different subsystems each with their own web of piping and tanks. The plant, in general, was going through a bit of a rough patch. We had plenty of demand for our product. But, the department was not running efficiently due to maintenance, process, and accountability issues. Little did I know things were about to get much, much worse.
The plant manager decided to do some restructuring of the department due to poor performance. I was placed in charge of our raw materials, shifting the previous manager to a different role. Just like that, I was now in charge of 8 operators and a ton of equipment.
Our raw materials require pretty extensive prep work before they are usable. Each material has its own operator and process equipment. This is a notoriously hard area to oversee because it is relatively low in most peoples priorities. It was not uncommon for a shift supervisor to go an entire 12-hours without leaving the machine to check in on the raw material department.
I was in charge of the day to day operations as well as coordinating with maintenance, following up on quality issues, and improvement projects. At the start things appeared stable but there was plenty of room for improvement and I wanted to make a difference.
It is important to understand the production and raw material departments are symbiotic. Issues in one area have dramatic effects on the other. Each area is constantly passing water and other materials back and forth in a balanced way. Yet, whenever the main production machine stops, it briefly overloads the raw material area. This is where things started going south.
The production department was stopping more and more often. As they stopped our area was getting more and more full of sludge and excess water. Mistakes were being made that contaminated our water, requiring it all to dumped to the floor. Over the course of a few weeks conditions kept getting progressively worse. Water and sludge started overflowing their tanks and the back up containment areas. Operators had to start wearing knee high boots to keep their feet dry.
Meanwhile, I was trying to manage my guys. I was coming in early to meet with the night shift operators and talk to them about last night. I listened to their report and issues, documenting them to create the days priority list. During the day I was constantly working with the operators, trying to give them direction. They began to rely heavily on me, my radio was always going off, and morale was low and getting lower as working conditions continued to decline. I was working really hard but it felt like I was spinning my wheels. I knew I needed to install a management strategy.
The first thing I did was start typing out daily notes and night shift instructions. I would include a summary of the days’ activities, plans for the next shift, and specific directions on tasks that needed to completed. I knew communication was a weakness for us and was hoping the guys would actually read them.
Some of the instructions got through but in the end, operators would still come up with a reason that my instructions didn’t get carried out. I didn’t see any real results with this strategy so I quickly abandoned it.
Next I decided I needed to close the gap between the issues operators were experiencing and the management and maintenance teams. I set up a computer terminal with a running log book (Trello page) out on the floor where operators could list out potential issues that they noticed. The page had an in progress and completed tab so the operators could see they were being heard and see we were trying to get better.
I think this could have been an effective strategy but this was doing nothing to immediately improve the situation. My focus quickly shifted as operators were accepting lower performance and housekeeping standards. More and more fires were springing up daily and I had very little time to focus on maintaining the log book. I abandoned this effort after a couple of weeks.
Things had now reached a very bad point in the raw materials area. We use a lot of pumps to move raw materials around in our plant, sludge and water had risen so high that the belts on these pumps were getting wet. This caused the pumps to fail which caused the machines to shut down more. The shut downs required more to be dumped to the ground. We were in a full-blown death spiral.
I was working twelve, thirteen, fourteen, hours every day. Running around cleaning things trying to manage the system to get water levels down. I was getting called in to help with issues every weekend. The phone was ringing in the middle of the night. Forget being a manager or an engineer, I was just a glorified emergency operator at this point.
In a last-ditch effort I started using a huge whiteboard to write out a list of jobs outside of normal operating routine that needed to get finished. Each operator was required to complete one job per shift. The next day each completed item would get replaced with a new one. I also posted big pictures of what good looked like as the standards we were trying to get to. However, it was too little too late and I had run out of time.
I gave up on this strategy after a week or so. I was so busy filling in on the floor that there was zero time for any management strategy. I was doing everything I could do to keep our production lines running. We were now at the point where we were putting sand in front of our bay doors to keep water from running out of the building. The plant manager was out on the floor at all times, working four levels down as a supervisor.
After about six months we had a one on one conversation where he asked me if I wanted the previous raw materials manager to come back. Without hesitation, I said yes.
I was willing to take help, even though it seemed like I had failed at running this position. It took a huge effort from all of us but we eventually dug the plant out of the hole that it was in. This was by far the most challenging situation I have ever been in at work, but it provided a great learning experience.
What I did wrong
Identifying the root cause, prioritizing
There were some process issues with some of the systems I was in charge of. The whole department is just a mass balance, when you bring more in the door than your sending out your going to have problems. Initially, I spent too much time fighting the immediate problem instead of stepping back and finding the root cause.
I had my priorities backward, I thought cleaning up an area was making a difference. But I really should have focused on eliminating the source of the mess in the first place. This is an entirely different strategy. By the time I realized I was not using my time efficiently we were already so far gone it was impossible to step back.
It wasn’t until they brought back the previous manager to handle the fire fighting that I was able to identify and remove some of the root causes. If I were to do it again I would spend the time to assess all problems and understand their causes. Then I could move forward and addressing them. In complicated systems, it is easy to go down an inefficient path if you do not ensure you’re fixing the root cause.
Lack of Consistency
I was not very consistent in my strategies. As you can see I tried a few different things but after I didn’t see immediate results I moved on. It is not so much about what program you follow and more about staying consistent with one.
As I kept changing programs people began to take them less and less serious. They knew it would be forgotten in a week. Next time I find myself in a role like this I am going to set up a plan and stick with it, improving when necessary but most importantly staying consistent to the program.
Unstable Base
When I stepped into this role I was attempting to make improvements without a stable base. This ties directly into not having my priorities straight. I looked to start improving things immediately; however, we had no baseline to start from. I was expecting operators to go beyond their normal scope of work when just doing that was difficult for them. A few of our processes were beginning to get out of control. I should have focused on getting everything to run reliable and stable before focusing on making things better.
What I did right
All that said I do think there were a couple things I did right and will incorporate into my next managerial role.
Face Time with the Operators
One thing I was glad I never stopped doing was my daily talks and check-ins with every operator. This showed them I cared not only about the state of the department but them as people. It showed them I cared about what they thought and took their suggestions seriously. It also gave them an avenue to vent about things causing issues. I was usually able to calm them down and notify them of plans to fix problems. The most demoralizing thing for an operator is to feel like they are not taken seriously and that their boss doesn’t care.
Also, some of the best ideas for improvement projects come from the operators working with the equipment and systems every single day. They are also very good at poking holes in any plans I come up with. Often they bring up things I had not thought about. These evaluations forced me to have more robust plans before implementing them.
Willingness to get dirty
The other thing I did right was helping the operators with their daily tasks. I was right there with these guys getting covered in sludge, hot and sweaty day after day. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do or help with. Although it was miserable at times it earned me the respect of everyone in that plant. It showed the operators that I was not above them and the things they are required to do.
I did cross the line into doing this too frequently. Like many things, this requires a balance. You can do too much and make yourself ineffective as a manager, but too little and people may think you feel above them. When I get another position like this, I will be sure to continue to chip in and help whenever possible.
In the end, I am glad for the experience that I gained. Even though I needed support to bring my area back into control I am glad that I did not quite or give up. I think to grow as a person you have to put yourself in tough situations. If you are not struggling at some points you are not learning. I have since stepped away from direct management roles, instead focusing on increasing my technical knowledge. However, I know when given the opportunity again I will perform better due to this experience.
