Stay in your helicopter

August 1st, 2011 9:47am - Posted By: Wayne L. Anderson

I was a technical wizard who worked his way up through the ranks to become a senior vice president of a multi-billion dollar corporation. One of the first mistakes I made when I first became a manager was to micromanage my people. Fortunately, early in my career I had some excellent mentors. The first piece of advice they gave me was to stay in the helicopter. I figured my career was in trouble because my mentors had lost it! What were they talking about, stay in the helicopter? I am in IT; we don’t have any helicopters!

What they were telling me was when I manage that closely, I can’t see what is happening in the entire organization.  In reality, I can only see the one activity on which I was concentrating.  My mentors were telling me that I should be more like a Forest Ranger.  This situation may apply to you as well.

Your organization (like mine) has a tremendous number of things going on. Projects are underway; equipment is being purchased; strategic planning and execution is happening; and, you are working hard to right size your team. Not everything is going to happen as you would like. In other words, there will be lots of fires everywhere. Like the forest ranger, the only way for you to see the fires (or hopefully the smoke before it becomes a fire) is to get your helicopter off the ground so that the forest (your organization) is in full view. You will only have a clear view of the fire in front of you if you keep your helicopter on the ground. There could be other fires smoldering or raging out of control in your forest that you just wouldn’t be able to see.

You are a leader.  Therefore, you have a strategic side that requires you have a broad view of your organization.  In addition, you need to ensure your organization’s participation in the strategic activities of the company. It will be difficult for you to do that if your helicopter is on the ground. At best, you will only be able to focus on one small aspect of the strategy.

You are responsible for hiring good people; understanding and knowing who they are; and getting out of their way so that they can do their thing. Those people are also your firefighters. That means their job is difficult on a good day. Both you and your helicopter will simply be in their way if you keep it on the ground. It will also be extremely difficult for you to direct the activities of all of the fires and firefighters in the forest unless your helicopter is in the air.

I am not advocating being aloof and staying out of sight of your people. Being aloft is not the same as being aloof. I am also not supporting the idea of never interacting with your people on the ground. There is a time and place for all of that to occur (especially if all of the fires are out). I am saying , as I have said before, that you need to get out of their way so that they can do their jobs. If you are a good forest ranger, then you will know that the best way to do your job is to get your helicopter airborne. Then stay in your helicopter to effectively give support and direction to your firefighters wherever they are in the forest.

I guess the more I think about it... my mentors hadn’t lost it after all.

Posted in: Leadership, Professional Development, Management Techniques, Micro Management

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