How to Measure Management

BY ALAN BRUNACINI

I recently was in a conversation with a young company officer who asked me, “How do you measure management”? My fairly predictable response was, “Beats me.”

We continued to talk about the challenge involved in creating an understandable frame of reference for what a boss does (naturally) to be effective based on the situation that boss is trying to manage. The officer’s question about measuring levels of direction was logical and practical because it could describe a range of activities that could be connected managing the different things that occur in organizational life. Along that measurement range (going up), the management categories are not the same (some are more difficult) because the management of each category is not the same. Being able to place an individual on that vertical scale, where progressing up is stopped, could provide a special way to describe that person based on what he does as a boss. Such a description could be closely connected to that person’s “personality.”

THE PETER PRINCIPLE

One of the most classic management observations has been the “Peter Principle”¹ identified by Laurence Peters. He concluded that a person will tend to be promoted until he reaches his “position of incompetence.” The basis of this theory is that anything or anybody who works (i.e., is “effective”) will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails (this process no longer works OR that person reaches his level of incompetence). This generally relates to the fact that assessing a person’s potential for a promotion is often based on that person’s performance in his current job. As this process progresses, that person will eventually reach a level at which he is not competent; this is now that person’s level of incompetence. This particularly applies to a person who gets promoted from a position that involves mostly managing things as opposed to directing humans.

Like most of us, I studied the Peter Principle as a college student in an organizational behavior class. The concept is understandable, fairly simple, and a pretty shrewd observation. When I took this lesson back to the fire station and tried to apply it, I used it to try to explain to myself how my leaders fit into where they were (level of competence/ incompetence), but I mentally kept asking myself, “Now what?”

The Peter Principle explained how the person got to his position in the organization based on capability, but it didn’t describe what he did and how he did it when he reached this level. The question my young friend asked connected to all of my wondering, and that led me to develop a range of activities a boss would manage that could be listed in a logical and hierarchical (vertical) order.

Thinking of arranging the measurement of what a boss does in hierarchical order reminded me of another organizational theory we studied in college: Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.”² We all studied this idea that human needs were arranged vertically: Starting on the bottom and building upward, there are physical needs and then safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization as the top human need. I connected Peters with Maslow and came up with my own vertical arrangement that could explain the activity of a manager/leader based on his capability. My hijacking legitimate academic theory and creating my own framework could be more than slightly amusing to the prestigious educational institutions that washed their hands of my hands-on approach and finally (and thankfully) kicked me out with a diploma. Now, I gleefully have developed my own organizational theory: “The Bruno Unplugged Hierarchy.”

THE BRUNO UNPLUGGED HIERARCHY

This is how it goes. An effective boss is able to connect the application of his personal approach to the work and the workers along a vertical scale/level of management-leadership difficulty. Managing some of the activities at the bottom of the scale is pretty routine; it becomes more challenging as you go up the scale. I believe that this could be part of the answer to the question of what does the boss do based on capability. Placing a boss on the scale could also provide a major component of how management can be measured. The scale looks like the following (top of scale to bottom of scale):

• Nobility: produces hope.
• Excellence: consistently nice engagement attained through inspiration.
• Effective service delivery and support: flawless execution inside/outside.
• Performance/safety.
• Behavior management and support.
• Maintenance: adherence to routines.
• Appearance.
• Attendance.

The items on the scale are not listed in order of importance but according to the increasing challenge required to manage them as you progress up the list. Every category is absolutely necessary to produce a complete set of elements that creates a mature, effective system. Reading the list beginning from the bottom, you will note that the items are the regular functions necessary to create specific day-to-day readiness-the tasks that must be managed as regular, recurring “chores” that must be done every day to create an effective level of ongoing (physical/mechanical) fitness for duty. As you approach the top of the list, you will recognize the functions that create overall organizational excellence. The boss performance level along the scale is created and maintained by a different set of leadership efforts (and capabilities), ranging from the routine supervision required to produce response readiness up to inspiring department members to give their best effort.

Each of the places in the hierarchy is necessary to create the desired outcome within that category. The scale of categories denotes the efforts of the boss needed to achieve the outcome of each organizational category. The boss’s capability to perform the functions going up the scale progresses from supervision to management and up to leadership. Using the hierarchy describes the evolution of a boss’s capability, and the point at which that individual “stops” along the way (up the scale) could relate to that person’s standing according to the Peter Principle: competence/incompetence. Applying the scale to an individual boss could answer the question about what a person does on reaching his Peter Principle level of incompetence.

CATEGORY DETAILS/DYNAMICS

A really special American philosopher, Woody Allen, made a classic observation: “The first rule of life is showing up.” Our service acts out his comment by creating a work schedule that creates a consistent, ongoing level of on-duty staffing. This approach requires that our members, for their entire career, be in their workplace on the right day at the right time. It is the responsibility of bosses on every level to ensure that the workers assigned to them do what Woody said-show up. Many complications and great disruption occur when workers do not have the self-discipline (or whatever) to be in their assigned place at the right time. We begin looking at the hierarchy with attendance because delivering effective service depends on our entire team being present. Our standard operating procedures are developed around our normal staffing levels. When Captain Smith turns around and sees the seat that Firefighter Smith normally sits in empty, the captain is now playing four-player firefighting with three players. This is not good.

Many times, having a formerly punctual person begin to have attendance problems can be part of a very difficult personal problem. A boss should look at when, how, and in what condition that person shows up. Going through a divorce, having problems with family members’ welfare, addictions, or other major disruptions in that person’s life can cause the member to be continually late for work. This is where an effective boss gets involved with that person and provides support, direction to assistance, and special attention. When this happens, it’s not a situation caused by Firefighter Smith’s having a flat tire or encountering a wreck on the freeway. It involves a problem that produces trouble and sadness in Firefighter Smith’s life, and now it’s showtime for the boss. No one else has continuous access to the workforce or the capability to support the troops as the boss of that part of the system. An effective boss defines himself in very real terms when he provides help to a troubled worker/worker in trouble. This is where authentic trust develops. Those who come to work on their own need the boss to thank them for their punctuality. When trouble visits a worker and it affects how he approaches the job (like attendance), that is when an effective boss must effectively connect and help that person. No matter what happens, the worker will always remember how the boss treated him.

The continuous attendance relief system involves A/B/C shift relieving each other. This regular relief process requires three basic things: Every fire station must have a clock, every firefighter must be able to tell time, and every work group must have a boss who sometimes enforces the connection between the two. Doing this involves a boss’s creating the very clear motivation for punctuality and dependability for anyone who is late or a no-show. This motivation is the result of direct engagement by that boss that may involve a written description of the recurring problem and the solution (basic behavior: come to work on time), negative discipline, or even selection out of the system for the very unusual case involving an unresolvable maladaptive truant (truant = unauthorized absence from compulsory duty).

The ability of a boss to do this requires constant awareness and straightforward problem-solving skills when attendance is out of balance in the work group. Being in the right place (where attendance actually occurs) at the right time is generally not a big deal normally and does not require a lot of boss effort because most of our troops do a good job of showing up. When it is a problem, the designated adult must get involved. In addition to the presence and participation of an effective boss, the social system and personal pressure from the members of the work group can be very powerful in enforcing the absent member to show up so the person relieving that member can leave. Peer pressure many times is more powerful than boss pressure.

Another part of the attendance process is the relationship a boss has with the workers. We recently had an extensive discussion in this column using the topics in the No-Brainer Management system. The last part looked at creating a positive internal organizational environment. Nothing influences the workplace as much as the capability, personality, and approach of the boss. Every one of us has worked for someone who made us feel that we could not get to work quickly enough; in fact, you got there early. This type of boss made work interesting, fun, and productive. He brought out the best in anyone who worked under his command. Conversely, we also had the experience of working for the opposite type of boss. He created a negative work environment and forced his employees to dig down deeply to bring up the best in them to enable them to tolerate the unpleasant human environment he created. Why would you want to arrive early to be under the control of Captain Simon Legree, who has absolutely no conception of how the organization should be run? Spending 24 hours with him was enough; you didn’t want to spend an extra 10 minutes with him. It’s pretty simple how all that affects coming to work.

I started out the discussion about the effective execution of what a boss does using the vertical scale (hierarchy) of management activities because attendance is the most basic level of our doing business. When we talk about being fit for duty, we must have all the members of the team on the rig when we go to play service delivery at Mrs. Smith’s kitchen fire.

Endnotes

1. “The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong.” October 25, 2011 Laurence J. Peter, Raymond Hull. Harpercollins USA.

2. “Hierarchy of Needs: A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review; 1943:50, 370-396.

Retired Chief ALAN BRUNACINI is a fire service author and speaker. He and his sons own the fire service Web site bshifter.com.