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Don't waste part of your team

When you start managing, you learn that every member of your team is important. You try to treat them equally. Since equal does not mean the same, you give each of them as much of your attention as they need in order to excel in their jobs. They do so well that you get promoted and have a new team to manage. The higher you go the bigger your team gets and before long your team is no longer all located in the same location.

All in the same place

The first team you managed probably was small. They all did pretty much the same thing. Their work stations were right together. You could see all of them at the same time. If you raised your voice a little all of them could probably hear you. You knew what everyone was doing all the time and you could quickly step in if someone needed support, coaching, or correction.

Different floors, different buildings

Before long, as you advanced in your management career, your team was larger and more diverse. Members of your team were in different places. Maybe you managed two distribution lines. Perhaps you had responsibility for the Sales team on the second floor and the Marketing group on the fourth floor. It might have been that you were responsible for development teams in offices in different parts of town.

Whatever the circumstances, you no longer had equal contact with all your team members and they no longer had equal access to you. You tried to not show any preference, but you ended up spending more time with one group than the other. They were closer. It took less time to get to their location and you didn't have time to spare. Besides, you told yourself, the lead person in that other group was pretty sharp and didn't need as much of your time.

Eventually, your responsibilities had grown to the point that you managed functions that were located in different cities. You were at headquarters with part of your team, but were responsible for people in branch offices or plants in other cities. It became impossible for you to spend the same amount of time with all of them. So, remembering the Pareto Principle, you focused more of your time on those that needed it. You didn't mean to neglect anyone, but it was just too time-consuming to give the same amount of information to the branch manager on the other coast and three time zones away as to his peer who was in the office next door to yours. And that is when you started wasting the talent of part of your team.

Wasting talent

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When part of your team doesn't get the same information as the others, it is harder for them to do their jobs as well. If they get a key memo, but not until after everyone else has seen it, they may do something different before they get the memo. If you send a two page plan to all your subordinate managers outlining the new strategy they can move ahead as a team. But if there is some ambiguity in the plan and you explain that to one manager, but not to the others, there is a real chance that they will waste effort executing the plan differently. Perhaps they will overlap. Maybe they will allow gaps. Either way they won't be as effective as if you had gotten them all the same information so they were all “on the same page".

Things to avoid

* Differential information flow When you tell people in headquarters more or sooner than those in the field or in other branches, you reduce efficiency. * Uneven appreciation Don't give more weight to suggestions from people in your office than to those in the remote offices. Nothing will destroy morale faster. * Preferential promotion The fact that you see the people in the home office more, and see more of the work they do, does not make them better or more productive. If this causes you to promote them faster, or give them the more desirable assignments, you make it more difficult for the different parts of the team to work together.

Better choices

You want to take full advantage of the talents of all the members of our team. You cannot afford to let any of that talent to be wasted because you don't treat them equally.

* Plan your communications You need to develop a plan for how you are going to make sure all your communications get delivered to all your people at the same time and in the same degree of detail. The plan will vary depending on your particular circumstances: your company, your job, where the rest of your team is located, etc. The important thing is to have a plan you can stick with under normal circumstances, but during periods of stress as well. * Schedule meetings Hold regular meetings to give you an opportunity to tell everyone at the same time. Use conference calls to include those in remote offices. If you can use a video conferencing system, do that too. A lot more information is conveyed visually than verbally. * Get feedback Ask your direct reports in the remote offices if they feel connected. Are they getting the same message in the same detail at the same time as their peers who are physically closer to you? If they aren't, they can suggest changes so they are getting the same information flow. * Review your promotions

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Take a look at the promotions you have made and the commendations you have issued. Are they weighted toward the people in the home office? Are there valid reasons for that? Fix any discrepancies you find.Your job is hard enough without you making it harder on yourself buy wasting some of the talent available to you. Don't let distance blind you to the value of some of your team. Make sure you give equal importance to all the members of your team regardless of where they are located and you will be more successful as a manager.

Reference: http://management.about.com/od/yourself/a/WasteTeam07.htm

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