November 7, 2014: Using Power vs Pressure in the Workplace

Today I was working with a concrete saw.  My brother's house is under renovation, and today I was helping by running the concrete saw across his 20' long patio.  We're going to remove it and add a french drain to keep the basement a little drier.  The saw was a nice one - a Hilte, gas-powered, outfitted by our local home improvement store with a brand-new diamond blade.  I had never cut concrete before.

As with any saw, the power supplied by the motor is not infinite.  It also cut more or less quickly depending on how quickly the blade was spinning.  When I pushed it along, the blade had to cut more material all at once, it slowed at first, and then stopped.  Then I had to back off and go for the same section again.  When I kept the blade spinning very quickly (lots of motor power) and applied little pressure, the saw went much more quickly.

The lesson can be illustrated in the following situation:

I have 3 people on my engineering team: A is very good with interpreting data but bad at putting all the screws in all the right places when he is working on equipment.  B is great with physical detail, but terrible with data analysis that is not visible on the machine in front of him.  C is mediocre at both.  I have a serious new problem with a piece of equipment and all 3 engineers are up to their elbows already with previously assigned tasks.  I know there's a problem because a graph tells me something is wrong.  I don't know what.

In this situation, it is obvious that A is the right person for the job.  But I'm in a hurry.  How do I increase the chances that the problem will be fixed in a timely manner?  I can apply pressure by standing over A and telling her over and over again how important the problem is.  Or I can apply power to A by asking what she needs from the rest of the team and giving it to her.  In most cases, I will get a better (=faster, more accurate) result by giving A the resources she needs.  Power.

With my saw, power showed up in increased blade spinning speed.  I had to let it rev to its maximum RPM, and then I could get the most out of it.  If I applied pressure, the blade slowed and stopped, and I accomplished nothing.

There are many ways of thinking about power and pressure in team environments.  Power can come in the form of budget approval for a consultant to provide training, or a project sponsor clearing a way to modify a business process to make something easier to do.  Pressure can come as peer pressure to do something a certain way, emphasizing a deadline, or micromanaging a situation or employee.

I am naturally a power manager, not a pressure manager.  Pressure is certainly needed at times (a timely and appropriate termination can improve a team's morale and up its internal motivation, for instance), but many managers overuse it.  Take a few moments to think about situations where you had to change the dynamic of how your team tackled a problem: did you apply pressure to the individuals responsible?   Did you apply power to them?  How did they respond?  Was it the response you wanted?

It's a fine line to walk, one out of many judgment calls that managers have to make daily.  Knowing which side you are on can help you to understand when it might be better to take a different tack and possibly get a different outcome.