Swim Instead Of Tread

“Swimmers are destined to go places, while treaders go nowhere. One uses his energy to move, while the other wastes it by staying in place. One will find shore and the other will not. In fact, the one treading water that has gone nowhere will use more energy.” Marvin Pirila

Many managers are stuck in the day-to-day struggle of getting things done. Many of the same problems exist everyday and worsen if not addressed. Managers should spend a portion of each day working to eliminate the problems plaguing operations. They should also be looking towards available equipment to make things better, safer, or more productive. Managers should always be evaluating their processes, trying new things, and re-evaluating. Most importantly, they should be monitoring the productivity and morale of their employees. If someone is performing poorly or not as well as he or she should the supervisor must take action.

Short-term easy is not long-term easy. Many managers can finagle something short-term, but few can make things successful in the long-term.

Workers tend to give each new person a honeymoon period. I call it a honeymoon period because they tend to work harder and try harder to make sure everything is initially covered. Perhaps this happens because they feel they have new life in their jobs and have another opportunity to show what they know. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and new supervisors/managers tend to give more appreciation initially. Like a marriage, as time goes on, we tend to show less and less appreciation for our mates. Eventually, our mate feels unappreciated, lacking self-worth, and perhaps becomes depressed. When this occurs, their hierarchy of needs is disrupted and further growth opportunities drop. We need to satisfy our basic needs before climbing a level towards self-actualization.

Honeymoon periods, unfortunately, don’t last long so you have to work hard to get up to speed. If they don’t feel you’re catching on or moving things ahead, they will quit believing in you and things will deteriorate.