Apple and Micromanagement
If you’ve been in an Apple retail store, you probably came away impressed. If not, you should have been, simply from a commercial standpoint. Apple stores rack up over 4,000 USD in sales per square foot annually. (If you don’t have any perspective, that’s a LOT. A lot of a lot.)
How do they do it? One way they do it is hiring good people, like Davis Staedtler, our good friend there. The WSJ article I recently read highlighted other stuff, too, one of which really stood out for me.
They “micromanage” what they think is really, really important.
Here are a couple of examples: First, their retail manual gives their store associates specific phrases to use when customers are upset, or how to greet people. Actual words to say. Not ideas, not “here’s what you’re customer is feeling, respond appropriately.” No, the manual actually says, “nod your head. Say yes. Say mmm-hmmm.” ACTIONABLE SPECIFICS. (We like that stuff ;-) )
Something else the manual or their policies say will likely surprise you: if an associate is six minutes late 3 times in a six month period, you can terminate them.
Read those numbers again: late 3 times by six minutes over a six month period.
Whoa! You’re probably thinking, that’s not a lot of leeway. No, it’s not. But it makes sense to me: retail employees who show up late are more than likely your problem performers, in some other way, and they are detrimental to the company being successful.
Maybe timeliness doesn’t exactly translate into productivity at your workplace – that’s not the point. (Though I would bet it DOES translate). The point is Apple believes it’s related, and they manage specifically and directly to those issues that they believe get in the way.
The article reminded me of something: if it’s really, really important, you’re not micromanaging it even if you get really far down into the details. The reason I put “micromanage” in quotes above is to highlight that Apple doesn’t think of that as micromanaging even if you do. They think of it as thinking clearly about what’s important and having clear standards.
The fact is, the problem with us as managers is NOT that we micromanage. Our problem is that we’re likely way UNDER-managing our folks. Yes, there are managers who say, “everything’s important,” and then they try to mandate every detail. But those folks are pretty rare.
Don’t be afraid to get into the weeds on stuff really important. And when someone calls you a micromanager, tell them Apple does it that way.
Thanks
To Nathan Curtis
I've
committed to publishing my book this year, as some of you might know.
The working title is the Effective Manager. And since it looks like
we'll self-publish, we can choose whatever bloody title we like. We
think that members and listeners will like it, even though a friend
who's published said a publisher would demand it be changed.
And, in
searching for domain real estate, Wendii and I discovered that the web
address theeffectivemanager.com was already owned by one Nathan Curtis.
The site didn't appear to be busy, so I thought I'd ask the owner about
selling it to us.
As it
turns out, Nathan is part of the Manager Tools community. And here's
his reply.
Hey
Mark,
Your
work has made a huge difference to my career and as a small way
to thank you I'd be happy to transfer the domain to you gratis.
When
you're ready, send me the details and I'll transfer it. Its
currently ranking #1 in Google for "the effective manager" so
don’t
park the domain for too long otherwise you'll lose the ranking.
Can't
wait for the book!
Cheers
Nathan
This is
class, folks. Nathan, consider yourself a
recipient of premium content, and I'll make sure you hear my voice say
thanks in an upcoming cast.
Seriously
- choked up here, on another airplane, that we have listeners are so
damn cool as THAT.
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