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Automotive Industry

Don't fall for "just another pretty face"

Automotive Design & Production, April, 2004 by Ted Pollock

Most of us take pride in keeping our judgments strictly objective. Yet, the truth is, we are all subject to what we may call the "halo effect"--what happens when we allow one trait of a person or one aspect of a situation to influence our judgment of another trait or another aspect.

Unrecognized, it can result in management problems like these:

During interviews. A manager permits the pleasant appearance or verbal skills of an applicant to blind him to the fact that the individual has held six jobs in two years. And, of course, the "halo effect" can work in reverse: an unattractive appearance or manner may prevent you from appreciating an applicant's assets.

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Giving assignments. Bob Brown does an excellent job of investigating and reporting on an inventory problem. His boss promptly gives him another assignment: analyzing a recent rise in absenteeism among the staff. Brown makes no progress. Finally, his boss realizes that Brown is fine when dealing with tangibles: inventory, warehousing, and so forth. But when it comes to human relations, he's a washout.

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Judging performance. "Jack's doing a terrific job," a sales manager tells the vice president of sales. "This is the third month that he's among our top five producers."

"You're overlooking one thing," points out the vice president. "He also leads in the number of customer cancellations."

It's important for a manager not only to understand how the "halo effect" works, but also to be aware of preventive measures that can be taken to neutralize it. For example--

1. Don't forget the "halo effect" in your rating of people. Remind yourself from time to time that a person who is industrious is not necessarily creative; that an individual who is eager to please is not necessarily the best one for a demanding assignment.

2. Judge only one trait at a time. Suppose you're rating your group's cooperation and initiative. By rating everyone on cooperation first, you largely eliminate the danger of allowing White's cooperation rating to influence his mark for initiative. By the time you get back to White to rate his initiative, you've broken through the dazzle of the "halo effect."

3. If you devise your own rating form, don't put similar traits close together. For example, follow a work performance trait like "quality consciousness" with a personality trait like "judgment."

In short, remember that our judgments are always susceptible to illogical influences. Awareness of this phenomenon can be a major protection against unbalanced judgment, and therefore an additional guarantee of effective management.

How to End A Meeting

Ideally, participants should leave a meeting with the feeling that something substantial has been accomplished; conclusions should be clear and definite. As leader, you should summarize the highlights of the discussion and emphasize the major conclusions.

In your summary, make sure that the group knows what it is expected to do or what it has decided to do as a result of the meeting. If there is to be another meeting, announce the time and place as well as why it is necessary.

Conclude the meeting as naturally as it was started with a simple statement like, "That completes our session for today. I look forward to seeing you next week."

If possible, remain a few minutes after the meeting if anyone seems anxious to talk with you. But be careful not to keep him talking too long. He may have other duties or commitments and not know how to break away.

While events are fresh in your mind, now is the time to hold a postmortem of your meeting. If it ran overtime, for instance, you may have tried to cover too much, or been too permissive and allowed it to wander, or spent too much time on minor points. Next time try to do better.

Assignment + Right Employee = Success

It should come as no surprise that the most expeditiously executed assignments are those given to the employees best suited to carrying them out.

Yet, many managers, occupied with other concerns, will simply turn a job over to the first person with free time. On the face of it, this makes a certain kind of sense. It's democratic; it exposes everyone to different challenges; and chronological order would seem the easiest way to dispose of jobs.

But people are not quite so interchangeable. They have different talents, different interests, different strengths and weaknesses.

The man with a penchant for order may be the ideal candidate for a job requiring attention to a large number of details. But he may be sadly lacking in the imagination needed to examine all those details and come up with a general strategy designed to take those details into account.

A woman with the ability to turn out exceptionally neat work may lack the speed demanded by a tight deadline. By the same token, her faster colleagues may never miss deadlines--but hand in unacceptably sloppy work.

Automotive Industry

Don't fall for "just another pretty face"

Automotive Design & Production, April, 2004 by Ted Pollock

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