Thursday 24 January 2008

Get Them Involved, Not Just Tell & Show


Have you ever encountered that when you tell your subordinate to do something, he/she will come out with a lot of excuses for not doing what had been told to do? The lame excuse is none other than “Sorry, Sir, I forget.” I am sure you’ll “vomit blood” of having subordinate with that kind of attitude.

Worst of the situation is even after showing him/her how to do it, yet the work has not been carried out. What’s an excuse when he/she says, “Sorry, Sir. I can’t remember.” This time, you almost “vomited blood.”

Now you have to involve him/her in actual doing it, then he/she understands not only how to do it but also why and when to do it.

In plantation management, there is no short cut to get work done. Plantation Manager must walk the fields often with his Field Assistants. They may be good in theory but they are lack of actual working experience. Don’t just tell and show them, get them involved in all field operations, from jungle clearing right up to maturity when due for harvesting, one at a time with hand-on training and guidance, then they will understand that there is no way they can forget what had been told. It’s not may but must remember what had been shown in order to grow in their career path as a Practical Planter. No planter can run away from his commitment and integrity.

Likewise, the Field Assistant must walk the fields even more often with his Field Conductors. This is MLM, not Multi-Level Marketing but Multi-Level Management. They must learn the “tricks” from Plantation Manager and know how to involve his Field Conductors to get work done as expected from them.

Get everybody down the lines to get involved. Isn’t this "TEAMWORK"?