December 5; Why Must the Manager Demand Perfection From His Staff? MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:365 Daily Bible Verse &One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful
December 5
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Matthew 10:30
| Why Must the Manager Demand Perfection From His Staff? |
Details
“You lack attention-to-detail,” said my boss who was not happy. He was a West Point Officer who was concerned that I was not taking my additional duty as Fire Marshal seriously. (I had to inspect expiration dates on fire extinguishers. Or something like that. I dunno. Whatever.) At the time, I thought he was a jerk.
He was right about one thing: I didn’t care. So I was given a well-deserved corrective interview on military preparedness and military courtesy. I eventually saw the light with an attitude adjustment and I made getting details right a mantra.
***
If staff does not get the small details right, then the big picture might not be done right. #GIRLBOSS reminds us,
…like I said before, I’m the kind of person who pays attention to something as small as a crooked shipping label. In hindsight, I see that it’s those small things that can make or break a business (Amoruso 2014).
And it’s not just the routine business of sending a package to another distant location. Details can be deadly.
On November 29, 1960 CIA Director Allen Dulles (not to be confused with his brother Secretary of State John Foster Dulles) briefed President-elect John Kennedy on an invasion of Cuba. Dulles was certain of the success of the overthrow of the dictator Fidel Castro. He was wrong.
The invasion of Cuba was a debacle.
The planning, organizing, leading and controlling were epic failures by a cohort who are normally known for attention to detail, United States Air Force pilots.
The last act of the Bay of Pigs tragicomedy followed. The rebel fliers’ base was…in Nicaragua, a three-hour-and-twenty-minute flight from Cuba.
They were exhausted by their previous missions; only two of them had the strength for another effort. Four American advisers, believing that jets for the Essex would protect them, volunteered to pilot the other B-26s.
They then made the last and least plausible of all the CIA mistakes in the blunder-studded operation. Nicaragua and Cuba are in different time zones. The pilots forgot to reset their watches.
They arrived over Giron [the beachhead invasion site] an hour early, while the jets which were to shield them were still on the flight deck of the Essex.
Castro’s T-33s swarmed up and made short work of them; the four Americans were killed. (Manchester 1973)
Four American airmen died because CIA agents did not exercise enough care.
A “jerk” boss who emphasized attention-to-detail might have made a life-saving difference.
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30
###
Amoruso, Sophia (2014-05-06). #GIRLBOSS (p. 103). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.
(Manchester 1973) pages 1109-1110
Recent Comments