Managing in the middle: People & Companies

As president of a small company, the fire-drill situations I typically encounter include having to make decisions other supervisors do not have the authority to make or aren’t comfortable making. So, my involvement is required, regardless of what I have scheduled. Between these bookend crises, hopefully, you have time to get some tasks accomplished in a nonemergency manner. Effective management during calm periods is still as important as crisis management even though it’s tempting to take advantage of the time and not be as aggressively involved with certain issues.

I’ve had my share of annoying matters to deal with recently, including some discussed in previous columns. Like clockwork, my June vacation was disrupted by work problems, which I still had to resolve when I returned. It didn’t stop there, with equipment problems and similar issues consuming my time.

Then, when things calmed down after a hectic several days, I found myself having to resist the temptation to postpone or ignore working on nonurgent projects. Then in July, we had out-of-town guests visit, spent time with our daughters while they were home from college for the summer and celebrated the Fourth of July. All of this combined made it tempting to forego other duties that weren’t emergencies—even though it was an ideal time to tackle some of them.

After all, fire drills are tiring and if the shop is functioning OK, a quiet day of writing, organizing or strategizing can be a welcome endeavor. However, if no one is screaming about something, visions of pointlessly surfing the Internet or going home early to hang with guests can creep onto the scene and be a distraction from utilizing that very valuable “middle time.”