Repeating oneself is oft the grate of thine soul. We must do it to our kids, we must do it to our aging parents, we must do it to our neighbors, and we must do it to the lousy speech recognition in our nifty gadget. The last place we — the we of the coffee guzzling corporate manager horde — want to do it is…at work.

Damn it, these people work FOR you. So, why don’t they listen TO you? Heck, they should know how to do IT in the first place. And, if they can’t get that right, at the least they should listen to you and remember that you have already told them how to do IT. It doesn’t matter what the “it” is — “it” could be anything.

The point is: you have already told them “it”. And, they just don’t care. [Note to self: look for more caring employees during next spate of interviews. Um, how are you gonna discern “care” in an interview, buddy? If you start by groping and hope for a co-groping, your interview will be quickly over and that clink you hear won’t be that spoon in your coffee mug.]

Nope you can’t blame the misbehavior on caring; people do care, and they want to do a good job.

You can only blame it on yourself.

It’s simple: you haven’t repeated yourself enough.
It’s simple: you haven’t repeated yourself enough.

Your job as a manager is to set the tone and direction of workflow that you manage. You need to dictate this tone with concise catch-phrases which summate your direction. And, then you need to actually dictate them. And, then, repeat that dictation.

Why all the repeating? Well, because, if *you* are not super clear about what *you* want, then how can those that work for you be even somewhat clear? In short, you must be razor clear to get vaguely blunt resonation below you.

Remember, mr/mrs. average/awesome/awful manager you just push paper. Your peeps actually do the work; they are mired in the details every hour of every day; it is they that slosh through the bog of your damned vision. And since you no slosh no mo’ your only function is to help them be more clear about what they are working for and be more efficient in the attainment of that vision.

So, what are some of the catch-phrases I repeat too oft? They are particular to my current company, so they may not make much sense to you, fine reader, but here goes:

And, finally, one maxim my executive team has heard all too often:

So, you! Yah, you with the coffee mug! Gather up your scattered seeds, coalesce your crumbled crackers, and remember to always, always aim for the newspaper below. Your job, as of today, is to become a professional parrot!

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Chris Lyman
Fonality CEO & Janitor