Are You a Pyromaniac?
As I noted in a previous post, most managers struggle to stay focused on advancing their strategic priorities, and to avoid getting trapped in firefighting mode. So the last thing they need are bosses, peers, and even direct reports who make frequent, unnecessary declarations of states of emergency. These are the pyromaniacs -- leaders with impulse-control issues who start the fires that waste so much precious time and energy in their organizations. For them, every day is a new crisis to be managed... and they want you to come along for the ride.
All it takes is a few key people behaving this way to drive everyone in the organization into a constant state of hyperactivity. Why? Because of the contagion effect. If a leader demands that his or her direct reports jump to attention and respond to the crisis-of-the-day, they have virtually no choice but to force their own direct reports into the same mode, and so on down the chain. Top leader behavior gets reflected down through the organization and everyone lurches from crisis to crisis.
These days, pyromaniacs’ favorite incendiary devices are Blackberries and their Windows Mobile cousins. At the same time they have accelerated communications, these devices have dramatically lowered the barriers to lighting fires; now it’s just a few keystrokes away. This is one reason why, as a couple of readers have noted, it's so hard to avoid firefighting in virtual organizations.
Thumb-based communication tends to magnify the firefighting problem because the typical message (1) is short, so the recipient lacks the context necessary to interpret its true urgency and feels it’s safest to respond right away, (2) interrupts the receiver in the midst of whatever she is doing, so she might as well respond, and (3) is often beamed out to multiple people, and so generates a flurry of back-and-forth requests for elaboration and action.
Are you a pyromaniac? Take this quiz and find out:
- Are you prone to demanding immediate responses for information from your direct reports when it’s not really necessary? Would they agree with your answer if they knew you wouldn’t find out what they said?
- The instant you touch down from a flight do your direct reports get a burst of messages asking them to shift their attention to whatever you were thinking about while you were airborne?
- Do many of your email messages have the “important” flag checked?
- Do you believe people are best motivated by making them feel that really bad things will happen if they don’t pay attention and move quickly?
If you answered “yes” to two or more of these questions, then you ought to have a fire extinguisher nearby.
What can you do to curb your pyromania? It helps to have a clear sense of what your priorities are and to stick with them. But the real key is better impulse control. Resist the temptation to move directly from thought to thumb. If you can’t help yourself, compose messages as drafts, but let a bit of time pass before you transmit them. Re-read them before you hit the “send” button.
Also, although it’s counterintuitive, don’t use email or instant messaging for things that are really urgent. Use voice mail or a direct conversation so that you can provide context and communicate why an immediate response is required. That way you cut quickly through the ambiguities to the nub of the issue.
What do you do if you work for a pyromaniac? Don’t let them treat you as if you have infinite processing capacity. If they want you to shift your attention to X, be sure that they understand that it will come at the cost of Y. Push them on trade-offs and priorities. Ask which is really more important here? You won’t change a pyromaniac's essential nature, but you may help to temper their incendiary impulses.
Do you work for a pyromaniac? What impact do they have on the people around them? Have you found strategies that help you deal with them? If so, please share your thoughts.
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Michael Watkins is Professor of General Management at 
Comments
Most of my career has been spent managing lawyers in a corporate environment. One of the issues they must constantly deal with is there is always time to do the urgent (the phone, the Blackberry, e-mail or the client standing in the door of your office) but never time to do the important. To keep focus on the important it helps to use a manage by objective system that helps people stretch to do the important. The one I use asks:
1. What projects are likely to consume more than ten hours of my time per month?
2. What I will do to become more valuable to my clients.
3. What are the key internal relationships I intend to work on,
including the time allotted?
4. What will I do to lower the time I spend on routine tasks that
others can due?
5. What will I do to add to my skills?
6. What will I do to get better asset building work?
(The qualitative nature of what you work on so that you use work
experiences to continue to build your career.)
That format helps keep me and those on my team focused on the important not the urgent.
- Posted by Don Groninger
April 2, 2007 7:23 AM
I agree that instant communications can generate a lot of urgency and cause disruption to one's flow. I have gotten myself involved deeply in projects through simple messages asking for help over IM. Over time, I have found that IM and other instant communication work best when under tight deadlines and working with a remote team, and that I don't even sign onto IM as frequently. If a matter is urgent enough I am a phone call or email away. I also worked with an ex-Navy officer who told me that when he got a request from his superior he wrote it on a sticky note and put it in a drawer. When he got three with the same request he would do the task because it was important enough to stay on his superiors' mind.
- Posted by Paul Friedberg
April 2, 2007 11:08 AM
In coaching many senior executives, it has been my experience that this tendency to create fires is often fueled by an addiction to the adrenaline rush that occurs in the midst of crisis. Being at the center of such an emotional vortex can be exciting and energizing and there is a feeling of great accomplishment when the crisis of the day is resolved. It is important that we strive to enhance our self awareness and resist the tendency to react. I urge executives to slow down to go fast and to be thoughtful about the priorities they set.
- Posted by Nancy Atwood
April 2, 2007 11:59 AM
I recently worked on an important cross-boundary project for a knowledge-producing institution, and quickly perceived that pyromania, especially via what you call "thumb communication" ruled the day. When it began to swamp me to the extent that it was interfering significantly with the time-sensitive, high-profile mission entrusted to me--and getting on my last nerve--I was saved from despair by the following sage advice of a close associate.
1. Stay in the background by not participating in the flurry of e-mails.
2. Do glance briefly at the address lines of the e-mail ("from," "to," and "subject" lines) now and then, as the current firefight rages.
3. Inevitably, after a day or so in this type of institution, the thing will die a natural death.
4. Just at that point, you step back into the picture, with a very short mail that says something like this: "This matter seems to be resolving itself. I'm glad to see that [X, Y or Z tangible outcome or direction.] Let's move on! [or some other platitude which shifts attention forward, and back on track of the main purpose]."
Adopting this practice saved the day, and for me, the mission. Like one of the other commentators, I also found that matters of real importance were more often communicated to me by phone calls or in face-to-face meetings (formal or informal, scheduled or not) with my boss, my senior-most colleagues, and constituents and partners outside. I guess the key is to understand well the communication culture of your own organization, so you have a working triage method for essential and trivial communication, and a finely-tuned sense of when to initiate and when to respond to discussions. Behind that, of course, must lie your personal "compass" about priorities and values!
- Posted by Monice Bogues
April 2, 2007 12:14 PM
Dear Srs:
how can i do with a pyromanic supervisor?
thanks for your answered.
Carlos Silos.
- Posted by Carlos Silos
December 26, 2007 7:45 PM