The day you walk the streets of Lusaka's central business district without spotting a wheelbarrow, is the day you should pray for forgiveness from your ancestors' parents. These one-wheeled machines are a common feature of Lusaka's town centre, and markets. A number of unemployed men have earned their living by carrying mountain loads of people's luggage with this simple tool. These wheelbarrow pushers, or zamcabs as we call them, bring a wheelbarrow to life by applying some lift-and-push action. No matter what precious cargo you put in it, a wheelbarrow is useless if no one pushes it to the right destination.
That is how some people are. No matter how polished they look, or how good their academic credentials are, they just cannot do anything unless someone pushes them. They always have to be jump-started or they will bore you with reasons why they never did their task. Getting results from a wheelbarrow type of a person is a hustle and needs a purposeful push. Someone has to know exactly when and what has to be done, and then push accordingly, or risk not making progress like a mad man moving in circles with a wheelbarrow. In an event that the "pusher" is not around to force results out of such a person, what happens to their tasks? What impact does it have on the team? What would you do with such a friend, student, or team member?
The other type of people is the tennis ball type. While a tennis ball has the potential of making you a champion like the Williams sisters, Andy Murray, and Pitt Sampras, it also has the potential of bouncing away when you are not looking. If you have tried bouncing a tennis ball off the ground with a racket while looking away, then you know how it runs away from you within a short time. To be a champion, you need greater concentration and control of the ball as you play the game.
The tennis ball type of people have everything it takes to produce results. They have the zeal to accomplish tasks, and understanding of strategies, but they need help in handling pressure and sticking to tasks until they are completed. Unlike the wheelbarrow type, tennis balls do not need jump starting. They know what has to be done and they quickly start working towards that goal. The only problem is that they easily stray, usually bouncing from one legitimate task to the other without accomplishing any. If not watched and controlled, these people will end a day without finishing a single task. They are poor finishers. They need someone to channel their energy into one task at a time. The danger with these people is that they are likely to drag the team down with their hopping from task to task.
The wrist watch type is an interesting group of people. They are achievers -champions. You do not need to keep watching and correcting them. You just set them off once, and they will keep producing results with little or no errors. They keep winning everyday. They plan their tasks, and have the discipline to stick to their plans. Knowing priorities helps them to avoid time-wasting activities.
The problem with wrist watches is the refusal to accept their situation whenever they lose their steam. Look at a wrist watch when the battery dies; the "seconds" hand keeps trying to tick its way round the clock but it fails. Time stops. You have to put in a new battery, and reset it to get it back to its achieving ways. That is how people in this wrist-watch bracket are. They have workaholic tendencies. They are so used to winning that they usually pass on the opportunity to rejuvinate themselves. They work themselves into exhaustion. They do not know when to take a break from their tasks. They need someone to remind them to take tea or lunch breaks. Let them see the importance of these breaks. An annual leave from work might do them good.
Lastly, if you lead a team, look out for these three types of people - the wheelbarrow, a tennis ball, and a wrist watch. It is a burden on the team to keep having people that always need to be pushed, or constantly watched for them to do anything. Such people overstretch their top performing colleagues who always have to pick up extra tasked that could not be completed by their friends.
The goal is to transform the wheelbarrow and tennis ball type into wrist watch material. You have to be a wrist watch type of manager yourself to effectively do this, or you will have to put up with doing your subordinates' tasks at the expense of your own. The best thing for your team is to start the process of managing out those that fail to transform into a wrist watch. This also means managing them into another department where they have proved to be a wrist watch after receiving training. Aligning skills with right jobs is what managers do.
You also have to be careful not to transform wrist watches into tennis balls in the way you deal with them or allocate tasks. Allow them to fulfill their obligations first before assigning them extra roles.
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