Employees spend time at work doing what their bosses ask them to do. But when you are the boss how should you spend your time? The theater director presents one analogy to help managers answer the question of personal involvement. 

Employees spend time at work doing what their bosses ask them to do. But when you are the boss how should you spend your time? 

As simple as this question is, many managers are perplexed. Too much involvement in day-to-day affairs is an indication that they are meddlers or that they do not trust the people they have hired. Too little involvement may indicate lack of interest in both the work and the employees. 

The theater director presents one analogy to help managers answer the question of personal involvement. As a director, you are responsible for transforming the play into a production, one that brings the playwrights words to life. From casting the actors to rehearsing them to supervising the set design and ensuring proper sound and light, the director is the person in charge. 

Nowhere is the director more involved than during rehearsal. Watching a director at work is to see an artist working with others to bring life to words. It may involve the run through of a scene or an act, or in the beginning going line-by-line, beat-by-beat, with an actor to coax just the right performance. Great directors let the talents of their actors shine; they may work beat to beat but that is done in order to allow the actor to do his or her job. 

During rehearsal the director may seem as a micro-manager but when the play is up and running the director is in the back row. What this means for managers is that sometimes you need to be up close and personal and other times more detached. Given that analogy, here are some suggestions. 

• Tell the story. What this means for managers is to tell the big picture. Directors sometimes tell the story of the play in their own words and may even act out a role or two. This is for illustration purposes only—to give the actors a sense of what the play is about. 

• Rehearse. State expectations for the team and get their input into how they want to work. This way the production becomes a joint exercise. Directors work actors hard to get the right interpretation. Forceful directors want their point of view expressed; other directors want the actors to discover the character for themselves and interpret it. This is akin to a manager stating the objective but allowing employees to discover the how. 

• Raise the curtain. Management is about execution. Once employees know what they are to do, they can do their jobs. Managers provide support but most often do not “get on stage.” So you get out of the way and let them carry on just as an director will do. 

• Give notes. While employees execute, bosses must remain engaged. Directors do this by giving actors notes on their performance. Likewise managers need to be present and involved in the flow of work. 

While the theatrical analogy works for managers, there are occasions when managers must do what directors never do: act. When the workload is heavy and the team needs an extra hand, managers can jump in and provide extra labor. They also can go for help, finding additional resources in terms of manpower, material, and budget to see that the work is done on time. Indeed, involvement for managers means providing direction, as well as sometimes joining the cast on stage.