// ABYC 80 IN 8

By John Adey President , ABYC

Welcome to 80 in 8 ! I am John Adey (“ 80 ”), president of ABYC . Staff here have encouraged me to share some of our management “ truths ” and culture observations that we ’ ve been experiencing over the last several years . The ground rules are as follows : I will never take more than 8 minutes of your time and will limit the column to 800 words . I have been ABYC ’ s president for over 12 years and have been working in this great industry of ours for over 30 . Topics range from casual observations to situational management . I hope you can learn from and use some of these “ lessons ” in your personal journey as a manager , employee , owner , or operator . This works better with feedback from you , so feel free to drop your thoughts and reactions as you see fit . Thanks for tagging along , and I hope to hear from you soon .

My byline says “ President , ABYC .” With that , one may assume that I don ’ t have a boss , that I ’ m totally free to do whatever I want , that I owe nothing to anyone . Free as a bird .

Nothing could be further from the truth . I have many bosses . For starters , I work for a nonprofit , which legally requires us to have a board of directors . They are my bosses ― the board chair , specifically . But the rest of the board positions represent all my bosses in training .

Then there ’ s our membership , the next level of bossdom . What happens if ABYC fails to deliver what our members expect ? Membership drops , revenue suffers , and we are no longer able to achieve our goal to make boating safer .

Next comes the staff , level three of the boss hierarchy . What happens if I don ’ t keep them happy ? Well , our mission is not accomplished and that makes Boss Group Two unhappy , while also casting doubt with Boss Group One about my ability to keep ABYC performing admirably . The other thing about keeping Boss Group Three happy is my workload . If staff members are not inspired , are not the right person for the job , or are generally unhappy in their work and environment , this creates more work for me ( or other staff , for that matter ), as we all have to pick up the slack . What have my bosses taught me over the years ? My Foot in Your A $$. One of my bosses early on in my career at ABYC introduced me to this “ book ” and would from time to time quote me chapters when it seemed I was not meeting his expectations . Of course , the book is fictional , and the chapters reflected the situation . But you get the idea . The takeaway ? Have someone you are accountable to ― always . “ Got Gas ?” Turning on the Wayback Machine for a minute , I had a boss who threatened to fire me if the marina ran out of gasoline on a particularly busy weekend . The rub here was that I had never ordered gas , didn ’ t know how to order gas , and gasoline supply was never even hinted at in my sphere of responsibility . Would I have ordered gas if I were trained to do so ? Damn straight , I would have ! I could write a small novel on working for this particular individual , and I eventually quit .

The takeaway ? Be clear and concise in what you are asking for ; admit if maybe your instructions were not abundantly clear ; manage expectations .

“ Why Can ’ t We All Just Get Along ?” This one I found out after the fact . I had a boss who was a master manipulator . To what end , I never did figure out . He was brilliant at creating and nurturing conflict between staff members , even causing now lifelong friends to genuinely hate each other for a number of years . Once this guy was out of the picture , the dust settled , and real respect and collaboration began . The results we achieved were nothing less than astonishing and really personally satisfying .

The takeaway ? Continual conflict , gossip , manipulation have no place in a high-achieving environment . These things can ’ t always be prevented , but they certainly shouldn ’ t come from the top ― and absolutely can ’ t be allowed to continue to the point where your mission suffers . Imagine what could have been accomplished if that span of time did not include all of those negative vibes between co-workers .

“ The Knife Grinder .” Mike is a jack-of-all-trades , good at whatever he puts his mind to . One particular skill was handling a goofy 16-year-old me . While working in Mike ’ s family shop ― we offered locksmithing and knife sharpening , as well as repair service on lawn and garden tools ― I accompanied my boss to a fairly remote service call . It was simple annual service with an oil and filter change , plugs , fuel filter , and the ― wait , where is the air filter ? Yours truly was told , and it registered that I was responsible for the air filter . Some 20 miles away , the aforementioned component sat on a bench , right where I left it . I braced for the choice words I had heard from him on many occasions with other staff . Instead , he just looked at me and said , “ You ’ re probably not going to do that again , are you ?” To this day I think I still have a Bolens tractor air filter in the back of my truck .

The takeaway ? Mike read me like a book and knew that the small admonishment would go much further than a dressing-down . Know your people . Read the room . Cultivate your response and reaction differently based on who is in front of you . One size does not fit all .

www . boatingindustry . com october 2023

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