Page 168 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

the mobile performance management process � 147

training
How can you expect employees to improve without training them?
We think that training is important and we devote a chapter to it (see
Chapter 8), but let’s think of it in terms of performance for a minute.
It would be easy for leaders such as Tyler Ellison to just let his mobile
crew do their jobs and to let it go at that. After all, pushing widgets is
what we pay people for, isn’t it? But providing training does at least a
couple of things. First, it lets mobile workers see that you care about
them beyond the immediate job. When you invest in them they are
more likely to become emotionally committed to your organization.
Second, you build organizational capacity. The more your workforce
knows, the more it can do. Tyler makes sure that every mobile em-
ployee gets the same leadership development opportunities as every
other employee gets. As a manager of a mobile workforce you have
to be intentional, like Tyler, in assuring that mobile workers get every
opportunity to learn just as others do.
▶

John Gentry—Road Warrior and Manager of Road Warriors
“Thanks for the note. Very fitting that I am typing this e-mail
from 30K feet aboard a jet from Chicago to Toronto. This
week I will have traveled to Phoenix, San Diego, Toronto via
Chicago, and Atlanta. I have employees working for me in
all these locations, and am also coordinating corporate re-
sources to join in the fun, either in person or via ‘GoToMeet-
ing’ online conferencing. ”
That’s the e-mail we received from John Gentry when we
asked if he would be interested in being interviewed for this
book. Yes, he’s a true “road warrior.” We finally caught up
with him several weeks later and got a picture of what it’s
like to be a road warrior managing a team of road warriors. 7
John is the senior director of Worldwide Solutions Con-
sulting for Virtual Instruments Inc., which is a small, rapidly