# Management Tools



## tmurray (Jan 26, 2017)

I was recently given my municipalities building inspection department to manage. I was wondering if any of you folks that manage departments have any pearls of wisdom for me. It's a small department, just myself and one other inspector.

Thanks All


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## cda (Jan 26, 2017)

Delegate


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## cda (Jan 26, 2017)

If the inspector knows what they are doing,

Cut them loose, let them do their job, just maybe a monthly where you at check up.

Let the inspector know you back up any legal code calls, but have last right of change

Communicate.., have inspector let you know of phone calls that might be coming your way.


Bonuses !!! Free days off never hurts


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## steveray (Jan 26, 2017)

CDA kinda nailed it, in a small department, not that hard, if it is not an "old boy" political kind of place, that helps too. If your boss lets you do the job and you can let the inspector do the same, should be smooth sailing.


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## mtlogcabin (Jan 26, 2017)

Ride along with him a couple hours each month, see what he has to deal with and talk about anything that comes up.


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## cda (Jan 26, 2017)

tmurray said:


> I was recently given my municipalities building inspection department to manage. I was wondering if any of you folks that manage departments have any pearls of wisdom for me. It's a small department, just myself and one other inspector.
> 
> Thanks All




So what is your job now??  Besides managing bldg dept?


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## tmurray (Jan 27, 2017)

cda said:


> So what is your job now??  Besides managing bldg dept?



Well, Myself and the other inspector started on the same day just over 6 years ago and the chief building inspector left a week after we started. The town engineer assumed the title, but I ended up performing most of the technical duties of the chief position, while he performed all the political and HR related roles. So the only change is that I'm now doing the HR and political roles. 

Given we started together, the other inspector and I have a pretty good working relationship and given we still perform the same technical duties, she can still rely on me to understand where she's coming from on any issues.

The nice thing is that the town engineer let us change whatever processes we wanted along the way, so while I have some fixing to do, it's not as bad as it was.

Delegation is taking some getting used to...


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## cda (Jan 27, 2017)

Sounds like you are way ahead of the curve ball!!

Yes it is hard to let go, but you will find out it is better to do

And do it sooner than later

Good luck, go forth and manage !!!!

I guess you got a ten cent a day raise??? And keys to the executive bathroom?


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