Do You Want To be a Better Manager?

How To Be A Better Manager

By F. John Reh, About.com Guide

 

Earlier, we did a Letterman-like top ten list - How To Tell If You Are Management Material. Here are some key skills and abilities that help anyone be a better manager.

Need For Good Managers Increasing

The need for good managers is not going away. It is intensifying. With ‘flatter’ organizations and self-directed teams becoming common; with personal computers and networks making information available to more people more quickly; the raw number of managers needed is decreasing. However, the need for good managers, people who can manage themselves and others in a high stress environment, is increasing. 

I believe anyone can be a good manager. It is as much trainable skill as it is inherent ability; as much science as art. Here are some things that make you a better manager:
As a person:

• You have confidence in yourself and your abilities. You are happy with who you are, but you are still learning and getting better.
• You are something of an extrovert. You don’t have to be the life of the party, but you can’t be a wallflower. Management is a people skill - it’s not the job for someone who doesn’t enjoy people.
• You are honest and straight forward. Your success depends heavily on the trust of others.
• You are an includer not an excluder. You bring others into what you do. You don’t exclude other because they lack certain attributes.
• You have a ‘presence’. Managers must lead. Effective leaders have a quality about them that makes people notice when they enter a room.

On the job:

• You are consistent, but not rigid; dependable, but can change your mind. You make decisions, but easily accept input from others.
• You are a little bit crazy. You think out-of-the box. You try new things and if they fail, you admit the mistake, but don’t apologize for having tried.
• You are not afraid to “do the math”. You make plans and schedules and work toward them.
• You are nimble and can change plans quickly, but you are not flighty.
• You see information as a tool to be used, not as power to be hoarded.

Take a look at yourself against this list. Find the places where you can improve and then get going. And , if you need help, remember that's what this site is all about - Helping new managers get started and experienced managers get better. 

 

My Thoughts

 

If you're wondering why managers get higher pay and better perks, this article should tell you why.  It's a tall order, isn't it.  A giant of an order, actually.  

 

If you want to be a better manager, it doesn't call for better skills, apparently.   The article didn't mention better planning skills nor better presentation skills nor the ability to know the right and wrong of decision making.

Go over the article again.  It talked about confidence, liking people, honesty, being straightforward.  It talked about consistency and flexibility, about change and thinking outside the box.  It talked about being a better person, not a person with more skills.

Think about that!

DECIDING TO CUT THE TRAINING BUDGET

Stop! Don’t Cut That Training Budget
By Margaret Heffernan | August 31, 2010
from www.bnet.com

What’s the first thing to get cut when companies are economizing? It’s always training. In the last three years, training budgets have fallen by nearly a quarter. It’s stupid. Everyone knows it’s stupid. Because when you’re battling for customers and trying to do more with less, your most valuable asset is your staff. And they can do more and better if you train them more.

A classic example of great training is Norm Brodsky’s company CitiStorage. Brodsky’s wife, Elaine, argued that it wasn’t just customer service reps who should be trained; everyone should. This wasn’t a trivial suggestion. Taking every employee out for three days is expensive -– never mind the cost of the trainer. But, argued Elaine, isn’t customer service everyone’s business?

What the company found was that the investment more than paid off. The training gave each employee a better understanding of their own work, and how it dovetailed with everyone else’s. With greater insight into the dependencies of their organization, they could anticipate problems better -– and forestall them. Employees started giving each other more feedback and, if there were customer complaints, they were more creative about fixing them.

The acid test was this: CitiStorage’s customers got the impression that the company had taken on more staff. But of course they hadn’t. They were just getting more involvement, commitment and creativity from the staff they already had.

One customer, visiting the company, commented that everyone who worked there was smiling. That’s one reason he gave for closing the sale on the spot. So the training didn’t just make everyone smarter and better coordinated; it made them happier, too. And as we already know, happier workers are more productive.

So think twice the next time that tiny training budget is about to be chopped again. It could prove to be a very expensive savings
.

MY THOUGHTS

I could be biased.  Training is not only my profession.  It's also my passion.  I agree wholeheartedly with the author.  When companies cut their training budgets, I also believe that their decision making is flawed.  But when they take out training budgets completely, dissolving training departments, I think their decision making is absolutely damaging. 

Training may not be a solution to all problems.  However, proper training has been proven to prevent problems from occurring.  I may not call these companies, who do away with training, stupid.  But their ignorance, when it comes to the importance of training, comes with very high costs.  Lack of training contributes to weak organizational results, performance problems, high recruitment costs. 

WHAT GREAT BOSSES NEVER DO

5 Things Great Bosses Never Do
By Jeff Haden | August 8, 2011
from bnet.com

What you don’t do can make as much or sometimes more impact than what you actually do — and can also say a lot about your leadership style and abilities as a manager.

Here are five things great leaders never do:

Deliver annual performance reviews. Annual or semi-annual appraisals waste everyone’s time. Years ago my review was late, so I mentioned it to my boss. He said, “I’ll get to it… but you realize you won’t learn a thing. You’ve already heard everything I will say, good or bad. If anything on your review comes as a surprise to you I haven’t done my job.” He was right. The best feedback isn’t scheduled; the best feedback happens on the spot when it makes the most impact, either as praise and encouragement or as training and suggestions for improvement. Waiting for a scheduled review is the lazy way out. Your job is to coach and mentor and develop — every day.

Say, “Look… I’ve been meaning to apologize…” Apologies should be made on the spot, every time. You should never need to apologize for not having apologized sooner. When you mess up, ‘fess up. Right away. Don’t you want employees to immediately tell you when they make a mistake? Model the same behavior.

Hold meetings to solicit ideas. Many companies hold brainstorming sessions to solicit ideas for improvement, especially when times get tough. Sounds great — after all, you’re “engaging employees” and “valuing their contributions,” right? But you don’t need a meeting to get input. When employees know you listen they often bring ideas to you. Plus, the better way to ask for ideas is to talk to people individually and to be more specific. Say, “I wish we could find a way to get orders through our system faster. What would you change if you were me?” Trust me: Employees picture themselves doing your job — and doing your job better — all the time. They have ideas. Be open, act on good ideas, explain why less than good ideas aren’t feasible… and you’ll get all the input you can handle.

Create development plans. Development plans are, like annual performance reviews, largely a corporate construct. (HR staffers love to monitor compliance and alert managers when supervisors are late turning in their employees’ development plans. Or maybe that’s just my experience.) You should know what each of your employees hopes to achieve: Skills and experience they want to gain, career paths they hope to take, etc. So talk about it — informally. Assign projects that fit. Provide training that fits. Create opportunities that fit. Then give feedback on the spot. “Develop” is a verb that requires action; “development” is a noun that sits in a file cabinet.

Call in favors. I know lots of bosses who play the guilt game, like saying, “John, I’ve been very flexible with your schedule the last few months while your wife was sick… now I really need you to come through for me and work this weekend…” Generosity should always be a one-way street. Be flexible when it’s the right thing to do. Be accommodating when it’s the right thing to do. Never lend money to friends unless you don’t care if you are repaid, and never do “favors” for employees in anticipation of return. As a leader, only give — never take.

MY THOUGHTS

I hope you got the point?

I don't think the article is saying there's no need for appraisals. There is. Except a successful bosses don't provide appraisals only when it is required by HR. Measuring performance is ongoing. So is giving feedback. One of the rules in conducting performance appraisals is that there should be no surprises. Meaning, your staff should know how you see his/her work with or without the formal appraisal. Coaching, training, mentoring should be provided so the staff is likely to get a better appraisal rating.

I also agree that there is no need for development plans. If the boss is doing his job. As a training practitioner, I require and monitor development plans because without them, no development will ever take place.

And meetings! Entirely correct. Exchange of ideas should be a regular ongoing thing.

What I liked most about this article are the thoughts presented about apologizing and giving favors. Absolutely true. Timing is very important when saying sorry. And helping should be done in the context of caring for your staff. Not because you want something in return.

WHEN WORKERS JUST DON'T CARE

Survey: Half of Workers Just Don’t Care
By Kimberly Weisul | June 20, 2011

You know those people who sit on either side of you at the department meeting every week? Chances are one of the three of you is looking for another job, or at least seriously thinking about it. And another 21 percent of your co-workers probably show little interest in their jobs, even though they aren’t planning to leave. At least part of the blame can be placed at the feet of stingy compensation packages, which aren’t making employees as happy as they once did.

That’s the news from the latest installment of Mercer’s What’s Working survey, which shows that from an employee point of view, not much is. All the measures commonly used to get a bead on employee engagement have been declining over the past few years, and steadily increasing numbers of employees are looking to change jobs.

First, the folks who say they’re ’seriously considering leaving’ their jobs:

Overall, 32 percent of workers say they’re ready to go.

The malaise is most pronounced amongst the youngest workers–those aged 16-24. Some 44 percent of those folks have got one eye–if not two–on the door.

As employees get older, they’re more likely to stay put. Of those who are 25 to 34 years old, 40 percent say they’re seriously considering leaving. But even among the oldest age group (those 55 to 64 years old) 24 percent say they’re seriously considering leaving.

Not caring, but not leaving, either

It’s hard enough to be committed to your job when you’re ready to leave it. But for employers, the even worse news might be that an additional 21 percent of workers view their employers very unfavorably and have what Mercer calls “rock bottom” scores on engagement–measures of how much they care about their jobs, their work, and their employer. Among those:

Only half say they have been treated fairly by their company

Only 46 percent would recommend their organization as a good place to work.
Only 29 percent believe that the organization is well-managed

In most cases, the scores for this group are even worse than they are for the employees who are seriously considering leaving their jobs. In other words, employers are facing a core group of disaffected employees, and unless they can figure out exactly who they are and then either re-engage them or get rid of them, they’re stuck with them.

“The business consequences of this erosion in employee sentiment are significant, and clearly the issue goes far beyond retention,” said Mindy Fox, a senior partner at Mercer and the firm’s US Region Leader. “Diminished loyalty and widespread apathy can undermine business performance, particularly as companies increasingly look to their workforces to drive productivity gains and spur innovation.”

Part of employees’ dissatisfaction may stem from the long-lasting recession and the fact that employees don’t believe their jobs are necessarily providing them with the salary, benefits, and security they need.

Retirement worries loom large. Only 43 percent of employees say they’re doing enough to prepare for retirement. That’s down from 47 percent in 2005.

Benefits programs don’t get the raves they once did. Some 68 percent of employees say their base pay is good or very good, down from 76 percent in 2005.

Health care in particular is seen as less generous. Only 59 percent are satisfied with their health benefits, down from 66 percent.

Pay isn’t great either. Just 53 percent are satisfied with their base pay, down from 58 percent in 2005.

Do you have one eye on the door? Or does the person sitting next to you?

Read more: http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-research/survey-half-of-workers-just-don-8217t-care/1729#ixzz1Pzc6QWwL

MY THOUGHTS

Such a sad, sad state of affairs - uncaring but staying. If the organization is really poorly managed, it wouldn't care, too. But if the organization is being wrongly accused of mismanagement, these uncaring employees should better start caring before they get the axe.

CAN YOU MAKE CRACK DECISIONS?

The Secret to Making Crack Decisions
Should she take a shower? Go to the concert? Stare at the dog? How one woman learned how to make up her mind.
By Bonnie Friedman
O, The Oprah Magazine | From the May 2003 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

I used to be unable to decide anything. I brooded and agonized, terrified of making a mistake. Should I meet my parents at three o'clock to go clothes shopping, or should I stay home and work? If I stay home, I'll probably be tired by afternoon and won't get much work done anyway. Still, isn't that better than accomplishing no work? But do I see my mother and father enough? I won't have them forever, and it's always sweet to see them.

And so it went.

Then one morning, I was sitting at my kitchen table in Salem, Massachusetts. I was 32 years old, and I couldn't decide whether or not to eat a slice of whole wheat toast. I was hungry, but I'd already eaten two slices. I'd feel disgusted with myself if I ate a third. Yet if I didn't, I'd continue to feel hungry and light-headed, unable to focus on my work. I stared at some sharp, glinting crumbs on the peach cotton tablecloth. And then it occurred to me: two ways wrong! Either course I took, I'd make a mistake—the verdict preexisted the action. I laughed.

I was so used to self-recrimination that I infused my environment with it. Apology poured from my lips. I often walked hunched over with regret. As a child, I believed I cost my parents too much—nursery school was exorbitant, a winter coat represented several days of my father's labor. (He was the plant manager for a factory.) I gnawed my thumb as my mother counted out the dollars in Alexander's department store, and some obscure worry worked away in me the next day as I sat in my oak seat at P.S. 24. The anxiety was a tapeworm that coiled inside me and that somehow connected me to my mother. As long as I worried, we were linked.

My mother used to sit in our Bronx kitchen listlessly turning the pages of McCall's. She looked abstracted, lost in memory and unable to find the door out. She was, in fact, depressed.

I'd sit at her feet with my alphabet blocks. I wasn't interacting with her—she was troubled and remote—and I feared that if I played so intently that I forgot about my mother, she might vanish. I yearned to hold on to her bony ankle. I inhaled as hard as I could her scent of stale Arpège and wool. Together, she and I floated in an irresolute space between lunch and dinner, talk and no talk, connection and separation. Since we'd begun nothing, nothing could end. How hopeless yet comforting it was.

I carried this mood with me into my adult life, with the result that I couldn't ever decide if I wanted to go one way or the other, and the aura of remorse seemed to be the truest thing about me.

Two ways wrong!

I asked everyone for advice—an assertive cabbie, an acquaintance from college who happened to phone, all sorts of experts who declared, "This Is What to Do." I always nodded, but as soon as I heard their counsel, the opposite point of view formulated itself in my mind.

Whatever direction I took ended in regret, I now saw. So, of course, I mostly stayed in place.

And surely I wasn't the only person tangled up in Two Ways Wrong. I considered my friend George. The night before, he told me he'd been invited to participate in a panel of writers in San Francisco. The airfare was $400, which he would have to cover. He decided to go—it would make him feel like a real writer, he said. Yet he felt belittled by having to pay his own way, as if he were a desperate person who needed to scramble for professional recognition.

Two ways wrong! He hadn't even bought his ticket, and already he'd taken the recognition away from himself. It was the opposite of the Wizard of Oz, with his magical diploma. Some of us have an anti-Wizard inside us declaring that our very real diplomas and certificates are all humbug. "Either way is wrong!" declares the anti-Wizard.

The solution, I realized, is to choose success. Fly off to sit on a dais, or stay at home $400 richer—both are success. Enjoy the toast, or skip it and feel skinny. Success isn't objectively verifiable like the height of the Empire State Building or the location of Missouri. It's a matter of attitude, of interpretation.

Some people tend to notice what's right in what they do. The rest of us must cultivate this trait.

The sense of being correct or incorrect resides in each of us. We project our verdict onto the world. I am essentially right, I told myself. A big mistake wasn't made when I was placed here on this planet. I am filled with more kindness than greed, more good thinking than stupidity.

That morning in my kitchen, I got up from the table and slung another slice of bread into the toaster, and when it popped up, I buttered it and munched away. I licked my lips. I decided to feel satisfied. And I was.

Bonnie Friedman is the author of The Thief of Happiness: The Story of an Extraordinary Psychotherapy (Beacon Press).

MY THOUGHTS

The issue is not about indecision.It's about being afraid to make a wrong decision. I think the best decision makers are those who made lots of mistakes. They became good decision makers because they took note, they were mindful and they use the lessons the next time a choice or a 'fork down the road' comes along.

ARE YOUR "REWARDS" APPRECIATED BY YOUR EMPLOYEES?

Your “Rewards” Aren’t Appreciated By Your Employees
By Suzanne Lucas | May 20, 2011

This post is for managers. Individual contributors already know this information, but for some reason, as soon as people are promoted (or laterally transfer) into a management job, they forget this information. So, here is a reminder:

A pen with the company name on it is not a bonus. It does not make your employee feel fondly about your company or your management skills. It is a pen. You are supposed to provide pens as part of the standard office supplies. Put the company logo on them if you want. Give pens away to customers so they’ll have your phone number handy. But, your employees already know the phone number and just want to be able to write with a reliable instrument.

A supply of coffee mugs in the break room is handy, but they are not a reward. Your employees will drink coffee or water or Diet Coke regardless of whether the mugs have your company name scrawled across the front. They might think the mugs are cute, but they will not consider them a reward.

The reason why that clothing store offered you $50 gift certificates for $25 each is that they know that almost none of your employees will redeem them. This should be a hint that it is a bad reward. Rewards should be, well, rewarding. And trying to convince your employees that they are being rewarded with the ability to get a new pair of pants from a store they don’t like is not a real reward.

Rewards for “everyone” that only benefit a few. Lunch is a great thing to provide from time to time, unless you always do it when you’re in the office even though a good portion of your employees work other shifts. This causes resentment amongst the unblessed masses.

Mandatory Celebratory Dinners are not appreciated. When everyone has been working nights and weekends to get that big account, don’t make the celebration something that requires everyone to spend yet another evening with people from the office.

I feel so much better now. I could come up with a longer list of rewards that aren’t appreciated, but I’m afraid some managers would just tune me out. In fact, I’m sure that right now, there is someone sitting in a corner office going, “She’s wrong. My employees loved the Christmas bonus mugs! They told me so themselves.”

Well, duh. You’re the boss, so they aren’t going to say, “Boy, this is what you got us? Mugs with the dumb logo that you had your 3rd ex-wife design? Seriously? Jerk.” No, they talk about that amongst themselves. Keep in mind what employees really want.

Verbal and written praise. This is even cheaper than the pens. Tell your employees that they are doing a good job, and give specific examples. A 2007 employee survey said that this was the top non-monetary reward desired by employees. Taking the time to pull someone aside and say, “Thanks for your work on the Jones account. You really blew me out of the water,” is a reward that is appreciated. Publicly saying that at staff meeting is even better. However, a patronizing, “good job” on everything your employee does is not a reward.

Money. I’m talking real money here, not the gift certificate kind. Employees want raises and bonuses. If the business honestly cannot afford either one (and before you nod your head to that, check your own bonus check) then see above or below. Otherwise, get out the checkbook. Remember it would cost you more to replace good people than it would to give them raises and bonuses.

Time off. If everyone busted their buns to get a big project done, hand out an extra vacation day to be used at their leisure–and then make sure you don’t pressure your employees not to use the time off. Or close shop on a Friday afternoon. This shows that you recognize they put in extra hours to get the work done. Your employees want the company to succeed. Show them that you recognize that their work does just that. (And if you close shop Friday afternoon, make sure this is considered paid vacation time, not just go home early time. Your non-exempt employees who get a smaller paycheck will not consider this a reward.)

Flex time and telecommuting. If your employees are good performers, let them have control over when and where they do their work. Yes, some jobs must be done in the office, and some jobs must be done on a specific schedule. Some, but not all. If your employees express interest in these types of schedules, give it some serious consideration and grant it where possible. Independence is a great reward.

Employee rewards should be something they actually want. Don’t let the so called “employee rewards” catalogs convince you that your employees will be happy with a clock. Give them what they really want.

MY THOUGHTS

Come to think of it, since rewards should be what employees want, why not ask them? Of course, there's an issue of budget and other limitations. If we spell these out before we ask them,I doubt there will be a real problem.

Personally, I like the time-off idea and the flex time and telecommuting. I've used time-off before for my staff and I can say they loved it. And yes, I don't hate those shirts and pens and mugs. But they are give always, tokens-not rewards.

THE #1 LEADERSHIP PROBLEM

The #1 Leadership Problem
By Margaret Heffernan | January 27, 2011

When I meet with CEOs, I like to find out what keeps them awake at night, what intractable issues or opportunities disturb their sense of confidence. Of course, each one has industry-specific or company-specific challenges and they’re fascinating.

But there’s one problem common to each one of them. They all know it. Only a brave few will talk about it openly: Ignorance.

It doesn’t matter whether the company is large or small, old or young, high tech or blue collar manufacturing. The reality is that no leader is fully informed of what is happening on his or her watch.

Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

Of course in theory, this shouldn’t happen. The chain of command should ensure that information reaches the top. Daily reports should flag critical issues. Balance sheets should indicate significant trends. And they all do - up to a point. The problem is that none of them works quite well enough.

That’s why BP can run unsafe plants and still be taken by surprise when they blow up.

It’s why music labels could be blind-sided by the rise of digital downloads.

It’s why soft drink companies were surprised by the popularity of vitamin drinks.

It’s why Lehman Brothers and Enron and Citibank and Merrill Lynch had no idea actually how much money they had.

It’s why companies are so anxious about what Wikileaks will publish next.

It Can Happen to You

The most tempting thing in the world is to look at that string of business disasters and argue: that was them, not me. It couldn’t happen here. They were just bad leaders, a few bad apples. But the minute you say you don’t have this problem is the minute you know you do.

The problem is willful blindness: the human propensity to ignore the obvious. It isn’t just a business problem, of course. We do it in our private lives when we leave those credit card bills unopened or take on a mortgage we can’t afford or insist that tanning salons really won’t cause us any harm.

There are numerous social, structural, organizational and neurological reasons for willful blindness and I’ll be blogging about them over the next few weeks. But in the meantime I’d like to hear from you:in your company or department or industry, where are your blindspots?

MY THOUGHTS

Willful blindness! A perfect way to run away, right? Sometimes, ignorance can be bliss. Or playing ignorant. It can keep you out of trouble. At least for a while.