Posted by admin on June 25th, 2008 — Posted in Management Info
Leadership is one of the biggest challenges managers face. How to be an effective leader, that effectively motivates staff to get their jobs done and with the quality of an owner.
One way to look at leadership is situational. In this model we tailor our behavior as leaders to the employee. For a new employee, the manager’s behavior is very directive. We’re in training mode; we give lots of information and direction. Our goal is to move an employee through several stages to a point where we are the coach and mentor, and the amount of time and direction needed from us is minimal. The employee is able to do the job well without our direction. But, we can’t just jump from directive to coach. There are a couple of additional transition stages. After directing, the manager is still telling the employee what to do, but the level of telling and direction has decreased. The employee is able to do the task with some direction and feedback, versus total direction and feedback.
The third stage is one in which the leader or manager’s role is one of support and motivation. The staff member is able to do the task with little intervention from the manager. The fourth stage is the goal, one in which the staff member is fully competent and empowered to do their job with the support and mentorship of the manager. In this stage the manager is the cheerleader, acknowledging accomplishments and the motivator.
Although, it would be easy to have linear maps of human behavior, this again is not the case. As the manager, you will have to move easily through the different phases and be able to step back if an employee needs more direction at some point. You also will move back to directing when a new task or job duty is assigned that the employee has never done before. At this point, a new training and mentorship cycle is started and the manager’s role is to provide the support needed to move successfully through each phase of developing competence to the final stage of empowered action, in which the employee is capable of doing high quality work.
This article is based upon Hershey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model, from their book: Management of organizational behavior: Utilizing Human Resources. (1982, Prentice-Hall, Inc.)
Written by: Donna Price, President and Founder of Compass Rose Consulting, LLC. Donna provides business coaching to small business owners, business leaders, and work teams. Her experience as a senior level manager for 18 years and extensive experience working with people to achieve their goals. Donna is the creator of the Business Builders Intensive, a comprehensive tele-series focused on building your business. Her innovative coaching and other programs are great opportunities for business owners seeking to improve their business results. Contact Donna at http://www.businessbuildersintensive.com; info@compassroseconsulting.com; 973-948-7673
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Posted by admin on June 10th, 2008 — Posted in Management Info
Moving from a branch manager role into an area manager position for the first time is certainly challenging. One moment they are managing a team of about 10 to 20 people, the next moment they are managing an area team of over 200 employees.
As a branch manager they were able to see their team every day but seeing people periodically and having to manage at a distance is certainly a shock for many newly appointed area managers. So what are the skills of area management and what training should be arranged early on, to ensure a newly appointed area manager becomes effective as quickly as possible?
Management by Objectives - is the critical skill of area management. Being able to set clear measurable objectives is a key requirement of the role as objectives cut across every aspect of area management. From day one, area managers will be given area objectives to achieve by the boss and they must be able to set improvement and development objectives for their managers from the beginning. Management by objectives is critical because it is the only performance and development tool that ‘works at a distance’. Area managers will never be fully successful without this critical skill.
Management Development - Newly appointed area managers immediately become responsible for the development of the area management team. Up to the time they were appointed they will have had little experience of deliberate management development so the skills of training, coaching and mentoring need to be learnt and learnt quickly. Area managers not only need to be able to develop managers they need to be able to develop their branch manager’s skills in coaching, training and mentoring also, no easy task.
Performance Management - Newly appointed area managers have probably been appointed with little real experience of performance management. So when he/she has to deal with manager underperformance, they find it extremely difficult going. Newly appointed area managers need a thorough understanding and be skilled in the use of the performance management tools. They need comprehensive training in; performance appraisals, objective reviewing, performance improvement planning and disciplinary skills. Area managers also need thorough training in assertiveness as this is a skill that needs to be learnt. Very few organisations recognise this and give little or no training in these critical skill areas. There is another important reason why area managers need to be fully competent in performance management - they have to develop the performance management skills of their branch managers. Many branch managers fail to address performance issues today because their area managers have never shown them how to do it properly. This is because they themselves have never been developed in this critical skill area.
Influencing Behavour - Area managers need to be able to effectively address negative, business or team damaging behavior at branch manager level. There are many branches that statistically indicate good performance but could perform even better if the manager behaved more professionally. Newly appointed area managers will often have to address unproductive (lazy), unsupportive, unmotivated branch managers. They may also have to overcome resentment and other negative attitudes because the newly appointed area manager got the job and they didn’t. Many newly appointed area managers try to win over their managers by trying to be liked rather than respected.
This results in real problems when the area manager has to become more ‘formal’ at a later date. Getting too close or too familiar with branch managers is a mistake which many more seasoned area managers admit to making.
Self Development and Learning - Once a newly appointed area manager has been given their initial training everything will depend on their ability to learn and develop whilst doing the job. Many senior retail execs think that throwing newly appointed area managers in at the deep end will result in them either sinking or swimming (developing) but what often happens is non-self-developers tread water and become experts in doing so. Newly appointed area managers have to be set SMART self development objectives and held to account for the achievement of them. This is the only effective way of measuring a newly appointed area managers self development and self learning ability.
Area Managers are exceptionally important to every retail business. They influence many and are often the difference between profit or loss over a huge part of the business. This means they need to be given the right training and support from the very beginning of their appointment.
Anthony Dance is Programme Director of Outlook Retail’s area manager development Programme for newly appointed retail area managers. Details of which can be found on their website: http://www.outlookretail.com
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Posted by admin on June 2nd, 2008 — Posted in Management Info
It creates some negotiating room, and you might just get what you’re asking for.
Whether playing the role of buyer or seller in a sales transaction, asking for more than you expect to get is a classic opening position in negotiations.
In the audio book, “Sound Advice on Negotiating Skills,” author Roger Dawson says, “Henry Kissinger called this the key to success at the bargaining table.” It’s simple, notes Dawson, but there are many profound reasons for doing it.
“It creates some negotiating room that makes it easier to get what you really want,” says Dawson. “It creates a climate where the other person can have a win with you.” This climate can prevent negotiating deadlocks, especially when dealing with an egotistical negotiator, according to Dawson.
“When you’re selling, it raises the perceived value of your product or service,” says Dawson. However, some salespeople are so eager to reach agreement that they soften their opening negotiating position. “They hope that by doing this the client will appreciate how generous they’ve been,” says Dawson. “The danger in this is that the client may instead think, ‘If they’ve given us this much, we can get a lot more; let’s be tough negotiators.’”
The solution, says Dawson - a renowned speaker and author of the book, “Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople” - is to “ask for more than you expect to get, but imply some flexibility so that you can encourage them to negotiate with you.”
Roger Dawson offers negotiating skills advice each week in the free audio newsletter from What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92
About The Author
Richard Cunningham is a principal of What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz, a publisher of business audiobooks and online audio programs on marketing, sales, and small business strategies.
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Posted by admin on June 1st, 2008 — Posted in Management Info
Before you can start advising others how to get their act together, you need to ensure that you have got your act together. i.e. you need to walk the talk and set a good example. Now that you have a good idea of what supervisors need to do to be good supervisors, let us explore some basic qualities needed to make a person a positive, capable, responsible, diligent person, whether he/she is a supervisor or not.
“Being Proactive” is covered in this article; “Being Productive” will follow.
Proactive Defined
Proactive means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives, and are not led around blindly by others. Our behavior is largely a function of our own decisions, rather than our conditions. We have the initiative and the drive to assume full responsibility for our own lives, and make things happen that should happen.
Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (p.81-3) defines being Proactive/Reactive in terms of Circles of Concern. We all have concerns.
Proactive people deal almost exclusively with the area within which they have influence and can do something about. Their positive energy increases their Circle of Influence.
Reactive people are concerned about everything and have little influence on anything. Their negative energy shrinks their Circle of Influence over time. As Covey puts it, “They focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern. They focus on the weaknesses of other people, the problems in the environment, and circumstances over which they have no control. Their focus results in blaming and accusing attitudes, reactive language, and increased feelings of victimization.”
Responsibility
Look at the word responsibility: responseability: the ability to choose our response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, bad luck, other people (e.g. the boss, the wife, the children), etc. They accept their circumstances and their ability to respond to it (i.e. its their responsibility). Is there any surprise that proactive people are also good leaders?
Reactive people, on the other hand, blame every thing but themselves for their circumstances. Eleanor Roosevelt said “No one can hurt you without your consent.” Mahatma Gandhi, the founder of modern day India, put it another way: “They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them.” For this reason Nelson Mandela is one of the great people of our time. For 27 years he remained in prison. He retained his self-respect throughout his sentence and in time became respected even by the most brutal prison warden. When he finally left prison an old man he remained positive, strong and upbeat and never once blamed those that put him in prison. If he had been bitter for 27 years, imagine what a miserable old man he would have become.
Self-Image
Basic to being proactive and, by inference, a good leader, is having a good self-image. That means, for example, feeling good about yourself, respecting yourself and your accomplishments, as well as recognizing your mistakes (we all make them) as opportunities for learning and improvement.
Having a good self-image is not easy if, over the years, your parents, your teachers and your bosses have told you how useless you were. But developing your self-image can be done even in difficult circumstances.
Using positive thinking, proactive language and behavior as outlined below will definitely help you.
Learning Activity
Write down a few things positive statements about yourself. Read them, memorize them and repeat them at least three times a day.
Find a quiet place, shut your eyes and, in your mind, visualize yourself acting in a positive, proactive manner at work or home. Do this for fifteen minutes once a day.
When you feel down, depressed, dejected, angry, take a few moments to think of (visualize) something or some place that is pleasant and calm. Then say to yourself some positive affirmations, such as “I have a lot to be thankful for.” “I am a good person.” “I know I can do this job well.” Soon, you will be feeling positive and upbeat. Positive thinking does indeed work!
If you look good, you will feel good. Make an effort to be well-groomed and dress smartly (that does not necessarily mean a 3-piece suit). You need to look the part of being a good, positive leader.
Proactive Language
The choice of words, phrases, sentences, questions, statements, etc. that people use to communicate with others or with themselvestheir “language” may be reactive or proactive. Many people who are not as effective or productive as they have the potential to be use, either unconsciously or consciously, language that is reactive. You, as a supervisor, must consider very seriously your choice of daily language.
Learning Activity
Here is a little activity for you. Below are two lined columns, which you can replicate on another piece of paper, A and B. For each line, first write an example of reactive language in Column A; then turn it into a proactive example in Column B. One example has been given to get you started.
A: Reactive B: Proactive
My wife didn’t get my breakfast | I will make my own breakfast
Here are some examples, first of reactive languageto be avoidedand then of proactive language:
Reactive Language Proactive Language
It’s not my fault. What can I do to improve the situation?
I can’t help it; I’m just like that. How can I learn to change my behaviour?
They won’t let me do …. I will convince them, with logic and examples, that this is the correct course to take.
I don’t have time to do …. How can I schedule my time to do the job?
She makes my life impossible. What can I do to improve our relationship?
My crew is driving me crazy. How can we work together as a team?
He is really on my case. What can I do to resolve the problem?
If only I won the Lottery, I could buy that house. I will plan and write goals to work towards so that I can buy a house.
I am not going to get involved. What can I do to help out? orI can’t help here, but I can refer you to someone who can.
I am not very capable. There are many things that I am good at. I know my strengths and weaknesses. I am working to capitalize on my strengths and improve.
What a mess! Let’s work together to clean it up.
Michael Brooke, Ph.D is a retired university administrator from victoria British columbia. He is also an adult educator, corporate trainer and recruiter and a published author. More recently he has become involved in various ebusiness activites and his web site can be found at http://www.ehomebiz.org
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Posted by admin on May 20th, 2008 — Posted in Management Info
MANAGING MEETINGS–BEING PREPARED MAKES A DIFFERENCE: You can schedule all the meetings you want to, and if you are not prepared to take charge then you’re wasting your time. The time you invest planning a meeting is time well spent. The sooner you take action, the sooner you can enjoy the fruit of a productive meeting. Before you schedule a meeting, determine its purpose and necessity. Document specifically what you expect to accomplish during the meeting (including goals and objectives). A clearly written plan allows you to focus solely on the issues you need to address. Next, determine whether this purpose can be more efficiently achieved by some other means, such as a phone call, a written memo, or an informal conversation.
MANAGING MEETINGS–AGENDA: At least one week before a meeting, develop the agenda and send it to expected participants. The agenda should clearly indicate: 1. the meeting’s starting and ending time, 2. location of the meeting, 3. items (goals) to be covered and desired outcomes (objectives), 4. items listed in priority order, 5. time planned and scheduled for each item, 6. preparation expected of participants, and 7. the person responsible for presenting each item.
SETTING YOUR AGENDA: People usually plan an agenda backwards, placing the most important item last and the minor items first. However, you should plan the agenda the opposite way, by placing the most important item on the agenda first and the least important items last. This way, if you run out of time, you will have covered the crucial topics.
Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium
CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.
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Posted by admin on May 4th, 2008 — Posted in Management Info
A management opportunity occurs when two or more people have a conflict . Whether it is a barroom brawl or settling a dispute those who take the initiative will typically prevail. Unlike a fight where blows are thrown, in a negotiation the combatants typically must feign civility and control. In the absence of absolute power, initiative and leadership are among the most reliable tactics used to win.
Those involved in a dispute comprise a small group and respond to group dynamics. They need to be managed. Mediators are effective in settling disputes because they have the mantle of authority. They take control and manage the settlement process. Negotiators should adopt certain mediating techniques.
How does one take control of an informal group? By exerting influence and demonstrating leadership traits. This can be done by initiate the call to arrange for the meeting, offering to host the meeting where you will have the ability to perform administrative tasks through your staff for the group, and preparing and presenting (or have on the table) an agenda for the meeting. These seem like small things but they demonstrate your confidence, your can-do attitude, and your control of the environment. All that is left is for you to control the discussion. That is not as easy. But you will have made a good start.
Managing a negotiation requires you to delegate responsibilities not only to your co-negotiators, if any, but to the other side. This delegation of assignments serves not only to get the job done but also to give everyone a vested interest in the outcome. A mediator advances the process by directing and delegating the participants in a mediation. This process serves to make both parties valuable to the process, more equal in their respective statures, and, ultimately, more likely to be able to come to reach an agreement.
In a negotiation, group participation can have a similar impact. That is, by getting both sides involved in working together, the resulting ‘attitude’ should be more supportive of reaching a mutually viable accord. To get two people openly at odds to work together start with simple tasks that are unrelated to the primary issue. Suggest the other person come with you to the coffee room to help get the coffee, cream and sugar. Another approach may be to suggest methods of sharing information, “If I can explain to you how I have valued the property will you demonstrate to me your cost basis?” This gets the parties involved in valuing a piece of real estate by working together. It calls upon each to be an expert in their own right.
Managing the negotiation process will enable you to settle more conflicts. People, for the most part, want to be led. That is human nature. By making small decisions easier for them, they will be inclined to go along with you. In the process, you are becoming an informal group leader. That leadership role should pay off when you have reach the final decision and need to get the other party to sign the agreement document or commit to the deal.
The author is an assistant editor at How-to-Negotiate.com, a site featuring articles about basic management skills required in the dispute settlement process and how people negotiate everything in their daily lives be it personal issues, parenting matters, social conflicts, or business or work related challenges. The site promotes the fact that conflict is a natural aspect of everyone’s life and we should all work at improving our ability to negotiate the curves life throws our way.
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Posted by admin on April 1st, 2008 — Posted in Management Info
In Part 1, I said that leaders who can’t have people take right action are ineffective, and I listed four of the eight ways of right action. In Part 2, I’ll describe the remaining four ways.
Action must be:
(5) LINKED TO NEED. The people’s needs are their reality. If you are an order leader, you clearly do not have to know their needs. You simply exhibit a my-way-or-the-highway attitude. But if you want to motivate them to take action, you need to understand that reality. Because their motivation is not your choice, it’s their choice. Your role is to communicate, their role is to motivate, to motivate themselves. It’s their choice. It’s not yours. So their needs are not only their reality, in the leadership equation, their needs are the only reality. They don’t care about your needs. They don’t care about your reality. They only care about their reality. Tie the action you want them to take to THEIR NEEDS, not yours. Which means of course that you have to clearly identify their needs.
(6) URGENT: Patience is a virtue, but it can also be a tender trap. Urgency is a results-multiplier. A Roman centurion said the secret to instilling urgency in the troops was summed up in two words, “hit them.” His credo lives today in the order leader — not necessarily in a physical sense but more importantly in a psychological sense. But trying to gain urgency through “hit them” is far less effective than having urgency come from the people’s internal motivation. Here’s a process to have people take urgent action: IDENTIFY THEIR NEEDS, SEE THE PROBLEMS IN THEIR NEEDS, AND HAVE THEIR TAKING ACTION PROVIDE SOLUTIONS TO THOSE PROBLEMS.
For instance, in a police academy, an instructor came into the room with a note that said CLEAR OUT THIS ROOM IMMEDIATELY. The first cadet ordered his colleagues out. A few cadets left but most stayed. The instructor handed the note to a second cadet who pleaded for his classmates to leave. Again, a few left but most stayed. Finally, the instructor gave the note to a third cadet. This cadet understood how to identify needs and have people take action to solve those needs. He said two words, which emptied the room. “Lunch break!”
People are always willing to take ardent action to solve the problems of their needs. The question is can you identify those needs. Once you do, you hare half way home to getting them to take such action.
(7) DEADLINE: All action you have people take must have a deadline. Otherwise, it might become a low priority for them, and they will not be especially urged to take it. Be constantly monitoring yourself when motivating people to take action by asking, “Have I a put a deadline to this action?” If you haven’t, do it.
(8) FED BACK: True motivation isn’t what the people do in your sight. True motivation is what they do after they have left your sight. Many leaders get the “head fake” from the people they’re leading — their nodding their heads and saying, “Yes,” face-to-face with the leader; but inside saying, “No.” When they leave your presence, they do what they want, not what you want. Make sure that the action you challenge them to take is fed back to you, so that you are aware — and they are aware that you are aware — of that action.
Leaders do nothing more important than get results, and results come from people taking action.
The trouble is, most leaders have people get a fraction of the potential results because these leaders misunderstand what action really is — and in that misunderstanding misapply and misuse it.
When speaking to people, keep the eight ways of right action in mind so people take the right action to achieve the right results.
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required, mail to: brent@actionleadership.com
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com
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