The Best of the Management Training Blogs – Week of October 14, 2008
The past week saw some decent, though not terrific posts, advice and articles for managers interested in growing their leadership skills. The editors of AskTheManager.com combed through the drivel to deliver you the Best of the Management Training Blogs, enjoy!
Being a Leader in tough times Over the next few months, many organisations may face difficult times, but as a leader within your organisation what can you do to ensure your firm remains successful? The following are a number of tips that will help. 1. …
Interview With Dr. Richard Harte, Developer of the National Guild … In the following years I designed and implemented sales and management training programs for a number of America’s largest and most successful companies including Motorola, Estee Lauder, Paxar, CMP Publications, Mutual Benefit Life, …
HR – Management:- Managing Up–Get the Boss to Have Your Ideas Bill Oncken, late management training guru of Managing Management Time, used to say that managers need to get the boss to have the managers’ ideas. Face it, he said — you know your job better than the boss does, so the boss’s ideas are …
Professional Sales Training Professional sales management training will strengthen your staff on many levels; furthermore professional sales training will give your staff the resources they need to be a success. Professional management sales training offers a …
How Personal Development Training Assists Management This type of personal development management training typically focuses on dispute resolution and problem solving abilities. Much of how management deals with others has to do with mind set. If management treats the employees like they …
Stevey’s Blog Rants: The Bellic School of Management Training After it’s eventually resolved (by still other people bringing replacements out), your waiter finally rematerializes and apologizes for the kitchen screwup. Stevey’s Blog Rants: The Bellic School of Management Training.
How Executive Coaching Can Improve Your Management Skills Management training does not have to be painstaking or laborious. Personal executive coaches provide management training skills and models that are easy to grasp for any type of executive. Management training should be interesting, …
Matrix management training recalibration One of my colleagues, Janet, used the phrase “recalibration” in our recent development meeting on matrix management training. It’sa phrase I have thought about a lot as we are developing some new matrix management training modules based …
Crisis: American Economy Style If you want to know what your leader(s) are made of, now is the time to find out. Who we really are is revealed in crisis. If your industry/work is not experiencing a crisis now, don’t worry you will and it will present the same …
Sales Management Training – Is it Worth It? Sales Management training can be one of the biggest challenges for any organisation. So often companies decide to put their best sales people into a sales management role Usually as a reward for a great sales career. …
Management Training Tip – Seven Ways to Manage Your Boss Sean McPheat provides management training to small, medium and large businesses. Visit Sean’s http://www.mtd.co.uk/blog/ management blog for free management training tips and advice. …
Is the Key to Successful Management Just Plain Old Management … The role of management training should be to help managers to understand how their behavior can de-motivate others, rather than simply showing them new role models to mimic. Management training should provide facilities for …
Management tips Every week I send out both a management training tip and an employee training tip to the entire firm. I have received nothing but positive feedback on these. Some I write myself; others I borrow from other sites/authors and of course, …
Suited Booted And Ready To Go! 5 Steps Of Management Training That … The management training is an excellent way to the next stage that can assure your career and give the drive that you must excel according to your boss or the employers of potential. Point 1 – The first point of thinking. The positive is …
Questions from Our Readers – Empowering Your Team to Make Decisions
In response to our recent post regarding empowering your team to make decisions (to read that post, follow this link), Olzhas writes:
How do managers make decisions? How might they make better decisions? How do job satisfaction and organizational commitment affect an individual’s behavior at work? And how can these attitudes be changed by effective managers?
Olzhas has posed some of the toughest questions facing both new and seasoned leaders, so we think it’s best if we attack these one at a time…
How Do Managers Make Decisions?
The quick answer: leaders just do. Managers who’ve yet to achieve true leadership have a tough time making decisions for a number of reasons including: analysis paralysis; fear of failure; fear of success; fear of ridicule; and others.
Leaders, on the other hand, have no problem making decisions. They would prefer that their subordinates made the bulk of the decisions, but they’re ready to step up and make decisions when warranted.
True leaders do not worry about how their decisions – right or wrong – might reflect upon themselves; they are only concerned with the welfare of the organization and their team. The bottom line on decisions: leaders stand behind their decisions and the decisions of their subordinates.
How Might They Make Better Decisions?
This is the Holy Grail of management: how to make better decisions. There really is no better change a struggling manager can make than one that affects their ability to make sound decisions. So how does a manager begin making better decisions? To answer this, let’s look briefly at why managers make bad decisions.
While selfishness, pride and an overactive ego all lead to bad decisions by sub-par managers, well-meaning managers most often make poor decisions because they consider too much input; too much data.
The best decisions I’ve ever made as a leader were those decisions where I considered just one outcome: how does this decision affect the goal?
What is the goal? If your company is a for-profit entity, then the goal is simple: make money for the owners. When you weigh every decision against this goal, the choices become easy. Does doing “A” take me closer to the goal? If so, then do “A;” if not, then don’t.
I understand this may sound too simple to most managers. The argument I often hear is that decisions aren’t always black and white – they aren’t always this easy. I challenge you to consider the last ten decisions you were faced with at work. I would be shocked if fewer than nine of these decisions could not have been weighed against the goal to deliver a desirable outcome. In fact, if even one of these decisions was too complicated to be weighed against the goal, then you probably over thought it.
Remember the goal and you’ll always make sound decisions.
How do Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Affect an Individual’s Behavior at Work?
Thanks for the softball, Olzhas. Let’s look at Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment separately.
What makes a job satisfying to one individual could be vastly different than what makes it satisfying to another. That said, true job satisfaction for any employee can be influenced greatly by just a few factors. These factors include how well they like and respect their direct supervisor, how much they believe in their company’s mission, how much impact they feel they have on the company’s success, and (to a much lesser extent) how well they are compensated.
Obviously, those with high job satisfaction are also more productive and they exhibit more desirable behavior. Providing your charges a sense of worth, coupled with respect, can greatly increase both their individual job satisfaction as well as their behavior.
While they don’t have to go hand-in-hand, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are generally closely aligned. (I’m going to assume that Olzhas asked about organizational commitment from the viewpoint of individual commitment to one’s company.)
An employee can have high job satisfaction, yet not be committed to their organization – this is especially true when their sense of satisfaction comes from a higher than deserved salary or a lack of management oversight. Likewise, someone truly committed to their company could have very low job satisfaction if they happen to love what they do, but they hate their direct supervisor. In either of these examples, the individual’s overall behavior would tend to be less than desirable.
How Can These Attitudes be Changed by Effective Managers?
Effective is the key word in this question. Effective managers are called leaders, and leaders naturally work toward changing the attitudes of their teams through their words and their actions.
By first empowering your team to make decisions (and this means letting them fail) and then making sound decisions where necessary, leaders have a significant impact on the attitude, culture and effectiveness of any organization. It doesn’t matter if you’re leading a group of executives or assembly line workers, everyone needs to feel respected and appreciated. Allowing those closest to the issues (and customers) make the decisions can positively impact any organization.
Given the current economic meltdown, I wonder how Lehman and others in trouble would have fared if the front-line employees, and not Richard Fuld and the other egomaniacal CEOs, had made the bulk of the decisions. Would we be facing the kind of calamity we face today?
AC from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (that’s in Canada for the geographically challenged leaders out there) wrote us in August for some advice on how to gain respect as a new manager. To read her original concerns and our response, please follow this link.
We were anxious about her situation, because it was so very typical of young managers tasked with leading entry-level sales reps with nothing to lose. It is much easier to lead six-figure salespeople and middle managers with skin in the game than it is to manage an immature group with too many other options.
From the sound of it, AC is doing the right things (and doing them right):
I just wanted to update you… I have taken all your insight straight to the bank. For 5 of the last 6 weeks, our store has been number one of the 58 stores coast to coast. I am constantly trying to reinvent ways of being organized and efficient…
That’s outstanding news, AC. For anyone who doesn’t understand the first rule of business, it is to make money for the owners of the company. AC’s store is clearly performing at the highest level for sales and she is continuing to look for ways to improve. Obviously, there are good things to come for AC in her management career.
While it can be said that Sales Cures All Ills, issues remain in AC’s store. AC could not get her team to complete a fairly simple task of keeping 12 clientele books updated, so she reduced the workload to a single book, expecting her team to relish in the efficiency and simplicity of the plan. As AC soon learns, no good deed goes unpunished.
My attempt blew up in my face. I can honestly say that it hit the fan that day, and people were up in arms. They had reacted as if I killed their dog. This change has created a catastrophe of tension within the store, and it feels like a junior high clique. I have never used my position to do whatever I want; I have goals and have always lent an ear to those who have an opinion, because I respect the opinion of my associates.
So, sales are good, but small changes create chaos. Moreover, it seems that the team does not appreciate AC.
These associates have taken advantage of the good grace and now feel the need to tell me how to do my job. I would be more than welcome to negative or positive feedback as long as it’s not a complaint session and a positive outcome could be reached. Such is not the case, fingers would rather be pointed than solutions found. These associates only seem to appreciate me as long as I am accommodating their every whim: letting them leave early and paying them for the rest of their time; letting them take coffee breaks and extended lunches; and having all their requested days off met while still trying to accommodate their need for hours. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am a pushover, and perhaps have created a beast that I no longer want to feed.
AC, you’re not a pushover. You’ve made some great decisions (or your store would not have been number one for 5 of the last 6 weeks), though you have hit some inevitable roadblocks for new managers. I’m hopeful that these past two months have helped you understand that employees are never satisfied.
Employees Want Everything
It’s really a true statement that your employees want everything. An immature workforce, as is typical in a mall clothing store, is never satisfied. Give them an extra ten-minute break, and they’ll want twenty. Let them go home at 4:30, and they’ll want to leave at 4. Give them a $100 raise, and they’ll want $200. They will never be satisfied.
I’ve always said that if you gave an immature workforce the right to sit at home and watch TV and still earn the same amount of pay, they’d complain about when the checks arrived. They will never be satisfied.
Say it with me: They will never be satisfied. No matter what you give, they’ll always want more. They’re too immature to understand the needs of the business. If they could understand this, they’d attempt to balance their wants with the company’s needs – they won’t. Since they will never be satisfied, it’s time to stop giving. You can still reward, but you want to learn the difference between favors that gain nothing for the store and rewards that drive results.
I thought that there was a good work environment and that everyone was getting along, when in fact there was so much two-facedness going on that I was oblivious to. I can’t fix a problem I don’t know about. I’ve always been an honest person and I can own up to my faults. How do I fix this issue and establish myself rather then have people run me over?
Just like with small children, it is important to set the boundaries and limits for your team. Don’t stick anything in the electrical outlets. Don’t cross the street without looking both ways. Don’t touch the stove.
With entry-level workers, you have to expect that all of them will eventually leave for one reason or another, so don’t be afraid to allow some of them to depart right now. Set the limits on what is acceptable behavior, the length of the coffee breaks, quitting time and the schedule. Explain that you will be flexible so long as they are flexible and the store is meeting its goals.
For those who want to grow with the company, they’ll get this right away and they’ll perform. For those who are just too immature to help the company reach its goals, they’ll find something else to do. (Of course, they’ll be unsatisfied at their next job, too.)
Be Fair – Great Leaders Always Are
Let them know that if they need special consideration (e.g., they want to go home early or get a certain day off), that you’re a fair person who’ll work with those who are willing to work with you.
Let them know that your only job is to help them be successful, and that you have a primary goal to make this a fun place to work. Of course, it won’t be fun for anyone if you don’t meet your objectives. They can help you meet those objectives or they can find somewhere else to work.
Explain that while this may sound harsh, the economy we’re faced with today does not reward poor performing groups, although those who like being on the number one team have nothing to worry about.
Find an External Enemy
Sales is a competition and good salespeople are very competitive. Right now, it sounds like the enemy of the salespeople is their manager. You need to turn this around. Give them a new enemy to focus on: the other fifty-seven stores in your company.
Post the sales results of every store, every week. Highlight where your store is on the list and where the five or six geographically closest stores rank. Celebrate (by congratulating and thanking your team) whenever you are ahead of the others, and ask for suggestions (from your team) when you are not. When your team is focused on beating the snot out of the other fifty-seven stores, you’ll be amazed at how the petty issues of the past seem to go away.
The Best Management Training Blogs for the week of September 1, 2008
Although we’re at the end of a long holiday weekend, there were a few decent posts this week covering the world of Management Training. The editors of AskTheManager.com scoured the World Wide Web to being you the Best Management Training Blogs and Posts for the week of September 1, 2008.
Effect Of Generational Differences On Young Managers
How does understanding generational differences affect the success of new managers? More and more managers are (and will be) younger than their team members. What must a “younger” manager consider when leading “older” team members? – Andy in Ohio
Great questions, Andy. As someone who has been on both ends of this situation (I have both led teammates older than me and I have been subordinate to someone much younger), I can tell you that the best advice is no advice.
No Advice For The Young Manager?
That’s right, the best thing for a young manager who must lead someone of a previous generation to do is to do nothing different. This is not to say that you treat everyone the same, you do not – real leaders know that they must lead each individual as that person desires to be led. And the best leaders understand the goal and they keep it foremost in their minds (without regard to the age, religion or sex of their charges).
Specifically, your first question about understanding the generational differences and its affect on the success of a new manager assumes that new managers must understand how their charges were led in the 1980s in order to be led successfully today.
This is a misconception that many new managers have. People are people, and just because someone is 20 years your senior does not mean they do not wish for understanding, personal pride and appreciation. Deliver your team honest leadership where you are the support and they are the superstars, and their age becomes irrelevant.
Younger managers fail with older teammates when their management style is void of respect for others. This is not a generational difference – although older subordinates will be less tolerant of disrespect – eventually, everyone who reports to a disrespectful manager will become disenfranchised.
So, Leadership Is About Respect?
That’s right – leadership is about people and all people want respect. They desire this alongside understanding pride and appreciation – but they’ll give up all of these to be respected and valued by their leaders.
Understanding this, a young manager need not get hung up about the age of his or her subordinates, he or she must just do what they know is right for their company and their people, and let the chips fall where they may. If the old folks (like TheManager) fail to get it, then fire us – just make sure you checked your ego at the door, provided us with support and led with respect.
So, what must a “younger” manager consider when leading “older” team members? Only this: your subordinates expect to be led, and they expect to be led by you, so forget their age and forget your age and lead them.
Based on page traffic, the readers of AskTheManager.com anointed the following posts as the Best Leadership Development and Management Training resources on AskTheManager.com. Of course, the editors of AskTheManager.com believe most of these are fairly insignificant posts compared to the the meatier content you can find on the site…
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Help, I’m lost. I’ve been a manger for exactly 34 days and I feel like I’m drowning. The biggest issues I have are my time (there’s not enough) and my people (I am now responsible for the lives and livelihoods of 19 people). Any advice? Alan in San Diego, CA
Alan, I feel your pain. When I look back on my early roles as a manager, I remember facing the same issues. You can bring all the business and leadership knowledge available to your new job, but when you’re a first time manager who cares, you can easily get lost in the minutiae and feel overwhelmed with a responsibility for your people.
Let’s tackle these two problems in reverse order.
New Manager Trap #1 – Feeling Responsible For Your Team
Not all new managers face this problem. Many, those who wouldn’t help an old lady across the street, probably have no idea that anyone ever feels responsible for their team. They simply couldn’t care less about the health and welfare of their teammates, subordinates or supervisors. They’re so caught up in themselves, and so busy admiring the title on their business cards, they don’t have time to worry about others.
The other type of new manager is the kind of person (like I was) who brings home the stray cat from the alley and feeds it – feeling great and believing they are doing good.
If I could undo one thing from my early days as a manager, it would be to stop being such a softie.
Stray Cats Are Stray Cats For A Reason
If you’ve ever brought an alley cat home, you know that they basically tear up all your furniture, scratch the hell out of you, and eventually poop everywhere in the house. Caring too much and forgetting what’s important to you – and what’s best for your company – is a major reason that many new managers fail to reach their goals.
This analogy is not meant to say that your subordinates will poop all over the place, but it is meant to illustrate that new managers should keep their priorities straight, especially in the beginning.
You are not responsible for the lives and livelihoods of your charges. Provided they are all legally eligible to work in your state, they are 100% responsible for themselves. As hard as that might sound, it’s important to understand that right away.
Provide the goals, and the tools to reach those goals, then train everyone to use the tools. For the 10-20% who never seem to deliver, be prepared to help them find other employment (i.e., terminate them).
You Are Responsible To Your Team
Your company hired or promoted you not because they wanted someone to provide welfare to their employees, but because they wanted someone to get the most out of that resource known as labor. Your job is to deliver on your goals. In this quest, you will often be required to balance productivity against employee welfare.
Unless you’re managing a sweatshop, your employees are free to leave anytime they choose. Knowing this, you need to feel similarly. That is, you need to be prepared to let someone go when it makes great business sense. Not everyone can be a Delta pilot or a doctor, someone has clean the septic systems for rural America.
Stop feeling like you need to protect your team from the realities of business. You don’t. You should be their support mechanism, not their patsy. There is a difference.
Whenever I hire or promote a first time manager, I like to give them a few weeks to get their feet wet, learn their team’s dynamics, and see how they handle the issue of responsibility. If they seem like the type that would bring home the stray cat, I let them get scratched up pretty bad before I offer any advice in this area.
After three to four weeks, they’re begging for guidance on how they can balance the lives and livelihoods of their subordinates and still meet the company’s objectives. The short answer is that you very often cannot do both. Instead of feeling responsible for your team, you should feel responsible for your goals.
The World Needs Ditch Diggers Too
I often quote the late, great Ted Knight from Caddyshack: “The world needs ditch diggers too, Danny.” And guess what? It does. The world is made up of billions of people doing millions of different jobs, and if you ever feel like you have to keep a poor performer employed because you feel sorry for them, you’re doing a disservice to your company, to yourself and to the poor performer.
Often, losing their current job for poor performance is the best thing that ever happened to them.
New Manager Trap #2 – There’s Never Enough Time
For fear that the answer to this question is already too long, let me just cut to the chase here. I have seen scores of new managers fail because they believed everything needed to be perfect. Everything.
Nothing is ever perfect. I often say that if my workday was 24 hours long and my workweek was 30 days long, I would still need more time to do it right. This is a fact of life for managers. There is never enough time, and there never will be enough time.
When we see new managers who feel that there’s never enough time to do their jobs, they are either striving for perfection or working on those things that are out of their control (or both). Either way, All You Can Do can help you work on the things you can control and forget the things you can’t.
I also often recommend Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s the number one leadership book ranked on our site for a reason. It can absolutely help you work on the important issues, as well as help you focus on your circle of control rather than your circle of concern.
Stop Being A Perfectionist
I am a perfectionist at heart. I often spend too much time at work and not enough time with my kids. I understand this and I’ve come to accept it. However, I also understand that my company, my customers and my subordinates would all still be very well served if I worked only 40 hours each week. I can’t help it.
It’s important to note that I never, ever complain about not having enough hours in the day. I understand that all I can do is all I can do, but all I can do is enough. If it weren’t, I never would have been given the responsibility I have today. Alan, you need to understand this, as well.
In the strive for perfection, be careful if you begin to believe that perfection is the only suitable outcome of every endeavor. More often than not, good enough really is good enough.
(Are you are manager who has a problem or an issue like Alan’s? Leave a reply below or send us an email at the bottom of the About page, and we’ll do our best to give you a response in 48 hours.)
It was a slow week for great posts on the Management Training blogs, through TheManager scoured the World Wide Web this week to bring you the best posts and articles covering Management Training:
International Management tips By Kevan Hall
I think we can accelerate the process with the right international management training and exposure to international experiences – but a lot of management training continues to carry a very mono-cultural view of the world (usually … Life in a Matrix – http://www.lifeinamatrix.com
