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TECHNICIANS
Promoted into management on the basis that they are technically
strong and personally effective, many managers have failed to
change their mindsets and priorities.
With
their focus still on personal achievement, they often operate
as a super technician, oblivious to their team's needs.
A
primary need of any team is involvement, particularly in the
definition of its objectives. Managers
need to involve their teams, and their people, in agreeing on
objectives. If they don't, they simply become managers
in name only. The organisation would be better off with self-directed
teams.
PUSH FOR RESULTS
Managers are achievement oriented and results driven; they
have to be. In their push for results, however, they can fail
to understand the motivation needs of others.
Pushing
for results rapidly becomes pushing their people; pushing their
people then becomes pushing their people harder. If
the best results are willingly given, then the satisfaction
needs of individuals are critically important to a manager's
success.
Ignoring
these needs, in the push for results, simply creates a used,
or even abused, workforce. A workforce that withdraws its discretionary
effort, seeks to do the least, not the most. Overlooking the
needs of employees, in a push for results, ultimately has a
bulldozer effect - increased resistance to increased managerial
efforts.
SELF-MOTIVATED
Most managers are "self-motivated" individuals.
That's how they became managers. They are not always motivators
of others, or people who find it easy to praise and recognise
the efforts of others. They often try to motivate by example,
modelling hard work and long hours, but failing to engage
the hearts and minds of their people. They become "burnt-out"
solo performers; their people check out, and many eventually
leave. Failing to create a psychological
contract, by recognising people's motivation needs, is often
the first step towards managerial failure.
NO
ADDED VALUE
Managers should constantly add value to their people. (Why
else would their people need a manager?). This means training
and developing them, coaching and counselling them, and encouraging
individual growth. Managers constantly miss opportunities
to add value to their people in these areas. Failing to put
effort into their own personal growth and development, they
fail to see the connection between learning and results. When
people are learning, they become more engaged in their work.
The stimulation of learning stimulates a desire for improved
personal performance.
Managers,
who understand this, invest time in growing their people,
and look for every opportunity to do so. Managers, who cannot
grasp this essential truth, struggle to perform. They suffer,
their people suffer, and the whole organisation suffers.
FAIRNESS
It has been said that there is no such thing as a completely
fair manager. After all, what is considered to be unfair treatment
by one individual might be considered utterly fair by another.
This is no excuse however for having favourites, "picking
on" certain individuals, and deliberately "making
points" through the different treatment of people.
No
matter what a manager's feelings are towards certain individuals,
personal bias and subjective views must be replaced by a fair,
honest and objective treatment of them.
This is hard for managers to grasp. They fail to see that
their whole credibility is at stake, if they fail to treat
people fairly. A lack of credibility quickly turns to a lack
of leadership, and the seeds of future failure have been sown.
How
do your managers stack up against the five greatest mistakes?
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Failing
to incorporate employee ideas into their objectives |
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Overlooking
the needs of employees, in the push for results |
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Missing
opportunities to motivate and coach employees |
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Withholding
praise and recognition |
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Not
treating their people fairly |
The
answer is the five greatest managerial behaviours:
...READ
ON
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INVOLVEMENT
OF PEOPLE
The primary responsibility of any manager
is involvement with his/her people. Involvement is vital to
create a vision for the future, communicate that vision, formulate
a plan to achieve it and then execute it.
The
management of change is not achieved in isolation, and if people
are going to commit to it they need to be involved every step
of the way. Turning a vision into agreed team and individual
objectives then becomes a natural part of the involvement process.
Implementation of plans then becomes easy and natural, as does
the achievement of success.
SATISFACTION MANAGEMENT
Satisfaction management is
the key to unlocking the discretionary effort of employees.
Discretionary effort is a key ingredient
to high performance. Instead of a continuous push for results,
the best managers invest in creating increased satisfaction
for their people.
They
bring measurement to satisfaction in the same way they do performance.
They actively involve people in identifying their satisfaction
needs and in exploring ways to meet them. They modify their
leadership style to bring the best out of people. They have
"emotional intelligence" and they use it.
COACH,
COUNSELLOR AND FACILITATOR
Effective
managers not only balance their task and people focus, they
actively seek to grow the capabilities of their people. They
know that if they do this, continuous improvement in both
team and individual performance can be achieved in a dramatic
way.
They
see their primary roles as Coach, Counsellor and Facilitator
to their people. They understand that without additional knowledge,
fresh insights and the ability to solve their own problems,
people cannot perform to their best ability.
They
have learned that a significant learning input into their
people produces significant output for their organization.
They have learned to "conduct an orchestra," versus
"play an instrument."
ENCOURAGEMENT,
PRAISE AND RECOGNITION
If
you want to de-motivate someone, just ignore him/her. Ignoring
people devalues them, demeans them, and undermines their dignity
as a human being. How often are employees
de-motivated, not by cruel, but rather by uncaring managers?
Encouragement,
praise and recognition create the high-octane gas that fills
up people's emotional tanks.
It needs to be genuine; it needs to be attached to achievement
or progress; and it needs to be regular.
Blame
and fear cultures are only replaced by learning cultures when
genuine, positive reinforcement replaces continuous negative
feedback, or a lack of any feedback. Managers need to be generous
providers of the right feedback; they need the skills and
the confidence to deliver it and the belief that it makes
a difference.
HONEST,
OPEN AND FAIR
Managers cannot always be perceived to be utterly honest,
open and fair, but they can strive to be so in their dealings
with others. Culture and values need
to be lived out, leadership needs to be modelled and not just
talked about.
Managers
must be seen to be acting in the best interests of all. Difficult?
Not really- if there is a genuine partnership relationship
with their people. If loyalty to their
teams, and giving others the credit for success become the
norm, then honesty, openness and fairness become a way of
life. So also does the mutual support that accompanies
them, and which is needed in abundance if today's managers
are to succeed in the hostile, challenging and uncertain business
environment of the twenty-first century.
The
five greatest managerial mistakes can break an organisation.
The five greatest managerial behaviours can make it. These
behaviours can be learned.
Using
our programme, Managing People's Performance, we equip managers
with these behaviours. Our programme turns the fiction of
good people-management into a fact. A fact that will transform
your organisation and its future success.
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