The next series of articles are going to be a bit different to what has gone before. Up to now the articles have not surprisingly been about Credit Management topics, where I have tried to present a different view and give you some tips and pointers to help you perform the function at a higher level. Well what else would you expect from The Credit Coach?
I am delighted to report that the feedback I have received tells me you are enjoying the content even if you don’t have the time to let me know personally, although I am always happy to hear from readers and feel free to contact me directly at any time. Now what about the next series, well, I am going to focus on two main topics: Management and Stress.
Every day I am talking to keen able and enthusiastic Credit Controllers who are constantly being demotivated by the actions or lack of actions of their manager. I find from the stories I am hearing that he standard of management appears to be getting worse and worse, and this is having a huge effect on a large number of organisations. The fact is that as long as the manager is a political animal who can play the game they have nothing to fear.
I have developed probably the best course around that I called “Just for Credit Managers” where I go through the essentials of management and the added areas that make a huge difference to performance, staff morale, and attendance levels and most importantly of all - results. The downside is I constantly have difficulty in getting the numbers to make the training viable, the frustrating thing is that I know this information is important, I know every Credit Manager should be using the tools and techniques that are thought on the course, but whether they simply don’t have the time to attend or worse, they think they know it all or maybe worse again they don’t think know enough to be able to teach them, I really don’t know.
The good part from your perspective is that over the coming weeks I am going to share these ideas with you and this short article, when built up over a number of weeks, should give you a guide on how to manage people more effectively. Even if you are not a manager yourself, there is nothing stopping you from leaving this magazine opened on this page and placed strategically where your manager will see it, or if you think they should read it you could always sneak over to their desks and leave it open in front of them. Knowing that the attention span of most managers is so short, from the time they sit down to the time they start to do what they were meant to do, they will probably read the first paragraph or two and if that doesn’t grab their attention, they’ll move on to something else.
The second area I need to cover is Stress. More and more I am seeing stress as a major factor among Credit Controllers. Do you know where stress manifests itself most clearly? - In the attendance levels of the staff. More and more I am hearing of Credit Controllers taking extended sick leave or simply going missing for an odd day here and there. Funny thing is no matter what the illness that is reported it often has its roots in stress. The worse the attendance record the lower the morale is within the organisation. If you are a manager reading this and you are thinking I must have the unhealthiest bunch of people on the planet working for me, if one is not out sick it’s two, I have news for you...the problem could be YOU.
If you have the title of manager but spend most of your time “doing” you are not doing your job! You are being paid to manage – not to work. Workers get paid at one rate; managers get paid at another rate, usually higher, because the job of management has a higher value in most cases. Now here is the sting – if you are being paid as a manager and you spend your day “doing” you are cheating your employer because they are paying you to do one thing and you are spending time on lower value activities...
I hope you are looking forward to the next series I will set out the topics we are going to cover next week and if you have any horror stories you would like to share with me I could include them as case studies on how not to do something without naming any names.
I am delighted to report that the feedback I have received tells me you are enjoying the content even if you don’t have the time to let me know personally, although I am always happy to hear from readers and feel free to contact me directly at any time. Now what about the next series, well, I am going to focus on two main topics: Management and Stress.
Every day I am talking to keen able and enthusiastic Credit Controllers who are constantly being demotivated by the actions or lack of actions of their manager. I find from the stories I am hearing that he standard of management appears to be getting worse and worse, and this is having a huge effect on a large number of organisations. The fact is that as long as the manager is a political animal who can play the game they have nothing to fear.
I have developed probably the best course around that I called “Just for Credit Managers” where I go through the essentials of management and the added areas that make a huge difference to performance, staff morale, and attendance levels and most importantly of all - results. The downside is I constantly have difficulty in getting the numbers to make the training viable, the frustrating thing is that I know this information is important, I know every Credit Manager should be using the tools and techniques that are thought on the course, but whether they simply don’t have the time to attend or worse, they think they know it all or maybe worse again they don’t think know enough to be able to teach them, I really don’t know.
The good part from your perspective is that over the coming weeks I am going to share these ideas with you and this short article, when built up over a number of weeks, should give you a guide on how to manage people more effectively. Even if you are not a manager yourself, there is nothing stopping you from leaving this magazine opened on this page and placed strategically where your manager will see it, or if you think they should read it you could always sneak over to their desks and leave it open in front of them. Knowing that the attention span of most managers is so short, from the time they sit down to the time they start to do what they were meant to do, they will probably read the first paragraph or two and if that doesn’t grab their attention, they’ll move on to something else.
The second area I need to cover is Stress. More and more I am seeing stress as a major factor among Credit Controllers. Do you know where stress manifests itself most clearly? - In the attendance levels of the staff. More and more I am hearing of Credit Controllers taking extended sick leave or simply going missing for an odd day here and there. Funny thing is no matter what the illness that is reported it often has its roots in stress. The worse the attendance record the lower the morale is within the organisation. If you are a manager reading this and you are thinking I must have the unhealthiest bunch of people on the planet working for me, if one is not out sick it’s two, I have news for you...the problem could be YOU.
If you have the title of manager but spend most of your time “doing” you are not doing your job! You are being paid to manage – not to work. Workers get paid at one rate; managers get paid at another rate, usually higher, because the job of management has a higher value in most cases. Now here is the sting – if you are being paid as a manager and you spend your day “doing” you are cheating your employer because they are paying you to do one thing and you are spending time on lower value activities...
I hope you are looking forward to the next series I will set out the topics we are going to cover next week and if you have any horror stories you would like to share with me I could include them as case studies on how not to do something without naming any names.