This article is intended just for managers, so the questions are asked as if you are a manager. I hope it will make some interesting reading for anyone else and particularly if you are aspiring to be a manager.
The more people you have on your team and the more people you are expected to manage, the more time you should spend on the task of simply managing the people. Most managers have huge job descriptions and hundreds of tasks that they chose to do themselves, so often you find you spend your time between tasks, meetings, emails and other short term priorities. Then there are medium term projects involving change management, planning and in the current environment the constant battle to achieve more with fewer resources. There is also the job of recruitment, the job of managing a budget and keeping the bosses happy.
As a result of all these demands at times managers spend the hours they are not at meetings in their own office, often with the door closed and staff are half afraid to go into the office as they can feel the pressure and the stress every time they walk in.
Now can I ask you two questions that just might help?
1. Do your people have more talent than they are using in their current positions?
2. Are you under pressure to achieve greater results with reduced resources?
If you are not a manager can I ask you “Do you have more talent than you are using in your current position?” Are you capable of more? – If you answered “Yes” to both these questions – I rest my case!
If you are a manager read the two questions above again, and for the purpose of simplicity I will assume you answered “Yes” to both then it could be that the combination of the two questions could be the solution to both problems. And just in case you are wondering, all the non managers DID answer “Yes” to their two questions.
To me the job of management is to manage people first and to do this there are a few basics that should be observed:
1. Select Great People
2. Define Clear Expectations
3. Constant Praise and Recognition for everyone that performs at a level of excellence.
4. Show care individually for every single member your team.
Although these are according to me the basics of Management – you won’t be surprised to learn that most managers score very poorly on this scale. To survive you need to learn how to master these four basics first. Then you are ready to go on to the next level which is excellence in Management.
There are a number of factors that create excellence that we cover in our Management Training courses – for the purpose of this article I will cover only one - Strengths.
Every manager should take time out to discover the strengths of every single person on the team. Then carefully craft the total pot of tasks that have to be performed by the department into the different job descriptions of each individual based on their own individual strengths.
If you meet resistance, it could be that the person doesn’t recognize their own talents, then it is your job to explain it to them. If you believe in them more than they believe in themselves, and they step up to the plate and succeed, then you will be remembered by that person for the rest of their lives as a great manager.
If they fail, you should be there to support them and show them the correct way. Repeated failure however is a totally different matter. An organization that works to the strengths of their people and when their weaknesses are made irrelevant by the strengths of others, you have a truly world beating team that everyone is proud to be part of.