As managers, it’s easy to get busy doing the managing, quite understandably.
Yet there’s a lot to be gained from taking a little time where the real work gets done, where you team members are active - at the sharp end, where the action is.
Many managers are focused on the heady world of stepping out of the limelight and managing their businesses and teams from a distance - after all that’s what managing is all about, leading a team of people to do the work that needs to be delivered.
The challenge comes when a manager is sufficiently remote from the key work areas, that they find it hard to relate the reality their people experience to the management role they are showing to their team. And that remoteness can make a team ethic from being the way the work best gets done.
That’s when it’s important to get down and dirty and get with the people who do the real work. It’s time to spend some time at the ‘coalface’ and to really get to understand the experiences that their people have, each and every day.
Sure, a manager manages people and to do that best it’s vital to build relationships that work effectively with their team. To do that requires credibility and trust which only comes when those they manage know that they really do understand the issues they face each and every day.
Those very issues that make their job challenging and sometimes more difficult to do.
Their job may become, in extreme cases, almost impossible to do well - and every manager needs to know this, finding out by being there, talking closely with them, failing to judge or argue, simply finding out how they are feeling and experiencing it first-hand too with and alongside them.
When a manager makes their mind up to get at these real-world experiences - where possible on a regular basis - of the challenges their people face, it becomes much more easy for their people to relate to that manager, as well as to understand what is - and even what isn’t - possible.
The view from the sharp end can be a lot different from that from the manager’s office way up in the executive suite.
The sharp-end is where it’s possible to learn more (often much more), providing a manager with the valuable - possibly even critical - insights vital to make the most of the manager-employee relationship. And that an incredibly important relationship with those who are ultimately, the people who deliver.
And there’s more, once employees see that their manager is prepared to get their hands dirty too, they will recognize their preparedness for the debates and discussion you all have together, creating much more of a cohesive team than ever before too.
A manager and team working closely together?
Now, that truly is a goal worth working towards, now isn’t it!
Delegation - The Master Skill for Managers
The key to valuable delegation lies in being determined that you do not abdicate your responsibilities.
And this in turn will mean that you need to realize that it is not enough to just ask someone to perform a task and then forget about the task or the individual who will be doing the job for you.
In fact, delegating tasks involves managing risk and also micromanaging it, yet not the person!
One vital thing you must do in order to delegate tasks or responsibilities, is become more aware of activities that are worth delegating. Then you will need to find a suitable team member who you feel is best suited to doing the job at hand.
Once you have that person in mind, you must then meet with them and identify the objectives and then create a clear plan of action (which should be realistic for them to achieve).
Don’t forget, be sure not to expect too much from the person to whom you are delegating the work the first time round. And you must always be on hand to help them should they run into difficulties.
Delegating tasks and responsibilities is something that you will be more effective with as you practice.
And once you have learnt the fine art of delegating, you will soon find that you have more time on hand to devote to other and more important tasks that only you can do.
At the same time you will find that your team of workers will also, once they get the hang of doing the things you have delegated to them, start becoming much more productive too, whilst enjoying these new challenges all the more.
Some of the things that will help you with active delegation include understanding basic leadership principles and learning that managing and leading are synonymous with delegating tasks.
You can also delegate better by developing your leadership skills whilst realizing that there will always be further room for improvement.
So, don’t think that your job of delegating will end once you see your team members becoming more productive.
It is an ongoing skill that always leaves room for further improvement.
10 Easy Ways To Build Trust With Your Employees
Employees never feel comfortable under a boss who doesn’t trust them or who they don’t trust.
In the absence of mutual trust, productivity falls as the employees get into politics, covering their backs and other counter-productive activity.
Not trusting each other will affect morale, which leads to a deterioration in customer satisfaction as the focus shifts from the business needs to internal wrangling.
So, let’s look at some key qualities a manager must possess to develop trust.
1. Effective Communication
A manager must communicate well to build strong relationships with their people.
In difficult times, employees might think no news as bad news, so a manager must keep in close touch.
Lack of communication reduces trust; being open with information creates it.
2. Trust Others and They Will Trust You
A manager must develop an ability to trust others and create an environment of trust throughout the workplace.
Really, it is better to assume the trustworthiness of employees to start with, rather than waiting for them to earn it.
Team members find it much easier to trust their manager if they feel trusted themselves.
3. Honesty In Everything
Being open and honest is a key ingredient for generating trust.
When you are open about your vision, actions and intentions, you will usually generate strong support.
Both good and bad news should be openly shared, reducing gossip and internal politics.
By admitting mistakes and not trying to cover them up, shows any manager to be a normal human being, just like everyone else!
4. Establish Strong Business Ethics
Managers should create a moral value system for the workplace.
Teams which have a common ethics are healthier, resourceful, adaptable and productive because of the common root of their consistent value systems.
5. Keep Your Word
By making actions visible and fulfilling commitments, managers become trusted. Failing on promises is insincere and causes tensions.
A manager needs to deliver actions visibly, to ensure everyone is aware that they can be depended upon.
6. Be Consistent
In the process of building trust, being consistent and predictable is very important.
If the behavioral pattern changes from to week to week, trusting it becomes difficult.
Your people get twitchy and uncomfortable when plans and expectations change too much.
7. Be Easily Available
Your team members need to able to get to you when they need to.
Whilst there may be times when, for purposes of doing your own work, you need to remain undisturbed, there needs to be a balance.
You are the manager and they will need you for specific involvement in day to day activities.
8. Maintaining Confidences
Employees who you manage must be able to confide in you sensitive information, express concern and share problems.
People need to know that you can keep this confidential when they need you to.
Sometimes these can be personal matters and in such cases this becomes even more important.
9. Language Matters
Watching your language is crucial. By avoiding using the “us” and “them” figures of speech and sticking with “we” wherever possible, your team will bond better with you.
Your language should be clear and simple, because everyone interprets what is said differently - so you need to speak plainly for everyone to understand.
10. Creating Social Time
Having informal social interactions with the team enhances the trust building procedure. In context, social interactions are a big opportunity for success for any good manager.
To make a team which works together efficiently, requires the abundant presence of mutual trust.
By consistently thinking of and working on trust building, any manager will reap long-lasting positive benefits.
Constructive Criticism is OK!
OK, so here goes with Leila’s House of Corrections - enjoy! I like these and you never know, there may be a video series of my own coming along!
Building Employee Confidence Is A Big Management Role
When you manage others, the confidence of your people is very important indeed
So, how can you go about building confidence in your employees?
Not only in the business, but in the work that they complete, you will need to build up their confidence from time to time.
It will help both their own job satisfaction and your business to run more smoothly and much more effectively.
To be aware of where they are starting from, you need to spend time noticing if your employees lack confidence in the first place.
Some employees will never have a problem with confidence (at least outwardly), but others will find it tough and maybe a lot more often then you may think.
You need to watch your employees and their behaviors to figure out where their confidence level may be at. You may notice that some employees have a tendency to struggle while at work.
If it gets to be frequently, you are likely to have an employee who is suffering from lacking confidence.
That’s the place to really find out how your people are feeling about themselves.
Managers Are Great - Sometimes!
Many times when I work with managers, I work pretty hard to help them see the influence they can have with their employees.
Most often, they respond positively and it’s good to see that their learnings back in the workplace - they are often extremely perceptive of what’s needed - are readily going to be applied.
Whilst my work may not be quite done at that point, there are some seeds that have started to sprout.
It’s always good to be able to recognize that the 25 years of experience I had as a manager is understood by those I work with, in their enthusiasm as they leave the workshops!
Enough of me!
You see, so often I experience management that really does not make the grade, observing managers who fall short in the behaviors they demonstrate.
As customers and clients that we all are, it’s managers and their influence that so often creates the experiences that we would rather forget.
Today, I had a really great exception.
In a garden center near Cirencester in the west of England, we settled to our lunch on the restaurant. It was a busy place on Sunday and the queue at the checkout was rather more than I really wanted.
The restaurant manager was manning the till and was under pressure (Tip: Never get yourself on a till point and unable to get off when you are the manager!).
Acknowledging his difficulty (and that the service he was giving was not good enough), he called one of the junior staff to get reinforcements.
The queue eased with help and one of his other team, who it seemed probably should have been on there, finally arrived to give even more help.
‘It’s a bit late now, we’ve cleared the queue!’, he said laughing!
There was clearly a good rapport between them in the way his humorous admonishment was taken with a glowing smile and a laugh too!
Further observation showed that manager to have great relationships with all of his staff, coaching, supporting and encouraging what was mainly a weekend team of students.
The lunch was great (especially the Black Forest Crumble with Custard!).
Observing excellent management in action was even better.
