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A Manager’s Skill - Balancing Fun and Focus
Having fun is a vital component of any successful team. Managers will do well to encourage their people to enjoy their work, joining in when there’s a laugh to be had, where appropriate.
For a manager though, it’s always going to be a fine line between the fun the team are having and the need to be entirely focused and professional within seconds of the laughter subsiding.
And there will be occasions where the manager of the team needs to quietly and firmly change hats to make sure that having a fun experience doesn’t get in the way of delivering solutions that meet and even exceed expectations of customers and clients.
That’s where real managerial skill comes in.
Being able to join in with the fun as well as having the capacity to ensure that the team are quickly as professional as they need to be, requires a delicate touch - and one where the most effective managers show their difference.
Everyone loves to have fun together, it’s one of the most important tactics to build effective relationships with the individuals in the team.
Great managers go along for the ride and then take over the steering before matters lose focus - and with that, the true value of the team.
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Waving The Management Magic Wand - Part 2
Last week, we looked at how to make more of the opportunities you have to make things different.
Wafting your own magic wand around yourself and the way you do things is one thing, but how can you use it effectively to ‘magic’ better ways of doing things from your people?
BTW, if you have one of these - let me know and I’ll patent it.
Because here’s the secret. You can only change yourself and you cannot change others directly, however hard you try.
Now, what you can do (and successful managers do this very effectively), is to amend your own behaviors and attitudes to influence your people to be different. When they are different, they will see better ways to be and then the delivery of their work will improve.
The ball is back in your court.
So, here’s an action you might want to think about. What are the issues that you come up with that are your ‘I wish…’ moments with your people.
Then, what are ways that you could start to amend the way YOU are, that might be more likely to get the performances that would help them grow and develop into what you want?
Don’t know? Then ask them what they need to be different from you - and how that will help them.
This tactic makes the difference in so many ways.
You partner with them in solutions; you show that you are willing to change; you show you are not the smart-arse who thinks they know everything; you show you value them for their input too (there are more benefits, by the way…).
In the ‘Circles of Influence’ in your life, you are at the very center.
Make it worthwhile the only way you can, by looking inside first, before you seek to blame others.
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Waving The Management Magic Wand - Part 1
OK, so we’re all managers, right? And although we might keep it to ourselves, we all probably have moments when we whisper to ourselves, ‘I wish…’.
Never fear, we all in this together, so you can tell me it’s so…
Little things that our workplace does to us that really, it would be so cool to, well, be different.
Whilst I am not able to give you the magic of Master Potter’s magic wand, I can help you a little here.
It’s about being focused and taking action.
Part one this week is about issues that are all about you. Next week we’ll attack those ‘I wish…’ issues about your people.
For this week, we’ve enough to work on with you alone.
When you want things to be different, there is only one answer to that wishfulness thinking. It’s about grasping the issue ahead of you and being strong (sometimes brave) enough to handle it.
You see, many time we want things to be different, yet we want magic to happen. Here’s a heads-up. The magic will only happen when you have the wand in your hand and you make it happen.
If they are issues about the way you do things, be resolute and decide it’s going to be different from now on - or, decide that you are going to live with it and find work-arounds that will make the difference.
So you can park the challenges someplace else apart from right in your face causing you worry, stress and frustration.
The wand, as they say, is in your hands (and, in case the message didn’t quite get there - no-one else’s, so, if it’s your way, stop blaming everyone else).
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Management By Buns
The simplest behaviors can make a manager. Sometimes those behaviors don’t even need to be regular; they are allowed to be inconsistently regular in fact.
Take the experience of buns. Once in a while, even the most senior - or junior - of managers, can do something that to them seems so ordinary, yet to their people it signifies in a small, yet profound way, an extraordinary respect that it is hugely important in how they lead their team.
The unexpectedness of something can show how much a manager cares for their people.
In was a quiet afternoon in the business when he brought the buns. They weren’t expensive, but they were unexpected. Not that he’d never done it before, he had. Yet it was almost as if today was a great ‘nothing much happening’ sort of day that he recognized the opportunity to do a little more.
Now whilst some managers might have had their people screaming down the phones for more business; or wanted to chivvy their people along on a flat day catching up with the boring stuff that so often got left, this guy was different.
Reflecting on the successes of a good couple of weeks (bun reward has to have a context; be for a reason), he took a time-out to share a few minutes to thank the team with the buns. Buns that cost a couple of pounds.
He also took time to accept the offered cup of tea and to chew the fat about well, anything. It was being what he was good at. Taking the time to listen to his people be passionate and share their lives a little bit, for a few minutes on a flat day.
A small thing? Sure. And it’s the sum of small actions that create a relationship that employees value.
Just a few buns and a few minutes.
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3 Tips for Dealing with Difficult People
Difficult people are challenging for anyone. When you manage employees, this can be one of the biggest issues you have to overcome. Yet it is so critical that you do.
After all, even the best online MBA can’t always prepare a manager for working out problems with difficult employees.
Managing individuals in a team is one of the most vital activities for a manager. As you move from a role where you are actively hands-on involved in dealing with ‘things’ to organizing people, it can be a big step to handle.
Dealing with difficult people can be a test for even the most experienced of managers and those who have made it, have survived tricky situations and lived to tell the tale. Managing difficult people can be tough, but it’s much tougher not to.
Here are three simple tips to help you when you are dealing with difficult people which, in the long run, will make it much easier for you to lead a great team to success.
Be InterestedAs you create relationships with those you manage and lead, the issues of difficult people are often minimized because they see that you are interested in everyone, including them.
When you ask questions and listen attentively, it’s important that you show that you are interested in what they have to say, because it reduces the possibilities that they feel you are against them.
This changes their leverage because when they don’t think you are another of those bosses that are ‘against them’, much of the sting is taken from their response. Being interested shows them that you value them and takes the sting out of them.
Be Clear in Your Own Mind
You need to work from a position of inner confidence and strength. This will give you the peace of mind to ensure that you are fully able to handle these individuals.
Dealing with difficult people can be very challenging and it’s important to be clear what you want from them as their input into the relationships that you have with them and, very importantly, those they have with others (which includes customers and other members of the team too).
Show You Want to Help
Many times, difficult people have a chip on their shoulder because of past experiences where they we treated badly. In this respect, they are the result of other people’s behaviors and are in defense mode.
Their behaviors are a lot less likely to be generous when they’ve had poor experiences from managers in the past.
So it’s important to actually let them know you want to help them, by paying full attention to their needs and, where possible and without compromising your own management position (or giving them treatment different from anyone else), you start to make a difference to them.
Dealing with difficult people is a stretch for many managers.
By showing that you are disciplined, fair and consistent in your approach to all of your people, you will find that difficult people are much easier to manage and may well become some of your best employees.
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The Creative Value of Order
The greatest growth in our world has come through the imaginative genius of some of those memorable individuals in history.
Those who set out with a glimmer of a dream, worked and cajoled it until it became a sort of reality that made some sort of sense.
In history, these ranged from geeks who worked in their garage on a kitchen table to the merely curious who wondered just why things fell downwards rather than up.
The workplace is different, because we have made it so. If you look at the wonder in a child’s eyes as they investigate new objects or activities, time takes it’s toll and we, well, grow up.
That wonder disappears.
As we manage, it is invaluable to create the freedom for our people to step back and recapture that inquisitiveness in an environment that acknowledges that to let them be free to explore is a good thing.
Being clear on the corporate, team and individual ‘rules of engagement’ that they need to fulfill as a minimum within the organization might seem restricting.
Yet intriguingly, once people know what’s in and what’s out before they start, they feel freed up to use their curiosity to ensure new and radical opportunities can be explored.
And it’s OK to.
Creativity comes from knowing that the blank sheet you have in front of you, is OK to splash your paint on. Then you can explore to your fullest dreams.
Everyone benefits.
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