Coach Train Learn

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.

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.

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).

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.

No Time For Excuses

Maybe I’m a bit late for this, but I do need to revisit the demise of the England football team in the world cup.

There are no excuses. Perhaps many would say that overpaid superstars ought to have fared better and that there was no appetite for the game in our players.

The Spanish players, after their victory last night, might have something to say about that.

Ask every one of our players and they would tell you that they went all out for success - that their focus was entirely on bringing that 5Kg 18 carat gold cup back home.

As for the manager, there seemed to be times when he was completely perplexed in the outcome and then every opportunity to find some excuse for the failing - the ones that weren’t down to him, of course - were rolled out.

Sometimes it’s about bad luck.

Ever the optimist, I’m of the opinion that bad luck had it’s part to play at a particularly critical moment in the game we lost to Germany.

Frank Lampard’s ‘goal that never was’ came just a time where we could easily have clawed our way back into the game and with Germany’s precocious young team hauled back from a 2-0 lead, who knows what might have happened then.

Indeed many worthy winners of the World Cup have had extraordinarily poor starts.

Yet as manager, the buck stops with us.

There is no place for excuses that we try to hide behind. We get paid to be successful and when we aren’t, we have to stand up and say that we, ourselves weren’t good enough and we must do better. Then our people trust us, bond better with us and we get up another day to learn and grow and achieve more next time.
Even if the linesman and the referee are the only two people in the ground who didn’t go to Specsavers.

Are You Ready?

In ‘The West Wing’ there’s a pivotal moment at the start of Season Two (just working my way through the box set!).

There has been a shooting attempt on the President’s team and through a series of flashbacks to when his presidential campaign began, Jed Bartlet is seen behaving like a bit of an arsehole with his key people.

His wife describes him as ‘not being ready’.

At the end of a hard fought battle on the campaign trail, the father of one of his team dies unexpectedly.

He finds out and spends some time with the young man, understanding him better as a person and with that appreciating that he has not been very good with the relationships with the team up to this point.

After this moment of being human at last, he turns to Leo McGarry, who is the force behind his candidature and tells him ‘I’m ready’.

The being readiness of us when we lead others is not a place that comes easily. It often requires a lot of self-awareness.

This needs to be sufficiently strong for us to acknowledge and then shift our behaviors such that we learn and grow for our people - just as much as ourselves.

Be clear - listening and really hearing what our people say is vital. Paying attention and developing ourselves is the action point we take from that.

Then, we really are ready too.