What are some of the main obstacles to a path of success for a manager?
My definition of a manager is anyone who manages anything or anybody. This might include a team, a process, a department or even an entire company.
Now with that concept in mind, I can tell you that all managers experience various encumbrances on a daily basis. And there are probably no single egregious obstructions that would be attributed to a failure, but rather a combination of several.
However from years of business consulting experience, one of the most prevalent errors that I see is a lack of courage to stand by long term goals, plans and visions that managers have identified as a must do in their careers. When the business economy experiences severe pain, it brings with it an allurement to short cut the process for a quick fix. And many of us fall prey to the short term attraction without consideration of the long term consequences.
Standing by your plan takes immense courage and determination. With the presumption on my part that your strategy, goals and visions are sound in concept, they must include the option and plan to deviate slightly without losing sight of the overall and primary goal. It is okay to make small and logical adjustments, but it’s not okay to just abandon the plan. In retrospect, those who just abandon the process of management and continually start over and over will find their original and subsequent plan(s) were terribly flawed to begin with.
Courage of conviction means confidence in you as a manager. Confidence in you means rewarding results.
Regards,
George F. Mancuso
President
Client Growth Consultants.com
Nationally recognized Retained Executive Search and Employee Retention Specialist.
12/19/10
Are We Really Going To Be In Hard Times in 2011?
Q: Are we really in hard times?
A: Today it appears that we have been delivered harder times than we have experienced in the past. And as with anything else in life, uncertainty exacerbates the situation at hand. However it is times like this that makes me want to remind my friends and colleagues of that which we already know, mainly because these thoughts are so simple and fundamental;
1. Things are never as bad as they or the media makes them seem.
a. The economists that we listen to (and remain reassuringly consistent regardless of the news) tell us that the markets will begin to improve in February and that the stocks don't fall unless people buy. And people buy because they are convinced that stock prices will increase.
b. The media has always been the messenger of perceived doom and gloom from those who call themselves “experts” in these matters. Only if we allow ourselves to be lead into this black hole do their predictions come true.
c. We Americans are a resilient bunch and have demonstrated time and time again that we know how to overcome adversity and bring our lives back to normal. And I subscribe to you today that now [IS] one of those times.
2. What you do in difficult times will result in greater rewards than what you do during the good times.
a. Difficult times make or break businesses, careers - and families. Make your own success by not getting distracted by the times and focusing on what is important, what you have to do. You'll benefit from being clear headed and conveying stability in these times, and it will benefit those around you as well.
b. From within your own circles of friends and/or influence demonstrate your leadership.
3. The best times quite often follow the worst times.
a. There can't be good times without bad times. Almost 3,000 years ago Solomon recognized that there is "a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away."
b. And although these are hard and uncertain times, we need not mourn.
c. We need not stick our heads in the sand.
d. We must as individuals and as a group be the “good times” leaders of the world.
A friend of mine told me recently, don’t be a lightning rod, but be the lighting that ignites the rod! I still firmly believe that in these economic times, we must be the leaders we claim to be during the good times. When the so called recovery comes, you will be so far ahead of your competition, it won’t even be funny. Put your “A” game face on, get into the trenches and make your markets, take no prisoners and grow yourself and your business! If you need help, hire a great business consultant.
As always, I wish you a tremendous week, filled with good spirits, good business, family and great health.
Regards,
George F. Mancuso
President
Client Growth Consultants
Grinnell, IA
A: Today it appears that we have been delivered harder times than we have experienced in the past. And as with anything else in life, uncertainty exacerbates the situation at hand. However it is times like this that makes me want to remind my friends and colleagues of that which we already know, mainly because these thoughts are so simple and fundamental;
1. Things are never as bad as they or the media makes them seem.
a. The economists that we listen to (and remain reassuringly consistent regardless of the news) tell us that the markets will begin to improve in February and that the stocks don't fall unless people buy. And people buy because they are convinced that stock prices will increase.
b. The media has always been the messenger of perceived doom and gloom from those who call themselves “experts” in these matters. Only if we allow ourselves to be lead into this black hole do their predictions come true.
c. We Americans are a resilient bunch and have demonstrated time and time again that we know how to overcome adversity and bring our lives back to normal. And I subscribe to you today that now [IS] one of those times.
2. What you do in difficult times will result in greater rewards than what you do during the good times.
a. Difficult times make or break businesses, careers - and families. Make your own success by not getting distracted by the times and focusing on what is important, what you have to do. You'll benefit from being clear headed and conveying stability in these times, and it will benefit those around you as well.
b. From within your own circles of friends and/or influence demonstrate your leadership.
3. The best times quite often follow the worst times.
a. There can't be good times without bad times. Almost 3,000 years ago Solomon recognized that there is "a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away."
b. And although these are hard and uncertain times, we need not mourn.
c. We need not stick our heads in the sand.
d. We must as individuals and as a group be the “good times” leaders of the world.
A friend of mine told me recently, don’t be a lightning rod, but be the lighting that ignites the rod! I still firmly believe that in these economic times, we must be the leaders we claim to be during the good times. When the so called recovery comes, you will be so far ahead of your competition, it won’t even be funny. Put your “A” game face on, get into the trenches and make your markets, take no prisoners and grow yourself and your business! If you need help, hire a great business consultant.
As always, I wish you a tremendous week, filled with good spirits, good business, family and great health.
Regards,
George F. Mancuso
President
Client Growth Consultants
Grinnell, IA
12/12/10
This Holiday, Pay Yourself!
PAY YOURSELF!
The holidays can be fun, but they can also add stress to our already crazy existence as business professionals. If you close your eyes and review 2010 – would you make any changes? Would your W-2 be higher? Would you take better care of yourself?
Here is a chance to wave the magic wand…….Picture 2011 as a White Board which is very exciting and full of opportunities! You can create anything you want for yourself next year. Now ask yourself this question…..Do you know EXACTLY what you want? Most people don’t get what they want out of life because they’re too busy worrying about everyone else to take time to determine what THEY want out of life.
During this extremely busy Holiday Season, find a quiet place for yourself for at least one hour. Close your eyes and envision yourself one year from now, and you are celebrating your BEST YEAR EVER!
Now open your eyes and write down who was at this celebration, what you achieved and what you have to do (starting now) to make it happen. Make certain some of these goals are “personal goals.”
Think about this…..
What you do for a living is admirable!
What you do for a living is challenging!
What you do for a living changes the lives of other people on a daily basis! How incredible is that?
Put yourself on your Holiday Shopping List. Reward yourself each month of 2008 when you achieve your monthly goals. Your clients, your peers, your friends, your employees need YOU, to take care of YOURSELF in 2011, so that you can take care of them. Just call this "Business Management" at in it's finest hour.
Don’t be afraid to pay yourself! It will be well worth the investment.
Regards,
George Mancuso
The holidays can be fun, but they can also add stress to our already crazy existence as business professionals. If you close your eyes and review 2010 – would you make any changes? Would your W-2 be higher? Would you take better care of yourself?
Here is a chance to wave the magic wand…….Picture 2011 as a White Board which is very exciting and full of opportunities! You can create anything you want for yourself next year. Now ask yourself this question…..Do you know EXACTLY what you want? Most people don’t get what they want out of life because they’re too busy worrying about everyone else to take time to determine what THEY want out of life.
During this extremely busy Holiday Season, find a quiet place for yourself for at least one hour. Close your eyes and envision yourself one year from now, and you are celebrating your BEST YEAR EVER!
Now open your eyes and write down who was at this celebration, what you achieved and what you have to do (starting now) to make it happen. Make certain some of these goals are “personal goals.”
Think about this…..
What you do for a living is admirable!
What you do for a living is challenging!
What you do for a living changes the lives of other people on a daily basis! How incredible is that?
Put yourself on your Holiday Shopping List. Reward yourself each month of 2008 when you achieve your monthly goals. Your clients, your peers, your friends, your employees need YOU, to take care of YOURSELF in 2011, so that you can take care of them. Just call this "Business Management" at in it's finest hour.
Don’t be afraid to pay yourself! It will be well worth the investment.
Regards,
George Mancuso
12/5/10
Employee Retention Begins Before You Hire Them
I’ll bet most of you are thinking to yourselves, “…What did he just say?” It is important to recognize that the most critical step in retaining employees comes before the hire itself!
Good leaders commonly state that they surround themselves with the best people. In turn, high-performing business cultures are fueled by employees who deliver productivity, innovation and profitability. But first, an organization needs to view and understand its job candidates as individuals, rather than as simple resumes.
A recent survey claims that ONLY 20% of companies are taking proactive measures to ensure that their best people stay put. The alternative is high turnover which costs an estimated 1.5 times the salary of each employee who has to be replaced. As an example, if a manager was making $70,000 plus an additional $25,000 in benefits (which is industry standard) it would cost approximately $142,500 to replace! This is staggering!
Resumes represent a static list of skills and job duties, but cannot speak to how well the person performs unsupervised or on a tight deadline. Reference checks can also be tricky for various reasons.
To begin with I highly recommend that you stay away from questions that encourage “smooth-talking” (i.e. “where do you see yourself in 5 years) instead of a candid self-critical evaluation questioning. Ask questions regarding the prospect’s essential nature, and the preferences and attitudes that make him/her an individual.
These types of questions predict job performance and satisfaction. The more job performance-relevant information employers have, the greater the likelihood of building, and retaining, and engaged, productive worker.
Employers need to be clear about their needs and expectations for any given position up front – before the hiring process begins. Put a variety of measurements together to create a good hire. We offer to our clients a professional online assessment to maximize person-job fit so that the individual hired is CAPABLE of doing AND is WILLING to do the best job possible. And I do recommend utilizing a professional assessment ONLY as an additional tool in the hiring process.
I could easily spend hours writing pages on the subject of employee retention. It continues to be the number one topic of questions from you the readers of our weekly newsletter. Hopefully this small tidbit of information will be of assistance to you. If not, call or write and I will respond immediately!
Regards,
George F. Mancuso
George F. Mancuso, CPC
GeorgeM@ClientGrowthConsultants.com
GeorgeM@ClientGrowthConsultants.com
www.ClientGrowthConsultants.com
11/28/10
Steps for Grooming Successful Mentors
QUESTION: As a business consultant I get asked many times, "What are the steps for grooming successful mentors?
RESPONSE:
First off, I’d like to acknowledge that managers need to play a role in driving employee engagement and performance. I would not recommend that you replace manager-employee coaching or try to make up for bad managers with a mentoring program.
Clarify your objectives. An effective mentoring program supplements coaching from managers, and it should be positioned as a way to make the business, not just individual employees, more successful. From there you can add a more specific goal, such as helping new employees get up to speed quickly.
Define your mentor selection criteria. Mentors need to be more than willing. They need to have a coaching attitude and ability. Describe these characteristics in writing—and other traits, such as particular business knowledge or specific skills.
Equip your mentors. Provide tools and training to help mentors fulfill their role. This process goes beyond basic coaching skills to include an emphasis on:
• Individualized partnerships. “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” may serve people well most of the time, but it can actually get in the way of successful mentoring. Effective mentors understand their individual mentees needs and work with everyone differently. What works great for one person can derail another.
• Career coaching. Although employees may look to their mentors for career “navigation” advice, our research indicates that few are clear on what’s important to them. Mentors need to help people get behind the core values that create job satisfaction for them. What do they like to do and why? What would enrich their work each day? Only then can mentors help employees create a plan for professional development, career progression or job enrichment.Reinforce mentoring. To reap the benefits that mentors provide, you need to make mentoring a way of life. Senior leaders must be role models and discuss with employees the impact that mentoring has on business and personal success.
Leaders experience success as mentors through practice. The more they mentor, the more successful their mentoring becomes. A virtuous cycle will then take hold: They believe in mentoring, they’ve seen how it works, and they’re motivated to build their own competence.
And don’t forget to build in accountability, metrics and recognition systems. Without these, mentoring can fall by the wayside as a “nice to do that we don’t have time to do,” instead of remaining a core strategy for building an engaged workforce and thriving business. Of course if you need help in setting up a mentoring program and/or would like to send your managers to a 2 day seminar that teaches mentoring, leadership and building relationships to improve your company culture, please call or write and I will respond immediately!
As always, please accept my wishes for a tremendous week. If I can be of assistance to you or your organization when it comes to revenue growth, retention or recruiting, please call or write and I will respond immediately!
Regards,
George F. Mancuso, CPC
President
A Highly Specialized Business Consultancy
In The Growth of Revenues And People
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)