What Does It Mean To Be A Manager?

What Does It Mean To Be A Manager?

NOTE:  For sake of this discussion, “manager” is defined as any person who manages other people whether it be a team, a department, a division or a whole company.

What does it really mean to be a manager?

Power?  Authority?  Goal Setter?  Trend Setter?  Leader?  Boss or person in charge?  Desire to be King or Queen of the hill?

What personal self serving benefit do you receive as a manager?

When you think of YOUR manager, what benefit do you think he/she gets?  Why do you think your manager is a manager?

What is the absolute downside of being a manager?.

As a manager, would you like to make your life smoother and more cohesive?  If so, read about Management Acclimatization™.  

Regards,
George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO
Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

How Can I Get My Team to BUY IN to My Recommendations?

ONE OF OUR READERS ASKED: From a management position, what should I do if my staff OR team attacks my recommendation(s)?

Try to avoid getting defensive. After all, your client's staff might actually be right in questioning your recommendations. One of my very first thought was, “did you include them in any of the planning, goals and/or decision making process?”

They also might have "other" motivations, may be operating under very different assumptions than you are, or even feel defensive themselves. Perhaps you were not clear enough in presenting your recommendations to the team. If any of the above are true, getting defensive will probably not help.

So what do you do? First, try to gain an understanding on where you and the staff or team differ. Clarify your assumptions, rationale, conclusions, and specific recommendations and be prepared to modify them if required. Let them know that you want to better understand their thinking by asking a few questions.

Here are three potential examples:

1. "Folks, I was assuming the following parameters are present (describe them). Are my assumptions in synch with yours?"
2. "Perhaps I was not clear in what I was recommending. May I ask you a few questions to help me understand your concerns with my recommendations a little better?"
3. "I am sensing that I might have 'stepped on some toes' here. That was absolutely not my intention. Help me to better understand your thinking and concerns, and let me see if I can clarify where I was coming from."

Listen carefully to how they respond and be open to changing your approach where appropriate. While dealing with the individuals or group, be sure you respect their thinking and acknowledge the validity of their approach. Move on to clarify your approach and explain why it has merit.

The next time you present your recommendations to staff, try labeling them "Preliminary Recommendations for Discussion Purposes". This might set a much better tone for the presentation, showing clearly that you are looking for staff input.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO
Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

Building A Strong and Capable Management Team

Building a Capable Management Team Is Paramount For Success of Any Organization

In the past, organizations have clung to the belief that as long as they had competitive products and services, they could enhance their performance by hiring strong leadership and top talent. While this focus has worked in some cases, in today’s highly competitive labor market—and yes, it is going to get much worse—organizations competing for top talent may be missing the essential managerial skills and processes needed to succeed over the long term.

Many research models have suggested that most organizations neglect the role of managers, undervalue the role and therefore suffer from a lack of strong management proficiency. An authoritative  survey I read a few years ago indicated that employees who plan to stay with their current companies are twice as likely as employees who say they might or might not stay to report when their managers recognize their intrinsic talents and encourage them to use those talents to the fullest extent.

I would say that the trend that has emerged is not pretty. Today’s managers are also individual contributors and they spend more of their time doing their "real" jobs—technical aspects of their positions—than they actually spend managing their employees. This behavior poses a problem because today’s employees want more from their managers and workplaces, not less. And they are willing to “take the walk” out of your workplace if they don’t get it.

There is a wealth of research indicating that management behavior is a key factor in retention. This is nothing new. Recent research has consistently shown that dissatisfaction with one’s manager is a top reason for leaving the organization and not the organization itself.

Employees Want:

·         Feedback and Coaching

·         To Feel Like They Are Appreciated

·         Reward and Recognition for Their Work

·         Learning and Development Opportunities

This isn’t rocket science but managing people will always be a highly complex task.  But once you learn HOW to proceed and buy into the fact that people need to be treated as valuable assets and not pawns in the game of life, your employee retention will improve without effort.  Your company will realize a stronger bottom line and become a workplace of choice.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO

Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

How Do We Measure The ROI By Retaining Our Top Performers

 HOW DO WE MEASURE THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT BY RETAINING OUR TOP PERFORMERS?

 Most companies today recognize the value of attracting and retaining a strong, competent workforce.  But most also don’t fully appreciate how they can improve retention rates.

When surveyed, employees indicate their top reasons for leaving a position are:

·         Not getting along with their direct supervisor

·         Desire for an improved compensation package

·         Strong desire for a better work/life balance

·         Lack of career growth

·         Not being challenged

It’s noteworthy that four of the five top reasons are non-financial. Employers can do much to address these issues, but frequently only pay lip service to significantly enhancing the employee experience. If employers paid this little attention to their customers’ experience, they would likely be out of business.  Your employees are your number one asset!

So, what can an employer do?

• Actively demonstrate that you value the unique needs of each employee
• Tailor your HR and benefit programs to your workforce (flexible work schedules, choices in health plan options, PTO banks, etc.)
• Publicly recognize outstanding performance and employee achievements.
• Teach supervisors how to be good coaches and managers.
• Provide ongoing training on issues such as handling conflict, delivering difficult messages and conducting effective performance discussions.
• Ensure alignment between business goals and employee rewards.
• Appropriately mix base and variable pay.
• Unambiguously link performance to rewards.
• Clearly delineate between rewards for top and bottom performers.
• Nurture the employee ecosystem.
• Make sure employees understand what it is the organization values.
• Practice what you preach—hold managers accountable for their actions and for tolerating or ignoring unacceptable behavior.
• Focus attention on high performers; deal effectively with marginal performers (Is an “up or out” philosophy right for you? Or, is a culture of mediocrity acceptable?).
• Ask top performers what makes them successful at your organization and why they stay.
• Ask employees what is and what is not working and act on their input.

Commonly used solutions today include pre-hire assessments, variable compensation programs, and links between the performance management and compensation systems (both strategic linkages and automated, processing-type linkages). Planned enhancements over the next year typically include the implementation of learning management systems and online skills/competency tracking systems.

Forward-thinking companies do a reasonable job of tracking the key performance indicators of retention, which have historically covered employee satisfaction levels, turnover rates and benchmarks for similar organizations, and worker productivity metrics. However, these measures do little to illuminate why retention issues occur. These basic measures should be expanded to track items such as employee satisfaction with specific areas of their job (their work, their supervisor, their pay, their commute, their co-workers); turnover rates should be evaluated by employee level, tenure, speed of advancement, performance rating, sex, age and other factors.

Xxx, the key is to progress from simply tracking data to understanding information to determining cause and effect. Then you can affect your bottom line.  If we can help, call or write and we will respond immediately!

Regards,
George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO
Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

Developing a Stronger and More Cohesive Team

I’m often asked,
“How can I develop a stronger and more cohesive team?” 

 The answer is not as simple as waving a magic wand but here is one critically important suggestion to building your team that I’d like to offer here.

“Everyone on the team should be continually training their replacement!”  Yes that’s right, train the people around you just like they were going to replace you.  And I direct this to ALL levels within your organization, from the mail room to the board room.

A few thoughts to ponder;

1.       You know your “job” and you are very good in the performance of your responsibilities!

2.       In the event of your absence, whether planned or unplanned, who will or is totally qualified to act on your behalf without any disruption in the process of your everyday tasks?

3.       How would you feel if your boss said, “I’d like to promote you to the next level in our company, but we don’t have anybody to take your place, so no promotion at this time?”

4.       Are you carrying a heavy load while people around you seem to have more leisure time at work?

 Here is my logic to this proven approach;

To begin with, there is absolutely no room for paranoia in the work place.  I’ve heard people say half heartedly, “soon he will know as much or more than me then he’ll want my job.”  This is stinking thinking folks and needs to be out of the workplace.  All employees want the opportunity to grow and it is imperative that an employee take ownership of sharing their knowledge with others. 

The best way to grow an employee and improve his/her confidence level, is to continually offer them education and a feeling of being wanted, needed and respected.  Making a n employee stronger by giving them additional knowledge or tools will have a defined strengthening of your team.  Employees will become contributors and not just a warm body going through the motions. 

SUGGESTION:  My message today is a challenge to you to give this concept a try.  Pick one employee and start giving him/her slightly more responsibility.  Do this immediately after you take the time to explain to them your goal and plan and that you’d like them to learn more and add more value to the team.  And don’t forget to tell them that you expect them to “train the people around themselves just like they are going to replace you.”  A real by-product of this concept just might be an improved employee retention ratio which equates to a strong bottom line on the P&L.

 A few years ago, I had the President of a company have his Marketing Department make several banners for the office and plant area that said, “EVERYONE ON OUR TEAM SHOULD BE CONTINUALLY TRAINING THEIR REPLACEMENT!”  And in small print it said, “See your supervisor for details”.  The results were multiple company meetings explaining this concept and low and behold, production went up, employee retention improved, and people even looked happy to be there.  What have you got to lose? Give it a try and I’d certainly be interested in your results.

Next Week’s Subject:  NO ROOM FOR MICRO-MANAGERS IN THE WORKPLACE

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, CPC, CEO
Client Growth Consultants, Inc.