Archive for the ‘Management Skills’ Category
Don’t forget the survivors
During this current recession there is a lot of talk about redundancies and those who are made redundant. Unfortunately little is talked about that other group of victims – the survivors.
That’s right, the survivors. Most people automatically assume that the survivors are the lucky ones. After all they escaped redundancy and therefore they must be lucky. In many workplaces the opposite seems more appropriate.
There are four emotions that hit survivors in a redundancy situation.
1. Yes there is relief about still having a job. This can lead to a sense of euphoria and possibly celebration.
2. But that can quickly turn into guilt. “Should I be celebrating when poor old Ravi has gone, and what about Mary, she was in tears when she left. It was heartbreaking.”
3. Guilt can linger for some time, but then those people who are leaving or who have left tell the survivors about their redundancy package. Where the employer has been as generous as possible this can often lead to a feeling of envy. “Typical isn’t it. They walk off with a great big lump sum that they can put in the bank and we are the ones that are left to pick up the pieces.”
4. Finally the resentment sets in. Once the redundancies have taken place the work environment changes. If the cuts have been dramatic then the survivors may find themselves working in half empty offices or surrounded by empty workstations. They may also find that they are sitting at ‘Jennifer’s old desk’. Worse still, the senior management may well expect them to cover the exact same amount of work as the previously larger teams. So their workload goes up.
That is why it is so important to put in place some support for the survivors.
- Communicating what is happening to them and what the future will bring is very important
- Giving support and coaching to help them handle the new situation is also vital
- Allow survivors time to talk as small groups to share their feelings and to discuss what they think should happen next
- Get them involved in some of the decision making
- Show them that they are not next by offering some training, even if it is in-house and run by internal people.
It’s an imperfect world and it will take time for things to settle down, but the more you consider the survivors the greater your chances of getting a happy functioning workplace once more.
Bosses who stop progress
It’s a sad but often told tale. It begins with senior management when they start to believe their own rhetoric; because they made it to the top they must have what it takes and therefore clearly they are not in need of any training.
Not so the managers below them; they are sent on lots of training courses. Of course as these managers learn from the training they also realise that their bosses are not all that good after all.
Nevertheless, these managers bring back to the workplace the training they have had and start to put it into practice. However, very often they are blocked by their senior managers as they try to make changes. Morale drops, middle managers become embittered and cynical and the organisation slips back into all the old bad habits.
The ultimate losers are the shareholders who have put their faith in the senior managers. All for the want of a little humility and recognition that sometimes you get to the top despite some of your shortcomings not because you are perfect.
If you are a frustrated middle manager why not send the link for this blog to your boss; and if you are the boss why not start by asking what your managers have been learning on those expensive training courses you have been sending them on.
Managing volunteers
Have you ever tried managing volunteers? It is the toughest task in the world and one that I would recommend to any new manager who wants to sharpen up their people management skills. Why?
First of all you didn’t hire them. You arrive on the scene and there they are, doing what they have always done in an unconstructed way.
You can’t fire them. They are volunteers after all so you can’t say you are sacked. You have to live with them and make the very best of their talents.
You can’t discipline them. They could very easily walk away and tell you to get someone else to do it.
When appraisals demotivate
At a recent reception I was talking to a junior solicitor. She had worked for the same law firm for nearly three years but, despite the recession, was planning to leave.
When I asked her why she said that she had had enough promises to last a lifetime none of which had materialised.
It turns out that when she first arrived at the firm she was asked to work on a project which involved a lot of telephone work. She didn’t feel especially confident on the telephone so had asked for some telephone skills training.
Giving feedback
Recently I was talking to a group of managers who expressed difficulty with giving feedback. The crux of good feedback, of course, is not to be judgmental and to ask questions so that the other person reveals the problem and the potential solutions. In other words you lead through questions rather than statements.
There are numerous questions you could ask, but here are just a few to consider:
• The coaching approach – “What did you learn by doing it that way?”
• The inquiring approach – “Why did you do it that way?”
• The exploring approach – “Can you tell me what brought you to come to this conclusion?”
• The challenging approach – “Are there any other ways you could do this?”
• The tying down approach – “Give me some examples of what you mean?”
• The summary approach – “Can we agree that . . .?”
A few years ago, I had a very talented graphic designer within my team. Part of her work was to take commissions from other department within the building. That was fine; except that I noticed that many of the secretaries were sitting in her office and chatting for quite long periods of time.
Clearly this was disruptive to her work and to me it looked as though she was encouraging the time wasters.
Since she was coming up to her appraisal I decided to broach this issue with her. It would have been easy for me to be judgemental and to tell her that it had to stop. Instead I asked her if she was enjoying the variety of work that was coming in from other departments and then talked about the type of work coming in.
It was at this point that she announced that she was enjoying the work but was frustrated that people would linger in her office. Immediately I was able to explore solutions with her through the questioning approach discussed above and we found a workable solution to the problem.
Clash of cliques
Clash of cliques
Have you ever attended a meeting where two cliques start hammering away at each other in a mutually destructive way?
As a bystander who had been asked to attend this meeting to give my thoughts I was horrified. At first all seemed to go well. There were notes to absorb, the Chairman introduced the purpose of the meeting and minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed and agreed.
From there on, whenever one person said something, another person would disagree. Soon it became clear that there were two schools of thought (my polite language for two cliques) and there was to be no compromise. The meeting ended in disarray with the Chairman having lost complete control.
Afterwards the Chairman asked me for my thoughts; what could he do to stop this from happening? I suggested the following actions:
• First he needed to talk to the chief protagonists and tell them that enough was enough. It needed to be done as soon after the meeting as possible and it had to be done in an even handed way without being judgemental
• If that saw a change in the next meeting then the Chairman should ensure that future meetings were very strongly chaired by him
• If there was no change then the Chairman would have no choice but to review who should and should not be on the project group; some people would have to be removed and a smaller group which is more easily Chaired should be put in place
• Meanwhile, project notes should go out earlier (they had been going out last minute) so that more informal discussion could take place before the meeting
• Also the Chairman would have to take a much more strident line, starting the meeting on time, making it clear that all contributions would be time limited and that anyone getting involved in personal attacks would be asked to leave the meeting
• This was a mixed discipline project group, so ultimately the Chairman would have to make it clear that any person asked to leave the meeting would be reported to their line manager.
As a starting point this was going to be a handful for the Chairman to take on, but hopefully it would lead to some short term improvements. Ultimately, of course, he might have to abandon the meetings and seek another way of moving the agenda forward, but that is for the future.
Time boxing
A couple of years ago I had a client who found it very difficult to manage his time. There were jobs he really hated and would avoid doing until absolutely necessary.
He was a self confessed procrastinator, but it had led him into difficulties with his boss and it was damaging his chances of promotion.
I had come across time boxing as a method for project management where meeting timelines is especially important. Then I had attended a networking event where someone else said that they used time boxing but in a different way for their personal time management.
Time boxing is a way of committing yourself to do a task by limiting the pain.
• First identify the task you have to complete
• Then allocate a time to start work on that task. Ideally the time commitment should be limited, perhaps 30 minutes up to an hour. If it is a job you really hate doing then don’t commit to more because you will never start the work
• Allocate the time when you are fresh and alert (ideally early in the morning). This has two effects, you get the time boxing completed and can enjoy the rest of your day and secondly you will feel really good with yourself and find that everything else that day goes well
• With time boxing don’t have to finish the task, although those people who do use the technique say that they often find themselves drawn into and completing the task regardless of the time box commitment
• Then set yourself a small reward for completing the time boxing.
I saw that client again recently. He has some new problems now, but these all centre on a promotion he achieved. Yes he did try out time boxing and it is now part of his routine, although thankfully not every day.
Why not give it a go and lets us know how you got on.
Too many managers
Here is a tale of too many managers – we shall call them Manager A (the top manager), Manager B, Manager C and Manager D.
Manager D is the person we were talking too and he had a bit of a predicament. He was receiving instructions from both his line Manager (C) and her line Manager (B). That might be less than ideal but workable if everyone agreed on the approach to be taken.
However, Manager B was giving instructions with which Manager C did not agree. So our client, Manager D found himself in a very difficult situation, conflicting instructions which caused paralysis of action, and dispute between his two most immediate superiors.
Even worse, this state of affairs had started soon after he arrived into his job and members of his new team were already leaving because of the problems between the two more senior managers.
We haven’t mentioned Manager A yet; well he is the Departmental Head and seemingly is unconcerned about what was happening despite the high level of staff turnover. It might be worth adding that this is a Finance Department that was heading towards its annual audit.
What can Manager D do about this situation? Well it is very difficult because any wrong move could affect his prospects within the organisation, but equally to do nothing is not an option. So we recommended the following:
1. Talk to his immediate line manager (C) in an assertive and non aggressive way. Explain that this situation was causing operational problems because of the conflicting instructions and ask for clarification.
2. Put the details of this conversation in writing, probably an email, to line Manager C as soon as possible after the meeting with a clear understanding of what was agreed.
3. Ask his immediate line manager (C) to talk to her line manager (B) to get agreement on policies and procedures and to explain what had been agreed between her (B) and Manager D.
4. When approached by Manager B with instructions, ask if Manager C was aware of these instructions. Then explain that to avoid confusion he would email Manager C with the new instructions to get her clarification and agreement. Both Managers (B & C) should receive the email. He should keep a record/copy of any replies.
5. If Manager B became aggressive and told Manager D not to consult with Manager C then he should ask for that instruction in writing; always being careful to keep the conversation calm, polite and non personal.
6. If the situation did not improve after a few weeks then Manager D should speak to Manager A to seek further guidance.
7. If none of these actions work, then leave the organisation – life is too short to be in the middle of a war between two senior managers.
Any additional thoughts?
What is trust?
When talking to managers about working with their teams we often talk about trust. Then one manager challenged me and said, OK define trust so that we understand what it looks like.
It was quite a challenge to define trust in quite the way he wanted; but here goes. On the most basic level it means ‘to have confidence in’; but that doesn’t really define trust sufficiently well for the needs of a manager.
Instead I would define trust in management through three elements, openness, integrity and consistency.
Openness is that element that says tell your people as much as you can, and tell it to them in simple easy to understand language rather than wrapping it up in jargon and management speak to make you sound important.
Integrity is another word for honesty, truthfulness and you could say honourable actions. In other words be true to your people and don’t play silly games or politics with them. Also, don’t take credit for their work but give credit where it is due.
Consistency in one sense means being reliable, steady, perhaps even predictable. Managers who fly into a rage are not consistent. Managers who act in a logical way handle situations calmly, deal with people problems in an even handed way so that everyone knows where they stand.
So that defines trust from the direction a manager should be coming; of course trust is a two way thing and the manager should also have trust in their team.