Archive for Leadership Development
Managing Change
Posted by: | CommentsManaging change in the workplace is a constant job function for a supervisor. The change might be as simple as a new customer service
policy, or it might be as impactful as merging with another company where job layoffs are inevitable.
What makes change easy or difficult to deal with is how your team adapts to it. And how your team adapts to it has a lot to do with how you as a supervisor manages the change.
Some people are exhilarated by change, and even need regular changes in their job duties to be happy, but many others hate change, and are even terrified by it. Rolling out a big change might even turn your best team member in to a difficult employee due to their fears. You’re not just managing the change itself, but helping everyone adjust to it and, ideally, even embrace it.
There are a couple things that you absolutely need to do in order for it all to work…….
- Be consistent….. Sounds simple but often overlooked. Keep your message and behavior consistent.
- Keep is simple…. The more complicated you make something the more your people will resist it.
- Communicate….. Often and clearly!
- Be optimistic….. Look at the positives for anything, it’s you JOB and responsibility to sell the program, that’s what your company pays you for! The trick is to listen to your team, be sincere, and keep it positive.
- Lead by Example! Do NOT let yourself breath a word of negativity about the change, not even to your support staff!
Communicate Frequently
The biggest key to effectively managing change in the workplace is communication. Just as you want to know what changes are coming and what they mean for you, so does your team.
With changes come rumors. One way to stop, or at least reduce rumors, is to keep information flowing both ways. As soon as it’s feasible to start communicating the changes, do so, even if you don’t have all the information yet. Give information to your team and take viable team concerns to your supervisors.
Communicate Honestly
People appreciate honesty, even if it’s bad news they’re receiving. For instance, if jobs will be lost during the change, let them know some jobs will be eliminated and why. Let them know when this will happen so every day they’re not wondering “is today the day.”
One thing that can hurt your credibility is if you give them a “sales job” and they can tell. You need to focus on the positives. If there are some negatives it’s okay to acknowledge them, a good way to move the conversation forward is to have a brainstorming session as a group some effective ways to overcome whatever negatives.
This doesn’t mean there will be no hard feelings. But it will go smoother.
Engage Others
Some on your team may embrace the changes coming. Use them to help allay fears with the others on your team.
Empower those on your team to help with the changes if possible. Even better, engage them in the decision making process if at all possible – even if it’s a small part of it. When people have a say in the change, they will embrace it quicker.
If you have group meetings use a dry erase board or maybe a giant piece of paper. Brainstorm benefits and difficulties, everything anyone can think of. Then systematically go through each item and ask the group which things they control. Most things on the list are usually controllable and as a group it helps eliminate mental road blocks.
Plan, plan, then plan some more.
Good planning before the change is essential to a smooth change transition. Make sure your plan includes in-depth communication to the employees, has contingencies for issues that might arise during the change, and is clear on who is responsible for which parts of a change.
Even the smoothest change may still ruffle feathers. A change that is undeniably for the best is likely to meet with resistance, as odd as it may sound. Some people just hate change. You’re more likely to see this among the older generations and among employees who have been around a long time, doing the same thing year after year. They tend to like the predictability. They do what they do, how they do it, because “that’s what we’ve always done”.
The key with that group is make sure you don’t minimize them, if you do you risk alienating them. Some of the most tenured employees can be your strongest allies, you can’t afford undermining your leadership by mishandling them. I always had to be aware of this tendancy in myself because I love change and new things, but I learned to always be aware of political capital and use it. Use it or lose it.
If you have a group meeting you can also use it as a productive way to do some planning. Involve the group, get some ideas, you will usually be happy you did and it will make your job easier.
But you, armed with a plan and strong communication, can win them over.
Management Topics
Posted by: | CommentsAhhhh…………. Being a manager………….. 
I can’t count how many times over the years I’ve had managers tell me they are “tired of baby-sitting”, “why should I have to tell them over and over”, and add your own……..
But managing is essential and doing well can be a more rewarding experience than you can imagine, from “thank you” cards, seeing subordinates get promoted and be successful, to getting your own promotions.
I can remember a couple years ago telling an Assistant Manager how impressed I was with him and I bet he would go far. He said, “You know, you are to thank for where I am.” I looked at him, not knowing what he meant, so I asked him what he meant. “You interviewed me a couple years ago, you were leaving that building the next day because you were promoted and you told me I could go as far as I wanted with this company”, he said, “Don’t you remember that?”
Sadly, no I didn’t….. Why? Because I did hundreds of interviews and in almost every one I could see potential in those people.
The same thing happened with another manager, I had worked with her when she was a department supervisor, she was promoted and in passing one day I congratulated her for her promotion. She said, “It’s all thanks to you because you always told me I could be anything I wanted.” Of course I didn’t remember because I said that to many people over the years, but I smiled to myself, glad I had taken the time back when I did to encourage her.
The power of words….. The power to help people move up and move on…..
How will you use your power?
I can tell you there is NOTHING more rewarding than helping others be successful.
Management Topics is such a large clump of topics that don’t really fit in my other categories, but I want you to know, they are all related.
What kind of influence are you going to be? You have complete power over the answer to that question.
Time Management
Posted by: | CommentsNew managers and experienced managers all face at least one common challenge – time management in the workplace.
A meeting here, an employee crisis there, another meeting, terminating an employee, answering questions from the team, chatting with co-workers who stop by… before you know it, your work day is gone and you feel like you’ve accomplished nothing substantial or tangible.
You can feel like you are in a maze with no way out and no idea where you are going.
Before being able to effectively manage your day, you need to be aware of time-suckers. These can come to you as legitimate aspects of your job or extraneous, non work-related time leeches.
Learning how to identify and manage time suckers will add productivity to your day and make your manager wonder how you get so much done.
Track Your Day
Spend a week tracking everything you do in a day. If you have an informal hallway meeting with your boss for 15 minutes, log it. If you take a quick smoke break, log it. If you answer four phone calls from your family, log them.
This will open your eyes to just how much time is spent on non-productive tasks and identify to you those which are the worst offenders. And you might be surprised to know which really take the most time.
The higher level of manager you are and the more employees you manage, the more your time needs to flow, so tracking down every thing won’t work. You may need to take notes at the end of the day and look at time robbers then.
The other thing you need to do is analyze what has to be done vs. what doesn’t. As a manager one of your primary duties is to protect time.
As I always told my team, “Time is my only non-renewable resource.”
You must be considerate of your team’s time if you have any hope of being successful. There are other factors for time as well. I said this on the another page and I will recommend it again, David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done has many great tips. He talks about removing yourself from distractions, or more importantly getting them out of your way for real productivity.
Mental “clutter” can get in the way of every other kind of productivity. It causes you, as a manager, to miss opportunities and not fully connect with what is going on now. I’ll say it again, you need to know what things aren’t essential to really move the needle on productivity.
Meetings
The larger the company you work for, the more your day may be managed by meetings you’re invited to and expected to attend. Accept only those you really need to attend.
And when it’s your turn to lead meetings, invite only those who are truly necessary (out of respect for their time management) and learn to run an expeditious meeting. It’s not a bad thing to have a reputation for holding short meetings!
Have an agenda and handouts so people can take notes, this will keep the meeting going and help keep everyone focused.
There are exceptions to everything I said above…. IF you are in a dynamic change situation, “turning things around”, building your team or any other number of those types of scenarios, it’s important to have meeting with all personnel that may impact, help, or whatever. I am going to need to information on specific steps for those scenarios because I get questions about those topics all the time.
Chatters
Every workplace has a chatter. Or several chatters. They want to talk about last night’s TV shows, the condition of the economy, and their inconsiderate spouse, children or neighbors. If six people stop you to chat during the day, even for only 10 minutes each, you’ve just lost an hour of work. Are the chatters stopping to talk to your team members? Are the chatters on your team?
While you don’t necessarily want to snub everyone who wants to chat with you, you should be armed with some effective conversation-enders so you can return to the job you’re being paid for.
The further up you move in management the more important it is for you to chat constructively. You have to chat some but you need to make sure you spread it around to everyone.
Another important key is to make sure your employees don’t think you are wasting time. Be aware what is going on. If everyone is under pressure to get things done, you better be right there in the thick of things and not out there “chatting”.
Don’t Do What You Don’t Need To Do
Two ways you can manage your time more effectively are to prioritize your day in a list and to delegate tasks.
Before you start your day, make a list of the tasks you need to accomplish that day. As much as possible, work on that number one task until it’s done, then proceed to the next task. You might want to put the most important task on the top of the list, or you might want to put the task you hate the most on top, just to get it done and off your mind.
Delegation has multiple benefits as well. First, you don’t spend time doing a task someone else can do.
And second, entrusting a task to someone on your team gives them more responsibility, increases their self esteem and lets them become more important to the company because they can do more.
Here are a few tips that will make delegating easier.
- Start small. You need to start with small tasks to get used to it.
- Make sure any task you give to someone matches their experience level.
- Ask the person to repeat back to you what you said. Don’t make it sound like you want to make sure “they” are right, tell them you are making sure you spoke correctly.
- Make sure you tell them where to reach you if they have a question.
- Give a specific timeline.
- Don’t get angry if it turns out wrong, ask what you said to help yourself understand how it went wrong.
There are many ways to help you improve your time management in the workplace. Try several and see which work best for you. You (and your boss) will be glad you did!
Good Leadership Skills
Posted by: | CommentsMany people consider themselves to have good leadership skills when in reality they’re better at discouraging than encouraging. They’re better at scattering people than gathering people around them. Just being in a leadership position does not turn a person into a leader any more than sitting in a garage turns a person into a car.
Leadership seems to be innate in a few people, but most of us have to learn how to be a good, effective leader.
What are Good Leadership Skills?
Good leadership skills encompass so many aspects, they are rather intangible.
Yes, a leader leads in the most basic definition, but how do they gain the trust of those following them? How do they make people feel safe in their situation, even if it’s a dangerous situation? What do they do that makes people say, even years later, “She was such a great person to work for” or, “If he hadn’t been my boss, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am today.”
There is nothing more rewarding than helping others to be more successful. If you help others to improve their abilities and they are able to better provide for themselves and their family, what is better than that?
Good Leaders Care
Good leaders care about those they lead and seek to provide for their well-being. A military commander tries to keep his troops alive and win their battles. Parents work to provide a house and food. Supervisors look for opportunities to better their employees, perhaps through additional training and responsibilities that prepare them for promotions.
It’s important to care about your people, there isn’t a way to shortcut this. If you don’t care there are several books that can help you care and understand caring. You can get training and coaching on Emotional Intelligence and it will help. (It helped me!)
Good Leaders Listen
Good leaders listen. They assimilate information and process it against the big picture goal. They listen to people who work above them to understand the big picture and company goals. They listen to team members working for them to understand their concerns and ideas.
Good leadership skills
The best information you can get is from your people. Your people have vital information, perspectives, understanding, even tidbits they hear from other departments or competitors. Your people have good ideas, if you are fair and manage them well they will do their best to help the team succeed. Build the team. Follow the steps, use the tools.
Good Leaders Change
Because change in life and business is inevitable, a leader has to be able to adapt well to change. More than just adapting, good leaders continually look for ways to improve a situation and, where possible, initiate positive changes themselves.
One saying you can be assured is accurate “The only constant is change.” Don’t fight it, it’s useless. Embrace it. Use the change to build your team and help them grow from it. There’s no point making a negative if you can turn something into a positive. Every chance you can turn negatives (or spin them) into positives is a win for you and your team.
Good Leaders Share
Leaders are all about teamwork, not dictatorship. Now, your position may have you working in a bureaucratic type of environment where “the rules are the rules” and there’s not much room for creativity. You can still be an effective leader to your team. You can still encourage, listen, create goals for their personal and professional growth, and develop them into the best team in the company. It just takes adapting to your situation.
You can create motivational fun things with potlucks, movie tickets. Find leadership development material and have a mini-series of classes for them, they will appreciate it and become better managers themselves. Volunteer as a group to paint a children’s center or volunteer as a group somewhere, have a cause that matters. If the company is stifling you should try to find outlets for creativity of your team.
These are only a few good leadership skills. Do you recognize any in yourself? If you don’t already you can if you want to.
Leadership Theories
Posted by: | CommentsGreat Leaders are born, not bred.
Perhaps you’ve heard this statement. Perhaps it’s even discouraged you because, although you want to be a leader, or have even been promoted into a position of leadership, you doubt your own leadership skills and abilities.
Don’t give up. The “leaders are born” statement and others like it are leadership theories, not necessarily leadership facts.
Actually, there are other leadership theories that favor those of us born to regular parents, rather than being 
descendants of great historical leaders like George Washington or Martin Luther King, Jr.
Great Man Theory
To be more specific, the “leaders are born” theory is formally called the Great Man Theory. It also purports that when there is a need for a leader, a leader will arise.
You’ve seen the Great Man leadership theory in practice. Some of the reality shows like Survivor and Big Brother cast groups together from which leaders emerge. Leaders, even if informal, arise in military boot camps. They’re the ones encouraging others who struggle to complete the physical challenges or to motivate those ready to quit boot camp.
Trait Theory
Similar to the Great Man Theory is the Trait Theory. The Trait Theory suggests people are born with specific, inherited traits, and that the right combination of inherited traits makes a person suitable for leadership.
An example would be the child that takes charge of the neighborhood to organize a game of hide and seek, that introduces others to a group and ensures everyone plays together.
Behavioral Theory
For those who are genetically challenged in the leadership DNA department, the Behavioral Theory says leaders can be made. Part determination, part training, and voila! A leader emerges.
The reality?
All three have merit. Why is it among a group of young kids, one emerges as a “natural born leader”? Is it genetics? Is it because they are raised in a way that unleashes leadership traits?
Leadership theories
Why is it in the face of disaster, a normally quiet, unassuming, even shy person suddenly gets a surge of something deep inside, stands up among the group and says, “C’mon… this is what we’ve got to do to get through this…” and they start delegating tasks to ensure the survival of the group?
Perhaps you’ve felt this very feeling yourself. A tough or dangerous situation faces you. You look around. Everyone else is looking around, too. Nobody takes charge. You feel a stirring in your gut, an inner voice that says, “Stand up! Take charge! You know what needs to be done. Do it!”
You’ve seen possible Trait Theory leaders when sons and daughters take over a family business generation after generation. Did the children inherit the right combination of traits from their parents to make them the next generation of company leader? Or, as the Behavior Theory suggests, could it be that the children of great leaders become leaders simply because that is what they are trained for by their parents, even unconsciously?
A good author who is an easy read
An amazing author who has written exhaustively about leadership is Malcolm Gladwell. In his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, on page 245 he talks about leadership. In the beginning he understood leadership development as primarily a process of personal development. That’s still part of his leadership theories, but he’s added understanding of the importance of leadership in a team, and, especially, the importance of developing other leaders.
The book is practical. Leadership is a skill that you continually develop. You learn most of it on the job, by trying things out, observing how you do, and adjusting how you do things in the future based on results and feedback.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership gives you a great starting point for learning. At the end of each chapter there’s a section on applying this lesson to your life. There’s also a law called “The Law of Process” that reminds you that “Leadership develops daily, not in a day.”
There’s no promise of magic here. But you can count on improved results if you use the book to guide your actions.
If you like to read another great book that has good, real life examples is It’s Your Ship, by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. Excellent book! I read it a few years ago and then reread it!
A must read if you run teams, especially more complex teams with higher level personnel is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. If you have staff that is knowledgeable you also end up with issues regarding egos, trust, hierarchy, and more. This book was fantastic at explaining some of those problems.
