What situations make you feel a little unsure, uncomfortable or less confident about how to handle?

For the new manager, being thrust into suddenly having responsibility for achieving through others can feel daunting, intimidating or overwhelming.   (Particularly when some of those “others” may be people you used to work alongside).

Even for the manager who has been managing for years, with the ever-changing market place, new technologies and a more diverse range of ages and cultures in your workplace, there are likely to be many situations which leave you feeling a little nervous or unsure.

Way back in my career as a teacher, I remember standing nervously in front of 30  expectant, intelligent, articulate individuals, all waiting to see how well I would perform, how successfully I could engage them, and how  much of a “pushover” I was going to be!

Did it make my knees knock a little? You bet!

Later, as I took my first tentative steps towards mentoring, coaching and managing others in industry, I would feel those same feelings: nervousness; worried about my ability to manage what could be some quite tricky situations; concern about how others might perceive me and just a little vulnerable – did I know enough to do this job well?

Where do managers feel a lack of confidence?

There are three key areas which many managers report are the most tricky for them. What are they?

1. Managing others who have higher qualifications than you or who are qualified in a different discipline.
2. Influencing peers or external stakeholders where you have no direct authority, but good working relationships with these people are fundamental to good performance.
3. Managing upwards. Whew is this a biggie! In many of the workshops I run, when I ask people to think of who they most want to be more effective at managing, a staggering proportion of those attending include their immediate line manager or higher  in their top 3.

Each of these situations requires both consummate communication skills and a high degree of self-confidence.

So, what does a manager need to do to increase their confidence in these, or any other, “tricky” situations ?

5 keys to building your self confidence as a manager:

1. Do what you believe to be right – even if others mock or criticise you for it.
   From the moment you take on any management role, others are looking at you to see what kind of a manager you are going to be. Just as those children were “sussing me out” in the classroom all those years ago, your staff are doing the same with you. How you behave sets the scene for everything else.

   This is about two things really:
   a) Getting absolutely clear about what’s really important to you, in terms of what needs to be accomplished, and what attitudes and behaviours you expect. Think of it as creating your own vision of “how we do things around here”.
   b) When it comes to core values about how people work together you never compromise. In all else, you are open to suggestion and influence. In recent studies, outstanding managers, with the highest performing, most committed teams, all had crystal clear ideas about the kind of culture they wanted to create, and what was important to them – and they communicated this to everyone they worked with and  gained “buy in” from all key stakeholders.

   When you feel clear and comfortable about what’s really important to you, and everything you do demonstrates this, even if others don’t always agree with you, they will respect your integrity, trust you, and know where they stand. Chances are  you’ll have fewer tricky situations in future too!

2. 2. Realise you don’t have to know it all.
   There’s a very interesting video on “You-Tube” which really demonstrates the almost frightening pace of change which affects business today. Check out Karl Fisch’s “Shift Happens” when you have a moment.

   For now, it’s useful to see your role, not as being an “expert” at a particular subject, but rather an “expert” at helping to facilitate the expertise of others!

   Instead of being intimidated by someone who seems more qualified than you, ask yourself: “How can I utilise this expertise for the benefit of the individual, the team, and the organisation?”
   When you focus on what you can do to help others help you achieve the overall goals, not only do you get better results, you develop an awesome reputation as a highly skilled leader.

   Every really successful CEO I’ve ever come across sees others’ expertise and ambition as an opportunity – not a threat! The best managers just need to know how to engage smart people to get the job done.

3. 3. Be willing to take risks, and go the extra mile to achieve things
   Building your own sense of personal power and influence comes from being willing to take risks yourself; from facing your fears, and dealing with what you know needs to be done.

   At a personal level, if you don’t face the underperforming member of staff, for example, because you don’t feel confident to deal with it, you become trapped and nothing will be resolved until something forces the situation. Your confidence is likely to decrease even more as time goes on. Meanwhile, don’t kid yourself others aren’t noticing. They are. And this will further dent your confidence.

4. 4. Admit your mistakes – and learn from them
   This really follows on from tip number 4.

   If you’re going to be willing to take risks – you won’t always get it right! However, as long as you learn from that mistake, you will be ready to try something different, and each time you do, you’ll increase your confidence. And if you create a culture where others see it’s OK to make mistakes, you’ll build the confidence of your staff too!

5. Give credit to others
   We all know people who are expert at extolling their own virtues! Individuals who have a high level of self-esteem and confidence don’t need to shout about their accomplishments.

   Don’t feel the need to shout about what you’ve done, or what you know. Instead, give others the limelight at every opportunity. Whether you’re managing up, down or across, think of how you can help others to excel, and you are more likely to be rewarded with excellence.

   And when you achieve excellent results, allow yourself a pat on the back, accept any compliments about how well you managed those diverse individuals gracefully, and get excited about the next challenges!

Those of you who know me, and follow me on a regular basis will know how passionate I am about building workplace cultures where people are motivated, engaged, and giving of their best.

As I prepare for the second day in our new programme, “How to be an Outstanding Manager”, which is all about how to motivate and engage your people, I was revisiting one of mytime favourite books on the topic of getting the best out of people: “How to get the best out of people; the power of positive reinforcement” by Aubrey Daniels.

One aspect of motivating a workforce is, of course, the incentive schemes, or the reward and recognition practices we have in place – and I know of many organisations where “employee of the month”  is part of their reward and recognition practice.

But just how effective is it? And what alternatives do we have?

Aubrey Daniels is interviewed on the topic on You-Tube – and you can find the link below. It’s only a short video – so  worth checking out!

I rather like Daniels’ opening question: (I’ve slightly changed his word “punishment” to “ignore”!)

Question: How many people get positively re-inforced from an employee of the month scheme?

Answer: 1

Question: How many people get ignored?

Answer: all the rest.

Question: Why would you have a management practice where you tended to ignore more people than you reward or recognise?

Daniels goes on to say that “employee of the month” violates every known principle of positive reinforcement.”

Strong stuff! Have to say, I’m with him on this one. 

Take a look at what Aubrey Daniels has to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlMM7ScTTiw

And let me know what you think!

Perhaps you can tell me if you have this scheme in your workplace – and if it does, does it motivate you? Maybe you have some great suggestions of incentive schemes which DO work – in which case, I’d love to hear them!

Warmest regards,

Shona

How clear are you about the kinds of behaviours you want to see – and those you don’t? How clear are those you work with about what the values and beliefs are in your workplace? When they go home, or they talk about their workplace – what do they say?

More importantly, will they say what you want them to say?

For those who work with me, or who come to my “How to be an Outstanding Manager” programme, you’ll know I believe one fo the first things ANY manager needs to do is to get clear about your expectations for your team.

I call it the “How we do things around here” conversation.

Have you ever managed someone who you felt was in the wrong job?

What sort of problems did that cause for you? What sort of problems do you think the “miscast” individual was experiencing?

Have you ever been in a role where:

• You feel you’re simply not utilising the abilities and strengths you really have?
• You spend too much of your time doing tasks you don’t enjoy or which frustrate you?
• You took promotion for that pay rise and the status, but now find the job you do has taken you away from the stuff you really loved and enjoyed doing before you were promoted?
• You feel undervalued?
• You feel out of your depth, or find yourself having to learn in new areas which actually, don’t excite you that much?
• You feel little incentive to do anything other than the minimum required of you?

If you have, then you’ll know it affects adversely performance, not to mention the fact that all parties, the manager, team  colleagues and the individual themselves, will be feeling frustration, tension or stress and even discomfort and unhappiness.

For me, the most unfortunate aspect of people being “miscast” is we are missing the potential “brilliance” if that individual were in the right place, using their natural talents more fully.

Being a square peg in a round hole is just darned uncomfortable.

DOING WHAT YOU DO BEST – EVERY DAY

Gallup, in its rigorous research over 25 years and literally millions of employees, hundreds of organisations and across more than 60 countries, found there were 12 key questions which, if answered positively, would correlate directly with performance in all of the most important measures within a business: turnover; profit; customer satisfaction; staff turnover and attendance – as well as many of the more subjective measures such as employee engagement, creativity and motivation.

One question Gallup asks within those 12 is:

AT WORK, DO I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO WHAT I DO BEST EVERY DAY?

This question was shown to have a direct correlation to customer satisfaction, to profitability and to staff turnover.

Of course, what is behind this question is the whole issue of talent – how do you recognise it? Which talents do you need for a specific role? How can you develop talent? How can ensure you have the right talent match for the specific role?

I was at a recent Chartered Management Institute meeting where the speaker described it really well I thought. Imagine a bus. You’ve decided where the bus is going (the strategy), but now you need:

The right people on the bus.

The right people in the right seats.

The wrong people off the bus.

We can all agree with that I guess. It sounds so simple and so obvious. The problem is, while we know what we should be aiming for, how to do that so we get it right more often than we get it wrong, is sometimes a lot less clear!

EFFECTIVE RECRUITMENT – THE MANAGER’S ROLE IS CRITICAL

So – when it comes to recruitment, what do you do? What sort of processes do you have in place? Do you have a recruitment agency? Does HR do most of the work? How much should you, the manager, be involved? What could or should you be doing to ensure you get it right more often than you get it wrong?

Even if you have an HR department which has already devised processes to support selection and recruitment you must still have a significant involvement in the process to ensure your specific requirements are being met and that together you really do match the right talents with the role.  Do not abdicate responsibility here. A mistake can be extremely costly and can cause you problems for an extremely long time, so give this task the absolute attention it needs.

A THREE STEP APPROACH TO MORE EFFECTIVE TALENT MANAGEMENT

Try this 3 step approach to help you place people in a position where they will play to their strengths more than their weaknesses.

1. Study  your “stars”.
   Find the staff who are performing the best in the particular role you are studying. Ask them some key questions to help you understand and identify the natural talents these top performers display. (If you want to know more about the right kinds of  questions to ask, contact us direct at www.increasingmanagerialsuccess.com/contact )
2. 2. Draw up a role profile.
   Draw up a list/profile of the things your “best performers” tell you they think, feel and do – instinctively and naturally, particularly in the most challenging and critical parts of their jobs.

3. Set up a “talent interview “ as part of your process.
   Whatever process you already employ, if you don’t already do this, try including a “talent interview” in your selection process.  Taking the answers your “stars” have already given you, create questions you can ask of the potential recruit which will help give you a better feel for how this individual will respond to some of the key competencies for the role. What questions could you ask which would help you see if the candidate responds the same as your “stars”?

This whole process will help you as a manager, not just to position people more accurately, it will improve relationships with your staff, and the overall performance of your team.

Have you ever experienced the challenge of motivating someone who is de-motivated? Ever faced the “9 to 5″ ers who put in just what they need to to get by, but no more? Ever wondered how you’re supposed to motivate your team when you’re on the 6th change in as many months? Or maybe you’re wanting to motivate your boss to agree to some initiative he’s been stalling on for months?

Whatever the situation, for many managers, understanding how to successfully motivate their staff, peers or boss can be one of their biggest headaches!

This document gives you an outline of 6 key things you need to take into consideration before you even try to motivate anyone – and a useful tool/exercise to help you reflect on, and plan your strategy so you are more successful.

How do you currently develop and manage talent in your organisation?

Effective talent management will benefit not only the individual and the organisation, it is a critical part of successful succession planning. But a clear understanding of talent is necessary for all those involved in this process, and managers need to practise identifying and nurturing talent in their staff.

This document offers some tips from some of the most robust research into talent in recent years, and gives managers a useful tool/exercise to help you identify excellence in any given role, so you can begin to “benchmark” performance and improve the development process for all of your staff.

Keeping morale high when external circumstances are making things difficult is always a challenge – but are there some managers who still maintain high morale even in tough times? We believe so. Sometimes there are things going on inside your organisation which are negatively impacting on the morale (and therefore the performance) of your staff. To find out what these “morale killers” might be, and to find a tool which can help you and your team identify those “killers”

What is morale like in your team?

And if an organisation is facing a lot of tough challenges, restructuring, or jobs are under pressure, is it possible to maintain strong morale despite the situation?

Whilst the tone for the type of place you work in has to be set at the very top, it’s the job of the managers to implement day in, day out. They’re the “front line”; their behaviours and expectations will set the standards for how people feel and respond to all sorts of situations.

Can a manager improve morale regardless of circumstances?

Yes. I believe they can.

Being a manager is always a challenge. Managing the people bit is always tricky, but maintaining morale, engagement and motivation is a critical part of any manager’s role.

Even in good times a manager needs to maintain engagement and minimise complacency. When business is slow, or there’s lots of internal change and pressure, a manager needs to know how to respond and work with their team in such a way as to keep people on board.

Whatever the strategy for the team or organisation ….

A manager has to win hearts and minds if he or she wants to see their team perform at their best.

But building such high performing teams doesn’t happen accidentally.

It is the result of behaviours, values and beliefs which underpin the way people work together. Sometimes these values or beliefs are unspoken, sometimes they operate at an almost sub-conscious level: but they are still affecting the attitudes, behaviours and performance of every single individual within the team and wider organisation.

It’s up to the manager to communicate “How we do things around here”.

Sometimes, however, despite the best of intentions, despite setting and clearly communicating the expectations and vision for how people work together, some things sabotage the results.  Take a look at the following and see if any of these apply to you or your organisation.

FIVE COMMON “KILLERS” OF MORALE

1. INCONGRUENT ACTIONS
   When the boss does or says one thing – then turns around and does or reinforces the opposite, employees are quick to see the inconsistencies. The more your staff see this happen, the more they lose respect for and trust in the individual manager or the  wider organisation.
   High trust environments are built on consistent and congruent actions.
   Erosion of trust dampens morale and creates negative emotions inconsistent with high productivity.

2. NO ACTION
   Another common failing is leaders who “talk a good talk” – that is they state grand visions, plaster values and belief statements everywhere – but then take little or no action to ensure these grand statements are actually followed through.
   It is hard to expect your staff to take vision statements seriously when staff see that nothing actually happens. They can be forgiven for thinking “we’ve heard this all before”, or “here goes yet another meaningless initiative.”
   Managers must act on their vision – and they must act in a reasonable time frame.

3. OVER-COMPLICATING THE VISION
   Sometimes leaders state visions so complicated people can barely read them – let alone remember them.
   If people can’t remember the vision, chances are it isn’t simple enough.

4. LOST IN DETAIL
   Some managers are so detail oriented that they simply find it hard to understand the idea of vision. They are consumed by detail, and give little attention to thinking about tomorrow and the “big picture” in a creative way.
   It’s not that details aren’t important, but they should not be the sole focus.

5. SABOTAGING THE VISION
   Sometimes, some people within the organisation try to sabotage the vision. They understand it, but try to work in the opposite direction. Other people know they are doing this; and they expect the leadership does too. If nothing is done to stop these efforts then those who are genuinely trying to adhere to the vision end up thinking, “What’s the use?”
   Managers must act swiftly when they see this happening.  And it begins, not with a reprimand, but with a  question – to understand why people are behaving in this way.

Do any of these exist in your team or your organisation?

By taking time to uncover some of these “morale killers”, and taking steps to change things, a manager can improve morale – at least within his or her own team, and sometimes, even despite morale issues in the wider organisation.

What Makes a Bad Boss – Bad?

How can a boss’s behaviour lower morale and affect performance?

I found the following article in my research and reading, which I thought was really interesting – showing as it does some of the feedback from real people, about real incidents and behaviours which makes them unhappy about their manager, and you can bet affects overall morale and performance in that team..

I’ve been working recently on pulling together some ideas to share with managers about ways in which managers and organisations can kill morale, and some of the things listed here certainly fit the bill!