We work with many managers and supervisors who would not have problems–or could have minimized their problems–if they had said, “I am sorry” or “I need your help.” This sounds easy enough. But if it is so easy, why do some people in leadership find it so hard to use these two simple skills that our mothers taught us at a very early age?
Often when managers refuse to say, “I am sorry” or “I need your help,” it’s because the managers or supervisors view these actions as a sign of weakness or lack of confidence in their decisions. In one particular case, a manager was willing to lose his job rather than to admit he was in the wrong and say he was sorry. This manager repeatedly stated he could not say he was sorry because he felt he had done nothing wrong. It was the principle of the matter! The manager was fired, but he was able to leave the company singing, “I did it my way.” His ego got him into trouble. It was his pride that kept him there.
Great Managers Keep Their Employees Uncomfortable!
Most managers feel they should keep everyone on their team happy and comfortable. But, we have found such managers usually have poor long-term job security. They are secure for a period of three to five years, then they are let go or moved to a less significant position by the organization. Why are they moved to positions of less influence? Because the whole world rapidly changed while their focus was on keeping people happy and comfortable. Major problems in the areas of customer satisfaction, quality, timeliness, or cost-competitiveness have usually occurred.
To be successful, your focus needs to be on staying ahead of your competition. The problem with rapid change is that it usually makes people feel uncomfortable, unhappy, and fearful. The following recommendations can help keep your people “uncomfortable” while ensuring your department or firm’s long-term success.
Good managers, supervisors, and leaders take specific actions to create a climate that is conducive to open and honest communication. In this open communication climate, people feel free to give their input and ideas, information is shared freely, conflicts are openly discussed and worked through, and people are more willing to express innovative ideas and to take risks.
The basis of the open communication climate is trust. The leader establishes an environment of trust within and among all the people in the group. To begin to build or expand trust in your organization and to foster an open communication climate, try some of the following tips.
We recently asked a group of seminar participants, “Would the people who work with you on a daily basis consider you to be a motivating leader?” On a scale of one to five, with one low and five high, only about one-third of the participants rated themselves either a four or five. We then talked about what makes a leader a motivator.
Research in emotional intelligence has demonstrated that most individuals are looking for three basic needs to be met in their life if they are to be motivated. First, people want to be appreciated and recognized for their contributions. Second, most people want to be cared for; and third, most people want to be given the opportunity to grow.
As a leader who wants to motivate, there are ways to meet these three basic needs and, in the process, become an even stronger leader.
All managers know that part of “the job” is to motivate their workforce of direct reports. Motivating others is a never-ending responsibility and most managers are continually searching for new and creative ways to encourage employees to get the job done. But, too little has been written or shared about how managers can raise their personal level of motivation. The challenges managers face on a daily basis can send them home in the evening emotionally drained. A manager may rightfully ask, “How am I supposed to motivate others when I am not personally motivated?” That is a great question. The following six tips will encourage you to explode in a positive and exciting way, even in the toughest of times.
During a recent leadership seminar, a participant stated that he felt this “Vision” thing was highly overrated. He went on to add that although it may have value for the executives to create a vision for the organization, there is little value for managers or supervisors to create their own visions.
To define the term concisely, a vision is a clear mental picture of a desired future outcome. A vision is like the picture on a jigsaw puzzle box. It shows you exactly what you are trying to create. Call it a vision, mission, purpose, philosophy, or values…the labels vary, but they usually describe the same thing: the overarching purpose of an organization. Some organizations even give employees laminated copies of these carefully crafted, highly worded sentiments, which get placed in a wallet or purse, or better yet, are used as the bookmark for the corporate policy manual.
The problem with the “vision” thing is twofold. First, some organizations do not have a clear vision of where they are heading. Second, other organizations have a stated vision, but they are not living the vision or bringing it to reality. Both of these problems will cause motivation, morale, and productivity to decline.
Invest in Employee Engagement: it will prove worth your while
The buzz word most associated with employee satisfaction these days is “engagement.” As recently as two years ago we were writing about the impending talent drain, as boomers would be leaving the workplace in masses for retirement. We stressed the importance of creating a workplace where employees would feel motivated, enthused and most importantly, “engaged.”
That was two years ago. Today the whole business landscape has changed. As of December 2009, California’s unemployment rate is 12.1%. Massive layoffs have had a profound impact on not only the way we do business, but on the employees who are left shell-shocked after layoffs, wondering if and when the axe may fall on them. We’re not hearing the word “engaged” much these days as it relates to employees. In fact, some leaders have been so bold as to say, “I really don’t care what employees think and how they feel. They have a job and should be grateful to have survived the last round of cuts.”
The following poem, written by an author known as “anonymous,” brings a humorous light to our hesitancy to delegate work to others.
“Functions of a Supervisor”
As nearly everyone knows, a supervisor has practically nothing to do except, to decide what is to be done;
to tell somebody to do it;
to listen to reasons why it should not be done, why it should be done by someone else, or why it should be done in a different way;
to follow up to see if the thing has been done;
to discover it has not been done;
to inquire why it has not been done;
to listen to excuses from the person who should have done it;
to follow up again to see if the thing has been done, only to discover it has been done incorrectly;
to point out how it should have been done;
to conclude that as long as it has been done it might as well be left where it is;
to wonder if it is time to get rid of a person who cannot do a thing right;
to reflect that he/she probably has a significant other and a large family,
and certainly any successor would be just as bad and maybe worse;
to consider how much simpler and better the thing would have been done
if one had done it oneself in the first place;
to reflect sadly that one could have done it right in 20 minutes, and now one has to spend two days to find out why it has taken three weeks for somebody else to do it wrong!
Over the last several years, Peter Barron Stark Companies has surveyed the opinions of over 100,000 employees in companies throughout the United States. Some of the companies we have surveyed have referred to their employees as “employees.” Other organizations have referred to their employees as “associates,” “staff members,” or “team members.” What we have learned is that there is not much correlation between how a company or department refers to their “employees” and overall employee satisfaction. However, there is a direct correlation between how involved employees are in the decision making in their department or team and their overall morale, motivation, and satisfaction with their jobs. Companies and departments who have a higher level of employee involvement in decision making show higher levels of employee motivation and satisfaction.
All managers and supervisors would like everyone to think that they involve employees in the decision making of their department or team. But, if you ask each employee in your department the following five questions in an anonymous survey, would they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree?
How to Encourage and Receive Constructive Criticism
Have you ever said to your employees, “I value your input. Talk to me. Let me know how I’m doing. My door is always open, and I encourage you to give me feedback”? Now, here is the real test. Did you really mean it and did your actions demonstrate your willingness to listen to employees who were brave enough to give you feedback on your performance?
Would you agree that it’s easier to ask for employee input than to receive actual feedback? We give employees one message, but do our actions or responses, whether they are verbal or nonverbal, really convey our sincere interest in the feedback they may have for us? Was this employee heard?
In our work with managers and supervisors, one of the areas where they express the most discomfort is in regards to giving feedback. We have heard the following reasons (excuses) for avoiding the process: “I tried it before and it didn’t work”; “I kept hoping that the problem would go away”; “I thought somebody else would take care of it”; and “I didn’t want to upset the individual.”
Feedback can be a powerful tool to build relationships and share useful information as to how we perceive others. However, as with any tool, it can be misused as a weapon. Instead of being used to help people make choices and build new behaviors, it can be used to tear people down. In this special two-part series on feedback, we’ll provide you with the information and steps on how to use this valuable tool. In this entry, we’ll discuss how you can give feedback responsibly and effectively. In tomorrow’s entry, we’ll look at the challenges involved in receiving feedback in a non-defensive and accepting manner.
While many of us can relate to being afraid of hearing feedback, what we often forget is that the person giving the feedback is uneasy too. Giving feedback is a skill, generally one that we haven’t been taught. It’s no wonder that people are afraid to hear what we have to say. What often comes out are accusations, blame and judgments.
The following are guidelines to assist you in giving effective feedback:
Robert F. Kennedy once said, “About twenty percent of the people are against any change.” Our findings, in working with managers and supervisors tasked with leading organizational change, support Kennedy’s theory. No matter how effective a leader you are, it is not uncommon for you to periodically find your change efforts being challenged, or even sabotaged. Some people seem to come programmed with a basic distrust of any change and will work frantically to preserve “the way things used to be around here.” While we can’t change the behavior of others, we can change our own. The following six tips will help you successfully lead your team forward, even if you face a sea of resistance.
In this video, Peter gives 10 keys to strategically lead organizational change. This is a continuation of our November issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence. Sign up here!
Here is a quick summary of the tips that Peter outlines in the video above:
When we ask participants in seminars why it is important to listen, the responses almost always relate to the need to gain accurate information from employees. That is correct, but it’s only a small part of the reason why it’s important to listen. A greater concern to a leader should be that their employees truly believe that their leader cares about them. One way to say that you truly care about employees and value their opinions is by listening to them with undivided attention.
The following tips will help you to listen more accurately and convey the feeling to others that you really do care about them and value their opinions. Listening involves not only hearing the speaker’s words, but also understanding the message and its importance to the speaker, and then communicating that understanding to the speaker.
Following these five guidelines will improve your listening ability:
A lot of leaders are uncomfortable with the word “care.” Does a manager really have to care about subordinates to get them to do the job they are paid to do? The answer is “no.”
You can get people to do what they are paid to do by using all sorts of manipulative tactics. You could easily tell employees that if they do not get a task done, you will give them a negative performance appraisal, and that, in turn, will make them ineligible for the next round of raises. That may work. Or you may have employees who do “exactly what you tell them to do.” What you will not have is a workforce that is motivated to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Why? Because you do not care about them. Their level of care for you as an individual, or your success as a manager, is lacking because of their limited relationship with you.
True leaders understand that success does not depend on their titles, but on the values they uphold and the choices they make on a daily basis. They know that leadership is not achieved through technical expertise, but rather is based on a relationship with their followers. It is our hope that the following insights will help you with the “relationship savvy” you need to be a great supervisor, and an outstanding leader.
Acknowledge that the world is rapidly changing.
You can decide that you are going to help create change and learn from it, or you can try to resist change. The current state of the economy is proof that it is important to change. Managers and employees alike will need to remove themselves from their comfort zones, whatever those may be, to enable their organization to survive the economy and come out on top.
Senior management plays a significant role in the overall communication that flows down to employees. Despite their efforts, communication continues to be an issue within many organizations. According to our Employee Satisfaction Surveys, only 54.9% of employees feel that communication flows effectively from upper management to employees. This is unfortunate because when management does not consistently communicate openly with employees, especially in this economic climate, the result is an unproductive work environment filled with speculative rumors and a loss of trust in management.
When the CEO or president regularly communicates with all employees, whether through e-mail, video, or a town hall meeting, most employees appreciate the communication. The challenge for senior managers is that they will never be fully effective at getting the communication down to the front lines unless they are supported by managers and supervisors who place a high value on making sure employees are “in the loop.”
The following ten tips will help increase your effectiveness when communicating with employees. These tips are simple, however, they can make a world of difference in an organization. Our experience tells us that when managers use these techniques, employees notice not only better communication with their boss, but greater morale in their department.
A company’s success and reputation often ride on the people they select for management positions. Personality, approach, and style may vary from one manager to another, but we have found the best managers have six traits in common.
Desire to serve others
The best managers take an interest in serving both internal and external customers. This contradicts the old-school belief that when you became a manager or supervisor, your direct reports are there to serve you. When employees know that managers have a desire to do whatever it takes to help them become successful in their jobs, employees and fellow team members will go out of their way to help the manager or supervisor, and the organization, be successful.
Simple Words Make a Significant Difference in Developing Leadership
The most important six words: “I admit I made a mistake,”
The most important five words: “You did a good job,”
The most important four words: “What is your opinion?”
The most important three words: “Would you please…”
The most important two words: “Thank you,”
The most important word: “We,”
The least important word: “I.”
Author unknown
I Admit I Made a Mistake
Whenever supervisors and managers are able to admit they made a mistake, they have demonstrated two important leadership skills. First, high self-esteem and confidence. A supervisor or manager who lacks self-esteem and confidence will most likely defend wrong actions at all costs. Second, the need for growth. Supervisors and managers who can admit they have made a mistake will most likely have followers who will go out of their way to help correct their leader’s shortcomings.
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