Or perhaps it isn’t going well and you are now looking for someone to blame.

Stop!

Effective Managers take time to review what is going well and what could be improved going forward without assigning blame. They know that assigning blame kills motivation and shuts down the improvement process. They also know that a simple and sincere ‘thankyou’ to individuals in the team makes all the difference.

Effective Managers also know that if the team really isn’t performing as they should, then the responsibility lies with them. By asking the team for suggestions about what to do differently next time, they know they personally will learn valuable lessons.

An effective Manager needs to:

• Review with your team what is working and what isn’t
• Be prepared to change
• Focus on long term success

People work faster and smarter if they feel that they are really part of a team.

Although I’ve been a manager for many years, it took a little while to realise that my team knew stuff I didn’t, and could do stuff I couldn’t. Strangely, while they were also techies, they didn’t always see the world the way I did either. I’m generally an extrovert, so like to meet with people and chew over ideas. Most of my team were introverts and liked to pore over detailed options and didn’t get the point of my open ‘workshop’ meetings. So I had to find a way that worked for all of us. First though, I had to have a 121 meeting with each person to find out about what motivated them. This helped enormously with agreeing objectives. Note, I said ‘agreeing’ not ‘defining’! I was very surprised just how thoughtful and creative many of them were, outside of a workshop.

An effective Manager needs to:

• Understand what motivates each individual member of their team
• Value diversity and creativity
• Focus on creating a whole that is greater than the individual parts

A manager’s listening skills are key to team building, motivation, creating enthusiasm and mutual respect. It’s very easy for a manager to assume that they know everything, and that everyone understands what they mean.

As some of you may know, I’m a member of Toastmasters International where we learn not only to speak well, but also to give feedback.We do this by writing down our feedback and standing up for 2-3 minutes and giving a precis of what went well and ideas for improvement. This truly focusses the mind on effective listening! Getting feedback from a great listener is incredibly motivating and confidence building.

An effective Manager needs to:

• Actively listen
• Put themselves in the other person’s shoes
• Focus on mutual understanding

But thinking win-win does NOT mean being being super nice NOR does it mean folding at the first sign of conflict. Win-win is about cooperation and sharing.

A few years ago, I was promoted to manage 2  merged teams. The only problen was that one of the teams already had a manager who would now report to me. To say he was unhappy is an understatement! After almost 2 weeks, he had managed to excuse himself from every meeting I  attended; in fact he didn’t speak to me beyond hello in the entire 2 weeks. Eventually I cornered him and told him we needed to discuss how we would work together. I chose the office cafe when I knew no-one else would be there and let him rant and rave for about 20 minutes, only nodding and saying that I understood his ire and frustration. Once he’d let off steam I asked him whether HE had any ideas for how we could make this work. After 2 hours we came up with a joint plan, which included me giving up some of my responsibility to him, but not so it would undermine my position and him pledging his support for me as his manager. When we eventually went our separate ways over a year later, he was my greatest advocate.

Effective Managers seek not just to deliver the defined objectives at any cost, but to gain the maximum mutual benefit to all involved. They know that in always keeping the desire for a mutually satisfactory solution in mind, they have a much greater chance of being successful. They know that this may mean sacrifices, but also that they must stand up for important issues too. They know that this means striking a balance between courage and consideration for others.

An effective Manager needs to:

• Build relationships
• Collaborate rather than compete
• Focus on maximum success for ALL participants

This really brought home to me the importance of distinguishing between important and urgent, and the impact of NOT doing it. Effective Managers will know what the wider business priorities are, and will be able to judge whether an ‘urgent’ request is actually important, or whether it can wait. And be able to manage those who can’t tell the difference.

An effective Manager needs to:

• Understand what’s important
• Delegate appropriately
• Focus the team on what’s important

I wasn’t especially fit, but having been brought up on a steady diet of Bruce Lee films, I had the romantic vision of being able to defend myself against all possible physical threats. Well, I did work at Waterloo at the time.I set myself the target of achieving this goal by the time I was 3o. Which gave me just over 3 years. It seemed an impossible goal at the time but, by telling people it became real an,d amazingly I achieved it with 3  months to spare. It wasn’t easy, and I failed my black belt exam the first time. But by keeping the goal clear in my mind, and my mind on my plan, I did finally reached my goal on a cold February day in Bristol.

This made me realise that you can achieve anything, provided you set yourself a goal that you truly believe in, create a viable plan and work hard to achieve it. Afterall, if you don’t have a goal, how will you know when you’ve got there?

Managers are responsible for the achievements of  other people – their team. You are not there to DO, but to produce results via your team.  This also means you need to involve your team in agreeing the goals at the detailed level, but it is your job to create the mission and ensure that you have a stretching, existing and relevant goal.

As far as possible, define the goals in terms that can be measured. Then, as changes are proposed (and they will be!), you have a set of well understood and defined criteria against which to measure the impact and relevance of changes. And there will be changes!

An effective Manager needs to:

• Know the priorities
• Create defined and measurable golas and objectives
• Focus on the desired outcomes

I trained in the esoterics of software development until I could dash off the most perfect software code imaginable. My applications were works of art and in great demand. If you wanted your mini computer to go faster, I was your man (well, woman). I could even take a computer apart, explain what all the different bits did, then put it all back together and run a software demonstration. On the same computer. In front of a live audience.

As I became more experienced (and older), my dream of becoming a manager and being in charge of a team of other techies became a reality.

My first day as a manager came as a big shock. Suddenly I was no longer solving problems I understood. I was no longer the expert. I’d had no management training, but these other people were looking to me to tell THEM what to do. My boss was expecting me to KNOW what to do.

I soon realised that I could not wait for someone to tell ME what to do, I now had to anticipate and act before chaos came down on the team.

An effective Manager needs to:

• Anticipate
• Act
• And only focus on those things you can change or influence and not to moan about those you can’t

Poor managers mean spiralling costs, lousy performance and miserable people. Here are some of bad habits to watch out for (and what to do about them!) This isn’t you……or is it?

Bad Habit #1 – Going through the motions
Bad Managers aren’t very self-aware. They wait to be told what to do and how to do it. And, then when this doesn’t work, they moan and bellyache that it’s someone else’s fault. They have no initiative, other than finding new ways to blame someone else. They are often to be found in a highly structured organisation or one with a ‘blame’ culture. These managers are not actually managing – they are just passing instructions from above to below. This negativity will be draining the life from their team, and killing morale. Dead.
These managers need to be empowered and allowed to make mistakes. They need to learn to take (calculated) risks and responsibility for the outcomes. They need encouragement to think ahead and think positively.

Bad Habit #2 Flying by the seat of your pants
Poor Managers don’t know what they are doing or why. They just react to each situation as it arises. These are the managers still in the office in the middle of the night and recalling their team back from their holidays because they didn’t see the increased workload coming until it plopped down on their desk. They may appear to be great problem solvers – because that’s what they spend all their time doing. What would you prefer – results or lots of problems?
These managers need to set, and agree, goals and have a plan to achieve those goals.

Bad Habit #3 Headless chicken
These managers (and their teams) are also working late. But if you ask them what they’re doing, they’ll say something like ‘I’ve got so many things to do and I can’t trust anyone else to do it’. These managers don’t know the difference between ‘urgent’ and ‘important’, so end up trying to do everything. They often don’t have courage or wit to ask or challenge what they’ve been asked to do. This often means they are poor delegators, as they won’t know what can be delegated.
They need to learn how to prioritize and understand what is important, and what can be left. Time management and assertiveness training may help.

Bad Habit #4 Ghengis Khan
These are the managers prowling the office looking for mistakes by their staff. If their team is successful – they’ll be sure to take the credit. If they make mistakes – they’ll keep them hidden. They are competitive and completely focussed on themselves. They don’t care what the organisations objectives are, as long as THEY get what THEY want. You will see these managers everywhere, but particularly in sales. These managers often have a high turnover of skilled staff.
They need to understand that other people need THEIR needs met too or they will go elsewhere. Whether they are team members, peers, bosses or customers. They need to know that good negotiating skills mean giving as well as taking, and that decisions are more likely to stick if both parties got benefits.

Bad Habit #5 Motor Mouth
Communication is mostly about listening. These managers don’t get this, and assume that everyone thinks like they do so will act like they do. They are constantly surprised by what other people do. They may be inveterate attention seekers too. Although they often appear to be great communicators, if you look closely they will be all surface and no substance. The probably have little idea what the organisation actually does, or know enough about their staff to motivate or develop them.
They need to spend time walking in other people’s shoes. In other words they need to listen more.

Bad Habit #6 Man (or woman) alone
These managers work very hard because, like the headless chicken, they are doing most of the work themselves. But although these managers do know the priorities – they are afraid to make a mistake and don’t know how to share responsibility and actions. These are the managers who are still doing their technical role long after they became the manager.
They need to talk through the priorities with the rest of the team and their bosses. They need to trust people more and respect their skills.

Bad Habit #7 The Luddite
If these managers were in charge, we’d still be living in caves. They will be saying things like ‘we always do it this way’, when patently it no longer works. Sadly, they don’t see the point of improvement or change for the better. They will be the managers still using the internal paper process after the whole company has switched to an electronic system. They don’t learn from mistakes and don’t strive to improve what they do.
They need to learn that just because something worked fine 10 years ago, may not work for a similar situation now. They also need to recognise that we are learning new things all the time, and that this brings improvements and can make life more interesting, productive and more fun.

If you’ve found this blog to be interesting, and would like to know more about how to improve your management, why not give us a call or email for a free management review. Or sign up to our newsletter for more tips.

There is lots of stuff written about the key success factors in selling, but they all boil down to these:

Focus on the buyer. It’s very easy to get so enthusiastic about your products, services or even you ideas, that you forget about that very crucial person – the customer or buyer. Unless you understand fully what they need, what they want, how will you ever be able to persuade them that you have the right solution? This means doing research, asking open questions, truly listening to the answers and caring about what they really, really want.

Radiate credibility. We’ve all been to high street shops and encountered sales people who appear to know nothing about what they have to sell. They’ll refer you to the brochure or wander off because they can’t be bothered. How does this make you feel? You should know what your products can do, how to use it, what competitive products there are and how yours are better.

Create value You might think you have the greatest product, service or ideas in the world, but if they don’t meet your customers needs, those customers won’t buy them. You need to demonstrate that you understand your cutomers needs, and show how your product etc. will fullfill those needs. This doesn’t mean beating them into submission, but explaining to them, clearly and courteously, what value you will bring to their needs.

Easy really!

A coach is someone who has been trained to ask questions that will help you to focus on identifying the options you already know about, but may find it hard to choose between. They will motivate you, but usually don’t have any direct experience of your business situation and cannot offer additional suggestions.

A business or management consultant is generally someone who has direct experience of your business situation and will be able to offer alternative solutions, which they will expect to implement for you.

A mentor falls somewhere inbetween. They will ask questions about your situation, offer alternative solutions based on their own experience, help you choose between these and your own ideas and motivate you to learn how to solve them your self. The main difference is the transfer of knowledge from them to you.