Archive for October, 2009

Leading and managing is tough and requires a huge amount of skill, experience, knowledge and personal attributes.  So for something completely different, this article shares my ideas on the complete A to Z of leading and managing.

 

Now I am sure that you will have heard some of these before so what I want you to focus on is how you might apply each of these tips on a day to day basis. 

 

A is for acknowledging others and a bias for action.

B is for maintaining balance between life and work and bringing out the best in others.

C is for clarity of purpose, communicating effectively and making great choices.

D is determining the direction or strategy, deciding what to do and decisiveness.

E is emotional competence, enthusiasm and evolution.

F is for focusing on what matters, treating everyone fairly and having fun. 

G is for goal setting, giving effective feedback, getting the best from teams.

H is for honesty, helping others to achieve success, taking the hard decisions.

I is for innovation, idea generation and interest in other parts of the organisation.

J is for making judgements even when you have imperfect information.

K is for keeping your knowledge up to date and knowing what you do best.

L is for lifelong learning and listening effectively to others contributions.

M is for maintaining morale in good and bad times, motivating others and making decisions.

N is noticing the great things that people are doing day in and day out.

O is for optimism, spotting and exploiting opportunities and being open to ideas.

P is for professionalism, personal and team productivity and performance.

 

Q is for quality, using questions effectively to deal with challenging situations and gain insights.

 

R is for results focus, recognising the talents of others and balanced risk taking.

 

S is for setting strategy, finding solutions and standing back from the detail.

 

T is for taking control of your time, taking responsibility and team development.

 

U is for understanding expectations and using the range of team skills and expertise.

 

V is for understanding your values, creating organisational values and valuing others.

 

W is for working with others, aiming to create win-win outcomes and tackling time wasters.

 

X is slightly challenging so I am going to cheat. X is for using your experience effectively.

 

Y is about knowing when to say yes, knowing yourself and your development needs.

 

Z is about not immediately discounting zany ideas before you have properly considered them.

 

Got some personal tips to share?  Leave a comment with your favourite A to Z leadership and management tips.

 

Put the same problem in front of 10 different groups in any organisation and they will all view it differently.  We all, to a greater or lesser extent view things through our own unique lens or perspective.

Let’s look at something that is probably quite topical in organisations right now, which is cost reduction.  One area of commonality is that every individual or group will be thinking what does it me for me or us. 

On the other hand if you asked people for their views on how others might view the issue, you might hear something like the following:

“The accountants will be in their element and finally feel like they are doing something useful”

“At last an opportunity to reign in those rogues in sales and marketing who never pay attention to any financial procedures”

“The CEO is only interested in engaging us to save his or her own skin”

“I hope that they don’t expect us to contribute as we are already cut to the bone in terms of staffing”

“No doubt it will be the lowest paid and least respected that will get a rough deal”

So if you are the leader who is trying to move things forward, how can you utilise these different perspectives?

Listen a lot

The real challenge is to get to the heart of the issue and that requires you to listen.  You often find that what they are presenting as the surface level problem is not the real issue.

Ask questions

Questions are another great way of really understanding the different perspectives.  Combine this with great listening and you are going to be well ahead of most.

Stand back from the detail

It is all too easy when times are tough and difficult choices need to be made to unconsciously become a collaborator.  While you need to listen and understand, don’t let it result in you losing sight of the issue or challenge.

Be open

In organisations, it is often the people closest to the point of delivery that come up with the best solutions.  Be open to these opportunities rather than needing to be right.

Bottom Line – We all to a greater or lesser extent view challenges through one lens. The challenge to be more successful when it comes to team effectiveness is learning to understand and utilise the different perspectives.

If you are a leader you will be leading at least one and in reality probably multiple teams.  Building a successful team is a challenge but there are some simple things that you can do to greatly enhance the likelihood of success.

Be clear on the results

If you are to have any chance of building a successful team you need to start by getting clear about the outcome or result that is to be achieved.  The result needs to be specific and written in a language that will be understood by everyone.  Remember that vague specification of results is likely to lead to okay but less than optimal outcomes.

Be clear about the skills you need

A successful team needs to have the right blend of skills to deliver the results.  A soccer team for example needs the right mix of defensive, attacking and creative players.  A business team is no different.  Get clear on the essential skills to deliver the results you want.

Be clear about the attributes that are needed

Skills are important but they are only part of what helps you achieve results.  Attributes or interpersonal qualities are just as important.  They include areas like motivation, influencing, relationship building, personal drive and resilience to name just a few.  Make sure that you don’t lose sight of having the right attributes when building your team.

Bring out the best in everyone

It’s all too easy to pigeon hole people or make up what they can or cannot do based on their job title.  You know the kind of things that people say day in day out like marketing are the only creative folks, accountants won’t take any risks, quality assurance get in the way, human resources are too rules based to name just a few. 

Make a point of finding out what people can bring to the table rather than just guessing what they can or cannot do.

Recognise that it takes time

No team ever leaps immediately from forming to performing.  They go through a series of stages where they move forward, move back, work together, have conflict and hit obstacles.  Accept this and see it as a short term setback for a bigger long term gain.

Bottom Line – Teams can deliver great results.  So what do you need to do differently as a leader to get more success from teams?