Posts Tagged ‘effective management’

Anyone who makes it to the role of the leader is good at what they do. At the same time, not everyone stands out as a leader.

So I thought it might be interesting to share my thoughts and invite your thoughts on what it takes to stand out as a leader.

1. Focus on delivering results rather than personal survival
2. Learn to recognise when to step in and when to step back
3. Take responsibility for the results that are and are not achieved
4. Support your people publicly when things don’t go to plan
5. Encourage and support others to achieve what they want from their career
6. Avoid blaming others or circumstances when things are not going well
7. Be consistent in the way that you deal with people
8. Be an expert listener, not just an expert communicator
9. Make the most of the time that you have available
10. Make your expectations clear
11. Be a role model for the behaviours you expect from others
12. Give feedback promptly and regularly
13. Seek regular feedback on your own performance
14. Learn from your mistakes and move on
15. Take decisions and action even when you don’t have all the information you would like
16. Balance the here and now with the longer term
17. Anticipate barriers and obstacles and plan for responding to them
18. Don’t ask others to do what you won’t do yourself
19. Keep yourself up to date
20. Be professional and act with integrity.

The reality is that standing out as a leader is not just about skills and knowledge.  Great qualities are also a huge contributor.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. He invites you to take advantage of his free audio e-course Leadership Success at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

If you are a manager, making the time to manage is key. Sadly management is often one of those things that get relegated to the bottom of the list.

So how can you make time for managing people?

Decide it matters
• The first person who needs convincing that time spent managing is valuable is you. If you don’t see it as a priority, it will never get the time it deserves.

Allocate time to it

• We all probably use some sort of time planning process. We put things into the plans that we need to do. The question is, do we put ‘managing people’ on our list? If not, it does not become a habit.

Focus on the benefits

• I don’t know about you but I have more often than not found that people start to respond to you differently when you take an interest in them. The benefits of making time to manage people include:
  • Motivation.
  • Giving a clear signal that others matter to you.
  • Being seen as a facilitator, rather than a director of their results.

We all know that making time to manage has many upsides. So what do you need to do to make it more of a priority?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

If you are managing a team of people, I am guessing that you want to do it well.

Being more effective as a manager is partly down to understanding what employees want from managers.

This includes:

1. Clarity about what is expected of employees.
2. Regular feedback on how they are performing and particularly the things that they are doing well.
3. Support and encouragement to help the employees progress their careers and get the best from their roles.
4. Challenge and the opportunity to grow and develop.

What else would you add to the list?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

The number one challenge that many managers face is insufficient time to do all of the things that need to get done.  Yet sometimes there are opportunities for managers to delegate work to others to free up time and grow and develop others. So what are 5 golden rules when it comes to effective delegation?

 

Rule 1: Plan it

 

If you are going to have any chance of effectively delegating you need to plan it.  Delegation is not about passing on something to the fist person who comes over to your desk just to get rid of it.  It is about identifying who would be best equipped to deal with a particular piece of work, ensuring that they have they have the capacity and the skills to do it. A little bit of thought can go a long way towards effective delegation.

                                                                                                   

Rule 2: Invest the time to train

 

I chose the word invest deliberately as a decision to delegate is really an investment decision.  Think about it you assign a period of time once to train someone else to do something and get the benefit over and over again.  Don’t see the time that you take to train as a waste of time but as a real log term investment.

 

Rule 3:  Set the boundaries and get out of the way

 

There is nothing more de-moralising than having a situation where a piece of work is delegated to you but the person delegating is checking up on progress every five minutes.  The answer to this is to set out boundaries or things that need referring back to you and then leave the person to get on with it.

 

Rule 4: Establish review points

 

As the manager you do obviously have to have some form of reviewing progress.  When delegating set some milestones and diarise meetings where you and the person to whom you have delegated since down and discuss progress and problems.

 

Rule 5: Create a buffer

 

Things rarely run perfectly to plan so it is important to recognise this and build in some buffer or contingency so that slippage or delay does not create havoc.  Make a point of leaving some space between the time when you need something and the deadline you set for those that you delegate to.

 

Bottom Line – Effective delegation can help you deliver better results.  So what do you need to start doing to be a more effective delegator?

 

As a manager, major part of your role is to get the best from the people that you manage.  You know that a motivated employee will go that extra step to deliver or help you to deliver results.  So what are the 5 golden rules when it comes to motivating?

 

Rule 1:  Get to know your people

                                                                                                        

Yes you probably know who all of your staff are, their job title and what they do.  On the other hand do you really know what it is that motivates the people you manage.  While everyone needs to earn a wage, each of us has different things that motivate us.  For some it will be being supported, for others it will be about having autonomy and others might thrive on challenge.  If you don’t know what motivates people you could easily end up de-motivating people by using inappropriate strategies.

 

Rule 2: Make time for those that you manage

 

Most managers are busy people and no doubt you are to.  When you have your deadlines to meet and results to deliver it is all too easy to forget about the people that you manage.  If you fail to set aside time for interacting with the people that you manage it simply will not happen.  If your boss never made any time for you, how motivated would you be?

 

Rule 3:  Make a point of noticing effort and achievement

 

The best mangers realise that time spent letting people know that you are aware of the effort they are making or the result that they have delivered is time well spent.  All of us to a greater or lesser extent thrive on getting feedback so don’t lose out on the opportunity.

 

Rule 4: Create a sense of excitement

 

All jobs after a while become more routine and less fresh and exciting.  As the manager you need to try and keep that sense of excitement in roles.  This might be by challenging people to find new or better ways of doing something or giving them more freedom to do things their way.

 

Rule 5: Remember it is rarely about money

 

Yes everyone needs to earn what they view is a reasonable rate of pay for the time, expertise and effort that they have given.  On the other hand study after study into what matters to employees reveal that the source of dissatisfaction is rarely just about money.  Make a point of keeping the things that make people tick at the forefront of your mind.

 

 

Bottom Line – A happy, motivated team of people who you manage can help you deliver great results.  So what do you need to give more attention to in order to be a more successful manager?

As a manager you know that to deliver great results consistently you need to get the best from those that you manage.  So what steps can you take to bring out the best from your team?

 

1.                  Set crystal clear objectives

 

The start point of getting the best from people that you manage is to make it clear to them what they are expected to deliver.  Often managers become stuck in the long list of activities that are contained in a job description.  While this provides some important content, make a point of spelling out the 5 key results that you expect individuals in the team you manage to deliver.

 

2.                  Help them solve their own problems

 

As a busy manager it is sometimes highly tempting to solve problems for people so that you get them away from your desk as quickly as possible.  The trouble is that if you always do this, people will stop thinking for themselves and just come to you for the answers.  Use questions to coach people to find their own solutions to problems and challenges.

 

3.                  Take the time to praise

 

Few people (if any) turn up for work with the intention of doing a bad job.  Yet managers often forget this and fail to recognise the efforts and achievements of their people.  Make a point of praising achievement and acknowledging efforts as it will motivate.

 

4.                  Delegate whenever you can

 

There are few managers who could be accused of over delegating.  In fact it is generally the complete opposite.  Delegating does not just provide benefits to you in terms of freeing up time but also provides scope for those that you manage to take on new challenges.

 

5.                  Treat people fairly

 

Treat people well and chances are that the majority will go to exceptional lengths to deliver for you. A good rule of thumb to check this out is to ask whether you are treating others the way you would like to be treated in the given situation.

 

Bottom Line – Managing is tough at times but by bringing out the best in others you can achieve greater success. 

A recent survey by the International Coach Federation identified that the number one reason why people choose to work with a coach is due to a lack of self confidence.  Someone who is self confident can sometimes be viewed by others who are less confident as arrogant.  Yet in truth self confidence is really about having a strong sense of self worth and capabilities.

If you are a manager, your success or otherwise is influenced by factors such as:

• Knowing that that you have the capability or competence (or can acquire it) to take on and deal with the challenges that without doubt will arise.

• Speaking up an airing your views even when they might be slightly controversial.

• Being able to take decisions even when you might not have all of the information at your fingertips that you might need or like.

• Getting other to provide support to get things done or make change.

A manager lacking self confidence is likely to have some traits or develop traits that get in the way, including:

• Being indecisive, procrastinating and failing to move things forward.

• Going with the consensus when deep down you know it is not going to produce results.

• Avoiding taking any risks that could lead to a step change in performance.

•  Being focused on surviving rather than thriving.

Bottom Line – You can have an abundance of self confidence and at the same time still be the manager who delivers great results and has the full support of the team.  So what’s stopping you succeed?