Posts Tagged ‘management’

1. Get to know your team

   A huge part of your success is related to your ability to get results through others. If you are to get the best from others, you need to know your team and their respective strengths.

2. Build relationships

   You need to build relationships with your team but you also need to build relationships with others across the organisation. This might even include partner organisations.

3. Involve your team

   If there are some changes to be made, involve your team in generating possible solutions. Listen to their ideas; you might just be a little surprised on the quality of their contributions.

4. Focus on priorities

   There are always lots of things that could be done but you need to focus on priorities.

5. Start small

   Tempting as is might seem, going straight for a huge transformation or change early on is a huge risk. So start small and build momentum.

What simple tips based on your own experience, would you add?

Duncan Brodie begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting 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 in a management role, your priority should be to manage. The trouble is that, before we become managers, we are often seen as valued employees because we are able to gets lots of things done. So how can you shift the balance?

1. Remember that managing is a priority, not something you do when there is nothing else to do.
2. Set aside specific chunks of time when you are available to deal with management issues. That means blacking them out in the diary.
3. Make sure that you are doing only what you need to be doing and delegating the rest.
4. Make sure that your boss understands that you expect to have time to manage.

The truth is that creating the time to manage is often one of the biggest challenges you face. So start to make it 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 a manager or leader, an important part of your role will be to appraise performance.

At the same time, I have noticed that this is an area where managers and leaders often struggle.

So what can you do to get better at appraising performance?

1. Make sure that people have clear objectives at the start against which you can assess performance.
2. Set the meeting in context and make it clear what the meeting is and is not about.
3. Encourage the person being appraised to first give their views on how they have performed.
4. When providing your insights, highlight both positives and opportunities for improvement.
5. Give specific examples. These bring alive the feedback that you are providing.
6. Spend time talking about future aspirations.
7. Keep the focus on helping others to achieve their optimal performance.

The reality is that some simple adjustments can revolutionize your skills in appraising performance.

So what’s your best tip to getting better at appraising performance?

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

One of the things that marks the very best managers and leaders from the mediocre ones is that the former take the initiative.

So what exactly do I mean by taking the initiative? Let’s look at an example:

Jane is a manager in a large organisation. She knows that there are many rules to comply with and organisational norms. Today she has come up against a challenge. She knows that the organisation guidance on the topic is vague. However, she takes time to clarify the outcome that she wants to get and maps out the first steps. In other words, she takes the initiative.

James is another manager in a large organisation. He specialises in playing the waiting game. He waits for the instructions, guidance or steps to come from someone else. As a result, he is seen as a plodder.

The truth is that if you want to get ahead in your career and stand out from the crowd, you need to be willing to take the initiative, to grab the bull by the horns.

So what’s your first step in taking the initiative?

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 reading this, the chances are that you are already a good manager and want to be an even better manager.

So what can you do?

1. Believe in yourself as a manager and don’t let doubt stop you from taking action.
2. Cut yourself some slack and recognise that you don’t need to be great at everything.
3. Learn how to invest your time wisely so that you don’t become overloaded.
4. Find out the strengths of your team and start to utilise them.
5. Start listening more to the feedback from others so that you don’t get surprises too often.
6. Make managing something you make time for rather than viewing as an optional extra.
7. Keep developing yourself.

At the end of the day, some simple changes can make an huge impact.

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

While doing one of my regular sessions at the gym recently it occurred to me that there were many things that we can learn about leading and managing from the way we approach and what we do when it comes to working out.

 

So what are the key things that we can learn about leadership and management success from our gym workouts?

 

We need to have a goal

 

Most of us decided to join the gym for a specific reason.  It might have been to lose weight, build our stamina, help manage our stress levels, fun or just to maintain good health.  If we want to achieve success as a leader or manager we need to have clear goals.

 

Start small and build from that point

 

I can remember when I first ever went to the gym about 10 years ago.  The training plan I had was focused on doing a little bit on a range of exercises.  I did not try and jump straight to wild challenges in terms of times on the cardio machines and the weights I was lifting.  When new in post as a leader or manager, don’t try to go for glory from the outset, focus on achieving some easy wins.

 

It’s a long term project

 

When you start something new, especially exercise, you tend to find that you get pretty dramatic improvement initially, you plateau and then seem to struggle to get up to the next level.  As a leader or manager chances are that you will make some quick improvements and during the first couple of months it can feel like you are on the crest of a wave.  However, what you are really looking for is sustained success over the long term, so view leading and managing as a long term project.

 

We all need to do maintenance

 

When working out we know that it is important to do our stretching if we are to avoid injury or damage.  Most managers and leaders started in a particular professional discipline.  Even if you have a broader role now, it is vital that you maintain your knowledge and keep your skills up to date through continuing professional development.

 

 

Bottom Line – Just like working out, your aim as a manager or leader is to achieve long term sustained success.  So what do you need to start focusing on to achieve more success?

 

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to be successful managers and leaders.  For more information about his Services and Programmes click here

Pick up any of the many textbooks out there on the subject of management and you will find plenty of advice about how to do certain things, how to develop the rights behaviours and get the best from others.

 

In my experience, less is written about the importance of making the mindset shift when transitioning to management.  So why does this matter anyway?

 

You probably got promoted because you were great at doing

 

Look at the way most organisations decide who gets promoted.  In most cases they look for people who are doing a great job at a lower level and consistently delivering.  While this tells you a lot about the individuals personal drive and ability to get things done by themselves it tells you nothing about their ability to get results from others.  A key part of your successful transition is being able to start to get to work on getting results from others.

 

You might hold on to what you know

 

The great thing about those things we know how to do and are good at doing is that they help us build our self esteem and self confidence.  The danger you need to be alert to is holding on to things that you really should be letting go of and delegating to others.

 

You have new expectations

 

As a manager your performance is measured differently to when you were one of the team.  Being clear on what you are expected to deliver is an important part of your success and so is being able to change how you work so that you deliver on these new expectations.  Where do you need to be focusing your attention?

 

You probably have a huge portfolio of work

 

If you are like most folks, you will have to manage and still deliver on significant pieces of work personally.  If you don’t make the mindset shift that time needs to be set aside for managing it will probably never happen.  If the managing piece does not happen how your bosses assess your performance is likely to be less favourable than if you were actually making time for managing.

 

Bottom Line- Successful transitioning to management requires you to shift mindset.  So what mindset shifts do you need to make to achieve more success?

 

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health profesionals to be highly successful managers and leaders.  For information about services and programmes click here

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. 

In many organisations, once you have proven your abilities, the next logical step is to move into management.  While on the face of it this might appear sensible, it is worth consciously deciding if it is right for you.  So what are the key questions to ask yourself?

1. What Do You Want?

The obvious reply is more money.  The reality is that money is rarely a huge motivator in the longer term.  You might want challenging work, to make a contribution, to continually grow, to become the technical expert in your field.  Will a move into management take you closer to what you want?  Take the time to find out what really matters to you.

2. What Is Life Really Like As A Manager?

You can read books, articles, listen to podcasts or speakers that will tell you about management.  What you need to know is what it is really like.  Speak to those in management roles.  See if you can shadow some managers for a few days to see what the job is like.

3. What Skills, Knowledge and Personal Attributes Do You Need To Succeed?

Managing is very different to doing.  There are a whole set of skills, knowledge and attributes you need to succeed.  For example:

• Influencing

• Directing

• Taking responsibility

• Motivating

• Delegating

• Problem solving

• Project Management

Take the time to find out about the skills, knowledge and personal attributes you will need in your organisation, industry or specialism.

4. What Are You Really Great At?

Find out about yourself.  Assess your own strengths and get feedback from others.  The idea is to get an idea of where you excel.  Once you know this you can start to consider if management and you are a good fit.

5. Where Do You Struggle?

Knowing your strengths is vital.  Of equal importance is understanding where you struggle.  Assess yourself and get feedback from others.  Use this as a basis of personal development planning.

6. Do Your Strengths Greatly Exceed Your Weaknesses?

Having strong foundations to build on is essential.  If you find that your strengths far outweigh your weaknesses you have excellent foundations to build on.

7. Is The Time Right?

It can be tempting to be lured by the salary increase but ask yourself is the time right to move to management.  Indicators that it might be include:

• Possessing the right qualities

• Having positive feedback

• A desire for a new challenge

• Feeling that you have achieved all that you can in a task based role

• A readiness for change

8. What Do I Need To Focus On If The Time Is Not Right?

If you decide that you want to move into management eventually but not at the current time, start to put a development plan in place to:

• Build your strengths

• Work on your weaker areas

• Get you into a state of readiness

Ask for the help you need to achieve your plan and ultimate goal.

Moving into management is a major decision.  Treat it as such and you will move into it ready to embrace the challenges and opportunities.

If you are a manager or aspiring manager, sooner or later you will be faced with a member of staff who is not performing.  Here my 10 tips for dealing with this situation effectively and compassionately:

1. Review the individuals objectives and make sure they are clear
2. Identify where performance is falling short
3. Get specific examples to illustrate where performance is falling short
4. Arrange to meet 1 to 1 with the member of staff to discuss the issue
5. Prepare for the meeting
6. Present your case and supporting examples
7. Give the member of staff the opportunity to respond without interrupting
8. Identify clearly the improvements required, timescales, monitoring and consequences if performance does not improve
9. Ask the member of staff what support you or the organisation can provide to help them
10. Confirm everything in writing