Author: Marcia Zidle

To be a great people manager, you must have an extensive set of skills – from planning and delegation to motivation and communication. for your long-term success, it’s wise to analyze your skills in all areas of management – and then challenge yourself to become better at managing and leading your team.

Did You Take the Management Skills Quiz in Part 1?

What was your score? What elements of management do you need to work on? Here are the eight essential skill areas where managers should focus their efforts plus resources to help you

1. Understanding Team Dynamics (Questions 5, 12)
Good management means understanding how teams operate. When forming teams, create a balance so there’s a diverse set of skills, personalities, and perspectives. Truly effective teams invite many viewpoints and use their differences to be creative and innovative. Read “Building Teamwork.”

2. Selecting and Developing the Right People (Question 9)
Finding great new team members and developing the skills needed for your team’s success is another important part of a manager’s job. You can develop your staffing skills by checking out “What’s Your Hiring Batting Average?”

3. Delegating Effectively (Questions 2, 14)
Having the right people with the right skills isn’t sufficient for a team’s success. Effective managers recognize that delegation – assigning work to the right people and clearly outlining expectations – teams can accomplish much more. Just because you’re responsible for the work, they should do it themselves to make sure it’s done right. Read “Delegate and Do It Right”.

4. Motivating People (Questions 10, 15)
It’s one thing to motivate yourself, but it’s quite another to motivate someone else. We’re all motivated by different things. Getting to know your team members on a personal level allows you to motivate your people better. See “One Size Doesn’t Fit All”.

5. Managing Performance (Questions 3, 6)
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, there are problems with individual performance. As a manager, you have to deal with these promptly. If you don’t provide feedback and coaching, you risk negative impacts on the rest of the team as well as your customers Read”Coaching vs. Criticism: What’s the Difference?”

6. Communicating (Question 7, 13)
Effective communication is critical to any position you hold, but as a manager, it’s especially important. You need to let your team know what’s happening and keep them informed as much as possible with team briefings and other ways to update. See how good communication works in “Leadership Lessons Riding Fire Engines”.

7. Planning, Problem Solving, Decision-Making (Questions 4, 8)
Many managers are very comfortable with planning, problem solving and decision making because they’re often skilled specialists who’ve been promoted. Now it’s important to transfer these skills to managing a team. Read “Are You On the Road to Abilene?”

8. Avoiding Common Managerial Mistakes (Questions 1,11)
A common one is thinking that you can rely on your technical skills alone rather than reaching out to others It’s important to communicate with your boss to keep her informed. If not you may have boss problems. Here’s how to avoid them.

Smart Moves Tip:

Whether you manage a department or a project team, it’s important to know how to get the work done right. When you’re asked to achieve something with the help of others, it’s complex – and you should spend much of your time managing relationships instead of doing the actual work. Delegating, motivating, communicating, and understanding team dynamics are some of the key skills needed.

Do you want to be a better manager?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2014 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coac

Are you getting the best out of your team?

To be a great people manager, you must have an extensive set of skills – from planning and delegation to motivation and communication. Because the skill set is so wide, it’s tempting to continue using the skills you’re already comfortable with. But, for your long-term success, it’s wise to analyze your skills in all areas of management – and then challenge yourself to become better at it.

Take This Quick Quiz

It will help you identify the aspects of management you’re good at and areas you need to improve. Decide, on a scale from 1 to 5, how well each of the 15 statements below best describes what you as a manager. Answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be or do).

(1) Not at All (2) Rarely (3) Sometimes (4) Often (5) Very Often

1. When I have a problem, I try to solve it myself before asking my boss what to do.
2. When I delegate work, I don’t always give it to the person who has the most time available.
3. I follow up with team members whenever I see that their behavior has a negative impact on customer service.
4. I make decisions following careful analysis, rather than relying on gut instinct.
5. I let my team members figure out for themselves how best to work together – teams are a work in progress!
6. I give ongoing feedback so people have a chance to correct their performance before taking disciplinary action.
7. I spend time talking with my team about what’s going well and what needs improving.
8. I fully understand how the processes in my department operate, and I’m working to eliminate bottlenecks.
9. When putting together a team, I consider the skills I need – and then I seek people who best fit my criteria. .
10. I try to motivate people individually rather than just the whole team.
11. When my team makes a significant mistake, I update my boss on what has happened and come with a solution.
12. When conflict occurs within a new team, I accept it as an inevitable as teams and teamwork develops.
13. I talk to team members about their individual goals, and I link these to the goals of the entire organization.
14. If you want a job done well, do it yourself may get work done faster but it may not always be the right thing to do.
15. I talk with team members as individuals to ensure that they’re know what they need to do to be productive.

Scoring:

46-75: You’re doing a great job managing your team.
Concentrate on improving your skills even further. Check the next post- part 2- to see what you can tweak to make this even better. What are some areas that you may need to improve?
31-45: You’re on your way to becoming a good manager.
You’re doing some things really well. Now it’s time to work on the skills that aren’t up to speed. Check the next post – part 2 – and figure out what you need to focus on to enhance your managerial skills.
15-30: Ouch. You got work to do.
If you want to be effective in a management role, you must learn how to organize and monitor your team’s work. It’s imperative you check the next post to develop specific skills that will increase your success.

Smart Moves Tip:

Effective management requires a wide range of skills, and each of these skills complements the others. Your goal should be to develop and maintain all of these skills, so that you can help your team accomplish its objectives efficiently and effectively. The follow-up post, part 2, gives a quick summary of the eight essential skill areas where managers should focus their efforts plus resources to help you.

Do you want to be a better manager?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2014 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

Teams, teams, teams. Whether you love-em or loathe-em, you’ll have to learn to live, not only with them, but within them. Your success as a leader will depend on it.

So What’s Teamwork All About?
Here are five strategies for building and nurturing a winning team on the football field and in the workplace.

1. Manage by adultery.
It’s a term coined by Chaparrel Steel to describe its management philosophy of treating workers like adults instead of children. People are hired, not to do mindless jobs, but to put their brains to work. Management’s job is to give the team a mission, see that theyhave the necessary resources and provide feedback and encouragement. Then turn them loose to be creative problem solvers.

2. Hire people who care.
When evaluating prospective employees, a major airline brings all job candidates together in a room and asks each person to make a presentation. Everybody thinks that the company officials are evaluating the person making the presentation. But in reality, the company is evaluating the candidates in the audience to see who are attentive and supportive as others present. It is a strong signal that these people have the ability to care about fellow employees.

3. Make sure there is a scoreboard.
One critical difference between a group and a team is that a team knows what constitutes a win. Players in sports know instantly where their team stands and whether they are winning or losing. This information then affects how they are going to play the rest of the game. But in most businesses, employees may work for weeks and months and not know if they are winning, losing, or just hanging in there. Like sports teams, business teams should also have scoreboards. Then team members would have some idea how close they are to a win and what they need to do to make it happen.

4. Don’t take on your team’s monkeys or problems.
If the leader keeps running in and lifting the weights for his team, they are never going to build any of their own muscle. The trap in becoming a “hero leader” is that every time you pull a rabbit out of a hat, you generate more dependency from your team. Important: Astute leaders welcome their employees to discuss problems and solutions, but never let them leave their problems with the leader.

5. Set up your team to win, not lose.
If your team is faced with multiple tasks or problems, don’t always tackle the worst ones first. Conventional wisdom says prioritize your tasks and then begin tackling your most important problems, solve them and then move on to smaller ones. This approach ignores the fact that the biggest problem is usually the hardest to tackle. Therefore, if not prepared mentally, team members are more likely to fail, become demoralized and give up. This is not permission for all of us procrastinators to put aside our tough assignment. Rather, it allows us to gain the confidence to first experience success on a smaller level before going for “the big one.”

Management Success Tip:

Paul “Bear” Bryant, the legendary football coach at the University of Alabama, said winning team members need to know the following: “Tell me what you expect of me – Give me an opportunity to perform- Let me know how I’m doing -Give me guidance where I need it -Reward me according to my contributions.” I couldn’t have said it better than Bear Bryant.

Do you want more productive and effective teams?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2013 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

Stop at the red and go on the green. Wait your turn. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Certain timeless rules are better obeyed than broken. But are there certain rules that may need to be broken?

In today’s constantly changing business world, many of the rules that guided previous generations of managers may no longer apply, or at least, be as relevant.

“If you’re not breaking rules on a regular basis, your customers and markets are going to somebody else. So look, listen and change.”

That was said by a business client during a recent staff retreat. She wanted everyone to know that the task of managers can no longer be just seeing that things get done in a timely manner. They have to do more than that!

Is It Time To Get Rid of Business As Usual

Rather, effective managers today must be committed to do new things and do routine things in new ways. It comes down to breaking some long standing rules of managing people and organizations. Here are some examples.

Old rule: Strive to maintain the status quo, but react quickly when change happens.
New rule: Don’t wait for change to hit you. Anticipate it, plan for it, and make it happen on your terms.

Old rule: Management’s job is to make decisions.
New rule: Management’s job is to facilitate decisions made by those closest to the customer or the situation.

Old rule: Avoid conflict at all cost. People can’t handle it.
New rule: Create conditions that get people to grapple with different perspectives which will lead to better solutions and results.

Old rule: Tell employees what to do, when to do it and how to do it.
New rule: Give employees the resources and support they need. Then stand back and let them do their jobs.

Management Success Tip:

Letting go of rules that have served you well can be difficult, but holding on to them can be fatal. Don’t allow yourself or your people to get comfortable with the status quo. Don’t get stuck thinking that what’s made us successful so far will continue to make us successful in the future. Also see Make Positive Change By Thinking Outside the Box and Take Off Your Blinders

Are there some rules that need to be broken or at least modified? Which ones?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2013 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

A reader asked for leadership advice on this situation.

“A new position, which will be a promotion, has just opened up in my business unit. It sounds very exciting even though I haven’t had much experience in that kind of responsibility. But I have a good track record and colleagues are urging me to go for it. I think I’m bright enough to take it on but I’m wondering is it too big a risk?”

Related: Taking Risks

The Peter Principle
It states that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” In other words, the cream rises until it sours. As long as a person performs well at his job, he will be promoted.

But sooner or later he reaches a level where he lacks the necessary skills to perform. The higher positions are not necessarily more difficult. The problem is simply that people are promoted based on the skills they have, not the skills they need

Virtually everyone, who has ever worked in a business environment, has recognized someone who seems lost, over his or her head or just plain inept. They have risen to their level of incompetence. Sometime they survive and sometimes they don’t.

Related: Watch Out For These Sand-traps

Look Before You Leap
So if you don’t have the appropriate background, skill sets or experience, you’re obviously going to have to be able to get up to speed fast to avoid the Peter Principle. Here are some things you need to consider before throwing your hat into the ring.

1. Would your boss be supportive or offended if you moved on?
2. What are your strengths and how can you leverage them for this position?
3. How much time would you have before you’re expected to perform at top speed?
4. What skills do you need to be successful in the position and where will you get them?
5. Will the person in that position train you or will you have to dive in and either sink or swim?
6. And most important, if you fail or don’t meet expectations, how might this affect your career?

These are just a few starter questions to help you assess the degree of career and leadership risk involved in going after this position. Find someone objective, like a mentor or coach, who can help you look honestly at the pros and cons. Then decide is it worth the time, effort and the stress of taking on this kind of challenge.

Management Success Tip

Be aware of Murphy’s Law. “If anything can go wrong, it will” helps remind us to plan for contingencies. Also remember, nothing is as easy as it looks; everything takes longer than expected; and every solution breeds new problems. Bottom line: be open to new opportunities as well as be realistic about the challenges. Check out It’s a New Ballgame and Are You a Coaster or Contributor?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2013 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

Most leaders know it’s important to work with their team to define goals, but the conversation shouldn’t stop there. You also need to agree on the mechanics of how the team will get the work done. Here are four things that must be clear to every team member.

1. Roles and Responsibilities.
Every member needs to know their role or assignment on the team – what they’re responsible for doing. They also need to know how their work contributes to the overall work of the team. Of course, roles need to remain flexible. You don’t want people rigidly adhering to “my job” or exclaiming “not my job!” when others need help. Clarity as to who does what when lessens the common occurrence of things falling through the cracks.

Related: Getting Accountability

2. Work Processes.
Few teams need or should have a notebook full of policies and procedures. But every team needs common agreement about how it does its basic work. A good example is the way decisions are made. Who’s involved in making what decisions? What are the agreed-upon steps for evaluating alternatives and making a choice? Another is internal communication. How often will the team meet online or face-to-face? What is the purpose of the meetings? How will members keep each other informed — through what reports and discussions and how often? This is essential for effective teamwork.

Related: The Elephant Metaphor: Who’s Right?

3. Rules of Engagement.
These are the shared values, norms and expectations, sometimes called team culture, that shape the daily give-and-take of team members both live and online. They are the social glue that keeps interactions productive and prevents constructive disagreement from turning personal and dysfunctional. So what are the “rules of behavior” regarding lateness, dress, after hour activities, openness about disagreements, attendance at meetings and a whole host of other things that need to be explicit?

Related: On the Road to Abilene

4. Performance Metrics and Feedback.
What measures of progress, developed how, by whom, and how often, will be used to assess progress in meeting goals? How often will performance reviews of the team as a whole be performed? The advantage of clearly defining how progress will be measured is that members will be able to assess themselves. Your role as leader then becomes guiding the search for solutions rather than convincing members that a problem exists

Management Success Tip:

In the teams you lead, have you taken the time to sort out these things? As mundane as they may seem, it’s important to be explicit about them. Talk about them and write down the key ones. Don’t assume, especially as teams become increasingly virtual and cross-cultural, that the ones you want will emerge spontaneously. These are the often forgotten ingredients so essential for team success.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2013 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

Great leaders and entrepreneurs are not content merely to maintain the status quo. They are driven to see and seek out opportunities to make a big impact.

Peter Drucker said, “Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. All one can hope to get by solving problems is to restore normalcy.”

This is one of the primary differences between leaders and managers. Leaders lead. They go first. They begin the quest for a new order. They plunge into new, sometimes dangerous, and at times unpredictable territory .Managers, on the other hand, maintain the existing order. They organize, and establish necessary processes and controls.

Leaders as pioneers want to turn around a failing business or non-profit, or start up some new radical venture, or develop an original product line or service, or revolutionize an existing process. They want to mobilize others in the face of strong inertia or resistance. They may not change the world, but they passionately pursue making a significant difference

Here Are Ways to Start!

1. Treat every project, however big or small, as an adventure in an unexplored wilderness.
If leaders want to inspire the best in others, they must find or create opportunities for people to get fired up, tap into their great potential and not be fearful of difficult goals.

2. Question the status quo and confront ineffective sacred cows.
Obviously, some standard practices and policies are critical to the organization’s success. But many are simply “The way we’ve always done it”. Leaders, as pioneers, examine how work gets done and asks: “Is there a better way to do it?

3. Tap into the wisdom of your people and harvest new ideas.
Many times the people who have been doing something for years have conceived of new and better processes. But no one has ever asked them for their opinion!

4. Forget, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
It may work well, but can it work better? Especially in a new assignment, dumb questions are tolerated. This can lead to uncovering needed improvements and a fresh approach which can result in quantum leaps in organizational effectiveness.

5. Assign your best people to opportunities not to problems.
Naturally, problems must be dealt with, but opportunities are the life-blood of our organizations. Solving a problem contains and prevents damage, but seizing an opportunity produces growth and new life.

Management Success Tip:
So are you a pioneer? Here are some questions to help you find out.

• What makes something, for you, new, innovative and worthwhile doing?
• Think of a time that you or a leader you know challenged the status quo or sacred cows. What happened?
• When have you pushed your own limits to get extraordinary things done? What did you risk? What did you gain?
• In terms of leading others, what are some of the actions you’ve taken to create a climate for change and encourage risk-taking?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2013 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

In a recent program on conflict resolution for the marketing department of a health care company, I asked the following.

1. Can you describe the conflicts that occur most often?
2. What could be possible reasons for these disagreements?
3. How these conflicts are usually resolved? Or they keep coming back?

As you would expect, this generated a lot of conversation. I had set the expectations of open discussion without finger pointing or blaming.

Conflict is Like an Iceberg
I use the idea of an iceberg to help people think about conflict in a positive, problem-solving way.

Above the water line are the “Symptoms” – for example: Forgetting – Chronic lateness – Dragging one’s feet – Not paying attention – Avoiding or ignoring requests – Rolling eyes, whispering, put-downs. Others than I’m sure you can come up with.

Below the water line are the “Real Causes” – here are six:

1. Perceptual Differences: Seeing things differently.
A common example is when two people can view the same event ( in a crime TV drama witnesses to a robbery) and have different perceptions (It was a tall guy with glasses; no it was short with a baseball cap, etc

2. Informational Differences: Having different facts or understanding.
The parable of the blind men and the elephant illustrates this. Briefly six blind men wanted to know what an elephant was like. Of course, being blind they had never seen one. So they went to find one and when they did, each touched a different part of the elephant. Of course, each had a different impression.

3. Procedural Differences: Having different ways of doing thing.
How do you start a puzzle? From number 1 and go systematically? Or start anywhere you can and work from there?

4. Goals Differences: Disagreeing about priorities and importance.
This happens between different functional groups. In many companies, sales and marketing is driven by quotas – getting more customers; production by quality – making sure it meets specific standards. The conflict arises when one group has expectations that don’t coincide with the other group.

5. Role Based Differences: Disagreeing about responsibility and accountability.
Who does what? It’s your job; not it’s yours; I make the decision; no I do. This happens a lot regarding line and staff authority; or corporate vs business units.

6. Personality Differences: Behaving and communicating in different ways.
Someone is a quick, shoot for the hip decision maker and the other is slower, more methodical. Or someone is task focused, and wants you to get to the point fast and the other is likes to talk about all kinds of things before getting down to business.

What Was Causing the Most Conflict?
It was role based differences. There was lack of clarity as to who’s accountable for monitoring deadlines as well as who has final authority on marketing collateral and a whole range of other issues.

What Was the Solution?
I introduced Steven Covey’s model and had them focus on what they could influence. There were several suggestions: taking responsibility to ask questions and verify client’s expectations; using less email for communication with other functional groups and more personal interaction; and to get clarification and support from management as to the department’s responsibilities and authority.

Management Success Tip:

Conflict is inherent in our differences—in people’s differing backgrounds, perspectives, values, needs, goals, expectations, etc. Conflict by itself is neither good nor bad. It’s the way we manage conflict that produces constructive or destructive results. What are the main conflicts in your organization, department or team? Also see Manage Conflict Before It Erupts

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2013 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

Should I take this offer or wait for a better one? Should we go with the candidate who has the most experience or the one who needs seasoning but has fire in the belly? Do we purchase n a new computer system now or wait until the next fiscal year?

Over the years, as an executive coach, I have worked with many leaders when they had to make major decisions from pulling the plug on a unprofitable program to letting go of someone for poor performance to confronting a key stakeholder on unethical behavior. My role was not to tell them what to do. Rather it was to help them come to the best decision for them and their organization. So here’s what I learned.

As much as we would like to believe that we do not have any prejudices or biases, the fact is that everyone does. The more aware you are of yours, the better off you will be. Below is what I have found that trips up good leaders making good decisions.

Common Decision-Making Mistakes

1. Overvaluing certain information
People have a tendency to overestimate the importance of some individuals or groups we know or belong to. Because we respect them, they have a way of swaying our opinion based simply on the fact that we believe they know more than we do. When you find yourself doing this, ask yourself: Do they know as much about this problem as I do? Are their values the same as mine? Have they had any personal experiences with a problem like mine? In other words, keep their opinions in perspective.

2. Discounting certain information
Whether we realize it or not, we also have a tendency to underestimate the importance of other individuals or groups. This is unfortunate since a lot of times they can paint a good picture of the “other side” of your problem.. The result is a bigger picture perspective of what the issues really are. Just make a note that if you find yourself discounting the information you receive from anyone, make sure you ask yourself “why”.

3. Only hearing what you want to hear or seeing what you want to see.
Try this exercise. Ask a friend to look around them and make note of everything that is green. Now, have them close their eyes and ask them what around them is red. Almost everyone won’t be able to tell you what was red because they were focusing on what was green. Our perceptions work the same way. We focus on what we expect to happen, not what is really happening. The key is to be aware of your own perspectives and expectations that can bias you. Then you can be more open to things that comes your way. What’s your listening IQ?

Management Success Tip:

Decision making can be off the cuff or a deliberate process. It really depends on the circumstances, the time limit and the people involved. In either case, make sure you are aware of your decision making habits. Do you overestimate or underestimate certain people’s input? Do you pretend to hear what others are saying or are you really listening? Can you see the potential of an idea even if it’s not well formed yet?

Realize the outcome of a leader’s decisions can, and usually will, make or break them and their organization. As much as you may wish it wasn’t so, when it comes to being a leader you’re really only as good as the decisions you make. See Make Good Decisions, Avoid Bad Consequences

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Listen to The Business Edge Internet Radio for success tips.
• Copyright © 2013 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.