Tough Supervision: Use It When Needed

In this age of teams, teamwork, and empowerment, is there room for a “do it my way” style of management?

Situations that call for a quick turnaround, instant action, or unity of purpose-such as crises or emergencies—need a forcible communication style.

Such a style may be necessary when you don’t have time for debate. Don’t pull lever A; turn valve B first, you say to an employee who is about to endanger the safety of himself and others on the plant floor. In such a case, you need to tell the employee what to do without listening or permitting input from him.

But being forcible doesn’t mean bullying, yelling, screaming or treating employees in a disrespectful manner. Overusing this style could cause employees to rebel, passive resist, or quit. It needs to be used only a small percentage of the time and then by a person such as a manager who has positional or legitimate power over the employees. The employee must believe that the manager has knowledge and is acting in the best interests of everyone concerned. After all you are in a management position and your company expects you to use those skills. They have the confidence in you do to the right thing for the company and expect you to be forcible if needed.

The best managers are those who vary their management styles based on the demands of a situation. He shares insights into five other management styles:

Authorative. Whereas the forcible style sets direction around a specific situation, an authorative style tends to set direction around a goal, vision, or object and how the group will get there. This style uses both positive and negative feedback, explaining why actions are necessary and encouraging alternatives.

Affiliative. Such a style appeals to the “humanity” of employees and fosters cooperation and teamwork through compromise and communication. It is particularly effective in managing work teams.

Democratic. This style works best with experts or technical people who won’t tolerate being directed and are highly competent, having a good understanding of the job, and tend to function autonomously, yet need a manager to coordinate their activities.

Coaching. This style focuses not only on providing good constructive development feedback around job performance but also on long-term development needs of employees. New hires may especially benefit from this style.

Pacesetter. This approach is recommended for manager looking to create an entrepreneurial environment, and works best with highly motivated employees who don’t require much direction but respond to someone they can model themselves after.

Leadership- You Have What It Takes

You have what it takes. You know you are the most suited person for the job. You’re so positive that you can lead a lot of people towards good business…Or so you think. Because if you really are, then why did John, from the other department, got the job you’ve been dying to have since you entered the company?

Leadership is more than just being confident that you can manage a number of people and make them follow your lead. Each one of us influences at least ten thousand other people during our lifetime. Hence, the question is not whether we can influence these people, but in what manner shall we influence them.

There are instances that competitors suddenly give up believing that they just can never be leaders. Maybe I’m not really born to lead, they think. On the contrary, the key to effective leadership does not depend primarily in the abilities we are born with, but in techniques, skills, character, and qualities that we are open to develop throughout life.

Leadership does not come out merely from the inner personality of the individual or from his philosophy of leadership, but from his enthusiasm to become the person other people will follow. This means that how a leader reacts when his power or safety is challenged, and how he interprets the world around him, is crucial to developing strong and effective leadership qualities.

It is true that there is always room for improvement for every one of us. David Rooke, partner at Harthill Consulting and co-author of the Harvard Business Review article Leadership Can Be Learnt, said that there is room for us all to develop and maximize our leadership capabilities. 

"The lessons for businesses to learn lie in their willingness to make leadership development a central pillar in the way they operate and a powerful force for transforming their fortunes," he said.

So to future leaders of the world, worry no more. This report which I will send you for free is designed to help you develop the winning leadership qualities you have been lacking of and increase your personal and organizational success. Whether your desire is to lead a student campaign, start a business, or reach the top of the world, the first step in achieving it is to know what it takes to be a leader…and a winner in one.

So, let’s start bringing out the leader in you!

E-mail me at samvlamis22@gmail.com and I will send you your free copy.

 

Trust: The Foundation Of Employee Feedback

If employees don’t trust that managers have worker’s best interest in mind, they will build a wall of resistance and defensiveness that is difficult to penetrate. If that happens, it’s difficult for employees to accept a manager’s feedback. You can work towards building trust. Here are some suggestions:

Respect confidentiality. Don’t discuss one employee’s performance while talking to another employee, unless you have the permission of the employee to do so. Protect the interests of employees who aren’t there. If you don’t, no one will share their vulnerabilities and concerns with you. Even the employee you’re talking to will worry that you might ultimately talk about them too. You can discuss a positive performance in public. Employees hearing this will want you to do the same about them and will perform well for you.

Establish credibility. You don’t have to brag about your experience and skills, but do share your competence. You were put in a position of leadership because of your knowledge and experience. This gives you the authority on any subject you are discussing. Unless employees think you know what you’re talking about and value your opinions, they can easily brush off your feedback.

At the same time, don’t act as if you have all the answers. Show that it’s ok for everyone not to be perfect and want to improve by revealing your own limits. You’re not perfect in everything. By showing your employees this, you set the example that it’s ok for them not to be perfect.

Show compassion. Implement decisions with sensitivity, especially those with negative consequences. This includes letting employees know what’s coming, to the extent that you can, and acting as though information is not proprietary. An atmosphere of hidden agendas is not conducive to feedback.

               

Don’t stockpile feedback. Doing so creates an atmosphere in which employees feel blindsided. They’ll be continually on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Instead, talk openly about what employees need to work on and how they are doing day in and day out. You notice I said talk to the employee. In this day with all the technology we have with texting and social media it's easy to get caught up with hiding behind that rather than a one on one with your employee. This way you can be sure your message is being received correctly.

Care about employees’ successes. If you show that you genuinely care about employees’ successes, then you create a lot of room to discuss performance issues—even difficult ones. People link success with learning. If on the other hand, employees perceive your goal has a punishing edge of nailing them for incorrect behavior, then the feedback experience will be painful for everyone. Employees begin to trust managers when they believe that you understand their desires and concerns and see what you are trying to accomplish on their behalf.

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Bad Mistakes That Make Good Employees Leave

 I found this article written by Dr. Travis Bradberry and found it very enlightening. I wanted to share it with my readers. There is a link at the bottom of this article to purchase his book. I highly recommend it.


It’s tough to hold on to good employees, but it shouldn’t be. Most of the mistakes that companies make are easily avoided. When you do make mistakes, your best employees are the first to go, because they have the most options.
If you can’t keep your best employees engaged, you can’t keep your best employees. While this should be common sense, it isn’t common enough. A survey by the Corporate Executive Board found that one-third of star employees feel disengaged from their employer and are already looking for a new job.
When you lose good employees, they don’t disengage all at once. Instead, their interest in their jobs slowly dissipates. Michael Kibler, who has spent much of his career studying this phenomenon, refers to it as brownout. Like dying stars, star employees slowly lose their fire for their jobs.
“Brownout is different from burnout because workers afflicted by it are not in obvious crisis,”Kibler said. “They seem to be performing fine: putting in massive hours, grinding out work while contributing to teams, and saying all the right things in meetings. However, they are operating in a silent state of continual overwhelm, and the predictable consequence is disengagement.”
In order to prevent brownout and to retain top talent, companies and managers must understand what they’re doing that contributes to this slow fade. The following practices are the worst offenders, and they must be abolished if you’re going to hang on to good employees.
They make a lot of stupid rules. Companies need to have rules—that’s a given—but they don’t have to be shortsighted and lazy attempts at creating order. Whether it’s an overzealous attendance policy or taking employees’ frequent flier miles, even a couple of unnecessary rules can drive people crazy. When good employees feel like big brother is watching, they’ll find someplace else to work.
They treat everyone equally. While this tactic works with school children, the workplace ought to function differently. Treating everyone equally shows your top performers that no matter how high they perform (and, typically, top performers are work horses), they will be treated the same as the bozo who does nothing more than punch the clock.
They tolerate poor performance. It’s said that in jazz bands, the band is only as good as the worst player; no matter how great some members may be, everyone hears the worst player. The same goes for a company. When you permit weak links to exist without consequence, they drag everyone else down, especially your top performers.
They don’t recognize accomplishments. It’s easy to underestimate the power of a pat on the back, especially with top performers who are intrinsically motivated. Everyone likes kudos, none more so than those who work hard and give their all. Rewarding individual accomplishments shows that you’re paying attention. Managers need to communicate with their people to find out what makes them feel good (for some, it’s a raise; for others, it’s public recognition) and then to reward them for a job well done. With top performers, this will happen often if you’re doing it right.
They don’t care about people. More than half the people who leave their jobs do so because of their relationship with their boss. Smart companies make certain that their managers know how to balance being professional with being human. These are the bosses who celebrate their employees’ successes, empathize with those going through hard times, and challenge them, even when it hurts. Bosses who fail to really care will always have high turnover rates. It’s impossible to work for someone for eight-plus hours a day when they aren’t personally involved and don’t care about anything other than your output.
They don’t show people the big picture. It may seem efficient to simply send employees assignments and move on, but leaving out the big picture is a deal breaker for star performers. Star performers shoulder heavier loads because they genuinely care about their work, so their work must have a purpose. When they don’t know what that is, they feel alienated and aimless. When they aren’t given a purpose, they find one elsewhere.
They don’t let people pursue their passions. Google mandates that employees spend at least 20% of their time doing “what they believe will benefit Google most.” While these passion projects make major contributions to marquis Google products, such as Gmail and AdSense, their biggest impact is in creating highly engaged Googlers. Talented employees are passionate. Providing opportunities for them to pursue their passions improves their productivity and job satisfaction, but many managers want people to work within a little box. These managers fear that productivity will decline if they let people expand their focus and pursue their passions. This fear is unfounded. Studies have shown that people who are able to pursue their passions at work experience flow, a euphoric state of mind that is five times more productive than the norm.
They don’t make things fun. If people aren’t having fun at work, then you’re doing it wrong. People don’t give their all if they aren’t having fun, and fun is a major protector against brownout. The best companies to work for know the importance of letting employees loosen up a little. Google, for example, does just about everything it can to make work fun—free meals, bowling allies, and fitness classes, to name a few. The idea is simple: if work is fun, you’ll not only perform better, but you’ll stick around for longer hours and an even longer career.

Bringing It All Together

Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.
What other mistakes cause great employees to leave? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, TIME, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.
If you'd like to learn how to increase your emotional intelligence (EQ), consider taking the online Emotional Intelligence Appraisal® test that's included with the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 book. Your test results will pinpoint which of the book's 66 emotional intelligence strategies will increase your EQ the most.

Giving Constructive Criticism and Feedback

Did you ever hear the saying no news is good news?

Well if you take that approach with your employees you’re bound to have high turnover. Employees need to have constant reassurance that the job there are doing is meeting yours and the company standards. Nothing motivates employees more that knowing that their hard work is appreciated. Giving feedback to employees also makes review time easier. Employees will know what to expect and usually agree with whatever you say because you have been coaching them along the way.

When giving feedback to an employee it’s always best to

1. Focus on the desired behavior.
2. Never attack the person. Remember it’s the behavior you want changed not the person
3. Don’t let your employee sidetrack you from your plan. Some employees will try to blame other people or give excuses. Let them know you are dealing with them and their behavior and thank them for bringing other employee behaviors to your attention.
4. Don’t let them “explain away” their actions. Hold them accountable for what needs to be corrected.
5. Offer your suggestions on how they can improve their performance. You are their boss. It’s your job to help them succeed. When they succeed you succeed. You’ll have happier employees, happier customers and an overall fun work atmosphere.
6. Be a fair boss. You must follow policies and procedures yourself if you expect your employees to. No one can ever criticize you of being unfair if you follow procedures and guidelines laid down by the company. But remember be consistent with every employee. Just because a certain employee is great with customers doesn’t justify them being late. It’s your job to change that employee’s behavior of being late. If they are good with customers we certainly do not want to lose them.
7. Never embarrass your employees in front of other employees or customers. Always talk to them in private.
8. A job well done is goes a long way, but be specific. Let them know what they did that made you say “good job”. Things like “I liked how you talked to that customer”, “You handled that project that I gave you very quickly and that made my job easier.” They need to know what a good job is so they can continue doing just that.

Having employees that know the score keeps moral up and makes your job easier. It’s easier to operate with veteran employees than and new crew every couple of months because you are always hiring

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Building Trust

 

Trust is critical, particularly with today’s emphasis on team management. It is also the foundation for good relationships. Friendships, families and organizations need to operate effectively. When people trust each other, everything works better. But trust doesn’t come automatically. Trust must be earned. Some people build trust quickly. Their attitudes and behavior make it easy for others to trust them. Here are several characteristics of these strong trust builders:

They keep promises, whether to clients, colleagues, or children. You can rely on them to do what they said they would do. This person does whatever it takes to accomplish this task. If it means giving up something they want to do or staying late at work, they will do it just to deliver their promise.

They Tell the truth, even when it may be painful, or when it may be to their disadvantage. Telling the truth doesn’t mean you have to hurt the person. There are ways to do that without hurting that person. Your choice of words are critical. When telling the truth you might want to offer a suggestion. This will let the person know you genuinely care.

They are quick to apologize,when they do something wrong. They sincerely regret doing wrong to others. Let’s not confuse this with intentionally making mistakes because you believe you will be forgiven. A boss will soon find out who you really are.

They are good listeners, and they listen more than they talk. People want to be heard. Let them talk. You will have your turn. Especially when you are talking to your employees.

They generously praise people. They are constantly looking for what others do right and comment on it.

They willingly cooperate with their colleagues. They are more interested in achieving good results than in who will get the credit. When your colleagues see that they will be willing to help you.

They strive to understand how others feel. They are sensitive and empathetic to other’s feelings. They look out for other people’s interests as well as their own.

They are fair in their dealing with everyone. This is important if you are the boss. It is important that you do not play favorites. You will immediately lose trust from your employees.

They clarify their intentions so other will understand their actions.

They seek input on issues from the people who will be affected by their decisions or actions.

They are genuinely interested in other people.

Strong trust builders have a high relationship orientation. They really do care about others. They actively practice the Golden Rule, treating others the way they would want to be treated. When you demonstrate these attitudes and behaviors, people just naturally trust you more. They trust you faster, too. They enjoy working or living with you.

Behave Like You’re In Business For Yourself

Your employer wants more than your body, more than just your arms, back and brain. Your employer wants you to act like an owner.

Why is this? What does it mean?

Organizations are reshaping themselves in an attempt to become more entrepreneurial. They want to get closer to the customer. They want decisions to be made by people who are closest to the information. They want to be able to move faster. The idea is that only small units are agile and adaptable enough to thrive in today’s world of high-velocity change.

So now we’re seeing a lot of self-destructing teams. “Empowered” employees. The management ranks are shrinking rapidly, and this means more power, information and responsibility flow through to you.

You’ll need to assume more personal responsibility for the success of the entire enterprise, rather than focusing narrowly within the boundaries of your old job description. To act like an owner you need a sense for managing the whole. You need peripheral vision. If you’re going to be of value to your company, make yourself valuable. I once worked for a company where the Vice President would always look to me for information he needed. Why? Because he knew I would have it. You cannot be in an upper management position and think all you have to do is manage the people under you. You have to manage your career also. Knowing where the company is headed is one key element. Once you know that it is your job to find ways to achieve the company goals. This makes you a value to the organization. A value that they appreciate. Now if you’re doing it just for yourself, to get ahead that’s not the way to go about it. You have to really want to improve your company. When that happens you will be rewarded.

Consider how you personally can help cut costs, serve the customer better. How you and your group can add directly to the financial health of the organization.

This could prove to be more “freedom” than you prefer. For example, if you’ve found comfort in “working for somebody else”, having other people call the shots, supervise you and stand accountable for problems and results—you may start to sweat. On the other hand, behaving like you’re in business for yourself gives you the chance to really shine.

Besides all this, though, thinking of yourself as “self-employed is the mindset that serves you best in the years to come. Much like an independent contractor, you have to “build your business,” uphold your reputation, and satisfy the people who pay for your work.

So operate as if you’re self-employed, and carry personal responsibility for your own career mobility. Whether you look at it from the perspective of your employer, or from the angle that you’re a one-person show, it pays to behave like you’re in business for yourself.

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