Manage My Employees

Archive for the ‘Talent Management’ Category

Article #53

Micromanagement is often defined as “excessive control of people or projects” and it is popularly viewed as an evil not a good. But is it entirely?

I believe that the ambiguity comes when we try to get our arms around exactly what is excessive? Most micromanagers I have encountered do not realize they micromanage—but their people do!

I think you would probably agree that an appropriate level of control is absolutely necessary to run a solid enterprise. But what is an appropriate level of control? When does a manager cross the line and get too controlling or suppressive?

On the other end of the spectrum, however, a manager could be seen as weak, disconnected or ambivalent if they under-manage. They could get too little performance from their people precisely because they fail to provide enough oversight!

Do you find it challenging to balance being totally in control—with not being overly-controlling?

Balanced managers find just the right mix of connecting, supervising, measuring, oversight, autonomy, and keeping people accountable to results—all without being over-the-top, control-freakish, or heavy-handed.

4 Differences of Being a Balanced Manager Versus A Painful Micromanager

• Micromanagement kills the spirit and drive of people by obsessing about the minutiae. Balanced managers may initiate projects, set the goals or parameters for associates and then get out of the way—but they immediately re-engage whenever projects stall out or lag behind. Micromanagers get in the way because they can’t release control.

• Micromanagement clogs up the free flow of creative energies and inspired efforts. Micromanagers often manage granularly, meaning that they drive hard for results by ruling with an iron thumb. I coached an executive of a small family business on his micromanaging tendencies a few years ago. He admitted to me that he personally approved and edited all memos that his executive team wrote before they could be sent out! What a waste of time! But this is just like micromanagers, rather than want summaries or highlights of progress they immerse into the micro level of projects or tasks and snuff the very life out of people. In contrast, balanced managers want the bigger picture, want to be copied on reports, and receiving a recap of a project’s status is fine with them. However, when goals or metrics are not being reached they look to get things back on course, quickly—and they re-engage as much as needed to achieve outcomes.

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Article #48

Is your company attracting then retaining bright, younger workers successfully? Is your community keeping its best and brightest or are they moving away for greener pastures?

This begs the question: What do Gen Y workers want anyway? And what exactly do they expect from a boss in terms of managing work efforts, effectively?

To prepare for a meeting with city leaders, I recently met with an interesting Gen Y/Xer (she’s between the demographer lines) who works in a professional staff position in my city.

Our city, like others, is attempting to understand how we can do a better job of keeping our best/brightest talent here—and not move away to your city, for example!

When this young lady shared with me how much she had enjoyed working at a previous position in Washington, D.C. (prior to moving to my city of Springfield, MO) especially how she had loved working for the management at that organization, I was really curious. I asked her to explain exactly what the management had done to make it such a great work experience.

Her answer was insightful, it also serves as a good reminder for what many Gen Y workers want today.

What Gen Yers Wish Managers Knew About Managing:

• Shed titles. Contrast that with managers who use a title (and its authority) to control others. The managers at the Washington organization weren’t interested in ‘controlling’ but in collaborating with employees more effectively, hence they shed the formality of their titles and got on her level. While they still held a title, of course, they didn’t allow those titles to create distance or tension—as in I’m over you and I’m your boss so I do as I say.

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Article #47

Guest Blogger: Jaclyn Boatright

What makes a customer choose one business over another? How can a business create a positive experience for its customers in a way that compels customers to return—over other options?

For the past five years I have conducted over 500 shopping experiences as a secret shopper. I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of quick-food restaurants, automotive services, and retail.

When you have a positive experience with a company that company sticks out to you, and you think about them whenever you need that particular service again. It creates customer loyalty.

Based on my 500+ experiences, there were six things the best employees did:

• Show customers that you enjoy your job by smiling and having an energetic tone in your voice. Happiness is catching and people like to be around happy people. It makes the customer feel good when they are walking away from the interaction. Also, it makes the customer associate the business with that positive feeling.

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Article #45

During these uncertain times, is it possible that some of your customer’s are less likely to switch loyalties to another supplier, even if that supplier ‘might’ offer some advantages?

Do you see customer loyalty on the rise? Some of my clients do and have expressed this view to me recently.

One client recently passed this story along: when his sales force blitzes a new territory for their product line, out of 300+ contacts they now only yield 1 or 2% new customers! In the past this was apparently much higher. And get this, he wasn’t referring to a direct-mail blitz, but rather, personal contacts in the field. His company has earned a stellar reputation in the marketplace, and has among the highest quality as well as lowest price points, but still finds receptivity to doing business with a new supplier much more difficult to achieve.

What factors may be driving increased customer loyalty today? Well, according to some studies (Harvard Business Review, July-Aug 2009) trust in business is running much lower than in previous years.

So, if decision-makers trust other businesses less, doesn’t it seem possible that they might be less likely to consider switching to new vendors? While resistance to changing suppliers has always been evident in competitive B2B markets, it may just be on the rise.

Fortunately, there are some ways you can ride this wave of mistrust and come out ahead.

7 Ways to Keep Existing Customers and/or Land New Ones:

• Find ways to build and earn more trust in the initial phase of your sales cycle with prospects. Offer to do lunch and learns, provide case studies of your results, provide a steady stream of customer testimonials.
• Give the sales cycle longer intervals than in the past. If your sales cycle is six months, give it nine or twelve when soliciting a prospect who has never done business with your company before now.

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Short Article #44

 Q. DEAR MARK: I understand the need and benefit of work-independence, but can an employee have too much independence? What are some of the signs? –Eric

A. DEAR ERIC: While it’s a very effective tool for motivating and retaining good employees, granting work independence (autonomy) can be too-much of a good thing. Besides, the best approach for further empowering employees may have little to do with more autonomy.

There are three signs to look for before concluding that more job independence is definitely needed in your workplace:

No. 1, is your employee overwhelmed? Are they missing deadlines frequently? Has their morale or attitude grown more negative recently? Do they appear more stressed, tense or short on patience than normal? If so, then visit with your employee and find out what’s going on. Even the most dedicated employee can only take being ‘overwhelmed’ for so long.

Granting more autonomy can help in this situation, but only if you do two things: allow your employee to delegate appropriate amounts of their workload to others, and secondly, if you make expressly clear the overall goals and priorities which will impact the employee’s work going forward.

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Short article #42

High unemployment has created a situation for employers whereby they now have many more applicants for job openings than previously. In effect, shifting bargaining power to employers.

Unfortunately, one unintended consequence of high unemployment may be that it has given some managers the belief that they can be more demanding or controlling of their employees.

I’m hearing managers say things I haven’t heard in a long time. Things that bespeak of an underlying and troubling attitude. 

For example:

• “I can have you replaced with a dozen just like you by noon if I want!” Read more »

Short article #41

In his book, The Future of Management, Gary Hamel contends that the current management model centered on control and efficiency, no longer suffices in a world where adaptability and creativity drive business success.

Hamel’s perspective is credible. As well as being a bestselling author he is ranked the #1 Influential Business Thinker by the Wall Street Journal. Some points from his book:

There will be new challenges to competitive viability and profitability: In a world of immediately accessible information, there is less room for mediocre products or services. 

Modern management needs to change its model for the future. "Modern management has also stymied the opinions and free-spirits of human beings by getting them to conform to rigid rules and procedures, and in so doing squandered creative problem solving or innovation. It has brought discipline to operations, but imperils organizational adaptability."

Management innovation can bring significant advantage. In studying over 100 management breakthroughs across two centuries, Hamel notes that major advances in managerial practices often

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Short article # 40 

The article from BNET (link below) makes an apt point regarding employee praise, a point that should be common knowledge for any manager or leader: 

• Principle: deserved praise is critical to feelings of connectedness, employee loyalty, as well as ongoing contribution of uninhibited effort.

One of my own consulting engagements closely mirrors the story told in the article: A small business client was suffering from accelerated turnover, and inexplicably, several professional staff level employees had resigned only months prior to collecting sizeable bonuses.

Can lack of praise or lack of relationship with one’s manager be a significant enough factor to prompt an employee to leave an employer, moreover, can it actually cause them to walk away from tens of thousands of dollars in bonus money? According to my first-hand experience, yes.

Thanks for the Bonus — I Quit! | The View from Harvard Business | BNET

Short Article #38 and 39 (parts one and two)

I like this observation by business authors Fahey and Randall:

“A major limitation of most strategic planning is that the thinking and recognition of opportunity take place within the confines of a mental box – the limits of the historical mindset. Often, signals of change or threat are simply not recognized by the upper leaders involved in the planning. Middle managers often contribute to the problem by focusing on the activities that best fit the mindset. Front-line managers may be subtly discouraged from challenging the status quo. In other words, the mindset exerts a limiting role on the analysis and implementation of the plan.” Liam Fahey, Robert Randall

What thoughts do you have based upon the observation above? Please leave your comments below if you’d like to chime in.

Here are some views I have on the topic of the limiting historical mindset, based on my experience:

• In the pursuit of constancy, consistency and congruency most organizations are unable to get past status quo.
• Management is often instructed by leadership to "adhere to the course we’ve laid out” and “don’t rock the boat.” Employees are often told by management to “just do what we tell you,” and “don’t ask too many questions.”
• Organizations too often say on the one hand that they want change, yet still vehemently resist it.
• As individuals, we may truly want what’s better for ourselves, our careers or our families, and yet we stay stuck in our all too comfortable mental ruts and habits—consequently little change occurs on any front.

I find that good questions often have pertinence when it comes to carefully considering our own possible historical mindsets.

Here are 10 Questions I Often Ask Leaders and Managers to Answer:

-Why do we yearn for change but yearn to resist it?

-Why do we look at the same data, the same markets, the same balance sheets and income statements month after month, and come to the very same historical conclusions?

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Short article #36 and #37 (combined)

It all started three or four decades ago with the ubiquitous employee suggestion boxes. For the most part, those antiquated  methods of getting employee input never really worked very well. Why?

Mainly, employees sensed that management really didn’t want their input. Two things in particular tipped them off.

First, nothing was ever acted on as a result of the input. Secondly, management never followed-up with employees later to discuss the ideas. (I realize ‘never’ is a big word… but it’s the word I most often hear from employees).

Thank goodness, many employee suggestions boxes, often located in the lunchroom or break room, went away. (I think they were turned into kindling wood, or hidden away in the closet by embarrassed managers).

Unfortunately however, suggestion boxes have now been replaced with more modern, but still largely ineffective methods for gathering employee input, such as:

• An “open door” management style which seemingly encourages openness from employees but rarely gets it.  
• Employee forums. Such forums often turn into gripe sessions (at least that’s what I’m told by managers who don’t like doing them anymore.)
• Monthly or weekly staff meetings (aka “huddles” or “departmental meetings”) where the employee perspective is rarely  garnered because such meetings are often monologues instead of productive, honest dialogues.
• Employee performance reviews. Too often reviews are one-way communications of arbitrary scores and ratings that have nothing to do with improving performance or building value into people. Secrets to Giving Employee Performance Reviews.

What’s wrong with the aforementioned methods for acquiring employee ideas and suggestions. Nothing! As long as, employee suggestions or ideas are handled effectively.

Highly effective managers are good at getting a steady stream of helpful, open dialogue from employees. Ideas they can use to cut costs, improve efficiencies and increase profits.

One of the best ways to start generating more useful employee input is by making sure you avoid the 6 Most Common Fumbles Handling Employee Input:

• Manager says they want input, but really doesn’t. He/she believes that the people in the company with all the answers are the people who hold titles, not the employees, because employees have a limited perspective.

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