 |
 |
 |
| |
Monday, June 14th, 2010
I confess I’m not a fan of the local newspaper. There are too many other sources these days for the specific news I choose to follow. Having said that, there’s one publication I do enjoy reading on a regular basis – Investor’s Business Daily.
As you know, I love to focus on fundamentals. I place a high value on doing those few things that give a high return on the investment. Whether it’s time, talent or treasure, doing a few simple things on a regular basis will almost always separate you from the crowd.
My favorite section of the IBD is “Leaders & Success.” In that section of the paper, the focus is on men and women who have attained success and often remarkable achievements through – guess what – clarity, focus and hard work. I know, that last part is a drag, isn’t it?
The Leaders & Success section also presents IBD’s 10 Secrets of Success. The 10 secrets come from years of analyzing leaders and successful people from every walk of life. This extensive study revealed ten traits which, when combined, turned dreams into reality and into fantastic levels of achievement.
This week I’ll share five of the secrets and finish the list in the next edition of “Getting More With Les.” Ready? Here are the first five:
1. How You Think Is Everything:
Always think positive. Think success, not failure. Beware of a negative environment. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10. What can you do to improve?
2. Decide Upon Your True Dreams and Goals.
Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10. What can you do to improve?
3. Take Action:
Goals are nothing without action. Don’t be afraid to get started. Just do it. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10. What can you do to improve?
4. Never Stop Learning:
Go back to school or read books. Get training and acquire skills. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10. What can you do to improve?
5. Be Persistent And Work Hard:
Success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never give up. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10. What can you do to improve?
That’s enough to think about this week. Do yourself a favor though, give these five success secrets some deeper thought. Remember, knowledge itself isn’t power. Knowledge APPLIED is where the real power comes from.
Tags: clarity, failure, focus, goals, hard work, improvement, investment, Investors Business Daily, leaders, learn, negative, news, newspaper, persistence, positive, success, time, training
Posted in 2010 | No Comments »
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
 This article is for those of you who have been recently promoted to manager or maybe have been managing for a while but have become a bit stale. It serves as a reminder that good management doesn’t just happen. Good managers develop certain skill sets that enable them to help make their respective companies a success. It also serves as a reminder that sometimes knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what is.
Here’s a short list of mistakes managers can make that will derail their efforts to move their organizations forward.
Mistake #1: Not getting the right people involved in decisions
In my opinion, this is the number one mistake managers make. Those of us who’ve been around management for a while know that the best decisions are made with the input of those folks actually doing the job. They know what works and what doesn’t. Get their opinion on operational decisions before moving forward. You may save a lot of time and money.
Mistake #2: Not creating a stable work environment
We live in a chaotic world, a time of tremendous change on almost every front. One of the smartest things you can do as a manager is to create a stable work environment. Don’t constantly change direction. Develop a plan for getting from where you are now to where you want to be, and stay with the plan. Make necessary course adjustments but don’t create a new plan every time you have a new idea, or jump into a new management fad.
Mistake #3: Not taking time to explain “why”
The days of “just do it because I told you to” are over. Two of the four generations in the workplace today were raised in the Information Age and have a burning desire to know why. It takes very little effort to give some background or context to a particular decision and will go a long way in gaining the support needed for successful completion of a project.
Mistake #4: Ignoring the value of training
Just because employees are a great workers, show up every day – on time, and have great attitudes, doesn’t mean they’ll be successful managers. It just means they’re good people! Add to their value by training to the position they are now in. Also require that they, in turn, pass that training along to the people they’re are working with. Create a culture of training and reward those who respond.
Mistake #5: Not having or utilizing clerical support
Managers need to focus time and attention on management. The primary role of a manager is to move important projects forward – not to spend a significant part of the day copying and collating. Good managers make very expensive copy machine operators.
Mistake #6: Underestimating the importance of work areas
Work areas are important to people. The more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing an employee’s work area can be, the more productive that person will be. Providing staff with clean, comfortable work areas only increases performance and productivity.
Mistake #7: Not promoting teamwork, collaboration and cooperation
Ken Blanchard, author of the business classic, The One Minute Manager, often reminds his audiences that: “None of us is as smart as all of us.” Pitting one work group against another is a recipe for failure. Successful companies understand the value of collaboration and, in fact, insist upon it.
Tags: business, clerical, decisions, effective, manager, managers, support, team, training, work environment
Posted in 2010, manager's minute | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
When an archer misses the mark, it’s not the fault of the target. When the meatloaf didn’t quite turn out as expected, it’s probably not the fault of the recipe. Do you sense a common denominator here?
Being good at anything is often a combination of raw talent and skill development. A skilled archer could be handed a very average bow and still hit the center of the target. Likewise, a simple recipe and ordinary ingredients in the hands of a master chef would result in a delightful meal. But here’s the reality, the success enjoyed by both the archer and the chef were achieved by combining innate talent with training and development. The same is true for good managers.
Extraordinary managers often get extraordinary results from very ordinary people. Not so good managers usually get very average results even with extraordinary people working for them. And lousy managers drag down everyone in the organization. They don’t get positive results even from the most talented people.
How to Make a Great Managers
1. Train and Develop Them
Professions require some type of diploma, degree or certification. Certain occupations also require licensing or testing to evaluate varying levels of knowledge or proficiency. Carpenters, plumbers, even exterminators are required to be credentialed. Not so with management, however.
The unfortunate reality is that often managers are selected by virtue of the fact that they show up for work every day. It’s an added bonus if they can see lightning and hear thunder. In way too many companies, if an employee is in the right place at the right time, and has a pulse, bam! He/she is promoted to manager.
Too many companies throw good employees into the role of manager without any training or preparation. It gets worse. If the employee happens to be technically skilled, it’s assumed he/she will be able to figure out how to effectively manage. Big mistake!
Good companies that want good managers must invest in the training and development of those who demonstrate talents for organization, communication and the ability to positively influence their peers. Being reliable is obviously important, but there’s a lot more to consider when an organization decides to promote someone to management. Managers are the backbone of every organization. A good company with bad management doesn’t last long. If it’s able to survive in spite its poor management, it isn’t very competitive and won’t be very profitable.
2. Reward Them
Ever hear the adage, “what gets rewarded gets repeated”? Good employees and good managers make mediocre companies better and good companies great. Want to know how to light up a good employee or great manager? Acknowledge their contributions to the success of the enterprise. Notice, I didn’t say throw a bunch of money at them. Study after study shows that money, in and of itself, isn’t a very good motivator.
Those same studies would show people respond very favorably to both public and private recognition for a job well done. I’m not suggesting monetary rewards aren’t important, I’m just saying money isn’t the only, nor the most important reward a company can offer.
And speaking of rewards, when it comes time to recognize outstanding performance, don’t focus on activities – focus on results. Activity and productivity are not the same thing. We all know, and often work with people who are very active, but not at all productive. Being busy does not equate to being productive.
In a recent Harvard Business Review series of articles, titled The 7 Habits of an Effective Manager, the point is made that just 10% of managers move their companies forward. Why? Because they zero in on strategic (company) goals and see them through to completion.
What about the other 90%? They’re focused on activities that have little or no connection with the strategic initiatives of their company. They focus on short-term tasks, live in crisis management mode and take on too much work from their subordinates.
So What? Who Cares?
Good managers become great managers through training and development. Great leaders realize how important the management function is to their respective enterprise and recognize the value of developing managerial talents. Great leaders also regularly recognize the contributions great managers make toward the success of their company.
Tags: development, employees, managers, professions, recognize, skill, train, training, value
Posted in 2010, manager's minute | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Some managers are good and others aren’t so good; that’s just a fact of life. There are several reasons why some managers achieve extraordinary results, while others just seem to eke by. Unfortunately, the emphasis we place on the training and development of skilled craftsmen and well-paid professionals is often not applied in the field of management.
I’d like to share some thoughts on why there aren’t more good managers out there and what could be done to change that trend.
Reasons For Management Failure
1. Lack of Training
In many occupations and in all professions, some type of training and/or certification is required in order for competency to be established or recognized. Beyond the training, some type of testing is usually required to demonstrate proficiency. Not so for managers – in 98 percent of corporate America. More often than not, a manager is selected based on tenure, not on proficiency.
2. Lack of Mentoring/Coaching
Once a manager is selected, he or she is almost never mentored. The selection is made and corporate fingers are crossed, hoping the new manager will be better than the last one. No one comes alongside the new manager to provide a vision or a plan. No one closely monitors the new manager’s activity and provides constructive feedback. Nope, the new manager is thrown to the wolves with such sage advice as “just figure it out.” Sadly, most folks never do.
3. Poor Role Model
Most learning for new managers is caught instead of taught. Before being promoted, we get an up-close and personal example of what managers do and how they act in our respective organizations. If we work for an exceptional manager, we’ll probably turn out to be a good manager as well. If we don’t, and this is most often the case, we get a skewed perspective of what managers do.
4. Focus on Personal Performance
If you had the opportunity to look at the typical manager’s performance evaluation, you would see, more often than not, he or she was praised for projects completed and problems solved. You’d be hard pressed to see praise for developing subordinates. Therein lies part of the problem: most managers are praised for individual behavior, not team development.
5. Management Is Hard
Those who think management is easy or that managers don’t do anything have probably never managed, or, if they have, they didn’t do it right. Getting things done through people requires a number of skills and a great deal of perseverance. Management is not for the faint of heart and it’s nor for the lazy.
Action Item(s):
Here are five suggestions on how management could be improved at the individual or corporate level.
1. Take Advantage of Training
If you’re a new manager, take advantage of any and all management development training provided by your company.
2. Take Personal Responsibility
Good managers take personal responsibility for their own training and development. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you; you may be waiting a long time.
3. Find A Mentor
If you don’t have a mentor – find one. Look for a positive role model, someone with a lot of management experience and ask that person to mentor you. He or she will be honored and probably more than willing to work with you.
4. Assess Your Commitment To Management Development
If you’re an executive, consider the points I’ve made in this eCARD and assess your individual and your organizational commitment to management development. If the commitment to management development isn’t there, take the necessary steps to make it happen. The future well-being of your organization depends on it.
Tags: assess, coaching, management, management development, manager, manager's minute, managerial, managers, mentor, objectives, organize, responsibilities, responsibility, results, role, training
Posted in 2010, manager's minute, Uncategorized | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
