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Positive Management Skills

Are you currently a manager or expecting to be one at some point? As a positive leader, you can foster the growth of your employees in line with the goals of the organization. The difference between a winning and a losing team depends on a positive management style. A positive manager coaches and empowers others to succeed in their jobs. By facilitating a work environment in which people are willing to cooperate to achieve common goals, productivity soars. Leadership by subjection or even inspection is an easy trap but one that you can avoid.

Outstanding people skills are essential for your effectiveness as a leader. Learning to listen, train, coach, advise, and inspire become essential communication skills for notable managers. Your management style expresses your genuineness and integrity as a person; If you are a liar and dishonest, you will not be trusted for long. Successful managers, above all, treat their employees with respect.

Role Models

In my seminars everyone relates an instance of a lousy manager. But not everyone has been fortunate enough to work under a positive one. If you have had a great manager, think back to why the person was liked and why they were effective. For sure, this person made a personal connection with you. That's what you want to do with your employees; make them feel important to you and the company. If you don't have the experience of a constructive role model, look for admirable managers in other parts of your company or among your peers. Good managers demonstrate achievements in planning, recruiting, organizing, directing, training, and conflict resolution. Technical competence in your field is vital, but interpersonal excellence really counts.

Good leaders are not necessarily always nice. There's a good reason for that old expression "it's lonely at the top". You can't gossip in the same way with your cronies or disclose "all you know". Disciplining employees and enforcing policies and quality standards are all key ingredients of your job. You can be fair and professional but you won't always be popular. If you are a solo manager in your company, find other managers at your level inside or outside the company and share expertise. If that's not possible, get a management coach or take advantage of the available books, videos, audio tapes, and training programs. Also, as a manager, you become a role model. If you're late every day, how can you complain if Bob is? You have a responsibility to the managers of the future to demonstrate the best management skills that you can. You are being watched.

Whatever your strengths and weaknesses, being a manager will put them to the test. If you are disorganized, watch out! Your employees may take advantage of the fact that you don't remember when a project is due. If you are insecure, your employees may try to manipulate you. If you're too laid back, people may take advantage of you. To become a positive manager, you must do a self assessment. Play on your strengths and experience and make a plan to manage your weaknesses. Sue was a superb manager but weak in the budget department. She bounced checks and overspent on supplies and once had paychecks delayed as the account was overdrawn. Her attitude around money worried her employees and lowed her esteem in their eyes. She either needed to learn these financial management skills or delegate these responsibilities to a competent other. She chose to take classes and meet regularly with the comptroller of her company to earn back the respect she wanted. Admit to yourself what you need to work on and then do it.

The Power of Positive Recognition

In job satisfaction surveys of employees, their number one wish is positive recognition for their work. People want authentic praise for their efforts. Make a point of acknowledging your employees regularly. A "thank you" or a congratulatory memo on a job well done work like a charm for morale and motivation. In addition, you need to analyze your work culture. Are you getting positive accolades from your boss? Are people in the organization upbeat or demoralized? Is the company growing or stagnant? Is management well organized and strategically on the mark? Is corporate communication clear or secretive? How is the company viewed by the community? Are people proud to be affiliated with this company? You are not managing in a vacuum. It's hard to be a great manager in a lousy company. You generally can't create a total oasis for yourself and your employees. If you're feeling unappreciated and resentful of a high percentage of management practices, then how can you be a cheerleader for that team? You are an advocate for your employees and while you can't expect to win every battle, you want to at least feel you have a fighting chance.

Unhappy managers cannot inspire much except job turnover. So ask yourself the following questions:

1) What are your personal and professional goals and are they being met in your current job?

2) How would you reorganize your job/department to better meet your goals?

3)Do you agree with the goals of your organization?

4) Is your organization a positive work environment that rewards employees and fosters their career development?

5) How equipped is your company and your industry to compete successfully in the global marketplace?

6) What are the major challenges/problems in your company and department?

7) What changes can you propose to improve the work environment for your employees?

If you feel like a fraud every time you implement a corporate policy, your employees will feel it. It's best to work for a company in alignment with your goals and values so you can support its direction and mandates.

Management Communications

In this segment, we will focus on discipline, coaching for improved job performance, delegation, and coaching for career development. This information will either get you started or deepen your knowledge. You are operating within a management communication framework. Start with a plan for your department. Then you hire and train employees to perform specific job descriptions. Monitoring their performance, you communicate regularly with employees, giving them both positive and negative feedback. Then you coach them with the goal of either improving their performance or enhancing their career growth. Annually, you review this cycle with a performance review. If you don't talk to your employees all year and then try to conduct a meaningful performance review, you've missed a year of opportunities.

Job Descriptions

Before you begin any intervention with an employee, make sure that he/she has an up-to-date, comprehensive job description. Don't leave that task to human resources. Create a working document with each employee so that expectations are clear and current. If an employee doesn't have a job description, ask him/her to keep a log of all work activities for one month. Simultaneously, you write a draft of your view of their job responsibilities and the evaluation criteria. Then compare the two documents and the ensuing discussion will help you to compose an accurate picture. Detailed job descriptions save you from numerous personnel problems and communication breakdowns.

Discipline

Managers often hesitate to discipline an employee. Yet if you don't, the rest of the team resents your cowardice. For example, Becky continuously took overly long lunches. As a customer service representative, this meant that Becky was not handling her fair share of customer calls. Her co-workers kept waiting for the manager to intervene. It is your job to make sure that work is distributed fairly. Becky's manager, an empathic woman, knew that Becky was using her lunch break to run errands for her elderly mother. Yet, Becky's personal dilemma was compromising the morale and coverage for the entire department. Disciplinary action was in order. To help you feel more confident, follow these six steps:

1) Meet with the employee in private as soon after the incident as possible. Don't let the problem fester.

2) Outline the specific job responsibility the employee has not performed up to the expected standard. If this is an ongoing problem, keep track of what you have noticed, with dates and times if you can.

3) Refer to the employees job description or the company manual to clarify why this behavior is unacceptable.

4) State clearly the required behavior in specific behavioral language. For example, you could say "Company policy states that lunch break is only 30 minutes daily".

5) State the reasons for the expected behavior.

6) Let the employee know that his/her performance will be evaluated and cite the consequences of not performing the required behavior. For example, you could say "As of today, you must be back at your desk from lunch in 30 minutes or you will be required to make up the time each week. If you continue to abuse the lunch policy, you will receive a written warning."

Discipline, unlike coaching, is meant to be swift and precise. Certainly, you can sympathize with Becky's personal need to help her mother with errands. Yet, your job as manager is to insure that the company's customers can reach a customer service representative quickly. If Becky's at the drugstore, customers are not getting the service they deserve and her co-workers are being swamped with calls. You may want to take this opportunity to talk with Becky about alternatives. But it's Becky's job to manage her personal affairs. Always remember if you make an exception for one person, other employees will want the privilege. So you are not free to tell Becky that she can have longer lunches unless you adjust her entire schedule. Then you can expect that her co-workers will be knocking on your door for the same flexibility. Keep in mind what's best for the department as a whole.