Staff Management Tips

Ok, so you have landed some sort of a management position. You’re not quite sure how you did it but you did. You’re very happy with yourself at this point and give yourself a pat on the back thinking how terrific and clever you are. Then the doubts start to set in and you’re thinking that maybe you have made a mistake and that you really don’t want this position at all. That was me about 15 years ago. I always wanted to be a manager when I was working my way up the corporate ladder but when I got there, I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into. The problem was that I hadn’t really considered what it entails to be a manager.

Luckily for me I had a mentor at the time and it was the guy who promoted me from a sales executive to a supervising manager. He obviously saw something in my abilities to make that decision. When the time came though, I expressed to him that I had huge doubts about it all and that I really wasn’t sure if I could do it. He suggested that I wrote down a pros and cons list on what I think being a manager is. So I went away and I did just that. I came up with this small list of what I thought:

The Pros.

1. Power. I knew that managers have a certain amount of power to do what they wanted over their subordinates.

2. Better pay. I knew managers received more money because they have the word ‘manager’ in their title.

3. Status and Prestige. I knew that managers enjoyed a few more benefits than people below them.

4. A sense of accomplishment. I knew that once I get the official title, that I have accomplished something big for myself.

The Cons.

I really had no idea on this one. I thought about it for ages and then went back to him with my list of 4 pros and no cons. He looked at the list and he asked me where my cons were. I told him, I couldn’t really think of any. He said if you cannot see any negative sides of being a manager, then maybe management isn’t the right career path for you. He advised me to go away for awhile and really think about it. So I did. I went a read some books on management to really see what it means to be a manager and if I’m able and willing to accept certain responsibilities that it entails. A few days later I went back to him with a revised list. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Someone will always be after my job. People may not always agree with the decisions I make and think they can do it better. There are people withing my organization who want my job as well as people outside who want it too. No matter how talented I am, there is always going to be someone who is more talented.

2. The buck stops with me. As a sales rep or executive, when shit hit the fan, I could always blame someone else and it was cool. As a manager I am responsible for a certain department and  if someone screws up within my team, I am ultimately responsible.

3.Certain legal liabilities. It’s up to me as a manager to make sure the workplace is safe and that its free of harassment etc. If I fail in these areas, sometimes I may be held liable.

4. No immediate recognition or feedback. As a sales executive, I got immediate feedback because my manager could see the results of my work straight away. As a manager it may take weeks or months to receive any feedback or recognition because a managers role is a progressive one and it may take some time before any results are visible in my team building.

Needless to say, he was impressed with my list of cons. He asked me if I understood what all this meant and if  I was ready for these challenges? I told him I was because now I understood what being a manager was and I was ready for the good stuff as well as the possible bad.

A career in management is certainly not for everyone. A lot of managers fail because they really don’t know what the down side is to such a role. Ask anyone and they can come up with a pros list like I did on management. That’s all the fun stuff. But then ask them what the downside is, then they might struggle a bit. You have to deal with all the uncertainties. You have to enjoy working with people. You have to enjoy tackling the unknown sometimes. So if you are new to a management role, or have been in it for awhile, make out a pros and cons list and see weather or not you are ready and willing to accept the responsibilities such a role can bring. You will no doubt be earning more money, but believe me, you will work much harder for it than before.

Hi everyone

I think the idea of guest authors was a bad one. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but the stuff these ‘guest authors’ have been posting has nothing to do with the world of management. I do apologise if anyone was offended by any of the stuff that was published here. I have deleted their access so there will be no more crap posts appearing on this site.

Thank you all again for your support.

Cheers

A challenge for managers is to provide feedback on performance. If it’s given in a constructive way, it makes what’s expected from them very clear. It also helps in the area of motivation because it helps them to see where they can improve. Positive feedback is just as helpful as negative feedback. When I say negative feedback I don’t mean that you should berate anyone. What I mean is that sometimes what we have to say to a person isn’t going to be pleasant for them to hear but it has to be said non the less so they can move forward.

I have heard a lot of managers over the years giving feedback to their staff and a lot made me cringe when I listened to it. When some of that feedback was directed at me I thought ‘do you really think that what you are saying is going to make me want to work harder for you’? Luckily I’m a little more thick skinned than most and I shrugged it all of but some would just walk away totally demotivated. I remember one instance where the area manager was giving a ‘motivational’ talk to our staff. He started off by berating them because of the bad month we were having and he concluded by berating them. By the end of it, a few people resigned on the spot. There is a more productive way to give negative feedback to someone than that!

If you have to give feedback to someone (which you would have to as a manager or a supervisor) you need to think it all through first. a few points you should decide on before you approach someone are:

Make sure that when you are giving feedback, be in a positive frame of mind. It can be difficult to do that but it is a must. when you are in a bad mood, everything can seem worse than it is. If you are like that, give feedback another time.

You also need to stick to the topic. Don’t go from one issue to another as it’s hard for someone to absorb too much feedback at once. Do it gradually. if someone has too many things to work on, they will fail.

The appropriate time and place is also important. My favorite place for a not too serious discussion was at our downstairs coffee shop. For something of a serious nature, it was either a meeting room or in my office with the door closed.

It’s very important to focus on the behavior and not the person. It’s not the person  but it’s their observable behavior that you are seeking to change. For example, don’t say something like ‘you are a lazy bum because the paperwork you hand in is always late and untidy. You are a gross little pig’! You should say something like, ‘I have noticed that your paperwork is illegible most of the time and mistakes are easily made when it’s like that’…or something like that.

Feedback when it’s negative is hard enough to take for some people but when you make it a pleasant experience for someone when they are on the receiving end, then the results will speak for themselves. You will find that with a little preparation beforehand, being in the right frame of mind and using the appropriate location, this will increase their motivation and excel at their work.