Management
Secrets

The experts tell all!

Michael Heath

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Prepare to manage!

Manage yourself

1.1 Be a role model manager

1.2 Be the real thing

1.3 Look like you mean it

1.4 Go on – assert yourself!

1.5 Make time to manage

Empower your people

2.1 Manage with style

2.2 Know the ‘High Five’ that will motivate

2.3 Training is a chance to grow your own

2.4 Know how to coach

2.5 Keep on track with feedback

2.6 Let others share the load

2.7 Orchestrate a winning performance

2.8 Accentuate the positive in appraisals

2.9 Absence won’t make the heart grow fonder

2.10 Make discipline a quiet word

Make things happen

3.1 Make the decision to be decisive

3.2 Project plan, plan, plan

3.3 Object to unclear objectives

3.4 Identify meaningful milestones

3.5 Make your monitoring effective

3.6 Assign fair shares

3.7 Write reports that people want to read

Communicate in all directions

4.1 Manage up like you manage down

4.2 Turn on your feedback channel

4.3 Get to know yourself

4.4 Questions first – then listen up

4.5 Always be tactful

4.6 It’s great to collaborate

4.7 Be a culture vulture

4.8 Learn the language of body talk

4.9 Write emails with care

Recruit the very best

5.1 Know exactly what you’re looking for

5.2 Get ready to impress at interview

5.3 Save time with a telephone interview

5.4 Make great candidates want to join you

5.5 Avoid that fatal attraction

Build a great team

6.1 Define the team roles

6.2 Take your team on a journey

6.3 Fire up the team spirit

6.4 Build a supreme team

6.5 Communicate with a virtual team

6.6 Make time to meet

6.7 Produce an agenda

6.8 Turn yourself into a good chair

6.9 Open your meeting to all

6.10 Turn words into actions

Treat the budget with respect

7.1 Link in with the strategy

7.2 Understand your budget

7.3 Anticipate the future

7.4 Negotiate openly

Jargon buster

Further reading

About The Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

Prepare to manage!

You local bookshop is stuffed full of books claiming to help you manage better. So why add one more? Because I’ve done the job. And I’ve written it so that you get quick practical advice about the every day challenges I know you face. If you think academic theories are going to help – this ain’t the book.

As well as doing the job, I’ve spent the last 20 years or so working with other people also doing the job of management. Training them. Coaching them. Mentoring them. And believe me, that’s a lot of experience to dip into. I’ve seen the superstar managers – and the managers who would only get a star for being so bad at it. And what separates them? Simple – great managers prepare.

So I want you to prepare to make your management life easier. I want you to experience the thrill of knowing you manage your team well. And I want you to have a reputation as the sort of manager that people imitate. That people want to be like. That’s why I’m sharing these 50 secrets with you. You’ll find these secrets spread over seven chapters:

■ Manage yourself. You’ve got to have a clear sense of who you are before you manage others. Personal credibility is a big factor in a manager’s success.

■ Empower your people. People can be powerful – but only when the right management behaviours enable them to tap into that power. How you prepare for crucial interactions with others will determine your success.

■ Make things happen. A manager gets things done. Getting things done means applying the right tools and techniques that make sure the right things get done.

■ Communicate in all directions. Many don’t realise just how much skill a talented manager uses when they communicate. Not just to the team, but every key person they interact with.

■ Recruit the very best. You want a great candidate to say ‘yes’ to your job offer. A systematic approach to recruitment makes this a reality.

■ Build a great team. Great teams don’t happen by chance. A manager works carefully on the composition, skills and motivation of their employees. And they also turn team meetings into events that people look forward to.

■ Treat the budget with respect. Whether you’ve a budget or not, you will make crucial decisions that affect it. Understanding something of the process will help guide your decision making.

Time and again I’m going to talk about the need to prepare. Don’t short-change yourself on this. Thinking about and preparing for the management situations you face is often the deciding factor between the great manager and the mediocre.

Great managers anticipate and prepare while others merely react and repair.

Manage yourself

I love the saying, “That which I understand, I control. That which I don’t understand, controls me.” This chapter is about deepening the understanding you have of yourself and how you come across to your team. These secrets address subjects that many managers do not get right. So give the questions serious thought and decide how successfully you manage yourself. Then you’ll be ready to move on to managing others.

1.1 Be a role model manager

Role modelling starts when you’re a child, when you start to look around for someone to copy. As you get older you start to move your target. You want to be more like your friends, your heroes, your boss…

Guess what? There are people who want to be a manager like you. To do what you do. They watch you closely and even start dealing with stuff the way that you deal with stuff. Recognize it? You probably do it yourself. You’re either using approaches that your boss uses – or making sure you do the opposite!

■ What’s the great thing about role modelling? Role modelling is imitating the success we see because we want to be successful. Well,

case study At the start of my training career I delivered a workshop for my organization’s customer services staff. We covered the usual things, including how you pick the phone up to customers using a proper company greeting. A few days later I was surprised to find a delegate from the workshop picking up an incoming call with a casual “Hello.” I asked why he hadn’t used the professional greeting we agreed on the workshop. He pointed to his boss on the other side of the room and said, “As soon as he starts answering the phone properly, I’ll start answering the phone properly”.

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing” Albert Schweitzer, German-French philosopher

if you want your people to be enthusiastic, attentive to detail, great time managers, hard working, etc., then you have to be enthusiastic, attentive to detail, a great time manager…I’m sure you’ve got it.

■ The flip-side. You can’t ask your employees to do things you’re not prepared to do. Need people occasionally to work late? Then you need to be seen occasionally working late. Want them to meet your deadlines? Then keep your deadlines with them. Want people to show respect for each other in the team? Then you must show respect to everyone – inside or outside the team.

By demonstrating high performance behaviour, you’ll be challenging your employees to raise their game. You don’t have to say, “Be more like me”. They’ll soon pick up the message.

Demonstrate excellence and professionalism at all times.

1.2 Be the real thing

It doesn’t take long for people to spot a fraud. You’ve probably already spotted one or two at work yourself and already know how important it is to be authentic and honest with employees. But how do you build the real trust between manager and staff?

What your team wants from you is consistent behaviour. They need to see an underlying logic to your decision making. They need to feel that you are always fair – even if they don’t like a decision.

This consistency always comes from a stable character. But what is character? Character is usually a combination of the qualities that make up an individual. Some qualities can be attributes such as ‘determined’, ‘persevering’ or ‘enthusiastic’. Other qualities are more to do with your moral code: ‘honesty’, ‘integrity’, ‘fairness’.

case study A recently promoted manager called me to ask for advice. “The trouble is I don’t do small talk, Michael. I know that managers should, but it’s just not what I’m good at.” “Then let them know” I suggested. “Sit them down and tell them what your strengths are. Then tell them what you don’t do.

They’ll understand.” And they did. I also think they appreciated her honesty. She started off being truthful from the start. She avoided pretending to show a quality that she didn’t really have. But she showed a great quality that she did have: always wanting to be honest with her team.

Now do the following exercise:

1 Identify your character traits. Take a sheet of paper and write all of the qualities you believe you have. Try to identify at least 10 to 15 traits.

2 Agree the traits. Show these traits to someone who knows you well. A partner, friend or colleague who will give an honest opinion.

3 Mentally ‘sign up’ to these character traits. Make a pact with yourself that this is the ‘real you’ and the behaviour you will always try to demonstrate.

4 Keep these traits with you. Put the list in a discreet place where you can quickly find it.

5 Use this list of character traits for your tough decisions. Next time you have a tough thing to do, make sure that it reflects the character traits you signed up to.

Your employees may question your decisions but should never have cause to question your character.

1.3 Look like you mean it

Managers seldom talk about their ‘image’ but let’s be clear: you have one. The way you dress provides visual clues to the sort of person you are. Casual dress may be cool, but smart casual is coolest of all. Think about it. You don’t deliver thousand-dollar messages in one-dollar suits.

Perhaps you think I might be overestimating the impact of your appearance? Then let me point you to the election race between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy in 1960. People still say the reason JFK won was because Nixon hadn’t bothered to shave. The people in makeup couldn’t hide his 5 o’clock shadow. You don’t win trust looking like a gangster.

one minute wonder Look around for someone else in your organization who always manages their image well. How do they do it? What are the ways that they make sure they look the part? What can you learn from them and introduce as part of your own appearance?

“Most things are judged by their jackets”

Baltasar Gracián y Morales, 17th-century Spanish writer

■ So what does smart dress do? It neutralizes people’s opinion of you. Instead of concentrating on your ill-fitting trousers or joke tie they concentrate on you and your message. When you dress professionally, then people assume you are a professional. You look the part.

■ Image doesn’t stop with clothes. Looking well groomed equally sends positive messages out about you. It tells people you care about the small stuff and that detail matters. So if you travel in a car, make sure it’s tidy. When you open your briefcase, don’t lift the lid on a mass of papers and clutter. If your cell phone or mobile rings, don’t have a ringtone that’s so awful people make remarks about it.

■ Last of all, what about your desk? You must make sure that you look like you have everything under control. Remember, a manager’s job is often about managing detail. An untidy desk sends out the wrong messages to your staff and colleagues.

All managers sell. We sell ideas, opinions and concepts. But, as any salesperson will tell you, people buy people. How you look either helps – or gets in the way of – that process.

Like it or not, people are going to judge you on your appearance.

1.4 Go on – assert yourself!

Being the boss doesn’t mean being bossy. It means dealing with difficult situations fairly and skilfully. Aggression may get quick results, but you soon lose respect and loyalty. Asserting yourself is different. It’s about getting your point across but keeping people with you. Being strong – but always being fair.

■ You are going to have to deal with conflict. It’s part of what we managers do. But you can still say what you want to say and keep the respect others have for you. How? By making sure that you show respect to others.

■ There’s a big difference between aggressive and assertive managers. Aggressive managers make their point – but in a way that ignores the rights and feelings of the person they are talking to. The

case study Two colleagues, Dev and Suki, argued and ended up not speaking to each other. Both complained separately to the manager and demanded that she deal with the situation. Unfortunately, the manager decided that they were “two adults and should sort it out between themselves”.

But over the next few months the situation just got worse. What was the result? Not only did both Dev and Suki eventually leave, but two other colleagues left as well, fed up with the bad atmosphere! Because the manager was afraid to deal properly with the situation, things got much worse.

“He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty” Lao Tzu, Taoist philosopher of ancient China

person then feels hurt and resents the manager. Worst of all, they may even show this through sabotage and non-co-operation. An assertive manager can make the same point – but makes sure that they respect the rights of who they are speaking to.

Let me show you. I could have a disagreement and say, “You don’t know what you’re talking about”. Notice how this not only passes judgement on the message, it passes judgement on the person as well. How much better this might be if I said, “I’d like to talk about where we disagree”. This time I’m concentrating on the facts, not the person. This is why assertive people are so strong – they have a need to get at the truth, but make sure they don’t make enemies when they do so.

Dealing assertively with conflict is an important skill every successful manager must master.

1.5 Make time to manage

People used to worry about keeping their desk tidy. Now it’s also about keeping the computer desktop tidy. Then there are the interruptions, the telephone, the meetings…Follow these nine tips to get rid of the time robbers in your life.

1 Be clear about what you want to achieve. Do the one minute wonder exercise opposite.

2 Plan your work. Write down your goals and break each goal down into sub-tasks. Give start and finish dates to each task.

3 Book appointments with your work. If a report is going to take two hours, then make an appointment with that report as if it were a real person.

4 Deal with tasks as soon as you can. If it’s an unpleasant task then do it first thing.

5 Be ruthless with time – but courteous with people. But don’t over-socialize either face to face or on the phone. Remember you’re eating into other people’s time as well!

one minute wonder Write down your job purpose. Then write the five activities that help you achieve this job purpose. Rate each activity 1-5 according to how happy you are with the time you spend on each (1=low, 5=high). Now get those low – rated activities into your diary!

6 Deal with your email three times a day. First thing in the morning, mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Turn off the pop-up that tells you when an email has just come through.

7 Deal with interruptions. Ask the interrupter if it’s quick or if it can wait until later. If interrupted at your desk, then stand up to keep the other person focused.

8 Deal with your in-tray once a day. Take each item and: deal with it; delegate it; file it or dump it.

9 Plan your telephone calls. Save them up and do them in a block so they’ll be quicker and more focused.

The worst feeling as a manager is when we think that the workload is too much for us. These nine tips make sure that you stay in control and go home each evening feeling on top of your workload.

Being a great time manager leaves you with more time for your people.

Empower your people

Now it’s time to turn to the people you are managing. This chapter asks you to think about the individual interactions you have every day. Coaching and training are key managerial behaviours. Keeping your staff motivated is also crucial. Also included are secrets to dealing with tricky situations that, if handled badly, may lead to poor performance from your employees.

2.1 Manage with style

Everybody in your team is different. One might have more ability; another might have a better attitude. Some you can leave to get on with tasks; others you need to oversee more closely. Because each person is an individual, you manage each in an individual way.

The managerial approach laid out here is adapted from Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey’s Situational Leadership model. If you’re a new manager, then it’s a great starting place. You’ll find their book in the ‘Further Reading’ section at the back.

Say to yourself: what is it my employees need from me? They need direction and they need support. Sometimes I give both, at other times only one, and sometimes neither!

What is it that helps me decide?

■ Assess personal confidence. I first assess how high their confidence is in a situation. If it’s low, then I’ll consider how best I might support them to build their self-belief.

one minute wonder How much does your managerial style vary from employee to employee? How much direction and support have you given to each? Does it respect their different needs? Have you ever used the wrong behaviour when responding to an employee?

■ Assess personal ability. How competent are they in this situation? Have they got the skills? Do I need to think about training or offering advice?

What if I have a person who lacks confidence and is also not yet competent? Then I use a style that gives a clear direction, yet is also supportive and encouraging. A newly promoted person often needs this. Of course, as their competence grows, so will their confidence.

Perhaps someone is confident but has done something wrong? Then they only need direction. I might coach them. Work with them to make sure they see where they might have got it wrong. You’ll get people who are great performers but who lack confidence. Here I’m supportive. I remind them of what a great job they’re doing.

Of course you sometimes use all four different approaches with the same person. That’s the skill. Seeing the situation clearly and choosing the right managerial behaviour.

What does a high flyer need? Not much really, but I’d take the time to let them know I appreciate them. They don’t need more self confidence or direction – they probably need promoting!

Your management style must respond to each individual’s ability and self confidence.

2.2 Know the ‘High Five’ that will motivate

A motivated team looks at obstacles as things to be overcome. A demotivated team sees the same obstacles as proof of the pointlessness of their efforts. Here are my ‘High Five’ tips to deliver sky-high levels of motivation.

1 Give recognition and praise for what your people achieve. Catch people doing things right. Give the praise quickly and make sure you say why it was important.

2 Make the work challenging. People who are stretched maintain higher levels of motivation than people who are underused. Get your people out of their comfort zones!

3 Make the work interesting. We all find different work interesting. The trick is to get to know what work is interesting to each individual in your team.

“Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great” Mark Twain, American writer

4 Create development paths. Are your people doing the same things they were doing this time last year? Then they are unlikely to be developing new skills.

5 Encourage real ownership and responsibility. When I own something I have more incentive to make sure I’m doing it to a high standard. Delegate whole tasks where you can. Make sure you’ve read our seven ‘must do’ delegation tips (2.6)!

If you’re a good manager you’ll know that there are some real ‘turn-offs’ that demotivate people. But demotivated people don’t always tell you what it is that’s demotivating them. So you have to make sure you find out. Ask things such as “What is the biggest factor that prevents you from achieving your goals?” My bet is that a big demotivator will soon emerge.

Some demotivators you can deal with and some you can’t. Be creative and try and see the situation from the employee’s point of view. Tackle the demotivators together. Sometimes just being listened to is enough to get them fired up again.

Mastering motivation takes time and insight, but the contribution it unleashes can be amazing.

2.3 Training is a chance to grow your own

Someone once remarked, “Everyone asks about the cost of training. But have they ever considered the cost of not training?” Nobody’s good at everything. That’s why a manager takes the time to train his or her people. But you must be systematic in the way you train. Even when it’s only one-to-one.

Always prepare for the training session. Define the training objective in a single sentence. For example: “By the end of the session you will be able to locate a given file in a server within one minute.” Notice the measurement? It’s vital if you are going to encourage a sense of achievement.

Next, decide exactly how you’re going to structure your session. Don’t ignore this. Effective trainers know that time spent on this increases the session’s success. Will you need equipment? Where would be the best place to train?

“What nobler employment…than that of the man who instructs the rising generation”

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Ancient Roman philosopher

On the day itself, make sure you go through the following steps:

■ Clarify with the trainee(s) what they are about to learn. Tell them the objective you prepared for the session.

■ Demonstrate the skill. Let them see the whole skill. Then repeat it slowly. Explain what you are doing and why it’s important.

■ Do the exercise together. This isn’t always possible. But if you can go through it at the same time it’s a great way to transfer a skill.

■ Ask them to do the exercise alone. Also ask them to talk through the process. Listen out for what they say – and what they miss out!

■ Give helpful feedback. Direct your feedback at the skill and not the trainee. Make sure you praise and encourage throughout.

■ Follow up after the session. When you see them doing the skill ensure you continue to give encouragement and feedback. Especially for larger, more demanding tasks.

Of course, you don’t always have to give feedback. Sometimes just asking “Why do you think that happened?” or “What do you need to change?” gets the answers you want. Asking good questions gets the trainees to talk through the skill. The more they talk – and think – it through, the more they understand.

Training builds relationships and demonstrates your commitment to staff.

2.4 Know how to coach

Responsibility and ownership – if every employee demonstrated these two qualities, how much easier management would be! One way that will really encourage these qualities is coaching.

Don’t confuse coaching with training. Training is about putting knowledge into someone. Coaching is drawing knowledge out with questions that inspire the coachee to think through and solve issues from their own experience. One great coaching technique is GROW, pioneered in John Whitmore’s book Coaching for Performance.

“When I want to, I perform better than when I have to”

John Whitmore, racing driver and performance coach

case study Pierre was an outstanding salesperson. However, he ran into trouble when he was asked to coach other salespeople. He became impatient when waiting for answers to his coaching questions – the coachees simply weren’t as fast in their thought processes as him. Eventually he started to prompt the coachees with answers he was looking for. He even began to ask questions that they could only say yes or no to. Great performers do not always make great coaches.

■ G = Goal. What is the goal that you want the coachee to achieve? Is it a short-term or long-term goal? Will you share the goal with the employee?

■ R = Reality. What is happening now? How aware is your coachee of the behaviours they are currently employing? What are the underlying reasons for their behaviours?

■ O = Options. What are the alternative behaviours available to the coachee? What are the merits – or disadvantages – of each option?

■ W = Will (or way forward). What option have you chosen and how will you achieve it? What are the obstacles that you must overcome? What help will you need?

Coaching is all about asking questions in a structured, searching way. For instance, during the ‘Reality’ stage, I might ask, “So what’s happening now?” “Why do you think that’s happening?” “What effect is that having on your work?”

These questions make the coachee analyse the situation and come up with their own solutions. After all, we all prefer our own solutions to problems!

Coaching is a powerful way of building accountability in your people.

2.5 Keep on track with feedback

“How am I doing?” This question is so important. People want feedback but they want it to be delivered sensitively and effectively.

Sometime we give feedback that’s positive and says: “I love what you’ve done, keep doing it!” Sometimes we give feedback to make someone even better at what they are doing: “I like this but adjusting this would really help”. Of course it’s the second type of feedback, developmental feedback, that most managers struggle with.

If you have to give feedback to improve someone’s performance then go with these six simple steps.

1 Clarify why the behaviour is happening. “‘Renu, I noticed that you haven’t started preparing your presentation.”

2 Confirm what your understanding was. “I thought we agreed that you’d have a session plan completed yesterday.”

3 First recap the benefits of the agreed behaviours. “You’ll remember we agreed that it would help you decide how much time to dedicate to each area?”

one minute wonder How often do you seek feedback from those around you? How accurate is that feedback? How well has it been delivered? How receptive are you to development feedback that helps you to grow?

4 State your concern. “I’m concerned that you might fall behind and have too much to do before the presentation itself.”

5 Ask the employee to confirm. “What was your understanding when we last spoke about this point?”

6 Conclude with a positive statement. “It’s your big opportunity Renu, let’s make sure that the senior team realise how great your project went.”

You must give feedback as close to the event as you can. I call this ‘fresh feedback’. There’s a time when feedback is ripe and a time when it’s too far past its sell-by date! And sometimes you have to assess how receptive the employee will be. If Renu’s presentation was a disaster then you may want to wait until she is more receptive to receiving feedback.

One last point: make your feedback specific. Talk about behaviours that people can change and make sure that you never use feedback as an excuse for a personal attack.

Well delivered feedback removes blind spots in people’s performance and increases motivation.

2.6 Let others share the load

You can’t do everything. You’ve got to share your work where you can. Not only does it take the pressure off you, you’ll find staff enjoy the new responsibilities you’ve given them. So show your trust in people – follow these seven ‘must-do’ delegation tips:

1 Think carefully about who you’re going to delegate to. Don’t overload the highest performer. Make sure everyone has the skills to do what you’re asking them to do.

2 Meet quickly with the people you’ve chosen. They’ll need more time than you to prepare for the task. What might take you a day to achieve might take someone else a week!

one minute wonder Think about the last time your own boss delegated a task to you. What can you learn from the way you were delegated to? How will it change the way you delegate to others?

3 Set aside plenty of time to talk through the task. Others may not be as quick in understanding it as you. Allow plenty of time to make things clear.

4 Be clear about about the end result. If you only want a one-page report then say so. Be precise about what you’re asking someone to do.

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