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Managing people effectively is a tough job under normal circumstances. During the
type of economy that we are facing right now, it’s especially challenging. Instead of
being their usual focused and productive selves, direct reports are increasingly
nervous, concerned, and cautious. It’s as if everyone has taken a half-step backward
in terms of their personal productivity.
For managers charged with getting or keeping their people on track during challenging
economic times, Madeleine Homan-Blanchard, founder of Coaching Services for The
Ken Blanchard Companies, recommends a renewed focus on setting goals for others
combined with equal doses of support and feedback.
Setting Goals
The big thing to keep in mind when you’re setting goals for others—or helping them to
set their own goals, is to be sure that you can answer the question, “How will I know
if I am successful?”
You have to make sure that the goals being set are in alignment with overall
organizational objectives. You've got to make sure that every single task, and every
single activity that anyone engages in, is moving them, the team, or the organization
as a whole, forward in some way.
As Homan-Blanchard explains, “People need to understand how their work connects
to the organization’s goals and how what they are doing is actually contributing to the
greater good. This relevance is huge.”
To ensure relevance, Homan-Blanchard recommends that managers practice thinking
backward. That’s because thinking backward adds an important element of reality and
urgency into the mix. Otherwise it’s easy to set a goal for six months into the future
and say, “That’s a million years away. I don’t really have to do anything about that
yet.” But if six months from now is September 15 and there are certain things that
need to happen by June 1, and May 1, and April 1, to make that happen, all of a
sudden it’s like, “Oh, man, I’ve got to get on this!”
“So thinking backward helps you to realize that in order to make the September 15
deadline, I need to do X, Y, and Z this week. By thinking backward, you see the
milestones and action steps, not just for a month, but down to the week and you can
even put it into your daily task management system as daily action steps.”
Providing Feedback and Support
The next skill that new managers have to develop to keep their people focused and
productive is how to provide the day-to-day coaching, support, and resources people
need to achieve the goals that have been set.
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According to Homan-Blanchard, to accomplish this,
managers need to get in the habit of giving constant
feedback. “You have to give feedback in the moment and
you have to be comfortable with giving clear direction if
that is what is needed. New managers need to be able to
say, ‘Maybe I wasn’t clear, or maybe there was some kind
of misunderstanding, but it needs to go this way.’ You
have to be incredibly clear with your direction.”
“ You also have to be skilled with a problem-solving
conversation. It might sound something like this, ‘You did
this. You didn't get the result we expected. Let's
troubleshoot it, let's brainstorm it. What's going on? How
can we achieve the goal doing something else?’”
One special type of feedback that Homan-Blanchard likes
to call out for new managers is development feedback.
This is a conversation about the way things are going. A
lot of times, these are the hardest conversations to have
because they are feedback about an employee’s
development and they often involve feedback about
behavior, attitudes, and beliefs.
For this type of conversation, Homan-Blanchard
recommends that managers start by asking for
permission to give hard feedback if necessary. She
recommends that managers start by explaining, “This is
the situation. This is what I've observed. This is reality.”
The good news is that managers can give almost any kind
of feedback if they keep the judgment and the blame out
of it. The key is to come at the question of feedback
figuring that people have the best of intention and that
people are always doing the best that they can given the
information, skills, and competencies that they have at
their disposal. So never blame the person. Instead, take
an approach of, “Okay, we have a problem here, let's take
a look at it.”
Managing in Today’s Economy
In many ways, new managers are finding themselves in
situations that even the most experienced managers
would find challenging.
For managers working in an industry that is doing well,
the challenge is to protect themselves from all of the
doom and gloom that is going on around them and stay
focused on what is working in their own work
environment.
For new managers working in industries that are
struggling, the challenges are even more considerable.
For these managers, there is a lot of emotional difficulty
to manage.
In either case, new managers have to look back and
assess their current situation. They also have to try and
draw on as much former experience as possible.
“If you are a brand-new manager, you have to assess
and look back at who have been the managers that have
been really good in your life,” says Homan-Blanchard.
“And if you are lucky, there might be one or two
managers that you can reflect back on and hold up as a
role model.”
In taking that step back, most people will find that two of
the traits that made their best boss so successful were
their ability to set meaningful goals for people and
providing the direction and support to keep people
focused and productive—especially during difficult times.
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