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This free management resource provides advice and tips useful for managers who are new to their position, and will also provide a useful recap for existing managers.
These free resources are designed to complement our range of Management and Leadership Training courses.
Introduction to Management Awareness
Managers who know themselves well and who are aware of their emotions are in a better position to understand and empathise when managing others.
So an important step to being an effective manager is self-awareness. This means, amongst other things, knowing:
- Your strengths
- Your areas for development
- Your positive and negative qualities
- Your prejudices
- Your feelings
- What effect you have on others
Emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence, or EI as it is known, can be helpful in this area of interpersonal understanding as it involves thinking about yourself and others.
EI is said to be categorised into five aspects:
1. SELF-AWARENESS
If you’re aware of yourself and what makes you tick, you’ll be a more effective communicator and a better manager. Once you understand yourself and are open to self-development, you are in a better position to lead and guide others.
2. MANAGING EMOTIONS
Do you always know how you feel? For many of us our feelings are unclear and hidden as we have been taught to suppress emotions. Reversing this isn’t easy, but research shows that unless we’re first aware of our emotions we can’t gain control of them. You can increase your awareness of feelings simply by spending time thinking about them. The more you practice, the more conscious you will become.
3. MOTIVATING YOURSELF
Once you’re more aware of your emotions you can put them to good use to motivate yourself and keep yourself motivated regardless of the situation. You no longer have to react in an automatic way to outside stimuli; you can choose.
4. EMPATHY
Without empathy it is difficult to gain people’s trust, create rapport, influence people and develop their abilities.
Empathy is having a sensitivity to the feelings and concerns of others and seeing things from their point of view, rather than selfishly seeing things from your own perspective.
5. HANDLING RELATIONSHIPS
Once you have empathy with someone and can recognise their feelings of stress, anger, sadness, rejection and so on, you can manage emotions in others. Handling relationships means having a degree of social competence and using social skills.
How can we use this to be more effective managers?
Having the basic building blocks of EI means it is possible to control your emotions, create and maintain successful relationships and motivate yourself and others to achieve goals, all key aspects of management!
How can I find out what effect I have on people?
Feedback should be a two-way process. Now is your chance to ask for some for yourself! This takes courage but is worth it.
The more specific the feedback the more valuable it will be – this applies equally to praise as to criticism. You can help people be specific with their feedback by being specific with your questions:
Choose two or three people you trust in your organisation. They may be your staff, peers or manager. Identify two aspects of your management style that you want to receive feedback on. Be specific about what you ask for.
- Record what each of them says
- Analyse your emotional reaction to what they said
- Make notes on what you can do and are prepared to do to change your behaviour
You need to be sure that if they are critical, you don’t get defensive. You will have to handle your feelings about the interchange if some of the comments are negative!
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on April 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »
Meetings can be dreaded by members of the team. If you are to lead a meeting there are many things you can do to manage them as efficiently as possible. This will save your employees and colleagues time, and the company’s resources.
Meetings are essential and ultimately, when managed well, very constructive. They can be the only time where all the creative individuals are together, new ideas can be created, plans can be made and they encourage cohesion and efficiency.
Creative people are usually very busy, if you waste their time they will get frustrated and have less time to do what they do best.
If you learn how to manage meetings effectively, not only will you be a great asset to your company you will gain respect from your employees and colleagues and earn the reputation of a person who can get things done.
Managing Meetings Effectively
- Don’t have a meeting for the sake of it, cancel a meeting rather than meet for the sake of it. If you have already made your mind up about a course of action there is no point in discussing it.
- Only ask the relevant team members to the meeting.
- Do have a meeting to address large numbers of people quickly and effectively.
- Have meetings when you need input, or to encourage others to come on board and to encourage them or motivate them about an idea. If this is your intention, be prepared. How are you going to motivate them?
- Always have an agenda and stick to it
- Be clear about what you want from each item
- Summarise points with one sentence and move on swiftly
- Take control of or delegate the role of facilitation, if it is your meeting you should be leading
- It can help to indicate what you want from each member at the start of the meeting
- Make sure you invite the right people, if it doesn’t involve someone or you don’t need their input don’t ask them to attend.
- Ask yourself:
- Who can provide the best advice?
- Who has the most experience?
- Who will support you?
- Who will oppose you?
- Who do you need to make it happen?
- Choose the venue to suit the meeting, for authority chooses a boardroom, for an informal meeting choose an office etc. If you want to encourage colleges or persuade them what about coffee and snacks or even a meal.
If you put the above into practise, meetings should no longer be a bore. They can be an efficient and effective way of getting things done, generating ideas, moving things forward, and saving time.
We provide a one day Effective Meetings course for those looking to improve the way they manage meetings.
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on September 18th, 2007 | No Comments »
For help with with problem solving you could try a facilitation course. When planning and implementing change, problems sometimes arise. Problems will certainly arise during your life as a manager (if they haven’t already!).
Being personally effective means being able to face and resolve problems in a planned and proactive way. But not in a hasty and haphazard way. So how to go about it?
Effective problem solving depends on having a structure and a process which will act as a guide when you are faced with any problem.
Problem solving process
Here is a a clear and straight forward way of solving problems. It is made up of four stages:
- DEFINING THE PROBLEM
- ANALYSIS
- OPTIONS
- ACTIONS
Think for a moment about how you solve problems. Do you already follow this process? If not, what process do you use? It is not unusual for a manager when faced with a problem, to leap from PROBLEM to ACTIONS in one jump and, of course, the action chosen could be exactly the right one. BUT often it is not as you have missed the two important stages of ANALYSIS and OPTIONS.
For example, you think the problem with the city transport system is there aren’t enough buses! Action: buy more buses!
BUT what if you buy more buses and the situation is the same? The answer maybe that there are already enough buses but they are inadequately maintained, or that there is a shortage of drivers, or that the time-tabling needs to be revised.
What you have done in identifying the problem is to leap straight away to the solution to buy more buses which in this case would be a waste of time and money.
Problem solving strategies
Below are some questions which will help you through the process in a systematic way either on your own or with your team:
1 DEFINING THE PROBLEM
- What are the signs and symptoms of the problem?
- Who is the problem impacting?
- When is the problem occurring?
- What is your desired outcome?
Once you have answered these questions, you will be in a position to clearly and accurately define the problem. You should then write a Problem Statement which spells out this clearly defined problem. Once you know exactly what you are dealing with, you have a better chance of coming up with the most appropriate solution!
2 ANALYSIS
- What do I/we contribute to this problem?
- What part of this is mine/ours to own?
- What other data do you need to solve this problem?
3 OPTIONS
- What are all the possible ideas to solve the problem?
- What options constitute a viable Plan A & Plan B (consensus)
4 ACTIONS
- Specific steps to be taken?
- Time frame for each step?
- Who is responsible for each step?
- What specific criteria will be used to evaluate success?
- When will this evaluation be conducted? By whom?
- Who needs to know about this plan?
Silicon Beach Training deliver great instuctor lead Management Course and Leadership Courses
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on April 15th, 2007 | No Comments »
What competencies does an effective manager need to develop?
Competencies are usually divided up into clusters; that is, groups of similar competencies under a set of headings. Competencies are developed with the individual organisation in mind so it is not possible to give one definitive set of competencies here; within your own organisation these will vary somewhat. However, there are some general agreements about what makes an effective manager so we can extrapolate from these and find some common themes.
Competency clusters for managers
My work - managing my own work area and the service my section provides
My people – managing my team; ensuring they are skilled in their jobs, motivated and productive and that a good team spirit exists between them
Myself – managing the stress of my job with composure, being self aware and seeking development opportunities
My organisation – keeping up-to-date with developments at an organisational level, managing change positively, helping drive the organisation forward and achieve its objectives
Focus on competencies
My work:
- Maintains a thorough understanding of organisational dynamics and how to work within the culture to achieve results
- Maintains a broad knowledge of organisational policies and procedures and relevant legislation
- Plans and monitors the delivery of the service by accurately estimating needs and prioritising resources appropriately so that budgets are adhered to
- Delegates tasks to others and makes sure deadlines are met
- Relies on experience to understand and evaluate problems
- Gathers information from a variety of sources before making decisions
- Sets professional standards and develops procedures to ensure they are maintained
- Strives to ensure that a quality service is delivered in a fair and equitable manner
My people:
- Manages the team in a transparent and equitable manner
- Provides clear direction on a regular basis and adopts an approachable management style
- Deals with under-performance in a timely manner and ensures improvement where possible
- Communicates in a clear and effective manner, listening and ensuring that messages are clearly understood
- Ensures that regular two-way communication happens across functions and levels
- Promotes a culture of involvement and consultation within the team and rewards positive contributions
- Motivates staff towards the provision of a quality service
- Works with individuals to identify strengths and development needs
- Strives to ensure professional and personal development for team members
Myself:
- Inspires others to maintain professional standards and work towards common goals
- Leads by example and provides clear direction
- Accepts responsibility and accountability
- Maintains a calm and controlled style in all situations
- Demonstrates energy and enthusiasm for their role
- Is flexible during challenging times and perseveres despite setbacks and the pressures of the role
- Demonstrates a practical commitment to their own professional and personal development
My organisation:
- Promotes change actively and continuously strives to improve the quality and efficiency of the service
- Takes the initiative to proactively identify inefficiencies and implement solutions
- Encourages others to embrace change positively
- Makes appropriate use of technology to advance the quality and efficiency of the service
- Regularly updates their knowledge of organisational policies and procedures and relevant legislation
You need to find out what competency frameworks exist in your organisation ie. what are the competencies that are required to be an effective manager where you work. You will then know what the organisation expects of you as a manager.
This will provide a very useful pointer to determining your development needs and in enlisting your manager’s help in the realisation of your learning objectives.
Silicon Beach Training offer training needs analysis courses.
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on April 15th, 2007 | No Comments »
Conflicts are an inescapable fact of life. They occur when the needs of one person differ from the needs of another, and the parties disagree on how to meet their needs. Conflict can be unpleasant and uncomfortable and it can hurt relationships. However, if handled effectively, it also provides the opportunity to enrich and deepen relationships and help us learn more about ourselves. Accept that conflict will arise in your working life whether it is with your manager, your staff, peers, your customers or other professionals and learn ways to manage it.
Conflict in management can be defined simply as:
two or more people who want a different outcome
Causes of conflict in the workplace
Almost all conflicts involve communication problems, as both a cause and an effect. Misunderstandings, resulting from poor communication, can easily cause a conflict or make it worse. Further, once a conflict has started, communication problems often develop because people in conflict do not communicate with each other as frequently, as openly, and as accurately as they do when relationships are not strained. Thus communication is central to most conflict situations.
Recognising sources of conflict in the workplace is the first step toward being able to do something about them. Apart from communication, there are other causes of conflict in business:
- Assumptions
- Competing for resources
- Putting personal agenda ahead of team agenda
- Individual differences
- Competing priorities
Think about the conflict situations in your working life. Who are they with? What is the real issue? How can you improve your handling of these situations? Find out from colleagues what their strategies are for handling conflict.
How to resolve conflict
Resolving conflict requires effective communication skills, tolerance, and the desire to find creative solutions. Here is a five-step process that you can follow to resolve conflict and improve your work relationships.
1. ACTIVE LISTENING for facts and feelings. Make sure you understand what the other person really wants and needs. Listen for more than facts. Set aside your assumptions of what you think is going on. Pay attention to non-verbal messages. Check that you have understood and repeat back to the person what you think he/she said. This will prevent misunderstandings and will ensure that you are both clear about the issues.
2. USE ASSERTIVE COMMUNICATION. State your wants and needs in a respectful and clear manner, while recognising that the other person also has legitimate wants and needs. Discuss the specific behaviour that is creating problems and do not focus on personal characteristics.
3. BE EMPATHETIC. Try to get into the other person’s shoes. Consider their viewpoint. Ask yourself: “What does she want?” “What might he be afraid of?” Adopt the position that people aren’t purposefully trying to be difficult, manipulative etc. They may not know how to communicate effectively to resolve conflict.
4. BE FOCUSED on the issue. Use effective listening skills. Stick to facts and don’t allow irrelevancies and emotions into the discussion which could escalate the conflict. If you find the conflict is getting worse, take a break and agree to come back and discuss the problem at a later time – when you both have had a chance to calm down.
5. KEEP POSITIVE. Approaching a conflict situation with a negative attitude will result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. You will put out non-verbal messages that you know the person won’t respond to reason and they will pick this up and respond to accordingly. Instead, tell yourself “there is a solution to this situation and we can work together to find it.”
Learn effective ways to manage workplace conflicts with our Conflict Management training course
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on April 15th, 2007 | No Comments »
Some leadership courses & management courses by Silicon Beach Training that you could find useful are the Decision Making Course and Leadership Course
What is influence?
Influence is the ability of one person to get others to behave in a particular way or to carry out certain actions.
Many people are unaware of the influence they exert on others and many are unaware how necessary and constructive mutual influence is in building effective teams and effective working relationships.
Where is your sphere of influence?
Managers automatically think of having influence over their staff but not over anyone or anything else. In fact an astute manager can develop many levels of influence which can be much more far-reaching than that of their staff group.
LEVELS OF INFLUENCE
Level 1 – the level where you have complete influence and control eg with your team
Level 2 – the level where you have influence without complete control eg with your boss, in your department
Level 3 – the level where problems or forces that affect you are completely outside your influence
- Make a list of problems currently causing you concern at work
- Review each problem to decide which level of influence it falls into
- Try to find ways of extending the boundaries of levels 1 and 2 in order to increase your influences over the forces that are affecting the problem
Influencing strategies
“You make more friends by becoming interested in other people that by trying to interest other people in yourself” Dale Carnegie
Each one of us is dependent on other people in the organisation. We need these combined efforts to make our whole business successful. Once we recognise the importance of other people in our companies, we can really begin to use key influencing strategies to get things done.
1. COLLABORATION – successful people are skilful collaborators. They achieve the outcome they want by influencing others to support them, not by exercising power
2. WORKING TOWARDS WIN-WIN – in any negotiation situation seek to find resolution where no-one loses
3. LISTENING – effective listening is one of the most powerful forms of communication. Give the other person your complete attention and they, in turn, will be more inclined to listen to you and give credit to your ideas when you need their support
4. RESPECT – respect is a basic element in influencing. Develop and show genuine respect for those around you by showing consideration, honouring confidences and expecting others to act ethically and responsibly
5. INVOLVE OTHERS – people respond positively when you ask for their opinions and suggestions. Gain a position of influence by acknowledging that someone else has something of value to contribute and by acting on their input.
6. TREAT PEOPLE AS EQUALS – don’t abuse any power you may have from being in a higher position in the organisation; you will not gain their support his way!
7. GIVE CREDIT AND ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY – influential people give others credit for successes and take the responsibility when things go wrong
8. SEE OTHERS AS UNIQUE – get to know what motivates those people around you and treat everyone as special
9. BE CONFIDENT AND DECISIVE – people follow those who seem confident and who make sound, timely decisions
10. CULTIVATE EXPERTISE – when you have expertise, you gain credibility that allows you to influence others
Influencing senior management
You may have the best idea in the world but if you can’t sell it, it is worthless.
There will come a time when you will need the backing of those above you in the organisation so you need to carefully develop your strategy for success.
- Prepare thoroughly before you meet with senior management- collect facts and figures to add weight to your arguments
- Anticipate senior management’s reaction to your idea and prepare effective responses
- Use appropriate language use buzz words and phrases so you appeal to THEIR areas of concern
- Present a positive personality, committed and enthusiastic to the project
- Any presentation you make should be short; about 5-7 minutes is enough to get them interested in a good idea
- Don’t promise what you can’t deliver
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on April 15th, 2007 | No Comments »
