Archive for the 'Management Training' Category

It’s a well-known fact that when a high-ranking manager takes a younger employee under his or her wing, becomes that person’s mentor.

The protégé not only has a head start for advancement, but will obtain more know-how about the work, the workings of the company, and the “tricks of the trade” than others.

By structuring a mentoring program and assigning the best people on your team the responsibility of mentoring a new member, you take a giant step forward in encouraging productivity and growth in the newcomer.

A structured mentoring program requires that chosen mentors be willing to take on the job. Compelling someone to be a mentor is self-defeating.

Not everybody is interested in or qualified for this assignment. New mentors should be trained in the art of mentoring by experienced people.

If you’re a first-time mentor, you’re probably unsure of how to deal with this new responsibility. If you have had your own successful experience with a mentor, use that as a guide.

If not, seek out a member of your organization who has a reputation as a great mentor and ask for advice, counsel, and guidance. Ask him or her to be your mentor in mentoring.

The role of the manager in developing employees is to help employees figure out exactly where they want to go, and then to give the support and organizational resources for employees to get there.

But employee development is a two-way street. Employees must also contribute by identifying the areas where development will aid to make them better and more prolific workers in the future and relaying this information to their managers.

Once needs are identified, plans developed, and resources identified, managers and employees can work together to turn them into reality.

In the following steps, we’ll explore the best way for managers to approach the development process with their employees.

Step 1: Meet with your employees about their careers.

What’s the best way to determine the path your employees want to take in their careers? Ask them! You might, for example, think that your top software engineer has her sights set on your organization’s chief technology officer position, when she would actually much rather keep coding software.

Once you determine where in the organization your employee wants her career to go, then you’ll have a baseline from which to work.

Sexual harassment is not limited to demands for sexual favors. It also includes permitting a work environment that is hostile or offensive to employees because of their gender. Make all employees aware of your policy prohibiting sexual harassment and specify steps to be taken to bring it to management’s attention.

Below are 10 tips that will help you in dealing with this issue in the workplace:

1. Establish a formal policy prohibiting sexual harassment. Clearly indicate all actions that could be construed as harassment and specify what steps employees should take if they are harassed. Appoint a senior executive to administer the policy.

2. Publicize the policy through bulletins, articles in the company newspaper, regularly scheduled meetings, and training programs.

3. Make it easy for complainants to bring matters to the attention of management. Post notices throughout your offices detailing who to go to and how to do it. Make sure that all employees know that there will be no retaliation against persons bringing complaints against anybody in the organization, regardless of rank or position.

4. Investigate all complaints no matter how trivial or unjustified they appear to you. Keep written records of all findings including memos, reports of interviews, and statements from the complainant, the person accused, and witnesses.

Express your thoughts clearly:

To be effective in interpersonal communication, organize your thoughts. Think through what you plan to say before you say it. Choose the appropriate words that will best communicate these thoughts, and speak in the language of the listener. Strive for utmost clarity.

Be willing to express your feelings:

Those people who are able to express their feelings are more likely to be effective communicators than those who are not. This does not mean an irresponsible venting of emotions; rather, it means expression of feelings tempered with responsibility. If you are unable or unwilling to express your feelings, others may view you as bland. Your people want to know where you are coming from. Tell them! Move beyond merely exchanging data and information. Enrich your communication with a clear expression of your feelings about the issues at hand.

Put yourself in the place of the other person:

The effective communicator has empathy: the capacity to participate in another’s thoughts or feelings. Empathy is the ability to see the world through the other person’s eyes. It is an attitude, a frame of mind, which has a profound effect on the quality of the communication. Empathy is what helps set up the exchange as a living mutual relation.

Performance reviews aren’t limited to you assessing your staff. Your boss also evaluates your own performance. Now it’s you sitting in the hot seat. Even though you may have undergone many such reviews in your career, it’s always a bit disquieting to be in that spot. You feel like a kid sitting in the school principal’s office. You may even feel jittery and ill at ease, even though you have a good relationship with your boss. Maybe you’re scared, especially if you and your boss have a shaky relationship. Most people have these kinds of reactions even when they know they have done good work. It’s human nature to fear such an important meeting. So much depends on it:

Here are some tips to help you handle this situation:

Review your own performance.

Whether or not your company requires employees to make self-evaluations, do it. Take a blank copy of the review form and fill it out. This will allow you to think about your performance in the same way your boss does.

List your accomplishments.

Include all the special things you did over the past year to contribute to the success of the department. Give specifics, such as how much you exceeded quotas, the amount of money one of your suggestions saved the company, tough problems you solved, and so on.

Team leaders are needed in all spheres of organizational life. This includes marketing, R&D, engineering, production, quality assurance, information systems, human resources, accounting and finance, and all the rest. It also includes first-level management, middle-level management, and upper-level management. The need for team leaders is not limited to particular spheres.

We should now address this question: What is meant by “team leadership”? Especially important is the question: How does team leadership differ from heroic leadership?

The concept of team leadership seems to indicate different things to different managers. Thus, a useful point of leaving is to state what team leadership is not.

Team leadership is not pure democratic leadership.

Democratic leadership means putting the various decisions up for vote, and the majority rules. Experience shows that if the group leader typically uses this approach for decision making, it will split the group into subgroups, with each subgroup protecting its own turf.

Team leadership is not management by committee.

The concept of “committee” usually is associated with academic institutions. Committees oftentimes suffer from lack of clear responsibility, authority, and accountability. Consequently, they are hamstrung in their efforts to achieve results. There is little to no relation between management by committee and team leadership.

Persons with abrasive personalities who are also poor workers do not present a problem since the choice to dismiss is more easily taken. But what about the high performers with difficult personalities? These people may be intimidating to others. They may be aggressive, sarcastic, arrogant, argumentative, and generally difficult to get along with, creating a tense work atmosphere wherever they are.

Persons with rude personalities who are also good performers are very often extremely ambitious, at all times pushing themselves toward impossible aspirations but never being able to get them. When they fall short of the perfection they expect from themselves, they are frustrated, angry, or upset. Self-control for such people is very important. Such persons often over-organize and cope with imperfections by over-controlling, by not delegating, and by refusing to take any responsibility for problems they create in interpersonal relationships.

What can you as a supervisor do? First, realize that abrasive and provocative behavior arises from a person’s awfully vulnerable self-image. Such people need for affection and are eager for contact. Do not become angry. Instead, initiate frequent discussions with them; describe their abrasive behavior and how it affects you and others. Point out that you recognize their desire to achieve and that you want to help. If your workers are willing to listen to you, you may even enter into a mutual agreement to point out the abrasiveness every time it happens since they are not always conscious of it.

1. Know exactly what you want to achieve and let your employees know what is expected of them.
2. Keep a record of employee performance from which to cite specific examples.
3. Discuss the written evaluation with the employee.
4. Listen to the employee’s comments and then ask questions to stimulate thought.
5. Focus on the individual; do not compare him with other members of the group.
6. Show that you care about employees’ performance and their careers.
7. Emphasize good behavior. Be specific in your criticism. Give examples from their performance record. Ask them how they can do even better. Add your own suggestions.
8. Focus on the behavior, not on the person.
9. Don’t be afraid to give honest criticism. Most employees want to know where they stand and how to improve. In the evaluation interview, concentrate on the work, not on the person. Never say, “You were no good.” Say instead, “Your work didn’t meet standards.”
10. Help each person to set personal goals that are congruent with the goals of the group - and the company - and to develop a plan of action to reach those goals.