Management Success – Be A Coach

Are you a coach? If you, as a manager or supervisor, have not integrated this skill into your toolkit it’s time and essential to your management success and overall professional success!

Now before you go feeling overwhelmed, consider coaching someone to be initially a shift in thinking.  Coaching is really about the way you relate to someone in a strategic way.  It means that discussions are more purposeful and targeted.

There has been much written about blocks to manager allow themselves to “take on coaching” in their professional development.  That view makes it appear and feel like a burden.

For now, let’s start here with this high-impact principle: Coaching is not necessarily something you do, but who you are.

So in the context of let’s say adding coaching to your regular management practices it can be seen simply as having regular conversations and being consistent:

Here’s a useful explanation from the management blog, The Performance Improvement:

“The manager who communicates regularly that he needs noticeably improved performance from his directs and then provides guidance on how to do so and then measures their progress is going to noticeably outperform the manager who does not.

Their point is that the regularity of these conversations and the focus on specific performance outcomes are what bring about change. When everyone makes coaching a “small, habitual routine,” it will become part of the culture of the organization. (and…these are my words…a part of the relating rapport between the manager and team member…and THIS is the most important piece to effective management).

I believe that at that point it doesn’t have to be called “coaching” anymore; it’s just something that happens as part of brief, weekly conversations between managers and their direct reports for the purpose of improving performance and achieving the organization’s strategic goals.”

This is a good explanation. There are other points made in that post that are worth a read, so here is the link: The Performance Improvement

Coaching Tip: Evaluate the functions of coaching in your current management style. What is your attitude around this function or style.  What could use improvement? Do your team members feel “coached?”  What are the qualities of an effective coach?

It Bears Repeating – Facebook Firings are Real

So…be vigilant in managing your personal brand on line. See other posts regarding this as well.

It’s a fact – EVERYBODY…every entity, potential employers, work comp lawyers are checking, researching, dare I say spying on you!

It is also a fact that ANYTHING on line about you is fair game.

If you google the phrase “facebook firing,” you’d be amazed at the amount of links that show up.

I want to bring two stories of late to your attention.  First a woman whose disability compensation was canceled and a Georgia teacher showing pictures of an overseas trip where she was innocently tasting and drinking wine….and yes ….she was fired for that!

1. Disability Piece

2. Georgia Teacher

Coaching Tip: Assess the pictures on your site.  Is there ANYTHING that could be misinterpreted regarding your employment.  Get feedback from others or a career advisor.

If you’d like a independent eye, I’d be happy to look at your site – just contact me here: joann@joanncorley.com

Are You Equipped for 21st Century Leadership?

There has been a study released conducted by the well respected Center for Creative Leadership, where this question was posed, “Do the leaders within your organization have the skills they need to be successful in the future?”  Several thousand leaders participated in the study, the results of which produced a list of key skills necessary for leadership success.

Here they are:

1. Leading people: directing and motivating people.
2. Strategic planning: translating vision into realistic business strategies, including long-term objectives.
3. Managing change: using effective strategies to facilitate organizational change.
4. Inspiring commitment: recognizing and rewarding employees’ achievements.
5. Resourcefulness: working effectively with top management.
6. Doing whatever it takes: persevering under adverse conditions.
7. Being a quick learner: quickly learning new technical or business knowledge

I would say no matter what level of leadership and management you hold, the ability to do these things well will make a difference in your leadership success.

This is pretty cut and dry and I wanted to post the list for your self assessment and reference.  YET, the other critical and essential question that must be asked in conjunction to this question is this: “Do your leaders have the qualities (different than skills) to effectively lead your organization now and into the future?”

Revealed in the study referenced above are answers to this question, though the question was not posed in my way.  What was recorded were other qualities leaders felt that they had that were valuable, but  considered not as important though necessary.

• building and mending relationships,
• compassion and sensitivity,
• cultural adaptability,
• respecting individual differences,
• composure,
• and self-awareness.

WHAT!…not as important…ghez!  This study again reveals the great disconnect between qualities, functional skill and effective leadership.  In fact the very qualities listed about are EXACTLY what is needed to execute the original list with some measure of success.

We’ve got to begin to see that business IS behavior and the qualities that drive it.  To expand on this, please download my expanded article The Behavior of Business. For those who do get it, you will set yourself apart and help lead your company to greater profitability no matter what role you have!

This source of this blog post can be found here.

Management Success Tip- Don’t Allow Yourself to Turn Into a Parent

Power up your management success with a great management concepts training resource….read on…

Every once in a while I’ll be posting lessons and coaching tips from my portable learning resource -  Management-in-Minutes, which has a generous library of lessons, articles, tools and tips that are short and high-impact…meant to help a busy professional build their knowledge base and competencies, while on the go.

Here’s a great one I wanted to share…Are You a Parent or a Manager? (and an important question to answer)

I bet there’s been a day or two when you have thought that or felt that way. When I conduct a management training workshop, sometimes I’ll ask, “How many feel like you left the kids back at the office.”…..many people raise their hand.

Here are two issues related to parenting that would be useful to be aware of, if you are a manager… click here to view and/or listen to the full article

Enjoy!  JoAnn

A New Way of Looking at Management

As we move forward in this “new economy,” I think it would serve us well to give new definitions to many common areas of our professional lives.

One key area of note is that of management…how we see it, how we define it, and our relationship to it.

I would like to propose a new way of looking at management. Here’s what I suggest…let’s look at the concept of management as one in which everyone is engaged…everyone is one and doing it! What do I mean? Upon closer inspection, the word manage or management goes way beyond a title and using it that way limits the use of the potential of every employee.

In fact when you look at the primary definition of the word manage, here is what you’ll find: to handle or direct with a degree of skill. In looking at this definition, you’ll determine that in order to be a successful professional in any content you need to effectively “manage” whatever is required.

Management is not necessarily a title – it is a behavior…a behavior that is done with a needed level of skill…by everyone!

Now with that said, in order to ensure professional success, the question then is what key areas should be considered to be managed…where do the essentials skills need to lie? Here is my core list:
Your ability to manage…
1. Yourself
2. Information
3. Stuff & Work Space
4. Time
5. Priorities
6. People/Relationships (which includes your boss)
7. Your role in a process
8. Your knowledge and use of technology
9. Your career/work-life

In future posts, I’ll expand on each of these and in my Management-in-Minutes Library there are plenty of tips and lessons that will help you build effectiveness in each of these areas. A sample of one is included in the link at the end of this post.

Coaching Tip: Review this list… assess on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest) where you are in your skill set. Where there are gaps, create a PDP (Personal Development Plan) which creates a plan for you to gain knowledge and increase your skills in these key areas.

Here’s a lesson from the Management-in-Minutes Library that addresses area #1 – Managing Yourself.  The lesson is entitled: Your Power Point (and that doesn’t mean the slides.)

Management Success Tip – Pay New Hires to Leave – Huh?

Want a counterintuitive route to management success?….well you may or may not. But, you may want a creative way of enhancing employee motivation, increasing employee retention, and accessing a management best practice.…If so, read on...

Though this article was written sometime ago, I think it flew under the radar for some time.  I’d like to resurrect it.  At the end of this post you’ll find the link to the full story.

The headline? Why Zappos Offers New Hires $2,000 to Quit. Now at first blush you might be thinking…what?…it cost me money to hire them and now I’m going to pay more money to let them go…encourage them to leave?

This thought begs an essential question regarding profitable management and here it is, “How much does it cost to keep an employee who is underperforming, has proven to not be a good fit, has proven to not be coachable and is now disruptive?”  Might I suggest way more than $2,000.00. If nothing else think of the ripple effect on fellow team members and their productivity.

The cost is more explicitly spelled out in a study conducted by The Future Foundation. You can find the key findings via an article at this link. The Hidden Cost of Poor People Performance. It worth your time to read!

It’s been my experience as I’ve connected with thousands of managers across North America, that it is a very common practice to keep these kind of employee way too long!  Now there are many reasons for that, but the point is it’s happening more than it should and it absolutely does hurt a companies bottom line as well as the morale of the direct reports and fellow team members.

In this new economy where there is a crying need to be innovative in all areas of business practice, more innovation regarding this people part of business is essential as well.

I am going to consider this a potential best practice.  Here is the link to the full article: Full Article

Coaching tip: See how this practice can be implemented or modified in some way or see how the spirit of the practice can be applied in your situation.

What Every Management Training Should Include

Does Your Management Training Include These?

Have you ever wondered, “what are the essential things I need to know in order to be confident that with that specific knowledge I will and can be a competent and effective manager?”  Am I involved in and have access to comprehensive management training?

Well I have “The List.” This is my wish list for managers! …or team leads or supervisors…or whatever leadership title you hold.

It’s a 45 knowledge point checklist of what I believe every manager needs to know. I recommend that you download this list and do an honest assessment. By the way, this is not all inclusive. This was my list at first thought. I’ll be adding more, so check back.

One final note – my www.management-in-minutes.com site addresses all of these and more! We’re building a comprehensive management training resource a few minutes at a time.

Here’s the first few:

-Who they are on the inside determines what kind of manager they are on the outside
-Their natural leadership style
-That their relationship with their staff (how they treat people) is the number one influencer in the performance of each team member.
-How people operate
-Natural wiring (personality type)
-How the brain works
-What motivates humans to do or not do(values)
-Emotional maturity matters and is the number 1 reason for disruptive employees – do you know Eq?

Here’s the complete list: http://www.joanncorley.com/uploads/What_I_Wish_Every_Manager_Knew.pdf