Only 10 minutes to be human!

Do you ever have a bad day when you feel negative and cannot lift yourself above your negative feelings?

It is amusing to see adults behaving like children when things go wrong. And when friends and colleagues try to help with comments like ‘cheer up’ or ‘never mind it will be alright’ they continue to behave like children – ‘I don’t want to be cheered up!’

Negative feelings that lead to negative behaviour have a tendency to pull us down. Why do we need to hang on to bad moods? It doesn’t help things get better.

Well the reason is I guess, because we are human. But no need to stay quite so human. We can rise above our circumstances if we want to.

In my ‘positive thinking’ courses I encourage the ten minute rule. Allow yourself ten minutes to be human. Kick, scream, shout, and be negative if you wish – in private. Then get over it and move on.

When something goes wrong in life, or we make a mistake, or a bad decision there are three actions you can take when you have had your ten minutes of being human:

1 Ask yourself can this situation be corrected. If it can then get on and take action.

2 If the situation cannot be corrected accept it and find a way of making up for what you have lost, for example if you lost a sale – go for more sales elsewhere.

3. If there is absolutely nothing you can do – live with it and focus on what you can do in other areas of your life.

You have ten minutes to be human. Then let go and move on.

Be an exceptional manager

Syd Strike has worked alongside some truly exceptional managers and based on his experiences shares below seven key measures for an exceptional manager. There are no set measures and you may be able to add your own ideas. This table is designed to get you thinking.

	Exceptional Manager	Average Manager	Poor Manager
1	Knows where he/she is going and has a strategy for getting there	Does the job according to the job description	Fails to do the job
2	Exceeds expectations	Achieves objectives	Fails to achieve objectives
3	Has a highly motivated team	Team motivation is mixed – some team members highly motivated – some not so high	Team morale is generally low
4	Has more knowledge about the organisation and the job than does his management team	Knows his own job well but direct reports can ‘pull the wool over his eyes’ because of his lack of knowledge of what they do	Generally lacks skills and knowledge resulting in lack of respect from the team
5	Direct report will say that the manager works with them to achieve results	Direct reports will say that they work for the manager to achieve results	Direct reports will say that they work to achieve results despite the manager
6	Takes responsibility for creating resonance and harmony in the workplace	Relies on her managers and team leaders to create harmony	Has let the workplace degenerate into a place of discord and dissonance
7	Is reliable and is trusted by higher management to undertake key projects	Is accepted as ok but would not be chosen for key or urgent projects	Under no circumstances would even be considered to undertake key projects

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I keep telling them but they don't take it in

Tell tell tell doesn't work.

Give people a chance and help them learn.

If you are a trainer, teacher or coach, or a manager wanting to develop your people you may find the following ideas helpful:

• Believe that everyone has the capacity to learn
• Help people learn by finding what is their preferred learning style and adjusting the way you teach or train
• Develop people by getting them to use a variety of learning methods
• Allow people to query how they are being taught
• Encourage people to take responsibility for their own learning
• Encourage people to assess their own learning instead of marking or saying 'right and wrong'
• Always give constructive feedback

Good luck with your training and teaching sessions

Bring back the sage

Has the ‘age of competencies’ killed the art of everything?!!?

I was dining in a hotel restaurant, on my own, as I often do. Two ladies came into the restaurant, one pushing the other in a wheel chair. The waitress took the ladies to a table that seemed suitable for a person in a wheelchair. There was plenty of room. But the diners had eyed another table; an unset table and asked if they could have that table as it would better accommodate the wheelchair. The waitress said this was ok, the diners moved and the waitress set the table. So what is wrong with that? Well I shall tell you. Whilst the waitress was friendly and very willing to oblige – she missed something that was extremely important. One of the ladies apologised to the waitress four times as the two diners moved tables. The waitress never commented. I suspect she did not know how to respond.  I was sat there wanting to say “It’s ok, you don’t have to apologise, you are a guest and it’s our privilege to give you exactly what you need. But I was also a guest and this was not one of my client hotels. However as someone who works extensively in the hospitality industry I found this incident really educational.   It got me thinking. The waitress didn’t complain. She didn’t have a bad attitude. She just didn’t see the situation or the opportuntiy to exceed expectations and really make her guests feel welcome and at home.

I am sure that the hotel group train their staff and I am certain that they will have procedures and standards to follow. That’s what we do today, in all types of industry. We give our people standard operating procedures, standards and KPIs and then we leave them to it!

My mind wondered to the sages of old and the gurus who would have their learners and disciples sitting at their feet, following them, observing them and learning from them through dialogue and observation. Or in more recent times the ‘old’ apprenticeship schemes where apprentices learned from skilled artificers - who were not charged with ‘ticking boxes’. They were the ‘masters’ of their trade passing on skills, understanding, pride in the job and a sense of achievement as the apprentices eventually learned to work on their own and even support new, first year apprentices. Underpinning knowledge was a key part of learning from the experts, not an ‘add on’ to the tick box training.

Are we too busy managing today?  Do we get it right with procedures and SOPs? Don’t get me wrong I know the importance and the effectiveness of following procedures. But I wonder if procedures become the letter of the law that lacks the spirit of learning, learning, pride and enthusiasm.  Should we have less managers and more sages and gurus?

What do you think?

Talk don’t squawk!

 

10 tips to help you manage your manager

So you think your manager could do with some help do you?

Here are some tips to help you manage your manager:

1. Check yourself first – it’s easy to blame someone else when the job doesn’t run smoothly, but are you doing everything you should be doing?  Try positive thinking!
2. Stand back and assess everything that is happening at work to get a true sense of cause and effect
3. Hold regular meetings with your manager - You should be having regular one to ones with your manager so that you can discuss ideas and concerns and ways to improve performance and motivation at work – so if your manager lacks in this area then ask him or her for the meetings.
4. Talk don’t squawk – If you think your manager’s behaviour is unhelpful to the business or to team morale, discuss this with her or him. Speak to your manager, not to everyone else in the organisation.
5. Stay positive – Being negative at work will only give you a bad reputation. Negative language encourages negative behaviour.
6. Be a supporter – Anyone can blame and complain. It takes someone special to get behind the boss and the company.
7. Look for ways to help – Some may see this as sycophantic – but let’s be truly honest – that is the attitude of losers.
8. Be realistic – No one is perfect. No doubt the perfect boss doesn’t exist so please stop using this as an excuse for your failings.
9. Learn to influence – Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Find a good influencing style. Always a good way to help you influence the person.
10. Get another job – If all else fails – leave. You don’t want to be unhappy in your job. But be careful – the grass is not always greener on the other side!

 A little light hearted and perhaps controversial. Good – like to get you thinking!

What is the role of the leader?

I remember this question being put to the group at the first leadership course I ever attended. The trainer displayed the slide:

What is the role of the leader?

He then asked the group to comment and he received an array of comments such as; to motivate the team, to plan and organise, to get people working for him and to achieve company goals.

The trainer then displayed his next slide suggesting that the role of the leader is:

To get the job done

Was he right?
Daniel Goleman , Richard Boyatzis and Annie Mckee in their book  ‘The New Leaders’, offer an alternative opinion:

They argue that  “The fundamental task of leaders” ... “ is to prime good feeling in those we lead.” 

They say   “That occurs when a leader creates resonance – a reservoir of positivity that frees the best in people. And  at its root, the primal job of leadership is emotional. They go on to say, “Great leadership works through emotion”...“Leaders who spread bad moods are simply bad for business – and those who pass along good moods help drive a business’s success. “ And they claim that “For every 1 percent in the service climate there’s a 2 percent increase in revenue”

Now your experience may tell you something different. 

Does this principle apply in football, military or politics for example?

Let me know what you think. 


Syd
http://www.sydstrike.co.uk/

Guide to effective people management

by Syd Strike

A CIPD quarterly survey of employee attitudes explores the fast-changing world of work and emerging challenges for individuals, employers and policy-makers. It is “based on a representative sample of more than 2,000 people in employment in the UK.“

According to CIPD “employees’ attitudes to senior managers should ring the most alarm bells for employers. Only about a third of employees say they trust or have confidence in their senior managers and just a quarter agree their organisation’s directors consult them about important decisions. Employees’ negative perceptions of consultation is an issue that has got worse over the four quarterly surveys and is likely to be one of the reasons for the lack of trust and confidence among staff in their leaders.”
In this guide I would like to help you explore three key considerations:

1. The effect of mistrust on the business
2. Reason why employees mistrust management
3. Solutions to mistrust

The effect of mistrust on the business

Perhaps your first consideration as a senior manager or HR manager supporting your management team should be the effect of mistrust on your people and your business.

Mistrust is like a disease. It spreads. It is very sad that in the workplace bad news tends to spread abroad much faster and with greater effect on people than good news. More sadly once the disease has affected sufficient people it changes, and reality turns into scaremongering and negative rumours which in turn begin to affect morale and motivation.

Employees who have chosen to listen to the company ‘negative wizards’ are subsequently de motivated and they believe more and more that senior management do not care about them. They have their fears and concerns confirmed as middle managers are too busy to listen to them, neglect to hold two way energised meetings and in some cases are happy to deflect the blame for unresolved issues on the senior managers or the Human Resources Department. Eventually there comes an underlying malaise that is manifested by sickness absence, low morale, high staff turnover and a lack of team working. The end result being dropping productivity, a negative effect on customer service, and ultimately an adverse effect on profit. Staff believe that senior managers are more interested in getting the job done and making a profit, and have little or no regard to looking after the people. From their perspective, why should they bother to make an effort?

The reason employees mistrust management

There will of course be numerous reasons why mistrust emerges. The CIPD report highlights lack of consultation. I wish to highlight some key reasons, including consultation, that I have observed when working alongside management teams to find and administer effective solutions to this problem.

Communication is most likely the most obvious cause of mistrust, or should I be more specific and say lack of communication is the cause. Managers so often get this wrong. I know that most managers who fail to communicate well do not do this intentionally and more worryingly they are very often unaware of their lacking in this area.

Employees believe that managers should be honest and open with them and lack of openness and honesty is frequently given as a cause of employee dissatisfaction.

Companies that use consultation forums tend to enjoy better loyalty from their employees. However there is another dimension to consultation that is so often neglected and yet is so powerful as a motivator of teams, and that is managers who keep their teams informed and listen to ideas and concerns put forward by individual team members. It is as basic as that, but it works. So why don’t managers do this? Many managers will say that they do and of course this will be true. However others who believe they do communicate tend to pay lip service to communication and lack the skills to communicate effectively.

Middle and junior managers fail to support senior managers when they find themselves feeling victim to a lack of support from their senior managers. Sadly instead of communicating their concerns upwards, they miss the opportunity to take positive action to resolve the issues and become part of the problem instead of the solution. They begin to voice their dissatisfactions to the workforce and blame senior managers for not supporting them.

Lack of senior management visibility is a common cause of mistrust in the workplace. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but not in the case of senior managers. Absence suggests to the team that you don’t care and are not interested in their needs. This in turn causes resentment and mistrust. I am constantly encouraging senior managers to ‘walk the floor’. Interestingly I have had senior managers admit that they did walk the floor but didn’t know what to say to people, or could not help focussing on operational problems rather than paying attention to people. One of the best managing directors I have worked alongside made a habit of walking the terminal where he worked and speaking and listening to his employees. When showing me around he would stop and introduce me to people, whatever their position or rank. When I conducted an audit at his terminal, I interviewed 35 of his employees (half of the workforce), and everyone said he was the best MD they had ever worked for and their company the best place to be working. They were and still are a very successful operation.

Solutions to the ‘mistrust’ problem

Improve communication, engage your staff, support your middle and junior managers, listen to your employees and demonstrate your loyalty to them with your presence.

What do you think? I would love to hear from you, so please comment on this blog below. Alternatively, if you would to discuss these issues with me personally, please email me at info@sydstrike.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you

Syd
http://www.sydstrike.co.uk/