The Most Harmful "Manager" Mistakes – And How to Turn Them Around to RESPONSIVE
Posted on October 15, 2019 by Emily Donaldson De Voto PhD, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
5 Crucial Keys for Responsive and Empowering Management.
In today’s rapid-change business world old manager tactics do not work. The companies that thrive are RESPONSIVE. Responsive companies do just that. They respond to the economy, the industry, their customers and their people in a timely and effective manner. Responsive companies must have responsive managers and leaders. In order to be responsive, all of your people (including your customers) must be empowered! The only way to empower your customers is to empower your people. Empower them to problem-solve and make decisions. Empower them to be an active part of the solution in your business. Empower them to collaborate with other team members. Empower them to challenge and truly engage with their customers and clients. Managers who insist on withholding insight or information to “protect” their teams are doing a grave disservice and they are creating their own self-importance. Managers who are involved with every step of the process (micro-managers), have not empowered their people and therefore are not empowering their customers.Follow these 5 Crucial Keys for Responsive and Empowering Management.
Share and openly communicate often the Company Vision & Mission, Strategic Targets and Key Performance Indicators with the Team. Every single member of your team needs to know the WHY behind what they do and how it impacts the bigger picture. They need to feel as though they are part of the problem that the company solves, more than they need to know that they are part of the shipping or accounting dept.
Involve the people on the front-line of your business to engage in strategic meetings because they really know (not just in theory) what your customer’s needs, challenges, wants and desires are. Collaborating problem-solving from the bottom up will open your eyes to new solutions and ensure buy in at all levels.
Measure, track and openly monitor all KPIs. Every aspect within a business must be consistently measured in order to improve it. This must be the culture of the entire business. Share KPIs from other depts and celebrate wins.
Create a culture of open accountability and proactive collaboration. Implement a system that enables all members of your team report their KPIs on a daily and/or weekly basis – a way that everyone can see. This can sound scary at first, but what happens over a short period of time is huge. More important work gets done, less focus on busy work. Team members proactively encourage each other. Team members proactively reach out for help if their KPIs are falling off. Managers are able to easily identify where a team’s or team member’s weaknesses are and offer training and support sooner.
Become a solutions facilitator instead of a come-to-the-rescue-hero. Instead of solving your people’s problems like hard sales, etc – insist they come to you with their solutions in mind. Spend the most time with your people on managing their state and psychology versus micromanaging their processes. Help your people identify the most important aspects of their job and help them manage their time and schedules around those aspects first. Institute a one-a-week 45 minute “challenges” meeting, in which you are present, where they bring up challenges in their job and then you facilitate them in brainstorming ideas on how to solve it. Your job is then to bring those your management/other depts and see that they get implemented. Challenge your people – get them reading, listening to programs that will shift their mindset, empowering them to be more effective at their job and will help them really engage with their customers.
Follow these steps and your team will feel EMPOWERED and VALUED. They will feel valued and in turn become truly valuable to you, your team, your customers and your company.Emily offers comprehensive business coaching to Execs, Management, Entrepreneurs and their teams. If you are really ready to transform your team, your company and your bottom-line, reach out to her at emily@emilydevoto.com
