5 Questions Great Managers Ask (and They Aren't Hard!)
5 Questions Great Managers Ask (and They Aren't Hard!)
1. What do my customers want?
Getting inside the head of your customers is a recipe for success. Taking the role on of one of your customers or clients and seeing from their perspective helps structure a sound and growing business. Better still, ask them what they want, need, what irritates them and thank them for their insights. Take complaints as a real positive - for knowing what went wrong, gives you information you can correct and grow stronger on.
2. How do I get the best from my people?
Enjoying the benefits of truly 'turned on' people in your business, makes a huge difference. Finding out what they need to be successful for you can be more challenging. But wait! Have you asked them what they need to do their best for you? Be sensitive and responsive to their needs. This simple step will provide you with all the people strategies that work. Many solutions will be very easy to do and can build belief and trust in you as a manager. The bigger challenges can be solved by using your people to have a positive and constructive input. It will be worthwhile - for everyone.
3. How can we make best use of our resources?
What resources? People, goodwill, reputation, location. USP, and more... Well, make sure first of all that you understand what they are. Ask your customers and people what you represent to them - and then do more, much more of it. Then review those things that you can do less of, save resource costs on. Focusing on what you are best at and dropping things that don't create value for you can be very value-creating.
4. What wastes our time?
It's a simple question, but with an easy answer. What value is created when I spend time on this activity? If your challenge is to make £100 an hour profit for your organisation, is what you are spending your time on doing just that? What things do you and your people do, which does not? Try stopping doing things, some of which you may have done for months and years, when little or no value is created and switch to more things that do. Stop some things and start others - simple as that.
5. What do we need to change?
Constantly reviewing where you are in your business and making small course adjustments, like the autopilot of a jumbo jet, will maximise your performance. But whilst leading the cultural shift can develop autopilot-mode, the first steps are for managers to spot-check all they do manually. Doing this will encourage your people to start to do it themselves. Remember, the best time to review, review, review, is when you are successful. And then be very challenging and honest about yourselves. Build it in, make small but significant changes regularly, once you have evidence of drifting off course. That makes for a consistently healthy & growing organisation and reduces the need for cataclysmic change.
Are you up for this refreshing challenge? What better way to start your new focus on your business, organisation or team?
Martin Haworth is a business and management coach and trainer, working with a range of clients from corporates to individuals worldwide. www.MartinHaworth.com
5 Questions Great Managers Ask and They Arent Hard - To learn more about this author, visit Martin Haworth's Website.
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However hard we try, we seem to make life more difficult for ourselves; more challenging; more complex. Yet it needn't be so. try out these five questions with a regularity; a discipline and you will reap rewards. You will certainly reap rewards.
1. What do my customers want?
Getting inside the head of your customers is a recipe for success. Taking the role on of one of your customers or clients and seeing from their perspective helps structure a sound and growing business. Better still, ask them what they want, need, what irritates them and thank them for their insights. Take complaints as a real positive - for knowing what went wrong, gives you information you can correct and grow stronger on.
2. How do I get the best from my people?
Enjoying the benefits of truly 'turned on' people in your business, makes a huge difference. Finding out what they need to be successful for you can be more challenging. But wait! Have you asked them what they need to do their best for you? Be sensitive and responsive to their needs. This simple step will provide you with all the people strategies that work. Many solutions will be very easy to do and can build belief and trust in you as a manager. The bigger challenges can be solved by using your people to have a positive and constructive input. It will be worthwhile - for everyone.
3. How can we make best use of our resources?
What resources? People, goodwill, reputation, location. USP, and more... Well, make sure first of all that you understand what they are. Ask your customers and people what you represent to them - and then do more, much more of it. Then review those things that you can do less of, save resource costs on. Focusing on what you are best at and dropping things that don't create value for you can be very value-creating.
4. What wastes our time?
It's a simple question, but with an easy answer. What value is created when I spend time on this activity? If your challenge is to make £100 an hour profit for your organisation, is what you are spending your time on doing just that? What things do you and your people do, which does not? Try stopping doing things, some of which you may have done for months and years, when little or no value is created and switch to more things that do. Stop some things and start others - simple as that.
5. What do we need to change?
Constantly reviewing where you are in your business and making small course adjustments, like the autopilot of a jumbo jet, will maximise your performance. But whilst leading the cultural shift can develop autopilot-mode, the first steps are for managers to spot-check all they do manually. Doing this will encourage your people to start to do it themselves. Remember, the best time to review, review, review, is when you are successful. And then be very challenging and honest about yourselves. Build it in, make small but significant changes regularly, once you have evidence of drifting off course. That makes for a consistently healthy & growing organisation and reduces the need for cataclysmic change.
Are you up for this refreshing challenge? What better way to start your new focus on your business, organisation or team?
Martin Haworth is a business and management coach and trainer, working with a range of clients from corporates to individuals worldwide. www.MartinHaworth.com
5 Questions Great Managers Ask and They Arent Hard - To learn more about this author, visit Martin Haworth's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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