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Managing the Manager

Guest post by: Terri Levine

Article Overview: While the shareholders are watching the CEO who is trying to keep an eye on everything and is focused on the forrest rather than the individual trees, and management is focused on the employees at shop floor level... who is keeping an eye on the managers?

Managing the Manager

Managers and Supervisors are often promoted on the strength of their skills or knowledge of the job. Most have no prior training in handling personnel and related issues, yet the moment they accept their promotion, they are suddenly expected to be in command of a whole new set of skills and knowledge.

Think about how many hours your Managers work. Not just the time doing the job, but commuting time, time spent thinking about their work, even the basics like checking email or voice mail, or responding to cell phone calls or pages, etc.

We spend a huge percentage of our lives at work or involved in work related activity. If we have a morale problem, that impacts negatively on our lives. We feel miserable and perform miserably on the job. We make mistakes. We become careless. Managers can fall prey to these very human failings as much as the next person. Are you looking out for them?

Here are some tips to get the most out of your Manager or Supervisor:

• 1. When expressing your expectations or discussing individual issues with your managers, address them in terms of facilitation and assistance rather than appearing to intervene or be overly critical. If you constantly mock their ideas, interrupt them, misinterpret them and don't listen, you will undermine their confidence and destroy their morale. Studies have proven that the morale within a company's workforce is directly linked to profitability. Low morale - low profits. High morale - high profits. Managers who are "happy" in their job perform better resulting in higher productivity.

• 2. Empower your managers to develop their own solutions and increase their awareness of the bigger picture in problem resolution. Show you have every confidence in them if you want them to have confidence in themselves. Your managers will achieve their potential if you encourage them and believe in them, but if you are constantly "looking over their shoulder" and micromanaging them you will achieve the opposite effect. When Managers feel they have your respect, they take greater pride in their work and will strive more earnestly to "rise to the occasion" and become leaders who are fully responsible for producing high productivity and profitability.

• 3. Don't assume financial bonuses or company cars and other old-fashioned methods of offering incentives will motivate your modern day manager. Studies have shown these incentives do not produce long term benefits. Many managers DO quit jobs for higher paid positions or promotions, but surveys suggest that most resignations are caused by simple job dissatisfaction - low morale! Finding ways to increase your manager's sense of well-being and his level of morale is a better long-term incentive than providing a company car or a short term financial bonus that is soon spent and forgotten.

• 4. You may be the CEO or a Director of the Board or even a senior level Manager with a team of managers beneath you, but whoever you are, you must know that you cannot "manage" or "control" people. This tactic does not work and is an ineffective leadership method. The key to successfully managing your managers is that you must instill the enthusiasm and motivation in them - it must come from within them. Most managers want a successful career that reflects their values and their mission in life. They want their work AND their lives to have meaning. They want to feel valued and appreciated. You should remember to congratulate them often when things go well and let them know YOU know what areas are doing very well due to their efforts.

• 5. Realize the fact that when your managers come to work, they don't split themselves in two and front up as a different person to the person who left home thirty or sixty minutes earlier. Our lives outside of work come to work with us. You must acknowledge that your Managers have a life outside of work and respect that. You cannot expect your management team to forego a private life or their families in order to work longer hours for you. This will ruin morale and you will lose a great Manager who will look elsewhere. Work/Life balance is not just a modern keyword. It is the Holy Grail that ALL employees, including managers, secretly desire. Having a balanced life produces happier, more productive managers and employees and reduces burn out, sickies, high staff turnovers. Make a point of knowing your Managers' wives' names and other family details. Ask after them and show an interest in their family or sporting activities outside of work - they will appreciate it and feel "cared about".

• 6. If you are a CEO or senior manager who uses a command, controlling or military style of management, you will find your management team will resist and you will not achieve the results you wanted. You do not motivate anybody with those tactics. Do not threaten, bribe or cajole your Manager. Remember, a happy Manager is a productive manager. With sincere acknowledgement, managers achieve maximum results. Remember, too, they also have to rely on workers in their department to cooperate with them and "produce" and you may not be aware of problems within his own department that hamper his role as Manager. So, your role is to get out of the way and honor the skills of the manager and let them use their talents to do the job you hired them to do. Always let them know the door is open, however, if they have issues or challenges they wish to discuss to get more ideas or help with a problem.

• 7. Create a mission and a vision that evolves from the participation of every Manager AND employee in your organization and is not just something that is dictated by those at the top. Most companies have a mission or vision that they tell people about or print in a booklet. This creates more "we vs. them" old-school management and has employees feeling no buy-in, because they were not part of the process. Stop pushing your mission or vision on to employees. They will not buy into something you create. You are not the company, even if you own it. The people doing the work also create the dollars-collectively, you all represent the company, and that is why a collective process of visioning is the key.

• 8. Always be honest with your Managers. This step is critical. A common complaint among mid level management is the feeling that the company or their senior managers are not honest. Information is held back and there is little communication or trust. Honesty is what people want and expect. Full, open, and clear communication needs to be a part of how the company performs and acts from their soul. Only honest and full communication establishes trust and mutual respect and an atmosphere of collaboration and co-creation.

• 9. Open the lines of communication. In addition to everyone, from the CEO down, being honest, promote your managers to speak their truth and allow them to do so in an environment that is non-threatening or judgmental. Accept that we each have a different truth and we will learn to enjoy each other's perspectives and differences rather than try to manage people to think how we think. Share information with your Managers and if it is confidential, simply let them know and ask them not to talk further about it. Also, it is important that you be honest about your own errors or mistakes. Honesty and permission to be human breaks down barriers and enhances communication. The more human you appear, the more people will want to communicate with you and will not fear you.

• 10. Remember to say "thanks". Managers spend their days taking blame from those under them and their own higher management for all the problems in the company. They are the "piggy in the middle". In addition to this they are bombarded with commercial messages telling them everything from their parenting skills are lacking, their dietary habits are disgusting, their dress sense is lacking, and generally how they don't do this or that "right". Remember to find time regularly to notice when your managers are doing things well and acknowledge them. "Great report!" "Thanks for sending me that email." "Thanks for getting that to me before the meeting." "I saw the testimonial a client sent; I acknowledge you for that." "That was great work!" Your kind and encouraging words may be the only nice words they hear all day and it may be the deciding factor in their self-motivation.

• 11. Your manager is human, not an mechanical robot. The manager is not the problem solver, firefighter, or fixer. In fact, many managers are not trained or equipped for these roles and any expectation that they might or should be is outdated and has no place in the modern and more enlightened process of management. Make sure your Manager knows he will not "get into trouble" if he makes an honest mistake or comes to you with an issue he feels he can't deal with.

• 12. Encourage your manager to develop a team within his own department to brainstorm for new ideas and solutions to problems and challenges. Do not make him feel the entire success or failure rests solely on his shoulders alone, but do encourage him and foster the ability to come up with solutions on his own and with his own team. If he needs more authority in order to achieve certain goals, make sure he is equipped with that authority and anything else he needs to perform his job successfully.

• 13. All employees, including Managers, dread the annual employee evaluation process which are often occasions when they are told what they are doing wrong and generally made to feel unworthy. It is time to rethink evaluations. First, evaluations sound like you are deciding how worthy a person is. Reframe the evaluation process to become WOW to YOU sessions. A WOW to you is a way to celebrate the great strengths AND the lesser strengths you see in the manager and for the manager to do the same for you. With this new method, as the manager's manager, you are looking all the time to find what he is doing well, what creates that feeling in you, what would be ideal, what isn't a great strength yet, and what resources are needed to support the manager and enhance his strengths. Be open to hearing them, their ideas, and their perspectives. To be an extraordinary manager, you must see, hear, and fully accept other's perceptions, and then see how to improve yourself through their eyes. If you are ready to be a great leader, this must be what you do, especially if you expect your own managerial staff to do the same. You must walk your talk!

• 14. Your Managers are NOT just Heads of Departments - they are individuals. Know your individual manager's styles so you can liaise with them more effectively. Does your manager prefer face to face meetings or emails or calls? Do they have a sense of humor? Are they strictly conservative? Get to know them so you can relate better with them.

• 15. Make sure you know what is going on in your Manager's area of responsibility. Does he have any special challenges or issues creating problems for him? Is he on a tight budget? Does he have his own employee problems?

• 16. Be courteous - your manager's time is also important. Make an appointment and don't just interrupt him. Don't assume he can or should stay back after work AGAIN to discuss something with you that could have been discussed during work hours. Be considerate of his time. If he has just returned from a meeting he will face a desk full of messages and immediate things he must attend to. If it is that time of the month when the monthly report is due, he and his staff will be frantically busy preparing that. Of course you cannot know when all these things are happening which is why you should check and make a mutually acceptable appointment time.

• 17. Don't leave it all up to your Manager. Passing the buck completely places an unfair stress and strain on his shoulders. Encourage a 'team spirit'. Don't be indecisive or vague when discussing issues - he must leave your discussion knowing exactly what is required of him. Give realistic deadlines. Ask for clarification and feedback so you know you have been understood.

• 18. We all want to save money but don't be unreasonable thinking your manager or his department must work themselves into an early grave trying to meet impossible deadlines or achieve high results in high peak periods without providing a means of assistance. Maybe you can extend the deadline or farm some of the tasks out to other departments. You can also consider bringing in contract staff to assist for the duration.

If business is to thrive, morale must be high. If morale is up, so are productivity, profitability, employee pride, and the willingness to serve. These happier Managers AND their immediate employees take less sick leave, retain their employment longer, and they do not spend their time gossiping about what is wrong with the company, the products, the services, and the systems. They feel good about the work they do and are proud to be contributing and seeing business running well.

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Article Tags: CEO, leadership, management, managers, morale



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