realisedevelopment.net

Just another WordPress site

Hungry for It!

by

This is a great post that I think says a lot about manager/employee relations in much of UK management.

Personal Assistants and secretaries marching in the streets to demand the opportunity to

  • unleash their potential at work;
  • make progress not coffee;
  • be recognised as ‘career girls not cover girls’ and as ‘office heroes’.

It captures what the Progressive Managers Network is all about – developing managers that provide these iopportunites all of the time toevery one on the team.

All power to their elbow!

Leaders-Teachers Do Not ‘Transform’ or ‘Motivate’ People!

by

Instead leaders-mentors-teachers:

  1. Provide a context which is marked by;
  2. Access to a luxuriant portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which;
  3. Allow people to fully (and safely, mostly – caveat: “they” don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express their innate curiosity and;
  4. Engage in a vigorous discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an extensive self-constructed network) by which those people;
  5. Go to create places they (and their mentors-leaders-teachers)had never dreamed existed – and then the leaders-mentors-teachers;
  6. Applaud like hell, stage “photo ops” and ring the church bells a 100 times to commemorate the bravery of their ‘followers’ explorations!

This according to Tom Peters.

Wow!

Just imagine if your leadership were able to provide this kind of context for people to do great work in.

What might it mean for the impact of your team?

What opportunities do you have to DELEGATE!

Who is ‘mad enough’ about the opportunity to really engage?

How can you support them on their journey to create something new?

How well do you celebrate success – and heroic failure?

Communication: Companies need less . . . not more!

by

This is the title of a great post on the Slow Leadership blog. Dave Woods says:

‘I work with a large variety of CEOs, senior managers and key employees. If I ask about the needs and issues within the company, I almost always get the same response: “We need more communication.”

My reaction to that is that it is simply, WRONG!

Companies don’t need more communication. They need more clarity.

  • Clarity of the vision of the company.
  • Clarity of where the company is going (long term and short term).
  • Clarity of HOW the company will get there.
  • Clarity of individual roles and how those roles create value toward the vision.
  • Clarity of how roles must intertwine in order to achieve extraordinary results.
  • Clarity of how the company will hold itself and each individual accountable.’

Dave then goes on to argue that if you look at a great sports team they actually need very little communication from the coach. They know all the plays and they know what they have to do. In short they have clarity. Dave argues that it is not communication that we should be increasing – but clarity.

Amen to that!

However clarity only comes with communication that is frequent, 2 way and relevant to both player and coach; employee and manager. Surely there can be no clarity without communication?

When you watch a great team play what you are seeing is the result of dozens of hours of communication, practice, feedback, delegation and coaching. Typically tens of hours of this ‘management’ go into every hour of play.

Life in most businesses is not like that. There is no practice ground. It is always ‘game time’. And most managers find it incredibly difficult to pull players out of the game to them at all whether to clarify, give feedback, coach or delegate. It is all they can do to keep playing the game – never mind improve.

So I disagree with Dave – and agree with his clients. Most organisations do need more communication. But it has to be effective. It has to focus on performance and improvement. It has to be constructive. It has to keep both vision and values in the front of people minds. And it has to be frequent.

Sounds just like a recipe for 121s to me!

You Are a Superstar: 90% of Managers Are In the Top 10%

by

This from the ‘business pundit‘ blog recently:

″A new study shows that 90% of managers think they are in the top 10% at their workplace.

Believe you’re among the top performers in your office? You’re not alone.

According to a new survey, an impossible 90 percent of managers think they’re among the top 10 percent of performers at their workplace.

The number is highest among executives, 97 percent of whom consider themselves shining stars, according to a recent survey in BusinessWeek magazine.”

Read More

The sad truth is just how easy it is for most people to get into the top 10% of managers in just about any organisation.

By consistently doing some management basics such as:

  • communicating well (that’s listening as well as telling),
  • providing feedback,
  • coaching every team member – every week,
  • running effective (as opposed to frequent) meetings
  • delegating, and
  • keeping mission, vision and values in the front of every team members thoughts…

the vast majority of managers can massively improve their effectiveness and really stand out as high performers.

It is not about charisma, vision or flair.  It not about MBAs, strategy, long hours and inspiration.

It is about consistently doing the basics well.

Progressive Managers Network partners with YMCA Training

by

YMCA Training, Harrogate

I am delighted to say that the PMN has established a new partnership with YMCA Training in Harrogate to add to existing partnerships with the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board and The Goodwin Development Trust in Hull.

PMN events will be available at YMCA Training from October. The first launch event is free of charge. Subsequent events carry a 50% discount for bookings taken before September 1st.

Brilliant One to Ones

  • 19th October 13.30- 16.30 – YMCA Training, Harrogate – FREE Introductory Event

Giving and Getting Great Feedback

  • 26th October 09.30- 13.30 – YMCA Training, Harrogate – Early bird discount of 50% on bookings received before Sept 1st

Practical Coaching for Progressive Managers

  • 2nd November 13.30 – 16.30 – YMCA Training, Harrogate – Early bird discount of 50% on bookings received before Sept 1st

Find out more about PMN events here.

Find out more about the Progressive Managers Network here.