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Action Yearning

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‘Santiago taught me about turning dreams into reality – he taught me how yearning has a dynamic to it that is incredibly powerful.  It is important, simply to be open and alive to possibility, to encourage people rather than to be suspicous of them, and to see the potential for success rather than the potential for failure.  This is where true knowledge and learning can be found…’

The Social Entepreneur – Andrew Mawson 

Much wisdom in this piece – whether you are a manager trying to get the best from a team or whether you are supporting entrepreneurs.

The book is a great read too!

Qualifications or Achievement?

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I am often asked whether I would ever consider linking the Progressive Managers’ training to an external qualification such as a management NVQ or similar.  There are several reasons why I resist this.

I work best with managers who are interested in developing their practice – not theory.  Managers who want to make things happen and achieve outstanding results.  Not managers who want to spend time sharing their thoughts on case studies and texts or preparing evidence of what they can do for an assessor.

Most learning does not happen in the workshops that I run. It happens when people go back to the workplace and start to follow the recipes and routines that they have been taught.  I know that what I teach is useful, practical and effective.  I also know that the best results are obtained when managers take what I teach, apply it and then develop it based on their own experience, context and culture.  It is only those that apply what I teach and learn from it that should be recognised.  Not anyone who happens to show up for training.

Why pay an awarding body or an assessor to make judgements about what you know and can do?  Let your results speak for themselves.  Focus on being recognised by your peers, reports and your boss as an outstanding manager who achieves outstanding results – both in terms of performance and people development.  As long as you keep your CV up to date with clear descriptions of what you have achieved you will be as attractive to a future employer as any MBA.

I know very few people that really trust management qualifications.  Management qualifications are increasingly becoming devalued.  The qualifications are poor proxies for what someone can actually do.  Do any serious recruiters really pay much attention to whether you have an NVQ level 4 in Operational Management or not?  Certainly not the ones that I talk with!

This devaluation is partly because assessment, although expensive in time and effort, is very weak.  Having a qualification is, in my experience, no guarantee that you can achieve results as a manager.

The complexity of most management qualification structures does not help either.  Nearly all have a ‘core and options’ structure that means Sherlock Holmes might struggle to understand from a qualification what you know and can do.  Indeed in the UK if you look up management qualification there are over 400 recognised on the National Database of accredited qualifications.

Now please don’t get me wrong.  There are some great managers who have worked hard to get qualifications.  The problem is that there are also many average and poor managers who have the same qualifications.  If you want to make a positive difference and develop a successful career then focus on developing your practice – not picking up qualifications.

And if you are one of those good managers with the qualifications then don’t rely on the qualification to make you stand out from the crowd.  Emphasise the responsibilities that you have held and what you have achieved in relation to those responsibilities.  If you are a good manager then this will get you recognised by your bosses, peers and recruiters.

Leaders are Readers?

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I had a great break over the holiday season and managed to do loads of reading . 10 books read and not one of them disappointed! This shows that ideas and inspiration are easy to find and cheap.

Putting them into practice is what matters and is where the majority of people – me included –  fall down.  In fact much of my work with PMN is to get great ideas and turn them into simple recipes that can be applied and made to work well.  Because the real learning happens not when we read the book – but when we try stuff out in practice.

So here are a couple of the books I read over Christmas that you can expect to see influencing future PMN workshops and blog posts.

Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly tells the story of management at Admiral Janitorial Services and how they managed to significantly reduce staff turnover and increase sales and quality.  They did this by spending time listening to employees, encouraging them to talk about their aspirations (home ownership, provide a proper Christmas for the family, sort out debt problems etc.).  They then put in place a service to help employees develop and put into practice plans to make these dreams happen.

By developing connections between peoples’ aspirations and their work, employees become significantly more engaged in their work.  This enabled the company to experience phenomenal growth.

In the book Kelly shows how hiring a ‘Dream Manager’ to work confidentially with employees once a month on their dreams and (CRUCIALLY) the plans to make them happen can transform the workplace.

I loved this book and read it in a couple of sittings as it is short (150 pages), well written and with an engaging storyline.

Eddie Obeng’s Money Making Machine is a business fable designed to help entrepreneurs think about their business idea as if it were a money making machine. It provides powerful insights into how to build the machine most effectively to achieve financial success.

Now it is very rarely that I find myself working with anyone who simply wants their business to be a money making machine. Most want their business to make a ‘positive difference’ as a first priority. Making money is a necessary – but by no means sufficient criteria for most successful entrepreneurs. As well as providing some really practical insights this book got me thinking about what a ‘Progress Making Machine’ might be like. Watch this space for the outcomes from that piece of thinking.

You can see a full list of the Xmas reading here.

PMN Bookstore

20 Fail Proof Ways to Expose a Lazy Employee

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20 Fail Proof Ways to Expose a Lazy Employee is an interesting blog post that contains some useful ideas and resources – but to my mind exemplifies much that is wrong with management today. The assumption is that the employees is ‘bad’ and has to be exposed, ‘put right’ or fired.

In the majority of such cases, in my experience, managers get the employees that they deserve. The behaviour of the employee is a direct reflection of the way that they are being managed. I would advise the manager to reflect on their own role in creating this problem employee.

‘Lazy’ is a label and labels rarely help. Managers must learn to notice the behaviours that they see that lead them to think that someone is lazy.

They should then give feedback about the behaviours (arriving late, leaving early, personal e-mails, staring out the window for hours) and the impact that the behaviours have. ie ‘When you arrive late, leave early, stare out the window and spend hours on your personal e-mails I get frustrated because I can’t help thinking that you could get more done. I worry that you might get a reputation for laziness and that you won’t do as well as you could in your work here. Is there anything you can differently to avoid these concerns?

Managers who know that they have a ‘disengaged’ employee must think about their own role in the employees lack of engagement. After all they are paid as a manager to ensure that people are productive! It is their problem – not the employees!

  • Have they got the employee in a role where they can use their strengths?
  • Have they clearly expressed the performance standards associated with the position in a way that the employee understands?
  • Have they given feedback about the behaviours that cause concern?
  • Have they offered to coach the employee in order to improve their performance?
  • Does the employee get appreciation and recognition when they do things well?
  • Only once all of these options have been explored should they consider the option of firing them.

Getting it Wrong at Comet?

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It is so very easy to get ‘management’ wrong.  Very wrong.

Take this example from electrical retailer Comet.  My Brother in Law is looking to buy a micro HI-Fi and has been to compare models and prices in Comet and Empire Direct.  As he walked into the Comet store he was met by a sales adviser who asked what he was looking for and whether he would like some help.  Brother in Law explained that he was not in a position to buy today but he would like some information about a particular system that Comet stocked.

The sales adviser apologetically explained that if Brother in Law was not looking to buy today then he was not able to help him as his manager had told him to ‘focus on sales only’.

This is a great example of a manager ‘communicating what matters by soundbite’ and not getting the intended results.

Brother in Law enjoyed sharing this retail experience with the whole family on his return and no doubt will re-tell the story at the golf club, the cycle club, in the expat community in which he lives and at every party he attends over the holiday season.  I expect that by the time the New Year sales are over  thousands of people will have heard the story and drawn their own conclusions.

Now I am sure that ‘focussing on sales’ matters during the busy holiday period, but so to does ‘building relationships with customers ‘ and ‘the reputation of the Comet brand’.

Managing by sound bite is a dangerous game.