Managing For Dummies, UK Edition E-Book

Richard Pettinger

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 647

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

If you're having trouble motivating your employees, need to resolve a conflict, or want to learn how to better monitor your employees’ performance, this straight-forward guide will take you step by step through every aspect of managing. Packed with expert advice on team-building, communication skills, identifying talented employees, and letting go of staff, Managing for Dummies takes the stress out of what can be an intimidating and high-pressured job.

The book will be adapted from the current US edition of Managing for Dummies. Existing content will be revised to reflect essential UK information including:

• UK-specific case studies, including references to recognisable UK businesses
• UK business practice, including ethics, employee and employers rights and responsibilities, hiring and firing - with reference to UK law
• UK websites
• UK financial information

Leseprobe

Managing For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

How to Use This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Part I: You Want to Be a Manager

Part II: Managing People

Part III: Making Things Happen

Part IV: Working with (Other) People

Part V: Tough Times for Tough Managers

Part VI: Tools and Techniques for Managing

Part VII: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where Do I Go from Here?

Part I: You Want to Be a Manager

Chapter 1: You’re a Manager – Now What?

Identifying the Different Styles of Management

Macho management

Participative management

The best way

Recognising that Quick Fixes Don’t Work

Meeting the Management Challenge

The old rules don’t work any more

It’s a new world

Trust is not a four-letter word

Explaining the New Functions of Management

Energise

Empower

Support

Communicate

Taking the First Steps towards Becoming a Manager

Look and listen

Do and learn

Chapter 2: Delegation: Getting Things Done without Getting Done In

Delegating: The Manager’s No. 1 Tool

Explaining the Myths about Delegation

Myth No. 1: You can’t trust your employees to be responsible

Myth No. 2: When you delegate, you lose control of a task and its outcome

Myth No. 3: You’re the only one who has the answers

Myth No. 4: You can do the work faster by yourself

Myth No. 5: Delegation dilutes your authority

Myth No. 6: Your employees get recognition for doing a good job, not you

Myth No. 7: Delegation decreases your flexibility

Myth No. 8: Your employees are too busy

Myth No. 9: Your workers don’t see the big picture

Trusting Your Employees

Taking the Seven Steps to Delegate

Looking at the Good and the Bad of Delegation

Always delegate these things

Avoid delegating these things

Checking Up, Not Checking Out

Chapter 3: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way

Understanding the Differences between Management and Leadership

Looking at What Leaders Do

Inspire action

Communicate

Support and facilitate

Surveying Leading Leadership Traits

Optimism

Confidence

Integrity

Decisiveness

Fostering Collaborative Leadership

Part II: Managing People

Chapter 4: Recruitment and Selection: The Million-Pound Decision

Asking for the Right Stuff

Defining the Job and the Person

Finding Good People

Being the Greatest Interviewer in the World

Asking the right questions

Interviewing do’s

Interviewing don’ts

Evaluating Your Candidates

Checking references

Reviewing your notes

Conducting second (or third) interviews

Engaging the Best (and Leaving the Rest)

Being objective

Trusting your gut

Adjusting after the offer

Chapter 5: Inspiring Employees to Better Performance

The Greatest Management Principle in the World

Recognition isn’t as simple as it looks

Biscuit motivation

Discovering What Employees Want

Creating a supportive environment

Having a good game plan

Deciding What to Reward

Starting with the Positive

Making a Big Deal about Something Little

Money and Motivation

Compensating with wages and salaries

Realising when incentives become entitlements

Working out what motivates your staff

Realising that you hold the key to your employees’ motivation

Chapter 6: Coaching and Development

Playing a Coach’s Role

Coaching: A Rough Guide

Coaching Metaphors for Success in Business

Confronting Turning Points

Making turning points into big successes

Making coaching special

Tapping into the Coach’s Expertise

Part III: Making Things Happen

Chapter 7: Setting Goals and Targets

If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, How Do You Know When You Get There?

Identifying SMART Goals

Setting Goals: Less Is More

Communicating Your Goals to Your Team

Juggling Priorities

Using Your Power for Good: Making Your Goals Happen

Chapter 8: Performance Appraisal and Management: People and Projects

Taking the First Steps

Developing a System for Providing Immediate Performance Feedback

Setting your checkpoints: The milestones

Reaching your checkpoints: The actions

Acting in sequence: The relationships

Establishing your timeframe: The schedules

Putting Performance Measuring and Monitoring into Practice

Studying Sheerness Steel

Reducing shrinkage

Using Gantts, PERTs, and Other Yardsticks

Stacking up the Gantt or bar chart

Following flow charts

Inserting software

Reading the Results

Chapter 9: Tackling Performance Appraisals

Appraising Performance: Why it Matters

Spelling Out the Performance Appraisal Process

Avoiding Common Traps

Sorting Out Why Appraisals Go Bad

Preparing for the No-Surprises Appraisal

Part IV: Working with (Other) People

Chapter 10: Effective Communication: Getting Your Message Across

Understanding Communication: The Cornerstone of Business

The Cutting Edge of Communication and Information Technology

Speed and flexibility

Gadgets and gizmos

Videoconferencing and electronic meetings

Badmouthing Bad Communication

Poisoning the well of communications

Hear, Hear! The Art of Listening

Harnessing the Power of the Written Word

Making Presentations

Preparing presentations

A picture is worth a thousand words

Making your presentation

Chapter 11: Working Together in Teams and Groups

Phasing Out the Old Hierarchy

Downsizing organisations

Moving towards co-operation

Empowering Your Teams

Recognising the value of an empowered workforce

Managing your teams

Identifying the Advantages of Teams

Smaller and nimbler

Innovative and adaptable

Setting Up and Supporting Your Teams

Formal teams

Informal teams

Self-managed teams

The real world

New technology and teams

Meetings: Putting Teams to Work

The trouble with meetings

The eight keys to great meetings

Chapter 12: Managing Flexible Workers

Making Room for a New Kind of Employee

Preparing to be flexible

Anticipating changes to the organisation’s culture

Managing from a Distance

Managing Different Shifts and Patterns of Work

Telecommuting and Homeworking

Chapter 13: Ethics and Office Politics

Doing the Right Thing: Ethics and You

Defining ethics

Creating a code of ethics

Living ethics

Evaluating Your Political Environment

Assessing your organisation’s political environment

Identifying key players

Redrawing your organisation chart

Scrutinising Communication: What’s Real and What’s Not?

Believing actions, not words

Reading between the lines

Probing for information

Uncovering the Unwritten Rules of Organisational Politics

Be friendly with all

Help others get what they want

Don’t party at company parties

Manage your manager

Move ahead with your mentors

Be trustworthy

Protecting Yourself

Document for protection

Don’t make promises you can’t keep

Be visible

Part V: Tough Times for Tough Managers

Chapter 14: Managing Change at Work

Keeping Pace

Choosing between legitimate urgency and crisis management

Recognising and dealing with crises

Embracing Change

Identifying the four stages of change

Figuring out if you’re fighting change

Aiding Your Employees through Change

Encouraging Employee Initiative

Making Changes within Yourself

Chapter 15: Employee Discipline: Setting Standards and Enforcing Them

Understanding the Need for Employee Discipline

Following Procedures

Focusing on Performance, Not Personalities

Identifying the Two Tracks of Discipline

Dealing with performance problems: The first track

Dealing with misconduct: The second track

Disciplining Employees: A Suite in Five Parts

Describing the unacceptable behaviour

Expressing the impact to the work unit

Specifying the required changes

Outlining the consequences

Providing emotional support

Putting it all together

Making a Plan for Improvement

Implementing the Improvement Plan

Chapter 16: Resignations, Dismissals, and Redundancies

Accepting Resignations

Dealing with Dismissals

Making employees redundant

Processing the types of dismissal

Gathering good reasons for firing

Easing into Dismissal

Trying to avoid the inevitable

Working up to dismissal

Heeding the Warning Before You Fire an Employee

Firing an Employee Fairly in Three Steps

Determining the Best Time to Dismiss

Chapter 17: Managing Me: Taking Care of No. 1

Weighing the Work–Life Dilemma

Reaping the benefits of a balanced work life and personal life

Managing balance

Avoiding Becoming a Workaholic

Knowing the Symptoms of Stress

Managing Your Stress

Changing the things you can

Accepting the things that you can’t change

Trying out some specific stress-reduction exercises

Part VI: Tools and Techniques for Managing

Chapter 18: Budgeting and Accounting

Exploring the Wonderful World of Budgets

Making a Budget

Budgeting and the Real World

Producing real budgets

Staying on budget

Understanding the Basics of Accounting

Working out the accounting equation

Knowing double-entry bookkeeping

Identifying the Most Common Types of Financial Statements

The balance sheet

The profit and loss account

The cash-flow statement

Analysing Business Health

Using financial ratios

Using other measures

Chapter 19: Harnessing the Power of Technology

Using Technology to Your Advantage

Know your business

Create a technology-competitive advantage

Develop a plan

Get some help

Evaluating the Benefits and Drawbacks of Technology

Improving Efficiency and Productivity

Getting the Most Out of Information Technology

Planning and Implementation

Chapter 20: Developing and Mentoring Employees

Explaining How Employee Development Helps

Creating Career Development Plans

Helping Employees to Develop

Finding a Mentor, Being a Mentor

Balancing Development and Downsizing

Chapter 21: Keeping Track of Management Trends

Beginning with the Basics

Creating a Learning Organisation

Making a Flat Organisation

Unlocking Open-Book Management

Understanding Six Sigma

Part VII: The Part of Tens

Chapter 22: Ten Common Management Mistakes

Not Making the Transition from Worker to Manager

Not Setting Clear Goals and Expectations

Failing to Delegate

Failing to Communicate

Not Making Time for Employees

Not Recognising Employee Achievements

Failing to Develop

Resisting Change

Going for the Quick Fix over the Lasting Solution

Taking It All Too Seriously

Chapter 23: The Ten Best Ways to Recognise Employees

Support and Involvement

Personal Praise

Autonomy and Authority

Flexible Working Hours

Training and Development

Your Time

Written Praise

Electronic Praise

Public Praise

And So to Money

Chapter 24: Ten (Plus Two) Classic Business Books You Need to Know About

In Search of Excellence

Managing for Results

The Human Side of Enterprise

The Peter Principle

Competitive Strategy

The One Minute Manager

Management Stripped Bare

In Search of European Excellence

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation

Understanding Organisations

Body and Soul: The Body Shop Story

Maverick!

Managing For Dummies®

by Richard Pettinger, Bob Nelson, and Peter Economy

Managing For Dummies®

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, LtdThe AtriumSouthern GateChichesterWest SussexPO19 8SQEngland

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About the Author

Richard Pettinger (BA, MBA, DipMktg) has taught at University College London since 1989, where he is a lecturer in management. He teaches on the foundation courses, organisational change, and construction marketing courses. He has also taught strategic and operations management, the management of change, human resource management, and leadership to a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate, professional, and international students. Richard is also enhancing and developing Management Studies Centre activities and courses, including the directorship of the new Information Management for Business course.

Since 2005, Richard has been a visiting professor at the Jagiellonian Business School, Krakow, teaching strategic management and developing a common UCL/Jagiellonian syllabus in strategic management and organisational change.

Richard is the author of over thirty business and management books and textbooks, and also writes journal, conference, and study papers.

Bob Nelson, PhD (San Diego, CA), is founder and president of Nelson Motivation, Inc., a management training and products firm headquartered in San Diego, California. As a practising manager, researcher, and best-selling author, Bob is an internationally recognised expert in the areas of employee motivation, recognition and rewards, productivity and performance improvement, and leadership.

Bob has published 20 books and sold more than 2.5 million books on management, which have been translated into some 20 languages. He earned his BA in communications from Macalester College, his MBA in organisational behavior from UC Berkeley, and his PhD in management from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate Management Center of the Claremont Graduate University.

Visit his Web site at www.nelson-motivation.com or contact Bob directly at [email protected].

Peter Economy (La Jolla, CA) is associate editor of Leader to Leader, the award-winning magazine of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Leadership, and author of numerous books. Peter combines his writing expertise with more than 15 years of management experience to provide his readers with solid, hands-on information and advice. He received his bachelor’s degree (with majors in economics and human biology) from Stanford University and his MBA at the Edinburgh Business School. Visit Peter at his Web site: www.petereconomy.com.

Authors’ Acknowledgments

From Richard: I acknowledge three managers who have had great influence on the ways in which things have turned out: John Taylor, who set very high standards all round, and who remains a close colleague and friend; Jack Cadogan at the Manpower Services Commission who let me do things my way; and Graham Winch who started me off at UCL. I have had wonderful support and enthusiasm all the way through from Ram Ahronov, Peter Antonioni, Roger Cartwright, Kelvin Cheatle, Frances Kelly, Paul Griseri, Jacek Klich, Robert Pringle and Andrew Scott – great colleagues all. Thanks for the great work of Rachael Chilvers and everyone at Wiley in making this project into something that we can all be proud of. Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Rebecca, without whom nothing is possible.

From Bob: Thanks to Jim Reller, a delegator par excellence in my first corporate position at Control Data Corporation, who often gave out assignments with a disclaimer such as, ‘I could probably do this task faster than you, but I believe you’ll learn a lot from the process’; Dr. Ken Blanchard, also known as The One Minute Manager, who I worked with for more than ten years, demonstrated how to get the best efforts from people by using the softer side of management and never directly telling them what to do; and Dr. Peter F. Drucker who I worked with in my PhD studies at Claremont Graduate University.

Thanks for the ongoing love and support of my father Edward, my wife Jennifer, and my children, Daniel and Michelle.

From Peter: Richard Vaaler, contracting officer for the Department of Defense, taught the benefits of upholding high ethical standards and making things happen. At Horizons Technology, Inc., CFO Debbie Fritsch demonstrated the importance of hiring and developing superior employees and challenging authority. Pat Boyce, president, taught me to look beyond the obvious to ferret out the truth and also showed me the value of becoming one with your customers. Jim Palmer, chairman, embodied the value of painting the big picture – a vision for all employees to strive for.

These people taught more than just the technical skills of assigning work, conducting a performance appraisal, or disciplining an employee. They also emphasised the people side of management: how to motivate employees by example, reward them when they exceed your expectations, and make each customer feel like he or she is your only customer – even if you have thousands of others.

Thanks to my mother Betty Economy Gritis, my wife Jan, and my children, Peter J, Skylar Park, and Jackson Warren, for their everlasting love and for putting up with my crazy life. May the circle be unbroken.

Dedication

To any manager who has struggled to do the job and every employee who has had to live with the consequences.

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Executive Editor: Jason Dunne

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Commissioning Editor: Samantha Clapp

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Technical Reviewer: Brenda Pugh, Achieve Greatness, Ltd.

Proofreader: Christine Lea

Special Help: Jennifer Bingham

Cover Photos: © Getty Images/Shannon Fagan

Cartoons: Ed McLachlan

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Proofreader: David Faust

Indexer: Techbooks

Introduction

Congratulations! As a result of your astute choice of material, you’re about to read a completely fresh approach to the topic of management. If you’ve already read other books about management, you have surely noticed that most of them fall into one of four categories: (1) textbooks; (2) deadly boring tomes that make great paperweights; (3) ‘I did it my way’ – the war stories of successful and/or high-profile individuals (some of these are admittedly excellent, while others are little more than cynical attempts to cash in on transient fame/notoriety), or (4) recycled platitudes glazed with a thin sugar-coating of pop psychobabble, which sounds great on paper, but fails abysmally in the real world, and is as superficial as a coat of paint.

Managing For Dummies is different. First, this book is fun. Our approach reflects our strong belief and experience that management can be fun, too. You can get the job done and have fun in the process. We even help you to maintain a sense of humour in the face of the seemingly insurmountable challenges that all managers have to deal with from time to time. On some days, you’ll face challenges – perhaps to your limit or beyond. However, on many more days, the joys of managing (showing a new skill to an employee, helping land a new customer, accomplishing an important assignment, and so on) can bring you a sense of fulfilment that you never imagined possible.

Second, popular business books seem to be here today and gone tomorrow. Like it or not, many managers (and the companies they work for) seem to be ruled by the business fad of the month. In Managing For Dummies, we get away from this by concentrating on tried and tested solutions to the most common situations that real supervisors and managers face: solutions that stand up over time and can be used in turbulent times. You won’t find any mumbo-jumbo here – just practical solutions to everyday problems.

Managing For Dummies breaks the rules. It provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of effective management presented in a fun and interesting format. It neither puts you to sleep nor is so glib or syrupy that it rots your teeth. We know from personal experience that managing can be an intimidating job. New managers – especially ones promoted into the position for their technical expertise – are often at a loss as to what they need to do. Don’t worry. Relax. Help is at your fingertips.

About This Book

Managing For Dummies is perfect for all levels of managers. New managers and managers-to-be can find everything you need to know to be successful. Experienced managers are challenged to shift your perspectives and to take a fresh look at your management philosophies and techniques. Despite the popular saying about teaching old dogs new tricks, you can always make changes that ease your job – and the jobs of your employees – and make them more fun and a lot more effective.

But, even the most experienced manager can feel overwhelmed from time to time – new tricks or not. For Bob, it was when he was giving an important business presentation before a group of international executives – only to be told by one of the executives that his flies were undone. Although Bob did score bonus points for getting his audience’s attention with this novel fashion statement, he could’ve done so in a more conventional way.

For Peter, it was when he reprimanded an employee for arriving late to work and later discovered that the employee was late because she had stopped at a bakery on the way to work to buy Peter a cake in celebration of Boss’s Day. Needless to say, the event wasn’t quite as festive as it could’ve been!

For Richard, it was when he turned up to give a presentation to a group of managers and executives from the central banking sector. Just before he was due to go one, he was told that he had been given the wrong brief – and that please could he speak on a different subject altogether. He survived – but it was the longest two hours of his life!

Whether you’re new to the job or are faced with a new task in an old job, all managers feel overwhelmed sometimes. The secret to dealing with such feelings is to discover what you can do better (or differently) to obtain the results you want. When you do make a mistake, pick yourself up, laugh it off, and learn from it.

How to Use This Book

Despite the obvious resemblance of this book to one of the yellow bricks on Dorothy’s road to Oz, the proper way to use this book is not as a doorstop or a makeshift paperweight. You can use this book in one of two ways:

If you want to find out about a specific topic, such as delegating tasks or recruiting employees, you can flick to that section and get your answers quickly. Faster than you can say, ‘Where’s that report I asked for last week?’ you’ll have your answer.

If you want a crash course in management, read this book from cover to cover. Forget going back to college to get your MBA – you can save your money and take a trip to the South of France instead.

This book is unique because you can read each chapter without having to read what comes before. Or you can read each chapter without reading what comes after. Or you can read the book backwards. Or you can just carry it around with you to make an impact.

Conventions Used in This Book

For Dummies books avoid jargon, dense reams of text, and fiddly footnotes. To make your reading experience even easier, we use a couple of simple conventions. Italics introduce new terms, which are always followed by a definition. Monofont text is used for Web addresses. We tend to alternate between using male and female pronouns in alternating chapters to be fair to both genders.

Foolish Assumptions

As we wrote this book, we made a few assumptions about you, our readers. For example, we assumed that you’re already a manager – or a manager-to-be – and that you’re truly motivated to discover some new approaches to managing organisations and to leading people. We also assumed that you’re ready, willing, and able to commit yourself to becoming a better manager.

How This Book Is Organised

Managing For Dummies is organised into seven parts. Each part covers a major area of management practice. The chapters within each part cover specific topics in detail. Following is a summary of what you’ll find in each part.

Part I: You Want to Be a Manager

Successful managers master several basic skills. This part begins with a discussion of what managers are and what they do, and then looks at the most basic management skills: organisation, delegation, and leadership.

Part II: Managing People

The heart of management boils down to getting tasks done through others. This process starts with attracting, recruiting, and keeping talented workers and extends to motivating and coaching them to go above and beyond expectations.

Part III: Making Things Happen

Making things happen is another important aspect of managing that starts with knowing where you’re going and how to tell when you’ve arrived. In this part, we consider goal setting, measuring and monitoring employee performance, and conducting performance appraisals.

Part IV: Working with (Other) People

Successful managers have discovered that building bridges to other workers and managers – both inside and outside the organisation – is important. This part covers communicating, making presentations, building high-performance teams, and dealing with office politics.

Part V: Tough Times for Tough Managers

As any manager can testify, management is not all fun and games. In fact, managing can be downright difficult at times. In this part, we consider some of the toughest tasks of managing: managing change, disciplining and firing employees, and managing yourself.

Part VI: Tools and Techniques for Managing

Being a manager requires that you acquire and apply certain technical tools and skills. This part discusses guidelines for accounting and budgeting and working with today’s technologies.

The most successful managers know that standing still in business is the same as falling behind. Good managers always look to the future and make plans accordingly. Developing and training employees and creating a learning organisation are also covered in this part.

Part VII: The Part of Tens

Finally, we include the Part of Tens: a quick-and-easy collection of chapters, each of which gives you ten (or so) pieces of information that every manager needs to know. Look to these chapters when you need a quick refresher on managing strategies and techniques.

Icons Used in This Book

To guide you along the way and draw your attention to particular bits of information, this book uses icons along its left margins. You’ll see the following icons in this book:

The pearl points out wise sayings and other kernels of wisdom that you can take with you on your journey to becoming a better manager.

Remember these important points of information, and you’ll be a much better manager.

This icon highlights tips and tricks that make managing easier.

These anecdotes from Bob, Peter, Richard, and other real-life managers show you the right – and sometimes wrong – way to be a manager.

If you don’t heed the advice next to these icons, the situation may blow up in your face. Watch out!

Where Do I Go from Here?

If you’re a new or aspiring manager, you may want to start at the beginning (isn’t that a novel concept?) and work your way through to the end. Simply turn the page and take your first step into the world of management.

If you’re already a manager and are short of time (and what manager isn’tshort of time?), you may want to turn to a particular topic to address a specific need or question. The Table of Contents gives a chapter-by-chapter description of the topics in this book. You can also find specific topics in the index.

Enjoy your journey!

Part I

You Want to Be a Manager

In this part . . .

Before you can become an effective manager, you need to master some basic skills. In this part, we find out what management is, and we cover some of the most important managing skills, including delegating tasks to employees and becoming a leader.

Chapter 1

You’re a Manager – Now What?

In This Chapter

Working out what management is

Moving from being a doer to becoming a manager of doers

Understanding the changing workforce

Defining the key functions of management

Taking the first steps towards becoming a manager

Congratulations! You’re reading this book, so you’re probably

A manager

A manager-to-be

An individual who’s uncontrollably attracted to books with bright yellow and black covers (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

Of course, if you’re simply curious and want to discover the intimate details about the kinds of management techniques that can help you get the best from your employees every day of the week, you’re equally welcome!

Managing is truly a calling – one that, as managers, the authors of this book are proud to have answered. We’re the few. The proud. The managers. In the world of business, no other position allows you to have such a direct, dramatic, and positive impact on the lives of others and on the ultimate success of your enterprise. (Except, of course, for the person who fixes the coffee machine.)

Identifying the Different Styles of Management

Managing is about:

Getting things done through others

Using scarce resources to best advantage

Coping with change and uncertainty

Achieving and delivering results

Seems simple enough. But why do so many bright, industrious people have trouble managing well? And why do so many companies today seem to offer flavour-of-the-month training programmes? How often have you been introduced to some hot new management concept – guaranteed to turn your organisation around in no time flat – only to watch it fade away within a few months, if not sooner? Of course, as soon as one management fad disappears, another is waiting in the wings to replace it.

‘What? You didn’t catch onto that concept of Six Sigma? That’s okay – we decided that it doesn’t really work anyway. Now, we want you to pay close attention to this video on Armadillo Management (hard on the outside, soft on the inside!) – this is the latest thing. The managing director read an article about it in the Financial Times and wants us to implement it throughout our United Kingdom operations right away!’

Unfortunately, good management is a scarce commodity – at once precious and fleeting. Despite years of evolution in management theory and the comings and goings of countless management fads, many workers – and managers, for that matter – have developed a distorted view of management and its practice, with managers often not knowing the right approach to take, or exactly what to do. ‘And, if managers don’t know what to do, employees certainly won’t either.

Do you ever hear any of the following statements at your office or place of work?

We don’t have the authority to make that decision.

She’s in charge of the department – fixing the problem is her responsibility, not ours.

Why do they keep asking us what we think when they never use anything we say?

I’m sorry, but that’s our policy. We’re not allowed to make exceptions.

If my manager doesn’t care, I don’t either.

It doesn’t matter how hard you work; no one’s going to notice in any case.

You can’t trust employees anyway.

When you hear statements like these at work, red lights should be flashing before your eyes, and alarm bells should be ringing in your ears. Statements like these indicate that managers and employees aren’t communicating effectively – that managers don’t trust their employees, and that employees lack confidence in their managers. If you’re lucky, you can find out about these kinds of problems while you still have a chance to do something about them. If you’re not so lucky and you miss the clues, you may be stuck making the same mistakes again and again.

The expectations and commitments that employees carry with them on the job are in large part a product of the way in which their managers treat them. Following are the most commonly adopted styles of management. Do you recognise your management style?

Macho management

Okay. Here’s the $64,000 question: What is the best way to make something you’ve planned happen? Everyone seems to have a different answer to this question. Some people see management as something you do to people, not with them. Does this type of manager sound familiar? ‘We’re going to do it my way. Understand?’ Or perhaps the ever-popular threat: ‘It had better be on my desk by the end of the day – or else!’ If the worst comes to the worst, a manager can unveil the ultimate weapon: ‘Mess up one more time, and you’re sacked!’

This type of management is often known as Theory X management, which assumes that people are inherently lazy and you need to drive them to perform. Managing by fear and intimidation is always guaranteed to get a response. The question is: Do you get the kind of response that you really want? When you closely monitor your employees’ work, you usually end up with only short-term compliance. In other words, you never get the best from others by building a fire under them – you have to find a way to build a fire within them.

Sometimes managers have to take command of the situation. If you have to deliver a proposal in an hour and your customer just sent you some important changes, take charge of the situation to ensure that the right people are on the task – that is, if you’re serious about keeping your customer. When you have to act quickly with perhaps not as much discussion as you would like, however, it’s important to apologise in advance and let people know why you’re doing things the way you are.

Participative management

At the other end of the spectrum, some people see management as participative. Theory Y management assumes that people basically want to do a good job. In the extreme interpretation of this theory, managers are supposed to be sensitive to their employees’ feelings and be careful not to do anything that may disturb their employees’ tranquillity and sense of self-worth.

‘I found a problem with your report because none of the numbers are correct. We therefore need to consider our alternatives for taking a more careful look at these figures in the future.’

Again, managers may get a response with this approach (or they may choose to do the work themselves!), but are they likely to get the best possible response? Sometimes, yes; not always, however. In many cases, employees can, and do, take advantage of their managers. But you do get a better response if you are at least supportive at first.

The best way

Good managers realise that they don’t have to be tough all the time – and that participation does work if you really mean it. If your employees are diligently performing their assigned tasks and no business emergency requires your immediate intervention, you can step back and let them do their jobs. Not only do your employees become more responsible, but you also can concentrate your efforts on what is most important to the bottom-line success of your organisation.

A manager’s main job is to inspire employees to do their best and establish a working environment that allows them to reach their goals. The best managers make every possible effort to remove the organisational obstacles that prevent employees from doing their jobs and to obtain the resources and training that employees need to do their jobs effectively. All other goals – no matter how lofty or pressing – must take a back seat.

Bad systems, bad policies, bad procedures, and poor treatment of other people are organisational weaknesses that managers must be skilled at identifying and repairing or replacing.

Build a strong organisational foundation for your employees. Support your people, and you find they support you. Time and time again, when given the opportunity to achieve, workers in all kinds of businesses, from factories to venture capital firms, have proved this rule to be true. If you haven’t seen it at your place of business, you may be mistaking your employees for problems. Stop squeezing them and start squeezing your organisation. The result is employees who want to succeed and a business that flourishes right along with them. Who knows, your employees may even stop hiding when they see you coming their way!

Squeezing employees may be easier than fighting the convoluted systems and cutting through the bureaucratic barnacles that have grown on your organisation. You may be tempted to yell, ‘It’s your fault that our department didn’t achieve its goals!’ Yes, it may be tempting to blame your employees for the organisation’s problems, but doing so isn’t going to solve the problems. Of course, you may get a quick, short-lived response when you push your people, but ultimately, you’re failing to deal with the organisation’s real problems.

We all want to ‘win’. The challenge of management is to define winning in such a way that it feels like winning for everyone in the organisation. This, of course, is extremely difficult. People are often competing with colleagues for a ‘piece of the pie’ rather than trying to make the pie bigger. Your job is to help make a bigger pie.

Recognising that Quick Fixes Don’t Work

Despite what many people want you to believe, management is not prone to simple solutions or quick fixes. Being a manager is not simple. Yes, the best management solutions tend to be common sense; however, turning common sense into common practice is sometimes difficult.

Management is an attitude – a way of life. Management is a very real desire to work with people and help them succeed, as well as a desire to help your organisation succeed. Management is a life-long learning process that doesn’t end when you walk out of a one-hour seminar or finish viewing a 25-minute video. Management is like the old story about the happy homeowner who was shocked to receive a bill for £100 to fix a leaking pipe. When asked to explain the basis for this seemingly high charge, the plumber said, ‘Tightening the nut cost you £5. Knowing which nut to tighten cost you £95!’

Building a tasty, but useless, manager

Once, Peter went to one of those touchy-feely off-site management meetings meant to build teamwork and communication among the members of the group. Picture this: Just after lunch, a big tray of leftover veggies, bagels, fruit, and such was sitting on a table at the side of the room. The course leader rose from his chair, faced the group, and said, ‘Your next task is to split yourselves into four groups and construct a model of the perfect manager by using only the items on that tray of leftovers.’ A collective groan filled the room. ‘I don’t want to hear any complaints,’ the trainer said. ‘I just want to see happy people doing happy things for the next half-hour.’

The teams feverishly went about their task of building the perfect manager. With some managers barely throttling the temptation to engage each other in a massive food fight, the little figures began to take shape. A banana here, a carrot stick there . . . and voilà! After a brief competition for dominance, the winners got their crowns. The result follows.

We have to admit that the result was kind of cute (and kind of tasty, too), but did it really make a difference in the way these managers managed their employees when they returned to the office the next day? No. Was the seminar a nice break from the day-to-day office routine? Yes. Was it a meaningful teaching tool with lasting impact? No.

Management is a people job. If you’re not up to the task of working with people – helping them, listening to them, encouraging them, and guiding them – then you shouldn’t be a manager.

Because management is such a challenge, an entire management training industry has sprung up, ready to help managers find out how to solve their problems. Unfortunately, trainers often focus on creating instant gratification among course attendees, many of whom have spent hundreds and even thousands of pounds to be there. ‘Let’s give them so much stuff to use that it’s their fault if they never use any of it!’

Meeting the Management Challenge

When you’re assigned a task in a non-management position, completing it by yourself is fairly simple and straightforward. Your immediate results are in direct response to your effort. To accomplish your task, you first review the task, you decide how best to accomplish it, and then you set schedules and milestones for its successful completion. Assuming that you have access to the tools and resources necessary to accomplish your task, you can probably do it yourself quickly and easily. You’re an expert doer – a bright, get-things-done type of person.

However, if you hold a management position, you probably got that job because you proved yourself to be very skilled in the areas that you’re now responsible for managing.

When you want to get a task done through someone else, you employ a different set of skills to when you do the task yourself. All of a sudden, because of this simple decision to pass the responsibility for completion of a task on to someone else, you introduce an interpersonal element into your equation. ‘Oh, no! You mean I have to actually work with people?’Being technically good at your job is not enough – no matter how good your technical skills are. Now you must have good planning, organisational, leadership, and follow-up skills.

In other words, in addition to being a good doer, you have to be a good leader, director, and organiser of doers.

The old rules don’t work any more

If this challenge isn’t already enough, managers today face yet another challenge – one that has shaken the foundations of modern business. The new reality is that managers and workers have a partnership in the workplace.

Moving up and away

Peter’s friend John was a member of a team of software programmers developing a complex application for portable computers. When he was a team member, everything was fine. He came to work in a T-shirt and jeans – just like the rest of his teammates – and often spent time with his programmer friends after hours. The bond that the team shared changed, however, when John was selected to manage the team.

In his new role of manager, John first shifted offices. Instead of sharing an open bay with the other programmers, he moved into his very own office – one with four walls and a window looking out over the parking lot. A secretary was assigned to guard his door. Of course, the jeans and T-shirt had to go – he replaced them with a business suit and tie. Instead of having fun programming, John was now concerned about more serious topics such as cost overruns, schedule delays, and returns on investments.

As John’s role changed, so did he. And as John changed, so did his relationship with his people. He was no longer one of the crew; he was The Boss. To achieve his goals, John quickly had to make the transition from a doer to a manager of doers.

Originally, management was about dividing the company’s work into discrete tasks, assigning the work to individual workers, and then closely monitoring the workers’ performance and steering them towards accomplishing their tasks on time and within budget. The old reality of management often relied on fear, intimidation, and power over people to accomplish goals. If things weren’t going according to management’s plan, then management commanded its way out of the problem: ‘I don’t care what you have to do to get it done – just get it done. Now!’ The line between managers and workers was drawn clearly and drawn often.

In the new business environment, what’s going on inside the organisation is a reflection of what’s going on outside the organisation. The following factors are creating rapid and constant change in today’s new business environment:

A surge of global competition and activity

New technology and innovation

The flattening of organisational hierarchies

Widespread downsizing, re-engineering, and lay-offs

The rise of small businesses

The changing values of today’s workers

The increasing demands for better customer service

Watch out! Technology explosion ahead!

In the new world of information technology, the old ways of doing business are being turned on their head. With the presence of computer networks, e-mail, and voice-mail, the walls that divide individuals, departments, and organisational units have come crashing down. In the words of Frederick Kovac, vice-president of planning for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, ‘It used to be, if you wanted information, you had to go up, over, and down through the organisation. Now you just tap in. Everybody can know as much about the company as the chairman of the board.’

Of course, managers still have to divide and assign work, but workers are taking on more of that responsibility. Most importantly, managers are finding out that to get the best work, they can’t command their employees – they have to create an environment that fosters their employees’ desire to do their best work. This is the partnership between managers and workers in the workplace.

The landscape of business worldwide has changed dramatically during the past couple of decades. If you don’t change with it, you’re going to be left far behind your competitors. You may think that you can get away with treating your employees like ‘human assets’ or even like children, but you can’t. You can’t because your competitors are discovering how to unleash the hidden power of their employees. They’re no longer just talking about it; they’re doing it!

It’s a new world

A few years ago, Bob made a presentation to a group of high-tech managers. As he was wrapping up his presentation, he opened the floor to questions. A hand shot up and the manager said, ‘With all the downsizing and lay-offs that we’ve endured, people are lucky to get a salary, much less anything else. Why do we have to bother to empower and reward employees?’ Before Bob had a chance to respond, another manager in the audience shot back, ‘Because it’s a new world.’

This response really sums it all up. In business, times are changing. Now that employees have tasted the sweet nectar of empowerment, you can’t turn back. Companies that stick with the old way of doing business – the hierarchical, highly centralised model – are losing employees and customers to those companies that use the new ways of doing business and make them a part of their corporate culture. The best employees are leaving the old-model companies in droves, seeking employers who treat them with respect and who are willing to grant them greater autonomy and responsibility.

If you don’t change, that leaves you with the employees who don’t want to take risks or rock the boat. You get the yes-men and yes-women. No one challenges your ideas because they’re afraid to. No one suggests better or more efficient ways to do business because they know that you don’t listen or care anyway. Your employees don’t bother to go out of their way to help a customer because you don’t trust them to make the most basic decisions – the ones that can make the biggest difference to the satisfaction of your precious customers – or their lack of satisfaction.

Imagine the difference between an employee who tells your key customer, ‘Sorry, my hands are tied. I am not allowed to make any exceptions to our policies,’ and the employee who tells that customer, ‘I’ll do everything in my power to get you your order by your deadline.’ With whom do you think your customers prefer to do business? With whom would youprefer to do business? (Hint:Don’t even thinkabout the first alternative!)

Managers used to try to buy behaviour, commitment, and loyalty; and some workers were even called ‘hired hands’. Today, hiring their hands is not good enough on its own. You must find a way to engage their souls and get them to bring their best efforts to the workplace each and every day.

Trust is not a four-letter word

Companies that provide exceptional customer service unleash their employees from the constraints of an overly controlling hierarchy and allow front-line workers to serve their customers directly and efficiently. For example, while many companies devote forests of paper to employee manuals, Nordstrom, an American department store chain, devotes exactly one page to its manual.

Figure 1-1 shows you what is on that page.

You may think that a smallcompany with five or ten employees can get away with a policy like that, but certainly not a big company like yours. However, Nordstrom is not a small business by any stretch of the imagination – unless you consider a company with 50,000 or so employees and more than $5 billion in annual sales small.

How does management at a large business like Nordstrom get away with such a policy? They do it through trust.

First, Nordstrom hires good people. Secondly, the company gives them the training and tools to do their jobs well. Then management gets out of the way and lets the employees do their work. Nordstrom knows that it can trust its employees to make the right decisions because the company knows that it has hired the right people for the job and has trained them well.

Figure 1-1: Nordstrom’s employee manual shows an exceptional amount of trust in employees.

We’re not saying that Nordstrom doesn’t have problems – every company does. But Nordstrom has taken a proactive stance in creating the environment that employees most need and want.

Can you say the same for your organisation?

When you trust your employees, they respond by being trustworthy. When you recognise them for being independent and responsive to your customers, they continueto be independent and responsive to your customers. And when you give them the freedom to make their own decisions, they make their own decisions. With a little training and a lot of support, these decisions are in the best interests of the company because the right people at the right level of the organisation are making them.

The ultimate employee letter

In his book Please Don’t Just Do What I Tell You! Do What Needs to Be Done (Hyperion, 2002), Bob talks about the ‘Ultimate Expectation’ of every employer – for employees to do what needs to be done. In the following letter from manager to employee, Bob clearly outlines this expectation.

Dear Employee:

You’ve been hired to handle some pressing needs we have. If we could have managed by not hiring you, we would have. But we’ve determined that we needed someone with your skills and experience and that you were the best person to help us with our needs. We have offered you the position and you’ve accepted. Thanks!

During the course of your employment, you will be asked to do many things: general responsibilities, specific assignments, group and individual projects. You will have many chances to excel and to confirm that we made a good choice in hiring you.

However, there is one foremost responsibility that may never be specifically requested of you but that you need to always keep in mind through the duration of your employment. This is the Ultimate Expectation, and it is as follows:

ALWAYS DO WHAT MOST NEEDS TO BE DONE WITHOUT WAITING TO BE ASKED.

We’ve hired you to do a job, yes, but more important, we’ve hired you to think, to use your judgement and to act in the best interest of the organisation at all times.

If we never say this again, don’t take it as an indication that it’s no longer important or that we’ve changed our priorities. We are likely to get caught up in the daily press of business, the never-ending changes of the operation, and the ongoing rush of activities. Our day-to-day practices make it look like this principle no longer applies. Don’t be deceived by this.

Please don’t ever forget the Ultimate Expectation. Strive to have it always be a guiding principle in your employment with us, a philosophy that is always with you, one that is constantly driving your thoughts and actions.

As long as you are employed with us, you have our permission to act in our mutual best interests.

If at any time you do not feel we are doing the right thing – the thing you most believe would help us all – please say so. You have our permission to speak up when necessary to state what is unstated, to make a suggestion, or to question an action or decision.

This doesn’t mean we will always agree with you, or that we will necessarily change what we are doing; but we always want to hear what you most believe would help us better achieve our goals and purpose and to create a mutually successful experience in the process.

You will need to seek to understand how (and why) things are done the way they are done before you seek to change existing work processes. Try to work with the systems that are in place first, but tell us if you think those systems need to be changed.

Discuss what is presented here with me, and others, in the organisation so that we might all become better at applying the Ultimate Expectation.

Sincerely,

Your Manager

Explaining the New Functions of Management

Remember the four ‘classic’ functions of management – plan, organise, lead, and control – that you learned at college? These management functions form the foundation from which every manager works. Although these basic functions are fine for taking care of most of your day-to-day management duties, they fail to reflect the new reality of the workplace and the new partnership of managers and workers. We need a new set of management functions that builds on the four classic functions of management. And you’re in luck, we have them. The following sections describe the functions of the new manager in the 21st-century workplace.

Energise

Think of the best managers you know. What one quality sets them apart from the rest? Is it their organisational skills, their fairness, or their technical ability? Perhaps their ability to delegate or the long hours they keep sets them apart.

Although all these traits may be important to a manager’s success, we haven’t yet named the unique quality that makes a good manager great. The most important management function is to get people excited and inspired – to energise them. You can’t expect your people to be inspired, ambitious, enthusiastic, or dedicated if you yourself are not. Adopt the mantra: ‘If it’s to be, it’s to begin with me.’

You can be the best analyst in the world, the most highly organised executive on the planet, or fair beyond reproach, but if people can liken the level of excitement you generate more to a dishcloth than a spark plug, it handicaps your efforts to create a truly great organisation.

Great managers create far more energy than they consume. The best managers are organisational catalysts. Instead of taking energy froman organisation, they channel and amplify it. In every interaction, effective managers take the natural energy of their employees, add to it, and leave the employees in a higher energy state than when they began. Management becomes a process of transmitting the excitement that you feel about your organisation and its goals to your employees in terms that they can understand and appreciate. Before you know it, your employees are as excited about the organisation as you are, and you can simply allow their energy to carry you forward.

A picture is worth a thousand words. This statement is as true for the pictures you paint in the minds of others as for the pictures people paint on canvas or print in magazines and books. Imagine taking a vacation with your family or friends. As the big day draws near, you keep the goal exciting and fresh in the minds of your family or friends by creating a vision of the journey that awaits you. Vivid descriptions of white sandy beaches, towering redwoods, glittering skylines, secluded lakes, hot food, and indoor plumbing paint pictures in the minds of each of your fellow travellers. With this vision in mind, everyone works towards a common goal of having a successful vacation.

Successful managers bring everything to life. They create compelling visions – pictures of a future organisation that inspire and compel employees to bring out their best performance.

Empower

Have you ever worked for someone who didn’t let you do your job without questioning your every decision? Maybe you spent all weekend working on a special project only to have it casually discarded by your boss. ‘What were you thinking when you did this, Elizabeth? Our customers will never buy into that approach!’ Or maybe you went out of your way to help a customer, accepting a return shipment of an item against company policy. ‘Why do you think we have policies – because we enjoy killing trees for the paper to print them on? If we made exceptions for everyone, we’d go out of business!’ How did it feel to have your sincere efforts at doing a great job disparaged? What was your reaction? Simple – you didn’t bother making the extra effort again.

Despite rumours to the contrary, when you empower your employees, you don’t stop managing. What changes is the way you manage. Managers still provide vision, establish organisational goals, and determine shared values. However, they also have to establish a corporate infrastructure – skills training, teams, and so on – that supports empowerment. And although all your employees may not want to be empowered, you still have to provide an environment that supports those employees who are eager for a taste of the freedom to apply their personal creativity and expertise to your organisation.

Great managers allow their employees to do great work. This role is the real and vital function of management, for even the greatest managers in the world can’t succeed all by themselves.

To achieve the organisation’s goals, managers depend on their employees’ skills. Effective managers combine the efforts of every member of a work unit towards a common purpose. If you’re constantly doing your employees’ work for them, not only have you lost the advantage of the effectiveness that your employees can provide for you, but you’re also putting yourself on the path to stress, ulcers, and worse.

When you don’t empower employees, not only do you lose out, everyone in your organisation loses too. Your employees lose because you aren’t allowing them to stretch themselves or to show creativity or initiative. Your organisation loses the insights that its creative workforce brings with it. Finally, your customers lose because your employees are afraid to provide them with exceptional service. Why should they if they’re constantly worried about you punishing them for taking the initiative or for pushing the limits of the organisation to serve your customers better?

As William McKnight, former CEO of manufacturing giant 3M, put it, ‘The mistakes people make are of much less importance than the mistakes management makes if it tells people exactly what to do.’