Posts Tagged ‘managing’

How to get started on delegation

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Many managers tell me they don’t delegate tasks as often as they’d like because they just don’t know where to start. Here’s a 3 step process that can help to identify what you could delegate, who you could delegate to and how much of a task you could delegate.

It’s all about making that start!

STEP ONE – IDENTIFY THE TASKS

The first step is to identify the tasks that would be suitable for delegation.

1. Make a list of all the tasks you currently perform

2. Delete from the list the tasks you must do yourself

These may be tasks which:

· Are a requirement of your job which no one else can do

· You are ‘legally’ responsible for carrying out

· Only you have the expertise and experience for and it would be impossible or impractical to help your team members gain that expertise and experience.

3. The tasks that have not been deleted from the list are those that you potentially could delegate totally or partially

4. Ask the question – which of these tasks, if delegated, will free up the most time, so that I can concentrate on those tasks only I can do?

STEP TWO – IDENTIFY THE INDIVIDUAL

The second step is to identify the individual who would be best suited to undertake the delegated task.

In identifying the individual you may want to use some of the following selection criteria:

• Spare capacity (i.e. they’ve got the time)

• Best fit – in job terms

• The team member has a special interest in the task

• The delegated task may help to meet a development need

• The team member already has the skills/knowledge to complete the task.

STEP THREE – IDENTIFY THE APPROPRIATE DEGREE OF DELEGATION

At this step you should consider the aptitude and potential of the team member and decide upon the ‘degree’ of delegation:

Degree 1 Full Delegation:

The team member takes over the task fully

Degree 2 Shared Delegation:

You and the team member share the task and agree who will be responsible for which parts. This is useful when the person is not ready to take full responsibility but can do elements of it now and learn others later.

Degree 3 Contributory Delegation:

At this stage the team member is not ready to take on a large part of the task but may contribute to some part of the task

Now you’ve got the what, the who, and how much in place – is it time to delegate?

Tags: Delegation, improving performance, management training, managing, supervision
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Is poor supervision impacting your productivity?

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

How often do we stand back and think about the value of applying effective people management practices – especially the value to the business? Take a look at this piece of research:

Proudfoot Consultings (www.proudfootconsulting.com) annual Productivity Survey for 2007 shows that in the UK 33.3% of the time spent in work is unproductive. Taking into account that they estimate that the optimum ‘labour utilisation’ time is considered to be 85% this means that UK businesses are wasting just over 18% of working hours.

Here’s what they say about the reason

‘Whatever business you’re in, pay particular attention to the calibre and capabilities of those who directly supervise frontline workers. Poor worker supervision has always been a prominent reason for wasted working time in our Business Reviews and in the last two years has risen to become the dominant factor’

That’s just short of a day a week, then, lost to poor supervision

Before we explore this issue further I should point out that this report is based on research of large businesses (with turnover in excess of £100m). Clearly, managing staff in a smaller organisation can be very different. For example, there’s less likelihood of there being a long ‘chain of command’ and it’s clearly more difficult for staff members in a small enterprise to be unproductive, at least intentionally. However I’d say it’s worth all organisations, whatever the size, periodically taking a critical look at how they manage their staff

Here are a few questions you can use to assess your people management practices (based on my model of effective people management):

1. Are your staff crystal clear on what’s expected of them? Have you described and agreed what good performance looks like for their job? Are these agreed descriptions written as performance standards or objectives?

2. Do you monitor your staff’s actual performance against the standards or objectives on an ongoing basis? Are your staff involved in monitoring their own performance?

3. Do you and your staff review together their performance on a regular basis (every 3 months is standard good practice)? Do you give them objective, evidence- based feedback? Do you agree on areas of outstanding performance and how these can be built upon? Do you identify and agree any areas of improvement?

4. Do you discuss your staff’s job satisfaction with them so that you can, together, develop ways to maintain or enhance their satisfaction?

Do you now feel like having a lie down? I do know this all sounds like an awful lot of work and it certainly does take some time commitment to manage your staff effectively. However research does demonstrate again and again that not only does effective people management positively impact productivity and business performance but it also positively impacts your staff’s job satisfaction. A win for the business, a win for your staff and not nearly as hard as it sounds with the right tools and techniques

Tags: management training, managing, performance, performance objectives
Posted in Insights | Comments Off

A quick way to improve your listening skills

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

We all know what a powerful tool listening is. We know that when people feel listened to they also feel valued, respected and engaged. Yet, I’m often told by the clients I work with that they don’t feel listened to at work. Of course there are many barriers to listening effectively. For example, have you ever found it difficult to listen to someone when a) you know the solution to the problem they are talking through or b) when you fell sure you know what they’re going to say next or c) when you can see they are missing the point?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above, or you know you could listen better some of the time, you could try this simple technique taught to me some years ago by a wonderful man called Alan Mumford. At the time Alan was coaching me in facilitation skills and talking about how to judge when to speak out (make an intervention) and when to keep quiet. His advice was;

‘The first time I feel I want to intervene, I keep quiet. The second time I feel the need, I do the same. If I feel for a third time that I need to say something then, and only then, do I speak up. Very often if I wait until the third time, I won’t need to speak at all’

Here’s a way of applying this technique in a one to one conversation

Step One – the first time you want to speak, hold your tongue. If the other person has ‘dried up’ ask a question instead of offering an opinion or solution eg Tell me more about …

Step Two – the second time you want to speak, do the same. If another question isn’t appropriate, try reflecting back what you’ve heard so far and asking the other person to check that you have understood them eg So I think what you’re saying is that…Have I got that right?

Step Three – If you still want to speak then go ahead. A way to keep the conversation flowing and to help you stay in ‘listening mode’ is to frame your suggestions as questions rather than directions eg ‘have you thought about involving your team in this’? then ‘how do you think you can best do this?’ rather than ‘you need to involve the team and here’s the best way to do it …’

This technique works well in any situation where it’s important to give another person the opportunity to work out a solution for themselves, or when you just want to give someone some good quality ‘air time’. It’s a neat technique – easy to learn, easy to apply, and very effective.

Tags: listening skills, management style, management training, manager, managing
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My staff member is boring! What can I do?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Some time ago I was asked by Colin, the Head of a large secondary school in London, to give him some advice and guidance on dealing with a number of staff performance problems. We talked about a number of issues and finally he began talking about a teacher he labelled ‘mind bogglingly boring’ Here’s how the conversation began;

C Now this staff member is driving me nuts

J What is she doing, or not doing, that is giving you a problem?

C It’s just that she’s such a boring teacher

J Give me an example?

C OK. I dropped into one of her lessons this week as part of my observation schedule. Oh my goodness, I’ve never seen such a set of bored pupils in my life. Half of them were asleep, a group of them were writing SOS messages on the window (in their own blood) and one kid was trying to make an escape tunnel, using a biro

J Really?

C Well no, but not far off. Now I’m guessing you’re going to say to me ‘Oh for crying out loud Colin, just sit her down and tell her she’s boring’

J Do you think that would work?

C No

J Me neither

C Ha! I knew you wouldn’t be able to help me with this one

Putting aside Colin’s clear lack of confidence in my abilities (oh yeah of little faith), it’s not

uncommon for managers to decide that some performance problems are just too difficult to

address. These issues then get put in the ‘too hard tray’ and left, often to fester

Of course telling someone ‘you’re a boring teacher’ or ‘the pupils find you boring’ won’t work. Feedback on personality traits or characteristics is just too hard to understand and too hard to accept (I talk about why in the blog ‘How to give positive criticism – with the focus on behaviours’ http://www.10mmt.com/how-to-give-positive-criticism-with-the-focus-on-behaviours/ ).

So what do you do?

The first step is to articulate the behaviours – not your interpretation of the results of those behaviours (as Colin had)

The question I asked Colin was What are you seeing the teacher doing, or not doing that has led you to label her as ‘boring’?

Here’s some of what he came up with;

She did not;

1. Make enough use of the available IT facilities – minimal use of the interactive whiteboard to show videos, on line resources etc

2. Use enough research / problem solving exercises

3. Explain the learning intention – what she expected the pupils to be able to do as a result of the lesson

4. Use enough group discussion techniques

How does this help?

By thinking ‘behaviours’ we can now move from the highly subjective and judgemental statement / thinking

‘My staff member is boring’

To the much more objective and non judgemental statement / thinking

‘My observation is that my staff member is not demonstrating the use of a number of tools and techniques designed to engage the pupils’

Which means we can move from feeling, as Colin did, that the situation was too difficult to address – who would be prepared to tell someone they were ‘boring’, or that ‘clients find your presentations boring’? - to seeing that when we talk behaviourally no performance issue is ‘out of bounds’

Tags: 'giving criticism', management training, manager, managing, performance, supervision
Posted in Managers Questions | Comments Off

How can I learn how to motivate my staff to high performance – for free?!

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Simple! Visit the ‘Watch Videos’ page here http://www.10mmt.com/previews/

Just click on ‘Register’ and then enter our member’s area where you can learn:

How to use a three step process for getting really clear on what you want from your staff

Great for:

· Testing the level of clarity you have with your staff (because your staff can’t give you what they don’t know you want!)

· Identifying why you don’t always get what you want from your staff

· Finding information than can help you describe what you want – without reinventing the wheel

Learn this technique in the video ‘Motivating your staff with powerful performance objectives. Session One‘

How to hold a motivational performance review (or appraisal) meeting

Including:

· How to put together the meeting agenda

· How to deal with any disagreements when reviewing performance – the easy way

· 5 top tips for reviewing performance – quick and easy ways to improve your review meetings

· Using ‘dual value’ for selecting development activities

Learn this in the video ‘Motivating your staff by monitoring and reviewing performance. Session Three

How to prepare to give positive criticism

Including:

· Exploring the difference between personality traits and behaviours – and why this is important

· Understanding the difference between facts and assumptions

· How an iceberg can show us why giving criticism is such a challenge – and what to do to meet this challenge

· How to describe the criticism in clear, objective, non-judgemental language so that it is easy to understand and easy to accept

Learn this in the video ‘Motivating your staff to improve their performance with positive criticism. Session One’

Tags: improving performance, management training, manager, managing, skills, supervision, training videos
Posted in Managers Questions | 2 Comments »

Want to improve productivity? – then get supervising!

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

How often do we stand back and think about the value of applying effective people management practices – especially the value to the productivity of our business or organisation? Take a look at this piece of research:

Proudfoot Consultings (www.proudfootconsulting.com) Productivity Survey shows that in the UK 33.3% of the time spent in work is unproductive. Taking into account that they estimate that the optimum ‘labour utilisation’ time is considered to be 85% this means that UK businesses are wasting just over 18% of working hours.

Here’s what they say about the reason

That’s just short of a day a week, then, lost due to poor supervision

Before we explore this issue further I should point out that this report is based on research of large businesses (with turnover in excess of £100m). Clearly, managing and supervising staff in a smaller business or organisation can be very different. For example, there’s less likelihood of there being a long ‘chain of command’ and it’s clearly more difficult for staff members in a small enterprise to be unproductive, at least intentionally. However I’d say it’s worth all organisations, whatever the size, periodically taking a critical look at how they supervise their staff

Here are a few questions you can use to assess your people management and supervision practices:

1. Are staff crystal clear on what’s expected of them? Do they have agreed descriptions of what effective performance looks like for their job? Are these agreed descriptions written as performance standards or objectives?

2. Is the staff member’s actual performance monitored against the standards or objectives on an ongoing basis? Are staff involved in monitoring their own performance?

3. Is the staff member’s performance reviewed on a regular basis (every 3 months is standard good practice)? Are they given objective, evidence- based feedback? Are areas of outstanding performance identified and how these can be built upon agreed? Are any areas for improvement discussed and strategies for improvement agreed?

4.Is the staff member’s job satisfaction discussed with them so that ways to maintain or enhance their satisfaction are agreed?

Do you now feel like having a lie down? I do know this all sounds like an awful lot of work and it certainly does take some time commitment to manage and supervise staff effectively. However research does demonstrate again and again that not only does effective people management and supervision positively impact productivity and business performance but it also positively impacts your staff’s job satisfaction. A win for the organisation, a win for the staff member and not nearly as hard as it sounds with the right tools and techniques

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers, business owners, team leaders and supervisors learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

Tags: management training, managing, performance, skills, supervision, training videos
Posted in Insights | 2 Comments »

Using video in your in-house management training

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Why use video in your in-house management training?

Short answer? Using a video such as the 10 Minute Management Toolkit saves you time. As a learning or training professional I feel sure you could research, design and deliver any number of management training workshops – if you had time. And of course you could buy in a whole range of management training programmes – if you have the budget. The purpose of the 10MMT is, simply, to save you time and save you costs in providing engaging, effective management training

So how can we use the 10MMT in our in house management training?

Some options;

1. As a series of short, focused management training courses

Each video workshop comprises three sessions which take around 10 minutes to watch. With time for group review of exercises and discussion you could estimate 45 minutes. Just about right for a ‘breakfast briefing’ or ‘lunchtime learning’ session

Short, effective, engaging training with minimum preparation

2. To enhance your current training programmes

This is about using the videos as an expertise resource. Here’s an example. You are delivering some training on project management (your area of expertise). Maybe there needs to be a short session on what to do when a project team member does not perform effectively. If this is not one of your areas of expertise you could use ‘How to motivate your staff to improve their performance with positive criticism’ to cover that session

In short, the videos could be used to compliment or augment your current training programmes with your ‘plug in and play’ subject matter expert

3. As a ‘co-trainer’ in your management training programmes

For a change of pace, a change of face, a different style and a different medium. You can use the videos to support your learning objectives and to illustrate your key learning points – with a co-trainer you can use only when you need them

A flexible, easy way to achieve higher learner engagement by appealing to different learning styles and preferences

Tags: management training, manager, managing, training videos
Posted in Using the 10MMT | Comments Off

Using video in your management coaching

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Why Use Video in Your Management Coaching?

Here’s a scenario. You’ve been asked by a manager to help them work out how to deal with a ‘difficult staff member’ – a staff member who’s been upsetting clients. You’re glad to help. In the initial meeting you identify that the manager needs to understand how to a) describe in clear, objective and non judgemental language what the staff member is doing that’s causing a problem b) explain the results and consequences of those behaviours –so that the staff member can see the need for change and c) structure a performance improvement discussion. In short, before you can begin your coaching, they need some training. Assuming there isn’t a handy training course available in the next couple of weeks, what should you do?

You could train the manager yourself. Here are a few questions to help you decide if that is the best option;

Is training is an effective use of your coaching time?

Is training is an effective use of your coaching skills (isn’t coaching more about helping the manager explore, plan, take action and reflect)?

Are training and coaching one and the same thing – so there’s no great benefit keeping them separate?

Does the manager want you to train them, or coach them?

Here’s another idea. Why not use a management training video to provide the practical training, while you focus on the coaching?

Here’s how it could work using, as an example, the 10MMT DVD ‘Motivating your staff to improve their performance with positive criticism’

How to Use the 10MMT in Your Management Coaching

1. Coaching session One – Agree the purpose of the coaching and the coaching plan

Purpose – ‘to learn and apply a structured approach to giving positive criticism in order to gain agreement from staff member A to improve their performance ’

Coaching plan – as follows

2. The Manager watches the 10MMT DVD

When they want and at their own pace

3. Coaching session Two – Planning to apply the learning

The Manager talks through their A.R.C. plan and shares the supporting documentation. The Coach tests and challenges any lack of clarity. The Manager talks through the planned structure of the performance improvement meeting and describes the strategies they plan to use for overcoming difficulties and gaining agreement. The Coach supports, challenges, advises etc

4. The Manager applies the learning

By undertaking a performance improvement discussion

5. Coaching session Three – Reviewing the outcomes and next steps

The Coach guides the manager to reflect, draw conclusions and learning from the experience of undertaking the performance review discussion and the outcomes. Any further coaching needs identified and a plan agreed on how these will addressed

In Summary

It’s all about you, as the Coach, focusing your time and attention on what you do best and what best meets the needs of manager, with the training taken care of my the 10 Minute Management Toolkit

Tags: management training, manager, managing, skills, training videos
Posted in Using the 10MMT | Comments Off

How to improve performance – using the 10 Minute Management Toolkit

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

One of the most challenging, but vital, aspects of a managers job is giving positive criticism that improves performance. In the letter below a client describes how she stepped up to that challenge (and got a great bonus result!) by using the 10 Minute Management Toolkit DVD ‘Motivating Your Staff To Improve Their Performance With Positive Criticism’

Dear Joan

I wanted to share with you the excellent results (plus added bonus!) we’ve achieved from using your 10 Minute Management Toolkit video ‘Motivating your staff to improve their performance with positive criticism’

I have been attempting to address a series of issues of underperformance with one of my Practitioners over the course of the past term

Having watched the video and seen your A.R.C. model, I then took the model and examples you provided and produced my own document. I concentrated on clearly setting out the examples / ‘evidence’ of underperformance – the ‘actions’ – and clearly describing the results

By sharing with the Practitioner the ‘A’ and the ‘R’ I was able to help her identify and accept the consequences – the ‘C’. She was able to see that her failure to perform effectively was having a negative consequence on the children’s attainment and (finally!) accept that she needed to make improvements. I’m happy to say she has started to make those improvements

The model worked extremely well and the examples you provided in the video were invaluable

The added bonus

We have recently been inspected by Ofsted. As part of that an Inspector asked to see an example of how we were improving performance. I shared the A.R.C. model document and documentation with him. He said it was the best example of a performance improvement document he had seen and asked if he could take a copy to show other schools! I am convinced that our ability to demonstrate to the Inspector such sound practice in performance improvement played a significant part in the achievement of a positive result in the inspection

Many thanks!

E. Ostrynska

Acting Co-head teacher

Inner London School

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

Tags: improving performance, management training, managing, skills, training videos
Posted in How To | 4 Comments »

How to describe what you want from your staff using ‘reverse thinking’

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Research consistently demonstrates that staff members who know what is expected of them are both more productive and have higher levels of job satisfaction than those who don’t. Clarity – about what our specific contribution to the organisation needs to be and why our contribution is important – is highly motivational and leads to improved performance

Here’s one technique you can use to clearly describe what you want. It’s based on the ‘spooky but true’ principle that it’s often easier to describe what you don’t want rather than what you do want

What you might call ‘reverse thinking’. Here’s how it works

STEP ONE

Describe what you don’t want

· What would this look like done really badly?

· What would other people be saying about them, if they were doing this badly?

· What don’t I want to see?

An example

Imagine we are aiming to describe to our staff what we mean by ‘open to change’ Here’s what I would expect to see if my staff member was not open to change;

Open to Change (the reverse)

· Doesn’t demonstrate any interest in proposed changes

· Doesn’t plan to incorporate changes

· Doesn’t try out new things

· Doesn’t give feedback on the changes

· Gives in as soon as there are any difficulties implementing change

STEP TWO

Of course you then need to reverse the description!

An example

Performance objective – Open to Change

· Seek information on the proposed changes

· Plan to incorporate the change

· Actively seek to experiment with changes

· Objectively evaluates changes and gives feedback

· Seeks to overcome any difficulties implementing change

· Helps others to come to terms with change

So, a quick and easy way to describe what you do want – by firstly describing what you don’t!

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at my ebook ‘Instant Performance Objectives’ at http://www.performance-objectives.com A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

About the author: Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the 10 Minute Management Toolkit

Tags: management training, manager, managing, performance, skills
Posted in How To | Comments Off

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