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(Locating the right people, providing guidance and training, and creating cohesive environment to maximize satisfaction and outcomes)

Pages: 36

Regardless of the methods they use, most managers feel that their management style is effective and does not need modification or enhancement. However, if managers are open to evaluating how they manage and lead, they often find that they can make changes to manage more effectively. This is best accomplished by reviewing key manager functions, ideas for managing more effectively and implementing changes where necessary. This is a nonjudgmental process. The idea is for managers to objectively evaluate their management style and determine if some modifications will be of value. This chapter is an overview of the key managerial functions, highlighting some features that are more fully detailed in other chapters. This one is designed to indicate the differences between ineffective and effective management through various manager functions. The focus of this chapter is twofold. First, highlighting the justifications of Ineffective Managers for managing as they do. This type of manager emphasizes control, restricts information flow from top management, rarely seeks employee input, and focuses on the prerogatives of management to determine how and when tasks will be done. Second, insights, ideas, and methods to more effectively implement the key functions for managers and leaders. There is a mixture of procedures, insightful quotes, and data to support client-proven methods for more effective management. One size does not fit all, but within the breadth of ideas offered, every manager will find ideas that will be of use to them. Managers may identify part of their styles in the Ineffective Manager. The objective of this section is to assist managers in changing and improving, not judging the potential downside of their current management styles. Although many may smile and discount the management style comments of the Ineffective Manager, but look closely at how you function as a manager in comparison to the actions of this manager to determine what parts of your style may be less effective or, to some degree, ineffective in getting the desired results. No matter what level of management and leadership, there is always room for enhancement, change, and modification.

Pages: 32

As managers move up the organization, it is essential that they take a broader perspective of their management role. This means displaying leadership. This chapter provides ideas and methods to enhance your leadership skills. It will provide you with a blueprint that can be refined by you to fit your personal style and the needs of your organization. It will assist you in adapting to the continually changing business climate and the changing needs of your organization. There is little question that the most successful leaders are those who embrace change and can motivate employees to follow. Communicating direction and keeping employees informed are essential to effective leadership. A key change for managers as they move up the organization is the transition from managing employees directly to managing through others (managers, supervisors, team leaders, etc.). This chapter provides you with ideas and techniques to make this transition more comfortable and effective.

Pages: 35

This chapter will assist you in the implementation of an interviewing process that will provide consistency and make the tough job of hiring easier. There are no magical answers to effective interviews, but utilizing a structured approach will reduce many of the concerns associated with selecting new employees. The Applicant Interview Matching System (AIMS) will keep you on target with one of your most important human resource aims, hiring the best people. The content herein covers all aspects of interviewing, including preparation, the setting, behavioral factors, biographical data gathering, the process and structure of the interview, EEO issues, success factors for job performance, evaluation criteria, and other important candidate selection components. To maximize the probability of making the best possible hiring decisions, candidate interviews should be based on criteria essential to success in the position. Typically, the emphasis of most interviews is on education, work experience, and track record. Basically, can the candidate do the job? These are certainly important initial criteria to determine whether or not to consider the person for an interview. However, based on the author’s years of organizational consulting, the key to predicting performance is the ability of the person to “fit” the company and the job. This “fit” means matching the individual’s personality and behavioral characteristics to employees that are successfully performing within the company. There will certainly be variances, but success in most endeavors correlates to fitting into the structure or the mix of people. Many candidates may meet the functional criteria of education and experience, but if they do not fit based on a match to other successful employees in the position type, it is less likely they will be successful. Different company environments, management styles, employee mixes, and customer interactions will provide the basis for developing criteria to match candidates to specific jobs and organizations. AIMS is a systematized approach to hiring that provides standardization and consistency throughout the organization. Coupling the key personality data with biographical information ensures that the necessary information has been gathered to make sound hiring decisions. The Applicant Interview Matching System will assist you in reducing hiring risks and selecting the best possible personnel.

Pages: 38

A successful enterprise depends on how well it selects, develops, and retains employees. Performance management is an essential tool for ensuring that employees understand their responsibilities, meet, or exceed expectations, receive commensurate rewards, and have growth opportunities within the company. The system provided herein is comprehensive and will take time to implement initially, but the value is in the outcomes it provides for employees and managers. Simple systems often are not complete enough to produce the desired performance outcomes. It often has no ongoing value, and managers and employees discard it soon after completion. If you take the time to implement this system, you will be pleased with the results The purpose of a performance management system (planning, appraisal, and development) is to provide managers and employees with a vehicle within which individual and team performance-related objectives are stated, monitored, and measured in relation to overall company, department, and specific job/group objectives. Employees are uniformly concerned with their personal growth and movement within organizations. Therefore, it is important for companies to meld performance (task completion and less tangible accomplishments) and career planning/development to attain mutual goals for the company and employees. Managers often think that employees should be exclusively responsible for their own career planning. However, for employees to move within an organization, management must be in agreement regarding the best direction for them to pursue, and they must provide opportunities for employees to develop the skills needed to advance. Therefore, managers must encourage employees to seek opportunities and participate actively in their career development and let them know management supports their desire to take on another role.

Pages: 36

To be fully invested in the company, employees should have an understanding of the organization’s culture, strengths, weaknesses, and direction. Employees should be given the opportunity to move beyond their functional responsibilities and daily activities in order to make a broader contribution to the organization. This may not be universally possible, but it almost always can occur in most organizations and with most employees. If management makes the effort to inform employees, the outcome is usually increased employee commitment and performance because they feel more a part of the organization. Cooperation is essential and this is best achieved by gaining a better understanding of others in terms of how they function and communicate. Part of this is understanding and adapting to the changing needs of the organization based on its services, the market, customers, clients, and more. This chapter provides a framework for this to occur. This chapter provides a detailed process for how to assess the need for change and implement and monitor progress. It provides guidelines to engage employees in the process and useful ideas regarding managing change and ensuring employees are on board. Often changes are implemented to the surprise of employees which may lead to lack of commitment and derail the potential success of the desired change. Cooperative team functioning is integral to change management, and this chapter provides insights into developing and maintaining teams focused on special projects or day-to-day responsibilities. Whether the team is an employee unit, and ad hoc group for a specific task, or across departments, team functioning is an important component for enhancing employee, department, and organization success. Conflict resolution is important to organizational functioning and the techniques provided will assist you to deal with conflict as well as the potential downside of too much apparent agreement. In composite this chapter provides insights to change, developing teams and dealing with conflict and agreement, which are essential for all organizations to function maximally.

Pages: 33

An important factor for individuals and companies to grow and succeed is how effectively they communicate internally and externally. Everyone has a preferred communication style and therefore they are more comfortable speaking and listening when others communicate in a similar manner. Communication issues arise when conflicting styles try to interact, especially if there are differences of opinion regarding the topic or other issues impact the communication effort. Although teams are not a panacea, cooperative work is typically more effective than competitive efforts over the long term. Internal competition often brings animosity and negative interactions between individuals and departments. What may begin as a friendly competition can lead to in-fighting and turf protection. It cannot be over-emphasized that if the team and company excel, individuals have a better opportunity to achieve personal goals. The focal point of cooperative work efforts is communication and a better understanding of how to interact effectively. This means working to understand the communication styles of others as well as your own. Open communication is the most critical component for cooperative work and harmonious relationships. If individuals do not communicate effectively and do not make a reasonable attempt to understand the other person’s view, cooperative action is unlikely. The actions, questions, and forms provided are for all managers and employees to complete. Some will initially seem difficult or even confronting, but they will open the communications door and increase the comfort of interacting more openly and fully. Ultimately, everyone benefits from this awareness of styles, and individual, department, and company performance will maximize. There are numerous forms, interaction assessments, how to effectively communicate and receive feedback, and other communication devices that managers will benefit from using personally. Most should be introduced to employees as well to aid their communication efforts.

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Meetings are essential to operating an effective enterprise. Among the numerous purposes, meetings serve as a vehicle for informing employees, discussing ideas, determining direction, and assessing progress. Most of these meetings are important to the functioning of the organization. However, more often than not, managers and employees complain about having too many meetings, the lack of structure, and the lack of significant outcomes. Basically, meetings are often perceived as a waste of time and unrelated to the work that needs to be done. What a paradox! On the one hand, meetings should serve a positive and productive purpose, but on the other hand, they are often viewed negatively and as an obstacle to performance. Since meetings cannot be eliminated, managers must evaluate the array of meetings that exist in terms of their utility. Then they must ensure that meetings are facilitated in a manner that makes them efficient, productive, and viewed as an asset rather than a drain on time. The assessment of meetings does not just occur intuitively, it requires a process and system to evaluate meetings and implement a process for effective meeting management. This chapter provides the framework for planning and facilitating meetings as well as the follow-up necessary to ensure that agreed-upon task assignments are completed.