Management vs Leadership Part III – Clarity to be Achieved

 PART III

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CLICK FOR PART Ii

In the previous installments, we discussed how leadership is one of the biggest problems in business. Not because leadership is bad but because there is a lack of management leading to the leadership. Next, we discussed that for your business to achieve its desired results, your team must have the clarity to perform. Does your team know how to perform their job well? Do they actually know what their job is?

As we mentioned previously, first we make sure they know what their job is, give them a good job description, a checklist or system, and micro-managing or mentor to make sure they do the job correctly.

Now that there is clarity of what they are responsible for, they need to create a daily list of what they need to achieve each day to stay on target to the end goal. This should be done at the end of every day. It's something that every person in every position in the company should do from the owner to the janitor. 

If you want higher productivity out of your people, literally make sure that before they leave the office, the warehouse or where ever they work, they leave a list of what needs to get done and achieved tomorrow. If they are not doing that, their productivity will be much lower. We have found that there is about a 30% increase in productivity with employees when we start doing that. 

Now as a manager, you can review this list to make sure they are focused on the most important and profitable tasks. The daily lists are one thing, you want them to learn how to prioritize, put each task in a time frame and prioritize it for the next day. This all starts with the list.  

Think about it, before you went away on vacation you made a list of what needed to get done. Checklists, todo lists work very well as part a management system. If you want to manage your people better, definitely have them know their job but also that you know what they are doing each day.

Now the daily list becomes a weekly list. Why do we need a weekly list? 

Simply put, we are going to have 2 meetings with all our employees to get away from being a reactive manager to being a proactive manager. (We will discuss these two meetings in the next segment) 

Reactive management started with the whole open-door policy. You can always come and ask me a question. What happens is they end up coming at any time of the day and ask you stupid questions and you give them an answer. These interruptions make you less productive and less profitable.

Answering questions are one of the biggest things that managers have to stop. If you are going to train someone, you are going to have to stop answering them and start asking them questions. Stop being the Super Hero and being the one to solve every problem. Train your team to be problem solvers.

In the next segment, we are going to discuss how to get out of the Super Hero syndrome and begin to become the leader.

Management vs Leadership Part II – Clarity to Perform

Part II
Click for Part I

In the previous installment, we discussed how leadership is one of the biggest problems in business.  Not because leadership is bad but because there is a lack of management leading to the leadership.  In reality, most people are just lazy managers.  They just give someone a task but they don’t give them a time frame or a schedule or plan to get it done by.  Then we complain that they don’t get it done on time and correctly.

So let’s take a look at how we can become good managers as well as how we can operate as good leaders.

There are 4 keys to a good manager are…

• Creating clarity on how to perform  their job
• Creating clarity on what needs to be achieved
• Asking Questions
• Provide ongoing Training

In this article, we are going to focus on the first key.  Does your team know how to perform their job well?  Do they actually know what their job is?  If you were to ask your top 10 employees to write a list of what they think their job is and at the same time you are writing you list of what you think their job is, do you think the list would be the same?

Most employees don’t actually know what is specifically required of them.  Their job description is too vague and there is no reality about what they are actually doing and why they are doing it.  Or if they know what to do, do they know what the actual outcome is that you are expecting? 

Management starts with a really good job description or positional agreement. 

A good manager will be sure his staff knows…

·        What they are responsible for

·        Who they are accountable to

·        How to do it

·        Why they are supposed to do it.

·        What is the expected outcome when they do their job well.

Give your people checklists and systems
This will allow them to be competent in what they are job doing so they deliver the actual results that you expect. 

Good management starts when people know what their job is, what they’re expected to do, and at what level they’re expected to do it (performance standard), the time frame it should be done in.  They should also be told why they are doing it.

When you give someone a job and you don’t agree on a time frame of when they need to finish that job that’s just lazy management.  Some people call it micromanaging.  Yes!  Some employees need micro managing until you built their competence and their ability to do it.  You don’t have to do it forever but this is part of the coaching, training, the managing, and mentoring of these people so they can actually become good and productive at their job.

Next, I will continue to be covering the 4 keys of a good manager.  The 2^nd key we will be discussing how to create clarity on what needs to be achieved.

Management vs. Leadership Part I - Are you a lazy manager?

Leadership is one of the biggest problems in business. Not because leadership is bad but because there is a lack of management leading to the leadership. I would like to share with you what I’ve learned from my business mentor and ActionCOACH founder Brad Sugars about the differences between management and leadership. Many of us are trying to find the golden goose of leadership. We’ve read the books; we’ve been to the seminars, we’ve watched the latest TEDtalk on leadership. If you go to the bookstore or go on Amazon, there are a massive amount of books on leadership but there are very few books on management. If we think about it, the last bestselling book on management was the One Minute Manager from the late 70s or early 80s. Let’s take a look and define what the differences are between leadership and management. Management is about creating competent and productive people. They have a level of competence, they know what they are doing and they know how they’re doing their jobs. If a company has a group of people that don’t know what they are doing, there’s a lack of competency or productivity going on in the organization, that’s a management problem or issue. Let’s flip to the other side of the coin and take look at leadership. Leadership is about creating passionate and focused people. If the people in the organization lack passion and motivation to do their job and they’re not focused on what they need to be doing, that’s a leadership issue. The challenge that I see most businesses have today is that the business might have been built very well from a leadership perspective, but because of the lack of management, we got people that are not good at their jobs, they’re not that productive. They’re passionate and excited but we’re not getting the results that we want. So how do we get the results that we want to get in our business? This is not brain surgery. It’s not actually that complex. What I have seen throughout my career if someone gets promoted to be a manager in a company they don’t get much management training. In most cases, they got promoted because it was assumed that they had those skills. One of the biggest challenges they face is the transition from being “one of the guys” to being the boss. In this day and age, the lack of management training is extortionately high. Now, why is that? Simply, it’s because businesses don’t give management training to their staff. Maybe management got a bad rap somewhere in the 90s or early 2000s. The mantra was that you don’t need to manage your people you need to lead them. It was like leadership was saying that management was a bad thing. To get the job done, we need competent and productive people if we want to get the job done in any business. We do need to learn management skills; we do need to understand what those management skills are and how they work. Let’s now focus on both leadership and management. Management is where we start because if we see negative behaviors in an organization normally it’s a lack of management. When there is a lack of management I see that they’re in denial of how competent they are. They think that they are better than they are. There’s a lack of responsibility, people are blaming others and there is no team cohesiveness. A lot of these issues are around lack of management. In reality, most people are just lazy managers. There I said it. They give someone a task but they don’t give them a timeframe or a schedule or plan to get it done by. Do you have a system to manage your people and tasks or do you just wing it? As a friend once told me winging it is not a strategy. Over the next few installments, I will be covering the 4 key of a good manager that you need to be focused on.

Steve Goranson has owned and operated the North Florida office of ActionCOACH since 2004. He is also a certified team engagement specialist and a social media educator with Luv4 Marketing.  Contact Steve to discuss how he can help your business in the areas of Team Engagement, sales & marketing, and operational efficiency.

4 Keys to Increased Profits & Cash Flow

Every business I speak with wants to increase sales in their business.  Who wouldn’t?  

But increased sales is not necessary for the goal.  We don’t really want more sales, what we really want is more profit, right?  Well not necessarily, because you can’t really do anything with profit.  Profit is just a theory.  The question is how we turn profits into cash. 

To help us understand how to increase our profits and cash flow we must first understand the 4 M’s; Management, Money, Marketing, & Merchandise.

Management:  Properly run companies can sustain profitability over the long run because they are organized and cut wasteful spending.  When business is good the average company doesn’t seem to care where the wastes are in the business because there is enough cash to cover up the waste.  Properly run companies understand that investing in properly trained teams will lead to increased profits and cash flow.  A team who is aligned to company goals and that understands how their specific role and task leads into the company’s “big picture”, will be more effective and efficient.  Since they are aligned to the company’s goals they will be able to recommend ways for the company to be more effective and efficient.

Money:  Money management is a key to all successful business.  That’s both money coming in and out.  The two biggest bottlenecks that prevent profits from turning into cash are inventory and accounts receivables.  Properly run companies are always managing their vendors, looking for better ways to order more efficiently and ways they can negotiate better terms.  Most AR problems arise because issues aren’t addressed until they turn into problems.  Make sure your clients understand and are clear on your payment terms.  Don’t be afraid to ask for your money.  If you don’t, someone will be getting paid before you. 

Marketing:  Even in a tough economy people are spending money on your product or service.  The purpose of your marketing is to help you get your “unfair” share of the dollars being spent.  To do this you have to be very clear on what your clients want and how your product or service can help them achieve that.  Marketing is not just advertising, it’s all about understanding your whole sales process, which turns a lead into a customer that comes back again and again.  By understanding each step of the sales process from lead generation to repeat customer, you can quickly identify the bottlenecks and implement strategies to move them to the next step.

Merchandise:  If sales are down, you need to see if people are using your product in the same way as before.  In the past, people might have been using your product or service out of ego, price, or having a particular item, that might not be the case now.  Maybe now your product or service could be used in a different way that your customer hasn’t even thought of.   Successful companies are always asking themselves why people are buying their product or service.  Additionally, make sure your team understands which products are your most profitable.  Just adding some extra attention to your most profitable items can easily increase your overall profit margins.

In creating a more valuable business, it is always the little things that get the big results. Our Business Health Check will give you invaluable insights into the many areas of your business that if tweaked will increase the value of your business.

By completing the Business Health Check, you will receive a Free Report based on your answers, prepared by our team of highly skilled Business Coaches.  CLICK HERE to take your Business Health Check Now