Ego in management

Many managers are employees who did a good job and got promoted to manager.  We all have egos.  Many managers don’t want their direct reports to be better than them at something because they are insecure.

But when you get promoted to managing other people, it’s not about you anymore.  It’s about bringing out the best in your team.  That’s it.

Trust your people first

If employees have to earn your trust before you give it, you are slowing your company down.

If they have to spend months cleaning the shop and taking out the trash before you’ll let them touch a machine, you’re going to be short employees who can use the machine.

If you keep everything locked up because you don’t trust people, you’ll have a culture where you have to keep everything locked up.  

A leaders job is to accomplish the goals of the organization while bringing out the best in other people.  People are not their best when they feel mistrusted.  Trust them first.  

Changing Horses

There is merit in changing jobs and companies to learn more.  It seems to be popular these days to change companies or even careers fairly often.  Sometimes there are advantages, and other times you hope the grass is greener, but realize it has to be watered, fertilized and cut on that side of the fence too.

If your company or career is a dead end, then it makes sense.  But often it’s only a dead end because you aren’t growing, asking, learning, and taking on more responsibility.

The problem with job jumping is that you have to start over.  Your network, your intimate understanding of the business and it’s product and customers…the whole thing.

It takes a long time to get really good at something.  Jobs can grow inside the same organization.  I’ve been on the same horse my whole life, and the horse just gets better and faster as I do.  If I had switched into a different industry, I’d be starting over.

Ask, “What if I grew and added more value here, where I am.  What could happen?”

Leveraging Time

Often business owners who have a handful of employees say to me – “I am going nuts keeping up with 6 employees – how do you do it with all you have going on?” 

For years I have thought about how I can do a task in my business so I never have to do it again.

I don’t care if it takes me 10x the time, if I never have to do it again because now I have a system, training program, process for others to follow…it’s worth it.  When I am done, I can move on to solving the next problem that when solved, would allow me to scale my business.

Today I have 1200 great employees and I work at home half the day.  My phone doesn’t ring much, and I don’t get bombed with questions. 

It worked.

How can you leverage your time by building systems and processes that people can use to get great results without you?

What is the most important thing today?

Prioritization is a master skill of high achievers.  Why work on the third most important thing, when number one and two are not done?

The first thing we must do effectively is define what “Most Important” means.  If we don’t have that right, we can’t prioritize well.

“Most important” means that the activity, once completed successfully, will have the biggest and longest-lasting positive impact into the future.  For a leader with teams, talking to customers is NOT one of these activities, because there will be more customers tomorrow and you haven’t done much to make things better in the future.

But if you hired and trained new people to get great results with customers, that is leverage and would definitely qualify.  

If you hired a recruiter or created a training system with videos and a training manual – that sounds even better to me.

If you systematized part of the business better, repositioned your company in the marketplace, or worked on branding or strategic marketing for others to implement – that sounds very important.

You might be saying “I can’t work on that stuff – I’m busy!”  

Replace yourself, and work on more important activities.  

So, what is most important now?  What are you doing today?

Do you have an employee of the week?

Why not?  It’s free -or close to it!

You could put a white board where everyone can see it and just write their name up there.

You could buy them lunch.

You could get pizza and when it comes in you could have everyone huddle around and say what they like about the person.

You could put a box where people vote for who should be employee of the week and why, and take input from managers.

Don’t just name the superstars all the time.  Be sure to recognize the steady, quiet supporters who enable them.

What do you suppose happens to a person when they are named employee of the week?  When they go home and tell their family, how do you suppose it makes them feel?

Will you start this week?

Do your employees have to, or want to?

It’s a huge difference between “I have to do this”, and “I want to do this”.  One way they gripe and complain and try to do the least.  The other way they are happy, engaged, and do their best.

So how do we get them to want to do their best?

There are many factors including but not limited to –

I like my immediate supervisor

I think the leaders are doing a good job

They listen to me

They care about me

I know how the business works – they share information with me

I know what success looks like – what they want from me

I have what I need to be successful

I know where the company is going

I like my coworkers

People smile and have fun around here

I like the environment I work in

They recognize me and I feel good about myself here

How many of these would YOUR employees say yes to at your company? It can vary widely from department to department based on the manager.

Dare to take a poll?

The job of management

The job of management is not to control people.  It’s to build great teams.

Give real time feedback

Feedback – Don’t wait until an annual review!  If you do it right you don’t need an annual review!

And don’t wait until you are mad and blow up at an employee!

Talk to them, be fair and open and honest, in real-time; on-the-spot.

Leaders who care about people

Do you only care about your employee’s productivity, or do you care about your employee succeeding here?

Read that again, because it makes all the difference.

People know when you care about them.  They know when you love them because they are making their numbers, or when you care about them succeeding as people and in their careers at your company. 

Check yourself – why do you care about the people in your charge?