Well, 2022 is behind us. (Feel free to cheer, applaud, or shout Amen!)
Meanwhile, the new year is here and it's the time for hope and renewal. In this spirit of new possibilities, why not commit to becoming a stronger people leader by starting some or all of your management relationships anew?
Managers
often say, “I can see now that I should be a stronger, more engaged
manager, but I’ve been in this role managing a number of the same people for many months or even years.” These mangers often ask: “How can I possibly just change
my management style one day?”
Often
these are long-standing workplace relationships. So the employees in
question are accustomed to the way they’ve always interacted with this
manager. If you make a big change they are going to feel it. They might
even challenge you on the legitimacy of your change effort or doubt the
likelihood of your success.
That’s
why it’s best not to rush into a big change in your management
relationships. Keep in mind that becoming a stronger people leader is not about
putting your foot down, but rather much more like talking a walk every
day. You need to be in this for the long haul if it’s going to work. So
stop and think. Make sure you are ready psychologically. Make sure you
are ready tactically. Make sure you have made all the preparations
necessary.
It
takes courage to make a change; that's true whether you are
considering a wholesale renewal of your management style or just a
renewal of one or more specific management relationships.
Start
with high engagement. The beginning is your best opportunity to
reestablish the ground rules for your working relationship. This is your
chance to create a new clarity and alignment:
• This is our mission.
• This how our work relates to the mission.
• This is how we operate from now on.
• These are our core values.
• These are our standards. This is how I’m going to operate from now on.
• This is what I’m going to do to help you from now on.
• This is what I have to offer you in return.
First
and foremost, that means dedicating the time for high-structure,
high-substance team meetings and regular, ongoing one-on-one dialogues
starting on day one of your renewal. Take heart. This is good news!
Think about it: you are about to let your people know that you are
making a new commitment to the essentials of leadership. How can anyone
on your team truly object when you say: “I’m going to be stronger (In a
good way) and more highly engaged from now on”? Craft your own message
with the key elements of the “Good news!” message:
• I am going to strive to live up to the huge responsibility of leadership.
• I’m going to spell out expectations for you and help you plan your work.
• I’m going to track performance.
• I’m going to help you learn, get tools and resources, solve problems, and earn more.
• I need your help in becoming a stronger, better manager.
Perhaps
the toughest part of renewal is sticking with it (Read: Homeostasis).
Like any change in habits, it’s not easy to stay on the wagon. For a
leader with long-standing relationships, it could be very tempting to
fall off the wagon and go back to your old management habits. So you
have to be diligent and vigilant for weeks or months or sometime longer
before the changes really become the new normal.
Every step of the way, keep asking yourself:
• Who needs to be managed more closely?
• Who needs more responsibility and autonomy?
• Who needs help navigating the complex, ever-changing workplace?
• Who needs help with the fundamentals of self-management?
• Who needs performance coaching to speed up or slow down?
• Who has a great attitude, and who needs an attitude adjustment?
• Who is likely to improve? Who is not? (Beware of the self-fulling prophecy)
• Who should be coached up? Who should be coached out?
• Who are the best people? Who are the real performance problems?
Yes,
consistently is critical. But even more important is knowing what to do
when you fall off the strong-leadership wagon for a while. Don’t beat
yourself up if you miss a day or a week or a month or years. Just stop
and think. Prepare yourself. And then get right back to being strong and
engaged. One person at a time. One conversation at a time. One day at a time.
The
solution to nearly every management challenge comes from consistently
practicing the fundamentals very well. That means maintaining an ongoing
schedule of high-quality, one-on-one dialogues with every person
you manage.
If
you consistently practice the fundamentals you will quickly see
results: increased employee performance and morale, increased retention
of high performers, increased turnover among low performers, and
significant, measurable improvements in business outcomes. Not only
that, but you will find yourself spending a steadily diminishing amount
of you time on “firefighting.”
It is not easy to practice the fundamentals with rigor and consistency. To get going, you need to overcome three big hurdles:
First,
you have to make the transition, which may require that you find new
reserves of energy, conviction, and follow-through. Going from not
maintaining high-structure, high-substance, ongoing, one-on-one dialogue
with every direct report to establishing that practice requires that
you change personally and professionally, communicate this to colleagues
and superiors, roll it out to direct reports, and then start doing it.
Second,
you’ll find it’s time-consuming, at first. Getting back to the
fundamentals usually requires a significant up-front investment of extra
time. If you haven’t been doing it before, you will still have to fight
all the fires you have not prevented at the same time you are heavily
investing time in preventing future fires. This could take up twice as
much of your time for a while, until all the old fires die out.
Third,
you need to stay ahead of the vicious cycle. You have to use discipline
and focus to consistently spend your management time where it should be
spent—upfront, every step of the way, before anything goes right,
wrong, or average.
If
you commit to this—consistently maintaining the high-structure,
high-substance, ongoing, one-one-one dialogues—in a matter of weeks
everything will get much better. Plus, you will start getting your time
back—and then some.
Of
course, the really hard part is truly sticking close to the
fundamentals even when the heat is on. Don’t let the crisis throw you
off your came. If you finding yourself slipping away from the
fundamentals—if you have a bad day, week, or year—just bounce back. Get
back on your game and start practicing the fundamentals again, with
rigor and consistency, one person at a time, one day at a time.
Top performers are a lot like professional golfers. The one thing that helps every elite golfer to master the fundamentals of the game is a coach. Every elite golfer has a coach to watch the pro’s swing.
Why? Because the golfer can't change what they can't see.
Because the coach can see what the golfer can’t, change is possible.
This kind of feedback builds champions.
Engaging a professional coach can help you improve your "leadership game" along with the business results you want to achieve in 2021. Remember this simple truth:
If you want the best from your team, you must give them your best. And given the disruptive changes in society, the workforce, technology and market demands, your best must be getting better or you and your team will not be equipped to compete and win.
Here are three resources to help you realize your full potential as a person and by extension as a leader:
Click here to view a powerful Ted Talk titled: Want to get great at something? Get a coach (16-min)
Click here to read a post titled: Coaching Works: Here's Why (3-min)
Click here to read a post titled: SMART Coaching Works: Here's Proof (3-min)
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