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Five Simple Ways to Radically Improve Your Management Skills
Issue #331 3/17/09
The most vulnerable piece of your success strategy? YOU. Your management style, your tone ofvoice, your attitude. This time you're right: It is all about you, if you're The Man, The Woman of Steel,The Boss, The Prime Mover, etc.. That means all lights, eyes and ears are tuned to what you speak,write, and how you handle yourself.
You're the reason the business will thrive or just survive.I can hear some of you already, "But Mark, I'm not a CEO or executive. I'm not even in management. Howdoes this stuff apply to me?" Good question. It applies to everyone in your organization. It especiallyapplies to those in high visibility positions or seeking to get into such a position. The later may be you. Wantto keep your job? Want to get promoted? Want to move into a leadership role? Then creating the Best Youthere can be and working to help your company thrive will only make you look GREAT and more attractive toleadership.So business growth, leadership and market dominance often comes down to a few things, and more oftenthan not, management is at the head of the line. Here are the FIVE vital steps you need to start taking (whynot today?) to radically improve your management skills and effectiveness:
VITAL MANAGEMENT SKILL STEP #1: ASK FOR HELP!
This is the biggest hurtle for most leaders. (2ndbiggest is keeping a journal.) Yet the better ones do this regularly and rapidly improve their managementskills.Get an outsider, professional consultant, coach, business advisor to shadow your movements for a few days.You want a “new sheriff in town” or a “hired gun”. Someone you can trust for BRUTAL HONESTY. So, thatprobably rules out your buddies, spouse (sorry, just being honest here), your best friends, coworkers or evenfamily. You need to bring someone in who is objective, detached and a good observer. Business savvy is amust.How long? Not the whole day. Parts of the day perhaps as much as two or three hours at a time three or fourtimes for a week. You will be AMAZED at what they will tell you, such as: "Your time management sucks!Your tone of voice gets too serious. You don't make eye contact when talking to employees. You never gaveone kudo to anyone. Your meetings are a disaster and waste most of the time allocated. Your front lineemployees don't seem to know who you are as you tend to stay in your ivory tower / corner office." You getthe idea. It may cost you a few bucks, but the insights you receive will be invaluable to becoming the "Masterand Commander" you need to be.
VITAL MANAGEMENT SKILL STEP #2: COMMUNICATE MORE.
Get creative, please! Start using youremail, voice mail, intercom, and company events to convey notes of congrats, jobs well done, projectsbrought in on time/under budget, new accounts secured, repeat business, client compliments, referralpositive comments and more. Be innovative - use your website, your blog, your podcast, your internalwebsite. Why not Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN and MySpace too. Don't limit your communications to onlyemployees. Reach out and include your key vendors, suppliers, and advisory board.
VITAL MANAGEMENT SKILL STEP #3: STAY FOCUSED.
On what REALLY matters. Don't discussanything in a group setting unless it will somehow impact, affect, or be visible by your customers orprospects. That should be the metaphorical rudder on your company boat. So start every staff meeting,group meeting, department meeting or company meeting that way. If your agenda is Sales, Marketing andNew Hires, ensure the sales dialog also talks about customer churn, the cost of customer acquisition, thelifetime value of one customer. When discussing marketing, be sure to include how the customerexperience may differ from the brand building or promotion tactics you have been using; do they match?Why? Is the experience even better than the positioning? Why? How do you measure your marketingmetrics? When do you measure? It is fast and quick with quantitative methods or do you also use somequalitative techniques to get deeper and more meaningful insights to confirm performance and perceivedresults?
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