What does ‘managing’ mean?
The light bulb came on recently when working with a very competent senior manager who was encountering difficulties with his vice president. Both managers were genuinely committed to achieving the best results possible with limited resource constraints. Yet the person I was working with felt under severe pressure due to what he considered to be unreasonable demands by the VP. Having the opportunity to talk to both managers over a period of time it became very clear that each was working to quite different project priorities. The problem was around the fact that the VP kept adding new projects or modifying existing projects and putting them into ‘do now’ priority category.
Although both were able to discuss the issue they appeared unable to ease the tension or agree on what to do to make the situation better. On further analysis the first manager was handling a lot of operational issues that were ongoing on top of the various projects that had been agreed would be tackled by the team. The manager set out a plan to deliver each of the projects based on the agreed priorities. However, the VP was more focused on strategic issues and tended to respond to what the President communicated were important priorities. We therefore had three different perspectives being taken on the performance of the first manager.
The President was generally interested in what needed to be done to meet the needs of her board and the business. Her VP was interested in responding positively to her instructions as he was also committed to the success of the business. However, the first manager was the only one of the three that actually knew what resources were available and the demands that this put on his team. Therefore, although all three could discuss the priority issues the President and her VP appeared to be on a different planet to the first manager. To explore this somewhat familiar situation we need to examine the practice of managing
Managing Others
The term managing means being clear about what needs to be achieved with the available resources and working with colleagues to make it happen in an effective manner. To be truly effective a manager also needs to have a clear understanding of the operational and personal circumstances faced by a range of people including:
· those who have overall responsibility for the outputs
· the people who supply materials and other necessary resources
· colleagues who have an input to make to help achieve the outputs
· the team who will do the actual work
· customers who will receive the quality outputs
Because businesses are usually under a range of performance and delivery pressures many managers and team leaders are forced into being “busy being busy” and don’t appear willing to invest time in getting a clear understanding of what is involved to achieve the desired outputs from the different perspectives describe above. The reality is that a lot of assumptions are made that are not checked with the result that some of the parties continue working on potentially distorted perspectives. This is a recipe for disaster in terms of achievement and relationships.
Failure by senior managers to appreciate the day to day as well as strategic issues that are being handled by their direct reports has led to many unacceptable practices being adopted just to get the result the senior manager wanted. One of the most damaging is on relationships in that once a poor relationship develops between a manager and his/her colleagues, morale and performance is adversely affected. Yet the opposite outcome is just as possible to achieve.
Understanding each others ‘reality’
Being able to listen and appreciate another person’s perspective on an issue that affects both parties usually produces lots of potential “golden nuggets”. There are so many opportunities to learn really important things from others that can help us to be more objective in our understanding of mutual issues. Many people use a method called ‘triangulation’ as a process of gathering a number of different perspectives on an issue as a way of achieving a better understanding of the issue. This is their way of benchmarking the issue as it provides them with a frame of reference constructed using the inputs from others. It helps us test our own thinking about the issue and the people involved by contrasting it with the usually different scenarios presented.
The power of active listening is in the way it helps us connect with others in a truly empathetic way as we genuinely want to appreciate the other person’s view of the world. It is a fact that we all see things differently and that we all believe that our view of the world is the right one. The reality is quite different as most of us experience when discussing subjects that appear to be non-contentious. Somehow or other it becomes contentious because someone makes a comment of expresses an opinion that offends others. The disquiet caused can usually be resolved when the discussion is taking place in a constructive environment. However, just think of the effect on people when the environment is negative or hostile.
Making time to listen
Poor listening is a habit that many of us have developed over time simply because in most instances we are mainly concerned about how we see an issue. This influences us to listen defensively if we feel that our position is being attacked or to arrogantly assume that we have all the right answers.
Therefore, if managing is about being clear about what needs to be achieved with the available resources and working with colleagues to make it happen in an effective manner, we need to gather the insights from those colleagues involved in the project with us. This is the only effective way of achieving the desired outcome with the active collaboration of colleagues. It is also a fact that most us want to do a great job and to have the support and resources that enable us to achieve superior outcomes. Listening to understand in ways that demonstrates respect for the speaker will go a long way to encouraging them to actively enrol in making the project a success. This is mainly what ‘managing’ is about in that is effectively draws on the talent, ideas, skills, and motivation of all those involved, because that believe that they can make a significant contribution by being ‘involved’.
Breaking the busy/busy habit
I will suggest in my next post a number of ideas that can be used to move away from being trapped in the busy/busy syndrome. The aim will be to release our capability from potentially meaningless activity to focus it on effectively ‘managing’ ourselves and others
Tom