Leadership

First-Time Manager Challenge: Providing Feedback and Re-Direction

/ Ken Blanchard / 19 Comments

Today is a big day for our company—we are officially releasing our new First-time Manager program based on the essential secrets of The New One Minute Manager.

It’s a great one-day program designed to address some of the key challenges people face when they step into a leadership role for the first time—including how to set goals, praise progress, redirect behavior when necessary, and conduct effective performance review sessions.

One of the challenges we zero in on is providing day-to-day feedback and coaching—especially when it involves redirecting behavior that is off-track.  Typically, new managers receive very little training in this essential skill, and without training they often struggle—either coming on too strong and alienating people, or spending so much time beating around the bush that the team member doesn’t have a clear sense that a change is even necessary.

When someone makes a mistake, you need to tell the truth so the person changes the behavior—but make sure you speak in a caring way. Also assume the best intentions. The best way to do this is to talk to your direct report about what you observed and make sure their goals were clear to them at the time. Once you both determine that the goals were clear, check out the facts leading up to the re-direction, to make sure you both agree on what happened. Discuss the impact of the behavior, and then reaffirm the person in a way that is meaningful. Let the person know they are better than their mistake and you have confidence and trust in them.

Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 Company, states it this way: “It’s important to maintain the balance between being tenderhearted and task oriented.” As a leader you must be able to re-direct behavior to keep people on the right track while also respecting their dignity. Remember—when you share feedback it is never about you or the other person; it is about the behavior. A leader’s job is to constantly help people be the best they can be.

What are some of the other challenges you’ve seen new managers struggle with?  Share them in the comments section below.  I’d love to tap into our collective wisdom and begin to identify more of the challenges new managers face and some ways to effectively address them.  With approximately two million people stepping into new management roles each year, it’s important we help them—and the people they serve—get off to a great start!  Share your thoughts below and I’ll use them as jumping off points for upcoming posts, tweets, and comments.

Meeting the Challenge of Being a First-Time Manager

/ Ken Blanchard / 1 Comment

Congratulations! You got that promotion you’ve been waiting for. You are a first-time manager!

My guess is that you earned your promotion by being a high achiever—and that’s fabulous. Keep in mind, though, that the skills that helped you succeed as an individual contributor are not necessarily the same ones you will need to achieve success as a manager. That’s why I’m so excited about our First-time Manager program, a new training program I’m working on with Linda Miller and Scott Blanchard that will help new managers master the skills they need to make it through this major transition.

In our research, we have found that first-time managers must deal with three new realities.

The first new reality: First-time managers must shift from being responsible only for their own work to managing the work of others, as well. As a manager, they need to work with their staff to set performance goals and then manage that performance along the way. This can be challenging when dealing with someone who is underperforming.

The second new reality: It can be emotionally challenging to manage a group of former peers who are now direct reports. Some new managers report suddenly being unfollowed on social media or not invited to lunches or other group activities. This can make a new manager feel as if they are alone in their new endeavor.

The third new reality: Managers have a greater level of impact than non-managers. Not only are they responsible for helping their own team succeed, they now play a role in the overall success of the organization. They must manage new relationships, both with their people and with other leaders in the company. And they now serve two groups—their direct reports as well as their own leader.

If this all sounds pretty daunting, it doesn’t have to be. Learning how to communicate effectively will set first-time managers up for success. I believe that leading is something you do with people, not to them. So knowing how to hold conversations that strengthen relationships and build trust will get your management career off to a great start.

Our new program focuses on four critical conversations new managers need to master: Goal Setting, Praising, Redirecting, and Wrapping Up. In the next few weeks, I’ll go into detail about how and why to hold these conversations and I’ll also show you four skills that will further improve the quality of your communication with others. You’ll learn how to Listen to Learn, Inquire for Insight, Tell Your Truth, and Express Confidence in each interaction. These tips will improve your relationships with your team, your colleagues, and your leaders.

In the meantime, celebrate your success in your new role—and be open to learning how you can make a positive and fulfilling transition to being a first-time manager!

Empowerment: The Key to Creating a Collaborative Culture

/ Ken Blanchard

Effective leaders learn early in their careers that they can’t manage whole projects singlehandedly. They need an empowered team working collaboratively to achieve goals. In our new book, Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster, my coauthors Jane Ripley, Eunice-Parisi Carew, and I explain the importance of empowering yourself as a leader and building collaboration by empowering your team.

In past blogs, I described the first four elements of the UNITE acronym that we developed to help describe what it takes to build a collaborative culture: Utilize differences; Nurture safety and trust; Involve others in crafting a clear purpose, values, and goals; and Talk Openly. Today I want to share more about the fifth element—Empower yourself and others.

When I think of a leader trying to go it alone, I imagine a crew team with only one oar in the water. It isn’t hard to realize that the boat isn’t going to get very far with only one person rowing. But, when all oars are in the water and team members are working together, the boat seems to glide over the water without effort. The same is true when a leader tries to manage all aspects of a project. Doing it alone just isn’t efficient. Having an empowered team take initiative and accept responsibility is the most effective way to not only reach goals but exceed them.

It is important to remember that a collaborative leader must still set work direction, resolve conflicts, and remove obstacles. However, with an empowered team the role of leader is to coach the team members and support collaboration. Leader and team members work together with a unified vision, complete trust in each other, and open communication in a truly collaborative culture.

How well do you think you are empowering yourself and your team? Ask yourself these questions.

  1. Do I continually work to develop my competence?
  2. Do I feel empowered to give my opinions during idea sessions, even if I disagree?
  3. Do I actively build and share my network with others?
  4. Do I share my skills and knowledge with other departments?
  5. Do I believe my work is important to the organization?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you probably feel empowered yourself and serve as a role model for your team members to become empowered, too. If you answered no to any of the questions, think about what you can do to change your behavior. Encourage your direct reports to collaborate not only with team members, but also with others in the organization. I guarantee you’ll see people start to share knowledge, generate new ideas, and reach higher levels of performance—all in a culture of collaboration.

Collaboration Begins with You Book coverTo learn more about Collaboration Begins With You: Be a Silo Buster, visit the book homepage where you can download the first chapter.

The Collaborative Way to Create a Clear Purpose, Values, and Goals

/ Ken Blanchard

I’ve always said that leadership is about going somewhere—and a big part of that is working with your people to create a clear purpose, values, and goals. This is a key element in the collaborative process we describe, using the acronym UNITE, in my latest book with my coauthors Jane Ripley and Eunice Parisi-Carew, Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster.

As a reminder, UNITE represents the five elements every person must adopt if they want to create a culture of collaboration in their workplace: Utilize differences; Nurture safety and trust; Involve others in crafting a clear purpose, values, and goals; Talk openly; and Empower yourself and others. Today we will take a closer look at the importance of Involving others in the process of creating a clear purpose, values and goals. To clarify, a clear shared purpose galvanizes action, values guide behaviors, and goals focus energy.

It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure that the vision and direction are clear, but it is essential to get feedback from everyone when writing the purpose statement, operating values, and strategic goals. If these decisions are made by executives and imposed on the group in a top-down implementation, people won’t be wholly supportive. When everyone has input there is greater support and buy-in because each person has a stake in the outcome. Involving people in these decisions builds their commitment to the cause—whether it is at the corporate, department, or team level.

Once the purpose statement is created, team members need to agree on values and rank them in order of importance. This is a critical step because sometimes values can be in conflict with each other. For example, let’s say your values are integrity, relationships, success, and creativity, ranked in that order. Your team has come up with a very creative idea, but implementing it would be cost prohibitive and could put the company at financial risk. Since success is ranked before creativity, the project would be a no-go—that is, unless the team can be creative enough to develop a way to make the project a less expensive undertaking.

The last task is to agree upon three or four key goals that clearly state what is expected of the team. Some leaders make the mistake of thinking that when the purpose and values are clear, people will understand what they need to do. But that is a dangerous assumption to make. Don’t leave anything to chance. Clear goals are necessary to ensure everyone is moving in the same direction for the same reasons.

As a leader, how well do you think you involve others in crafting a clear purpose, values and goals? Ask yourself these questions.

  1. Is my team committed to a shared purpose?
  2. Do I know the purpose of our project and why it is important?
  3. Do I hold myself and others accountable for adhering to our values?
  4. Do I check decisions against our stated values?
  5. Do I hold myself and others accountable for project outcomes?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you are probably a very collaborative leader. Use this checklist as a guide to make sure you are focused on continual improvement and keeping your team involved.

Collaboration Begins with You Book coverTo learn more about Collaboration Begins With You: Be a Silo Buster, visit the book homepage where you can download the first chapter.

Improve Collaboration with a Safe and Trusting Culture

/ Ken Blanchard

As a leader, do you create a safe and trusting environment where your people can express concerns and share information freely? That might be a difficult question for some of you to answer. In our new book, Collaboration Begins With You: Be a Silo Buster, my coauthors Jane Ripley and Eunice Parisi-Carew and I describe how to build trust and take responsibility for creating a culture of collaboration.

In the previous post I introduced the UNITE acronym to describe the five elements that every person must adopt to make collaboration a part of the corporate culture. We encourage everyone to Utilize differences; Nurture safety and trust; Involve others in crafting a clear purpose, values, and goals; Talk openly; and Empower themselves and others. I wrote about Utilizing differences in the last post and this time I want to share more about how to Nurture safety and trust.

The best way to start is by being a role model for the behavior you want to see in others. Share your own knowledge openly and encourage others to speak freely without fear of judgment. Welcome people’s ideas and truly give them consideration before making a decision. Give and receive feedback without judgment and be accessible, authentic, and dependable.

To build trust with your team, view mistakes and failures as learning opportunities and discuss them openly. If you punish people for making mistakes, they will learn quickly to cover them up and you’ll miss important opportunities to avoid future mishaps. I’ve found that some of the greatest learning moments happen when mistakes are shared and discussed. Encouraging these kinds of discussions will lead to smoother processes, improved communication, and innovative thinking.

To help people feel safe in their working environment, be transparent when making decisions. Make sure people know their role and what a good job looks like, and give them freedom to experiment. If people know what is expected of them and the boundaries they can operate in, they will flourish.

Rate yourself as a leader who Nurtures safety and trust by asking yourself these questions.

  1. Do I encourage people to speak their mind?
  2. Do I consider all ideas before decisions are made?
  3. Do I share knowledge freely?
  4. Do I view mistakes as learning opportunities?
  5. Am I clear with others about what I expect?

If you answered yes to most of the questions, you probably have created a safe and trusting environment for your people. But pay attention to where you answered no so that you can continue to build a strong culture of collaboration, because as the book title says—collaboration begins with you.

Collaboration Begins with You Book coverTo learn more about Collaboration Begins With You: Be a Silo Buster, visit the book homepage where you can download the first chapter.