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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

Excellent performance from their people is the dream of every supervisor and manager. As managers, we would love to have employees who are highly committed and who really deliver results. That is why we set goals, standards and do everything within our power to help hit the mark in the hopes that it will motivate our team.

And yet, not all of our people perform as well as we expect.

If this is the case, then it really is time to take your leadership style to the next level. We can’t leave employee performance to chance and simply go with the flow. After all, their excellent performance equals to our organization’s success. Changes in the daily management of your employee’s performance might help improve your leadership styles. If you’re planning to do so, it would be best if you, as a manager, would take the time to gain certain skills.

By acquiring proper Managing Employee Performance Skills you, as a manger, and your people will be able to apply the mindset and skills a manager or supervisor needs to truly manage employee performance. You will also be able to develop and use a system of performance management that works and know the important things to do in between goal-setting and performance appraisals. Furthermore, you will be able to use the four important roles we need to play in managing employee performance and manage employees when their performance takes a downtrend. Most importantly, you will be able to develop performance enhancing action plans.

One good way to be sure that you are setting up your people to succeed and that you are not just settling for good performance would be by attending training courses specifically discussing how to manage employee performance. Seminars are great tools for managers to learn more about managing employee performance skills from business experts and share case scenarios and point of views with fellow managers and supervisors. As management leaders, it would be beneficial for all if we would take the time to learn more on how we could improve and engage our employees so that we can expect a better and more productive output.

Position of leadership is something that people would love to ascend to be. But not many people are prepared with this kind of position. There are actually some things we need to have to achieve the rank of quality in leadership. This quality comes in several points, they are:

1. Put yourself into high personal integrity. It is a must to do point as there is no on-off personal integrity in leadership. One has to make it as a routine habit and keep it as part of the manner.

2. Have a positive thinking. There will always be “can” without possibly or maybe or any other things that can make you think twice or lower than the real expectation should be.

3. Never blame others for what happens. Take the personal responsibility and do it professionally. Blaming everyone else for one mistake especially when it comes from your order just make you a bad leader with bad reputation. No one like to be blamed at something they do for no choice. So you need to take personal responsibility of it and find the best solution.

4. Willing to make decisions and go for the action. You cannot be a good leader if you do not know how to make a good decision based on what is good for a company, not just for yourself. You also need to be consistent with your words.

A leader is a winner. He leads people based on his character. So this is the quality of leadership every leader has to have.

The Responsiveness Paradigm outlined elsewhere in this newsletter is applicable at a number of levels. For example, it applies to organizations in general, and the ability of the organization to respond to the needs of customers, staff and other stakeholders (eg. politicians, etc). It applies to non-supervisory staff, and their ability to respond to the needs of their managers, customers and co-workers. This month we are going to look at responsiveness as it applied to managers, leaders and/or supervisors.
Influence Of The Responsive Manager

The responsive manager tends to succeed by building bonds of respect and trust with those around him/her. Staff respond positively to responsive managers; they work more diligently, work to help the manager and the organization succeed, and will go the extra mile when necessary. That is because responsive managers act consistent with the principle that their jobs are to help their staff do their jobs. So, a basic inter-dependence emerges based on behaviours that show concern, respect and trust.

Responsive managers also influence those above them in the hierarchy. Because responsive managers have the ability to read and act upon the needs of their “bosses”, they are perceived as helpful and reliable, or in a simple way, very useful. This allows them to get the “ear” of people above them in the system, and further helps get things done when needed.

Contrast this with the limited influence of the UNresponsive manager. The unresponsive manager is restricted in influence because those around him/her do not respect or trust them to look out for their welfare. Influence is more limited to the use of power coming from the formal position, and fear, a motivational component that is hard to sustain over time. Unresponsive managers tend to be perceived as self-interested, or at best uninterested in the needs of those around them. They also tend to be perceived by those above them as less reliable and less useful due to their focus on empire building, organization protection, and self-interest, rather than getting done what needs to be done.

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Leadership Critical To Managing Change
When change is imposed (as in downsizing scenarios), clearly the most important determinant of “getting through the swamp”, is the ability of leadership to…well, lead. The literature on the subject indicates that the nature of the change is secondary to the perceptions that employees have regarding the ability, competence, and credibility of senior and middle management.

If you are to manage change effectively, you need to be aware that there are three distinct times zones where leadership is important. We can call these Preparing For the Journey, Slogging Through The Swamp, and After Arrival. We will look more carefully at each of these.

The Role of Leadership

In an organization where there is faith in the abilities of formal leaders, employees will look towards the leaders for a number of things. During drastic change times, employees will expect effective and sensible planning, confident and effective decision-making, and regular, complete communication that is timely. Also during these times of change, employees will perceive leadership as supportive, concerned and committed to their welfare, while at the same time recognizing that tough decisions need to be made. The best way to summarize is that there is a climate of trust between leader and the rest of the team. The existence of this trust, brings hope for better times in the future, and that makes coping with drastic change much easier.

In organizations characterized by poor leadership, employees expect nothing positive. In a climate of distrust, employees learn that leaders will act in indecipherable ways and in ways that do not seem to be in anyone’s best interests. Poor leadership means an absence of hope, which, if allowed to go on for too long, results in an organization becoming completely nonfunctioning. The organization must deal with the practical impact of unpleasant change, but more importantly, must labor under the weight of employees who have given up, have no faith in the system or in the ability of leaders to turn the organization around.

Leadership before, during and after change implementation is THE key to getting through the swamp. Unfortunately, if haven’t established a track record of effective leadership, by the time you have to deal with difficult changes, it may be too late.

Preparing For The Journey

It would be a mistake to assume that preparing for the journey takes place only after the destination has been defined or chosen. When we talk about preparing for the change journey, we are talking about leading in a way that lays the foundation or groundwork for ANY changes that may occur in the future. Preparing is about building resources, by building healthy organizations in the first place. Much like healthy people, who are better able to cope with infection or disease than unhealthy people, organization that are healthy in the first place are better able to deal with change.

As a leader you need to establish credibility and a track record of effective decision making, so that there is trust in your ability to figure out what is necessary to bring the organization through.

Slogging Through The Swamp

Leaders play a critical role during change implementation, the period from the announcement of change through the installation of the change. During this middle period the organization is the most unstable, characterized by confusion, fear, loss of direction, reduced productivity, and lack of clarity about direction and mandate. It can be a period of emotionalism, with employees grieving for what is lost, and initially unable to look to the future.

During this period, effective leaders need to focus on two things. First, the feelings and confusion of employees must be acknowledged and validated. Second, the leader must work with employees to begin creating a new vision of the altered workplace, and helping employees to understand the direction of the future. Focusing only on feelings, may result in wallowing. That is why it is necessary to begin the movement into the new ways or situations. Focusing only on the new vision may result in the perception that the leader is out of touch, cold and uncaring. A key part of leadership in this phase is knowing when to focus on the pain, and when to focus on building and moving into the future.