Business Skills- Meeting Expectations
Harsh economic times are putting unprecedented pressures on managers to meet the expectations placed on them, especially new managers
. Challenges come from both above and below in the hierarchy of the organisation in which managers work. Now managers not only have to make sure they understand what the person they report to expects of them but also they have to do that with a team that is often reduced in size due to staff cut backs. Pressure of time means that delegated objectives maybe unclear which when combined with deadlines that are unrealistic is a recipe for future problems. Teams that have suffered reduction in numbers due to job losses are asked to do the same work or take on even more tasks also create complex challenges for the manager.
The risks are clear, missed deadlines, incomplete deliverables, vague requests mistakenly interpreted leading to the wrong things being worked on and demoralised teams struggling to prioritise what they should be doing.
Managers can address these challenges by adopting a methodical approach both with the person they report to (their own manager) and with the team of people they manage. This saves time, avoids misunderstandings of what the priorities really are and ensures the right things are done.
Let's examine how this approach can be made in a series of 10 steps:
1. Focussing on the right results or expressed another way "the desired outcome" is a very effective technique. Try asking your manager this question "if we were to meet in 6 months time and review my progress and it had gone really well what would my team and I have achieved?" Listen carefully to the answer you receive and write it down as this will be a major input to shaping you and your team's deliverables and priorities.
2. Know the measurement and the numbers; almost all management jobs have some form of numerical measurement, it is very important to be familiar and completely clear on what measurements apply to what you have to deliver in your job. Agreement on how to measure results ensures you and your own manager develop a common understanding of what success means and can see when it is achieved.
3. The people in your team must be a top priority, get your managers view on them, who are the star performers to keep motivated, who are the under performers that can be trained to improve and who, if any, are under performance management and risk of exit?
4. Ask your manager for an assessment of your team's strengths with some examples to help you understand them as well as some examples of earlier successes. Being a new manager of any team means establishing rapport is very important and awareness of past successes shows you have done your research.
5. Find out from your manager what the perception is of your team's issues and weaknesses, try and get factual examples rather than just an opinion as this will make it easier to correct matters with your team.
6. Ask about changes that have affected your team as you will be better equipped to start your management of them by knowing the background factors. Changes could range from new objectives being set, people joining, change of job roles within the team, workflow to new customers and people leaving the team.
7. What does your manager expect will be the top risks and issues you will have to manage? Find out if there any current issues for you solve immediately.
8. Ask if there are any people outside your team that are available to help you. Workload can rise and fall and there may be arrangements in place for temporary help or other departments in situations when you have excess workload.
9. How does your manager want you to report, how often and what are the criteria that you should report on, is there a standard format to use? Does your manager prefer face to face reporting or by phone or email. Finally what events should be escalated to your manager and under what circumstances? Getting escalation details agreed will help you define the most critical tasks your team needs to work on.
10. Get copies of any previous team plans; this will help you quickly understand what the previous manager identified as objectives and tasks to do. It will help you shorten the time it takes to create your own plan. You can combine all your research with any previous plan content to result in a new, short plan. This can be used as the basis of a meeting with your manager to discuss and finalise the objectives and deliverables and provide everyone with a method to measure progress.
Using this approach managers and new managers should dramatically reduce the risk of missing expectations and increase their success in delivering the right results.
by: Gen Wright
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