Stepping Into the Role of a First-Time Manager (link is gone) is a quick read article with practical advice for employees making their foray into management. My first foray into management left me with many bruises as I did not follow one of the suggestions in this article. I attempted to change many things in a short amount of time. My approach led to some significant changes but it triggered many management meetings with the other departments. Let’s just say those were quite candid meetings.
Much of our focus is on hiring, but we have another side to our business where we assess existing teams. In some ways, this work is more satisfying. We get to know the team members and we get to assist the manager in producing a development plan for each employee. This approach is focused on communication which is the first piece of successful management.
From the article:
“If you treat your staff with respect through communication, you will be more effective as a leader. Leading is not about daily control and direction. It’s about vision and being able to share that vision with others. It’s about being persuasive and making others feel included in setting and owning the stakes.”
Sales & Marketing Management comes through in timely fashion with some statistics from the Ken Blanchard Companies’ survey regarding successful (and unsuccessful) management:
* 43 percent of those in the survey said communications skills are the most critical to those in leadership roles; 41 percent said poor communication is a leader’s most common mistake.
* 27 percent cited over- or undersupervising as a problem for leaders.
* 15 percent identified empathy and emotional intelligence as a key factor for leadership success.
* Top failures by leaders include: failure to provide appropriate feedback, praise, or redirection; failure to listen; failure to set clear goals and objectives; failure to train and develop people.