Warning: Do You Make These Management Mistakes?
Mike Russell
I help owners and leaders outperform competitors without sacrificing their values or their lives
Effective management can make or break a business.
The bad news: effective managers are much rarer than we think.
The good news: most managers can become better managers.
How do you rank against the alarming statistics below?
50% of all managers do not want to manage people.
If you want to manage people, managing effectively will be easier. You can still manage effectively if you do not want to manage people ... but you must do 2 things:
- Decide if you will commit to effectively managing people despite your preference otherwise. Recognize that doing so will take more conscious effort and investment. If you do not commit and remain a manager, you can do more harm than good for yourself and others.
- Make the effort to learn how to manage effectively. Then do so.
90% of all managers use no more than 2 of the 5 different management approaches/styles for handling situations.
This would be OK if situations only required the 2 a particular manager uses. However, today's work world usually calls for managers to be adept at all 5 different approaches/styles to be fully effective.
Most managers (and people overall) prefer or tend to focus either on tasks/controlling OR on people/relating in situations, rather than adapting to the situation.
What is natural to you may be easier to do, but that does not mean that is what you should do. An effective manager knows how to handle both tasks and people-related situations.
5% of all managers consistently excel in both productivity and satisfaction - their own, co-workers, reports, customers, owners, and any other significant stakeholders.
The most alarming statistic of all. A manager's role is to improve productivity and satisfaction beyond what would exist if the manager was not there at all. This statistic means 95% of all managers do not consistently do better than if they did nothing or were not there.
What can you do to improve?
- The first step to winning any battle is understanding the situation. You have made a start by reading this. Next, think about your personal situation. How do you compare against the statistics? More importantly, how do your people rank you? Do you really know what they think? If not, find out! Effective managers understand what their group is generally thinking; ineffective managers do not.
- Plan to improve. Target the biggest opportunity first. List out the steps you will take and HOW YOU WILL KNOW you are making progress. Plan a way to keep yourself honest about your progress - or lack thereof - and accountable for adjusting as needed.
- Learn what you need to know for new habits and successful execution. Find training that is more than just information and allows you to practice new habits.
- Take action daily to improve. Improving by just 1% each business day will double your effectiveness in 14 weeks!
- Track your progress and adjust accordingly to stay on track.
- Above all, do not become discouraged. You don't have to be "born a manager" to be a good one. You just have to know what good management looks like and work toward it. It may not be easy, but becoming a better manager is possible for many.
Need help?
Find (in order from more Do-It-Yourself to less):
- Books, articles, and other information resources. The Internet is an amazing information resource that managers did not have until the last two decades.
- A trusted peer or observer who can provide feedback.
- Training that addresses the mistakes. Then apply the learning daily back on the job.
- A coach. People in business, just like in sports, improve fastest and better with a coach.
It's a new year ... resolve to be a better manager!
By Mike Russell
Statistics: Dr. Michael O'Connor, O'Connor Associates
USAA - Retired Director, UTSA College of Business Faculty, Executive Coaching & Advisor, Innovative Visionary, Award-winning Board of Director, PMLG Executive Consultant, Inventor, US Patent holder.
8 年I believe the manager role, as used in this article and defined in the early 1920 Industrial Age years, is a role that will be gone in 10 years, along with traditional performance reviews. It will be replaced by coaching leaders, who are knowledgeable practitioners with a teachers mindset to continuously monitor and provide feedback to teams and individuals, to address performance and development topics. The figurehead of an administrative manager, often without the operational knowledge of the very people they lead and coach, will be a costly and useless overhead expense. Too expensive to attend meetings all day, then translate messages from top level coaches. The communication channels will be open, pandemic and transparent, which will foster trust, innovation, and engagement, while eliminating miscommunications, bad interpretations and political machines that foster cliques and divisive silos of political power bases. That is my hope and prayer.
Fractional Integrator (COO) for Companies Running on EOS? | CFI @ Catalyst Integrators? | Next Level People, Process and Data Leader | Ramsey Solutions Master Financial Coach | Servant Leader & Contributor
8 年Good stuff Mike! Where did you get the statistics? They seem to line up with my personal experience. ??
Founder & Chief Client Officer at Potentia
8 年Well done..! Found your point that most managers use "2 out of the 5 effective management approaches/styles for handling situations". Managers tend to lean toward their preferred approach whether task/control or people/relating focus. One needs to adapt appropriately to the situation even if it is not their preferred approach. Thanks for sharing.
Professional Services at Potentia.
8 年Great article, Mike! I especially liked the point of taking action daily to improve. "Improving by just 1% each business day will double your effectiveness in 14 weeks!" That's powerful!