In these days of a highly educated workforce and the aspirations of many to become "managers" we must consider how many have the tools they need to perform with skill and professionalism. This article presents a few of the tools and techniques, often referred to as "Soft Skills", that managers should arm themselves with, to meet the challenge. These skills can be taught, and there are numerous suppliers, but they are difficult to evaluate. Until one needs them, they may appear "surplus to requirements".
Imagine you have just been promoted. You now manage a team. For most managers, this is an exciting challenge. You experience the honeymoon period of elation following your elevation to a new status. Then reality sets in. You discover a disruptive, truculent and lazy team member. How do you cope? Are you going through hell, trying to resolve the situation? Here follows a brief resume of some tools and techniques that have helped not only the present writer, but countless others.
The "comfort zone"
Firstly, you need to do some self-assessment: understand yourself. Think of your strengths and weaknesses, what is important to you, and define what you want to achieve. Do you want to be a good boss? Do you want to develop your team and be good at your new job?
Understanding your "comfort zone", where your boundaries lie, and inner reflection, go a long way in defining yourself and a better way of understanding others. Yerkes and Dodson originally developed the Law of Comfort Zones back in 1908. The law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a certain point. When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases. This can be represented by a three-ring target with our preferred comfort zone in the centre, the optimal performance zone as the middle ring and the danger zone as the outer ring. Understanding your own comfort zone and trying to understand your team members' comfort zones, goes a long way to having good relationships with each team member. Be aware that these boundaries can, and will, change with experience and time.
The key forms of communication
According to research that Albert Mehrabian undertook in 1971, face-to-face communication is made up of: words (what we say) accounting for only 7% of the overall message; tone of voice (how we say it) accounting for 38% of the overall message; and body language (how our body shows it) accounting for 55% of the overall message. That is only the verbal side of the equation. Today we must communicate via email and social media, further adding to the mix. So knowing which to use, and when and where to use it, is a large part of effective communication. Never be afraid to clarify whether you understood any point: better to be on the "same page" than discovering you are not. Understanding that, as a manager, you will be the bearer of both good and bad news, both up and down the management chain, is another responsibility heaped on your shoulders.
Building reputation and integrity
Honesty and integrity are a sure way to earn a good reputation and gain the respect of others. Reputation and respect may take a long time to achieve and are not only a state of mind but also a lifestyle. Respect for yourself and others is an important part of living up to your reputation. Remember you cannot like everyone you work with, but you can respect others for their abilities. This can go a long way towards having a rewarding life as a manager. A willingness to be open and honest with those around you will also enhance your reputation for integrity. Tackling tough problems becomes easier when you follow this path. Reputations can be both good and bad: a bad reputation may not always be negative, and a good reputation may not always be positive. It will depend on the perceived needs of the business at any given time and may need to change. It takes time to build a good reputation but minutes to lose it.
Good leadership skills
It is said that great leaders are born not made. That does not preclude you from becoming a good leader. Given time, effort, training, coaching, and understanding, most people can make good leaders. Not everyone can be a great leader. Motivating, developing and mentoring are part of your being a leader. You are responsible for the wellbeing of a group of people who make up the team. You must contend with conflicts and human nature in all their many guises. People have many emotional states: happy, sad, angry, elated, motivated, demotivated, and other states in between. How you respond in these situations will define your management style. How you use your skills, to negate, to resolve, to coach, and to exert your authority to get the best from your team, will add or detract from your reputation. You are responsible for your team. Take pride in them. Allow them to grow, help them to grow, and take comfort in their achievements as individuals and as a team. You, as the manager, can devolve responsibility. But accountability and responsibility are ultimately yours: the buck still stops with you. Under no circumstances allow anyone other than yourself to discipline your team. You must take full responsibility.
Time is short: don't waste it
Life is not a rehearsal, so use your time effectively. There are no second chances. Time is an unrecoverable commodity, so learn to spend it wisely. As a manager, you will spend between 35%-50% of your time in meetings, of which up to 50% are irrelevant or non-productive. Learn to identify meeting types: informational, decision-making, personnel, strategic, planning, and many more. Learn to decline meetings that are of no value to you or your team. Learn to hold relevant and effective meetings; ones that provide value and output relevant to the business. Avoid the urge to go to meetings because it is the "done thing". Avoid taking on other people's "monkey's" (other people's problems and issues) passed to you. Never be afraid to say "no".
Richard Enstone is a Technology and Computer Security Consultant. He can be reached at dick@enstone.org
Christopher F. Bruton is Executive Director of Dataconsult Ltd, chris@dataconsult.co.th. Dataconsult's Thailand Regional Forum provides seminars and extensive documentation to update business on future trends in Thailand and in the Mekong Region.
