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Excellence in Management: 6 Strategies to Bring Out the Best in Other People

January 25, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Management

Excellence in Management: 6 Strategies to Bring Out the Best in Other People
By Rick A Conlow

Abigail Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1790, “These are the hard times in which a genius would wish to live. Great necessities call forth great leaders.” These are also hard times in which managers of today face unprecedented challenges such as:

  • Governmental budget deficits/cutbacks
  • World political/economic instability
  • Energy issues
  • Environmental problems
  • Shortage of skilled labor
  • Higher taxes
  • Price competition
  • Political scandals
  • Business scandals
  • Culturally diverse work forces
  • Takeovers
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Job displacement due to technological advances
  • Shrinking local markets
  • Overseas competition
  • Work ethic concerns

Excellence in Management is in demand today although it is found in short supply. Management gurus abound in giving advice. There are all sorts of theories to pick from. It’s really confusing. What’s a manager to do to be more effective? The bad news is that there isn’t any magical formula. The clouds aren’t going to part and a heavenly voice won’t say, “This is how you do it.”

Famed consultant Peter Drucker said, “Don’t worry about doing everything tight, just do the right things.” But what are the right things? The good news is that the right things that bring success involve the basics and are teachable. Unfortunately, most managers are thrown into the water and have to sink or swim on their own merits though the school of hard knocks. Too often these hard knocks make managers cynical and skeptical which become self-imposed obstacles to success. The right things are apparent and will make a difference today if you implement them with a sense of enthusiasm and urgency.

Excellence in Management is not a theory but an action-oriented approach. It includes six key concepts of excellence and many proven and practical applications guaranteed to bring you more positive results as a manager. The material evolved from my 20 years of experience in management and sales in the public and private sectors. Over that time I’ve worked with and trained thousands of managers. I’ve implemented what works and at times what doesn’t work. And, I’ve learned from others.

6 Keys to Strategies to Bring Out the Best in Other People

  1. Establish clear goals and plans - The basics of performance management involve setting clear goals and plans. Your aim is to motivate and develop your people while focusing on their strengths. Learn these, execute these practices and you’ll be better than most. All good performance begins with specific goals and plans.

  2. Recognize others - As you lead others take an approach to look for the best in others and praise them for it. If you focus on people’s strengths and what they do right your team will appreciate it and perform better.

  3. Communicate with power - Different styles of people require different motivation. Listen to and build rapport with people and you’ll increase their morale and productivity. Learn meeting facilitation skills so you can talk to your team and review results weekly. Communicate about and expect excellence.

  4. Deal with problems proactively - When performance issues arise counsel employees and work with them to fix it-immediately. The most effective method of problem solving involves a mutual decision-making process. Many managers fail because they can’t deal with poor performance issues.

  5. Manage your time effectively - Post-it notes don’t cut it here. Your time is too valuable to be disorganized. You need goals and a planner to help you get more done in less time and you need to be willing to change to be more personally productive. Use online tools or your cell phone. Keep a schedule and focus on priorities.

  6. Build Teamwork - As a manager, you are responsible to organize the workflow so the task is done. You also need to be a leader and influence your people to do their jobs better and better as a team. The objective here is continuous improvement and setting high standards of operation.

Whether you are a new manager or an experienced one, act on these Excellence in Management strategies to keep you focused on the skills and techniques of management that make a difference. More than anything they keep you attuned to your greatest resource, the people you work with. Be a student of the game, keep learning, and you will indeed bring out the best in your people. You will be able to achieve excellence in any environment! Mediocrity is unacceptable in the marketplace today. Even being good isn’t good enough anymore. Business is too competitive and the challenges are too great to be content with the status quo. Excellence in management includes the right strategies to empower you to become one of the “best” in your chosen field. Finally, remember, the greatest enemy of excellence is being good!

Rick Conlow is CEO & Senior Partner with WCW Partners. WCW Partners is a performance improvement company. Based in Minneapolis/ST. Paul, Minnesota, we work with clients in a variety of industries worldwide to help them excel in sales, service and leadership. We facilitate business growth and vitality through four practices-sales and customer retention improvement, organization and leadership development, innovation and communications strategy.

Rick has helped organizations increase sales 218%, improve repeat and referral business by 20%, increase customer retention to 99%, reduce complaints by 60% and achieve 34 quality awards. You can reach Rick at: rick@wcwpartners.com or 888-313-0514.

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