Management is about people skills. I have experience working in a variety of industries, working with great managers and many more very bad managers. Great managers garner the trust and respect from their staff. Great managers have a knack for tapping into a person’s unique gifts and talents and know what makes them shine. They seem to have a way of polishing a “diamond in the rough” that allows them to shine and grow in their position, as well as in self-confidence. They know how to challenge their staff without crushing their spirit. Staff feel they are heard and understood when they talk to their manager. Great managers realize the conduct and actions of who they oversee is a direct reflection. Ultimately, the expectation of the office culture flows top down.
If a manager treats his or her direct reports with respect and professional courtesy, but allows the direct reports to disempower their staff, whose responsibility is it? If there is a high turnover rate, what processes should be in place in creating a conducive, productive, and collaborative environment?
Reactive management responds in the following manner:
- They are reactive: they doubt themselves and blame others.
- They work without any clear end in mind.
- They do the urgent thing first.
- They think Win/Lose.
- They seek first to be understood.
- If they can’t win, they compromise.
- They fear change and put off improvement.
Stephen Covey states,
The more a leader is honored, respected, and generally regarded by others, the more legitimate power he will have with others.
Stephen Covey gives us his ten suggestions “for processes that will increase a leader’s honor and power with others:”
- Be persuasive: commit to stay in the communication process until mutually beneficial and satisfying outcomes are reached.
- Be patient: maintain a long-term perspective and stay committed to your goals in the face of short-term obstacles and resistance.
- Be gentle when dealing with vulnerabilities, disclosures, and feelings that followers might express.
- Be teachable: appreciate the different points of view, judgments, and experiences that followers may have.
- Show acceptance: withhold judgment, giving the benefit of the doubt.
- Be kind: remember the little things (which are the big things) in relationships.
- Be open: give full consideration to followers’ intentions, desires, values, and goals, rather than focusing exclusively on their behavior.
- Be compassionate: in confrontation, acknowledge errors and mistakes in a context of genuine care, concern, and warmth, making it easier for people to take risks.
- Be consistent: do not use your leadership style as a manipulative technique in order to get your own way.
- Show integrity: honestly match words and feelings with thoughts and actions.
Really these are skills that we should all strive to employ in all our interactions with everyone we come into contact with. Rather universal. It about communicating with one another that sincerely elicits respect and encourages building relationships.
