New Manager: Invest in Yourself!

Someone recently told me she would like to become a Traveler in my program for new managers, The Manager’s Journey, but her employer would not pay for it. She asked how she could persuade the company to pay so that she could take part in The Manager’s Journey.

My answer probably wasn’t what she expected, but here it is: pay for it yourself! After all, it’s your career, isn’t it?

One of the biggest mistakes new managers make is not investing in their own professional development. Of course it’s great when your company puts you through courses for your development, but you shouldn’t restrict yourself to those. If you want to develop your management career, there are many things you’ll need to learn and they won’t all be available in-house. Those who ask why they should have to pay when it’s the company that gains are taking a very short-sighted view.

In the long term, you will actually benefit more than the company, because you will learn skills that are transferrable. If you move to another position in another company, you will already be more prepared if you’ve learned some basic management skills. If you can truthfully say in your resume that you have taken management courses, that gives you an advantage in the job market, so why not put yourself in this position even if it means paying your own way?

That is, in fact, the reason I have kept the ticket price for The Manager’s Journey low, because I know many new managers will have to pay their own way and I want them to be able to afford it. (By the way, if you haven’t already, you really should read all about The Manager’s Journey to see if it’s for you.)

Don’t be short-sighted, new manager, and don’t be left behind: invest in your own professional growth, invest in your career, invest in yourself!

Is It Important, or Just Urgent?

New managers often tell me they seem to spend their time “putting out fires”; in other words, everything seems to be urgent and need attention right away. This is, in fact, a major cause of stress for managers at all levels, but particularly for new managers. So how can you deal with all these emergencies and still get on with the work you set yourself to do at the beginning of the day?

In Steven Covey’s classic book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, he divides tasks, challenges, decisions etc. into four quadrants, which he describes in the following diagram:

Think about an item that’s on your “to do” list right now. Which quadrant would it fall into?

For example, finishing your report for delivery at a high level meeting tomorrow: Q1

Planning a staff training program for next year: Q2

Answering a colleague’s question about where to make a lunch reservation: Q3

Answering an e-mail that should never have come to you in the first place: Q4

Now look at all the items on your current “to do” list, and consider which quadrant you live in most of the time in the course of your job. Most stressed new managers find they work predominantly in Q1 and Q3, because they automatically react to the urgent, never stopping to consider whether it is important or not.

Steven Covey changed a lot of lives by recommending that we move as much as possible into the items that belong in Q2: important but not urgent. Using my examples above, planning your staff training program is important, but it’s not urgent because it is for next year. Why is that good? Because it gives you time to do the job well without panic! The key here is not to procrastinate, but to block off time over a certain period to do the job before it becomes urgent. This is an automatic stress reducer.

So what about the other three quadrants? Q4 is a no-brainer: if it’s not urgent and not important, why do it at all? Get rid of these items.

Q3 items are not important, so why is it urgent that you do them? Often these items become urgent because other people having procrastinated about asking you for information, and now they need it right away. That makes it their problem, not yours. Help them out the first time, but make it clear that in the future you can’t be interrupting your schedule to deal with items that would not have been urgent had they been dealt with earlier.

Finally, Q1 items must be done urgently because they are also important. Your task as a manager is to come up with solutions so that these particular items don’t become emergencies in future. The best way to do that is to handle them before they become urgent — in other words, move them over to Q2.

The Covey Quadrant is one of the most useful tools you will ever come across as a manager. Take some time to put it to work, and work as much as possible in Q2. You’ll be amazed at how much important work you get done, and how much less stressful your day becomes.

Quiet Please, Manager Working

Interruptions are part of a manager’s day, as you’ve probably discovered. On another day I’ll write about how to handle constant questions and requests for information on a normal day, but for today I want to offer a specific tool that has helped me complete many an important task on time and with less stress.

It’s the quiet time.

You have a report to write, and the deadline is looming. You’ve made several starts on it, but never seem to get a big enough chunk of time to complete it, and all those distractions make it difficult to get your concentration back to the job at hand. OK, how much time will you need to finish the job? An hour? Two hours? Half a day? Decide this first, then block off that amount of time on your schedule.

So now you know you’ll be busy on the report during that time, but you need others to know so that they will respect your quiet time. Simply send out an e-mail saying, “I need quiet time on Thursday from 9 – 11 a.m. Thank you for co-operating.” In case you get a visit from someone who didn’t see the e-mail, hang a sign on your closed door with the same message. Most people I talk to about this don’t expect it to work, and are amazed to find that most of the time it does. The reason is that other people wish they had thought of it too!

Now of course some people will ignore your message and barge right in. If that happens, don’t even look up from your desk or your computer. Simply concentrate even harder on what you are doing to make it obvious. If your fingers are hovering over your keyboard, type something — anything. You can always take it out later if you typed nonsense, but it sends the message that you really are working. When the person speaks, unless it is the President of the company or your immediate boss, don’t respond. Keep typing! Eventually they will get the message and say something brilliant like, “I see you are busy.” Look up at that point, agree that you are under deadline and this is not a good time to talk. Ask if you can call them when you are finished, and usually that will take care of things.

Since interruptions are often cited as a major cause of stress in the workplace, it’s in your own interests to figure out ways to deal with them that work for you. I strongly recommend quiet time. However, this is one of those tools that shouldn’t be overused or it will lose its effectiveness, so reserve it for times when you really need it and it can be one of the most valuable tools in your management toolbox.

Leading Meetings: an Essential Skillset for Managers

Monday morning meetings, client meetings, problem solving meetings, staff meetings, regular meetings — just too many meetings! That’s a common problem for managers at all levels, who feel they can’t get on with the work of their department for attending or leading meetings. For new managers, it’s just another layer of added stress!

Meetings are a fact of business life, and while technology can cut down on the number of face-to-face meetings, there are still times when that’s the best way to deal with issues. So whether you are a new manager or a seasoned manager, you’d do well to learn to run effective meetings.

Here are Helen’s 9 Rules for Meaningful Meetings:

1.    Call only necessary meetings.
Could a teleconference, a series of phone calls, an e-mail or a memo serve the same purpose? Develop a reputation for calling meetings only when necessary, and people will be more willing to devote their time to them.
2.    Invite the right people.
Invite people who have something to contribute or who need to be involved in the discussion. Don’t invite people just because they are at a certain level in the organization. Busy people appreciate your consideration of their time.
3.    Distribute the agenda before the meeting.
People should receive the agenda a week or so before the meeting. This lets people know what will be discussed and gives them an opportunity to gather information they will need and prepare their input. Receiving an agenda as you arrive at a meeting is almost as bad as not having an agenda at all — and that’s bad!
4.    Start and finish on time.
Don’t wait for latecomers—they shouldn’t be rewarded for upsetting everyone else’s schedule. Allot a time to each subject on the agenda and stick to it. You will finish on time—and people will love you!
5.    State the objective at the start of the meeting.
State an objective that is results-oriented rather than discussion-based. e.g. “We are meeting this morning to approve the final budget for next quarter.” This is a measurable objective, towards which you can work during the discussion.
6.    Keep the meeting moving towards its objective.
Don’t let people drag the discussion off track. Keep reminding them of the objective and redirect the discussion back when they stray.
7.    Don’t just sit there—say something!
Having something to say and saying it is the only way to contribute to someone else’s meeting. Do your homework in advance and you will know what you want to say.
8.    Arrange for appropriate notes.
If it’s your meeting, arrange for a support staff person to take notes. The note taker should not be a participant, since it is difficult to participate and takes notes at the same time.
9.    When the objective has been accomplished—stop!
Finish early and you’ll be a hero, so don’t spoil it by starting to discuss other issues. Congratulate participants on a successful meeting, and let them get back to their day.
We don’t spring from the womb knowing how to run effective meetings — we need to work on the skills! That’s why The Manager’s Journey includes a whole stage on both leading your own meetings and making the most of the time you spend at other people’s meetings. Learn these skills now, right at the start of your management career, and you’ll save your company money and yourself a whole lot of stress.

7 Mistakes New Managers Make and How to Avoid Them

Watch this video and learn how you can get your own copy of my 45-minute audio “The 7 Biggest Mistakes New Managers Make and How to Avoid Them”

Management Skills vs Leadership Skills

If you want to start an argument in any group that includes managers (whether newly appointed or well seasoned), just ask the difference between management and leadership. Personally, I think there’s a lot of nonsense talked around this subject. Here’s my take: leadership is a management skillset.

One of the reasons life is tough when you’ve just entered the world of management is that you must learn so many different skills, and you must learn them on the job because the work of the department can’t stop or slow down to wait for you to learn. I’ve already talked about the importance of getting to know your people, and putting emphasis on that in the early days after your appointment, so perhaps you think I’m now contradicting myself. But no, I’m not.

Paying attention to the personalities, styles, needs and wants of the people who report to you will help you use their skills and talents to get the work of the department done. That, my friend, is what management is all about. Is it leadership? Yes, it is. But it’s also management.

You’ll find great leaders at all levels in the workplace, but here’s a thought to ponder: you can be a great leader without being a manager, but you can’t be a great manager without being a leader. That’s because leading is a management skill, and it’s just one of the many skills you’ll need to master to be successful in your chosen career.

Questions from New Managers: Unscheduled Interruptions

This is the first post in a category I call “Questions from New Managers”, and I invite you to submit your questions for future posts. Just send your question, in as much detail as you want, to me at helen@tipsfornewmanagers.com and I will answer it for you.

Our first question comes from Bob, a Traveler on The Manager’s Journey:

“Helen, I try to start off my day with a carefully thought out to-do list, but it keeps getting longer because of the things that come up during the day. Quite often they don’t really need to be taken care of right away, but I’m afraid I’ll lose track of them or people are waiting for my reply to their question. How can I fit these things into my day without squeezing out the things I had planned to do?”

Well Bob, I’m sure you’ve already found that time management takes on a whole new dimension when you become a manager! Questions and requests for your time are a fact of life now and you must deal with them, but it’s important that you handle them in a way that works for you. I’m pleased you start off your day with a good to-do list, and I hope you have blocked off an appropriate amount of time for each item. Since most tasks take longer than we think, it’s also a good idea to build in some “wiggle room” by allowing an extra five to ten minutes for each, depending on its importance.

But of course those interruptions are not on your schedule, and time is finite, so what do you do? My favourite tool for handling this is the “parking lot”. It’s a place to make note of things that need to be done, but not necessarily right now. I use a small whiteboard, located to one side of my desk where I can easily reach it. Here, I jot down items I want to keep on my radar, but that I don’t want to do immediately at the expense of my scheduled items. Some days it gets pretty full, while on other days it stays comfortably open, but my rule is that it starts off each day blank. That means at the end of each day I deal with each item by either scheduling it into a future time slot, delegating it to someone else or, in more cases than you’d think, simply removing it because the need for it has disappeared.

It’s important to keep your parking lot near you, because if you have to stand up and walk over to your it, you often won’t take the time—and little pieces of paper scattered on your desk don’t do the job nearly so effectively.

So my advice to Bob, and other new managers dealing with this “time pirate” is to set up a parking lot and start each day with it empty. Try this, and do let me know how it works for you.

Remember, I want to answer your questions, so do send them to me at helen@tipsfornewmanagers.com

Are You Giving Clear Instructions?

If you’ve just become a manager, you are probably not used to giving instructions. Maybe you used to take instructions, but giving them is a new experience. Perhaps you’ve been surprised by people misunderstanding what you asked them to do and are wondering if there’s some form of sabotage going on here.

Well, chances are your instructions are not as clear as you think. Most of us make assumptions when talking about something we know well. We assume the other person knows what we mean, when really our words don’t make the message clear at all. And those waving hand gestures don’t actually help the other person comprehend!

Here is a simple, four-part process for giving clear instructions:

1. Think the message through clearly in your own mind before you speak to the person. Does the person have any knowledge of the terminology or process, or should you be starting at a very low level in explaining things?Jot down some keyword notes, and actually rehearse what you want to say. Pay attention to the words you use, what you say and what you miss out, and your tone of voice. You want to give instructions, not bark out orders!
2. Meet with the person. First explain in a few words what the task is. e.g. “Mary, I want you to arrange a catered lunch for our meeting with X Client next Thursday.”
3. Next, following your notes, tell her each step you want her to take — the amount of detail will depend on Mary’s experience in this area, but don’t overestimate her knowledge.
4. Finally, and this is critical particularly with people to whom you have not delegated before, ask them to repeat in their own words what they are going to do before they start. You can preface this with, “I want to be sure I have made everything clear”, so she feels you are confirming your own part of the dialogue rather than questioning her understanding.

If it’s a complex task, it might be helpful to establish a milestone, at which time she is to report back to you on her progress. That will give you a chance to correct any missteps before she goes too far down the wrong road.

Like so many other aspects of management, giving clear instructions to help people get things done depends on clear communication. As a new manager, you need to practise this skill.

What Kind of Manager Do You Want to Be?

I’m not talking here about the function of your team, whether you want to be in HR or Production. And I’m assuming you want to be a “good” manager, whatever your definition of good might be.

I’m thinking more of the management style you want to adopt, the personal traits you’d like to develop as a manager. You need to think about this early in your management career, so that you can use your answers to help guide your day-to-day work. I call this your “Management Belief Statement” and I recommend you create one for yourself. Here’s how to do it.

First, think of some good and bad managers to whom you’ve reported in the past. What, in your mind, made them good or bad managers? What were the personal traits, styles and habits that worked for them or against them? Take some time to think about this and write down your thoughts. Now consider how you can incorporate the good and avoid the bad in your own management style.

Pretend it’s a year from now. What would you like your people to say about their experience of working with you as their manager? Do you want to be seen as fair minded? Confident? Strong? Friendly? Commanding? Collaborative? Helpful? Encouraging? Add your own ideas here.

Whatever qualities you’ve chosen, think about how they would express or manifest themselves. What would make someone consider you to be a helpful, confident or fair minded boss? What would be the actions that demonstrate these qualities? When you’ve given some time and thought to this, you’re ready to compose your Management Belief Statement. Use your own words, but these suggestions might help you begin:

• I will lead my team by example. That means …
• When people come to me for help …
• My relationship with my team will …
• My relationship with my peers and colleagues will …

Nobody else need see your statement, unless you want to make it public. But do keep it in a place where you can see it and refer to it often. Ask yourself if your actions are congruent with your statement. If not, what should you do about it? When you have a difficult decision to make, your Management Belief Statement can help you make the choice that is right in your own eyes. In challenging situations, knowing your decision was in keeping with your own convictions can help you sleep at night.

New Managers Learn Management Skills on The Manager’s Journey

I just distributed a news release about my dynamic, exciting program for new managers, The Manager’s Journey. Read the news release at PR Log

and then visit The Manager’s Journey to learn more. While you’re there, claim your copy of “The 7 Biggest Mistakes New Managers Make and How to Avoid Them”.

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