Managing People Effectively: Develop Your Management Six Pack Part 2
Welcome to the second part in the series of Managing People Effectively articles from Jeff Colligan (JPD Training’s Management Expert), which compliment the 6 topics covered in the JPD Managing People Effectively training programme. This week:
Communications let me down! Communications – art or science?
Consider the following comments people made to me over the last month:
“My staff have told me that I’m not a good listener”
“I hate making presentations”
“People just go on and on during our meetings, they won’t keep to the point”
“All I get from some of my team is just a yes or no! It’s like pulling teeth”
If you recognise any of the comments above then it’s likely that your organisation may suffer from communication problems and that you could be an integral part of that problem.
Effective communications is vital if an organisation is to thrive and prosper. Throughout the day you will communicate with a whole range of people including, managers, staff, colleagues, suppliers, customers, friends, family, neighbours, etc, etc. Questions about the methods you use are of vital importance such as should I telephone, or will an email do, or have I got the time for a meeting, or shall I speak to them face to face. No wonder communication causes so many problems.
The following case study is a good example of what I’m talking about and highlights the fact that managers, if they want to, can learn to communicate more effectively.
Situation
A small business in the North West is run by the owner/manager. He has some 25 staff who are loyal and like working for the company. The owner has a Business Plan but has never considered communicating it to the staff – why would they want to know the business objectives and the financial information is sensitive anyway. He is a likeable person and finds it difficult to say no to staff and customers – hence he usually works a 60 plus hour week.
If he asks questions of anyone, he never knows whether they should be open, closed or hypothetical. Therefore he never gets the ‘right’ answer and people get frustrated with him. He ran his last staff meeting in the afternoon on a particularly warm day and one of the staff nearly fell asleep. He has never appraised anyone’s performance because he says that he doesn’t like judging people. His suppliers think that he is an easy touch – when he does negotiate he always lets them get the best price for the goods.
Problem
There are two main reasons why his communications are poor:
1. He has never had any training in communications or indeed any management development whatsoever.
2. His business is successful. Therefore, he believes there is no link between management training and increasing his profits. So he doesn’t want training!
Solution
A group of local managers were gathered together and all took part in a 2-day communications training programme. It was practical with theory kept to a minimum and lots of real situations were discussed. Some of the managers wanted to be videoed so they could observe themselves in action. They all agreed that the management theory is not too difficult but it’s the application in the workplace that they will have to practise. Our manager felt really good knowing that he was not the only one who needed the skills.
Results:
He now realises the importance of presenting his Business Plan and all financial information is shown as a percentage. He frequently says no to staff if he doesn’t want them to do something. He always asks the ‘right’ type of questions to get to the bottom of things. His meetings are run in an inclusive manner and he
has had so may ideas for improvement that he is overwhelmed. He has coached one of the staff in meeting skills and they will run their own meetings very soon. He has set up an appraisal scheme, which all the staff think is a very good idea. His negotiation skills are still not great but now if he is not sure about a price, he feels comfortable saying NO, not let me think about it.
Not a bad result for a 2-day training course!
To find out more about the Managing People Effectively training programme and in particular Effective Communications call our training advisors on 0870 438 2573 or visit http://www.jpd.co.uk/courses/mgtskills.htm