Managing Staff
Managing Staff
Managing Staff
Managing Staff
You see, by writing ‘managing staff’ I’m already sending you down the wrong track. So
between you and me I’d rather call this chapter ‘getting the most out of your staff but
in a way that also means that they get the most out of their job’. OK, ‘managing
staff’ it is.
The thing is, I can’t believe how many of my friends and relatives tell me that they have a
serious issue with their manager. Don’t get me wrong, loads of people say that they are
truly happy (yes, I admit that there are undoubtedly better managers out there than me),
but too many still seem to go home very unhappy with the way they are “used and abused”
by their boss. So this chapter is for those who want to improve the way they work with
their staff.
So how should you manage staff? It’s bullet point time:
• Treat them with respect. They’re not children, they have pride and they have
feelings. So speak to them as you’d like to be treated. If your boss does not treat
you well don’t let this affect the relationships you have built up with your team. It’s
not fair to pass ‘bad culture’ down the line. If your boss shouts at you that’s an
issue for you and your boss to resolve but don’t let that affect your relationship with
your staff (peers and so on). In particular:
o Don’t patronize
o Ask for input from staff at meetings
o Be clear to them when they don’t meet your expectations (seriously, they’ll
respect you for it)
o Recognize good performance (see below)
• Give them time. Everyone has their own values in life and one of those important
to many is to spend time with loved ones. Well, low and behold, it is the same at
work. Make sure that your staff know that they can knock on your door to discuss
something important to them and, even more importantly, they have the confidence
that you will take their issue seriously.
• Don’t fob them off. Staff have feelings too. When they bring an issue to your
attention make sure that you agree on how you will help, logging down any action
points for yourself, and come back to them with your feedback in a timely manner.
If they ask for your help and you offer to help, make sure that you actually help and
it is visible to them. Otherwise you’ll be worse off than if you didn’t offer to help in
the first place.
• Listen. Ok, all good management books highlight the importance of listening. But
this is a different kind of listening. Why don’t you ask one of your key staff out for a
coffee at break or lunch (or simply go to a meeting room or your office) and ask
them to speak about their life at work; frustrations, likes, dislikes and so on. Agree
not to interrupt them for (say) 10 minutes. And, whatever you do, don’t interrupt them. They will feel totally refreshed after the 10 minutes and you will feel really
good too. (Weirdly) you’ll also feel so much closer to them and that new bond will
probably survive for a few months without much further effort. So just think how
strong it would be if you repeated that exercise on a regular basis – perhaps 2-3
times a year. After they have finished you should comment and of course offer
advice and guidance when this is required. Don’t forget to follow up on the things
you have agreed to look into.
• Listen. In case you skipped the paragraph above. Listening is so very important
and by the way this isn’t the time to skim read.
• Set clear objectives and goals. I know that this sounds so obvious and looks like
it has been taken right out of a standard textbook but if they don’t have clear
objectives and goals (or whatever you want to call them) you can’t fairly judge their
performance. How do you set these? A concise bullet point summary is shown
below:
o Set targets (it’s the same thing) that are achievable
o Set targets that are challenging (but the bullet point above still holds)
o Set targets that if achieved make them look good
o Set targets that if achieved should certainly make you look good
o Let them know how their goals fit into the overall goals of the department and
business. Where do they fit into the overall picture?
If they achieve their targets they should know without doubt that you’re happy with
them. This leads me on nicely to the next point.
• Recognize their contributions. Staff wish to be recognized in different ways so
get to know them. How you recognize your staff is very important and you should
consider the following factors:
o Frequency of recognition. Don’t overdo it or you will come across as insincere
but do make sure that you regularly thank your staff when it is merited by
their performance.
o Formalness of recognition. Recognition varies from a ‘pat on the back’ to a
verbal thank you, to a formal email, perhaps copying of forwarding the
communication to your boss as well. Whichever route you take, and it’s good
to mix these up, keep it honest, regular and clear.
Profile sessions. One other thing that I have found very useful is to run what I call ‘profile
sessions’ with staff on a one to one basis. I have the weekly meeting where I run through
all the tasks that should be complete, project stage gates that should have been passed and
so on, but I also run monthly (sometimes every other month) meetings where we talk about
nothing other than their brand within the company. What do I mean by this (also see ‘Your
brand’)?• How are they perceived by others within the company and how can we improve that
perception. Perhaps better writing or presentation skills.
• How strong is their network within the company (see ‘Networking’)? Let’s come up
with actual names of people within the company that they should pro-actively
contact and build relationships with.
• What projects or tasks are they working on that have gone well and could be
recognized publicly? This is a double-whammy. If I email the senior management
team about how well one of my members of staff have performed on (say) a project,
they will not only email that member of staff to congratulate them, which means that
member of staff is happy with me, but they will also email me to say what a great
job I am doing in managing that member of staff. It’s great, a win-win situation and
it is so easy.
• Agree what communications they could send out to raise their profile. Rather than
you sending a communication about the office re-fit, perhaps your number two could
do this (come on, don’t be a control freak).
• Review and agree whether their current profile within the company is enhancing their
career. Correct that course if needed. In other words, if the things they are doing
are not helping develop a good persona at work stop and think of some new ones.
Now that you have the general idea, feel free to add to my bullet point list!
The hard conversation. As a manager it is part and parcel of your job to speak to staff to
not only reward and recognize them for good work but to speak to them when they are not
performing to the levels expected of them. Sometimes we can be tempted to shirk our
responsibilities (particularly if we are time pressured) avoiding that hard conversation which
often starts with the phrase “Can I see you for a minute?” However, top performance (or at
least the most significantly improved performance) often materializes subsequent to such
discussions. Their respect for you as a manager should actually go up rather than down as
long as you have been constructive, realistic, fair, transparent and tactful. Let’s take these
in turn:
• Constructive – provide them with a clear picture of what needs to improve along with
a workable plan on how to do so
• Realistic – make sure that they can achieve the goals set for improved performance
• Be fair, taking into account any mitigating factors. It is not surprising that (say) a
death in the family can dramatically affect short term performance
• Be transparent – have a 2-way dialogue in which you should be clear that you are
disappointed. Remind them of their strengths and why you believe in them. Ask
them if there is more you should be doing to help them.
• Above all, be tactful. Stay patient with them but make it clear that you expect to
see some significant improvement now that you have put a framework in place to
assist them.
• Speak to your Human Resources department to make sure that you follow company
protocol (don’t slip up on any disciplinary processes if they are relevant).My first two weeks as a manager. This is one of the best things I have ever done at
work. I became the new manager of an office of 180 staff. Now, to be fair, I had 6
reportees who all had about 30 staff each so I only really had to manage 6 staff.
I had been told that this was a well run office where staff were satisfactorily motivated.
There was an attrition issue (staff leaving the company) but apparently that was due to the
fact that their jobs were inherently mundane. There was nothing that could be done about
that or so I was told.
So, on my first day I decided to do something a bit different. I decided to stop, look and
listen. I looked around the office and saw a drab, unmotivated work environment and staff
with drawn and tired faces. I realized that it was time for some investment so I had a
schedule drawn up so that I could meet 10% of the staff each day for the next 10 working
days. I asked them to meet me on a one to one basis (at agreed times that worked for
them) and to bring along with them a list of their current frustrations plus their proposals on
how to eliminate those frustrations. The former without the latter would have made my life
far too difficult and they wouldn’t have felt an integral part of the process.
Anyway, after collating their comments, eliminating duplication and purely negative
comments from those that had yet to be motivated properly, I came up with a 10 point
plan. Each of those ‘points’ was followed by the suggestions and recommendations that has
been forthcoming. I had also added my own for good order. To be fair they had come up
95% of the content and I made it clear to them that this was the case. I’m half tempted to
list out the 127 suggestions they came up with, but they were largely specific to those
teams in that office so it would only really be a filler.
However, their comments ranged from “we need a new drinks machine on the 1
st
floor as
the current one is broken” to “we should introduce a new role of deputy supervisor for each
team so that when the supervisor is away there is a second in command”. That also helped
solve part of the career progression issue as 6 staff (you do the maths) could be promoted
almost instantaneously, subject to budget approval of course.
I communicated this plan (with deliverables and deadlines) to the senior management team
and received approval for what was not such a significant financial investment (many things
were quick fixes). The action points were delivered on time and within budget. The sun
shone on all of us that day (both on my staff and on me). It’s amazing what a little bit of
listening can do. This was without doubt the single best investment of my time across my
working career. In fact it was the start of a great career with that company.
I ran that department for about 3 years before being promoted to another larger more
significant role (based on the fact that I now had a reputation for improving the efficiency
and effectiveness of the departments within the company). Those talented guys made me
look good and I can never thank them enough for it. Lots of them did well out of our
relationship too with a series of promotions, pay reviews and internal moves to arguably
more exciting parts of the business. It’s a 2-way process remember!
The annual offsite (“Awayday”). These can be very effective in bringing the team
together, building bonds, training and educating them, and allowing them to hone their own
presentation skills, writing skills, negotiation skills and the like. As long as you take the day
seriously, ask the team in advance what they would like to achieve and ensure that the day
is varied, fun and interactive it should be a roaring success. Sound easy? Well it is! In fact
half the work can be completed by outside speakers (ask the CEO if they can spend 15minutes with your team or the global head of your function or the head of finance, sales or
marketing for your business unit).
If your team is small think about combining it with some other teams. At one work place
we combined Finance, Facilities Management and IT. It astonishes me how many shared
issues different functions want to discuss and resolve. My favorite exercise for this
combined group was to ask them to break into teams (each team had a few staff from each
function) and put together a plan for our company to move premises (something we were
thinking of doing). They had to put 3 sections in their plan. One for Finance, one for IT and
one for (wait for it) Facilities Management. I gave them some information on a couple of
sheets of paper so that they could establish the company requirements and available budget
and they put together what I must say were some pretty impressive plans. Later on they
presented the plans, so presentation skills were finely honed as well. It was a cracking day.
There are two sides to every story - part 1 (for Part 2 see ‘Chairing (running)
meetings’). It is really important to educate staff that others within the business,
particularly those in other departments, have different personalities, different goals, objects
and priorities along with different day-to-day pressures. For example, someone in the
finance department may feel frustrated that a salesperson delivers their expense claim form
one day late. They are also irritated by the fact that the salesperson’s boss will take no
steps to reprimand them. When you look at the situation from the salesperson’s lens things
can be very different. They wonder why the finance person is being so hard on them when
they are the top performer in their department (smashing through their quarterly sales
goals), when they are always courteous and polite to the guys in Finance, and when they
have been on the road for 2 weeks in back-to-back sales meetings so have not had time to
complete the travel and entertaining expense claim form. Would the Finance person rather
they put in the claim on time but missed out on a high value sale (perhaps yes?). The thing
to remember here is that different factors drive the day-to-day actions of individuals
throughout the organization. If your staff can get their heads around this it can take away
of whole load of internal stress. It doesn’t necessarily make things easier for them from a
process point of view (although perhaps when they understand the issues they may look to
change the process in order to ‘buy in’ the Sales department) but it will ensure that they
can manage their frustrations by understanding the issue from the culprit’s point of view.
Don’t’ forget to listen to new ideas. You are the chief of your team, department or
business, which means you should know that most great ideas (although not all) come from
the front-line. Ignore your staff at your peril. One analogy that remains firmly rooted in
my mind is the situation where a Captain in the army is fighting off the enemy one by one
using his sword. As they run towards him he is just about able to fight them off. However,
at the same time one of his men is tapping him on the shoulder trying to get his attention.
“Get off me” he keeps saying, “Can’t you see that I’m really tied up at the moment”. The
Private groans and tries to grab his superior’s attention a few minutes later but to no avail.
The Captain worked really hard that day and, along with his men, just about managed to
keep the enemy at bay. At the end of the day the Captain turned round to the Private and
asked “So what was so important that you kept trying to interrupt me when you could see
that I had my hands full?” The Private turned round to his Captain and showed him a box
that had arrived that day. On the outside of the package was written the words ‘Submachine gun’. If only the Captain had taken the time to listen to his team he would have
performed far more effectively for the army that day.
Crossing the divide. Some advice I received very early on in my managerial career
related to the ‘us and them’ syndrome. Once I had made the jump from the front line to a
management position my boss called me in and explained that I was now part of the management team and shouldn’t fraternize with the troops. Now, to be clear, he was not
suggesting anything other than a new approach to managing my relationships with staff.
My boss stated that I should treat staff with respect, dignity, fairness and so on (he was
explicit that this was extremely important) but I should become slightly more remote or
aloof so that I didn’t get in a tangle with my priorities or create conflicts of interest. If I was
to spend a couple of evenings a week down the pub with my staff and perhaps include
myself in conversations that were in conflict with the views that were expressed by the
management team I would lose their respect when it came to dealing with disciplinary
situations, annual appraisals, pay reviews and so on. The ‘take-away’ is to jump across the
divide and become a strong, supportive and effective manager and recognize that to be so
you may need to create some ‘distance’ from your staff.
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