We Specialise in Human Resources Training, Project Management and Management Training. Melbourne Australia

MISTAKE NO. 1:

Not getting to know and understand your people.

Just because you may have worked alongside them for years doesn’t mean you know them. Get to know them as individuals, find out their concerns and what motivates them. Many new managers don’t allow for the time that needs to be spent initially getting to know staff, developing trust and then mentoring and coaching their team.

Your people are what will make or break your career.

As Peter Drucker says: “ The central role of a manager is developing people.”

Stay tuned for more fatal mistake…!

Rob Golding

Research by the Institute for Employment Studies in the UK indicates that engaging managers are made, not born – they learn from their own and other people’s mistakes and modify their behaviour accordingly.

The report, The Engaging Manager by Dilys Robinson and Sue Hayday (IES Report 470, November 2009) is based on interviews with 25 ‘engaging managers’ (identified as having high engagement scores of teams in their last employee survey), 22 ’senior managers’ (people managing the engaging managers), and focus groups with 25 teams managed by the engaging managers (a total of 154 people).

The report concludes that great managers are focused on performance, taking the ‘good bits’ of other managers they have observed and avoiding the ‘bad bits’ of behaviour. They were effective communicators and showed improvement over time, according to senior managers. They were ready to show honesty and openness when breaking bad news and gave frequent individual feedback to staff. The features of engaging and non-engaging managers included the following:

Characteristics of engaging managers

Characteristics of disengaging and poor managers

Other key findings included:

• Engaging managers, senior managers and teams all had clear views about disengaging behaviours to be avoided
• Disengaging behaviours included: lack of empathy, poor communication and listening skills, being self-centred, failing to inspire, blaming others, aggression, poor delivery record, lack of approachability, lack of integrity, and micro-managing
• Engaging managers were seen to be active internal networkers who did not necessarily feel a need to network externally
• Two-way communication was viewed as an essential feature of engaging management
• Engaging managers had in-depth knowledge of their organisation, how their role fitted into the bigger picture, and were able to communicate this effectively to their teams.

2010 is an auspicious year, in fact, some would say the next 3 years to 2012 are brim full of potential! While I certainly like to believe in the positive energy abounding in the universe, I also like to ground my thinking and positivity in practicality. For example, we know that Australia has weathered the GFC so well that the economy continues to grow with house prices rising and unemployment at low levels. All the economic indicators for the Australian economy are currently positive and business confidence is increasing as is job security and choice. In fact in the week before Christmas I spoke to a number of people changing jobs over the break or in the New Year who were seeking to up-skill and/or update their qualifications accordingly.

In this more buoyant atmosphere it makes sense to review your career aspirations and to take actions towards achieving your career goals. If you are thinking of changing jobs or even careers, it can be valuable to add necessary or desired qualifications to your CV before you change jobs.

 If you are already experienced in the job you currently perform then one way to achieve a relevant qualification is to have the knowledge and skills you have gained in your job formally recognised.  This method of gaining a qualification through current job recognition is frequently overlooked and I often have individuals enquiring about a program of study to achieve a qualification for either a new job or another job as a result of retrenchment even when their last or previous job required use of the same knowledge and skills sets as the program of study they are now enquiring about! Unfortunately and all too often these people have left the job and so are no longer able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills required for the qualification.

Now, in early January is a good time to reflect and act on achieving qualifications. If you are currently working in a professional job role you should consider enrolling in a program and applying for recognition (Recognition of Prior Learning – RPL) and then just studying for the ‘gaps’ in your own learning rather than spending valuable time off the job studying for an entire qualification.   If you are thinking of changing jobs then you should act quickly to achieve recognition before you leave the job.

The College for Adult Learning offers recognition as RPL in a range of qualifications in business & management, HRM and project management.

I recently read a paper analysing Australia’s possible future workplaces and workforce development requirements where 3 potential future scenarios for Australia in 2025 were explored. The paper, builds on the Shell Global Scenarios and focuses on the Australian context and, it makes for very interesting reading. Of course it poses more questions than it answers however; one thing that really stood out for me was the importance and emphasis on trust. In all 3 scenarios put forward for 2025 there is an emphasis on relationships, social networking and a strong and definitive building of and focus on personal and business trust at all levels.

It seems that we are moving towards a ‘Trust Economy’ perhaps fuelled, in part by the blurring of boundaries between work and social networks where relationship are becoming the dominant currency and return of influence is becoming the new ROI. I know my own team constantly move back and forth between work related online networks and their own social networks where the line or boundary between either is definitely blurred or less real. Their communication channels are all open all the time. More and more often I receive work related communications from a team member sent from a club or a bar after midnight!

In preparing for a session on project management, I came across an article written by Michael Aucoin titled ‘How Trust Fuels Agility’ and in it he talks about the importance of trust in project teams and the need to foster an environment that promotes respect and trust. Stephen Covey says about trust: ‘Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people.’

There are many articles on trust and its importance in the workplace yet I wonder how we prepare ourselves and coach our people towards this values driven paradigm? How prepared are we to move to a trust based economy and economy built on relationships and integrity? Can we train people or is this part of society values & beliefs inculcated in our children from birth?

Cheers,

Helen Sabell

You can download the above mentioned report “Australia 2025: Three Global Scenarios” here.

9 November, 2009

An international survey of Australian manufacturing companies confirms that good managers are the key to successful businesses and highlights that Australian Managers while performing well in operations are, overall poor at people management. The findings suggest that while some of our firms are as good as any in the world, we still have a substantial ‘tail’ of firms that are mediocre, especially in their approach to people management.

The results come from a Management Matters in Australia survey of 439 medium and large firms and compares Australia’s performance with 15 other countries. The study commissioned by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research found many companies were weak when it came to looking after their staff, including attracting and retaining employees.

“The report tells us that there is a direct link between management practices and productivity in companies and that the more skilled and educated the managers are, the better their businesses will perform,” said Innovation Minister Kim Carr.

“Australia rated sixth out of 15 in the survey of management performance. We lag behind other advanced economies, and over half our firms are outperformed by many of their competitors in India and China. There is clearly considerable room for improvement.”

The study found multinational firms are best managed and larger operations are often better managed than small and family-owned businesses.

“Of the three areas assessed, Australia performs well in operational management, but is less strong in people and strategic management,” said Carr.

“If Australian manufacturing and other businesses are to thrive, we must lift the standard of everything we do – from the shop floor to the front office.

Manufacturing accounts for nine per cent of Australian jobs and generates 40 per cent of exports.

Senator Carr believes the Australian manufacturing industry has become complacent and is under the impression it is performing better than is actually the case.

“If we don’t put in a strong run, we can kiss the living standards and the way of life we cherish goodbye.”

Source material:

Green, Roy Professor. November 2009 Management Matters in  Australia: Just How Productive are We? Findings from the Australian Management Practices and Productivity Global Benchmarking Project. Report commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Media Release by Senator the Hon Kim Carr 06 Nov 2009 Good Managers the Key To Better Business.