Top Management Story

Writen by Marcia Zidle

If I was a fly on the wall what would I hear your employees say? Would it something like this? "They won't allow me to make even the simplest decisions." "The red tape here makes it very difficult for me to do my job." "Management has to sign off on everything; they don't trust me."

A big time waster for managers is micro-managing - paying extreme attention to small details and not giving people the authority to do their job. If it is such a time waster why do so many managers get hooked into micro-managing? Here are some reasons.

Top down mirroring. The CEO or President micro-manages his or her direct staff. The staff then unconsciously adopts the same management style with their direct reports. The practice spreads, or 'mirrors' itself, and becomes part of the culture.

Fear. In today's difficult economy, managers live in perpetual fear that their department better produce or else. This fear drives them to micro-manage, rather than trust their employees to make the appropriate decisions.

A wrong belief. Many managers think success is based on amassing as much power as possible. They therefore do not allow their employees to make decisions by themselves because that would be giving up their own power. However, the more management allows employees to make decisions, the more powerful the entire organization will be.

Here's what can be done to influence managers to focus their time, energy and resources on the important tasks of managing – getting work down by and through others.

1. Start at the top. Hire an executive coach to help the CEO learn to trust and delegate to subordinates. Managers will then likely follow suit with their own direct reports.
2. Ask employees. Use focus groups and individual interviews to learn from employees what decision-making authority they feel they need to do their jobs well. Then communicate this information to their supervisors.
3. Put yourself in their shoes. It is very easy for managers to lose perspective about what decisions their employees really need to make by themselves. Managers should ask themselves, what decisions would I need to make if I were doing that job?
4. Train managers. Delegating and trusting employees are all skills that can be taught. During the training, those few managers that ARE doing a good job of delegating should be asked to share their best practices and successes with others.

Many managers often know in their heart of hearts that they are micro managing. Yet they find it difficult to change old habits. Great leaders are consummate learners and are willing to take risks and try new approaches.

Marcia Zidle, the 'people smarts' coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job ­ to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management. Subscribe by going to http://leadershiphooks.com/ and get the bonus report "61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers". Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks ­ resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs ­ fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.

Writen by Marilyn Lustgarten

Just about everyone has worked with or for someone -- usually a key player in the organization -- who is great at what he or she does, but unfortunately also has the people skills of "Attila the Hun." I've never known an organization that didn't have at least one!

Who are We Talking About Anyway?

"Attila" can be male or female and bad behaviors can vary, but the one thing each has in common is that the affects of their fatal flaw typically is a rock in the road to organizational progress, and, depending on their level of influence, can even impact the firm's viability.

Consider this scenario:

Delores, a successful financial advisor, started her own financial services consulting firm four years ago. She brought over several clients from the financial services firm where she had been employed for five years and through referrals, built a solid client base within the first year. With things going better than she expected as a first-time business owner, she rented office space, hired an administrative assistant and another financial advisor to handle the workload and continued to deliver the kind of service her clients had come to expect from her firm. They worked long hours, many times meeting clients in the evening and/or on weekends.

Business was pretty good, but not necessarily growing, so Delores decided to hire another person to do marketing and sales. Delores had never had employees reporting to her before and it was a challenge getting everyone to work up to her high expectations. She saw little of her staff because she spent almost all of her time meeting with clients. She would call in several times a day to see what was going on, many times reaching people's voicemail which infuriated her. Instead of discussing the issue with her staff, she'd leave caustic messages and slam the phone. When that didn't work, she called a meeting for 7:00 the next Sunday morning, the staff's only day off, and told them she was instituting a new policy for answering the phone effective immediately -- everyone, including her would rotate answering calls for the day. Unfortunately, any attempt to further the discussion or question her decision was met with vicious personal attacks that left everyone feeling demoralized.

Because she didn't trust her staff to follow through, Delores started spending more time in the office during the day. The staff, sick of walking on eggshells or risking a blow up, began to find excuses to spend more time away from the office. Delores was, more often than not, alone answering the phone and doing other people's work. Another, larger financial services firm opened an office in her building and Delores lost two of her long-time clients to them. She fired the administrative assistant and the marketing manager, citing it cost too much to keep them on due to declining business. Then, she and the other financial advisor divided up the remaining clients and typically worked 14-hour days. The financial advisor was easily recruited away by the other larger firm and Delores was right back where she started -- working solo, but without the solid client base she had in the beginning. Her net profit for year four was in the red and she was seriously considering closing her doors.

The reason for the demise of Delores' once successful business? DELORES! Her bad behavior under pressure alienated and eventually drove off talented employees and loyal clients.

Why Would Any Organization Put Up with an Attila the Hun?

Good question! In my experience, I've found that there are usually three reasons why an organization would tolerate such ongoing disruptive behavior:

1. Attila is the BIG CHEESE

He or she either isn't aware of, or is aware and doesn't care that his or her behavior is causing good people to run for the door or customers to take their business elsewhere. As the story goes, nobody wants to risk the consequences of telling the emperor he has no clothes!

2. Attila is RELATED to the Big Cheese

Sometimes businesses inherit or have no choice but to employ family members. If their quirky, alienating behavior creates a situation where no one wants to work with them, the organization makes allowances and creates work-arounds to enable Attila, as well as keep a lid on things. Some companies actually go so far as to create an expensive do-nothing job that keeps Attila out of the office for long stretches in order to minimize routine contact with anyone.

3. Attila is in the CATBIRD SEAT

Someone who is extremely well connected in the industry, holds a critical patent, has the highest sales, or who is the only one a major customer wants to deal with, has leverage and knows it. When Attila is deemed key to the business, the firm can spend a lot of energy and resources on damage control -- usually at the expense of other people and priorities. Losing key employees or customers who don't share the opinion of Attila's value, and the willingness to risk potential harassment claims and other lawsuits, are considered, at least for now, worth whatever Attila brings to the table. The bad behavior is seen as an unfortunate, but necessary cost of doing business.

Unfortunately, all three "good" reasons are flawed, as well as shortsighted, especially if the objective is to grow the business!

Can Attila be "Tamed"?

It's possible, but it also depends. Organizations can tolerate bad behavior in talented, contributing key players...to a point. But eventually the time comes when a decision has to be made. If legal, moral or ethical issues arise because of his or her antics, then sacking Attila is the only option. Otherwise, there are times when hiring a coach to work with Attila to master new relationship skills may be a good business decision, provided two essential factors for a successful outcome are present:

1. Attila acknowledges and understands why his or her intimidating or alienating behavior is a problem and is willing to commit to and be held accountable for necessary change.

2. Attila has a boss committed to take on the responsibility of being his or her sponsor and provide critical feedback and support during the coaching process.

What's In It for the Organization?

Managing around an Attila the Hun-type is not new, and if your organization has one, you've got plenty of company! The Business Research Lab has been collecting examples for some time of "bad bosses" with disgraceful behavior. Anyone can log onto their website to vent and share experiences. This isn't the kind of recognition or association that will catapult successful careers or organizations!

The cumulative, negative affects of continuing to allow the dysfunctional behaviors typical of an Attila the Hun-type can take a serious toll on an organization's performance -- good people miss time or leave, communication stagnates, productivity decreases, leadership credibility plummets, and customer loyalty tanks.

According to more than one study, the return on coaching investment is tremendous -- from 6:1 to up to 13:1. Experienced talent is scarce and getting scarcer. If Attila's contributions are considered irreplaceable, then making an investment in his or her turnaround is both a wise investment and good business strategy.

2006 The Star Makers Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Marilyn Lustgarten, president of The Star Makers Group, LLC is an organizational strategist, coach and consultant to management in organizations ready to move to the next level. Contact her at http://www.starmakersgroup.com

Writen by Alan Fairweather

Do you ever meet with resistance from other people - I bet you do! It might be a customer, a colleague, a member of your team or even someone in your personal life. Dealing with resistance or objections is one of the biggest challenges faced by business people; so let's consider why we get resistance and how we can handle it. I'm going to talk about customer contacts but the same rules apply whether it's a colleague or even someone in your personal life.

Well there's good news and bad news - first the good news. When someone says - "You're too expensive" or "We already deal with someone else," or "I don't agree with you"- then they may not be telling the truth.

The bad news is - most of them won't buy what you're selling anyway, but don't cut your wrists just yet because - there's more good news.

If you can find out exactly what your potential customer means when they say - "No" then you have a much better chance of improving your success rate, getting more sales and more agreement.

What we need to realise is that, there is no smart answer to a customer's objection. Sales people are always looking for the "things to say" that'll deal with an objection. How can you possibly have an answer if the customer isn't telling the truth is the first place?

Many sales people believe the customer when they say - "You're too expensive". They then start offering discounts or walk away from the sale, complaining that their product or service isn't competitive enough.

So why do customers say "No"?

Well I don't want you to burst into tears but the First and most important reason is that - they may not like you! That doesn't mean that they dislike you, it just means that they don't know you and they haven't built any trust or built a relationship with you. So firstly - get them to like you, sell yourself, be trustworthy, be a great listener, smile, be friendly.

The Second reason could be that they haven't understood what the heck you're talking about. Maybe you haven't spoken clearly enough or you've used too many technical terms or jargon. This can make you seem like a real "smarty pants" so, that takes us back to our First reason. The answer should be simple enough, use language the other person can understand and keep checking by asking questions.

The Third reason may be that the customer wasn't listening. They might have been distracted by something or somebody - your big blue eyes or the fact that they're tired, hot and need a comfort break. The trick is to keep checking when you're making you're sale or dealing with someone else - "Did you understand that last bit, Mr Customer or did I make it confusing?"

Fourthly, they may not be the right person. The person you're speaking with may be telling you - "We have another supplier" - however they may not be the decision maker. To make sure you're speaking to the right person, be brave and ask the question - "Is it you who'll make the final decision or do I need to speak to someone else?"

The Fifth reason could be that they don't like change. Sometimes our potential customers like to stay in their comfort zone and they don't want some salesperson telling them they have to change their way of doing things or their supplier. Even although they could possibly save money or make their life easier; people are generally reluctant to change.

It's therefore important to outweigh the customer's reluctance by emphasising the benefits of your product or service. Also, keep selling yourself and appeal to the customer's emotional side, don't be too logical. Always remember that human beings will almost always allow their hearts to rule their heads when buying something. So appeal to the customer's emotions, keep telling them how they'll feel when they're using what you're selling - How good they'll look or how others will feel about them.

Lastly, it may just be that the customer genuinely doesn't want or need or have the money for what you're selling.

The only way to find out which of these Six points is the truth, is to keep asking questions, listen carefully to the customer and watch their body language.

Always remember that - "You're too expensive" could mean. - "I haven't understood a word you've said" or "I'm going on holiday tomorrow" or "My son-in-law works for your competitor."

When a potential customer raises an objection, make sure you know what they really mean before you deal with it.

"You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you" - Dale Carnegie

Discover how you can generate more business by motivating your team! Alan Fairweather is the author of "How to get More Sales by Motivating Your Team" This book is packed with practical things you can do to get the best out of your people . Click here now http://www.howtogetmoresales.com/Motivating%20Your%20Team.htm