Managing Success, Not People
Whether your organization be a small team, a division of a larger entity, or an international company, managers are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibility to provide support for team members being successful, developing leadership qualities, and producing results.
Today it is vital for every member of a team to be "on board" with the vision, goals, and methodology of the group. For this to occur, there are some very simple steps for managers to utilize:
•1) Meet
•2) Discuss
•3) Create
•4) Summarize
•5) Implement
- 6) Follow Up
Meet: Meet with your group. In this meeting, have the context be one of contribution. You are creating the future of your group - getting their feedback on what has happened in the past, and what they would like to see in the future. Promise REAL results!
Discuss: Your conversation needs to be managed. Have an outline of the topics you want specific feedback on. Have each person speak - at a minimum, they say It's working. If they say it's not, explore what they would expect to work instead. Assign someone to take notes during this phase, because this is where the gold is mined! Their feedback is the catalyst for taking your group to the next level of success.
Create: Have each participant create their own vision of where they will be as an individual, and where the group will be, at the end of a certain time period: 6 months, one year, five years. After writing these down individually, have each read them to the group, so members will start to relate to each other from the context of what they are up to create for themselves. Then look to see how all of the individual goals can be encompassed by a group goal. For example - if each of the members of the group have said a specific number of sales, the group's goal will be the sum of those sales.
Summarize: Come up with a single summary statement for the group's goals, which encompasses each individual's goals; be sure that the result will satisfy and fulfill on the group's purpose!
Implement: This is the vital step! Have each person contribute to the creation of a plan which delineates specific actions that will cause the results they've identified. Then as a manager, your job is to have them schedule those actions! Put it into a hardcopy format, not just a spoken conversation. Utilize calendars, computer scheduling tools, bulletin boards, etc.
Follow Up: This is the most important management responsibility- set up a regular series of opportunities for each individual to communicate their successes, the results they've produced, what is working for them, what hasn't worked, and what they intend to do to make the end result a reality. This builds their own creative skills, gives them some autonomy and sense of control over their own success. It teaches them how to manage their success.
Contrary to popular belief, the manager's job is not to manage people, but to manage that the resources required for the success of his/her team are provided and utilized. Success comes from producing the desired result, whether that be providing a product or service. Having our attention on anything else just isn't productive - our success is a direct result of their success! Manage from what you want to accomplish, rather than from an attempt to avoid what you don't want.
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