Management Secrets Part III
Hugo Monteiro
PP- Manager
Management Secrets (Part III)
3 MAKE THINGS HAPPEN
3.1 Make the decision to be decisive
3.2 Project plan, plan, plan
3.3 Object to unclear objectives
3.4 Identify meaningful milestones
3.5 Make your monitoring effective
3.6 Assign fair shares
3.7 Write reports that people want to read
This chapter asks managers to define tasks clearly for the team, set key milestones and skillfully monitor progress against those milestones. By doing this we impose order and control. We also reduce the likelihood of stress not only for ourselves but also for those who report to us. If there’s one theme that links so much of this chapter then that theme is preparation.
3.1 Make the decision to be decisive
Management is so often about making tough decisions. Believe me, you have to be systematic and ask yourself searching questions. The following approach will lead you to good decision-making.
- What is the decision you must make and what is the goal? Clearly state the decision that you must make. What will be the effect of the decision? What goal are you trying to achieve?
- What are the facts surrounding the decision? What information do you already have? What could you find out? Sometimes all the facts may never be made available to you.
- What are the alternative courses of action? What other choices might you develop – perhaps through creative thinking?
- What value does each alternative action have? What are the positives and negatives of each decision? Can you develop a ranking for each? How might you assess the impact of each alternative?
- How do you implement the decision? Who must you inform of the decision that’s been taken?
Brainstorming with other people often produces ideas that just aren’t possible when a manager tries to solve a tough issue on his or her own. Consulting others is always another option. Try and find someone who’s been through a similar situation. They may just have the information you need!
“Decision-making calls for logic, calm and reason, not emotion.”
3.2 Project plan, plan, plan
Let me give this to you straight. Projects demand excellent planning skills. There are three critical factors that you will have to plan for: time, cost and quality. Of course, at the centre of all of this are people. You don’t want to waste their time. And you certainly don’t want them to waste yours.
When I’m running project management workshops most of the time is given over to project definition and planning skills. I know that the time taken on defining and planning projects will have a huge pay-off when the project is implemented. A project has a start and finish date. Often it’s a series of actions that help you achieve a specific objective. The person you’ve agreed this objective with is the project sponsor. You will have agreed a specific outcome, a deadline and the resources you will need.
“A man who does not think and plan ahead will find trouble at his door” – Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher
There are four key stages in a project.
1. Definition. What is the outcome the project must achieve? You must make sure that this has been exactly defined and agreed. Write a document which says what the project will deliver with what resources.
2. Planning. How are you going to achieve the outcome? Draw a plan of the project’s key stages. Then break these down into detail. This will help you accurately calculate the time & resources.
3. Implementation. How well is the project going? How accurate was your planning? Were your estimates correct? What unforeseen problems must you deal with? Are you managing the expectations of your sponsor?
4. Closure. Have you delivered the outcome successfully? How well did the project go? Is work still outstanding? Did your sponsor change the outcome during the project? What have you learned for future projects?
Many believe that a project is 70% people skills. Elsewhere in this book you’ll get plenty of help with these. A great project manager is also assertive, charming, demanding, approachable, driving, understanding, detail-driven, trusting, challenging…It’s a long list! That’s why great project managers are so rare.
“Successful project managers spend as much time as possible defining and then planning their projects.”
3.3 Object to unclear objectives
Get this area wrong and managing people can be very difficult. The ability to set clear objectives is one of the most important skills to master. It makes people concentrate on achieving the right things. Achieving objectives builds self-confidence. They bring focus to all that you and your people do. Great objectives meet the SMARTER criteria.
- S = Specific. The objective must apply to a particular area of work. If it’s too vague then the employee may feel it’s impossible to achieve.
- M = Measurable. It’s important for employees to have a clear idea of what success will be. Most measures are usually related to quality, quantity or accuracy.
- A = Agreed. It’s critical that the employee ‘signs up’ to the objective. They need to commit to achieving the goal. They own the objective.
- R = Realistic. Don’t try to impose an objective that sets up an employee to fail. Yes, it’s got to stretch them, but it mustn’t be impossible to achieve.
- T = Time-bound. When is the objective going to be completed by? Giving the objective a clear time frame focuses the employee on planning to achieve it.
- E = Extending. Employees need to be stretched. So the objective has to inspire them to raise their performance towards a challenging goal.
- R = Recorded. It’s important to write down what objectives are being agreed. The manager & employee will always have the original objectives to refer back to.
One minute wonder. Think back to the last objectives you set for an employee. How measurable were they? Did you attach a time frame to them? Were they specific enough for the employee to know exactly where to concentrate their attention?Write objectives using ‘action’ verbs. Examples of action verbs are: ‘to present’, ‘to sell’, ‘to write’, etc. All of these verbs are easy to attach a measure to. Avoid vague verbs such as ‘understand’. So let’s write an objective. We might agree: ‘By the end of January you will have entered new customers’ contact details onto the sales database with no more than three instances of incorrect data entry.’ This objective is about a specific task (data entry), has a target date for completion (end of January) and a quality measure (three errors).
“Well written objectives focus employees and increase their sense of self-esteem when they achieve them.
3.4 Identify meaningful milestones
Many employees can be unrealistic about how long work takes. Some give wildly optimistic deadlines. Helping them to arrive at sensible work schedule is an important management task. Working out timelines and milestones can be very helpful.
- Timelines. A timeline is a sequence of events usually in order of time. It’s often shown as a continuous line (usually drawn left to right) with significant points along it.
- Milestones. A milestone is a target on the timeline which must be achieved. Each milestone usually concludes a significant piece of work. They’re great because they indicate how much progress is being made. Asking an employee to give you an estimate for a large task with a timeline and milestones gets them to think about detail.
I might say to someone: “Anna, I’d like you to organize this year’s conference. I want an estimate of how long the whole task will take. I also need a diagram of how you will carry the task out and each major phase. Please show how long you think each phase will take and target dates for their completion.”
As Anna carries out the task, I’ll know how well it is going by monitoring her progress against each milestone. Milestones act as an early warning system. If they start to be missed, we can act quickly to get the task back on schedule.
“Milestones are important indicators of a task’s progress.”
3.5 Make your monitoring effective
Have you seen the popular definition of the difference between being efficient and effective? Being efficient is doing things right. Being effective is doing the right things. A manager’s job is to make sure employees keep on doing the right things. When we monitor someone what we should be doing is ensuring that they are making progress towards reaching their goals. We need to know how employees are coping and if there are any issues or problems we need to be aware of.
Highly controlling managers always make sure employees know who’s ‘in authority’. They constantly check and recheck progress. Eventually people feel that there is no trust and often become demotivated. A good manager knows how important it is to be trusting and approachable. They believe themselves to be ‘an authority’ to their people. Their style is ‘I am here if you need me.’
A casual “Sven, how’s the project coming along?” is friendly and interested. Imagine if the question had been, “Sven, I’m worried you haven’t finished the scoping yet.” It could be seen as doubting whether Sven’s got things under control.
“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough” – Frank Crane, American columnist
Here are some helpful tips when monitoring work:
1. Have one-to-one each month and ask for progress against the agreed targets and milestones.
2. Raise any concerns you have in a positive way. For example “Sven, are you happy you’ve got enough time for the testing phase?”
3. Ensure employees know that you’re available should they need your input.
4. Create an atmosphere of openness and honesty so that people feel comfortable sharing their anxieties.
5. Be observant and ready to intervene should an employee look stressed or anxious.
You have to strike a balance when you monitor employees’ work. As a guide, you need to monitor someone closely if they are new or struggling to perform a task. Higher performers can be monitored less. If you have agreed clear goals and a sensible timeline with good milestones, then you should be able to let them get on with it.
“Monitoring high performers too closely may destroy trust.”
3.6 Assign fair shares
A fair manager treats people equally and assigns work equally. But this can be a delicate subject because not every employee is equally talented. How can you make sure you don’t break the back of your high flier but still get a full contribution from the less talented? Am I going to talk about planning again? Yes I am! If you don’t think carefully about how you give out work then you’ll soon find you have one person crushed their workload, while sitting beside them is someone with nothing to do. So here’s how to do it.
1. Assess your staff’s strengths and weaknesses. What particular talents does each individual have? What things don’t they do well? What type of work really gets them buzzing?
2. Plan what work is needed to be done and by when. What are the timelines and milestones for each task? What skill sets will each task demand? Could some tasks be broken down and shared?
3. Assign the work. Have you agreed a start and finish date? Have you asked for a timeline and milestones from the individual? Have you agreed how the task will look if it’s been successfully completed?
4. Monitor the progress of each task. Was the task started on time? Have the early milestones been achieved? Is the member of staff comfortable with the task?
People love doing the work they do best. But sometimes it isn’t always possible to assign work that is going to ‘wow’ them. But we can still make the work important by telling the individual why we have chosen them to do it. It can still be motivating to say, “Ben, I know you always say you hate detail. But you have a great eye for spotting mistakes. I need someone I can completely trust to make sure we don’t let this spreadsheet go out with errors.”
“Be fair with others, but then keep after them until they’re fair with you” – Alan Aida, American actor
One minute wonder. How fair is the workload spread across your team? Is everyone equally busy? Have you made sure that you haven’t given all of the interesting work to one individual? Is everyone equally challenged by the work they have?
“You must plan carefully before assigning work to your team.”
3.7 Write reports that people want to read
Nothing’s easier to postpone than writing a report. You do the interesting research. Meet interesting people. But now you have to put it all in writing. It’s a tough call for a manager. But by planning the whole process the job won’t seem so difficult after all.
Every organization has its own layout for reports. Just look around and find one written by someone else. If the report was a hit, then steal the structure. It’s often a variation of the following:
- Title page
- Contents list
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Discussion
- Summary and conclusions
- Recommendations
- Appendix
But the real skill is how you organize yourself to write the report.
- Think about your audience. Who is the report intended for? What level of formality? Who else may read it?
- How detailed is the report expected to be? Are you expected to produce a single sheet with a recommendation on it or a thick document that can be studied?
- Decide the purpose of the report. Is it to help other people make a decision? Are people expecting the recommended decision in the report itself?
- Who will you need to help you in your research? Who must you consult? Does your research reflect a balance of different opinions?
- Map out the information on paper. This will help you in the overall layout of the report and make sure that your reasoning is logical.
Divide the work up into sections giving each a start date and finish date. Start the report by writing your introduction. Then turn to writing the ‘summary and conclusions’ section. It will really help with writing the rest of the report afterwards.
“An interesting report is one that is written with the reader in mind.”
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