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First Published in paperback in 2008 by Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN: 9780756642860

Copyright 2008 Dorling Kindersley
Text Copyright 2008 Phillip L. Hunsaker & Johanna S. Hunsaker
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 Introduction

Managing other people is perhaps the most challenging task

facing any manager. It is a dynamic process that is always
evolving to accommodate changes in the diverse and
complex workplace. Managing People provides the
understanding and skills that will help you to develop and
manage effective and high-performing teams of satisfied and
productive individuals.
Being an effective manager of people starts with self-
awareness and self-management. Interpersonal skills are
extremely important, in both one-on-one and team situations,
as you need to be able to influence others to accomplish
their own and the organization’s goals. Creating high-
performing teams is crucial for any manager today and
requires the abilities to set goals, plan and design work,
delegate tasks, motivate followers, appraise performance,
and solve problems.
As a leader of your team, you need to invest considerable
time in helping others to improve their performance and
develop their careers. Successful mentoring can contribute to
fulfillment of personal, professional, and organizational goals.
In helping others to be successful by applying the skills and
guidelines presented in Managing People, you will not only
enhance your effectiveness as a manager, but become a
leader that others want to follow.
 Understanding Yourself

Developing Self-awareness | Using Emotional Intelligence | Applying Assertiveness |

Examining your Assumptions | Clarifying your Values | Developing your Personal Mission
Statement

Knowing yourself will give you valuable insights into your

aptitude for managing others. It allows you to understand
how you’re perceived by others, why they respond to you in
the way they do, and how to get the best from them.
 Developing Self-awareness
Awareness of your emotions, personality, what you enjoy and
dislike, what motivates you, and what comes easily or poses
challenges is a key precursor to developing effective
managerial ability. Quite simply, if you can’t manage yourself,
you will not be able to manage anyone else.
Keeping moving
The best way to enhance your self-awareness is to learn in a
systematic way from your own experiences. Start by reflecting on
situations in your working life, your actions in response to them, and
the outcomes of these events. Schedule a regular time to do this,
either at the beginning or end of a workday, when you are not in the
thick of the action. Give yourself space to reflect, and make sure you
can be alone and uninterrupted for a significant period of time. Try to
gain a better understanding of what happened and think about how
you can learn from each situation.

Keeping a journal
Keeping a journal is a good way to help you learn from experience.
Journals are similar to diaries, but include entries that address
critical aspects of your managerial experiences and reflect on
interactions with bosses, employees, and teammates. Such entries
can describe a good (or bad) way someone handled a situation; a
problem in the making; the different ways people react to situations;
or your thoughts on people in the news, or in books or movies. If you
want to solicit feedback, post your journal as an online blog.

Analyzing your performance

Assessing your progress toward your goals can help you gain a fuller
understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Whenever you
make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you
expect will happen. Then, every three or four months, compare the
actual results with your expectations. If you practice this method
consistently, it will help you discover what you are doing, or failing to
do, that deprives you of the full benefits of your strengths, and will
demonstrate areas in which you are not particularly competent and
cannot perform adequately.
Feedback
It is important to have a person in your life who gives you honest,
gut-level feedback, to help you gain perspective on your
experiences and learn from them. This should be someone you
trust enough to go to when you have real problems and ask, “Am I
off base here? Am I crazy?” This person could be a partner, a
mentor, a best friend, a co-worker, a therapist, or a personal coach.
Today, many organizations are providing their managers with 360-
degree feedback, allowing them to receive insights on their
strengths and weaknesses from other members of staff.

Make notes
Use your journal to “think on paper” about what you have read
about management in this or other guides, or your experiences in
management training programs.
 Using Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to monitor and work
with your and others’ emotions. It is measured in EQ, which
is the emotional equivalent of IQ. Daniel Goleman—author of
the bestselling Emotional Intelligence—and other writers
suggest that a technically proficient manager with a high EQ
will be more successful than a manager who has only a high
IQ.
Understanding EQ
Your EQ is the measure of your ability to understand and interact
with others and becomes more important the more people you deal
with. EQ does not measure personality traits or cognitive capacity.
Emotional intelligence can be developed over time and can be
improved through training and therapy. Those with a high EQ will be
better able to control their own emotions, while at the same time
using them as a basis for action. Working with emotions, rather than
being at the mercy of them, makes individuals more successful in
dealing with the demands of the environment around them. They are
better able to control impulses and deal with stress, and better at
problem solving. All of these qualities help the individual to perform
more competently at work.

Managing emotions
Emotional intelligence has two aspects: one inward facing and one
outward facing. The first of these is your emotional self-awareness
and your ability to manage your own emotions. The second is your
degree of empathy, or awareness of others’ emotions, and your
ability to productively manage relationships with others. Both inward-
and outward-facing aspects of emotional intelligence are made up of
a number of skills or competencies.

Using EI at work
To be a successful manager in today’s business world, a high EQ
may be more important than sheer intellectual or technical ability. A
manager who leads a project team of diverse people will need to
understand and interact successfully with others. Applying emotional
intelligence at work means you are open to the ideas of others and
can build and mend relationships with others. You are aware of your
feelings and act accordingly, articulating ideas so that others can
understand them, developing rapport, building trust, and working
toward consensus. Managers who are attuned to their own feelings
and the feelings of others use this understanding to enhance
personal, team, and organizational performance.
Applying emotional intelligence
Am I aware of my feelings and do I act accordingly?
Can I share my feelings in a straightforward, composed
manner?
Do I treat others with compassion, sensitivity, and kindness?
Am I open to the opinions and ideas of others?
Can I decisively confront problem people?
Do I maintain a balance between my personal life and work?

The four competencies of emotional intelligence

Self-awareness
Emotional self-awareness; accurate self-assessment; self-
confidence

Self-management
Emotional self-control; trustworthiness; conscientiousness;
achievement orientation; adaptability; optimism; initiative

Social awareness
Empathy; organizational awareness; service orientation

Relationship management
Development of others; inspirational leadership; influence;
communication; change catalyst; conflict management; bond
building; teamwork and collaboration
 Applying Assertiveness
An effective manager needs to behave in an active and
assertive* manner to get things done. Assertive managers
are able to express their feelings and act with appropriate
degrees of openness and candor, but still have a regard for
the feelings or rights of others.
*Assertive — being able to make clear statements of what you want from others in a given
situation, without being abrasive or demeaning.

Understanding personality types

Assertiveness and the ability to express your feelings to others are
skills that people possess to different extents. Some are aggressive,
direct, and blunt, and can appear domineering, pushy, or self-
centered. Most people tend to be passive, inhibited, and submissive;
they bottle up their feelings and fail even to stand up for their
legitimate rights. Passive individuals seek to avoid conflicts and tend
to sublimate their own needs and feelings in order to satisfy others.
Most people fall between the extremes of passive and aggressive.
At these extremes, passive and aggressive behaviors hinder
effective managerial relations because neither encourages
openness. Effective managers need to be assertive, express their
ideas and feelings openly, and stand up for their rights, and all in a
way that makes it easier for those they are managing to do the
same. The assertive manager is always sensitive to the needs of
others; he or she does not seek to rule less assertive people. Trying
to achieve dominance may produce short-term results but will not
make the best use of the abilities of members of your team.
Am I assertive enough?
Does my response accurately reflect how I feel if I’m given a
compliment about my work?
Am I able to speak up when I’m in a group of strangers?
If others interrupt me when I am talking, can I hold my ground?
Do I avoid being taken advantage of by other people?
 Am I able to criticize others’ work if I think they might react
badly?

Becoming more assertive

State your case
Try beginning your conversations with “I” phrases, such as “I think,”
“I believe,” or “I need.”

Be prepared
Prepare for tricky encounters: have all the facts at hand, and try to
anticipate the other person’s replies.

Use open questions

If you are finding it hard to get a person to talk to you, use open
questions that cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”
answer.
Visualize yourself
Try assertive role play with a trusted colleague, to help you to see
yourself as an assertive person.

Get perspective
Try to see a situation from the other person’s point of view. Most
workplace bullies, for example, are hiding their own insecurities or an
inability to do the job. Use this knowledge to give you perspective on
any feelings of intimidation or offense you experience, and offer the
bully help to overcome their problems.

Be patient
You’ll need time and practice to become comfortable with the new
behavior. If you are naturally a passive person, recognize that those
around you may initially be uncomfortable when you start to become
more assertive.
 Examining your Assumptions
Managers tend to treat their staff according to assumptions
they hold about what motivates people. These assumptions
create self-fulfilling prophecies in the behavior of the staff.
Managers reward what they expect, and consequently only
get what they expect. Challenging your own assumptions is
one of the first steps in becoming a better manager.
Contrasting X and Y styles
Prominent management theorist Douglas McGregor distinguished
two management styles—X and Y—based on the assumptions held
by managers about the motives of their staff. X-style managers
believe that workers need to be coerced and directed. They tend to
be strict and controlling, giving their workers little latitude and
punishing poor performance. They use few rewards and typically
give only negative feedback. These managers see little point in
workers having autonomy, because they think that the workforce
neither expects nor desires cooperation. Y-style assumptions reflect
a much more optimistic view of human nature. Y-style management
contends that people will gladly direct themselves toward objectives
if their efforts are appropriately rewarded. Managers who hold Y
assumptions assume a great deal of confidence in their workers.
They are less directive and empower workers, giving them more
responsibilities and freedom to accomplish tasks as they deem
appropriate. They believe that people have hidden potential and the
job of the manager is to find and utilize it.

X and Y assumptions
X-style managers Y-style managers
Employees inherently dislike Employees can enjoy work and can
work and will attempt to avoid view it as being as natural to them
it. as rest or play.
Employees must be coerced, People will exercise self-direction
controlled, or threatened with and self-control if they are committed
punishment to achieve goals. to the objectives behind the tasks
they are performing.
Employees will shirk The average person can learn to
responsibility and seek formal accept and seek responsibility.
direction.
Most workers place security Most workers place job satisfaction
above all other factors and career fulfillment high on their
associated with work and will list of priorities.
display little ambition.

Shaping the environment

Organizations that are designed based on X-style assumptions are
very different to those designed by Y-style managers. For example,
because they believe that their workers are motivated to help the
organization reach its goals, Y-style managers will decentralize
authority and give more control to workers than will X-style
managers. A Y-style manager realizes that most people are not
resistant to organizational needs by nature, but may have become
so as a result of negative experiences, and strives to design
structures that involve the employees in executing their work roles,
such as participative management and joint goal setting. These
approaches allow employees to exercise some self-direction and
self-control in their work lives.
In Y-style management, although individuals and groups are still
accountable for their activities, the role of the manager is not to exert
control but to provide support and advice and to make sure that
workers have the resources they need to effectively perform their
jobs. By contrast, X-style managers consider their role to be to
monitor workers to ensure that they contribute to the production
process and do not threaten product quality.
Analyze yourself
Honestly review every decision you make and every task you
delegate. In each case, ask yourself what you assumed the staff
involved would think, and how you expected them to behave.
Remember that positive expectations help to produce positive
outcomes.
 Clarifying your Values
Values are stable and enduring beliefs about what is good,
right, and worthwhile and about the behavior that is desirable
for achieving what is worthwhile. To be an effective manager,
it is necessary to have a good understanding of what your
values are and to act accordingly.
Defining values
Values are formed early in our lives, from the influence of our
parents, teachers, friends, religious leaders, and media role models.
Some may change as we go through life and experience different
behaviors. Your values manifest themselves in everything you do
and the choices that you make. If you are someone who particularly
values promptness, for example, you will make sure that you always
behave in ways that mean you are on time for appointments. The
thought of being late will stimulate feelings of stress in you, and
induce a subsequent adrenaline rush as you hurry to be at the
appointment on time. As a manager, it is important for you to clarify
your values, so that you can determine what your goals are and how
you want to manage yourself and others to achieve them.
About your influences
Who are the individuals and what are the events that influenced
the development of my value system?
Are these sources of influence still as important to me as recent
events and people who influence me now?
Are my values still appropriate as guides of behavior in the
world I live in today?
Should I consider changing some of my values to make them
more relevant?

Clarifying your personal values

It may sound strange, but one of the best ways to clarify your
personal values and gain a clear understanding of what is important
to you is to think about how you would like to be remembered in your
eulogy. Sit quietly and consider how you want your friends and family
to remember you, and what you want your work colleagues to say
they thought of you. Also think of your broader contributions—how
would you like to be remembered in the communities you are a part
of? Make notes, and use the information you write down to identify
the values that are most important to you.

Dealing with conflicts

It can be challenging when your personal values conflict with those
of your organization, or when there are conflicting values between
individuals or sub-groups. Value differences can exist, for example,
about how to perform jobs, the nature of reward systems, or the
degree of intimacy in work relationships. Having a clear
understanding of your own personal value set will help you to
manage these conflict situations. If you are clear about your own
values, you can act with integrity and practice what you preach
regardless of emotional or social pressure. To address a conflict
situation, first make sure you are aware of, understand, and are
tolerant of the value differences held by the other parties. This will
help you to determine whether the value conflict is, in fact,
irresolvable and will require personnel changes, or whether
compromises and adjustments can be made to accommodate the
different perspectives.
Types of value
Values can be classified into two types: terminal and instrumental.
Terminal values (your “ends” in life) are desirable ends or goals,
such as a comfortable, prosperous life, world peace, great wisdom,
or salvation. Instrumental values (the “means” to those ends) are
beliefs about what behaviors are appropriate in striving for desired
goals and ends. Consider a manager who works extra hours to help
deliver a customer’s rush order. The attitude displayed is a
willingness to help a customer with a problem. The value that
serves as the foundation of this attitude might be that of service to
others.
Developing your Personal Mission Statement
A personal mission statement provides you with the long-
term vision and motivation to manage yourself and others in
your team according to your own values. It also allows you to
establish your purpose and goals as a manager. Regular
evaluation of your performance, based on your mission
statement, inspires good self-management.
Defining your future
Your personal mission statement spells out your managerial
philosophy. It defines the type of manager you want to be (your
character), what you want to accomplish (your contributions), and
what principles guide your behavior (your values). It provides you
with the vision and values to direct your managerial life—the basis
for setting long- and short-term goals, and how best to deploy your
time.

Setting out your philosophy

Make sure that your personal mission statement is an accurate
reflection of your values, goals, and aspirations for success. A
personal statement might read: “My career goals are to effectively
manage my team to achieve respect and knowledge, to use my
talents as a manager to help others, and to play an active role in this
organization.” Another individual’s statement might have a very
different focus: “As a manager in this creative firm, I want to
establish a fault-free, self perpetuating learning environment.” Re-
evaluate your statement on a regular basis—annually, at least—to
ensure that it still describes your overall vision for your future as a
manager.
Setting and attaining your personal managerial goals
Be smart
Set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and
Time-bound. You are much more likely to achieve goals that are well
defined and within your reach.
See the future
Develop a vision of what it will be like when you achieve your goals.
Your vision of a desirable future can be a powerful motivating force.
Evaluate progress
Continually evaluate your performance against your mission
statement. When things do not work out, be honest with yourself
about why.
Reward yourself
Reward yourself for small wins. When you achieve incremental
progress toward your goals, treat yourself to a reward, such as a
night out or some recreational activity.

Get support
Develop a support group of people who will help you in achieving
your goals. Your support group should include those with the
resources you need to be successful.
Set your goals
Personalize your goals. You will be far more committed to goals that
you have set yourself, rather than those that have been set for you
by someone else.

Learn from setbacks

Things will not always work out as you have planned. When you
experience setbacks, be honest with yourself about what happened
and why, and think carefully about whether you need to re-evaluate
your goals.
 Interacting with Others

Communicating Effectively | Sending Messages | Listening Actively | Reading Nonverbal

Cues | Teaching Skills | Giving Feedback | Negotiating | Managing Conflict | Valuing
Diversity

Your effectiveness as a manager is defined by your ability to

interact with other people. A manager needs to guide others
through careful communication, teaching, and assessment to
work to their full potential, both individually and as a team.
 Communicating Effectively
It is easy to see investment in communication as a luxury,
especially in times of economic adversity. However, good
communication is a proven tool for improving commitment in
those you are managing, and so for boosting revenue and
product quality.
Getting your message across
Communication is the process of sending a message to another
person with the intent of evoking an outcome or a change in
behavior. It is more efficient when it uses less time and fewer
resources; it is effective when the information is conveyed exactly as
you intend. Good communication means balancing the two: for
example, explaining a new procedure to each staff member
individually may be less efficient than calling a meeting where
everyone can hear about it. However, if staff members have very
disparate sets of interests, one-to-one coaching may be more
effective.

Delivering messages
The components of the communication process are the sender, the
receiver, the message, and the channel. First, the message is
encoded into a format that will get the idea across. Then it is
transmitted through the most appropriate channel. This is chosen on
the basis of efficiency and effectiveness, as well as practical factors,
such as the need to produce a stable record of the communication;
whether the information needs to be kept confidential; speed and
cost; and the complexity of the communication.
Channels can be oral (speeches, meetings, phone calls,
presentations, or informal discussions); written (letters, memoranda,
reports, or manuals); electronic (emails, text messages, podcasts,
video conferences, websites, or webcasts); or non-verbal (touch,
facial expression, or intonation). Finally, the message must be
successfully decoded by the receiver. Many factors may intrude,
preventing the receiver from correctly understanding what they are
told. These range from semantics or different word interpretations to
different frames of reference, cultural attitudes, and mistrust.
Before you send a message, ask yourself how much you
understand about it, and what is the level of the recipient’s
understanding? Will the recipient understand the language and
jargon you use, and do they have technology that is compatible with
yours?
Reduce “noise”
Noise is anything that interferes, at any stage, with the
communication process. The ultimate success of the communication
process depends to a large degree on overcoming noise, so make
an effort to keep your messages clear, concise, and to the point.

Tom’s of Maine
Tom Chappell is the founder of Tom’s of Maine, a successful natural toothpaste and health
company in the US. Chappell is a strong believer in using face-to-face communication to
deal with rumors, morale issues, and other communication problems. Every month, he
meets informally with his employees and talks about the company’s performance and
future plans, and solicits feedback from every member of his staff. He says that the best
way to deal with employee communication is to be honest and forthright, share
information, and “tell it like it is.”
 Sending Messages
Effective communication with those you are managing
requires that you send clear and comprehensible messages
that will be understood as you intend them to be. You can
transmit messages more effectively by making them clearer
and developing your credibility.
Getting your point across
To be successful, every manager must develop the ability to send
clear, unambiguous messages that efficiently convey the information
they want to deliver. Effective messages use multiple channels to get
the information across; for example, if you match your facial and
body gestures to the intended meaning of a message while drawing
a diagram to explain it, you are using three channels. Make sure that
you take responsibility for the feelings and evaluations in your
messages, using personal pronouns such as “I” and “mine.” Make
the information in your messages specific, and refer to concrete
details to avoid the possibility of misinterpretation. Keep your
language simple, and avoid technical jargon.

Hitting the right tone

Incorrect Correct
“I need the report delivered “I need the report delivered by
as soon as possible.” 4.30pm on Friday afternoon.”
“Everyone feels you’re not “I’m not happy when you’re late for
pulling your weight.” meetings.”

Communicating using effective messages

Do I use multiple channels when sending messages?
Do I provide all relevant information?
Am I complete and specific?
Do I use “I” statements to claim my messages as my own?
Am I congruent in my verbal and nonverbal messages?
 Do I use language that the receiver can understand?
Do I obtain feedback to ensure that my message has been
understood and not misinterpreted?

Being credible
Sender credibility is reflected in the recipient’s belief that the sender
is trustworthy. To increase your sender credibility, ensure that you:
Know what you are talking about: recipients are more attentive
when they perceive that senders have expertise.
Establish mutual trust: owning up to your motives can eliminate
the recipient’s anxiety about your intentions.
Share all relevant information: senders are seen as unethical
when they intentionally provoke receivers into doing things they
would not have done if they had had all of the information.
Be honest: one of the key things people want in a leader and co-
worker is honesty. As a sender, avoid any form of deception,
which is the conscious alteration of information to influence
another’s perceptions.
Be reliable: if you are dependable, predictable, and consistent,
recipients will perceive you as being trustworthy.
Be warm, friendly, and supportive: this will give you more
personal credibility than a posture of hostility, arrogance, or
abruptness.
Be dynamic: being confident, dynamic, and positive in your
delivery of information will make you seem more credible than
someone who is passive, withdrawn, and unsure.
Make appropriate self-disclosures: responsibly revealing your
feelings, reactions, needs, and desires to others is essential
when establishing supportive relationships. It facilitates
congruency, builds trust and credibility, and helps recipients of
your messages develop empathy and understanding with you.
Be consistent
Ensure that your messages are congruent with your actions. Saying
one thing and doing another is confusing and creates distrust.
 Listening Actively
Many communication problems develop because listening
skills are ignored, forgotten, or taken for granted. Active
listening is making sense of what you hear. It requires paying
attention and interpreting all verbal, visual, and vocal stimuli
presented to you.
Understanding the basics
Active listening has four essential ingredients: concentration,
empathy, acceptance, and taking responsibility for completely
understanding the message. To listen actively, you must concentrate
intensely on what the speaker is saying and tune out competing
miscellaneous thoughts that create distractions. Try to understand
what the speaker wants to communicate rather than what you want
to understand. Listen objectively and resist the urge to start
evaluating what the person is saying, or you may miss the rest of the
message. Finally, do whatever is necessary to get the full, intended
meaning from the speaker’s message—listen for feelings and
content, and ask questions to ensure you have understood.
Listening well

Fast track Off track

Keeping an open mind, free Judging the value of the
from preconceived ideas speaker’s ideas by appearance
and delivery
Giving the speaker your full Thinking about what you are
attention while they are talking going to say while the speaker is
talking
Assessing the full meaning Listening for specific facts rather
behind the words that are being than the overall message
spoken
Asking questions when you Interrupting the speaker when
need more information you have a better idea
 Withholding judgement until the Always trying to have the last
speaker has finished talking word

Employing the techniques

Active listening is hard work and starts with your own personal
motivation. If you are unwilling to exert the effort to hear and
understand, no amount of additional advice is going to improve your
listening effectiveness. If you are motivated to become an effective
listener, there are a number of specific techniques you can use to
improve your skills:
Make eye contact: this focuses your attention, reduces the
likelihood that you will become distracted, and encourages the
speaker.
Show interest: use nonverbal signals, such as head nods, to
convey to the speaker that you’re listening.
Avoid distracting actions: looking at your watch or shuffling
papers are signs that you aren’t fully attentive and might be
missing part of the message.
Take in the whole picture: interpret feelings and emotions as
well as factual content.
Ask questions: seek clarification if you don’t understand
something. This also reassures the speaker that you’re listening
to them.
Paraphrase: restate what the speaker has said in your own
words with phrases such as “What I hear you saying is…” or “Do
you mean…?”
Don’t interrupt: let speakers complete their thoughts before you
try to respond.
Confront your biases: use information about speakers to
improve your understanding of what they are saying, but don’t
let your biases distort the message.
Set the context
Mentally summarize and integrate what a speaker says, and put
each new bit of information into the context of what has preceded it.
 Reading Nonverbal Cues
Nonverbal communication is made up of visual, vocal, and
tactile signals and the use of time, space, and image. As
much as 93 percent of the meaning that is transmitted in
face-to-face communication can come from nonverbal
channels, so you should be aware of these cues.
Decoding the truth
The visual part of nonverbal communication is often called body
language. It includes expressions, eye movement, posture, and
gestures. The face is the best communicator of nonverbal
messages. By “reading” a person’s facial expression, we can detect
unvocalized feelings. Appearance is important, too—people do judge
a book by its cover, and most of us react favorably to an expected
image. In terms of dress, color can convey meaning (brown can
convey trust; dark colors, power), as does style (pure fibers such as
wool or silk suggest higher status). Posture is important—a relaxed
posture, such as sitting back with legs stretched out and hands
behind the head, signals confidence.
If a person says one thing but communicates something different
through intonation and body language, tension and distrust can
arise; the receiver will typically choose the nonverbal interpretation
because it is more reliable than the verbal. For example, if you ask
your boss when you will be eligible for a promotion and she looks out
of the window, covers a yawn, and says, “I would say you might have
a chance in the not-too-distant future,” you should not count on being
promoted soon.
Feelings that can be read from gestures and body
language
Openness
Holding hands in an open position, having an unbuttoned coat or
collar, removing one’s coat, moving closer, leaning slightly forward,
and uncrossing arms and legs.
Defensiveness
Holding body rigid, with arms or legs tightly crossed, eyes glancing
sideways, minimal eye contact, lips pursed, fists clenched, and a
downcast head.
Confidence, superiority, and authority
Using relaxed and expansive gestures, such as leaning back with
fingers laced behind the head and hands together at the back with
chin thrust upward.
Boredom or impatience
Drumming fingers, foot swinging, brushing or picking at lint, doodling,
or looking at one’s watch.

Nervousness
Clearing one’s throat, covering the mouth while speaking, fidgeting,
shifting weight from one foot to the other, tapping fingers, pacing.
 Teaching Skills
As a manager, an important part of your role is to help those
you are managing to develop their skills. If you can
encourage the development of skills such as self-awareness,
communication, and time management, you will be rewarded
with a high-performing team.
Learning by experience
People learn faster and retain more information if they have to exert
some kind of active effort. The famous quote, attributed to
Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I
understand” is frequently used to support the value of learning
through experience. A major implication of this notion is that new
skills can be learned only through experimenting with new behaviors,
observing the results, and learning from the experience. The learning
of new skills is maximized when learners get the opportunity to
combine watching, thinking, and doing. The experiential learning
model encompasses four elements: learning new concepts
(conceptualizing), planning how to test the ideas (plan to test),
actively applying the skill in a new experience (gaining concrete
experience), and examining the consequences of the experience
(reflective observation). After reflecting on the experience, the
learner uses the lessons they have learned from what happened to
create a refined conceptual map of the skill, and the cycle continues.
To use the experiential learning model to teach skills, you need to:
ensure that the learner understands the skill both conceptually and
behaviorally; give them opportunities to practice it; give feedback on
how well they are performing the skill; and encourage them to use
the skill often enough so that it becomes integrated into their
behavioral repertoire.
How to.... Teach new skills
1. Help the learner to form a conceptual understanding of a new
skill.
2. Plan how they can test their understanding of the skill.
 3. Get the learner to apply the new skill in concrete experience.
4. Observe what happened and discuss ways in which they can
improve.

Effective approaches to teaching skills

Approach Why it works

Being prepared Knowing Unless you know where you want
ahead of time what you want things to go, you won’t know how to
the outcome of your skills conduct yourself to get there.
training to be.
Listening Keeping The key to effectively teaching a skill
communication lines open is often expressed by the learner, but
and indicating to others that overlooked by the manager when
their opinions are important. they fail to hear it.
Using questions Presenting Asking rather than telling an
a concept, options for employee how best to apply a new
applying it, and the skill shows respect, and, because it
consequences, then asking allows them to think it through for
the learner what they will do. themselves, it helps them to learn
faster.
Being positive Correcting Using positive messages, such as “I
mistakes in a positive way, can see that you want to do well and
not in one that is patronizing I think that I can help you learn to do
or makes others feel better,” will help to motivate the
worthless and inferior. person you are teaching.
Being honest and upfront People will be more willing to accept
Making it clear to the learner your skill teaching if they trust and
what is really required of respect you because they will
them, and why this is believe you are honest and
important. forthright.
Setting performance In the long run, people will respect
targets Indicating the you more if you hold them to a
acceptable level of standard of performance, as they will
performance you expect from
those you are teaching, and know any praise they receive from
holding them to it. you is sincere and deserved.

Inspiring others
When you endeavor to teach new skills to others, you are attempting
to motivate specific behavior changes in them. This is more effective
if you can convince those you are teaching that, by acting as you
suggest, they will gain something that they value. Successful
teaching requires you to inspire others to want to cooperate with you.
However, different people consider different skills to be more or less
valuable to them, so you will also discover that the majority of
responsibility for the learning of a new skill rests with the person you
are teaching. Learners who really want to improve their skills and are
willing to put in the effort will be successful.
 Giving Feedback
Most managers will enthusiastically give their employees
positive feedback but often avoid or delay giving negative
feedback, or substantially distort it, for fear of provoking a
defensive reaction. However, improving employees’
performance depends on balanced and considered
feedback.
Valuing feedback
Providing regular feedback to your employees will improve their
performance. This is because:
Feedback can induce a person to set goals, which act as
motivators of their performance.
Feedback tells the person how well they are progressing toward
those goals. Positive feedback gives reinforcement, while
constructive negative feedback can result in increased effort.
The content of the feedback will suggest ways that the person
can improve their performance.
Providing feedback demonstrates to a person that you care
about how they are doing.
As a rule, positive feedback is usually accepted readily, while
negative feedback often meets resistance. When preparing to deliver
negative feedback, first make sure you are aware of any conflict that
could arise and think about how to deal with it. Ensure that negative
feedback comes from a credible source, that it is objective, and that
it is supported by hard data such as quantitative performance
indicators and specific examples.
How to provide feedback
Talk about the job
Keep feedback job-related. Never make personal judgements, such
as “You are stupid and incompetent.”
Give detail
Avoid vague statements such as “You have a bad attitude” or “I’m
impressed with the job you did.” The recipient needs to understand
exactly what they have or haven’t done well.
Use goals
Keep feedback goal-oriented. Its purpose is not to unload your
feelings on someone.

Make it attainable
When delivering negative feedback, make sure you only criticize
shortcomings over which the person has some control.
Ensure a good fit
Tailor the feedback to fit the person. Consider past performance and
future potential in designing the frequency, amount, and content of
performance feedback.
Be non-judgmental
Keep feedback descriptive and fair rather than judgmental.

Explain your reasons

Explain to the recipient why you are being critical or complimentary
about specific aspects of their performance.
Check understanding
Once you have given your feedback, have the recipient rephrase the
content to check that they have fully understood what you have said
and are taking away the right message from your feedback session.
 Negotiating
Negotiation is a process by which two or more parties
exchange goods or services and attempt to agree upon the
exchange rate for them. Managers spend a lot of time
negotiating, and need to be able to do it well. They have to
negotiate salaries for incoming employees, cut deals with
superiors, bargain over budgets, work out differences with
associates, and resolve conflicts between members of their
team.
Understanding approaches
There are two general approaches to negotiation: distributive and
integrative bargaining. Distributive bargaining assumes zero-sum
conditions, that is: “Any gain I make is at your expense,” and vice
versa. Integrative bargaining assumes a win–win solution is possible.
Each is appropriate in different situations.
Distributive bargaining tactics focus on getting an opponent to
agree to a deal that meets your specific goals. Such tactics include
persuading opponents of the impossibility of getting their needs met
in other ways or the advisability of accepting your offer; arguing that
your position is fair, while theirs is not; and trying to get the other
party to feel emotionally generous toward you and accept an
outcome that meets your goals.

Finding solutions
Integrative, or win–win, bargaining is generally preferable to
distributive bargaining. Distributive bargaining leaves one party a
loser, and so it tends to build animosities and deepen divisions
between people. On the other hand, integrative bargaining builds
long-term relationships and facilitates working together in the future.
It bonds negotiators and allows each to leave the bargaining table
feeling that he or she has achieved a victory. For integrative
bargaining to work, however, both parties must openly share all
information, be sensitive to each other’s needs, trust each other, and
remain flexible.
Negotiating well
Careful attention to a few key guidelines can increase a manager’s
odds of successful negotiation outcomes. Always start by
considering the other party’s point of view. Acquire as much
information as you can about their interests and goals. Always go
into a negotiation with a concrete strategy. Treat negotiations the
way expert players treat the game of chess, always knowing ahead
of time how they will respond to any given situation.
How to.... Negotiate
1. Begin with a positive overture, and establish rapport and
mutual interests.
2. Make a small concession early on if you can. Concessions tend
to be reciprocated and can lead to a quick agreement.
3. Concentrate on the issues, not on the personal characteristics
or personality of your opponent.
4. If your opponent attacks you or gets emotional, let them blow
off steam without taking it personally.
5. Pay little attention to initial offers, treating them as merely
starting points.
6. Focus on the other person’s interests and your own goals and
principles while you generate other possibilities.
7. Emphasize win–win solutions to the negotiation.
8. Make your decisions based on principles and results, not
emotions or pressure.

A win–win solution
After closing a $15,000 order from a small clothing retailer, sales rep Deb Hansen called in
the order to her firm’s credit department, and was told that the firm could not approve
credit for this customer because of a past slow-pay record. The next day, Deb and the
firm’s credit supervisor met to discuss the problem. Deb did not want to lose the business;
neither did the credit supervisor, but he also didn’t want to get stuck with a bad debt. The
two openly reviewed their options. After considerable discussion, they agreed on a
solution: the credit supervisor would approve the sale, but the clothing store’s owner would
provide a bank guarantee that would assure payment if the bill was not paid within 60
days.
 Managing Conflict
Conflict is natural to organizations and can never be
completely eliminated. If not managed properly, conflict can
be dysfunctional and lead to undesirable consequences,
such as hostility, lack of cooperation, and even violence.
When managed effectively, conflict can stimulate creativity,
innovation, and change.
Understanding the causes
Conflicts exist whenever an action by one party is perceived as
preventing or interfering with the goals, needs, or actions of another
party. Conflicts have varying causes but are generally rooted in one
of three areas: problems in communication; disagreements over
work design, policies, and practices; and personal differences.
Disagreements frequently arise from semantic difficulties,
misunderstandings, poor listening, and noise in the communication
channels. Communication breakdowns are inevitable in work
settings, often causing workers to focus on placing blame on others
instead of trying to solve problems.
Conflicts can also result when people or groups disagree over goal
priorities, decision alternatives, performance criteria, and resource
allocations. The things that people want, such as promotions, pay
increases, and office space, are scarce resources that must be
divided up. Ambiguous rules, regulations, and performance
standards can also create conflicts.
Individual idiosyncrasies and differences in personal value systems
originating from different cultural backgrounds, education,
experience, and training often lead to conflicts. Stereotyping,
prejudice, ignorance, and misunderstanding may cause people who
are different to be perceived by some to be untrustworthy
adversaries.

Handling conflict
There are five basic approaches managers can use to try to resolve
conflicts. Each has strengths and weaknesses, so choose the one
most appropriate to your situation:
Avoidance: not every conflict requires an assertive action.
Avoidance works well for trivial conflicts or if emotions are
running high and opposing parties need time to cool down.
Accommodation: if you need to maintain a harmonious
relationship, you may choose to concede your position on an
issue that is much more important to the other party.
Competition: satisfying your own needs at the expense of other
parties is appropriate when you need a quick resolution on
important issues, or where an unpopular action must be taken.
Compromise: this works well when the parties are equal in
power, or when you need a quick solution or a temporary
solution to a complex issue.
Collaboration: use this when the interests of all parties are too
important to be ignored. Discuss the issues openly and honestly
with all parties, listen actively, and make a careful deliberation
over a full range of alternatives.

Approaches to conflict-handling

Put yourself in their shoes

Empathize with the other parties in the conflict, and try to
understand their values, personality, feelings, and resources. Make
sure you know what is at stake for them.
 Valuing Diversity
Understanding and managing people who are similar to us
can be challenging, but understanding and managing those
who are dissimilar from us and from each other is tougher.
As the workplace becomes more diverse and as business
becomes more global, managers must understand how
cultural diversity affects the expectations and behavior of
everyone in the organization.

Understanding the changes

The labor market is dramatically changing. Most countries are
experiencing an increase in the age of their workforce, increased
immigration, and, in many, a rapid increase in the number of working
women. The globalization of business also brings with it a cross-
cultural mandate. With more businesses selling and manufacturing
products and services abroad, managers increasingly see the need
to ensure that their employees can relate to customers from many
different cultures. Rich McGinn, of US telecommunications giant
Lucent Technologies, said: “We are in a war for talent. And the only
way you can meet your business imperatives is to have all people as
part of your talent pool.” Workers who believe that their differences
are not merely tolerated but valued by their employer are more likely
to be loyal, productive, and committed.

Capitalizing on diversity
Managers face many challenges capitalizing on diversity, such as:
coping with employees’ unfamiliarity with native languages, learning
which rewards are valued by different ethnic groups, and providing
career development programs that fit the values of different ethnic
groups. There are several ways for you to try to capitalize on
diversity:
 Communicate your objectives and expectations about diversity
to employees through a range of channels, such as vision and
mission statements, value statements, slogans, creeds,
newsletters, speeches, emails, and everyday conversations.
Recruit through non-traditional sources. Relying on current
employee referrals usually produces a limited range of
candidates. Try instead to identify novel sources for recruitment,
such as women’s job networks, ethnic newspapers, training
centers for the disabled, urban job banks, and over-50s clubs.
Use diverse incentives for motivation. Most studies on
motivation are by North American researchers on North
American workers. Consequently, these studies are based on
beliefs that most people work to promote their own well-being
and get ahead. This may be at odds with people from more
collectivist countries, such as Venezuela, Singapore, Japan, and
Mexico, where individuals are driven by their loyalty to the
organization or society, not their own self-interest.
Let everyone know
Make a public commitment to valuing diversity—this will ensure that
you are accountable for your actions, and may attract potential
employees who prefer to work for someone who values equal
opportunities for all.

Practice what you preach

First look into your heart and mind and root out any prejudice. Then,
demonstrate your acceptance in everything that you say and do.
 Managing a Team

Setting Goals and Planning | Designing Work | High-performing Teams | Delegating

Effectively | Motivating Others | Appraising Performance

Teams are the cornerstones of most public and nonprofit

organizations. Successful team leaders understand what
makes a team effective and what can lead to failure. To be a
successful manager, you need to be able to plan and design
the work of your team, delegate tasks effectively, monitor
progress, and motivate your team to excel.
 Setting Goals and Planning
Planning is a key skill for any manager and starts with having
a good understanding of the organization’s objectives. It
involves establishing a strategy for achieving those goals
using the personnel available, and developing the means to
integrate and coordinate necessary activities.
Knowing your goals
Planning is concerned with ends (what needs to be done) and
means (how those ends are to be achieved). In order to create a
plan, managers must first identify the organization’s goals—what it is
trying to achieve. Goals are the foundation of all other planning
activities. They refer to the desired outcomes for the entire
organization, for groups and teams within the organization, and for
individuals. Goals provide the direction for all management decisions
and form the criteria against which actual accomplishments can be
measured.

Setting your goals

There are five basic rules that can help you set effective goals.
Always make your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Aligned,
Reachable, and Time-bound.
Specific Goals are meaningful only when they are specific
enough to be measured and verified.
Measurable Goals need to have a clear outcome that can be
objectively assessed. They also need to have clear benchmarks
that can be checked along the way.
Aligned Goals should contribute to the mission, vision, and
strategic plan of the organization and be congruent with the
values and objectives of the employee implementing them.
Reachable Goals should require you to stretch to reach them,
but not be set unrealistically high.
Time-bound Open-ended goals can be neglected because
there is no sense of urgency to complete them. Whenever
 possible, goals should include a specific time limit for
accomplishment.

How to.... Develop and implement a plan

1. Define your overall goals, by asking questions such as “Why do
we exist?” and “What do we do?”
2. Thoroughly analyze your working environment, to identify
opportunities you can exploit and threats you may encounter.
3. Use the results to set objectives that you want to meet. These
will create a standard against which to measure your progress.
4. Formulate a plan to achieve those objectives—what needs to
be done, by whom, and by when.
5. Implement the plan, clarifying roles and providing support.
6. Monitor your progress to ensure you are on the right track.

Look to the future

Write down three SMART goals that you want your team to achieve
in the next five years, and then plan how you will reach them.
 Designing Work
Job design refers to the way tasks are combined to form
complete jobs. It involves trying to shape the right jobs to
conform to the right people, taking into account both the
organization’s goals and the employees’ satisfaction. Well-
designed jobs lead to high motivation, high-quality
performance, high satisfaction, and low absenteeism and
turnover.
Defining jobs
Jobs vary considerably: a lifeguard, for example, will have very
different day-to-day responsibilities than an accountant or a builder.
However, any job can be described in terms of five core job
dimensions:
Skill variety: the degree to which a job requires a variety of
different activities so that the worker can employ a number of
different skills and talents.
Task identity: the degree to which a job requires completion of a
whole and identifiable piece of work.
Task significance: the degree to which a job has an impact on
the lives of other people.
Autonomy: the degree to which a job provides freedom and
discretion to the worker in scheduling their tasks and in
determining how the work will be carried out.
Feedback: the degree to which the worker gets direct and clear
information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.
As a manager, you can maximize your team’s performance by
enhancing these five dimensions. Skill variety, task identity, and task
significance combine to create meaningful work. Jobs with these
characteristics will be perceived as important, valuable, and
worthwhile. Jobs that possess autonomy give workers a sense of
responsibility for their results. Jobs that provide feedback indicate to
the employee how effectively he or she is performing.
Ways to design work by enhancing the five dimensions
1. Combine tasks
Put existing fragmented tasks together to form larger modules of
work. This can help to increase skill variety and task identity.
2. Create natural work units
Design tasks to form an identifiable whole to increase employee
“ownership” and to encourage workers to view their jobs as
important.
3. Establish client relationships
Building direct relationships between the worker and the client—
the user of the product or the service that the employee works
on—increases skill variety, autonomy, and feedback.
4. Expand jobs vertically
Giving employees responsibilities formerly reserved for
managers closes the gap between the “doing” and “controlling”
aspects of the job, and increases autonomy.
5. Improve feedback channels
Feedback tells employees how well they are performing, and
whether their performance is improving, deteriorating, or
remaining constant. Employees should receive feedback directly
as they do their jobs.
Get the right person for the job
It is very difficult to completely change how a person performs, so
try to match people to jobs that they are good at. This will make
them most likely to achieve good results.
 High-performing Teams
As Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation, said:
“All business operations can be reduced to three words:
people, product, and profit. People come first. Unless you’ve
got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.”
Successful managers are those who create, work with, and
manage successful teams.
Defining high-performing teams
A team is two or more people who meet regularly, perceive
themselves as a distinct entity distinguishable from others, have
complementary skills, and are committed to a common purpose, a
set of performance goals, and an approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable. High-performing teams engage in
collective work produced by coordinated joint efforts that result in
more than the sum of the individual efforts. Teams of 10 or fewer
members find it easiest to interact constructively and reach
agreement.

Understanding team performance

1. Who are we?
Sharing strengths, weaknesses, work preferences, and values
allows the establishment of a set of common beliefs for the
team, creating a group identity and a feeling of “what we stand
for.”
2. Where are we now?
Understanding the current position means that a team can
reinforce its strengths, improve on its weaknesses, and identify
opportunities to capitalize on and threats to be aware of.
3. Where are we going?
Teams need to have a vision of the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. They also need a mission, a purpose, and a set of
specific team goals that they are all excited about.
4. How will we get there?
 Team members must understand who will do what and when to
accomplish team goals, and must be clear about their job
description, roles on the team, responsibilities, and areas of
authority and accountability.
5. What support do we get/need?
Reviewing each member’s training and development needs can
set the stage for individual training, counselling, and mentoring
that will strengthen both the individual and the team.
6. How effective are we?
Regular performance reviews of quantity and quality outputs
and the team process—with recognition and reward for success
—ensure achievement of team goals and provide members with
standards.

Mutual trust
A climate of mutual trust is essential in a high-performing team—
each member of the team needs to know they can depend on the
others. Successful managers build mutual trust by creating a
climate of openness in which employees are free to discuss
problems without fear of retaliation. They are approachable and
respectful and listen to team members’ ideas, and develop a
reputation for being fair, objective, and impartial in their treatment of
others. Consistency and honesty are key, so they avoid erratic and
unpredictable behavior and always follow through on any explicit
and implied promises they make. Communication is at the heart of
building and maintaining mutual interdependence between
members of a team. Managers of high-performing teams keep team
members informed about upper-management decisions and policies
and give accurate feedback on their performance. They are also
open and candid about their own problems and limitations.

Achieving good teamwork

To help your teams perform to the best of their ability, create clear
goals. All team members need to have a thorough understanding of
the goals of the team and a belief that these goals embody a
worthwhile result. This encourages team members to sublimate
personal concerns to those of the team. Members need to be
committed to the team’s goals, know what they are expected to
accomplish, and understand how they will work together to achieve
these goals.
However, these goals must be attainable; team members can lose
morale if it seems that they are not. To avoid this, set smaller interim
milestones in the path to your overall goal. As these smaller goals
are attained, your team’s success is reinforced. Cohesiveness is
increased, morale improves, and confidence builds.
As the manager of a team, it is your job to provide the resources
and support that the members need to achieve success. Offer skills
training where needed, either personally or by calling in specialists
within your organization or outside training services.
Steering your team
Team members should all share in the glory when their team
succeeds, and they should share in the blame when it fails.
However, members need to know that they cannot ride on the backs
of others. Identify what each member’s individual contribution to the
team’s work should be and make it a part of his or her overall
performance appraisal.
To help monitor performance, select members of the team to act as
participant–observers. While a team is working, the role of the
participant–observer is to focus on the processes being used: the
sequence of actions that takes place between team members to
achieve the team’s goal. Periodically, the participant–observer
should stop the team from working on its task and discuss the
process members are engaged in. The objectives of the participant–
observer are to continuously improve the team’s functioning by
discussing the processes being used and creating strategies for
improving them.

Setting standards
Create a performance agreement to record the details of what the
team is aiming to achieve, what is required and expected of every
team member, and what support will be available to them. Setting
out the framework for team success clearly helps to ensure that
there is a mutual understanding and common vision of the desired
results and emphasizes the standards that you expect from every
team member.
Creating a team performance agreement
Have I identified what is to be done and when?
Have I specified the boundaries (guiding rules of behavior) or
the means for accomplishing results?
Have I identified the human, financial, technical, or
organizational support available to help achieve the results?
Have I established the standards of performance and the time
intervals for evaluation?
Have I specified what will happen in performance evaluations
and the consequences of not meeting the standards?

Change personnel
If your teams get bogged down in their own inertia or internal
fighting, rotate the members. Consider how certain personalities will
mesh and re-form your teams in ways that will better complement
skills.
 Delegating Effectively
Managers are responsible for getting things done through
other people. You need to accomplish assigned goals by
delegating responsibility and authority to others. Empowering
others through delegation is one of the most powerful
managerial tools for increasing productivity.
Empowering others
Managers delegate by transferring authority and responsibility for
work to employees. Delegation empowers employees to achieve
goals by allowing them to make their own decisions about how to do
a job. Delegation also helps develop employees for promotion
opportunities by expanding their knowledge, job capabilities, and
decision-making skills. Delegation frequently is depicted as having
four key components:
Allocation of duties Before a manager can delegate authority,
the tasks and activities that need to be accomplished must be
explained.
Delegation of authority Delegation is the process of
transferring authority to empower a subordinate to act for you as
a manager.
Assignment of responsibility Managers should assign
responsibility to the empowered employee for performing the job
adequately.
Creation of accountability Managers should hold empowered
employees responsible for properly carrying out their duties.
This includes taking responsibility for the completion of tasks
assigned to them and also being accountable to the manager for
the satisfactory performance of that work.
Feeling the benefits
Effective delegation is key for any manager. It will free up your time,
allowing you to focus on big-picture strategic activities. It can also
lead to better decision-making, because it pushes decisions down
the organization, meaning that decision-makers are often closer to
the problems. It also helps those you are managing develop their
own decision-making skills and prepares them for future promotion
opportunities.
Letting go
Managers often have trouble delegating. Some are afraid to give up
control, explaining, “I like to do things myself, because then I know
it’s done and it’s done right.” Others lack confidence in their
employees or fear that they may be criticized for others’ mistakes.
While you may be capable of doing the tasks you delegate better,
faster, or with fewer mistakes, it is not possible to do everything
yourself. However, you should expect, and accept, some mistakes
by those you delegate to. Mistakes are often good learning
experiences. You also should put adequate controls and
mechanisms for feedback in place so you will know what is
happening.
How to.... Delegate
1. Clarify the assignment
Explain what is being delegated, the results you expect, and
the timeframe.
2. Set boundaries
 Ensure that the delegatees understand precisely what the
parameters are of the authority you are bestowing on them.
3. Encourage participation
Involve delegatees in decisions about what is delegated, how
much authority is needed, and standards to be attained.
4. Inform others
Let everyone who may be affected know what has been
delegated to whom and how much authority has been granted.
5. Establish controls
Agree on a specific time for completion of the task, and set
dates when progress will be checked and problems discussed.
6. Encourage development
Insist from the beginning that when delegatees come to you
with a problem, they also bring a possible solution.
 Motivating Others
Every day, people make decisions about how much effort to
put into their work. Managers have many opportunities to
influence these decisions and motivate their team by
providing challenging work, recognizing outstanding
performance, allowing participation in decisions that affect
employees, and showing concern for personal issues.
Understanding needs
As a manager, you need to understand what drives your team to do
the best that they can. American psychologist Abraham Maslow
proposed that every individual has a five-level hierarchy of needs
that they are driven to attempt to satisfy. Once a lower-level need
has been largely satisfied, its impact on a person’s behavior
diminishes, and they begin to be motivated to gain the next highest
level need.
There are two aspects to what makes a person perform well: ability
and motivation. Ability is the product of aptitude, training, and
resources, while motivation is the product of desire and commitment.
All of these elements are required for high performance levels. If
someone is not performing well, the first question you should ask
yourself is: “Is their poor performance the result of a lack of ability or
a lack of motivation?” Motivational methods can often be very
effective for improving performance, but if the problem is lack of
ability, no amount of pressure or encouragement will help. What the
person needs is training, additional resources, or a different job.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Self-actualization needs
The highest level is to feel that we are achieving life goals. At work,
this means being able to exercise creativity and to develop and fully
utilize our skills.
Esteem needs
Next, we are motivated by the need for self-esteem and esteem from
others, such as recognition for accomplishments and promotion.
Social needs
Once you feel reasonably secure, social needs begin to take over. At
work, this means having good relationships with co-workers and
participating in company social functions.

Safety needs
Once physiological needs are satisfied, safety needs are aroused.
These can be satisfied at work by having job security and safe
working conditions, and receiving medical benefits.
Physiological needs
Our most basic needs are for physical survival, such as to satisfy
hunger or thirst. At work, this is receiving enough pay to buy food
and clothing and pay the rent.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Using positive reinforcement
Rewarding progress and success and recognizing achievements are
powerful ways to motivate your team. By rewarding someone for
doing something right, you positively reinforce that behavior, giving
them an incentive for doing it again. There are two basic types of
reward: extrinsic and intrinsic. Many people depend on and highly
value extrinsic rewards that are externally bestowed, such as praise,
a promotion, or a pay raise. Others place a high value on intrinsic
rewards, which originate from their own personal feelings about how
they performed or the satisfaction that they derive from a job well
done.
Rewarding success
Try to understand whether each individual you are managing values
intrinsic or extrinsic rewards more highly. If you always praise
achievements, for example, a motivated person who excels largely
for the feelings of intrinsic satisfaction will probably begin to view you
as superficial. The professional may think, “I know I did a superb job
on this project. Why is my manager being so condescending?”
People also desire different types of extrinsic rewards. Praise may
be perfectly acceptable to the person motivated by affiliation and
relationship needs, but may do nothing for the person expecting a
more tangible reward, like money. Typical extrinsic rewards are
favorable assignments, trips to desirable destinations, tuition
reimbursement, pay raises, bonuses, promotions, and office
placements.
Can I draw on my experience?
Can you think of a coach, teacher, or manager who motivated
you to enhance your performance in a particular task?
What did they do to motivate you?
How did you feel as a result of their actions?
Can you recreate their actions or use their approach when
trying to motivate your team?

Motivating your team

There are other methods of motivating employees in addition to
direct positive reinforcement. These include:
Strengthening effort–performance–reward expectancies To
get the best from your team, emphasize the anticipated reward
value, whether extrinsic or intrinsic. Make sure that every
individual realizes the link between their performance and the
rewards. Even if your organization does not provide
performance-based pay, you can bestow other extrinsic
rewards, such as allocating more favorable job assignments.
Giving performance feedback Provide feedback to
demonstrate that you know what the members of your team are
doing and to acknowledge improved performance or a job well
done. Especially when individuals are unsure of themselves,
you should point out ways in which the person is improving.
Praising specific accomplishments will help to bolster that
person’s self-esteem.
Providing salient rewards Employees don’t all value the same
rewards equally, so try to tailor your rewards to get the most out
of each individual.
Reinforcing the right behavior Quite often what managers say
they want, what they reward, and what they get from their team
are quite different. If you verbally espouse innovation but reward
doing things by the book, you are sending mixed signals and
reinforcing the wrong behavior. Think carefully about your
rewards and what they mean, and make sure that you reinforce
behavior that you want to see repeated.
Empowering employees to achieve Empowering the people
you are managing, by giving them the authority, information, and
tools they need to do their jobs with greater autonomy, can
greatly improve their motivation levels.

Motivating my team
Do I set clear goals and reward success?
Am I positively reinforcing successful behavior?
Are the rewards I give salient to each individual I am
managing?
 Have I considered linking pay to performance?
Have I redesigned jobs to help motivate the people doing
them?
Do I make opportunities to learn available to my team?

Prioritizing needs
Theresa, a successful technical writer and a single parent, had been earning a good salary
and benefits that enabled her to provide for her family’s physical well-being: ample food,
comfortable housing and clothing, and good medical care. Her company then announced
that it was downsizing, and she feared being laid off. This triggered concerns about her
safety needs and meant that she became much less concerned about the higher order
needs of belonging to a group or her own self-esteem to perform creative and technically
accurate work. Rather, she was motivated to do whatever was necessary to ensure that
she kept her job or could find a new one. Once Theresa knew that her job was safe, she
changed back to having a higher-order need, energizing her behavior.
 Appraising Performance
As a manager, you must ensure that objectives are met and
also that employees learn how to enhance their performance.
Providing structured feedback through the formal
performance appraisal process can increase productivity and
morale and decrease absenteeism and staff turnover.
Assessing progress
Giving feedback in a formal way in performance appraisal interviews
conveys to those you are managing that you care about how they
are doing. Appraisals allow you to set goals and monitor
achievement, helping to motivate your team to perform to a higher
level. They allow you to tell each individual how well they’re
progressing, which can reinforce good behavior and extinguish
dysfunctional behavior. However, the interview itself should be the
final step in the performance appraisal process. Appraisal should be
a continuous process, starting with the establishment and
communication of performance standards. Continually assess how
each individual is performing relative to these standards, and use
this information to discuss a person’s performance with them in the
appraisal interview.
Am I prepared for the appraisal?
Have I carefully considered the employee’s strengths as well as
their weaknesses?
Can I substantiate, with specific examples, all points of praise
and criticism?
Have I thought about any problems that may occur in the
appraisal interview?
Have I considered how I will react to these problems?

Conducting the appraisal interview

Start with the aim of putting the person at ease. Most people don’t
like to hear their work criticized, so be supportive and understanding
and create a helpful and constructive climate. Begin the interview by
explaining what will transpire during the appraisal and why. Keep
your appraisal goal-oriented, and make sure that your feedback is
specific. Vague statements provide little useful information. Where
you can, get the person’s own perceptions of the problems being
addressed—there may be contributing factors that you are unaware
of. Encourage the person to evaluate themselves as much as
possible. In a supportive climate, they may acknowledge
performance problems independently, thus eliminating your need to
raise them. They may also offer viable solutions.
At the end of the interview, ask the recipient to rephrase the content
of your appraisal. This will indicate whether or not you have
succeeded in communicating your evaluation clearly. Finish by
drawing up a future plan of action. Draft a detailed, step-by-step plan
for improvement. Include in the plan what needs to be done, by
when, and how you will monitor the person’s activities.
Conducting appraisal interviews

Fast track Off track

Focusing only on feedback Sharing your feelings about a
that relates to the person’s job person’s personality
Providing both positive and Focusing your comments only on
negative feedback bad performance
Sharing first-hand Including rumors and allegations in
observations as evidence your appraisal
Being unafraid to criticize the Avoiding offending the other
person constructively person by sugarcoating your
criticism

Keep your options open

When giving your appraisal, avoid absolutes such as “always” and
“never”—if the person you are appraising can introduce one
exception to your statement, it can destroy the entire statement’s
validity and damage your credibility.
 Leading Others

| Ensuring Cultural Fit | Solving Problems | Building Power |

Setting Ethical Boundaries
Managing Change | Helping Others to Improve | Coaching and Mentoring | Managing
Careers

Leadership is the process of providing direction, influencing

and energizing others, and obtaining follower commitment to
shared organizational goals. Managers need to lead their
team, setting ethical boundaries for them to follow,
developing a power base for influencing them to change in
positive ways, and helping them improve through coaching
and mentoring.
 Setting Ethical Boundaries
Few of us would be likely to steal or cheat, but how principled
would you be, or should you be, when faced with routine
business situations involving ethical choices? As a leader,
you need to have a clear understanding of your ethical
principles and set a consistent example for your team.
Understanding ethics
Ethics refer to the rules or principles that define right or wrong
conduct. In the workplace, acting ethically is not just an abstraction,
it is an everyday occurrence. Consider this dilemma: an employee,
after some pressure from you, has found another job. You are
relieved because you will not have to fire him; his work has been
substandard for some time. But your relief turns to dismay when he
asks you for a letter of recommendation. Do you say no and run the
risk that he will not leave? Or do you write the letter, knowing that
you’re influencing someone else to take him on?

Being responsible
Ethics is important for everyone in an organization, particularly as
some unethical acts are also illegal. Many organizations want
employees to behave ethically because such a reputation is good for
business, which in turn can mean larger profits. However, acting
ethically is especially crucial for managers. The decisions a manager
makes set the standard for those they are managing and help create
a tone for the organization. If employees believe all are held to high
standards, they are likely to feel better about themselves, their
colleagues, and their organization.

Developing ethics
The behavior of managers is under more scrutiny than that of other
members of staff, and misdeeds can become quickly and widely
known, destroying the reputation of the organization. It is important
for managers to develop their own ethical boundaries—lines that
they and their employees should not cross. To do this, you need to:
Know and understand your organization’s policy on ethics.
Anticipate unethical conduct. Be alert to situations that may
promote unethical behavior. (Under unusual circumstances,
even a normally ethical person may be tempted to act out of
character.)
Consider all consequences. Ask yourself questions such as:
“What if my actions were described in detail on a local TV news
show, or in the newspaper? What if I get caught doing
something unethical? Am I prepared to deal with the
consequences?”
Seek opinions from others. They may have been in a similar
situation, or at least can listen and be a sounding board for you.
Do what you truly believe is right. You have a conscience and
are responsible for your behavior. You need to be true to your
own internal ethical standards. Ask yourself the simple question:
“Can I live with what I have decided to do?”

Is what I’m about to do ethical?

Why am I doing what I’m about to do?
What are my true intentions in taking this action?
Are there any ulterior motives behind my action, such as
proving myself to my peers or superiors?
Will my actions injure someone, physically or emotionally?
Would I disclose to my boss or my family what I’m about to do?
 Ensuring Cultural Fit
An organization’s culture, or personality, refers to the key
characteristics that the organization values and that
distinguish it from other organizations. Managers need to be
aware of organizational culture because they are expected to
respond to the dictates of the culture themselves and also to
develop an understanding of the culture in those they are
managing.
Analyzing organizational culture
The cultural imperatives of an organization are often not written
down or even discussed, but all successful managers must learn
what to do and what not to do in their organizations. In fact, the
better the match between the manager’s personal style and the
organization’s culture, the more successful the manager is likely to
be. Founders create culture in three ways. First, they hire and keep
employees who think and feel the way they do. Second, founders
indoctrinate and socialize these employees to their way of thinking.
Third, founders act as role models, and their personality becomes
central to the culture of the organization.
Being able to discern an organization’s culture is not always a
simple task. Many organizations have given little thought to their
culture and do not readily display it. To try to find out more about
your organization’s culture, you might:
Observe the physical surroundings. Look at signs, pictures,
styles of dress, length of hair, the degree of openness among
offices, and how those offices are furnished and arranged.
Listen to the language. For example, do managers use military
terms, such as “take no prisoners,” and “divide and conquer”?
Or do they speak about “intuition,” “care,” and “our family of
customers”?
Ask different people the same questions and compare their
answers. You might ask: how does this company define
 success? For what are employees most rewarded? Who is on
the fast track and what did they do to get there?

Sustaining culture
Managers are responsible for sustaining organizational culture, by
helping new employees learn and adapt to it. A new worker, for
example, must be taught what behaviors are valued and rewarded
by the organization, so that he or she can learn the “system” and
gradually assume those behaviors that are appropriate to their role.

Keeping culture consistent

At coffee retailer Starbucks, every employee goes through a set of formal classes during
their first few weeks on the job. They are taught the history of the firm, coffee-making
techniques, and how to explain Starbucks’s Italian drink names to baffled customers, and
given coffee-tasting classes. The firm’s socialization program turns out employees who are
well versed in the company’s culture and can represent Starbucks’s obsession with
“elevating the coffee experience” for its customers.
 Solving Problems
Managerial success depends on making the right decisions
at the right times. However, unless you define a problem and
identify its root causes, it is impossible to make appropriate
decisions about how to solve it. Effective managers know
how to gather and evaluate information that clarifies a
problem, develop alternatives, and weigh up the implications
of a plan before implementing it.
Spotting problems
A problem exists when a situation is not what is needed or desired. A
major responsibility for all managers is to maintain a constant
lookout for existing or potential problems, and to spot them early
before they escalate into serious situations. Managers fulfill this
responsibility by keeping channels of communication open,
monitoring employees’ current performance, and examining
deviations from present plans as well as from past experience. Four
situations can alert managers to possible problems:
A deviation from past experience
A deviation from a set plan
When other people communicate problems to you
When competitors start to outperform your team or organization.

The problem-solving process

1. Identifying
Being conscious of what is going on around you, so you can
spot problems early.
2. Defining
Making a careful analysis of the problem to be solved, in order
to define it as clearly as possible.
3. Making the decision
Evaluating the alternatives and choosing a course of action that
will improve the situation in a significant way.
 4. Implementing
Setting your action plan in motion, by creating a schedule and
assigning tasks and responsibilities.
5. Following through
Monitoring progress, to ensure that the desired outcome is
achieved.

Finding solutions
Problem solving involves closing the gap between what is actually
taking place and a desired outcome. Once you have identified a
problem that needs to be addressed, start by analyzing the problem
and defining it as clearly as you can. This is a key step: the definition
you generate will have a major impact on all remaining steps in the
process. If you get the definition wrong, all remaining steps will be
distorted, because you will base them on insufficient or erroneous
information. Definition is important even if the solution appears to be
obvious—without a full assessment you may miss an alternative
resolution that is more advantageous.
Gather as much information about the situation as you can. Try to
understand the goals of all of the parties involved, and clarify any
aspects of the problem you are unclear about. Once you are
satisfied that you have a full understanding of the issues, develop
courses of action that could provide a resolution to the problem.
There is often more than one way to solve a problem, so it is critical
to consider all possible solutions and arrive at several alternatives
from which to choose.
Your decision will provide you with an action plan. However, this will
be of little value unless it is implemented effectively. Defining how,
when, and by whom the action plan is to be implemented and
communicating this to those involved is what connects the decision
with reality.
Your involvement should not end at implementation, however.
Establish criteria for measuring success, then track progress and
take corrective actions when necessary. Try to develop and maintain
positive attitudes in everyone involved in the implementation
process.
 Building Power
Power is the capacity to influence an individual or group to
behave in ways they would not have on their own. Learning
how to acquire power and exercise it effectively will help you
manage and influence others and develop your managerial
career.
Developing power bases
Managerial positions come with the authority to issue directives and
allocate rewards and punishments—for example, to assign favorable
or unfavorable work assignments, hold performance reviews, and
make salary adjustments. However, you can also build power in
other ways:
Expertise: organizations are often dependent on experts with
special skills, such as in technology.
Charisma: when others admire you and identify with you, you
have referent power over them.
Access to information: having information that only you have
access to but others need gives you power.
Association power: having confidantes in powerful positions can
increase your power.
Impression management: shaping the image you project to
others in order to favorably influence how others see and
evaluate you can give you power. For example, it might be used
when lobbying your boss for a pay raise or a promotion.
Politicking: you don’t always win just by being a competent
performer. Politicking is taking actions to influence, or attempt to
influence, the distribution of advantages and disadvantages
within your organization. It involves using strategies to influence
decision outcomes in your favor.

Ways to use managerial power to obtain desired

outcomes
Friendliness
Use flattery, create goodwill, act humbly, and be supportive prior to
making a request. This works best when you are well liked.
Assertiveness
Be direct and forceful when indicating what you want from others.
This strategy is most effective when the balance of power is clearly
in your favor.
Sanctions
Use organizationally derived rewards and punishments to obtain
desired outcomes. This approach is only for influencing
subordinates, and may be seen as manipulative.
Higher authority
Gain the support of those above you to back your requests. This is
only effective in bureaucratic organizations where there is great
respect for authority.

Reasoning
Use facts and data to make a logical or rational presentation of
ideas. This is most effective when others are trustworthy, open, and
logical.

Coalitions
Develop support in the organization for what you want to happen.
This is most effective where final decisions rely on the quantity not
the quality of support.
Bargaining
Exchange benefits or favors to negotiate outcomes acceptable to
both parties. This works best when organizational culture promotes
give-and-take cooperation.
 Managing Change
Individuals, managers, teams, and organizations that do not
adapt to change in timely ways are unlikely to survive in our
increasingly turbulent world environment. Managers that
anticipate change, learn to adapt to change, and manage
change will be the most successful.
Overcoming resistance
Change is the process of moving from a present state to a more
desired state in response to internal and external factors. To
successfully implement change, you need to possess the skills to
convince others of the need for change, identify gaps between the
current situation and desired conditions, and create visions for
desirable outcomes.
Experienced managers are aware that efforts to change often face
resistance. This can be for a variety of reasons, including fear,
vested interests, misunderstanding, lack of trust, differing
perceptions of a situation, and limited resources. You need to be
able to counter this resistance to change through education,
participation, and negotiation.

Phases of change
Planned change progresses through three phases:
Unfreezing This involves helping people see that a change is
needed because the existing situation is undesirable. Existing
attitudes and behaviors need to be altered during this phase to
reduce resistance, by explaining how the change can help
increase productivity, for example. Your goal in this phase is to
 help the participants see the need for change and to increase
their willingness to make the change a success.
Changing This involves making the actual change and
requires you to help participants let go of old ways of doing
things and develop new ones.
Refreezing The final phase involves reinforcing the changes
made so that the new ways of behaving become stabilized. If
people perceive the change to be working in their favor,
positive results will serve as reinforcement, but if not, it may be
necessary to use external reinforcements, which can be
positive or negative.

Promoting change
Major change does not happen easily. Effective managers are able
to establish a sense of urgency that the change is needed. If an
organization is obviously facing a threat to its survival, this kind of
crisis usually gets people’s attention. Dramatically declining profits
and stock prices are examples. In other cases, when no current
crisis is obvious, but managers have identified potential problems by
scanning the external environment, the manager needs to find ways
to communicate the information broadly and dramatically to make
others aware of the need for change. Managers also have to develop
and articulate a compelling vision and strategy that people will aspire
to, that will guide the change effort. The vision of what it will be like
when the change is achieved should illuminate core principles and
values that pull followers together. Lastly, institutionalizing changes
in the organizational culture will refreeze the change. New values
and beliefs will become instilled in the culture so that employees
view the changes as normal and integral to the operations of the
organization.
Turn to the positive
Try to use any resistance to your proposed change for your benefit,
by making it a stimulus for dialog and a deeper, more thoughtful
analysis of the alternatives.
 Helping Others to Improve
Helping employees become more competent is an important
part of any manager’s job. It contributes to a three-way win
for the organization, the manager, and the employees
themselves. By helping others resolve personal problems
and develop skill competencies—and so help them improve
their performance—you will motivate your team to achieve
better results for themselves and for the organization.
Diagnosing problems
If you can reduce unsatisfactory performance in the people you are
managing, you ultimately make your job easier because you will be
increasingly able to delegate responsibilities to them. Unsatisfactory
performance often has multiple causes. Some causes are within the
control of the person experiencing the difficulties, while others are
not.
Determining the cause of unsatisfactory
performance
Is the person unaware that their performance is unsatisfactory?
If yes, provide feedback.
Is the person performing poorly because they are not aware of
what is expected of them? If yes, provide clear expectations.
Is performance hampered by obstacles beyond the person’s
control? If yes, determine how to remove the obstacles.
Is the person struggling because they don’t know how to
perform a key task? If yes, provide coaching or training.
Is good performance followed by negative consequences? If
yes, determine how to eliminate the negative consequences.
Is poor performance being rewarded by positive
consequences? If yes, determine how to eliminate the positive
reinforcement.

Ways to help others improve

 Ask questions to help discover sources of problems.
Accept mistakes and use them as learning opportunities.
Help develop action plans for improvement.
Seek to educate rather than to assist.
Provide meaningful feedback for learning.
Encourage continual improvement.
Demonstrate unconditional positive regard by suspending
judgement and evaluation.
Recognize and reward even small improvements.
Actively listen to employees and show genuine interest.
Model the behaviors you desire.

Demonstrating positive regard

The relationship between you and the person you are helping is
critical to the success of the coaching, mentoring, or counselling you
undertake with them. For a helping relationship to be successful it is
important to hold the person being helped in “unconditional positive
regard”. This means that you accept and exhibit warm regard for the
person needing help as a person of unconditional self-worth—a
person of value no matter what the conditions, problems, or feelings.
If you can communicate positive regard, it provides a climate of
warmth and safety because the person feels liked and prized as a
person. This is a necessary condition for developing the trust that is
crucial in a helping relationship.

Conducting a helping session

Before you speak to someone about how to help them improve their
performance, make sure you have acquired all the facts about the
situation. Take time to think about what type of help the situation
requires and consider how the person might react and how they
might feel about what you are going to discuss. During the helping
session:
Start by discussing the purpose of the session.
Try to make the person feel comfortable and at ease.
 Establish a non-defensive climate, characterized by open
communication and trust.
Before you discuss the problem you have identified, raise and
discuss positive aspects of the person’s performance.
Mutually define the problem (performance or attitude).
Mutually determine the causes. Do not interpret or
psychoanalyze behavior; instead, ask questions such as,
“What’s causing the lack of motivation you describe?”
Help the other person establish an action plan that includes
specific goals and dates.
Make sure expectations are clearly understood.
Summarize what has been agreed upon.
Affirm your confidence in the person’s ability to make needed
changes based on his or her strengths or past history.
After the session, make sure that you follow up to see how the
person is progressing, and modify the action plan if necessary.
Feedback
People need feedback about the consequences of their actions if
they are to learn what works and what doesn’t and then change
their actions to become more effective. Carefully thought-out
feedback can increase performance and positive personal
development. Applying feedback in the helping process involves:
Describing observed behaviors and the results and
consequences of those behaviors.
Assessing the impact of the observed behaviors in terms of
organizational vision and goals.
Predicting the personal consequences for the person involved if
no changes take place.
Recommending changes the person could make to improve
their behavior.
This sequence of actions applies whether the type of help being
given to the person is coaching, mentoring, or counselling.

Counselling others
Counselling is the discussion of emotional problems in order to
resolve them or to help the person better cope. Problems that might
require counselling include divorce, serious illness, financial
problems, interpersonal conflicts, drug and alcohol abuse, and
frustration over a lack of career progress. Although most managers
are not qualified as psychologists, there are several things managers
can do in a counselling role before referring someone to a
professional therapist.
Confidentiality is of paramount importance when counselling others.
To open up and share the reasons for many personal problems,
people must feel that they can trust you and that there is no threat to
their self-esteem or their reputation with others. Emphasize that you
will treat in confidence everything that the other person says
regarding personal matters.

Dealing with personal problems

Getting a person to recognize that they have a problem is often the
first step in helping them deal with it. You can then follow up by
helping them gain insights into their feelings and behaviors, and by
exploring the alternatives open to them.
Sometimes people just need a sounding board for releasing
tension, which can become a prelude to clarifying the problem,
identifying possible solutions, and taking corrective action. Talking
things through in a counselling session can help people sort out their
feelings into more logical and coherent thoughts.
Above all, be supportive and provide reassurance. People need to
know that their problems have solutions. If problems are beyond a
person’s capability to solve, explain how professional treatment can
be obtained, through Employee Assistance Programs, for example,
or health plans.
Be supportive
Reassure those you are counselling that their problems have
solutions and that they have the ability to improve their situation.
 Coaching and Mentoring
Coaching is the process of helping people improve
performance. A coach analyzes performance, provides
insight on how to improve, and offers the leadership,
motivation, and supportive climate to help achieve that
improvement. In mentoring relationships, a more
experienced person formally pairs up with a less experienced
one to help show them “the ropes” and to provide emotional
support and encouragement.
Helping others develop
As a coach, a manager’s job is to help members of their team
develop skills and improve. This involves providing instruction,
guidance, advice, and encouragement. Effective coaches first
establish a supportive climate that promotes development. It is
particularly important that you remain non-judgemental and
understanding throughout the process, try to solve problems jointly,
and educate those you are coaching about how to solve their own
problems in the future. As you learn more about the person you are
coaching, try to determine the sources of any problems they are
having, and provide meaningful feedback.
Mentoring is a broader role. The goal of a mentor is to help a less
experienced person achieve his or her career goals. Mentors
perform as both coaches and counsellors as they guide their less
experienced associates toward improved performance. Mentoring
can help new organization members gain a better understanding of
the organization’s goals, culture, and advancement criteria. It can
also help them become more politically savvy and avoid potential
career traps. As a mentor, try to help others reduce the stress
caused by uncertainty about how to do things and deal with
challenging assignments. Be a source of comfort when newer, less
experienced people just need to let off steam or discuss career
dilemmas.
How to.... Coach a process
 1. Explain and then demonstrate the process.
2. Observe the person practicing the process.
3. Provide immediate, specific feedback.
4. Express confidence in the person’s ability.
5. Agree on follow-up actions.

Three key skills for successful coaching

1. Finding ways to improve performance
Help others improve by observing what they do, asking
questions, listening, and crafting unique improvement strategies.

2. Influencing others to change their behavior

Monitor people’s progress and development, and recognize and
reward even small improvements.
Involve others in decision-making processes—this helps to
encourage people to be responsive to change.
Break large, complex projects into series of simpler tasks—this
can boost confidence as the simpler tasks are achieved.
Be a role model for the qualities that you expect from others,
such as openness, commitment, and responsibility.

3. Creating a supportive climate

Use active listening, empower others to implement appropriate
ideas, and be available for assistance, guidance, and advice.
 Managing Careers
In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, managers
need to actively manage their careers and provide career
guidance to those they are managing. To determine where
and how you can best contribute, you need to know yourself,
continually develop yourself, and be able to ascertain when
and how to change the work you do.
Charting your own career path
Self-assessment is an ongoing process in career management.
Successful careers develop when people are prepared for
opportunities because they know their strengths, their methods of
work, and their values. Self-directed career management is a
process by which individuals guide, direct, and influence the course
of their careers. This requires exploration and awareness of not only
yourself, but also your environment. Individuals who are proactive
and collect relevant information about personal needs, values,
interests, talents, and lifestyle preferences are more likely to be
satisfied and productive when searching for job opportunities, to
develop successful career plans, and to be productive in their jobs
and careers.
Career stages
Individuals just beginning their careers are usually more concerned
with identifying organizations that have the potential to satisfy their
career goals and match their values. After settling into a job, focus
shifts to achieving initial successes, gaining credibility, learning to
get along with their boss, and managing image. Managers in the
middle of their careers are more concerned with career reappraisal,
overcoming obsolescence owing to technological advances, and
becoming more of a generalist. In the later stages of their careers,
managers focus more on teaching others and leaving a contribution
before retirement.

Driving forward
The first step in self-directed career management is planning. Taking
your strengths, limitations, and values into account, start searching
the environment for matching opportunities. Use the information you
gather to establish realistic career goals and then develop a strategy
to achieve them. As you progress through your career plan, regularly
undertake performance appraisals to make sure that you are
remaining on track and that your goals haven’t changed.
Directing others
The most important thing you can do to contribute to the career
development of others is to instill in them the need to take
responsibility for managing their own careers. Then you can provide
support that will enable those you are managing to add to their skills,
abilities, and knowledge, in order to maintain their employability
within the organization. To help those you are managing develop
their careers:
Keep your team updated about the organization’s goals and
future strategies so that they will know where the organization is
headed and be better able to develop a personal career
development plan to share in that future.
Create growth opportunities for your team, to give them new,
interesting, and professionally challenging work experiences.
Offer financial assistance, such as tuition reimbursement for
college courses or skills training.
Allow paid time off from work for off-the-job training, and ensure
that those you are managing have reasonable workloads so that
they are not precluded from having time to develop new skills,
abilities, and knowledge.