Management is a Journey

"Why Smart People Fail at Management" is the newly authored book by Robert Tanner, Founder of Business Consulting Solutions LLC. It explains why intelligence and technical skills alone are insufficient for a manager's success. It introduces the concept of adaptability and provides strategies managers can use to gain the support they need from their boss, peers, and staff.

"Why Smart People Fail at Management" explores the common and the hidden reasons behind the failure of business managers who are otherwise, smart and successful. It explains in practical terms the evolution managers must make in their skills, their interaction with others, their managerial style, and in the management of emotions if they want to avoid becoming victims of their own success.

In this book, you will...

* Acquire an understanding of the three competencies that all managers must possess and develop to be successful.
* Attain an understanding of the different factors of success for the three levels of management.
* Learn the strengths and areas of growth of the four interaction styles and identify your own primary style.
* Gather strategies for working more effectively with all stakeholders in your organization.
* Gain an understanding of the two critical tests of management that you must continually pass to be relevant in your organization.
* Explore the other intelligence that is more important to your continuing managerial success than your mental IQ and your technical skill.
* Develop your own road map to excellence strategy and take charge of your own management destiny.

Order Why Smart People Fail at Management

For years, management and leadership were used interchangeably. In fact, they were frequently thought to be the same. Like cheetahs and leopards, managers and leaders may be in the same family, but they are different animals. Management and leadership are different!

What is the Role of a Manager?

Management has a heavy focus on process. It is about action planning. Managers often ask your "how" and "who" questions in an organization. Management is about appealing to the head through planning, organization, controlling, and directing. Managers generally have a formal title in an organization and they thus have formal organizational power. Management is really about doing things right! It is concerned with implementation and the process by which things are done in an organization.

What will we find effective managers doing in an organization?

* Managers direct others to follow them.
* Managers administer efficient operations by maintaining the status quo.
* Managers control those who work with them.
* Managers have a shorter term view of operations.

Great managers are critical to organizational efficiency.

What is the Role of a Leader?

Leadership has a heavy focus on strategic direction. It is about vision. Leaders often ask your "what" and "why" questions in an organization. One does not have to have a formal title in the organization to be a leader. In fact many informal leaders exist in any organization and savvy managers know it is in their best interest and in the best interest of the organization to work with these individuals as allies.

Leadership is really about doing the right thing! They are concerned with the strategic direction of the organization and they inspire others to follow them. Leadership is about appealing to the heart through motivation, influence, and persuasion. So, what, exactly are the typical activities of an effective leader?

* Leaders inspire others to want to follow them.
* Leaders promote innovative operations by challenging the status quo.
* Leaders develop those who work with them.
* Leaders have a long term view of operations.

Great leaders are critical to organizational effectiveness.

Leaders are not the Cure-All for all Organizational Problems!

There has been a trend in business communications to belittle the role of a manager and stress leadership above other attributes. The fact is however that a healthy organization needs a good mixture of managers and leaders if it is to remain viable. When an organization consists of leaders only, not much gets done. There are significant struggles for power as leaders with differing agendas vie for influence. Also, too much leadership and too little management leads to chaos as operational objectives are continually modified.

Effective leadership creates a healthy tension in the organization where the right activities are performed at the right times. Ineffective leadership creates chaos as the organization is in a perpetual state of unrest. I have known great leaders who were terrible managers! They could inspire you greatly but the minute they got involved in getting the work done (managing) they destroyed all of their inspiration. Their ineffectiveness as managers discouraged those they had previously inspired.

Managers are Not the Cure-all Either!

Managers get results and they are efficient. But, efficiency does not mean one is always effective. When an organization is unbalanced with too many managers and too few leaders, it is efficient at doing the work right. However, it does not do the right things because it lacks leadership. As a result, mediocrity sets in as the company puts more emphasis on process than vision. I have known managers who were terrible leaders! They could plan, execute, and direct others, but no one was inspired to do their best for them or for the organization. These managers did not have a clear direction of what they wanted to achieve and staff in their organization display a "going through the motions" quality to their work.

What is the Optimal Solution?

In a perfect world, every individual manager will have a balanced combination of both managerial and leadership skills. However, this exists only in a perfect world--not the world where we live! Some business professionals do have this balance while others do not. What can great leaders, who are less effective as managers, do to improve their effectiveness? Or, what can great managers, who are less effective as leaders, do to improve their effectiveness? First, they can develop their skills further through continuing education. Just as important, they can delegate these areas to others who work for them and who are more skilled in these areas. Finally, they can hire other managers who differ from them and complement their skill set. Effective staffing practices will provide a healthy balance of leaders and managers for an organization.

For example, one of my best bosses I ever had was a great leader. He saw the big picture of what needed to be done and would influence others to accept his vision. However, he was not a good manager. While he knew what he wanted, he could not organize or implement his strategy into the next week. So, what did he do? First, he knew his limitations. He hired great managers to work for him. He had them develop the plans for his vision. He reviewed their plans and then he left them alone to implement the plan. He did not micro-manage them. Instead, he held them accountable for getting the results he wanted through their own methods.

This is truly the mark of a great executive-knowing his/her limitations!

Business Consulting Solutions LLC
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.

People Skills-Are They Born or Made?

Managers usually are promoted for their technical skills. Having technical skills does not mean one has people skills, however. Organizational turnover, poor morale, absenteeism, organizational conflicts, worker sabotage, and worker indifference are all symptoms of managers who lack people skills. This raises an interesting question! Specifically, are people skills born or made? The truth is that both views are correct. Some individuals are naturally better at working with people. They excel at getting the best out of people. It is also true, however, that we can improve our people skills with time and effort. Lacking people skills does not mean we cannot develop them.

Six Steps for Improving People-Skills

1. Acknowledge Areas of Improvement

A manager's ability to improve his people skills begins with his acceptance that he has managerial weaknesses that he needs to improve. Without this acknowledgment, he cannot become better in his interactions with people. This is the first and hardest step for improving one's people skills.

2. Commit to Improving People Skills

Once a manager admits her deficiencies in a certain area, she has to want to change her performance. Some managers do not want to make the emotional and time investments that bring about change, however. Change is not easy. Once the manager makes the commitment, the process becomes easier.

3. Attend Quality Management Training Seminars

Quality training can provide managers with critical knowledge they need to develop their people skills. Effective training will offer opportunities within the seminar to practice key skills. (This is important for adult learning as we need chances to apply what we are learning.) Taking the training outside the workplace allows confidentiality as well. The manager seeking to improve his skills can experiment and be more open about his deficiencies without fear of it being held against him in the workplace.

Internal management training is also an option providing it is well designed. If your organization offers assessment center training, this can be highly effective method for improving your people skills. With this training, a manager has to demonstrate and role-play managerial duties while interacting with others. Their performance is then evaluated by seasoned practitioners who can provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of your management and leadership skills.

4. Take a Behavioral Assessment

Behavioral assessments such as Myers-Briggs®, Emotional Intelligence, DiSC®, and the TKI Conflict Mode Instrument® are great tools for improving people skills. These assessments can provide insights in areas such as communications, conflict-resolution, motivation, team-building, and other areas. The key is to use individuals who are professionally certified to administer these instruments. There are many business professionals who have not been assessed properly and this only adds to their confusion on how best to work with others. With the advances of the Internet, many of these assessments can be taken confidentially online and a follow-up coaching session can be done over the telephone. So, it is no longer important where you live. This information is available to everyone.

5. Find and Adopt a Business Mentor

Finding a management mentor who exemplifies "people-skill management" is highly effective for a manager's self-improvement efforts. The additional benefit of this approach is that it lets the manager get feedback from someone with proven abilities in this area. Often, finding a mentor is as simple as asking a leader you respect to be your mentor. Go to work with them and observe them in action if you can. Many years ago, I asked a Vice President to be my mentor and he readily accepted. Being able to talk to him as a young manager was invaluable to improving my people skills.

6. Be Receptive to all Feedback-Especially Negative Feedback

Managers need to listen to the organization for feedback on their performance. This feedback is always present if a manager is willing to listen to it. It can come through formal sources such as organizational climate surveys, 360 degree performance appraisal feedback, the use of external or internal consultants, and other methods. Even better, managers can create an environment of continual feedback by making it acceptable for others to disagree with her and present alternate views or to bring her bad news. If she keeps hearing the same feedback from very different people, she should seriously evaluate what others are telling her. There is likely some truth to their perceptions.

There is Hope

We do not have to despair if we were not born with "tons of natural charisma." People skills can be developed. We can always improve if we acknowledge the areas where we are lacking and commit to an action plan to perform better. Gain the information you need to take your people skills to the next level by taking a behavioral assessment.

Business Consulting Solutions LLC
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.

There is no one style, personality profile, or interaction approach for an effective leader. Leaders do come in "all shapes and sizes." Few can deny the effectiveness of leaders such as Golda Meir, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Lee Iacocca, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve Jobs. They all had success and few can deny that these leaders differ significantly.

One Size Does Not Fit All Leaders

The management guru, Peter Drucker, noted that some of the most effective chief executives he has worked with did not have "one ounce of charisma." He cites the example of Harry Truman as an example of a non-charismatic individual who was still one of the most effective chief executives in US history. He also states that he worked with effective leaders who were very diverse in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses. Some were introverted while others were extroverted. Some were easy going and others were controlling.

Abraham Lincoln's Road to Leadership

History also supports Drucker's view on the diversity of effective leaders. Abraham Lincoln is arguably one of our greatest Presidents. However, a look at his early life would not have predicted his greatness as a leader. He suffered various setbacks before becoming one of our greatest Presidents including:

* Failure of a business that left him deeply in debt;
* Limited attendance in school as a child due to his family being poor;
* An episode of severe depression;
* A refused marriage proposal.

Clearly, Lincoln's tenacity and his ability to learn from his mistakes kept him on his road to greatness as a great leader. He did not let past failures dictate his future.

Common Leadership Practices

While leaders are diverse in their approach, we can identify common practices that they share. In his consulting work over the years, Drucker identified eight practices that the effective executives he worked with had in common. These eight practices are the following:

1. They asked, "What needs to be done?"
2. They asked, "What is right for the enterprise?"
3. They developed action plans.
4. They took responsibility for decisions.
5. They took responsibility for communicating.
6. They were focused on opportunities rather than problems.
7. They ran productive meetings.
8. They thought and said "we" rather than "I."

The Lesson for Today's Business Leaders

Effective leaders make these eight practices a normal part of their operational practices. It becomes a part of their management DNA. It is ingrained in their communications, their decision making practices, and their interactions with others. They also look at organizational mistakes differently. While mistakes have consequences, effective leaders also know that mistakes are opportunities for learning and innovation. The ability of these leaders to apply these eight practices to organizational mistakes allows them to make "lemonade out of lemons."

Now that we know the recipe, we too can become more effective leaders of our enterprises! Get more information about how to be an effective executive, by purchasing my book Why Smart People Fail at Management at Gettothepointbooks.com).

Business Consulting Solutions LLC
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.