Best Practices_ Managing People_ Secrets to Leading for New Managers - Barry Silverstein [27]
POWER POINTS
MANAGERS AND LEADERS
In deciding if you are basically a manager or a leader, ask yourself these questions:
Where do your capabilities lie?
What complementary skills do you need to develop?
What leadership skills do you need to acquire?
“The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement.”
—Charles Schwab,
founder of Charles Schwab & Co.
PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Great managers and leaders practice active listening. Active listening is a way of listening that focuses on the person who is speaking to you and shows that you comprehend what is being said. It can include nonverbal cues, such as nodding and smiling, as well as verbal cues.
Active listeners process what someone else says, rephrase it in their own words, and replay it so that the speaker can validate that the message was understood. It requires some detachment, because your role is to demonstrate understanding, whether or not you agree with what the speaker is saying.
People Want Feedback
By actively listening, you can be in a better position to provide feedback to the people you manage. Positive feedback is, of course, welcomed by employees, but sometimes negative feedback can result in more significant improvements in performance or behavior.
CASE FILE
TEACHING LEADERSHIP
In many successful companies, leaders from the CEO on down develop leadership abilities in their subordinates. Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch exemplified this practice. Every two weeks for some 20 years, he spent a day at the company’s executive training center with promising managers and executives, listening to them, lecturing, challenging them with hard questions, and in the process demonstrating his approach to quality, productivity, management, and other issues. In all, he reached more than 15,000 employees, transforming the company into what BusinessWeek called “a learning organization.” During his tenure as CEO, revenues rose from just under $30 billion to more than $90 billion.
SOURCE: “How Jack Welch Runs GE” by John A. Byrne, BusinessWeek (June 8, 1998).
POWER POINTS
ACTIVE LISTENING IN A NUTSHELL
As a manager, active listening is a vital skill. It has two key components:
Verbal and nonverbal cues–Nodding your head, leaning forward, and saying things like “yes” and “hmm” show that you’re listening.
Rephrasing–Repeating what you’ve just heard in your own words proves you’ve understood.
Most employees want to know what they could be doing better. They want to receive input that will help them improve. The key, however, is to present negative feedback in a positive way—that is, to offer criticism that is constructive.
People typically take a defensive posture when they feel they are being verbally attacked. Some individuals defend themselves by arguing, others withdraw, and still others may shut down entirely. Negative feedback conveyed in a harsh or angry manner will cause most people to tune out. Unfortunately, if they stop listening, that means they won’t hear anything positive that’s being said either.
A manager can be demanding and yet offer feedback in a positive way. Try to give your employees examples of what to do right instead of berating them for what they do wrong. Let employees know a behavior is unacceptable, but do it with respect. Empathize with employees and offer them a second chance.
How to Give Feedback
Generally, the best course is to give positive feedback in public and negative feedback in private. Praise is a powerful motivational tool, both for the receiver and onlookers. Giving praise or positive feedback publicly demonstrates that you, as a manager, recognize and acknowledge your employees’ efforts.
Negative feedback is best handled one on one. Provide constructive criticism