The New Manager's Tool Kit: 21 Things You Need to Know to Hit the Ground Running
256
The New Manager's Tool Kit: 21 Things You Need to Know to Hit the Ground Running
256eBookFirst Edition (First Edition)
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Overview
In this helpful guidebook, authors Don and Sheryl Grimme provide a fresh, friendly approach to tackling the challenges of management and leveraging your new position to help your organization succeed.
Novice managers have their work cut out for them: all new skills to learn, different personalities to deal with, and greater responsibilities to fulfill. The New Manager's Tool Kit provides you with fast, powerful lessons to help them:
- increase productivity;
- unlock hidden talent;
- work with different types of people;
- communicate effectively;
- diagnose problems;
- coach both good and problematic employees;
- encourage teamwork;
- avoid burnout;
- eliminate conflict;
- and nurture the next generation of managers.
With lessons covering both basic management skills as well as more advanced leadership tactics and bonus tips to help managers overcome the most difficult leadership challenges, The New Manager's Tool Kit provides those charged with managing and leading others the tools and real-world knowledge they need to succeed and open themselves up for further advancement.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780814413074 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AMACOM |
| Publication date: | 11/30/2008 |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishing |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 945,872 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Don Grimme is a co-owner of GHR Training Solutions, which provides training for companies and government agencies including Motorola, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and Auntie Anne's. He is a frequent keynote speaker and presenter at national conferences.
Sheryl Grimme (Tamarac, FL) are co-owners of GHR Training Solutions, which provides training for companies and government agencies including Motorola, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and Auntie Anne's. They are frequent keynote speakers and presenters at national conferences.
Read an Excerpt
TOOL 1
Turn On Talent ... and Turn Off Turnover
There is a crisis in America today. The one we're talking about has noth-ing to do with telemarketing, as annoying as that is, or even the troubling economy. Rather, we're referring to the diminishing ability of organizations in every sector of our society to attract, retain, and motivate talented employees, that is, to survive.
It is employee retention especially that has emerged as the workplace issue of the decade. In 2006, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), in its Workplace Forecast, predicted that the number one employment trend most likely to have a major impact on the workplace is a greater emphasis on retention strategies.
And in a 2007 study by the global employee retention research firm
TalentKeepers, 88 percent of employers reported turnover had stayed the same or increased...and 45 percent forecasted a further increase in turnover (only 3 percent predicted a decrease).
You see, our longheld assumption of an everexpanding talent pool has been shattered by such factors as the retirement of aging Baby
Boomers, lower birthrates, tighter immigration rules, and an increase in the skills demanded for today's jobs.
The first three factors explain this quantitatively. But it is the last one a the qualitative factor, that is the sticking point. More than a shortage of bodies, this is a crisis of abilities—the talent in "talent pool."
In addition, employee loyalty is down. According to a 2005 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 79 percent of employees are job searching, either actively or passively. In fact, the most frequently asked question put to SHRM is, "How can we keep talent from jumping to our competitors?"
Fortunately, every crisis contains not only danger but also opportunity.
In this tool, you will learn the secret to transforming this dangerous crisis into an opportunity for you and your organization to flourish.
TRANSFORMING DANGER INTO OPPORTUNITY
Employers are groping for ways to attack the problem. The 2005 SHRM
survey found that the techniques used are salary adjustments, job promo-tions, bonuses, more attractive benefits and retirement packages, and stock options—
all of which are expensive and (as found in the 2007
TalentKeepers' study) not very effective. The reason, as you will see, is that they are misdirected.
Rather than leaping to implement techniques, it is important to begin with an understanding of what really energizes and instills loyalty in employees. Otherwise, you won't know whether any technique is effective and you won't be very effective in implementing it.
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN MOTIVATION—THEORY
The best known motivation theory is probably Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, shown in Figure 1.1.
Maslow categorized human needs into five sets:
1. The most fundamental is survival. This is our need for food a water, and shelter, and in the modern era includes medical services, electricity a transportation, and phones, all of which are jeopardized by natural disasters.
Visualize the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
2. Next is safety/security for which we look to the military, police, fire-rescue, and insurance. All of these were called into play on and since 9/11.
3. What then emerges is social/belonging—our need for family a friends, coworkers, and associations.
4. Then comes self-esteem—confidence, respect, appreciation, and recognition.
5. And the ultimate is self-actualization—fulfillment and happiness, which most of us meet through career, marriage, and/or parenthood.
Maslow did more than just categorize. He posited that these needs do not have equal force all the time. When our fundamental needs of survival a safety, and security are threatened, say, by hurricanes or terrorism, that's all we care about. As South Florida residents, we have firsthand knowledge of this. For the first several days after Hurricane Wilma in 2005, local televi-sion stations had no network programming, not even national news. All they reported was where to get water and ice, and where and when power was being restored.
However, for most Americans most of the time, these needs are met.
They become merely basic expectations (what psychologist Frederick
Herzberg called 'hygiene' factors) that we pay little attention to. What we care about and are motivated by are the three highestlevel needs.
Maslow's hierarchy provides a springboard for our own 3-Factor Theory (Figure 1.2) a which consolidates two other theories (Herzberg's 2-Factor Theory and the Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction) from an employer's perspective.
As notated in Figure 1.1, employers satisfy Maslow's fundamental sur-vival, safety, and security needs primarily through a paycheck and benefits plan: Earnings and Benefits. This is how employees buy groceries, put a roof over their heads, and insure against life's contingencies.
In the workplace, the highest-level need of self-actualization and much of our self-esteem are met through the work itself: Job Quality.
Employers can address the center rung of social and belonging needs, as well as self-esteem, with Workplace Support, for example, supervision, teamwork, and recognition.
As Figure 1.2 shows, each of these three sets of factors is different in nature and effect. (You can get a free, online audiovisual tutorial on the
Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction, upon which Figure 1.2 is based, by visiting the site of C2C Solutions. It's brief and easy to understand.)
As Herzberg maintained, the absence of Earnings and Benefits is demotivating. These are what Kano calls basic needs. If a job's pay and ben-efits are inadequate to pay our bills, we won't even start work. If we feel unfairly compensated, we will gripe and complain. But we're not really motivated by overpay or lavish benefits. That's not to say we won't enjoy them, but they are not truly energizing.
In contrast, the very presence of Job Quality is motivating? Kano's
excitement needs. The greater our sense of achievement and the more involved we are in our work, the more energized and excited we become.
This really turns us on!
We maintain that the Workplace Support factors are both demotivators and motivators?
Kano's performance needs. A lousy supervisor, cowork-er friction, and lack of appreciation drains our energy. But the better our supervisor is, the more cohesive our team, and the more appreciated we feel, the more energized we become.
Put another way, we will go to work for a paycheck and a benefits plan.
But we won't really do work (or, at least, our best work) unless something else is present. It is the quality of the work itself and of our relationships with others at work that draws us to the best organizations and keeps us there, energized and performing at peak effectiveness.
Well, all that is just theory. Here now is...
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Introduction: A Tool Kit for Today's Workplace 1
Part 1 Leading People 6
What Do Employees Want? 6
Tool #1 Turn On Talent ... and Turn Off Turnover 9
Tool #2 Unleash Their Productivity 25
Tool #3 Balance Their Work and Life 33
Part 2 Different Strokes 38
Individual Differences 38
Tool #4 Embrace Diversity 41
Tool #5 Get a Grip on Generations 57
Tool #6 Focus On Ability 65
Part 3 Leader Effectiveness 78
Open Two-Way Communication 78
Tool #7 Tell Them What Worked ... and What Didn't 81
Tool #8 Ask Them ... Then Listen 89
Part 4 Optimizing Contributions 96
The Three Strategies ... and a Precursor 96
Tool #9 Diagnose Problems 99
Tool #10 Coach the Good Ones ... and the Not So Good 103
Tool #11 Mentor the Great Ones 110
Tool #12 Turn On Teamwork 114
Part 5 Personal and Interpersonal Effectiveness 120
Life Skills 120
Tool #13 Blow Away Burnout 123
Tool #14 Stay on Top of Stress 133
Tool #15 Accentuate the Positive 139
Tool #16 Assert Yourself ... and Deal with "Difficult" People 151
Tool #17 Own Your Anger ... Don't Let It Own You 161
Tool #18 Rise to the Challenge of Change 172
Part 6 Eliminating Conflict 178
Barriers to an Effective Workplace 178
Tool #19 Prevent All Forms of Harassment 181
Tool #20 Prevent Workplace Violence 197
Tool #21 Defuse and Protect 214
Afterword 222
Appendix A Ten Tips to Protect Against Harassment Charges 223
Appendix B Ten Steps to Manage Workplace Violence 227
Appendix C The Impending Leadership Crisis 232
Resource Guide-Books and Websites Organized by Tool 239
Index 251