Management: Tips for Success

Provided Courtesy of Nutrition411.com Management: Tips for Success Review Date 4/14 G-1172 Contributed by Shawna Gornick-Ilagan, MS, RD, CWPC Updated by Nutrition411.com staff

Rating Your Managerial Skills • Take the quiz on the next slide • Check your score: • Take a look at your answers • After which statements did you answer “sometimes,” “rarely,” or “never” • These are the skills and areas you may want to focus on

“Always,” “Often,” “Sometimes,” “Rarely,” or “Never” • I make an effort to find out what motivates each person who reports to me • I give employees frequent, positive feedback and appropriate constructive criticism • I take the time to listen carefully to people’s ideas, stories, opinions, and concerns • I show support for company goals and objectives, and explain them to my staff

“Always,” “Often,” “Sometimes,” “Rarely,” or “Never” (cont’d) • The people on my team work well together and are enthusiastic about their jobs • I recognize the signs of stress and overload in myself and others, and I take steps to prevent stress and overload in the people who I manage • I encourage people to come up with new ideas and ways to approach a project

“Always,” “Often,” “Sometimes,” “Rarely,” or “Never” (cont’d) • I offer everyone on my team opportunities to learn and grow at work • I promise a diversity of values, opinions, and work styles, and believe these are essential to business and work success • People in my work group are consistently meeting their goals

Leading and Motivating • Find out what motivates your people • Hire and keep people who are good at their work • Get people working on what is important • Explain and train • Let people work • Use praise and recognition generously • Expect excellence • Care about people and show it • Treat employees with respect • Lead by example

Maximizing Performance • Understand your employees and their job • Set goals and make performance expectations clear • Monitor progress • Tolerate some mistakes • Give feedback, and give it often • Try to distinguish between problem employees and employees with problems • Deal with performance problems • Celebrate and reward performance success

Communicating as a Manager • Make sure you are a positive communicator • Communicate carefully • Listen actively • Meet regularly with each of your direct reports • Give and ask for frequent feedback • Deliver “bad news” in an honest, direct, and prompt manner • Learn effective ways of handling conflict

Managing People Conflict • Recognize and understand conflict in the workplace • Learn how to manage and resolve conflict • Get help, if needed, when managing a conflict • Build a harmonious working environment

Meetings • Make the most of your meetings • Get prepared before the meeting • Know how to run a meeting • Do not make your meetings boss centric: • Ask people in your group for feedback • Make meetings worthwhile for everyone • Let other members of your team take turns leading the meetings

Managing Across Generations • Become educated about generational issues • Avoid age stereotypes • Manage the unique talents, strengths, and needs of each generation • Support learning and career development across all age groups • Deal with generational issues that get in the way of work • Build a strong multigenerational work group

Teamwork • Build a high-performance team: • Get to know each member of your team • Play to each member’s strengths • Know the “nitty-gritty” of leading teams: • Establish ground rules • Clearly define tasks and roles in the assignment • Agree on deadlines and the plan (who is doing what and by what date) • Treat all members fairly • Provide ongoing feedback

Teamwork (cont’d) • Know how to deal with performance problems and interpersonal conflict • Consider virtual teamwork, using e-mail, teleconferencing, Internet-based workflow, and remote access to networks to exchange documents and get the job done more efficiently • Use e-mail as a follow-up to meeting discussions in order to make steady progress on assigned tasks • Take care of your team

Diversity • Examine your own attitudes toward diversity • Look at the culture and climate in your group and organization • Support diversity in your actions, interactions, and words • Manage to each individual’s unique talents and strengths • Provide opportunities for ongoing learning and mentoring

Stress and Overload • Understand stress and overload • Manage your own feelings of stress and overload • Keep aware of stress and overload in others • Know the ways to reduce sources of stress in the workplace • Respect and support work-life boundaries and balance

Take Care of Yourself and Others • Know that taking care of yourself is your most important responsibility • Commit to building a positive and supportive work culture • Support employees through times of challenge and change • Make ongoing learning a priority for every member of your team • Bring out the best in people and yourself

Think About… • Where you were most successful as a manager • Where you could improve • What areas you have identified to work on

Remember… • Even the most successful managers do not have all the answers • They continue to learn all the time

Reference Morgan H, Jacobbi M. Twelve Ways to Be a Better Manager. Minneapolis, MN: Ceridian Corp; 2005.

Management: Tips for Success