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Authors: Richard Templar
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week, that’s a huge number of new ideas by the end of the year for themselves and for the whole team. “I just thought I could speed the process up if I....” “Wow, I could take that idea and adapt it to my work station and then I could....” “Yeah, and I bet they’d be really interested in this in accounts because it could speed up the whole....” And so on.
Biggest challenge? Getting your team on board—everyone is resistant to change initially. If you waiver, the whole team will also waiver. If you maintain the passion, the whole team will be infected and become addicted to this. Believe me. Trust me. I know you already have enough to do, but we’ll move on to delegating in a bit and that’ll free up some time. Then you’ll have more time to do this, which, in a way, is part of your real job—managing.
Encourage innovation. Reward good ideas. Create a culture where ideas are recognized (even if not adopted) and valued.
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IF EVERYONE HAS A NEW IDEA EACH WEEK, THAT’S A HUGE NUMBER OF NEW IDEAS BY THE END OF THE YEAR.
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Chapter 37. Train Them to Bring You Solutions, Not Problems
It’s too easy for staff to moan. I think it becomes a habit. You have to train your staff not just to moan. You can allow moaning but insist that if they bring you a problem they must also suggest a solution to the problem. Any idea that there is something wrong should always be met with, “And what would you like me to do about it?” If they complain, meet them with, “What do you think we should do?”
The best manager I ever worked for carried this even further and made us tell him the solution first—and then let him guess what he thought our “problem” was. It made it a game, which was sort of fun, but it also made us think on our feet a bit—made us be a bit lateral in our moaning. I was having a problem with security staff. I thought they were erasing the CCTV footage without watching it, which was not on. This was my problem because if anything had happened, I would have been blamed. I needed them to watch carefully but couldn’t devise a solution to this problem—but I couldn’t just go to the boss and moan that they weren’t doing their job properly. I had to come up with a solution first.
Then it dawned on me that I didn’t need to go to the boss. I could solve this one myself. I had to make sure the security staff thought there was something worth watching. I mentioned that some members of staff had been reported as having sex somewhere on the premises, and it could have been covered by the CCTV cameras, but no one was sure by which camera. There were cameras covering car parks, offices, hallways, and storage areas in the basement. Result. The security folks started watching as if their lives depended on it. My boss was pleased because this was part of my job description, andhe had noticed it wasn’t being done properly and was going to call me out on it. And I had come up with a solution to a problem without going to my boss and just moaning, “Oh, the security people aren’t doing their job properly....”
Admittedly I had to come up with a fresh solution once the security staff realized they weren’t going to see any smutty pictures—but it took them a long time, and they kept going back just in case....
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ANY IDEA THAT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG SHOULD ALWAYS BE MET WITH, “AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO DO ABOUT IT?”
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Part II. Managing Yourself
So that’s the basic rules for managing a team. And obviously most managers have a team to manage. But all managers have themselves to manage as well—that’s you. So the next set of rules is for you. These are rules to help you become more effective as well as more efficient. It’s hard enough just getting through the day without trying to improve as well, believe me I know.
Being a manager is a tough job because it is always two jobs at once. You have to get your own work done and also be looking out for a team. The
Biggest challenge? Getting your team on board—everyone is resistant to change initially. If you waiver, the whole team will also waiver. If you maintain the passion, the whole team will be infected and become addicted to this. Believe me. Trust me. I know you already have enough to do, but we’ll move on to delegating in a bit and that’ll free up some time. Then you’ll have more time to do this, which, in a way, is part of your real job—managing.
Encourage innovation. Reward good ideas. Create a culture where ideas are recognized (even if not adopted) and valued.
----
IF EVERYONE HAS A NEW IDEA EACH WEEK, THAT’S A HUGE NUMBER OF NEW IDEAS BY THE END OF THE YEAR.
----
Chapter 37. Train Them to Bring You Solutions, Not Problems
It’s too easy for staff to moan. I think it becomes a habit. You have to train your staff not just to moan. You can allow moaning but insist that if they bring you a problem they must also suggest a solution to the problem. Any idea that there is something wrong should always be met with, “And what would you like me to do about it?” If they complain, meet them with, “What do you think we should do?”
The best manager I ever worked for carried this even further and made us tell him the solution first—and then let him guess what he thought our “problem” was. It made it a game, which was sort of fun, but it also made us think on our feet a bit—made us be a bit lateral in our moaning. I was having a problem with security staff. I thought they were erasing the CCTV footage without watching it, which was not on. This was my problem because if anything had happened, I would have been blamed. I needed them to watch carefully but couldn’t devise a solution to this problem—but I couldn’t just go to the boss and moan that they weren’t doing their job properly. I had to come up with a solution first.
Then it dawned on me that I didn’t need to go to the boss. I could solve this one myself. I had to make sure the security staff thought there was something worth watching. I mentioned that some members of staff had been reported as having sex somewhere on the premises, and it could have been covered by the CCTV cameras, but no one was sure by which camera. There were cameras covering car parks, offices, hallways, and storage areas in the basement. Result. The security folks started watching as if their lives depended on it. My boss was pleased because this was part of my job description, andhe had noticed it wasn’t being done properly and was going to call me out on it. And I had come up with a solution to a problem without going to my boss and just moaning, “Oh, the security people aren’t doing their job properly....”
Admittedly I had to come up with a fresh solution once the security staff realized they weren’t going to see any smutty pictures—but it took them a long time, and they kept going back just in case....
----
ANY IDEA THAT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG SHOULD ALWAYS BE MET WITH, “AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO DO ABOUT IT?”
----
Part II. Managing Yourself
So that’s the basic rules for managing a team. And obviously most managers have a team to manage. But all managers have themselves to manage as well—that’s you. So the next set of rules is for you. These are rules to help you become more effective as well as more efficient. It’s hard enough just getting through the day without trying to improve as well, believe me I know.
Being a manager is a tough job because it is always two jobs at once. You have to get your own work done and also be looking out for a team. The
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