January brings new resolutions that are often broken and are not kept.  Why not change that this year!  Set a realistic goal that can be achieve and attained.  How do you do that?  By being Smart!  Your goals should be Specific, Measurable,   Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  That is SMART!  One specific change that you can acheive will not only boost your confidence, but will lead you into making other changes, one at a time!  Make sure it will be a change that you can measure then give yourself a time line to get this done.  Making yourself accountable by putting a date to this, or by having someone keep you accountable will ensure your success!  What change do you need to make?  Most managers want to improve either by learning to be a better leader, engaging more with staff, raising productivity, etc.   Now is the time for change!  Don’t be just a manger in motion, be a manager with a goal!

I wish all of you a wonderful, safe and warm holiday season!  I hope Santa Claus brings you everything you deserve!

Be well and look for a new blog next January! 

Some managers come in and start their day behind closed doors.  They want to get through their e mails or begin with a project they didn’t finish the day before so now their late.  Before you know it, you answered so many e mails, and those are now answered, so you spend the first two hours of your day answering e mails.  Where did that time go?  Some managers come in and shoot the breeze with coworkers and before you know it, an hour has passed, not being cognizant of time.  Time management, that’s a good one huh?  We’ve all taken a class on this and we still can’t manage that precious word time.

Plan your next day.   Do it before you go home.  That may mean setting time aside for e mails.  If you answer e mails all day long, you won’t spend enough time on accomplishing one thing.    Write down your To Do list for the next day.  Managers especially have to have a focus for what it is you are going to accomplish the next day!  Keep your list visible and cross off what you do get completed.  Even if your list falls apart, write it down.  If you don’t have some focus on what you need to do, you will operate on the run and get further and further behind.  You know what needs to be done so write it down. 

This really isn’t anything new.  We’ve been making lists for a long time.  The trick is, do you accomplish anything on your list, or do you just bring it forward?  Some managers like to work on what is easy never tackling the hard projects.   Work an hour on a hard project, then put it away for tomorrow and do another hour on it tomorrow.  If you don’t this project will never get any attention and soon you find yourself in trouble because you haven’t worked on it at all.  Then you find excuses on why it isn’t done when you could have worked on it in small chunks.  Don’t be afraid of the big projects.  Work on them in small increments and soon you will have it done.

Time is so important.  Many managers say over and over, I don’t have enough time.  You DO have time.  It’s up to you how you use it.  Start by making your list.  Daily.

How are all you Managers out there doing?  I think back to my days as a Manager and it seems to me dealing with all the people problems was the hardest.  You had your work to do, budgets were due, forecasts were due, analysis had to be done, but someone always had a problem either personal or with personnel.

If I chose not to deal with it, problems would fester and then spread.  You’ve seen that; a bad enviornment can spread like a bad cold.  If you don’t deal with the problem or at least listen to what they have to say, and more importantly, let them know that you care, those problems don’t go away. 

Some Managers choose not to deal with problems that are personal or dealing with personnel.  So, the staff does their own recreational spreading of a bad cold and before you know it, they are saying their Manager doesn’t care about their personal problems, or they are saying their Manager isn’t dealing with the personnel problems.  Either way, as their Manager, you have to manage people.  And you can’t do that from a closed office door,or  behind your computer!

Deal with personnel issues and deal with your staff’s personal issues.  Let them know you care and gain their trust.  It take Emotional Intelligence to do this.  What is your EQ??

Listen to your associates, and know the ones that want to be developed, and know the ones that want  your job; teach them, listen to them, develop them!  That’s part of your job as a manager. 

I have several stories about associates that I helped along the way.  When I think about them now, I smile because it made ME happy to help them along in their career.  Some associates even ‘changed’ careers. 

We were in accounting and some accountants realized it wasn’t their cup of tea even if they had an accounting degree.  One associate comes to mind where she didn’t know what she wanted to do, but it sure wasn’t reconciling balance sheets!    It took a few deep conversations but we got there.  I advised this associate that one of us was going to end up making a decision one way or the other.  After some conversations, I did help this associate get in to our partner culinary school and she is now the Executive Sous Chef at one of the world’s largest Banks in North Carolina!  Who knew! 

It does take that kind of interpersonal skill, that kind of listening with Emotional Intelligence and compassion to develop the associates that work for you.  It’s not about just managing people, seeing that the work gets done, but listening and ensuring you have the right people in the right seat.   Your associates will really appreciate you because they will know and trust that you care about them.  If you don’t, who will?  Who cared and developed you?  Those of us that were lucky enough to have such a mentor/manager will always remember them.  Some of us are lucky enough to still be friends!  Be that friend to your associates.  Be the manager that everyone wants to work for!

Ever feel like you don’t have any support from your Director or Senior Manager or Controller?  You’ve been spoken to about ensuring that you treat all of your staff right.  You’ve been spoken to about getting a good rating on that next survey the company will put out.  But when push comes to shove, you don’t have anyone watching your back.

In these busy fast paced times, our own hierarchy sometimes loses sight that they need to be supportive!  They are so busy with their own agenda that they cannot see the trees for the forest.  So there you are with your marching orders to treat your staff right.  “We don’t want any HR issues” they say.  So what happens to you?  Where do you go?

Sometimes a mere “Thank You” can go further than anything else!  You need to be true to yourself and be THE Manager that everyone wants to work for.  Get your support wherever you can, but get it!  Don’t let them get you down, where you let your own staff down.  YOU are all your staff has and YOU are the one they can count on, so be there for them!

My first office manager taught me a few little things that I would carry  on throughout my career.   Filing for example; a file for The State of California  should be filed and labeled as California, State of.   I’ve been in offices where it was filed under the T’s!

My first office manager taught me to “date” everything!  I have seen Controllers, General Managers and Manger’s not  date things such as  contracts, price changes, commission changes and the like.  Try to go back when a client asks, “when did we change this commission rate?”  Sometimes my associates would laugh because I would even date a post it note.

These little things were taught to me at an early age.  I have tried to pass these things on to others that I have trained.  Some managers today don’t train with that kind of care and attention to detail.  If those little details are not there, that can get you into trouble.  It’s the little things that count.