Just-in-Time Management Advice
Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the four key actions, and potential pitfalls of conducting a great Performance Appraisal.
Watch the ‘Performance Appraisals’ Video (16 mins 06 sec):
If you’ve every given or received a Performance Appraisal, you’ve probably learned to hate them. There a good reason for this – they are most often done poorly. Join the Wily Manager guys this week, as they talk about how to conduct a performance appraisal, so it’s not quite so painful.
Monday’s Tip: Ensure Ongoing Feedback. You want to make sure that Performance Appraisals aren’t the only feedback people are getting. If you’re offering ongoing and regular feedback, nothing on a Performance Appraisal will be too shocking.
Tuesday’s Tip: Be consistent. Make sure the things you’re assessing people on their Performance Reviews are those same things that are in their job descriptions, and other supporting documents. Competencies and skills required must be consistent.
Wednesday’s Tip: Focus on the future. Despite what the HR people might tell you, the ultimate purpose of performance appraisals should be to improve performance. As such, what happened in the past is only relevant in how it might impact future performance.
Thursday’s Tip: Have the employee assess themselves. Get the employee to fill out the same paperwork you as the manager will complete, so you have some common ground to discuss at your meeting.
Friday’s Tip: Encourage dialogue. As the manager, if you do all the talking at a Performance Appraisal meeting, you’re doing it wrong. You need to encourage discussion about how to strengthen performance of the individual and the organization.
Join Jed and Bob as they discuss why, how and what managers should delegate.
Watch the ‘Delegate Effectively’ Video (25 mins 06 sec):
Members Click Here for Additional Tools
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!
Effective Delegation is core managerial skill that almost all managers can improve upon. Below we talk about:
Why Managers Don’t Delegate
If Effective Delegation is such a good idea, why do some managers not bother to do it? There are several impediments to Effective Delegation:
Why Managers Should Delegate
Regardless of the reasons why managers don’t delegate, there are several compelling reasons to practice Effective Delegation:
What Managers Should Delegate
The first step of Effective Delegation is deciding what tasks should be passed off to someone else:
How to Delegate
Now that you have decided what tasks to delegate and considered to whom to assign them, you must communicate appropriately to those people:
3 Things to Remember About Effective Delegation:
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!
The ‘Delegate Effectively and Get More Done‘ Video and Cheat Sheet was just added to the website. In it, we lead you through the exact 5-step process you need to follow to delegate effectively. Get Instant Access Today.
Everyone knows an Office Martyr.
These are the people that absolutely refuse to let go of any of their tasks, thinking that no one can do them as well as they can. This refusal to delegate makes about as much sense as taking your summer vacation in Damascus.
Yet this kind of self-destructive behavior is actually encouraged. As a society, we’ve decided that many other behaviors that were acceptable only a few decades ago, are now completely out of the question. A careful viewing of any episode of Mad Men will confirm how much has changed in a relatively short time. Gone are the days of getting completely plastered at lunch, and then driving back to the office to finish up your day. Same goes for smoking, recreational drug use, gambling, gluttony, and virtually all other forms of excessive, self-destructive behavior.
The one glaring exception is workoholism. How many times have you been bombarded on Monday mornings with tales of alleged heroism about how someone successfully avoided their family all weekend, so they could work right through to finish some insignificant office project? The same people will drone on about how they get to the office before 7.00am, and work past 6.00pm on a regular basis.
This refusal to delegate is something to be embarrassed about, not something one brags about. Not many people entertain people at the water cooler boasting about their other vices:
All of these sound as ridiculous to me as, “I work 80 hours per week on a regular basis”. Congratulations – you’re completely dysfunctional, and probably need to see a mental health professional – top speed.
There are only two situations that I could envision someone working an 80-hour week:
This week the Wily Manager guys are talking about Delegation, and why, how and what managers should delegate.
Monday’s Tip: Invest the time to delegate. It may take you longer to hand off a task the very first time, but it will save you time exponentially after that.
Tuesday’s Tip: Make a list of potential tasks to delegate. Don’t worry if people don’t have the skills yet – you can build their skills. List all the things you could push to other people.
Wednesday’s Tip: Provide context. Tell people why you are delegating a task, why it is important, and how it fits into the bigger picture.
Thursday’s Tip: Clarify and Communicate. People need to understand the expectations, boundaries, constraints and resources available for the delegated tasks. You will need to tell them these things, and then check that they have understood.
Friday’s Tip: Establish commitment. Get agreement on when and to what standards the task will be completed.
I once did a one-year project for an enormous insurance company.
They had some significant challenges – they were hemorrhaging cash, it took them way too long to process a claim, they had ridiculously high levels of staff turnover, and they had a remarkably poor public and brand image. This organization was to insurance what Twinkies are to fine pastries.
They tried a number of things to attempt to improve the situation.
They reorganized every few months, thinking that if they arranged the boxes on the org-chart differently, it would magically change results.
They read the latest management books, and within a five-year period, they implemented:
After working in the organization for several months, it became clear to me that despite significant rhetoric to the contrary, the single most important organizational value was to maintain the status quo.
The entire organization, from the CEO to the janitor, desperately wanted different results – as long as they personally didn’t have to do anything different to get those results. It’s kind of like yelling in anger at the speedometer in your car, because you’re going too fast.
Flavor-of-the-Month management practices work about as well as a chocolate teapot. If they really wanted to succeed as an organization, they would need to do a few simple, but fundamental things:
Most of the “Management by Best-Seller” crowd get parts of this right – but they think that the latest stuff the gurus are talking about is going to somehow make the four things above easier.
It won’t.
The truth is, there’s NO flavor-of-the month technique that will make your job easier. The only route to management success is to diligently focus your efforts on the basics.
You can safely ignore what the latest best-seller is saying…that’s just a distraction you don’t have time for.
You won’t have to worry about missing anything important, because we read all the latest management books and journals, so we’re up-to-date with what’s new. Every week we focus on a different management or leadership topic, and give our members bite-size chunks of information and advice about that topic. It’s quick to digest and easy to understand, and you’ll keep up-to-date in less than 20 minutes a week.
It’s the best of both worlds – you’ll save time and energy by zeroing in on what’s really important, but you’ll still be informed about the latest management trends.
There are lots of ways for companies to organize themselves. This week, the Wily Manager guys discuss Distributed Leadership and why it may or may not be a good idea. Either way, there are some things that can be applied in any setting that can be learned from a Distributed Leadership model.
Monday’s Tip: Start with fundamentals. Before changing your leadership model, ensure your organization value leadership: setting clear expectations, holding people accountable, and rewarding desired behaviors.
Tuesday’s Tip: Who’s Accountable? If you are pushing leadership away from individuals, ensure you know who is accountable. When everyone’s accountable, no one is accountable.
Wednesday’s Tip: Figure out how difficult decisions get made before you have make one. Outline a process for how difficult decisions will get made if you are going to push leadership away from individuals.
Thursday’s Tip: Push authority and accountability as deep into the hierarchy as you can. This is a good idea regardless of whether you are moving to a Distributed Leadership model or not.
Friday’s Tip: Move beyond “positional power”. Figure out how existing leaders will part with power, and work with people to develop other ways to influence people that extends beyond positional power.
Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the upsides and downsides to implementing Distributed Leadership.
Watch the ‘Distributed Leadership’ Video (16 mins 11 sec):
Members Click Here for Additional Tools
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!
Distributed Leadership is currently a popular way to organize a business. Below we discuss:
What is Distributed Leadership
The only thing that is generally agreed upon is that Distributed Leadership lacks a commonly understood definition.
The Positives of a Distributed Leadership Approach
There are good and bad things about any approach to organizational design. The positives of Distributed Leadership are:
The Negatives of a Distributed Leadership Approach
Pitfalls to Implementing a Distributed Leadership Approach
If you or your organization has made the decision to move towards a Distributed Leadership approach, here are some things to consider:
3 Things to Remember About Distributed Leadership
Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Distributed Leadership (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):
Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!
