Managing Up, Down & Around: A Tip From The Manager’s Answer Book

Someone asked us the following question recently: In The Manager’s Answer Book you talk about managing up, down and around. I understand managing down is managing your team. What do managing up and managing around mean and do you have any advice on how managers can do this?  

Manager’s Tip:  Managing up refers to understanding your boss’s position, goals and responsibilities and working to help your manager achieve those goals. Observe your manager and get to know her so you understand her priorities, her communication style, and what she values personally and professionally. Understand the role she sees you taking in the department and then set out to perform your job in the most efficient and effective manner so you can contribute to the department’s success. 

Managing around or across the organization means understanding the organization and how it works – how information flows, what other functions and departments do and how your team can support them  Managing across requires political savvy and this is where curiosity comes in. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and build collaborative relationships outside your own department. Managing across is the ability to influence others, especially the actions of others, when you don’t have any organizational authority over them. Finally, managing around means understanding and honoring the processes and policies that other departments have in place. They exist for a reason.

You can read more in The Manager’s Answer Book. Section Five is devoted to “Managing Up, Down and Around” the organization, and the discussion starts on page 135.  The Manager’s Answer Book, is available from Amazon -- https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz - Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore.

Setting the Stage for 2019

Auld Lang Syne. I’m not trying to rush the end of the year, but before we know it, we’ll be sipping champagne, toasting the arrival of 2019, and making New Year’s resolutions. Not so fast!  Before you announce or commit to changes in the new year, take some time to think and reflect on not just what, but why.

I was talking with a small business owner recently.  She told me she’s planning to increase her firm’s involvement in several social media platforms. When I asked her why, she explained that the firm is planning to introduce a new service line sometime during 2019.  It’s still in the development stage and the full implementation may not happen until the third quarter. However, she recognizes that while she has a solid client base that can take advantage of these new services, she wants to extend her reach and attract new organizations as well. Strengthening the firm’s social media presence will establish them as influencers in their industry. So they are going to launch targeted outreach campaigns to get in front of people and organizations with whom they want to engage. 

Listening to her explanation, I realized that she’d given a great deal of thought to her plan. She understood: 

• What was going to change (adding a new service)
• When the change was going to happen (third quarter 2019)
• What she wanted to accomplish (grow her client base)
• How she was going to accomplish it (targeted social media campaigns)

What does this have to do with New Year’s resolutions?  Everything!  Think about why you make them—other than wanting to shed some bad habits, which is a noble intention. As you think about 2019, ask yourself:

• What went well in 2018, and how can I build on that?
• How can it be better?
• What new beginnings or challenges will 2019 bring?
• What could or should change to meet those challenges?
• How will I go about making those changes?

As you prepare for the year ahead, also give some thought to shedding those things that are redundant – like the report that the department has always prepared (no one knows why anymore) but is never read! What about ways of doing things that are no longer effective?  How could you use the time that was spent preparing that report to accomplish something new that will have greater impact?

Put some deliberate thought into the resolutions and changes you want to make in 2019 in both your professional and personal lives. It’s a great time to break some old habits. Don’t be the person who lets life and change happen to you. Take charge, and make life and change happen for you!

We wish you a very happy holiday season and send you all good wishes for a wonderful 2019!

Cornelia & Barbara  

December Dilemma: Year-End Rewards

Back in the working days of yore during the industrial era, employers often gifted a ham or turkey to each of their employees at the end of the holiday season. It was considered a standard “Christmas” bonus – a way to thank the employees and their families.  In fact, I remember receiving a turkey when I worked in a restaurant during college.  My mother was thrilled.  Personally, I could have used cash to put gas in my car.   

If you want to do something for your staff this December, keep in mind the ideal bonus expresses gratitude, so make it meaningful and appropriate for your particular workforce. While you'll never be able to please everyone, know your workforce and what they value. Cash alone could be welcomed, but some practical suggestions in lieu of or in addition to cash could be:

• Gift cards – one employer gave employees gift cards to a local grocery chain. Other examples could be movie tickets, gas cards, or Amazon/American Express gift cards which can be used to purchase a large variety of items.
• Time off – one employer gave employees an afternoon off for holiday shopping, to take care of other holiday related errands, or to spend however they wish if they don’t celebrate any year-end holidays.

Don’t be afraid to get creative, but it you do, consider varying the nature of the bonus from year to year to keep an element of surprise for the employees. For example, one year give movie tickets, the next a grocery card. This helps you avoid setting a precedent or expectations, especially if cash is involved.

Don’t overlook some of the pitfalls of year-end rewards – this is where knowing your staff is priceless.  Give careful thought to what you do in order to avoid unintended consequences. For example:

• Don’t forget about employees in remote locations.  The employer mentioned above who gave the gift cards to a local grocery chain failed to do anything for employees working in other locations. It created a great deal of ill-will which could have been avoided. 
• Be careful with tangible gifts – people have different tastes and at the year-end holiday season, they could be overwhelmed with an abundance of stuff.
• Don’t give the bonus any holiday label – stress that it’s a year-end bonus. This works especially well if the end of the fiscal year coincides with the end of the calendar year. 

Year-end bonuses can be a powerful way to boost morale and strengthen employee engagement. Let employees know that you are providing this “2018 year-end bonus” because we want our employees to share in the organization’s success. And if you can, let them go home early!

Beyond Managing Your Team A Tip From The Manager’s Answer Book

I was asked this question in a radio interview recently: When I think of being a manager, I think of managing people. Can you comment on other things manager deals with, managers, and/or has to understand?

Manager’s Tip:  Depending on your organization, you may be called on to manage a special project or program from time to time. This may involve bringing together a team of people from different departments – people for whom you have no direct authority over – to work on a new initiative. This is where your influencing skills are helpful. You are also responsible for managing resources in your organization. You may have to manage materials if you are manufacturing a product. Most managers have a budget and have to manage financial resources.  If your organization has proprietary assets – information or products – that must be protected you and your staff must follow procedures to keep the intellectual property safe. And you may find yourself managing customers and outside business partners. The key to managing service providers is to set clear expectations and hold them accountable – just as you would your internal partners and employees. Likely there are contracts in place with these providers, so become acquainted with the terms and conditions of those contracts. 

You can read more about managing budgets, projects, and resources in Section 1 of The Manager’s Answer Book starting on page 15. The Manager’s Answer Book is available from Amazon -- https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz - Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore.

Dashing Through the Data

Metrics are important in business today and a great deal of focus is placed on data analysis. Many organizations use dashboards – tools that track key performance indicators (KPIs) and other relevant data. Being able to measure effectiveness and efficiency in organizations is critical in today's business environment, and dashboards. Being able to measure effectiveness and efficiency in organizations is critical in today's business environment.

Metrics differ from analytics. Metrics are the hard numbers – the data that is collected. Analytics is the interpretation of that data and organizations use the analysis of data for several reasons: to evaluate performance against goals or to assess trends, for example. If your organization is using KPIs, they must be relevant to the story you want to tell, the challenge you want to address, or the problem you want to solve. Metrics that are meaningful are those from which you can glean insights for decisions. Measure what's helpful to answer a specific issue.

A good dashboard should be simple to use and easy to understand. It needs to be flexible and should integrate with the organization’s other systems, HRIS or financial systems, for example. Remember that you want to share the information on your dashboard with others, so avoid clutter and anything that's not visually appealing, such as too much color or graphics that are too ornate. Also don't display irrelevant data just for the sake of populating the dashboard. 

Manager’s Tip:  Become familiar with the tools your organization uses to measure effectiveness and efficiency. You can read more about measurements and analytics on page 29 of The Manager’s Answer Book.

Gratitude is a Two-Way Street

In our September 2018 newsletter, “Third Time’s a Charm,” we talked about the incredible experience we had seeing The Big Book of HR in the window of Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Needless to say, not only were we thrilled with the discovery, but we were so grateful to Cal Hunter, the manager of the business book department, for all he’s done to prominently display our books in that flagship store.

Before venturing over to the store that day in August, we called ahead to make sure he’d be there. We wanted to personally present him with a copy of The Manager’s Answer Book because we’d acknowledged him and his efforts in it. After all, books don’t sell on their own. 

After arriving at the store, I said to Cal, “I can’t thank you enough.” He corrected me.  “No,” he said, “it’s you and Barbara who I should be thanking.  If authors didn’t write great books, we wouldn’t have any to sell.”  When I asked if we could take pictures, he wryly responded, “Of course – this is your house!”  Then he got the store’s social media expert involved so we, the book, and the store – could receive even more coverage.  

Barbara and I know from investigating the publishing industry that this is a big deal. Primary placement for your book is priceless. We achieved it by being gracious and grateful to a savvy businessperson who was equally excited to meet us. Remember when we first met Cal he was looking for more HR books. And when we spoke on the phone that morning, the first thing he said to me is “Your book is doing great for us!” 

The story didn’t end that day in the store. In a follow-up e-mail, Cal expressed his thanks and appreciation to us for being “such authoritative and prolific authors” that allow the Fifth Avenue store “to present our customers with insightful content.” For Cal and his colleagues, it’s about the customer experience. It’s also about teamwork, because he understands that “bookstores exist because of the compelling work” authors do. Bookstores need authors to write books, authors need booksellers to market and sell the books, and both the stores and the authors need readers to buy and read them.  

This holiday season, Barbara and I are grateful for so many things. In our professional lives, we’re grateful to have wonderful people supporting us, like Cal Hunter, and our agent Marilyn Allen, -- we were surprised to learn that they share a long collegial relationship.  And we are especially grateful to you, our readers. Thank you for sharing our journey and supporting us!

And back to Cal’s comment – “this is your house.” Wow, we’ve got real estate on Fifth Avenue!  Well at least the space that our books take up, but we’ll take that and be grateful for it. 

Have a wonderful holiday season, and take some time to express gratitude to the people who support you.

Surviving the Talent Shortage: A Tip from The Manager’s Answer Book

Unless you live under a rock, you’re aware that we are in a serious talent shortage. Not only the unemployment is very low, there is a serious shortage of people with the right skill sets for the knowledge economy. 

Finding the right talent to fill positions in organizations is always a challenge but now, even more so. What can your organization do to survive and thrive, for that matter?  For one thing, you can work to retain your great employees so that you don’t have to replace them in a difficult job market. 

Manager’s Tip:  While there is no guarantee that they’ll stay with you forever, you can increase your chances of keeping them just a little bit longer by using some of the ideas found in the The Manager’s Answer Book:

“As you consider how to retain your great team, ask yourself these questions:

• Do they know how much I value them?  This is sometimes referred to as ‘re-recruiting your superstars.’ Sell them on the value they add to your team and let them know you are committed to adding to their skill set.
• Am I providing the high performers with career development opportunities such as mentoring, conference attendance, seminars, or degree opportunities? Investing I you superstars can encourage them to stay with you. Employees, especially Millennials, want to learn and grow, so be sure you offer developmental opportunities.
• Am I rewarding my great performers in ways that will motivate them to stay with me? In order to do this, you need to really know them individually so that the reward will fit them personally. To some people, a day off is a great reward. Others would rather have a bonus. There are countless ways to reward performance, but it isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ proposition.

For more ideas, see page 96 of The Manager’s Answer Book.