Management By Objectives (MBO) was popular not long ago, and has been updated to include a different perspective. It’s not about managing people anymore. It’s about managing the agreements for “performance” in a network designed to achieve a goal. Find out more about “performance” right here.
Empowering individuals and teams in the workplace is not just about pumping their self-esteem. You can make a toolkit available to support them in productive conversations and improving their abilities to collaborate, plan, test and implement organization processes, changes and solutions.
Two new views on how to organize workers and give them more opportunities for independent thinking and innovation are summarized in two articles – and these ideas are beginning to change workplaces. Especially as more workers are working at home, the idea of having them operate as “responsible adults” (as one article says) is changing the work of managers. We hope they are listening.
All three steps – Alignment OF the people, Production BY the people, and Accomplishment FOR the people – are needed for effective management. Drop out one step and you are likely to diminish or prevent the alignment, the productivity, and the accomplishment. Management isn’t difficult when you break it down to what you want: the people engaged in their work, the job done well, and the real-world satisfaction for all in its accomplishment.
Step Two in “Managing for Accomplishment” is Managing for Production: setting up the structures and agreements that establish (a) success metrics, (b) a workable performance network (you’ll learn what that is if you don’t already know) and (c) agreements for coordination and communication in that network. Without this, production is delayed due to missteps – the reason so many projects exceed their timelines.
Step One on a group task or project: Get people aligned on (a) What needs to happen, (b) Who’s who, and (c) How it relates to its external environment’s rules and requirements.
There is some connection between the world of our feelings and thoughts and the world of our actions and communications, but we don’t know much about what it is. Still, if you practice acting and communicating, and listen openly others, you can discover “how you come across”.
Managers see their world of work in a very different way than staff members do. What does this tell us about how to improve Manager-Staff communication? The performance review is a good tool that can support a more effective Staff-Manager relationship.
What makes a good worker? Here is a collection of criteria from seven different types of organization, where Supervisors – not Managers – defined four levels of employees.
Evaluating leaders for their “people skills” is not the same as evaluating their effectiveness. Being effective is not a personality thing.
Awarded "Best Management Book" by 800-CEO-READ.
Rated #5 "Best Business Book" by The Toronto Globe and Mail.