Manager Mayhem - Manager Edition

Traci says, “I have an employee, Sarah. She is great at performing her day to day responsibilities, but I’m having trouble getting her to see the bigger picture and improve her presentation skills.”

Adam says, “This guy on my team, Mike, is driving me crazy. His clients keep leaving and he doesn’t see that they need to love the organization, not just him.”

If being a manager was easy, everyone would do it. You’re expected to do your day job and make them better at theirs with only 24 hours in a day. Oh, and you have 8 people on your team. Who’s ready to drink?

You generally have top performers, low performers, and people that do the job ‘fine’. Some people want to excel and others just want a paycheck. What do you do to help them all?

1. Understand that each employee is different with their own learning styles, personal lives, drivers, and skills.

2. Recognize that the way you work might be different from what will work for them.

3. Communicate openly, but with respect. A lot of times, employees don’t know what they’re doing wrong or how to make you happy.

4. Some people are intrinsically motivated, but most people are not. They all will want to know they’re appreciated and their work is being noticed. Saying that is also free for the company.

5. Make sure you’re giving your employees your full attention. When you help them succeed, it will actually lighten your load.

6. High performers expect to achieve their goals and receive positive reinforcement more often than most. However, it’s important to understand their personal goals and how they can build the skills to achieve those goals. Maybe they’re great at this role, but have work to do to get to the next or change to another area of the business they’re more passionate about.

7. Low performers generally know something is wrong and have likely adopted a negative mindset. If you want to help a low performer do better, you have to show them you believe they can. Ask them if performing better is something they want. If not, they need to understand the consequences.