Managers Need Much More Than Passion To Truly Succeed

Premiership football club, Sunderland have just announced the sacking of colourful Manager, Paulo Di Canio.  No shock for many independent observers, somewhat of a relief for demanding fans who pay good money in a tough economic climate for some level of enjoyment and success, and no doubt viewed as unfair by m/any unions representing football managers.

With a dismal record of just three wins in his thirteen competitive games in charge of the team, Di Canio's record speaks for itself.  But there are several important factors to consider in this sensitive situation, such as:-

Was the Board's decision to appoint Di Canio as manager (after sacking Martin O' Neill) based on a successful track record, cultural fit, technical competence, or something else?  That something else being a passionate Italian accent, a 'Never give up' attitude, and some good PR?

Di Canio is most certainly passionate, and perhaps his Italian accent creates more impact than many of his (former) peers in the Premiership such as Tony Pulis at Stoke (who was fired as his board thought he had done all he could at the club), and Steve Bruce of Hull FC who, with his clearly north eastern accent, doesn't quite match the romance and passion, Di Canio's accent does.

Does a 'Fresh pair of eyes' really add so much value to a team who aren't 'succeeding' or achieving the success the financially driven board of directors and owner demand of them, or at least, hope for?  Not in this case at least.

Di Canio's reign at Sunderland was littered with public outbursts about his team's lack of passion, commitment and motivation.  Rather like former Hull FC's manager, Phil Brown's spat when his team were performing badly.  Brown is now famous, for all the wrong reasons, for not allowing his players to return to the dressing room at half-time.  Instead, he insisted they remain in the centre circle...to receive a right royal roasting from him!  Perhaps not the best motivator, or the best PR for a reasonably respected and successful manager. 

There is a time and a place for manager's to reprimand their team members.  My thoughts are - it's best done privately.  Why?  Because individuals make up teams and the 'one size fits all' approach to addressing poor or unacceptable performance has never worked in terms of adding value, and most likely never will.  But whether it is a football manager, call centre manager, customer service manager, or any otehr kind, the manager is paid, trusted and expected to deliver high quality results.  And this is where responsibility must be taken.

Di Canio is a fine example of a passionate, focused athlete.  But, as in business, being a great technician by no means guarantees that you will be a great manager. 








 

Spotting When You're Being Influenced To Make A Decision....NOW!

How often do people in business attempt to influence you?  Very often I expect as without influencing, nothing would get done and communication would not exist.

I absolutely love exploring how people influence each other, ethically and not so ethically too.  You've experience the charity 'chugger' who makes uses the town or city centre precinct as their stage to approach you in perhaps an overly friendly manner, in an effort to entice you to stop, listen, feel guilty about not supporting the charity s/he is 'representing', in the hope you will sign up for a monthly standing order to 'support' their charity.  What these 'chuggers' don't tell you is that they are employed by an agency which, if you sign up through their representative, take a commission of anything from 50 to 70% of your first year's 'donations'.  

OK, chuggers are an extreme case, but take a look at the content below which was an initial response from a conference exhibition sales representative following my enquiry about my company possibly exhibiting at a HR conference.

This email is by no means unethical, unprofessional or misleading.  Indeed, it is the exact opposite, and it's a pretty good effort to attract business and encourage me to make a decision to exhibit....NOW!

See for yourself what journey the sales representative takes me on.  Read through the complete email immediately below and have a think about the author's intention.  On the copy immediately below this original email, I've detailed my notes in italics so you can differentiate his and my comments.  Let's see if you and I are spotting the same things!

Many thanks for your enquiry. 

I have had a look at your website and the services that Summit offer would be ideally suited, and of interest to the senior level L&D decision makers that the exhibition delivers.

As you can imagine at this time of year the last remaining stands are being booked quite quickly now, we have approximately 5 remaining.

Price and size of stands are,

3m x 2m £2,322

4m x 2m £3,096

3m x 3m £3,483

4m x 3m £4,644

There is also two other costs that you would need to factor in,

Administration Fee £245 - This covers your for 3 main areas of insurance, Loss Damage & Theft, Cancellation & Abandonment and Public Liability Insurance to the value of £2million.

Registration Fee £270 - However this is refunded in full if the invoice is paid within 3 weeks. As we are are already within 3 weeks from the event and all invoices must be paid before the event we can literally ignore this cost.

I have attached a copy of this years brochure, media pack and floor plan. The floor plan isn't quite up to date with the bookings that have come in this week, but I can still accommodate various size stands that companies may wish to book.

Obviously I would be delighted to have you exhibit this year, but a question I would like to ask is, that bearing in mind the event is in 19 days, does that give you enough time to prepare to exhibit this year?

If you have any questions or queries don't hesitate to let me know and if you could let me know your thoughts I would really appreciate it.

Kind Regards

Copy With Scott's Comments

Many thanks for your enquiry. (not a good start as my name would have developed a more personal, less scattergun approach).

I have had a look at your website and the services that Summit offer would be ideally suited, and of interest to the senior level L&D decision makers that the exhibition delivers. (The author claims to have invested time in reviewing my web site to understand my company's offering, and yes, of course, my company's offering is 'ideally suited, and of interest' to his conference audience.  This is rather like you trying on an item of clothing in a store and the sales rep stating 'Oh, it really suits you'.  Not that they would ever state otherwise).

As you can imagine at this time of year the last remaining stands are being booked quite quickly now, we have approximately 5 remaining.  (Here, the author intends to place me in a visual thinking mode with 'As you can imagine' and then he uses the time of year and scarcity of time...time is running out, trick to understand that 'the last remaining stands are being booked quite quickly now' and 'we have approximately 5 remaining'.  Whether true, accurate or otherwise, the author is using the rule of scarcity to push me towards...NOT LOSING OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY.

Price and size of stands are,

3m x 2m £2,322

4m x 2m £3,096

3m x 3m £3,483

4m x 3m £4,644

Notice that the author has not stated that the prices are exclusive of VAT.  This serves to present the pricing as less expensive.  Bu then we go on to other costs to be factored in...

There is also two other costs that you would need to factor in,

Administration Fee £245 - This covers your for 3 main areas of insurance, Loss Damage & Theft, Cancellation & Abandonment and Public Liability Insurance to the value of £2million.  Such admin fees are similar to the charge you receive when using an ATM in some stores which charge you up to £1.99 for you benefiting from the convenience of using their service.  But my company for one has these insurances in place and this 'AdministrationFee' is perhaps being presented as a 'Compulsory Fee' rather than an optional fee.  But one question to ask if you were considering paying the fee is - just how much commission is the event organiser receiving on this income stream?  The author's hope is that exhibitors will simply pay it.

Registration Fee £270 - However this is refunded in full if the invoice is paid within 3 weeks. As we are are already within 3 weeks from the event and all invoices must be paid before the event we can literally ignore this cost.

I have attached a copy of this years brochure, media pack and floor plan. The floor plan isn't quite up to date with the bookings that have come in this week, but I can still accommodate various size stands that companies may wish to book.

Obviously I would be delighted to have you exhibit this year, but a question I would like to ask is, that bearing in mind the event is in 19 days, does that give you enough time to prepare to exhibit this year?   What a wonderfully soul searching question!  Beginning the question with 'BUT' and then accompanying it with a question to create uncertainty and again, scarcity.  The challenge the author experiences here though is that, until he asked the question about whether I was running out of time, I hadn't even considered the possibility.  As it happens, my team and I don't have enough time - so we're not exhibiting!

If you have any questions or queries don't hesitate to let me know and if you could let me know your thoughts I would really appreciate it.

Kind Regards

This email was sent to me 3 weeks ago, and just yesterday I received an email from the same author asking if I had made a decision on exhibiting.  What does this second message chasing business actually do?  it discredits the content of the author's first email which encouraged me not to lose out.

If you want to not just survive, but thrive as  a leader, business owner or entrepreneur, don't just accept what some people communicate to you as true, accurate or win-win.  Take time to dissect their communication and reflect on the consequences and implications of you choosing to make a decision based on their, perhaps self-serving communication.

Emotional Intelligence Training Benefits

Cut Training Costs & Boost Results

With training budgets for management training and team building training being slashed due to the uncertain economic climate, an alternative and worthwhile option is required when it comes to providing worthwhile and meaningful learning for managers.

The Management Training Channel is a completely portable management training and coaching portal that is available 24/7 via any internet-enabled device.  The BIG benefits of this solution are that:-

- Managers can learn 'on the go' rather than having to take a day out of the workplace.  This means that the user can access any number of the current 137 subject-specific audio and video casts within the portal - before that important meeting or challenging performance management chat.

- It costs just pennies per day for a single-user and discounted subscription options are available for corporate clients.  Look at it this way, a 180 day unrestricted access pass for one user is just £199.  Remember, this is just £199 for a full 6 months of expert support!

- Managing remote teams can be quite a different challenge to managing a team based in the same geographical location.  The Management Training Channel provides instant access to expert coaching, because which manager wants to be calling their boss regularly asking for guidance and help?  Not many I expect.

So, that's The Management Training Channel and it's available to you now.  Go take a look!

Enabling Learning In Your Colleagues

So so often I observe well-meaning coaches and managers 'showing' a colleague how to successfully undertake a task or procedure. Of course, sharing information, knowledge and skills is a vital contributing factor to every organisation.

BUT, the challenge manifests when the educator, manager, coach or well established colleague simply shows the learner what to do, in what order and at what 'reasonable' speed.  Especially frustrating for the learner, even though s/he is very likely to speak up and mention it, is when the educator appears to become frustrated with the slow pace at which the learner 'appears' to be learning.  The subsequent 'Give it here, I'll do it and then you can do it' comment really doesn't help, motivate or engage the learner who, is for all intents and purposes, proceeding slowly because s/he wants to get it right.   Or at the very least, doesn't want to get it wrong!

Impulse Control Gone Crazy

Busy managers and coaches need to develop an awareness of how to effectively set the scene for learning to take place.  As I mentioned to an audience of teachers recently, 'Just because you are teaching, it does not necessarily mean that your audience members (students) are learning.'  The very mention of this fact stimulated fantastic discussion amongst the teachers who, albeit unwittingly, had been on auto-pilot setting when teaching.

A key challenge for those entrusted with teaching colleagues new skills, processes and procedures is the absence of effective impulse control.  Their desire for immediate gratification 'I want this done now', is exactly the same principle that applies to you, me or anybody else who really wants that biscuit, glass of wine or feels the need to shout and ball at the driver who just pulled out in front of us at the junction. It's poor impulse control at it's very worst!

Here is a 5 minute audio that will help you to coach others to learn more effectively, confidently, and very likely, more quickly too.

Enjoy

http://summitpodcasts.s3.amazonaws.com/Enabling Learning.mp3

Management Coaching

Management Coaching is often overlooked as a vital performance improvement tool.  After all, the individual has been promoted because they have demonstrated a certain, and acceptable level of competence in their previous role, and hopefully, potential for being successful as a manager.

But it's not always that simple.  Many managers are promoted to the role because they were technically competent as a technician, where they were responsible for their own performance, rather than having clearly demonstrated the ability to encourage, enable, motivate and support others to commit to, and work towards, the achievement of specific organisational goals.

Do you think that m/any of the managers in your organisation would feel comfortable in asking you, their boss, for assistance in developing their skills in managing priorities, which are often conflicting priorities with somewhat challenging deadlines, or how to turn around poor performance and engage team members?  If they would, fantastic!  If they wouldn't, you may be losing out on a significant amount of potential added value, and indeed, better results.

Here is an example of just how effective and worthwhile a one day management coaching session can be.

If you would like to optimise the effectiveness of your managers, why not get in touch with my team at Summit  Training by emailing Info@SummitTraining.co.uk or calling 0845 052 3701.

For The Millionth Time - Stop Exaggerating!

Nothing ever words out for me.  

I'm sure you've heard it.  Perhaps even thought it occasionally.  But this belief is just so inaccurate.  Surely SOMETHING must have worked out for us at some point in our lives?  If it hadn't, it's very unlikely any of us would be here.

We humans have a habit of distorting reality and creating our own meaning about what a certain situation or event means to us personally.  Let me share an example with you from a coaching session with a senior manager at a multi-million pound company.

John was responsible for managing nearly 100 employees and successfully implementing a number of important projects, often three or four projects simultaneously.  During the first ten minutes of our first coaching session, he shared his issues, concerns and troubles with me.  How the performance of some members of his team was becoming a 'BIG' problem and he (the victim) was 'ALWAYS' being let down by some of his more senior, project team members when they didn't meet 'agreed' deadlines.

In his own words he 'Got it in the neck' from his boss who, on more than one occasion apparently, made John shout at his team in an effort to 'Get their heads out of their arses' and focused on their work.  He continued, 'I've warned them that if they keep stabbing me in the back, I'll have to get rid of them.'

Have you noticed anything about the vocabulary John is using here? Yes, they're all imaginary incidents that had never happened in (external) reality - but they were John's reality in the confines of his own mind. For John, it was all absolutely true and accurate.

As I began to politely question and challenge some of John's current beliefs about the terrible situation he found himself in, he stated that without exception, he was always 'let down' by his team.  That 'If it's happened once, it's happened a hundred times' (Note: Has John been counting?).

Unwilling to accept the real source of the teams poor performance, missed deadlines and subsequent reprimands from his own boss, could be more down to his leadership, John continued to hurriedly point his finger at others rather than accept any kind of personal responsibility.  He refused to move from his view of everyone else being to blame - (Note: 'Could John be digging his heels in?').  His tone was becoming quite aggressive towards me personally as well as the situation he was vehemently complaining about.  And this is a challenge that is often encountered when coaching a senior manager who can't see a solution anywhere they look.  It's not usually intentional aggressiveness, just an auto-pilot response with a purpose of preserving current beliefs - even though there's no evidence to support them.

Now, I'm all for helping people to remove barriers, resolve issues and produce better results for themselves and their teams, and I'm really rather patient too - but I can get really fed up, really quickly when someone lets their ego take over.  It adds no value and can do immense harm to relationships, trust and teams if not kept in check.


After a long, deep breath, slapping my hands together loudly as if delivering a single applause, I politely and assertively said 'OK then John, take off your shirt please...AND DO IT NOW'.  John, being quite a bit taller, and a lot wider than me with shaven head and grainy North-East accent wasn't the ideal candidate for this kind of provocative approach.  The look of absolute shock on his face was almost as funny as when Del Boy fell through the open bar in Only Fools And Horses. I expect you remember it well.

John's focus quickly changed from playing a very willing victim in to a state of absolute confusion and disbelief as I continued; 'Come on John, don't be shy, just take you shirt off.  I continued, 'I won't tell if you won't'.  After what seemed like minutes but was perhaps only a few seconds, John's brain was still trying to make sense of my somewhat unusual, and unexpected request.  He asked me in a rather uncertain voice 'Why do I need to take my shirt off?'  I replied calmly...and slowly, 'Because I want to see all of those scars on your back....from all of those knives - surely you will have lots of scars.  Won't you?'

Bursting in to a fit of nervous and relieved laughter, John stood up, leaned over the desk that separated us, and firmly shook my hand. Eager to avoid the possibility of a keen left hook, my leaning to my left was strategic positioning more than anything else.

A few minutes later, John had eased himself out of his previously limiting thinking and moved into a more proactive, responsible frame of mind.  The use of metaphor and polite challenging of John's language patterns has assisted him to learn just how unproductive they were to him improving matters with his team - and with his boss.  There were no scares, just images in his mind of what a certain situation has meant to him.  He hadn't got anything in the neck and neither was he always let down by his team.  It just felt like it sometimes.

What followed was a very productive, collaborative coaching dialogue. John began to make real sense of the reality of the situation and took full responsibility for his part in the problem.  And, from this new, more empowering position, it was easy for him to start being part of the solution.

This is both a simple and true example of how our experience of a situation or a person can be easily distorted by what goes on in our head.  Think about it - how often do you hear people say 'This ALWAYS happens to me' or 'This will NEVER work'?  Also, you could hear comments such as being 'Stabbed in the back' or 'Kicked in the teeth'.

As you begin to spot these patterns of communication at work, whether it is with a frustrated customer or in a sensitive meeting, become more aware of the individual perspectives and understand how they view the experience. Remember that if you do challenge the comment, do it politely and with the other person's best interests at heart.  Just as with John he was experiencing the feelings in his own mind, even though they had never happened in what we like to call 'reality'.

By increasing your awareness of these types of comments you can not only quickly diffuse tense situations, but also, if you are a manager, move your team performance towards better productivity, enhanced quality and eradicate careless errors.  And you can achieve this with just a little awareness and practice.

I recommend that you steer away from inviting people to remove items of clothing, or if you do, stay well out of striking distance!

http://www.SummitTraining.co.uk/
http://www.ScottWatson.co.uk/
http://www.EmotionalIntelligenceTraining.co.uk/

Message to Mark Holloway's Students at the University of East London

Dealing with Labels

Summit Director of Learning & Development Dirk Bansch on how to find the confidence to deal with people senior to you.

How to curse effectively, part 2

I like fairy tales.

If you have read enough of them, you will know that very often there is an evil witch or a wicked stepmother who curses the poor, unfortunate hero or heroine.

It goes like this: "From now on, you are a frog (or beast, or sheep, or tea cup)!," and the hapless victim turns into that thing and is cursed to stay that way for all eternity - or until a prince comes along who can lift the curse.

And you know what? We curse ourselves on a regular basis!

Whenever we say to ourselves "I can't do this", we basically cut ourselves off from any chance of ever being able to do this thing - we cursed ourselves as effctively as any witch could do.

Think about it: we don't say that we might in future attempt it, we don't say that maybe we will succeed if we show enough persistence. No, we stopped ourselves from even attempting it.

"Can't" is the end of action.

The way to free ourselves (or others, who have put themselves in the same position) is to challenge this curse.

"I can't do it!"

"What would you do if you could?"
"You can't or you won't?"
"If there was a way to do it, what might it be?"

Same with ourselves: If we notice that we have stopped ourselves from taking action, we could ask empowering questions like "I wonder how somebody else might look at this?", "If I could do it, how would I?".

We have to be very careful with how we use language to empower and disempower ourselves.

Yes, we can!

How to curse effectively, part 1

Since I just watched a documentary on the curse of Tutankhamun, I thought I’d write a bit about how we often “curse” ourselves and others.

One of the easiest ways is to use a certain, magical word that instantly disempowers people.
Drum roll, please!

That word is "try".

Little smartassy proof: Try to click your left mouse button. No, don't click it - try to click it!

We either do things or we don't. As soon as we say that we will try something, we have this in-built excuse that we didn't really go for it, we just had a try...

Studies have actually shown that if you ask someone to lift as much weight as they can and then ask them to try to lift as much as they can, they tend to be about 25% weaker when somebody used the word "try" on them.

A friend of mine is a Karate Champion and he shared with me that he always talks to his opponents before a bout and tells them to try their best. Quite sneaky, and quite effective!

Force yourself to say "I will do it" and if you hear someone else say that they are going to give something a try, ask them nicely if they are going to do it, or not.

Inside the Dragon's Den

In case you have not heard about “Dragons’ Den”, it is a British TV series showcasing the efforts of several entrepreneurs to convince investors (the Dragons) to fund their ideas. Think “American Idol” with business ideas rather than songs. Same amount of abuse, too.

Last month I was invited to participate in a jury at a French Business School that evaluated “mock” investement funds that were based on financial, but also environmental, social, societal and sustainability aspects. Twenty-three teams of students presented their ideas about which companies they thought had the greatest potential to do well, while adhering to stringent non-financial criteria.

It was an eye-opener!

Even while taking the current financial crisis into account, funds that focused on companies with high ethical standards of internal and external behaviour did and are expected to do better than those only focused on financial criteria. It really warmed my heart to hear that and I thought that if students learn such lessons before starting their careers, they might focus on those important ethical issues that are often overlooked when you are in the thick of the daily business grind. This might lead to a gentler invisible hand guiding the markets in future.

And the nicest bit of information was that those companies that are expected to do well and do so on a higher ethical level than other companies, also had the highest training budget! :-)

Counterintuitive? Maybe, but very much in line with the findings of Boston Consulting Group, as publishes in People Management magazine in April 2009 (page 9).

In that report, executives were asked which cost-cutting measures worked during the last recession. Cutting back on training did not! On the contrary, it led to a decline in employee engagement.

We have to keep in mind that training is not just a way to enhance employees' skills, but also their motivation levels. If we don't invest in their development, what kind of message that does that send about how much we value them?

Top Ten Ways to Make Your Management Training Really Work For You

When the economic outlook was bright, choosing an external training partner was a pretty tough task. But now, with the economic outlook being rather bleak, my company has noticed a significant increase in the number of enquiries for associate relationships. How can a corporate buyer be certain, or at least, very confident that they are making a good decision when appointing an external partner? Here are my top 10 tips to make your management training programme work really well. Apply these tips and you will not only minimise the possibilities of things going wrong, you will proactively be ensuring that your management training programme delivers excellent quality and (with your involvement) the results you want most too.

1. Do your homework - Be clear on why you want/need the training now. What organisational pressures or goals are driving this training programme and what contribution are you expecting from your training partner?
2. What is the rationale for outsourcing your management training programme? Make sure your organisation is clear about WHY you are looking to outsource. Do you need external expertise and skills? Is it a project deadline you can't achieve on your own? Or is there another reason? Either way, clarity really helps.
3. What is the level of risk involved? The consequence of a poorly chosen PC repair service provider (if you catch the damage early enough) might only cost you a couple of PC's and a few annoyed colleagues. But outsourcing your whole custoemr service support to the wrong provider could cost you a great deal in sales. Be very careful outsourcing your recruitment and development of managers who can't demonstrate a consistent level of competence and client satisfaction. Clarity on how performance will be measured is a real key point here.
4. Think past the consultants sales pitch. Word of mouth referrals are almost always the safest way to select a management training partner. A recommendation from a trusted colleague, acquaintance or advisor is far safer than simply seeing who is listed on the internet or Yellow Pages. And then you have to ensure that the provider has credentials that meet your requirements. Some points to pay attention to: Establish early on exactly who will be allocated to your training and development programme.Ask about this person's expertise, track record, qualifications and level of authority within their company.Don't take a cv or personal profile as a statement of fact. Dig deep and check client testimonials.
5. How consistent is the expertise level? Bait and switch is one of the most annoying practices employed in the outsourcing sector. Providers show up to the sales meetings with senior personnel but when the contract has been secured, you rarely if ever see them again - unless there is something they can sell to you. Agree who will be involved in the day to day work before signing a contract.
6. Are reliable client testimonials available? A client list is one thing, and they can look impressive. But to maximise the possibility of your potential partner actually delivering their commitments, look for client testimonials. Real feedback from real people in a similar situation to you. Having to choose an external training partner. If verifiable testimonials aren't available, perhaps you would be best not making such an appointment.
7. Are the deliverables actually deliverable and realistic? Beware of providers who promise you the world. Their intention may be genuine and well-intended but even the most impressive sales pitch will end in frustration (and possibly litigation) if agreed deliverables aren't achieved. Remember to be reasonable with your requests, however important your project. Don't be so relaxed that any results, however small, appear like success. And don't be so difficult and expect so much that even very positive improvements/changes are deemed to be failure. This is a two-way relationship and win-win is vital.
8. How will the provider will assist with in-sourcing. You don't want to be locked into a provider in such a way as to militate against switching providers or bringing the function in-house in the future. Answering this question will help you to identify potential partners whoc should be able to provide what you need. Once you have chosen the provider, include the transfer of knowledge, skills and expertise in your contract document. This will ensure that both parties are properly protected.
9. Get the contract right. The contract is where all the assumptions about how the provider will work with you are made explicit. It is also the place where the provider's expectations of the client are also made explicit. Enter into negotiations with a genuine win-win relationship in mind. You want to achieve your outsourcing objective with your partner as smoothly and effectively as possible. The contract should allow the provider and yourself to be clear on your expectations of each other, an element of flexibility to change project timing, logistics and allow both parties to feel they are contributing and receiving value for money.
10. Use honesty as your standard in all of your dealings. Appointing an external training partner can be like a boxing match on some occasions. You don't want to be hit with an incompetent provider so you are a little cagey to start with. The external training partner doesn't want you to 'steal' their intellectual property so they give it to you one small piece at a time. Start your initial discussion with a clear commitment to honest dialogue and transparency in every aspect.

This is an excerpt from Scott Watson's book 'Win Every Time - Essential lessons for existing and emerging leaders'

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Win-Every-Time-Essential-Existing/dp/1425983405/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236611346&sr=8-1