3 minute read

GOALS ARE SMART: Managers are made, not born

Next Article
Obttuaries

Obttuaries

prcdnct tho ldurtry, tbo cu$omers mdto o@y.

Then smctHng happcnr. Sales clump. Tbc cuctmcfs and tbc ralesncn rc unhapy. honts fall and bhgo anotba Rtlay rypottmcnt

Tntntng rnougcrs is not an cxercisc corr€r€d by reading posidon dercrlpdonr, opcratlonr manualg and liltoning o ealcE rcps describc 6eir waru. Crcattng lcadershlp bcgins with undcrstandlng t[e target you're rying ohtt.

Byon Nelson, a Texas nadve and a btghly rcvered touring golf professloal of tbe 1940c dcscribcd golf as a elnple game. He explained it as having only ttno dimensions - distance and direction. This is simplistic, but true. Buslness like golf has twg dimensions - people and asses.

This translaes that managers must obtain people skills and sit€ lnowledge. Tberefore, mqnagement training must have these as its objectives. Most companies do their best raining and spend tbe most money on t[e site lnowledge (asset ) side. Albeit mostly throug! on the job training.

The people slcills side rides on what the boss says instead of what s rigbt or best. Over the years the academicians have quantified managerial/leadership skills from entry level to manager of nanage$. One enters the work force with some formal schooling. The ability tro communicate represents about l0% of the skills the worker will need to acquire to be an effective and conuibuting employee. Mostly the beginner adds site knowledge: how to use this machine or sell that product Being able to communicate (people skills) mahas it possible to acquire ass€t slcills.

The next step is the supervisor level. Here the experts say a 50'50 split and realignment in skills is required. The person must develop all sorts of abilities with people communication, implementation, delegation, t€aching and monitoring and at the same time continue to grow in the assets utilization area.

AhIAGEMENT is the title; leadership is the function. The title comes by appointmenu the powef ftom one's actions.

Ability to act effectively is not inborn, but acquired. It's learnable and doable. unfortunately manager can be a destination while leadership is a life long journey. The challenge is to create managers who are leaders.

In our careers many of us have called in our staf salesnan on Friday afternoon to make him Sales Manager come Monday morning. Why not?

The appoinmenl makes sense. Best salesman we evef had - *nows the

From supervisor, the next step is menager. At this level even broader people slcills are needed. Thejob becomes 807o people management and 20?o asset nurnagement. Management changes from supervisor/coach to manager/counselor, and generally acquires financial responsibilities. Experts define a manager as one doing the job with someone else's money.

The old saying that the only room is at lbe top is true in the leadership speclfrum. Managers are classified in two ways: those who manage people one on one, usually limited to six or eight people to be effective, and those who manage nanagefs. agement and goal setting. It's virtually axiomatic that one can't manage others if he en't manage himself in effective use of tine. The Equality of Time Chart shown was developed many years ago by a father for a son who ryas going to a major college as an athlete. The thmst was if you nunage time you can accomplish anything in the bours you bave. surable; Attainable; Realistic; Timely in execution.

Almost any corporate officer managing operating deparments or divisions with section or segment managers is an example of this. The people skills and site lnowledge needs are enlarge4 but the 80%-2t% relationsbip remains the same.

Recent years have brought great sophistication to our industry. The computef, the buying groups, the structur€d wholesaler have conEibuted mightily to growth on the asset side and site lnowledge, but precious little has been aquired on the peo'ple skills side. The opportunity is in most li-

Success Maze

There are experts who can help otbers improve their people skills in dmost any metropolitzm area However, there are two major things anyone can do for himself. Time man-

Basic Needs Training

Everyone has 168 hours in his week. If he sleeps I hours a nigbt, he uses 56hours, leaving 112hours. Eating 21 meals at 20 minutes each takes 7 hours a week. The,rc are 105 hours renaining. The idea is to show that aayone can have a full and productive college life and still work a 45 hour wsek if he really wans iL The ap proach adapts to wor.rld-be manager/leaders.

The second skill th4t can be implemented by trying is goal setting. The essence of the subject is contained in the acronym SMART. Goals have cstain chaacteristics: Specific; Mea- braries in Human Resource Development. Commercially, Dale Camegie purveys such skills. Filling the void has two dimensions - call someone ard hire them.

S:turyataGlaw

How to recognize managerlal qualities...helpi ng employees to develop good leadership skllls...criteria for salecting managers.

This article is from: