The role of the manager has shifted over time. In the past, managers were typically responsible for overseeing roles in the organization. This may have included setting goals, providing performance evaluation, hiring and firing, and addressing any shortfalls in employee performance while also taking care of the reporting and running of the department.

Today, this model of management is shifting. Many of the top companies in the country and around the world are shifting to a different way of providing support for employees and team members. Instead of managers “managing,” they move into a coaching role. The coaching role allows the manager to support the individual growth of each employee or team member in a personalized and tailored fashion. This encourages personalized professional development, increased creativity, and a collaborative relationship between the manager and the employee.

Supporting Individual Growth

To support individual professional growth, managers must be able to both ask the right questions and listen to the answers. Individual growth may look very different for each team member, ensuring maximum growth for each person.

In the role of manager as a coach, there is a stronger, more collaborative experience for everyone involved. Through these private, confidential discussions, managers learn more about their employees as they are seen more as colleagues than the boss. At the same time, the employees often feel more comfortable and confident in being creative, thinking outside the box, and sharing ideas that may be groundbreaking for the team or organization.

Guiding and Assisting

The coach manager is able to guide people in meaningful ways that are personal as well as professional. Often issues that are causing challenges in someone’s personal life, such as challenges with communication, conflict resolution, or interpersonal relationships, will also show up at work.

As the coach, you do not need to have the answers or solve the problem. Instead, you ask questions to allow the individual to identify these issues and to brainstorm the resources or the support they need. This is valuable for the individual as they learn that they have control over their growth and progress.

Reality Testing

Moving from manager as leader and problem-solver to manager as coach does not mean accepting basic answers. It means going deeper, asking questions, and then reality testing the solutions developed by the employee or individual.

The process is also a learning experience for the employee or individual. They do not feel judged, but they have a clear understanding of the effectiveness or potential challenges with their selected path forward. As the coach, you can then check in with the employee over time, helping them to make the necessary adjustments to have real, significant growth and success.

Change is Inevitable by Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

 Next to death and taxes one thing for sure is change.  It is constant and it will continue to be part of our everyday lives.  The rate of change has significantly increased in the past several decades and there is no sign of it slowing down any time soon.

 People generally resist change and will often choose the comfort of things staying the same and comfortable than having to experience the anxiety of dealing with change and the unknown.

 We are experiencing more change and unrest than we have in the past twenty years. We have to give up on the idea of that one day we will catch up or that things will settle down soon. It takes a lot of emotional, intellectual and physical energy to continually absorb change and often people get overloaded.  When this happens, productivity and quality can often suffer.  When employees burn out, it can directly affect the level of customer service and overall company morale.

 Often when there is big change happening in a company the leaders work very hard and spend a lot of time and energy trying to make people feel comfortable during change.  They create strategies to encourage employees to feel good about what is happening.  Instead, they should be giving them the tools to move through the discomfort of change and foster attitudes that will help them thrive in the new environment.  People need to be given the time and training required to adapt to change with minimal disruption to the customers.

 When major change happens, leaders need to look for ways to make incremental changes whenever possible with the least amount of impact on existing resources.  Managing the human side of change is critical to the success of any change initiative.  By providing employees with the tools to transition through change with resiliency will go a long way to keep them positive and focused on the desired results.  There needs to be a process for managing transition and change.

Tips for implementing effective change:

• There needs to be an Executive who is a sponsor for the change
• Teams of change agents need to be created (ie: communication, transition)
• The need for change has been communicated to everyone (several times and in several ways)
• The leaders clearly communicate the need for the change highlighting the direct and indirect impacts
• It must be clearly communicate who will be involved in the implementation and planning of the change
• Ongoing communication and updates as the project moves forward, as well as any modifications required

Communication and Leadership from the Top by Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

I was reviewing the statistics from the Athena Alliance blogtalk radio show and noticed that the shows that had the most listens were those that had to do with communication and leadership. I have captured some of the key points from these shows in this week’s blog.

Often leadership teams consist of between 7 – 9 executives, depending on the size of the organization.  One thing is very clear, it the attitudes and actions of this team that can impact the overall culture and performance of an organization.  There is often a common thread with people at the top, they are very similar in nature.  Qualities such as driven, outcome focused and competitive are what contributed to their success. There is a challenge with teams when the top people are too much alike.  They might be missing some important components such as creativity, heart or imagination.

The most successful teams have members who operate at a level of personal awareness.  They who they are and what their triggers are.  Awareness is key.  In order to build a high functioning team, it needs to be built on a strong foundation of trust.  Without trust nothing else works.  Leaders need to clearly define what trust looks like for their team and what are values they will living by.

Clear honest and open communication is paramount to success.  If there is conflict with the members of the senior team, it will be reflected throughout the rest of the company.  Having a solid foundation of trust will allow the members to challenge each other’s perspective with no negative impact on the culture or results. 

They big takeaway for me from reviewing these shows is the importance in knowing yourself and what drives you.  Knowing whether you lead through people, vision, drive or process will help you create a team to compliment your strengths.  No leader can be all things, and trying to be all things can only lead to stress.  We often hear the phrase “play to your strengths.”  Powerful teams have a balance of personality, preferences and strengths.

Another challenge a leadership team can face is when the members are operating with their departmental goals as top priority.  Often a shift has to take place to operate with the focus on the overall organizational goals.

Over the years leadership has changed; it used to be a top down model, then it moved to a flatter structure to now it is almost circular – where various departments and customers are included.  Having the four generations in the workplace and more social media connections has changed the corporate landscape for sure.  It offers new and exciting opportunities as well as challenges, but one this is the same: building trust in communication and leaders is timeless.

WOW!!!  What an Alliance!

When I first started the Athena Alliance seven years ago I had no idea what great relationships and wonderful people I would have the privilege of working with.  I often hear from my partners what wonderful customers we have.  I couldn’t agree with them more.  We have been able to support small , mid-size and large organizations with a plethora of various training programs, coaching agreements and Human Resources consulting support.

I can remember the first time I met one of my long standing customers.  She was new in her position and had a mandate to create a learning culture for this mid-size construction company.  Her energy and passion for creating a powerful college was infectious.  Every alliance partner has consistently commented on how fantastic it is to work with her and their employees.  She loved the alliance concept right from the beginning and could see how aligning with me could save her a lot of time and also have trust that the trainers and coaches I introduced her to would be able to deliver the customized solutions she required.

To date she has contracted our alliance partners to provide training in the following areas:

• Leadership (many areas)
• Listening skills
• Power hours
• Empowerment programs for the Admin team
• Priority/time management
• Business writing
• Disc
• Presentation Skills
• Mentoring program
• Outlook

Every year we sit together and discuss what they have accomplished in the past year and what they want to focus on in the coming year.  I then get to work with my partners to make sure she has the partnerships she needs to make it happen.   She is such a delight to work with and we are all grateful for the opportunity to provide the ongoing support for this organization. 

Just one more reason I love what  I do!!!

By
Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

Timing is Everything

When I initially called this manufacturing company two years ago the Human Resources Manager informed me that they only do internal training and never outsourced.  At the time I sent her the information on our training alliance and I said I would follow up.  I called a year later and the situation was still the same.  I called again this past spring and everything had changed.  There was a new person in Human Resources who was delighted that I called her.  She said they had recently does an assessment with their first line supervisors and managers to identify any training gaps.  I booked an appointment to meet with her.  During the assessment I discovered that although they had done their training internally in the past, it primarily consisted of mandatory health and safety training.

She shared that most of their front line supervisors and managers had been promoted from within. None of them had any formal training on how to be effective leaders.  She shared about a specific incident that a supervisor had given an employee a great review and then 2 months later wanted to fire them for poor performance.  She interviewed this particular manager only to find out the reason he gave him such a great review was because he was uncomfortable giving feedback on the areas where the employee was not performing.  The Human Resources Manager knew this was just one of the many areas where these supervisors and managers lacked the training and skills to be effective.

Together we confirmed they needed to have basic training in the following areas:

• Giving feedback
• Handling difficult conversations and confrontation
• Delegation
• Time/priority management
• Communication skills.

I connected her with one of my alliance partner who has extensive experience working with supervisors and managers within an organization.  The first round of programs has been completed successfully and a conversation recently with the plant manager confirmed that the training we provided was exactly what they needed.  We are meeting again in the fall to discuss the next level of training for these supervisors and managers.  The Human Resources Manager shared with me in our last conversation how perfect the timing was that I called and how easy we made it for her to address their immediate needs.

By
Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

Assessments:  So Many Choices

by Cindy Stradling

When I meet with clients and they are interested in conducting an assessment for their organizations I am very careful to find out why they want to conduct and assessment and what information they intend to  obtain.  There are so many choices, I could write blogs for the next six months and still not have explored all of them.  For the month of April I am going to share with you my experience of  four of the assessments that I have personally taken. 

Week Two – Insights Discovery Personal Profile

I took the Effective Selling Chapter assessment to better understand my personal sales skills and abilities.  It also provided me with insights (no pun intended) regarding my communication style.  The Insights assessment is a personal development tool which gives individuals an engaging, reinforcing transformational insight in themselves and others.

It identified my personal style as friendly and supportive.  I am imaginative and creative visionary who is a source of inspiration to others.  It explained that I prefer to focus on positive, harmonious and uplifting aspects of people and human relations.

Some of my strengths included being intuitive, optimistic, easy going, fun, enthusiastic, adaptable.

It also indicated some of my weakness included being easily distracted, de-motivated with routine tasks, can procrastinate on longer term tasks, may not dot all her  “i”s and cross all her “t”s. 

I found both the strengths and weaknesses identified were in fact a good representation of me.  I am consistently improving the way I do things and this assessment helped me to focus on the areas that need the most attention.  Since doing the test I procrastinate less, am more focused and still working on getting excited with routine tasks.

The Effective  Selling Chapter  is used to develop strategies for improved customer relationships, greater self-understanding and more and greater sales.  It assessed me in six stages:

Before the sale begins

Strengths:  positive attitude, adaptable in prospecting, builds connections and long term relationship

Areas for improvement:  avoid procrastination, prioritize more effectively, research competition more

Identifying needs

Strengths:  easy to be trusted, fascinated by other’s motivations, needs, fears and problems, has strong relating skills

Areas for improvement:  probe more, spend less time with people who are not key decision makers, gather more details for complex processes

Proposing the solution

Strengths:  maintains high standards in telling it like it is, is fluent and reassuring in articulating customer’s goals, presents in a fast-paced vocal manner 

 Areas for Improvement:  stick to the point, ensure fully knowledgeable about every aspect of the product/service, have relative business cases available

Dealing with buying resistance

Strengths:   is constantly alert to customer’s concerns, uses intuition to uncover any hidden blockers to the sale, maintains professionalism always

Areas for Improvement:  be less sensitive to tougher objections, provide more detailed information when needed, pause and reflect before moving on

Gaining commitment

Strengths:  makes the process FUN!  Focuses on the long-term benefits, reduces loss to client by ensuring their needs are met

Areas for improvement:  pay more attention to details, refrain from over-assuming, at times take smaller steps

Follow-up and Follow through

Strengths:  maintains regular contact with her clients, sees customers as friends to enjoy time with, remains aware of new development opportunities

Areas for improvement:  confirm details, ensure action is always taken for customer requests,  check levels of satisfaction more frequently.

I took a great deal of value from this assessment and have made many positive changes as a result of the information outlined in the Insights report.  I recommend this assessment for any salesperson who wants to identify their own blind spots and improve their performance.

The  Insights Discovery Personal Profile also has chapters for Communication, Teams and Management

Next week: My results from taking the Kolbe Assessment.