NNFA Northwest Region

    For some people being a manager is natural and instinctive. For others, it’s clearly not. I recently talked to a retailer who’s been managing people for twenty-plus years, but who made a startling confession. He not only dislikes managing, but he thinks management is his greatest weakness. After all this time, being a manager is still not comfortable for him.

    Managing people is an art, but the good news is that it is an art that canbe learned and mastered. When management doesn’t come naturally, it’s a good idea to approach it like any other skill that needs to be learned.People often balk at this idea, thinking that, "it’s just dealing with people, after all. I’ll figure it out." Unfortunately, this approach often results in the manager becoming enmeshed in his or her own bad habits. At this point, if problems arise, they become difficult to untangle. It’s hard to find the source of the problem, when you don’t have management objectives against which to compare outcomes.

    Management trainers have identified some mistakes common to managers. Managers often focus most of their energy telling their subordinates what to do, how to do it, and then they either leave them alone, or watch over their shoulders.

    So what’s wrong with this approach? First of all, it’s demoralizing. The employee is not empowered, and probably won’t take much ownership of his job. When a job is reduced to tasks only, it’s difficult for an employee to see, or become excited about, the big picture…the goals of the business.

    You want to be developing and nurturing an employee whom you can count on when you are not there. To achieve this, you need to build a positive attitude in your employee by involving them in the design of their job.

    Having your employees "design their jobs" is not as difficult as it may sound at first blush. What it means is that you set the goals for their job by determining the desired outcomes; then you let them determine HOW they will meet them. What you have done is stopped prescribing the specific ways for your employees to meet your objectives. You have opened the door for your employee to insert his or her creativity and initiative into the equation.

    There is an important step you must take before you involve your employee in job design. This is goal setting. This may be the most neglected aspect of management, because it requires that you, the manager, determine exactly what you want before you ask anyone to accomplish it. If you do a thorough job of setting goals and objectives you have the foundation for your management plan. This will be the map your employee will use to make sure he or she is headed in the right direction.

    To keep yourself on track with goal setting you might consider using the SMART rule. This means making your goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Traceable. In other words, you need a map that has the destination, the roads, the landmarks and the estimated times all clearly marked and easy to understand. This way, both you and your employee will find an acceptable, comfortable route for your journey together toward your goals.

    After you have set your goals and objectives, you can translate these to a job description. You may need to throw out your initial understanding of what a job description should be.

    Most job descriptions are nothing more than demoralizing and overly prescriptive task lists. How inspired can anyone be when he or she looks over a list of 37 tasks that make up their job? The way to turn a job description into a tool that inspires is to make it outcome-based. Once again, you are not telling the employee HOW to do the job, you are telling him WHAT should be accomplished. This leaves an opening for the employee to make some decisions about HOW to accomplish the outcomes and meet the objectives of the job.

    Customers will feel like they are valued and welcomed in the store, and that service is the store’s first priority.

    This outcome would be measured by periodic customer surveys, a customer comment box and absence of customer complaints.

An example of a task-oriented statement is:

The cashier will:

1. smile at customers;
2. greet every customer by name;
3. ask if they found everything they needed;
4. invite them to come back.

    After goals and objectives have been set and an outcome-oriented job description developed, the supervisory aspects of management comes into play. The One Minute Manager, a popular management book from the ‘80s, had a great saying that sums up an important aspect of supervision. It was, "Catch your employees doing something right." Think about it. Most of the time managers pay attention when something goes wrong and they miss all the wonderful opportunities to praise their employees when they are directly on course.

    The whole premise of the One Minute Manager was that management doesn’t have to take so much time and energy if the manager is alert and tuned in and practices the art of "managing by walking around." What the manager does while wandering around is to interact with employees and NOTICE. Of course, while noticing, the manager will observe some things that are not so "right." That’s important too, because it provides the opportunity for immediate course correction. Immediacy and clear communication are what make this supervisory style work. When employees receive immediate feedback they have a chance to do more of what’s right and correct what’s not, before they have strayed too far from the mark. Management can be a rewarding activity when the results yield good performance and employee satisfaction. It’s worth the time it takes to develop management goals and objectives and to translate these into action. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, give these ideas a try.

You can use the ACHIEVE rule to remember some of the principles of concerned and active management.

A- Accessibility: An active manager should be accessible to employees. All too often managers attempt to manage while hiding in an office behind a computer or telephone. You need to interact if you want to achieve results. C- Clarity of communication: You need to be specific when praising or reprimanding an employee. Speak specifically to how the performance was off the mark or below the standard that you had set. H-Helpfulness: An effective manager will offer to help an employee at the first sign of problems to determine whether he or she needs more training, or other course correction.

I- Incentive: Praise is always a good performance incentive, but managers should get to know their employees personally in order to know what incentives motivate them best.

E- Environment: A supportive, friendly, open environment is important to employee satisfaction.

V- Validation: This represents the "praise" factor and is the outcome of good supervision. Employees need validation that they are doing the job as expected or beyond expectations.

E- Evaluation: Regular evaluations are an employee’s right. Many managers find formal evaluations uncomfortable and, thus, avoid them. Evaluations, when maximized, should be a goal setting session between employee and manager.

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