Frontline Mangement: Managing in Tough Times – Some Practical Guidelines
Managers are confronting challenges that have not been seen in our lifetime. What is going to get them over these hurdles and ensure that they retain staff, maintain strong teams and ensure continuous employee engagement with the brand?
Here are 3 key areas that your management team would benefit from addressing.
Background
This is an unprecedented moment in history with the world’s economy held to ransom by the behaviour of the financial services sector – and while world leaders are standing together and making commitments to secure deposits within the banks and some financial institutions, we are not yet out of the woods.
So what should managers be doing in times like these where organisational re-structuring takes place at a moment’s notice and where rapid and painful change is affecting employee morale?
Management Consultancy International consults to leading global organisations on solutions to transform their people. Understandably, some of our clients are concerned and have commented to us, “I am onto my fifth re-structure,” says a senior HR person in one of Australia’s major financial institutions. “My staff are facing increasing pressures on household expenses and they have to deal with customers who are equally pressurised – they need even more support from me. Yet, I am unsure of where the business is headed and I have less budget to manoeuvre,” says another manager in an IT business.
Below is a three step guideline that will help to get you through
Guideline 1
Great leadership we have always been told – and never has this been more pertinent than now.
Great leadership begins with self-insight – according to Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence model – and that is never more pertinent than now. Take the time to have a good, hard look at yourself. Gain some self-knowledge through completing self-assessment surveys and by taking the bold step of asking others for feedback on their perceptions of you.
• A great self-exploratory survey is the extended DISC model. (One of our consultants can assist with this). The purpose of completing a survey such as this, is to create awareness of how you deal with situations and when under stress, what style of behaviour you revert to.
• The Johari window model suggests that we all have blind spots. These are areas of our style and behaviour and ways of doing things that we are not aware of – but others around us are! Some of us have embedded these behaviours into our subconscious and unless someone external points these out to us, we are totally unaware that we are coming across in this way.
The only way that we can find out what our blind spots are, is to take the proactive step of asking others. Be bold – be brave and ask!
• Update your skills. Follow the lead of some global organisations who used a downturn in the economy to train and upskill their employees. When the cycle came to an end, they had a fully staffed operation with the skills to take advantage of the good times, while their competitors were scrambling to rehire workers to bolster their depleted workforce.
Reading articles and white papers on the many management topics will also position you favourably when the economy turns around.
Guideline 2
Communicate more often, more clearly and more effectively – this might sound obvious but if we think we have communicated sufficiently, we have only just started.
If you think of our traditional communication models of a sender, a message and receiver, the ‘noise’ in terms of information overload that interferes with the message being accurately and clearly transmitted is now so loud that the receiver does not often hear or accept the transmission.
This ‘noise’ is worsened by increased stress levels and by perceptions that may or may not be accurate.
A recent survey at Management Consultancy International of the key issues faced by participants on a range of interpersonal skills, found that over 78% had challenges with communicating with others or with the way in which others in the team communicated with them.
So, suggested ways of improving your communication to staff in your team are:
• Try not to hide behind email. Email has some wonderful uses, but making them your sole way of communicating does not provide your team with the sense that someone is there to support them and is not afraid to be upfront. Being physically present, creates an enhanced sense of trust in the team.
• When you talk or present, do it from the heart. No prepared powerpoints unless absolutely necessary and no long-winded speeches that lack relevant information or inspiration. Keep people informed, even if it is of bad news. There is nothing worse than word escaping into the grapevine where it can be exaggerated at every new telling.
• Use the power of story-telling. If you are breathing you have stories. You have personal stories of what happened to you in other organizations or of personal battles that you overcame. Share these with others in the team to create a feeling of hope and a sense that ‘we can get through this’. This also shows that you have empathy for the team and that you are fully behind them.
Guideline 3
Be consistent – there is no point taking your frustrations out on the team.
Regardless of whether you feel that you are not always in a position of control, this is the time when you can influence decisions. Your team members want to know that they matter and that what happens to them does make a difference to you.
To ensure engagement and a positive team atmosphere:
• Acknowledge what people could be going through. We have 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason – listen and show you are listening. Showing understanding and insight into how others might be feeling goes a very long way to establishing rapport and to diminishing conflicts. Phrases such as, “I understand where you are coming from…” or “help me to understand your situation,” go a long way.
• When we start a personal relationship, we often express love and appreciation – however we often do not repeat it much throughout the relationship. If you want an engaged workforce, no matter how tough the times are, people want acknowledgement and want to know that despite the economy and the depressed market, their efforts are valued. Every ‘thank you’ and every small pat on the back reflects on your leadership abilities and on the amount of respect you gather.
• This may be a tall ask particularly when you are feeling so much pressure, but now is the time to be a role model. When Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in a dreadful South African prison, deprived of all his rights and privileges and when released, he had every reason to feel bitter and twisted. However he chose to take the high road and work towards reconciliation and the creation of a harmonious rainbow nation.
And that is the point – we all have a choice and no matter how much your workload has increased through taking on work from those who have left and how glum the faces in the office, make the choice to step up to the plate and set yourself as a role model with strong values, some heart and a good dose of sheer guts. People will remember you for those actions.
Management Consultancy International consults to leading global organizations on solutions to transform their people. Learn more about what we can do for your management teams through our customised leadership programs, nationally recognised qualifications, coaching sessions and series of podcasts.
For more information, call Dr Denise Meyerson on 1300768550 or email denise.meyerson@mci.edu.au
Let us assist you to build your capacity as a leader that survives the tough times to emerge stronger and more emotionally intelligent than ever before.
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