The 5 Things Supervisors Want From Their Senior Managers

Written by Michael Wednesday, 23 November 2011 06:30

Ever wanted to know what your supervisor / Managers expect of you, the boss? Having facilitated hundreds of Managers in leadership training courses and focus groups, the answer to the simple questions ‘What skills and qualities do you expect of your Manager?’ and ‘What skills and qualities do your people expect from you?’ are remarkably consistent.

From banking to printing, military to Government Departments, manufacturing to telecommunications, the expectations of supervisors are clear and consistent.

Here are the top 5 expectations that supervisors / managers (middle management) have of their senior leaders (Manager / CEO):

1. Give me clear direction. 

Almost all of the supervisors / Managers that we spoke with metioned a lack of direction as a clear source of frustration in their boss. What do you want them to do? What do you expect them to achieve (think beyond KPI's and numbers)? What does success look like for the people that work for you?

2. Tell me how my work fits into the big picture.  Why is it important?

The Managers that work for you can tell when you are just repeating the words that have been passed down to you. They want to know, in your own words, how they / you / your Division fit into the bigger picture and why you think what they do is important. The first step is to clearly understand your role and know what the overall goal of the business is; if you can't articulate it to your people, don't expect them to follow you when you say jump.

3. Coach me. Don’t solve my problems for me.

This was one response that differed greatly depending on whether the question was pitched at staff members or Managers. Managers don’t want to look stupid in front of their senior Managers – they want the ability to learn and find things out for themselves, not be treated like an idiot. Being treated like an idiot can fall into two categories, each of which can have negative results. The first category is being left alone with no help – the results of this are obvious. The second is training me rather than coaching me – pitching the learning at such a low level; not being catered to individual knowledge and experience, so that the recipient feels like they are being demeaned.

4. Be honest with me.

This doesn’t mean tell me all of the inner details of who is getting bonuses, who is being performance managed and your personal opinion of the CEO.

It does mean:

• Tell me what you want
• Tell me what you mean
• Tell me what level you want it completed to

5. Treat me like a person.

Ask me how I am going occasionally. The nod and the grunt as you walk down the hallway won’t cut it. Yes - they do notice when you don't pay attention to them. How about remembering the name of my partner and what I am interested in. Or perhaps remembering my birthday and taking the time to get up from your desk and come to me personally and say ‘Happy Birthday!’. It might be small but it has a major impact on what your people think of you.

Provide direction, explain their role and how they fit in plain English, coach, be honest and treat them like you want to be treated. Simple requirements gleaned from hundreds of Managers - yet so many senior Managers either fail to realise that this is what is expected or do a poor job in showing it.

What do you want from your senior Manager? What do you want from the Managers / supervisors that are working for you? Why not use this list as a starting point for a discussion with your management group - what do they expect?

Is Your Leadership Revered or Reviled?

Written by Michael Friday, 18 November 2011 05:13

Have you worked for a leader that truly inspired you? Made you feel like what you did was worthwhile? Alternatively, have you worked for a leader that made you feel worthless?

What have you based your leadership on – emulating what a good leader has demonstrated for you or making sure you never repeat their awful mistakes?

Do our leaders fully assume their position of leadership?

Written by Michael Friday, 11 November 2011 05:50

About 6 weeks ago I wrote a short blog post titles ‘Where have all the role models gone?’ It was born out of frustration at the lack of values and clear decisions being made by political leaders in my country. In my last blog post I put forward that there are several things you need to consider to fully assume responsibility as a leader for your team. While I wrote these comments with new and emerging leaders in mind, they are just as important for senior leaders as well. 

Looking at some of the comments and decisions being made recently, I think some of our country’s senior political leaders have forgotten that they are more than just members of the national ‘team’.

In my last post I put forward that leaders needed to recognize that:

 There are some things that you should and shouldn’t do (and those rules change from team to team).

•  Your opinion and mood has a direct influence over your team, whether that be positive or negative. 
• There are some things that you can do as a team member that you can’t do as a leader.
• Even if you want to be recognised as ‘one of the team’, you are always recognised as the leader of the team.
• Whether you want it to or not, your behaviour (good or bad) sets the example for the team.

Given the rules listed above, I put forward some suggestions for our senior political leaders to adopt to fully assume the role of leadership that we expect of them.

3 Things Our Leaders Shouldn’t Do:

1. Pick up a shovel, put on a hard hat or a day-glow vest. You could be forgive for thinking that the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader were actually builders labourer’s in recent weeks. Does anyone truly believe that they shoveled more than 1 spade of earth or undertook anything dangerous? No; but if they did they would be a fool. I expect the leader of the country not to do what others can do, but to do what only they can do. What are they not doing when they are conducting these photo shoots? Imagine the people they could talk to and genuinely listen to if these cheesy opportunities were missed.
2. Breakfast Radio or Comedy Shows. By its very nature, breakfast radio should be light, perky and funny and give you a laugh on the way to work. Do we really want our country’s senior leadership on breakfast radio answering questions on celebrity behaviour or what they had for dinner the night before? The Prime Minister and senior Ministers are not celebrities – if they are in the public eye they should remember what their role is. I don’t need to know whether a politician can dance, cook or renovate. If the radio or TV show is not congruent with their role, they shouldn’t do it.
3. Use language inappropriate for their role. I will be the first to admit that my choice of language can sometimes be poor – my use of four letter words is more liberal than I would like and I am trying to correct it. I wish our politicians would do the same. I was reminded by a great speaker recently (Lisa McGuinness Smith, CSP) that words have power. To reflect the power of the position they hold, I expect politicians to have a better command of the English language than the general population. While I don’t need them to understand or explain every word from the Macquarie dictionary  (was I the only one in Australia that like Pauline Hanson, didn’t know what a zenophobe was until they looked it up?), I do expect them to avoid swear words and strine and appear as smart as their role expects.

What other things should our leaders do / not do to ensure that they fulfil the expectations of their role? As a leader yourself, what things should you be doing / not doing to fulfil the expectations of your role?

Lesson 13 - Team Development Lessons Taught by my Dog

Written by Michael Tuesday, 11 October 2011 08:33

Leading the team is not a half-hearted, part time responsibility.

Owning a pet, much like deciding to have children, is not a decision to be taken lightly. You are responsible for the welfare, care and protection of something / someone other than yourself. This task requires you to perform many different roles requiring many different skills – some of which are innate and others that you learn as you go.

Having Jake in the family has highlighted the significance of consistently providing him guidance and leadership. There are times when I get frustrated by his actions, yet I can’t let that frustration manifest into actions or words that he doesn’t understand or deserve. There are other times that I want to play with him and forget what an influence I can have over him.

A most recent example was playing with Jake on our wooden floor with a ball. Simple game – I roll the ball on the floor and he fetches it back for me. There is a twist though; the wooden floor makes it very slippery for a four-legged animal with claws. Jake was slipping and sliding and he went for the ball, which looked very funny and probably prompted me to roll the ball further and further away. As Jake built up speed to get the ball, he would slide further until eventually, he slid right into the wall (not enough to hurt him, but enough for him to notice). Involuntarily, I laughed out loud (I hear your scolding thoughts – I did feel guilty – but in my defence it was unintentional and it did look very funny).

It was at this point that I realised that this wasn’t the type of game I should be playing with Jake. Not because Jake slid into the wall, but because my laugh caused Jake to feel very embarrassed. I didn’t think it was possible before owning a dog, but I now know that Jake can understand my moods and will react just like a human would, and he does not like to be laughed at.

How is this story relevant for you and your team? A leader needs to realise that when you accept a position of leadership, you have undertaken a responsibility for those that are in your team. As a leader of team, you need to recognize that:

• There are some things that you should and shouldn’t do (and those rules change from team to team).
• Your opinion and mood has a direct influence over your team, whether that be positive or negative.
• There are some things that you can do as a team member that you can’t do as a leader.
• Even if you want to be recognised as ‘one of the team’, you are always recognised as the leader of the team.
• Whether you want it to or not, your behaviour (good or bad) sets the example for the team.

Because of these points, leading a team cannot be a part-time responsibility. You are either committed to your team, or you aren’t. There isn’t a great deal of room for anything in between. As a leader you have influence, and it is your choice whether you want this to be positive or not.

This is probably the area that catches leaders by surprise the most. New leaders expect that there will be changes to what they have done before; they will work harder, they will have more responsibility and people will look to them for decisions. But the fact that the role is not 9 to 5 surprises many. Most leadership roles are not the type of job that you can ‘clock off’ from.

When you are interacting with members of your team, whether it is at work, at a social function, at a pub or a chance meeting shopping on the weekend, your team members will still ‘see’ the role that you fill at work and your behaviour will be judged accordingly.

It is probably for this reason that the motto of my last military unit has stuck the longest and for me, defines the role of leadership most clearly. Officers Training School has the motto ‘Accept Responsibility’. It is a simple statement but to be a successful leader, that is what you have to do. Assuming a role of leadership requires you to accept the responsibility of the role wholeheartedly. Your team expects nothing less from you.

In my case with Jake, that means not forgetting that he sees me as the leader, not one of the members fo the pack. My behaviour with him needs to reflect that.What does it mean for you?

Have you fully assumed the responsibility of your role? Do you understand the differences expected in your organisation between team member and team leader? Is the behaviour you exhibit the positive behaviour you expect of your team?