Management: Tips for Success

Provided Courtesy of Nutrition411.com

Review Date 4/14G-1172

Contributed by Shawna Gornick-Ilagan, MS, RD, CWPCUpdated by Nutrition411.com staff

Rating Your Managerial Skills

• Take the quiz on the next slide • Check your score:

– Take a look at your answers– After which statements did you answer

“sometimes,” “rarely,” or “never”– These are the skills and areas you may want

to focus on

“Always,” “Often,” “Sometimes,” “Rarely,” or “Never”

• I make an effort to find out what motivates each person who reports to me

• I give employees frequent, positive feedback and appropriate constructive criticism

• I take the time to listen carefully to people’s ideas, stories, opinions, and concerns

• I show support for company goals and objectives, and explain them to my staff

“Always,” “Often,” “Sometimes,” “Rarely,” or “Never” (cont’d)• The people on my team work well together

and are enthusiastic about their jobs• I recognize the signs of stress and

overload in myself and others, and I take steps to prevent stress and overload in the people who I manage

• I encourage people to come up with new ideas and ways to approach a project

“Always,” “Often,” “Sometimes,” “Rarely,” or “Never” (cont’d)• I offer everyone on my team opportunities

to learn and grow at work• I promise a diversity of values, opinions,

and work styles, and believe these are essential to business and work success

• People in my work group are consistently meeting their goals

Leading and Motivating

• Find out what motivates your people• Hire and keep people who are good at their

work• Get people working on what is important• Explain and train• Let people work• Use praise and recognition generously • Expect excellence• Care about people and show it• Treat employees with respect• Lead by example

• Understand your employees and their job• Set goals and make performance

expectations clear• Monitor progress• Tolerate some mistakes• Give feedback, and give it often• Try to distinguish between problem

employees and employees with problems• Deal with performance problems• Celebrate and reward performance

success

Maximizing Performance

• Make sure you are a positive communicator

• Communicate carefully• Listen actively• Meet regularly with each of your direct

reports• Give and ask for frequent feedback• Deliver “bad news” in an honest, direct,

and prompt manner• Learn effective ways of handling conflict

Communicating as a Manager

• Recognize and understand conflict in the workplace

• Learn how to manage and resolve conflict• Get help, if needed, when managing a

conflict• Build a harmonious working environment

Managing People Conflict

• Make the most of your meetings• Get prepared before the meeting• Know how to run a meeting• Do not make your meetings boss centric:

– Ask people in your group for feedback– Make meetings worthwhile for everyone– Let other members of your team take turns

leading the meetings

Meetings

Managing Across Generations

• Become educated about generational issues

• Avoid age stereotypes• Manage the unique talents, strengths, and

needs of each generation• Support learning and career development

across all age groups• Deal with generational issues that get in

the way of work• Build a strong multigenerational work

group

• Build a high-performance team:– Get to know each member of your team– Play to each member’s strengths

• Know the “nitty-gritty” of leading teams:– Establish ground rules– Clearly define tasks and roles in the

assignment– Agree on deadlines and the plan (who is doing

what and by what date)– Treat all members fairly– Provide ongoing feedback

Teamwork

• Know how to deal with performance problems and interpersonal conflict

• Consider virtual teamwork, using e-mail, teleconferencing, Internet-based workflow, and remote access to networks to exchange documents and get the job done more efficiently

• Use e-mail as a follow-up to meeting discussions in order to make steady progress on assigned tasks

• Take care of your team

Teamwork (cont’d)

• Examine your own attitudes toward diversity

• Look at the culture and climate in your group and organization

• Support diversity in your actions, interactions, and words

• Manage to each individual’s unique talents and strengths

• Provide opportunities for ongoing learning and mentoring

Diversity

• Understand stress and overload• Manage your own feelings of stress and

overload• Keep aware of stress and overload in

others• Know the ways to reduce sources of stress

in the workplace• Respect and support work-life boundaries

and balance

Stress and Overload

• Know that taking care of yourself is your most important responsibility

• Commit to building a positive and supportive work culture

• Support employees through times of challenge and change

• Make ongoing learning a priority for every member of your team

• Bring out the best in people and yourself

Take Care of Yourself and Others

• Where you were most successful as a manager

• Where you could improve

• What areas you have identified to work on

Think About…

• Even the most successful managers do not have all the answers

• They continue to learn all the time

Remember…

Morgan H, Jacobbi M. Twelve Ways to Be a Better Manager. Minneapolis, MN: Ceridian Corp; 2005.

Reference