Management 101
I’ve seen lots of examples of management, both my firsthand experience and watching how our customers companies work. Some managers and business owners give their employees lots of power to manage themselves, while others distrust their employees and micro-manage at a level that surprises me.
I’ve found that my own style needed work – I was in denial about even being a manager, and instead I was actually being a bad manager. I wasn’t listening or providing useful feedback.
Instead of just criticizing and not giving positive feedback, I make an effort to be more useful as a manager. I feel very lucky that I got some coaching on how to do this in an effective way, with simple framework that I can stick to.
Every week, and sometimes more frequently, I spend up to an hour with three questions. When I’m being a sales manager, these questions are typically centered around the sales calls of the week.
- What’s the best call that you had this week?
- What part of the call was the best?
- What part would you do over if you could?
The whole point is to concentrate on the positive – making the best calls even better. I still fall back on my old ways, no doubt about it. But, trying to frame the conversation in a way that everyone benefits is much more useful.
