Twelve management skills that are readily seen in the best managers known for the ability to generate superior business results

The discipline of personal accountability for results comes down to achieving defined goals within an established time frame.  Step 3 of BusinessCPR™ (B-CPR) involves monitoring the actual performance compared with planned performance through both leading and lagging metrics.  The difference between actual and planned results is measured, and the causes contributing to these differences are identified. This allows corrective actions to occur sooner rather than later to eliminate or minimize the difference in results.

Neglect or unskilled handling of your profit plan variances will inevitably result in you losing control over your business.  Every business will either move forward or regress as results change.  Failure to monitor actions and measure results through each day, week, month, quarter, and year results in losing control over your business and your future.  Failure to act is the number one cause of business cardiac arrest.  Ultimately, this is the purpose of B-CPR Step 5—Be Accountable for Your Results.

If you desire to be a more effective manager, particularly of your people assets, then become more skilled in the following twelve practices of highly effective managers.  Each skill area directly impacts the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of the work performed.

Management skills one through four provide the mechanics for establishing objectives and standards:

1. Gather Information: Information gathering occurs when managers speak with people, read reports, mail, and other publications. It occurs more formally whenever a manager purposefully seeks to collect data pertinent to a problem they are concerned about. Information gathering is an essential preliminary step to making informed decisions that lead to intelligent actions.
2. Synthesize Information Gathered: When enough information has been collected and deemed sufficient to support quality decision-making, managers must use the best available information to form an honest picture or judgment of the situation and use it as the basis for taking action.
3. Create a Plan: As each situation is considered, the objectives to be attained are thought through, and the critical actions identified. Possible alternatives and courses of action are defined and weighed to determine the best path forward and its associated actions.
4. Make an Informed Decision: Weigh your options, then make a choice. Your informed decision is the result of having thoroughly completed these first three steps.  Your informed decision means selecting the particular course of action that seems to offer the best likelihood of meeting the planned objective or solving the specific problem.

Failing to decide or act is still a decision.  While people often delay acting as they wait for more information before making a decision, this is frequently a mask to hide behind.  And it is often the worst action to take because it paralyzes everyone on the team and prevents them from moving ahead.  Even a bad decision is sometimes better than a no-decision.

The good news is once the decision has been made and you see things begin to go the wrong way, you can quickly admit the error and take corrective action.  In contrast, the “no decision” alternative means you and your team are “stalled” in place, resulting in a traffic pile-up effectively blocking the path to your desired destination.

Management skills five through nine are the action steps of management, ensuring that work gets done as planned:

5. Organize Your Resources: This step consists of determining the people, money, and equipment required to accomplish your objectives. Once these resources are determined, your team must be assigned to the task at hand. Then the effective manager organizes the activity or project so that the objectives are accomplished through the targeted efforts of the people they manage.  The manager decides who is to complete each phase of the required work.  The goal is to maximize these resources efficiently and within the allotted amount of time, or even better, in the shortest amount of time possible.
6. Communicate Clearly: The manager directs their subordinates in what to do and in what sequence. They explain the objective and describe the actions necessary to realize the objective. They make sure that everyone understands the work that has been assigned to each of them individually.  Directions are typically put in writing to ensure that the message is understood and preserved so that the quality of employee performance can later be evaluated.   Clear communication is a must to maximize the value of your invested resources.  It only happens after the manager is sure that there is a complete understanding by those being communicated with what is to be done, how it is to be done, and who is to complete each part of the task, even if gaining this understanding requires repetition.  Failure to put directions in writing is frequently the single greatest reason tasks are not completed correctly or on time.   Don’t forget the written instrument.  People that are verbally told will often forget what was decided, assume that no decision was made, or think that a different decision was made.  If an employee does not understand their assignment, then it is the manager’s fault, and the manager, not the employee, must accept responsibility. This is because we can only reliably change our behavior; we can’t change the behavior of others.  If you want a different result, you need to put in writing to obtain the desired result.
7. Encourage: A manager cannot motivate people; they can only create an environment where the team will be inspired to do what needs to be done. The understanding of “why” by everyone involved is necessary to gain “buy-in” skillfully. If each member of your team, individually, can identify themselves with the “why” of the project, you will see an increased desire to contribute to the project’s success.  When encouraging people, the two most commonly used terms are the “carrot” and the “stick.”  Be careful in using these “motivating tools;” they cause severe problems within an organization when mishandled.  The better approach is to emulate what drives an athlete to the point of perfection, almost beyond their natural ability.  This motivation comes from the gut: it’s the personal pride of accomplishment.
8. Direct, Guide, and Counsel: This step is concerned with the “how” stage or “doing the work.” It consists of guiding progress via instructions, suggestions, and providing additional data.  Occasionally, this step involves teaching your team precisely how the defined objective can be accomplished more efficiently.   The best managers ensure that each person under their direction knows what is expected of them, how their assignment fits into the whole operation, and how their performance will be measured.  Each team member has a set of specified goals that they are expected to accomplish within a specific time frame so that there is no misunderstanding about what they are supposed to do.  Actual performance compared against expected performance is how the manager and subordinate know the difference between an exceeds, achieves, and does not meet.
9. Measure, Evaluate, and Control: Performance measurement is necessary to determine the effectiveness with which the plan is being carried out. Through performance measurement,  managers discover any impediments to progress.  This discovery process creates information that the team understands—seeing how actual results compare to plan is how individual and team performance adjustments are made.

Management skills ten and eleven ensure the future success of your company:

10. Develop Your People, Individually and as a Team: The responsibility of every manager is to develop through training. A Manager is no stronger than the weakest person on their team.  A manager’s results are obtained by effectively directing the work of others.  It necessarily follows that if subordinates are adequately qualified, the results obtained by the manager’s efforts will continuously improve through proper development.  The manager must encourage the development of their successor so that there will be a qualified replacement to step in and continue the work when they need to move.
11. Promote Innovation: The manager must be a steady force supporting innovation. If the manager wants the business to progress forward, they must never permit anyone on the team to become satisfied with “the way things are.”  Managers must always strive to stimulate subordinates to seek better ways of doing their jobs.   The constant search for continuous improvement should influence every phase of the management cycle.  The best managers continuously encourage their people to express themselves and then listen to their team’s ideas with an open mind.  Encourage your staff, when faced with a problem, to come up with three to five solutions, then ask them to recommend which solution they think is best, with an explanation of why they would choose this solution.

Management skill twelve reinforces what works, so it keeps on working at its best:

12. Recognize and Reward Results, not Efforts: This step is about more than encouraging. In any competitive environment, “trying hard” is not enough.  Achieving results is what counts, and it’s often the difference between winning and losing.  Results will always be the final judge.  When any behavior, task, or specific performance is repeated at or above standard, you must recognize, praise, and reward the performance.   If you can’t recall recognizing or rewarding an employee for favorable results, then either you are failing in the first eleven management practices, or you may need to end the employment relationship with the marginal or poor performer.  The most effective form of recognition is done in public.  Make it public to reinforce the positive practice to the individual and others on the team.  Most people want to do a good job, and they like to be recognized for doing so.  Public recognition and praise are the most economical tools to encourage employees to be their best; all it takes is awareness and a little extra time.  If you aren’t comfortable recognizing or rewarding an employee, you can at least stop tolerating marginal performers. The most frequent and insidious personnel mistake managers make is to live too long with marginal or poor performers.  The best managers are tough-minded yet fair and objective in all performance evaluations.  They are unemotional in their decisions regarding who is performing and who is not.  Finally, the best managers are eminently fair and decisive in how they carry out these vital people decisions.

It’s essential to follow through on these twelve practices to establish objectives and standards and ensure that the designated work is completed as planned.  On the other hand, failure to be an accountable manager will lead your business to experience restricted cash flow and poor profit performance.

Ultimately, any failure to follow through hinders your ability to ensure the future success of your company and will result in your business failing.  The bottom line is that you will never obtain the profits you need to keep your business alive or fund your lifestyle if you and the managers who work for you aren’t accountable for their results.

What skills does your business need to get better at?

If you aren’t clear on what actions your business needs you to take now to earn higher profits and more consistent cash flow, click here to receive a free statement review from a certified BusinessCPR™ Business Scientist to learn the three most important actions needed to make more money with less stress.