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by Todd BrownDay-to-day management of freelancers and/or employees is not always a walk in the park. But, with a simple shift in your attitude, you can ensure you get and keep everyone on your team “right”.
Years ago, while working as a manager, director, and eventually vice president at a company that owned eight premium 40,000 sq. ft. health clubs, I learned a lesson about managing staff I’ll never forget.
It’s not only allowed me to better manage, control and lead a staff of employees; this same lesson has helped me maintain the sanity within many of my personal relationships.
It’s a principle based on eliminating the overwhelming cause of most ineffective management styles.
Sadly, most managers operate from a position of fear. Often, managers are afraid to say certain things to their staff for fear their staff will get angry and/or possibly resign. So, managers often bite their tongue, holding back what they would ideally like to say to an employee, and instead have a watered-down discussion or reprimand.
The result is a staff that’s never fully corrected, managed, or lead. And, a manager never fully satisfied with the performance of their team.
Instead, you need to adopt the attitude of…
Be Willing To Lose Them To Get Them Right!
In simple terms, that just means you need to be willing to have the tough, uncomfortable conversations with staff and freelancers if you ever hope to get your relationship with them, and their performance, where it needs to be.
You can’t operate as a manager from a position of fear. You can’t be afraid that if you say certain things to your team they’re going to get pissed and/or quit on you. Instead, you have to be willing to lose them if you ever hope to get them right.
In other words, you always… ALWAYS… must say whatever it is that needs to be said to staff as a manager and leader. You must adopt the mindset that the tough conversations are the exact ones that are going to have the greatest positive impact on your staff performance and ultimately your company.
Think of it like this…
When you’re brutally honest and forthright with your staff one of two positive things will happen:
1. You’ll get your staff operating at the level your company deserves of them.
2. They’ll resign because they’re not willing to live up to your company needs.
Either way, you’re better off.
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You made great points. A person would need to do the exact thing you described if they owned their own business also. Otherwise with the wrong people you business will go out of business. I learned that the hard way and now I am trying to creat wealth with homes. I am trying to teach people how to build wealth at my new blog at wwww.wealthwithhomes.blogspot.com
Todd, you’ve identified one of the major keys to making all relationships work, not just managing and leading employees. Open, honest, direct communication is the most difficult and yet most important factor to breaking free of a life of resistance and conflct with friends, family members and everyone else in your life. Learning to communicate immediately and without fear stems the tide of resentment that can often takeover people’s lives. Thank you for sharing this spot on guidance. Alexis
Your points are well taken. However, what’s needed in good management is not limited to that principle. I was senior electrician in the Navy during the Vietnam War and I had total control and management responsibilities for 32 crew under my command. The Navy taught some very excellent leadership skills. Among them were the following:
1. Discipline is education, not punishment.
2. The difference between a pat on the back and a kick in the ass is about 6 inches. What this means is simply be sure that your pats on the back are not kicks in the ass and vice versa.
3. Many times we inherit staffs vs. having the opportunity to select them. Nevertheless, it is not important to know how to do a job, it’s important to know how to select the right people to do the job.
One last point that I learned from my education as a clinical psychologist. No significant learning, or results, take place in a negative environment.
There’s more to leadership and management than simply being brutally honest. The above principles constitute how you apply that concept. You also have to be as quick to reward as you are to discipline.
Great additions and insights Chuck. Thanks for sharing and participating in the conversation.
Todd :-)
Wow! I read Chuck Runquist’s comments and this is so true ALSO on how parents should “handle” their children!
Great that you took the time to write this.
Thanks,
~Irene
No-one is indispensable, as the saying goes.
Great article Todd. I listened to the M2 Management module a few days ago and it’s a superb product. Completely changed my mindset on how to manage employees and VA’s. I quickly realized that I had been managing my employees from a position of ‘fear that they’ll leave’ – which I can now see has been a huge constraint in my business up to now.
Thanks again.
Excellent Neil! Thanks for sharing.
Todd :-)
I like to think it in terms of short-term pain but long-term gain. If in the short-term, I cannot afford to lose the colleague, I would tolerate as far as fairness and the company objectives are not affected. If the colleague is still the best person to do it, then, carry on; but counsel the colleague tactfully and get the message through, nonetheless.
You’re so right CH. We used to say…
“You’re either going to pay now (with an uncomfortable conversation) or you’re going to pay later (with poor performance or a termination). But… don’t doubt it… you’re going to pay.”
Todd :-)
Fantastic Tip Todd
Any thinking filter that helps you change a whole management system is of massive value.
There is a bigger lesson that underlies it of course, and that is,
Get your recruitment process right!
Recruitment is where it all happens because.
1. If you recruit right, you have way less problems later on
2. It is the stage where you can dictate the whole culture. eg. “We deal with issues head on here – that’s the way we do it” That way there’s no surprises later on and the staff that can’t live up to your company needs never join in the first place.
Good stuff Todd.
It’s a great pro-action filter that keeps lines of communication open, builds leadership Identity and if done properly… effectively manages expectations.
I’ve found there’s an excessive level of passive aggressive behavior in the workplace…people for the most part just don’t know how to communicate with one another…
and they don’t know how to feel comfortable asking for what they want.
I’ve worked with a lot of sales managers who have been promoted through the sales ranks, but don’t have an education in management…it’s a completely different position that requires different capabilities and most end up struggling.
Just one of the battle-tested strategies in M2 can make the difference between effective leadership and needless struggle.
Thanks.
Hi Todd
I agree with your conclusion but you might like to consider that there are three possible scenarios.
The third being the negative one that staff resign because they don’t know how to live up to your company needs.
In this instance the pressure is squarely back on the manager.
Warren
I agree Todd.
My principle is the moment something is ‘out’ or doesn’t work – say it!
Don’t think just say it. Also I think the moment you know something isn’t going to work…let them go.
Don’t keep ‘trying’. Find some one else. In this way you can ‘cut your losses’.
Great advice.
John
Being proactive is essential in every area of life. Acting out of fear only delays your own success and it does no one any favors. Not you, not the other person and certainly not your clients.
Live Your Dreams,
Jill Koenig
Excellent post, Todd. Unfortunately, the fear of confrontation is not only prevalent in management but in most personal relationships. We would be well-off to take your words of wisdom to all areas of our life.
Before launching into the entrepreneurial world, I built a solid management career in the hospitality industry.
Let me share a story on how the whiny employee who “I have to do everything!” suddenly saw the light.
Karla, my Sr. Receptionist, came into my office one afternoon, complaining about how the other 2 members on the reception team never did anything.
“I have to get all the phone calls, proof all the reservations, do all the check-ins”, etc. You get the idea.
So I stood up and said, “Well, that’s definitely not good. We’re going to sort this out immediately”.
We arrived at the Reception desk, at which point I told the other two girls to go home, take half a day, and we’d cover it with admin leave comp.
They were delighted.
I turned to Karla, who stared at me in disbelief.
“I will have not have dead productivity in my hotel. I will not have people here who are not doing their jobs, and hindering star performers. If they are not doing anything, and leaving it all to you to be done, I see no point in having the girls here on shift. Now the desk is all yours. Make it happen!”
Karla struggled that day. She nearly quit because of the monumental load placed on her shoulders. The hotel received numerous complaints that day, regarding the poor performance of the Reception Desk.
But you know what?
I never heard Karla utter the word “me” again; she became the biggest team player you’d ever seen, after that episode, and only then could she rightfully be called a Sr. Receptionst.
The lesson is much analogous to what Todd put forth. In this case, not only was I prepared to lose her, but I was also willing to take in the complaints as circumstantiated “one off” incidents of the day, in order to see her shine if she were to stay.
It worked.
-Josh Harris
I’ve managed a lot of staff over a long career and have found communication is key. Discuss with them what they are doing well and what areas need improvement, and have action plans to move forward. Training is very important. Without clear cut expectations and guidance staff can flounder. This is a two way street…the manager needs to take responsibility as well.
If you create systems and then create a manual, it’s a lot easier if someone leaves.
The other thing I found was that people don’t work as well if you don’t spell out exactly what you mean but instead expect them to read your mind and understand your “short hand” in your emails!
This goes both ways.
If you take bad clients as a freelancer is robbs you of your time to do stuff which is really more important. Like creating more leverage in marketing.
The clients that want the lowest price just demand the most, change headlines, pay late, mail late and don’t share test results.
Markus Trauernicht
Copywriter in Germany
I live in a world where people make assumptions and comments. THEY NEVER ASK QUESTIONS.
Every manager should begin with questions.
“What’s going on with this?”
“Why is it not going as I expected?”
“What’s your feeling or opinion about this?”
“If you were in my position how would you handle it?”
Assume that your employees are intelligent and employ that intelligence. If you make assumptions, and repremands exclusive of questions you look foolish, weak, and disrespectable. First find out what they’re thinking, THEN tell them what you want to accomplish. Then ask them how they would handle that.
Managers often look ridiculous because they make literal demands, things don’t go as expected, and then they blame the people who were taught to behave like frightened robots. They fear you, then they behave like robots.
They didn’t join you to conflict with you, so treat them like team members and business partners. You’ll get the results you always wanted when you trust people to take responsibility and use the brains God gave them.
SteveNewdell2009@yahoo.com
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Todd, another gem…
I think this article relates well to one that Tim Ferriss put up the other day called “The Benefits of Pissing People Off”.
Here’s the link
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/11/25/the-benefits-of-pissing-people-off/
I really enjoyed this article and yours is directly related.
To quote the quote Tim did in his article ““To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Elbert Hubbard
Cheers,
Brad