by Joe Klock, Special to Realty/Builder Connection
It is axiomatic that your people can't do better than they know how, and that imparting the "know-how" is one of your principal duties as a manager.
Be aware, though, that merely teaching them — i.e., telling and even showing them how to do their jobs — is not the proper objective.
Once teachers have imparted knowledge, their obligation has been fulfilled.
Trainers, however, have not reached that goal until the student not only has the know-how but has been able to effectively put it to use on the firing line.
Behind every failure on that firing line might be a teacher who succeeded, but a trainer who did not.
Good management demands providing for the constant availability of new blood on the leadership team, both to fill vacancies as they occur and to pounce on opportunities for expansion.
Toward that end, it's a good idea to conduct workshops in order to inform and indoctrinate would-be managers, introducing them to the realities of the job to which they aspire.
Such programs have the multiple benefits of "telling it like it is" and weeding out those either unsuited for the job or unwilling to pay the price it entails.
A side benefit is often convincing those who think of themselves as "only being salespeople" that management may not, in fact, be a better occupation for them. (Too often, people who are successful and happy in sales are "promoted" to a position for which they are ill-suited, converting a good salesperson into a misfit manager.)
Some tips:
• When you've made a bad decision, remember that most of the people in the world who never make bad decisions take their orders and cues from those who occasionally DO make them.
Think of your leadership position as being a #2 Ticonderoga pencil and make sure the lead wears down faster than the eraser!
• There's no such things as a "bad day" in management. As you already know, if you've been in a leadership position for more than a week or so, the people on your team, especially salespeople, are subject to periodic "down" periods, during which they radiate negative vibes and make life miserable for those around them — you being a convenient target, of course.
Although you can and should take immediate and remedial action when this occurs, you might as well accept the fact that such incidents come with the territory of management and must be anticipated.
Alas, you can't cut any such slack for yourself, no matter how rotten you may feel and how many slings and arrows of outrageous fortune may come your way.
When "things" become intolerable, powder your face with sunshine, pretend to be completely under control and get out of the heat before they get to see you sweat and/or lose control.
• Here's a complete mini-seminar for your sales team:
Objective No. 1 - Find the very best way of doing whatever you want to do.
Objective No. 2 - Then, always do everything the best way you know how.
Until you have met that first objective, it doesn't matter how hard you try, you'll never achieve your full potential.
By the same token, there's little benefit in perfecting your techniques unless you're prepared to take your best shot at every endeavor you undertake thereafter.
Every failure in history has come up short in one or both of these areas.
• This nugget plucked from a baccalaureate address:
"It's taken me a lot of years, but I've come around to this. If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you."
A lot of wisdom there: If the people on your team agree with you at all times, it either means that you're never wrong (HELLO?), or that they don't feel free to question your judgment when they think you're off target, or that you would do well to hire some smarter people who will challenge you.
— Joe Klock of Klockworks Inc. is a management consultant and can be contacted through his website, www.joeklock.com.