Ten Sins of a Bad Manager

Here are sure-fire ways to alienate and demotivate your team Make sure you steer clear of them
 
1: Never Sell Change when you can Demand it
Demands keep staff in their place — down there somewhere. Tact and frequent communication does to authority what sugar does to teeth. You would not want to rot your teeth; you would not want to spoil your team. After all, if any of your people had any ideas worth listening to, one of them would be the boss.

2: Humiliate your Staff Frequently
Develop a varied arsenal of “looks” to master the subtle put-down. A well-placed sigh and a “that was dumb” stare can work wonders in silencing your people.

Add the verbal clinchers: “Are you kidding?” or “Do you really think I’d do that!” Try well-placed sarcasm: “Yeah, I knew I’d have this problem when they made me put you in this position!” When they react, just say: “Can’t you take a joke without overreacting like most women do?”

3: Tell them how Useless they are
When providing performance feedback, do not let them find their own solution when you can reinforce your position of authority by telling them what they “obviously should have done”.

Take them to the stone tablets enshrined on your office wall to show them the error of their ways. Be ready to use the Harvard Business Review, your MBA notes or Dilbert cartoons to identify how defective they really are.4 Get personal

4: Get Personal
Never deal with issues when you can attack the person. When your staff criticise your ideas, question their attitude and commitment to the team. When they miss a deadline, question their ability to handle responsibility. If they persist in making their point, keep them in their place by saying: “If I wanted your opinion, I’d give it to you!”

5: Make them feel Lucky to still have a Job
Keep harping on the phrase, “more with less”, to explain your downsizing, reorganisation and cost-containment initiatives. Hold the line on wages to impress stockholders but take the wage increases and bonuses you deserve for leading your team through such perilous times.

6: Never give Strategic Direction until you have to
Once you do, never change your position. Now, if their ideas are really better, just wait a few weeks, make some slight adjustments and then claim them as your own. They will squawk in the restrooms and lounges, but they will know what it is to respect authority.

7: When Things go Wrong, you know who to Sacrifice
When you are given a bunch of turkeys, how do they expect a leader to get them to fly? Never tarnish your reputation as a change agent when you have inexperienced, marginal team members to blame. If by chance your team does succeed on its own, take the credit.

8: Build your own Corporate Torture Chamber
Know how to schedule hours to produce maxi-mum aggravation. Keep the pressure on by making them work with team members they hate and projects for which they have no skills to draw on.

9: Never give Recognition.
It sets the stage for complacency. After all, they are lucky they have a job. If you thank them, all they do is ask for more money.

10: Use Fear as a Great Motivator
Do not waste your time with petty, lengthy documentation with your tough employees; make a scene by threatening their job on-the-spot. If you abuse them privately, there will be no witnesses and it is your word against theirs.

With these helpful hints, you will be a boss to reckon with. And you can tell by these signs. On the surface, people will appear to work. You will get compliance when you are in sight. You may find they work slowly, make many errors, and have no concern for quality or customer service, but at least you know you will get the minimum.

You will be butchered at the drinking fountains and in the lounges, but do not let petty gossip get in your way. You will feel lonely, but that goes with creating the illusion of power. They will have a going-away party when you leave. Unfortunately, you will not be invited to the party.

By the way, the Surgeon General warns that using these hints may be hazardous to your management career and a disaster to the team and organisation you serve.

To Get the Best Results,be Positive

The right approach is critical in getting message across
 
DO THE following statements sound familiar to you?
“We’ll never finish the job on time, especially with the limited resources we’ve been given.”

“How come our department always gets all the ’special’ projects”?

“The new associate is nothing like the person she re-placed. What was management thinking?”

These are negative words reflecting negative attitudes from negative people.

Everyone has worked with employees who walked around the office with what seemed to be a dark cloud hovering over them. Wherever they went, problems, miscommunications and extra work followed. Nothing was ever good enough, fast enough or complete enough.

Medical studies and common sense tell us that people tied up itt “nots” get tied up in knots. They experience more physical, emotional and situational complications than those with a more positive approach.

They seem to get less work done and generally have a counter-productive effect on those around them.

Reconsider the opening comments, this time with apositive twist.

“Even though we don’t have all the resources we need, wouldn’t it be great if we could finish the job on time?”

“Every time our department gets `special’ opportunities, we have a chance to per-form miracles and impress the bosses.”

“The new associate seems to have different assets and experiences than we’re used to. We can learn a little fresh, outsider perspective.”

Different words and different attitudes get different results.

Being positive does not mean being oblivious to all the difficulties and challenges of the work environment. It means looking at situations and seeing the promise rather than the peril.

Use positive words
Clinical psychologists say that we hear and remember positive words better than negative words, particularly instructions.

When someone reads a sign that says, “Do not dump trash here”, he has to figure outwhere to dump it.

However, if the sign reads, “Dump trash in the bin near the back door”, the person gets clear instructions.

Instead of saying: “I wasn’t able to reach him on the phone”, say: “We never spoke to him by phone.”

Avoid saying: “Our managers don’t communicate with each other.”

Instead, say: “Our managers should find ways to communicate about cross-departmental projects on a regular basis.”

Positive words sink in easier, deeper, faster.

Emphasise dos, not don’ts
A manager at a large computer company had to put together an online database that would make life easier for all his telephone support people, but he could get no cooperation from them. Here was the situation.

As part of a licensing agreement and fee, users received telephone support by calling an 800 number.

The problem was that whena call came in on a complex question, the staff would spend hours researching the answer, but there was no record of that call or answer.

There was a lot of duplication of research effort, a big backlog of customer calls and numerous complaints about delays. The manager’s goal was to have the staff record their answers and send him copies so that he could put the an-swers into an online database.

After reading his memo to solicit their written answers, I understood why he got so few positive responses.

The memo began: “As you know, we are legally obligated to provide a four-hour response on all customer calls.’ Currently, we are backlogged with customer calls and making little or no progress; complaints continue to grow…” Inother words, it was a negative approach.

I suggested a rewording the memo: “How would you like to get through your stack of backlogged customer calls quickly? How would you like to have all the researched answers to customer calls at the tip of your fingers? Help is on the way. For the next 30 days, I’m asking you simply to record and forward to me a copy of …”

The positive approach generated a much better response. Say what you are for, not what you are against; what you’re going to do, not what yot not going to do; what you can do, not what you cannot do.

The positive angle take more thought, but the results are well worth the effort.

Focus on communicating positively. You will get more and better work done. And when you enter the room, the people around you will be happy, they will not rush to find the exit.

How to Sell Yourself in 10 Simple Ways

Believing in yourself is the key to it

WE are all in the selling business whether we like it or not. It does not matter whether you are a lawyer or an accountant, a manager or a politician, an engineer or a doctor.

However, before you get better at persuading or influencing other people, you need to get better at selling yourself.

1: You must believe in the product
Selling yourself is pretty much like selling anything. Firstly, you need to believe in what you are selling. That means believing in “you”.

The first thing people notice about you is your attitude. If you are like most people, then you will suffer from a lack of confidence from time to time. Most people are more likely to think negative things about themselves than positive things. This holds them back in life.

If you are in a sales job or a business owner or a manager, then you need to continually work on your self-talk. You need to listen to that little voice inside your head. Is it saying you are on top, or is it telling you that you are a loser?

2: The packaging must grab attention
The way the product is packaged and presented will influence the customer’s decision. Everything about you needs to look good, and you must dress appropriately for the occasion. And do not think that just because your customer dresses casually, he expects you to dress the same way.
The style and colour of the clothes you wear, your spectacles, shoes, briefcase, watch, pen, all make a statement about you.

3: Smile
There is no need to get carried away, and give people a big cheesy grin. A pleasant, friendly manner that does not frighten people away will do.

4: Remember names
Use the other person’s name as soon as you can but do not overdo it. Business is less formal nowadays, but be careful of using first names initially. Make sure your customer know yours and remember it.

5: Watch the other person What does his body language tell you?
Is he comfortable with you or a bit nervous? Is he listening to you or are his eyes darting around the room? If he is not comfortable and not listening, then there is no point telling him some-thing important about your business.

6: Listen and look like you are listening
Many people, particularly men, do not show that they are listening. The other person can only go by your visible reaction, not what is going on in-side your head.

If he sees a blank expression, then he will assume you have tuned out. The trick is to do all the active listening things such as nodding your head, the occasional “uh-huh” and asking pertinent questions.

7: Be interested
If you want to be interesting, then be interested. This is the most important thing you can do to be successful at selling yourself.

Most people are very concerned about their self-image. If they sense that you value them and feel they are important and worth listening to, then you effectively raise their self-image.

8: Talk positively
Do not say, “Isn’t it a horrible day?” or “Business is pretty tough at present” or anything that pulls the conversation down.

Say things like (and only the truth), “I like the design of this office” or “I’ve heard some good reports about your new product”.

9: Mirror the other person
This does not mean mimicking the other person; it just means you speak and behave in a manner that is similar to that person. For example, if your customer speaks slowly or quietly, then you do the same.

10: Be warm and friendly
If you look and sound warm and friendly, then you are more likely to get a positive response. This is not about being obsequious. It is about having a pleasant expression on your face (even if you have had a trying day) or using a warm tone over the telephone.

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