Category Archives: management skills

Nov 28 2014
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employee training, leadership, leadership and management, leadership skills, leadership training, management, management and leadership, management skills, managing, people management, people skills

My Manager has one sided thinking and it’s killing our department! The #1 reason managers are not great at their jobs.

My Manager has one-sided thinking and it’s killing our department! The #1 reason managers are not great at their jobs.

One of the greatest challenges facing a manager in today’s world is motivating their employees. We all know it but what are we doing about it?

You can read articles all across the spectrum about what an employee needs and wants out of the workplace and there are loads of opinions. The true determination of those articles is in the research they have done and the results that they show.

Here is what we know so far. Most, meaning 82% of all managers are not great at their jobs. Now don’t go getting all huffy on me or pretend like you are one of the 18% until you know that you are.

The number on reason most managers are not great at their jobs is because, (drum roll please), they are not good at admitting they are not the smartest person in their department.

And the number two reason is because they are not good at listening and receiving the opinions and ideas of others.

Most managers think they have to have the answer and usually that involves all of the answers. They huff and they puff and they stomp around getting upset whenever someone else tries to input other ideas.

Darren Hardy, a best-selling author and publisher of Success Magazine, says it this way, “Most everyone else in the organization is trying to keep everyone and everything out of the organization. They are saying “no” to things all day every day. It can become a knee-jerk reaction to everything. And they are spending most of their days doing the C-YA thing. New ideas only create risks and opportunities for them to fail… or more responsibility for them to burden.”

What most managers, again the 82% that are not great managers are doing, is worrying about that C-Y-A thing. Trying hard not to get caught in a mistake or worrying that someone else might take their job from them. What they fail to do is understand that, like the President of The United States, you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room if you will surround yourself with the smartest people.

What your bosses are actually looking for are leaders. They are wanting to find people who are willing to succeed at the expense of failure because they know all about leadership and success and therefore they understand that success comes at the expense of certain, limited, failures. They are looking for great ideas and initiative, and seeking the few people who understand what that takes. You, as a great manager, should be looking for the cream of the crop to surround yourself with and great people you can promote.

I have learned from many very successful people that they got ahead the fastest when they promoted great people who also recognized the potential of the boss who was promoting them. They in turn, lift those managers up both verbally to their superiors and also give accolades long after their days of working with them were over. This in turn led to those managers receiving bonuses and promotions.

So now tell me again, why do you have one-sided thinking? And how can you find some really good people with great ideas to help you achieve your goals, promote to your superiors and achieve great success?

Yes, I agree. Maybe we need to look at our people from a new perspective. Maybe you have a winning team sitting right in front of you.

I am Steve Sapato and I have been a manager, owner and business advisor for over thirty years. If you need more advice, weekly uplifting blogs like this then subscribe to my blog at http://www.mentalprosperityblog.com

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Oct 06 2014
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employee training, leadership, leadership and management, leadership skills, leadership training, management, management and leadership, management skills, managing, people management, people skills

Are you one of the 2/3 who are unhappy at your job? What can and should you do about it?

A new study by ComPsych, a company that provides employee assistance programs, reported that workers are feeling more burned out than ever by their jobs.

The survey asked more than 2,000 employees about the stress levels of their jobs. The findings showed that 2 out of 3 workers report high levels of stress with extreme fatigue and a feeling of being out of control. And more than half of those surveyed said they miss one or two days of work per year because of stress.

I have been at this for many years now. Training and teaching people about happiness, how to rediscover their joy and how to be in control of their lived. Some call this self-empowerment. The question always come back to, what is making you unhappy?

One of my jobs in Great Managers is to teach managers how to move from good to great. Some I teach how to move from just being in a managerial position into how to be a manager and what that really entails. Not just a title but a responsibility.

And that often is what makes people unhappy with their job. Having a poor manager.

The latest information about what makes people HAPPY at their jobs is having a job that is meaningful. And then doing something that makes them feel fulfilled. Notice it is not what we have been teaching for the last several years which was ‘being recognized at their job’. Recognition now is down the list. Being significant and feeling significant is what people really want.

That means, as a great manager, you have to know what your people want and need in order to feel signficant. It means as a person working every day at your job that you have to know what makes you feel meaningful. And that means you also have to realize the importance of your job. Is what I am doing making a significant difference at my company.

If i am working at a fast food place and my job is to clean the restrooms think about how you feel when you walk into a filthy restroom and how it really does impact you. Think about how you can change that by cleaning it so that people might actually say, as many of us have in the past, wow, the bathroom surprised me because it was so clean!

Now think about how your job impacts the rest of the department or the rest of the group or…

You see, many times it is not what we do so much as how we look at what we do that will help us feel significant and meaningful. If you are just getting by with your job think how you might feel if you were your boss and someone who really did the job well was working for you? How would that impact you as your boss?

Can someone working for you put you in a better mood just because they do a great job? Can someone impact your job and cause you to do a better job just because they are doing a great job?

You see, sometimes it’s not what we do for others that makes us feel special. Often times it is what we do for ourselves that makes us proud not matter what anyone else sees or thinks.

I am Steve Sapato from mentalprosperityblog.com and I hope you are in the 1/3 of all workers who like, appreciate and excel at your job just because you want to.

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Sep 15 2014
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leadership, management, management skills, managing, people skills, successful managing

Are you a real manager or merely a position filler? Real managers know the difference, do you?

I am always amazed with how little training most managers get before being put into management positions. How about you?

Most managers are merely employees who were in the right place when a manager position was needing to be filled. Then, because of seniority or proximity or because the boss liked them or even better, the boss needed to get rid of them for being a pain in the… well, they got promoted to manager just to move them from where they were.

Does that make someone a manager? Is that you? What actual management training have you completed? What classes, courses or books on managing have you read, studied or learned from?

Most managers believe that they are highly qualified simply because they have spent time as a manager and believe they are good simply because they have been there a long time of because they get promoted again.

John Maxwell has it nailed. You should at least watch his YouTube videos but you should buy his books. He says there Five Levels Of Leadership. If you don’t know them, learn them. They are important and even vital to your success and your companies success. Whenever I train managers I try to incorporate them into the training so that managers can become Great Managers and help their organizations grow and prosper.

These five levels are basic to understanding you role as a manager.

The first is a position holder. That means you got promoted or hired to fill a position. You are a title and nothing more than a title. It does not mean you are good, or better than anyone else for this position it is merely a position. And most managers live their lives holding down their management position. Stage one in becoming a real manager that should lead to all others but seldom does simply because most managers get caught up in their own title and stop learning, growing and becoming. People follow you simply because you have that title.

The second level is permission. This is where many managers actually fall apart. It is where leaders become more involved and establish relationships with their people. Many managers fall into the trap of relationships and think they need to become friends and buddies with their people. While that is a small part of this level many managers get so caught up they fail to lead. Their friendships dominate their favors, control their emotions and ruin moral. Whereas a good relationship manager listens well, observe all that goes on and learns from it.

So here is the question. Have you seen yourself grow through these first stages as you look into your management growth? Are you still in one of them? Because there are three more levels to grow into.

This is not one of my training sessions though and you will actually have to go look up, learn and grow in order to find the other three levels.

I wonder… will you? Or like most managers, will you simply say, I’m too busy and have learned enough already and stop here.

Many blessings my friends. I hope you journey never ends.

I am Steve Sapato and I train people how to be their best with Mental Prosperity and you can find out more at www.mentalprosperityblog.com

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