The need for someone to 'do
the job' can be your greatest enemy. In many organizations that have grown
beyond owning a single outlet, one of the biggest challenges operators face is
finding good managers. Hospitality Master
Trainer Mark Dickinson, focuses on the power of Transformational Training and
tells us more.
Middle managers are the most
likely subject of quick hires and are often on-boarded or promoted without
in-depth research. One thing is certain; no matter how these middle managers
get to their positions, they remain pivotal to your success in building an
excellent organization. They may be the deciding factor between your success
and failure, and yet senior management continues to give minimal attention to
hiring personnel for these positions.
First let's consider these questions:
Who do we mean when we talk about middle managers?
- Team leaders, shift leaders, supervisors and assistant managers.
Why are middle managers so important? •
- Because they actually lead the employees in your team • Because their influence can lead to powerful results or mediocrity.
How did many of them become a middle manager?
- The majority of middle managers were promoted from within the ranks.
How much focus is on middle thinking?
- Generally not very much. Top management have a lot to do and these folks are expeditors of policy, therefore organizations rarely engage such employees at an important decision-making level.
What are the challenges that middle managers face?
- They have a junior position and are seldom invited to meet with senior management, therefore their opinions languish or fester.
- 'No one listens to me' is their frequent complaint.
- They are expected to work longer hours as a sign of their commitment and loyalty.
- Anyone can hire a middle manager. They don't need much in the way of approval because middle manager's salary is relatively affordable. They are a cog in the system.
Buried Treasure
· These people are your treasure. They can be
harnessed to deliver outstanding results for your organization, but there is
one essential ingredient required to make this happen: Education. You need to
have an unparalleled passion for ensuring that these individuals get the best
information and growth opportunities that you can reasonably provide. They need
to be engaged within your organization and given responsibilities that allow
them to shine.
Give them significance
· When middle managers are empowered through
praise, recognition and affirmation, they begin to deliver at much higher
levels. This is great and gets a lot of people really excited; namely the
middle managers and the people that work under their supervision. However, we
also discovered that this spurt in growth frequently created instant resistance
from a surprising quarter: their managers. Yes, that's right. The managers of
the middle managers become highly insecure once the middle managers start to
grow. You may ask yourself, 'Why?', as we did, and then dig a little deeper.
What we discovered is that as soon as the middle managers start to grow, those
ruling them felt pressure from a newly empowered junior employee, who now
aspires to experience managing an operation on his or her own. The effect was
most noticeable on managers who had held their position for over two years.
How was the resistance Characterized?
· There was an increase in squeaky wheels. A
squeaky wheel is that insidious act of undermining others without actually
appearing to say anything bad, such as dropping hints about poor performance
and naming non-producers. We actually discovered managers criticizing juniors
for attending training and not working. This effectively put the brakes on the
rising star, with the objective of proving to those that will listen why the
manager is more important than the middle manager. We also undertook some tests
(management exercises), including one where we asked organizations to get their
management team to draft the best possible company structure they could think
of, without imposing any limits, for their businesses. Through this exercise we
found that the teams always eliminated many management positions that would
result in making their company simpler to run. Wherever the teams were
empowered to implement the plan they had created, it led to an in-to-out change
that was self-inspired and therefore highly effective. We developed the study a
bit further and suggested that some senior managers go on vacation for extended
periods, ostensibly to clear vacations, but in reality to see what would happen
to their division/department's performance in their absence. The results were
again quite surprising. Rather like popping the cork on a bottle of champagne,
all the good stuff in the bottle was now accessible, and the middle managers
began to shine. With no manager impeding their progress, change was rapid. Now
there were some organizations where we discovered highly-engaged seniors and
great juniors working together in harmony. The result? A supercharged business.
Here we studied why they were able to work together and what made them
different. Two key things stood out above all else. In the highly successful
business, the teams were humble and grateful. Humility gave them the power to
listen and to respect one another, even when they did not agree. Gratitude
bound them like glue. Everyone had a feeling of thankfulness for their work and
the company.
MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
1. Thinking -
Flow, Click, Think - teach people how to think. Most people have never been
taught how to think. It is a rich creative process that taps into the inner
strength of the brain
2. The Mechanics of Change - explaining to people how to
change brightens up their lives. We are told that we are too fat, too thin, too
loud, too this and too that. But the reason people don't change is because no
one has taught them how. Teach people to change by showing them how to focus,
what kind of help is available to them and how to deal with inner conflicts.
3. Influence - get people to practice influencing others
(for good). Teach your team how to get what the organization wants through
using neuro skills to affect their outcomes
4. True Leadership - explain what real leadership is all
about. It's not about a list of skills, but rather about the personal passion
to do what is right, that will eventually determine who will lead.
5. Get away from the profit and loss (P&L) mindset that
pervades our industry and teach your people to make a relationship between
material costs and income, between money spent and money earned. Engaging your
management team on this level will leverage your cashflow.
6.
Affirm to your team that it is good to be still and observe your operation from
time to time. We run a program called Sit & Watch® that teaches managers
how to observe their own operations from different perspectives.
7. Key to success is the ability to manage what people do with
their time. Lead your managers into effective planning of time usage and you
gain 1000 percent return on your investment into them.
8. Today neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and embedded commands
are all around us. It's not hocus-pocus, it's real. Powerfully tap into the
neuro energy around you and use it for the good of your business. Massive sales
result from taking intelligent actions on a consistent and sustained basis.
Show your people how.
9. While motivation and delegation have been management speak for
decades, rather we should focus on how NOT to demotivate and how to spread
empowerment to the lowest possible level so that business thrives.
10. Most evaluation processes are a total and utter waste of time.
So stop doing them. Get your management team into the habit of having instant
and continual dialogue about performance and you will see massive change. It is
not coincidental. You get what you focus on, so focus on what you want.
11. Show your team how to select the greatest people possible to
join your team. Destroy all the archaic hiring processes and come up with
consensus-based hiring, where teams decide who they would like to work with,
and empower them to select their own leadership.
12. Express the value of details and imprint it into the daily
mindset of your most junior people. They will love the focus and will become
obsessed with doing things to the highest possible standards.
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