SEC - Successful Management Tips

Career Partners

Find Here Job and Internship Resources For Jobs, Vacancy, Internship and Careers Abroad

Successful Management Tips

1. Fix the problem. It is far more productive, and less expensive, to figure out what to do to fix a problem that has come up, than it is to waste time trying to decide who's fault it was.

2. Tell what you want. You will find people more responsive and less defensive if you can give them guidance not instructions. You will also see more initiative, more innovation, and more of an ownership attitude from them which will develop over time.

3. Manage the function. Remember that your job is to manage a specific function within the company, whatever that may be. There is a lot of paperwork that goes with the job, but don't let that distract you from your real responsibility.

4. You never have to make up for a good start. If a project or a job gets off to a bad start it can be difficult to catch up. Do your planning up front so you get a good start and you won't regret it.

5. Get out of your office. Management by walking around does work. You make yourself more approachable. You get information first-hand. You find out what's really happening.

6. Lead by example. If you ask your employees to work overtime, be there too. Just because company policy allows it, don't fly first-class if your associates are in coach on the same plane. Be a leader, it's tougher than being a manager, but it's worth it.

7. Don't get caught up in 'looking good'. "Work happily together. Don't try to act big. Don't try to get into the good graces of important people, but enjoy the company of ordinary folks. And don't think you know it all. Never pay back evil for evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honest clear through."

8. 'Quality' is not all. You get the behaviour you critique for, so set your standards and then require conformance to them. Quality will come from that effort, not from slogans, posters, or even threats

9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

10. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Goals you set for yourself, or others, should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based.

11. Make an example. "One of the most significant aspects of a manger's job is for them to be a positive role model that can pull a team together and deliver the level of service expected from their customers."

12. Train Your Supervisors. The key to your business success is the productivity of your employees. The key to employee productivity is their perception of their immediate supervisor. Invest in training your supervisors and managers. It will pay off.

13. You Can't Listen With Your Mouth Open. Your associates, employees, suppliers and customers all have something of value in what they have to say. Listen to the people around you. You will never learn what it is if you drown them out by talking all the time. Remember, the only thing that can come out of your mouth is something you already know. Shut up and learn.

14. Practice what you preach. To lead, you have to lead by example. Don't expect your people to work unpaid overtime if you leave early every day. Don't book yourself into a four star hotel on business trips and expect your employees to stay in the motel off the freeway.

15. Leaders create change. If you lead, you will cause changes. Be prepared for them and their impact on people within, and outside, your group. If you are not making changes, you are not leading.

16. Don't Limit Yourself. The difference between leaders and managers is that leaders do not set limits on themselves. There are enough people trying to limit what you can do. Don't be one of them.

17. Anyone can steer the ship in calm waters. What will set you apart in your career is how you perform during the tough times. Don't become complacent and relax just because things are going well. Plan ahead for the downturn.

18. You have to make a difference. The group you manage has to be more effective, more productive with you there than they would be if you were not. If they are as productive without you, there is no business sense in keeping you on the payroll.

19. Anyone can steer the ship in calm waters. What will set you apart in your career is how you perform during the tough times. Don't become complacent and relax just because things are going well. Plan ahead for the downturn.

20. Change Or Die. Your business must change to survive. As much as we wish it would, nothing stays the same. Some industries change faster than others. Some markets are more fixed. To stay in business, you need to watch both and change as they do, or before.

21. Appearance Does Matter. It may be a sad commentary on our superficial society, but appearance does matter. Whether it's the packaging on your product, the first impression you make when calling on a new client, or your company's web site people notice how things look. They care about how things look and make judgements about you and/or your product based on appearance.

22. Get your people involved. It's a lot easier to get employees to stand behind a company decision if they have the opportunity to participate in the discussion. Managers still have to make the decision. But if they have had the opportunity to make their point of view known employees are more apt to stand behind the ultimate decision, even if they don't agree with it.

23. People Aren't Mushrooms. Mushrooms grow very well when kept in the dark and fed horse manure. People, on the other hand, function better when they are kept in the loop and given straight info.

24. The Best Product Doesn't Always Win. Just having a better product is not enough. You have to let your customers know about it and why it's better. Then you have to convince them it is better.

25. Dare to Dream. You can't move forward if you are always looking back. You can't find new solutions if you believe 'it can't be done'. Have the courage of your convictions and go after it.

26. Train Your Supervisors. The key to your business success is the productivity of your employees. The key to employee productivity is their perception of their immediate supervisor. Invest in training your supervisors and managers. It will pay off.

27. "Early to Bed, Early to Rise... Work Like a Dog, and Advertise." With apologies to Poor Richard's Almanac, this adage reminds us just how important advertising is to the success of any business. Hard work isn't enough. Customers have to know your product or service is available.

28. Work On Your Weaknesses First. In any position or job you find yourself, there will be things you do well, some you do okay, and some you don't do so well. To improve yourself, and increase your value, work first to improve in those areas that are your weakest.

29. Know Your GPM. In engineering, GPM is gallons per minute, a design criterion. In Management, GPM is an acronym for Goals, Plans, and Metrics. To achieve your goals, you must first determine what your Goals are. Then you have to develop a Plan that gets you to your goal. Finally you need Metrics (measurements) to know if you are moving towards your goal according to your plan

30. Set an example. "One of the most significant parts of a manger's job is for them to become a positive role model that can pull a team together and deliver the level of service expected from their customers."

31. Focus your energies. There are a lot of demands on your time, but your time and energy are limited. Focus on what is important to you and do that first. It is better to do a few key things well than to do lots of things, but none of them well.

32. Listen to your employees. It doesn't make any sense to spend all that time and effort to find and hire the best people if you are just going to ignore their input.

33. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

34. Keep the flame alive. When people join your organization they are all fired up and ready to do great things. Over time we all too often wear down that enthusiasm. Instead, do what you can to fan the flames of their enthusiasm and you will be amazed at their output.

35. Under-promise and over-deliver. This goes beyond the old saying 'don't promise what you can't deliver'. Instead, deliver more than what you promised. It's a good way to build customer rapport, both outside and inside the company.

36. Your greatest resource is your people. You can have the best, high tech, equipment available. But, without the people you have no business. Treat your people with the same, or greater, care as you do your equipment.

37. Keep your focus external. Stay focused outside your company so you watch your customers and competitors. Don't get hung up on internal processes and procedures if it keeps you from looking outward.

38. Structure follows Strategy. When you develop your company's Internet presence, or any other part of the business, remember that what you want to achieve (Strategy) has to drive the design and implementation (Structure). Don't get it backwards and let technology obscure the business purpose.

39. Do Your Homework. Whether it's a proposal to a major client or a meeting with the Shop Steward of a union, you will do better if you are prepared. Collect the facts, think the problem through, and talk to others involved. Take the time to do the "up-front" work and the "downstream " work will be easier and more rewarding.

40. Delight the Customer. It is heard a lot, but seldom practiced. Today I saw a production supervisor straighten out a mess and, in the process, calm an irate customer. When I heard her tell them to put two mugs with the company's logo into the package being sent to the customer, I knew she understood what "Delight the Customer" means.

41. Don't Get Lost in the Steps. Stay focused on what it is you need/want to accomplish. Don't focus on the steps involved. Be more concerned about your ultimate goal than about any individual step along the way.

42. Don't Be A De-motivator. Your job as a leader is to get and keep your people motivated and working towards the common goal. Demeaning them, to their face or to others, erodes their motivation. So does dismissively telling them that their ideas "are stupid". Watch your own actions to be sure you aren't defeating your own efforts by de-motivating your people.

43. Don't DO Anything. Your job as a manager is to "plan, organize, control and direct." Don't let yourself waste valuable time by falling back on what you did before you became a manager. We know you enjoy it and you are good at it. That's why you were promoted. Now you need to concentrate your efforts on managing, not on "doing".

44. 'Quality' is just conformance to requirements. You get the behaviour you critique for, so set your standards and then require conformance to them. Quality will come from that effort, not from slogans, posters, or even threats.

45. Measure Twice, Cut Once. This old carpentry adage applies equally well to business. Take the time to plan and check your plan so when you do act, the work is done right. (See the tip below as well.)

46. Ready, Fire, Aim. Don't get caught in 'analysis paralysis'. Figure out what you want to do, make a plan, and then GO. You can always adjust after you have started.

47. Doing it right costs less than doing it over. Have you ever been asked, "Why there is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over"? Save the costs, including customer dissatisfaction and lower worker morale, by concentrating on doing the job right the first time.

48. It's not how hard you work; it's what you get done. Anybody can work hard, and most people do. The really successful people focus on accomplishing results not on effort expended.

49. Move your Receptionist. In many companies the receptionist is in administration. Smart companies recognize the impact the receptionist has on the company's image as the first, and most frequent, contact a customer or potential customer has with the company. They move the receptionist into the Marketing Department.

50. Continuous Incremental Improvement. You don't make your product or service better by getting a committee together to study it. You improve it by making it a little bit better, in some way, every day; continuous incremental improvement.

51. Your first obligation is to the customer. Without customers you don't have a business. Treat them with the same respect you expect when you are a customer. Make sure everyone in your organization understands the importance of customer service.

52. You get what you pay for. Yes it is an old saying, but it is still true. Whether you are paying for machinery, software, advertising, or people you ultimately get what you pay for. Always buy the best you can afford. Quality always comes through.

53. Don't be a perfectionist. Trying to be a perfect person sets you up for defeat. Nobody can be perfect. Difficult tasks usually result in avoidance and procrastination. You need to set achievable goals, but they should also be challenging. There will always be people both weaker and stronger than you.

54. Learn to say no. For example, an acquaintance of yours would like you to see a movie with him tonight. You made social plans for tomorrow with your friends and tonight you were going to study and do laundry. You really are not interested. You want to say no, but you hate turning people down. Politely saying no should become a habit. Saying no frees up time for the things that are most important.

55. Learn to Prioritise. Prioritising your responsibilities and engagements is very important. Some people do not know how to prioritise and become procrastinators. A "to do list" places items in order of importance. One method is the ABC list. This list is divided into three sections; a, b, or c. The items placed in the A section are those needed to be done that day. The items placed in the B section need completion within the week. The C-section items are those things that need to be done within the month. As the B, C items become more pertinent they are bumped up to the A or B lists. Try it or come up with your own method, but do it.

56. Combine several activities Another suggestion is to combine several activities into one time spot. While commuting to school, listen to taped notes. This allows up to an hour or two a day of good study review. While showering make a mental list of the things that need to be done. When you watch a sit-com, laugh as you pay your bills. These are just suggestions of what you can do to combine your time, but there are many others, above all be creative, and let it work for you.

57. Differences in expectations. Some project managers don’t understand how to communicate well and are just poor communicators to begin with. If you think you are in this group, you should look for training or mentoring opportunities to become better skilled. However, in most cases, the problems with communication are not a lack of skills, but a lack of focus. Many project managers place communicating proactively on the bottom of their priority list. When they do communicate, it tends to be short and cryptic, as if they are trying to get by with the minimum effort possible.

58. Team members don’t know what is expected of them. Many projects have problems. Poor communication can cause many problems and aggravate others. On the other hand, proactive communication can help overcome many other mistakes. Don’t consider communication to be a necessary evil. Instead, use it to your advantage to help your project go smoothly with less frustration, less uncertainty and no surprises.

59. Expect the implementation to take more time than you think, especially if you have to deal with issues such as data cleansing.

60. Budget heavily for consulting. You'll likely need some help, especially for larger implementations, and help can run two to six times the software license fees.

Internships in Bournemouth Internships in Brighton Internships in Bristol Internships in Cambridge Internships in Liverpool Internships in Edinburgh Internships in Hastings Internships in London Internships in Newcastle Internships in Oxford Internships in Manchester

Menu

Career Partners

Find Here Job and Internship Resources For Jobs, Vacancy, Internship and Careers Abroad

Internships and Jobs

Jobs in UK

Jobs in Spain

Jobs in France

Jobs in Germany

Jobs in The Netherlands

Internships in UK

Internships in Spain

Internships in France

Internships in Germany

Internships in The Netherlands