Visioning – The first step to effective management

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Posted on 20th May 2010 by Andy Britnell in 4 step process

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The Visioning Stage - The first step to effective managementIf you have viewed the video on The 4 Step Process for leading and developing high performance you will know that the first stage is called Visioning. So what is this all about and how does it help you to become an effective manager?

The Visioning step is made up of 4 competencies:

1. Providing consistency of approach and personal style which means the manager displays a clear personal style and a strong sense of who they are which is clearly visible to their team. People need to know where they stand so making it clear what the ‘terms of engagement’ are and setting clear boundaries about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour helps people understand this.

Any inconsistency of approach or incongruence will create stress. They will be more comfortable if they know what to expect from you in any given situation. This action creates this response. Simple and effective!

2. Observing and collecting information which involves active listening and skillful questioning to establish the facts and information about the current performance of the team. It also includes consultation with others to get their views and being perceptive in observing differences about what is being said and done.

You will need to review and analyse current directions and levels of performance carefully in order to separate what is good and what is not so good so that you keep what is already working and change that which is not.

You need to be careful to make sure that you establish what needs to be done rather than putting in ‘quick fixes’ and implementing ‘off the shelf’ solutions. This leads to the next skill:

3. Analysing the present situation accurately All that information gathering is for a purpose. The skill here is to see above the waves to sort information and form views without jumping to conclusions. Withholding judgement until the path is clear and managing complexity without getting submerged.

Sounds exhausting if your preference is for immediate action!

You may find that the team is performing well or needs developing. Even if the team is a high performance one there is always a case for enhancing their effectiveness even further. Whatever the situation once the information has been analysed their is the need to start visualising future possibilities. And we need the next competence to help us do that.

4. Creating a future vision is about developing a crystal clear future vision of the direction you need to take to succeed as a team. What needs to be done and what adds value?

You not only have to have that vision for yourself and transmit your passion for it and commitment to it, you also need to create a vision of everyone in the team performing at their peak and being the best they can be.

This is a challenging task as it raises the bar about what we expect from ourselves and the team. Changing a vision into concrete reality requires us to focus our energies into doing the right things and sustaining our direction and persistence when things don’t go to plan. We require the resource of resilience within us and within the team.

Because what effective leaders and developers know is that when it comes to achieving peak performance and full effectiveness, it is people who make the difference.

What’s your preference? High Challenge or High Support?

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Posted on 11th May 2010 by Andy Britnell in High Challenge High Support

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Personality profiles - what is your psychological preference?One of the guiding principles in Leading & Developing High Performance is that of High Challenge and High Support. Have a look at Ali Stewart’s video for an explanation.

However we recognise that this concept creates a challenge in itself due to our unique psychological preferences. Some people value challenge while other people value support. Since many people follow the creed that what is good for me is good for others, they will often have a preference for using one style more than another.

Once engrained into someone’s habitual unconscious behaviour a preference or overuse of either style becomes a weakness. Too much challenge creates stress and poor performance in a team, too much support creates inertia and inaction as the team becomes too comfortable.

This is the reason for the use of personality profiles in the introduction to a Leading & Developing High Performance programme. It helps people to understand what their preference might be, understand strengths and weaknesses and identify where they might need development to maintain a high support and high challenge mind-set.

They will also realise that what is good for them is not necessarily good for others and that their preferred behaviour might be counterproductive. A focus on each individual and their need for different approaches, different motivations and reward and recognition requires the manager to have behavioural flexibility.

There are also diagnostic tools available to determine the preference towards challenge or support in their management style. These help managers to understand how they can achieve the delicate but powerful balance of high support and high challenge required to lead their team to outstanding performance.

The Need for Leadership in Management

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Posted on 4th May 2010 by Andy Britnell in leadership

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During the 1980′s the ‘EXCELLENCE’ movement, which included the likes of Peters and Waterman did extensive research on best practice found in companies who had a history of maintaining success as market leaders.

Their research highlighted the fact that the people in the organisation were more important than realised and this lifted their position much higher up in the stakeholder ranking. Richard Branson was thus able to proclaim that his staff were more important than the owners of the business – and look at his organisation now!

The rationale was:

  • We should be customer focused and we should get close to our customers to understand their every need even before they realise they have a need
  • Being innovative is the only way to stay ahead of the competition in satisfying these customer needs
  • Innovation comes from enabling people in the business to perform to their limits of their ability
  • If innovation comes from people, then we as a management board must provide them with a whole new set of leadership practices

So how does this impact on management in an organisation? It is my belief that this concept holds true and has gained in importance given the economic situation at the moment. Managers should no longer focus on the conventional activities of planning, resourcing and controlling but start to concentrate on supporting, coaching and enabling their people.

However they can’t just abandon the old ways. There is a need to tackle two jobs:

  1. Working on management processes that would produce predictable results from a finite source of resources
  2. Working on leadership practices designed to bring about change in the business by developing the people and highlighting the potential for growth and renewal in the organisation

For the manager in 2010 there are two demands on their time and focus: those associated with keeping the business going or delivering results (traditional management) and those which are concerned with growing and developing the people or leadership.

Leading & Developing High Performance covers both these areas with the focus firmly on the people to enable them to grow and develop so that they ultimately achieve outstanding results for the business.