Managing Yourself

Managing yourself is about managing personal feelings, personal attitudes, personality preferences and personal behaviors to bring out the best in yourself and others. A quarterback on any given play may have personal feelings about their receiver, but he still must throw to that person to win the play.

First, you must set high standards for yourself and those around you; and you must hold people accountable. Second, you must develop your emotional intelligence skills. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your own emotions, understand how they affect you, and manage your responses with tact. It also involves your perception of others, allowing you to manage relationships more effectively.

To do the best job of managing yourself and role-modeling for others, you need to be:
• Competent in your job
• Committed to the organization and its people
• Trustworthy, reliable and honest
• Fair
• Respectful to everyone, every time
• Aware of and avoid under- or over-managing
• In control of your behavior and not let personal feelings dominate your actions
• Confident that others will be responsible and intelligent

Managers that are truly effective recognize that individuals and work teams need to be experts in their jobs and that people are our best resource. Managers who lead engaged employees:
• Understand themselves and others
• Learn personality preferences or styles and use the knowledge wisely
• Manage their own behavior
• Recognize that effective leadership requires behaviors that they may find uncomfortable or difficult
• Remember that leadership is about getting others to do the right things in the right ways

Some things to keep in mind:
1. Monitor your work hours
2. Recognize your own signs of stress
3. Get a mentor or coach
4. Learn to delegate
5. Communicate as much as you can
6. Recognize what’s important from what’s urgent – fix the system, not the problem
7. Recognize accomplishments

What Makes a Plan Successful?

Many people fail to realize the value of a project in saving time, money and many issues. Even small projects should be thought through; otherwise problems can quickly spin results out of your control. A good plan creates a platform for communication, establishes and manages expectations, and prioritizes and focuses resource utilization.

Specifically, a project plan should have these elements:

Goal – a project is successful when a goal has been attained. It is important that you identify the stakeholders in your project and find out their needs. Take the time to understand their true needs so that your project creates real benefits. Your goal statement should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Framed.

Once you have defined the project goal, create a list of deliverables. Specify how and when each one should be completed. These can be translated into milestones in the schedule below.

Scope – this section of the project explains the boundaries of the project, establishes responsibilities for team members, and sets up procedures for communication, delegation, and approval. The better the scope is set at the beginning, the easier it is to adapt the plan to changes along the way.

Schedule – create a list of tasks to carry out for each deliverable and assign a due date. For each task, identify:

·         the amount of effort (hours or days) required

·         the resources assigned

·         any contingencies to be met

Budget – assign a cost for each deliverable. Be sure to include wages; equipment purchases, maintenance or rental; supplies; and contractor costs.

One of the common realizations at this point is that the project has an unrealistic delivery time or cost based on estimates. The Iron Triangle gives you the following options to ensure project success:

1.        Renegotiate the deadline (time)

2.        Employ additional resources (cost)

3.        Reduce the deliverables in quality or quantity (scope)

Now you should have a reasonably well thought-out plan. While you may have spent some time at your desk that you would have rather spent completing actionable items, this process will result in a plan that:

·         Clearly communicates the goal and scope of the project

·         Uses resources effectively and efficiently by detailing tasks with responsibilities, priorities and deadlines

·         Provides transparency to team members and stakeholders

·         Identifies risks and plans for contingencies so that setbacks can be dealt with quickly

Problem Solving

Much of what supervisors do is solve problems and make decisions.  New supervisors, in particular, often solve problems and make decisions by reacting to them.  They are “under the gun”, stressed and very short for time.  Consequently, when they encounter a new problem or decision they must make, they react with a solution that seemed to work before.  It’s easy with this approach to get stuck in a circle of solving the same problem over and over again. 

To prevent this as a new supervisor, get used to an organized approach to problem solving.  Much of your problem-solving confidence will come from having a tried-and-true process to solve problems quickly and effectively. Below are six steps to frame your problem-solving process.

1.        Define the Problem – identify the problem as specifically as possible.  Evaluate the present state and determine how it differs from the goal state.  Writing it down can be very helpful in clarifying and organizing your thoughts. Taking the time during this step will ensure that a) there is a problem; and b) that your solution actually addresses the real problem. So often, when we hear about a potential problem we race to act. A lot of time and resources can be saved by spending time defining the root cause.  

2.        Analyze the Problem – learn as much as you can about it.  It may be necessary to look beyond the obvious, surface situation, stretch your imagination and reach for more creative options.

a.        Interview others who are involved

b.        Be flexible in your analysis

c.        Consider various strands of impact

d.        Brainstorm about all possibilities and implications

e.        Research problems for which you lack complete information

f.         Seek help – consult your coach or mentor, or discuss with your department head

3.        Formulate Possible Solutions – identify a wide range of possible solutions.

a.        Be creative

b.        Consider similar problems and how you have solved them

c.        Use advice from more experienced supervisors

d.        Check for existing company resources regarding the same or similar problems

4.        Evaluate Possible Solutions – weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each solution.  You may use a classic “Pros & Cons” T-diagram to organize your thoughts.

a.        Think through each solution and consider how, when, and where you could accomplish each. 

b.        Consider both immediate and long-term results. 

c.        Mapping your solutions can be helpful at this stage.

5.        Select One Solution – consider compatibility with your priorities, amount of risk, and practicality.

6.        Monitor the Solution – revisit the solution to evaluate the effectiveness.  You may need to tweak the results to get to the goal state.

Keys to Problem Solving

Think aloud – problem solving is a cognitive, mental process.  Thinking aloud or talking yourself through the steps of problem solving is useful.  Hearing yourself think can facilitate the process.  If you are not in a place where you can think aloud, use a word processor on your computer.

Allow time for ideas to “gel” or consolidate.  If time permits, give yourself time for solutions to develop.  Distance from a problem can allow you to clear your mind and get a new perspective.

Talk about the problem – describing the problem to someone else and talking about it can often make a problem become clearer and more defined so that a new solution will surface.

Think maybe your problem-solving skills are already up to the challenge? Take this quiz and find out! How Good Is YourProblem Solving?

What is a Supervisor?

Supervising involves securing, developing, and using essential resources to ensure the company's success. Supervisors are effective if they achieve their goals and efficient if they do it with a minimal amount of resources. One of the company's most important resources is their employees. Supervisors spend a lot of time and effort planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling the work of employees (and other resources, such as equipment and inventory).

Origin of the term “Supervisor” – the term supervisor has its roots in Latin, where it means “looks over.” It was originally applied to the master of a group of artisans.

Characteristics of a Supervisor

The job of supervision is so demanding that companies tend to look for super people to fill the role. Some of the characteristics companies are seeking in their supervisors are:

·         Job knowledge

·         Results orientation

·         Problem-solving

·         Communication

·         Leadership

·         Teach-ability

·         Adaptability to change

·         Ability to build a team

·         Integrity and credibility

·         Tenacity and perseverance

·         Willingness to take initiative

·         Positive attitude

·         Dependability and reliability

·         Demonstrating a customer-service attitude

Five Stages of Transition

Typically, supervisors have greater experience, have held a greater variety of jobs in the company, and have more education than the employees they supervise. The fact that someone is named a supervisor doesn’t mean that a complete change happens overnight. Most often, the transition takes place through five stages:

1.        Taking hold: learning how to run the department, establishing personal credibility, and beginning to build a power base.

2.        Immersion: the supervisor gets to know the real problems of the department and becomes fully informed about the operations there.

3.        Reshaping: the supervisor gradually rebuilds the department to fit their style, making meaningful contributions to operations, and placing an “imprint” on the way of doing things.

4.        Consolidation: the supervisor works to remove deeply rooted problems while perfecting the changes previously made.

5.        Refinement: fine-tuning the operations, consolidating the gains, and seeking new opportunities for making improvements.

Which phase are you in? How do you see yourself transitioning to the next phase?

Henry Fayol, a French industrialist, believed that managerial excellence is a technical ability and can be trained. Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management (1916) still meet the requirements of modern management.

Practical Guidelines

1.        Study the job of supervising and keep learning.

2.        Maintain a focus on your key tasks (planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling) despite daily crises.

3.        Recognize that your job must mesh with the priorities, demands, and goals of the company.

4.        Find ways to involve employees in key tasks and use their input.

5.        Follow the chain of command whenever possible.

6.        Treat employees fairly.

7.        Be patient with your own developmental progress, remembering the stages of transition.

8.        Display integrity, consideration, energy, patience, and flexibility.

9.        Find creative ways to achieve results.

10.     Strive for balance between being employee-centered and task centered, between pressures from higher management and employees, and between your work and your personal life.

For more information about what a supervisor is and their role in management, go to McGraw-Hill’s Higher Ed, Chapter 1: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073545082/323131/Chapter_1.pdf.