HOW TO DO IT

1. Do it regularly

I can’t tell you what regularly is for you but I can tell you that it isn’t once a year or once a month. If you’re managing a team, then I believe you should be speaking to your people every day or every other day either face to face or on the telephone. In the case of people who work at remote locations then there needs to be a lot more time spent on the phone with your team.

On a recent customer service seminar for a telecommunications company I asked one of the participants, ‘What’s the name of your manager?’ I thought I might have met him on another seminar. Would you believe it? This man couldn’t remember his manager’s name! ‘He’s only been with us a few months,’ he said, ‘and I don’t see much of him. I think his name’s Dave something or other.’

It may be tempting to regard the team member here as not very bright but I believe it’s the manager’s fault. It doesn’t matter whether he’s a new manager or not, one of his first jobs should have been to really get to know his team.

Whether you work in an office with your team or they’re spread around the country, it’s absolutely vital to spend regular quality time with them.

2. Don’t sneak up

If you work with your team in an office, don’t sneak up from behind one of your team and plonk yourself down on a chair. Approach face on and ask if it’s okay to interrupt: ‘Is this a good time?’ or ‘Are you okay to speak at the moment?’ It’s the same with the phone; check that it’s okay to talk before you launch into whatever it is you want to say. Too many managers seem to think that their needs take preference over anything else – ‘I’m the manager and if I want to talk, we talk.’ If that’s you then please change your program. If you check that it’s okay to speak then your people will respect your courtesy.

If you have a team working in different parts of the country, give each person plenty of warning that you want to visit and spend time with them. If you phone up and say, ‘I’m seeing you tomorrow, meet me at such and such’, you’ll only give the impression that you’re ‘checking up’.

3. Don’t be scary

Smile, look positive and be positive. It’s not a good idea to start your conversation with, ‘Pity about the layoffs at the other office, hope it doesn’t happen here.’ Or even, ‘It’s really lousy weather today, isn’t it?’ The conversation can only go downhill from there.

It’s not about being all ‘rah-rah’ and super-positive all the time; that probably isn’t your style anyway. It’s just about not being negative and miserable. You’re looking to inspire your team, stimulate them and – hopefully – brighten their day!

It’s also a good idea to be aware of how you look. There’s a tendency nowadays for people working in offices to ‘dress down’. The thinking being, ‘I’m sitting here working at my computer and speaking on the telephone; the customers can’t see me so it doesn’t matter how I’m dressed.’ Well I think it does.

Some years ago I appointed a new manager to a customer service team that I was responsible for. The customer service team tended to be very relaxed as far as their dress sense was concerned; jeans, tennis shoes, etc. However, Patricia, the new manager, was a very smart dresser. I don’t mean over-the-top inappropriate dress, just smart and modern. After a few weeks of Patricia being in charge, I started to notice a difference in this team; they started to dress smarter. I know that Patricia didn’t say anything to them; they just started to dress a bit more like her. Funnily enough, their approach and attitude also started to get a bit smarter.

If you approach your team looking like an unmade bed then think for a moment about the effect it has on them. If you look sloppy then you act sloppy and your team will be sloppy.

The time you spend with your team will have an effect on them. They need to feel better, brighter and sharper when you leave them than before you spoke to them.

4. Mix the human and the business

There are two levels on which you speak with your team; the human or personal level and the business level. It’s always best to open any conversation on the human level. I once worked for a manager who was excellent at this.

Stuart was the Director of Sales and I was a regional manager with six sales engineers. Stuart was my boss and he was located about four hundred miles from me so I didn’t see him too often. However, we did have regular contact by phone. He would always open any call on the human level. He would come on the phone with something like, ‘Hi Alan, I trust you’re well?’ He then might say, ‘How’s Elizabeth? Did she get that new job she went after?’ Stuart always seemed to remember these things. We would then have a short conversation about that and then he’d get down to business. Sometimes the business bit wasn’t always something I wanted to hear: ‘Your sales figures are slipping Alan, what are you doing about it?’ or ‘Your team’s reporting is not up to scratch; I need you to do something about it.’

Stuart was no soft touch and his approach was never ‘touchy feely’. However, I always felt that Stuart cared about me as an individual and I would always work well for Stuart.

Of course, this doesn’t mean to say that every time you speak with your team that you launch into some personal discussion. Opening on a human level can take only a couple of words. And before I give you some examples – you have to be genuine!

Your team will know whether you mean something or not. I think most of us, by now, are aware of the importance of tone of voice and body language when we communicate. If you’re not aware then just think of a time when somebody said something to you and it didn’t sound as if they really meant it. ‘Did you have a good weekend?’ or ‘I hope you enjoyed your vacation.’ I’m sure you’ve found yourself thinking, ‘You don’t really mean that.’

So if you say something on the human level to one of your team, make sure you mean it or don’t bother saying it. Just in case you’re struggling, here are some things you could say.

• What did you think of Florida?
• How did the children (and use their names) enjoy Disney?
• I thought your team played really well last night.
• I like that tie.
• That’s a really smart suit.
• You’re looking well.
• I like your new glasses.

Also bring up things you’ve remembered: ‘Did Dave pass his college exams?’ or ‘How’s your husband’s (use his name) new job?’

Americans are not usually shy about saying this kind of stuff. Europeans and Australians find it a bit more difficult. I’ve had British people on seminars who’ll tell me, ‘I’m not American; I don’t like all that personal stuff.’ Ironically, they’ll then go on to tell me about visits to the US and how they liked the friendliness and warmth of the people. They’ll admit, when pressed, that they really quite like it when someone pays them a compliment or makes a positive comment about them.

It’s all back to what I said earlier about acknowledgement; human beings need and want it. Your team need and want it and it doesn’t take much time to make a human comment. It’s vital to your success as a Motivational Manager.

I said earlier about asking permission to speak to a team member. If you open a conversation with one of your team by saying, ‘Is it okay to talk right now?’ then you’re using a human response. The message to the team member is, ‘I value and respect you.’

Business questions or statements that could follow on from the human part of the conversation include:

• What challenges are you facing at present (don’t use the word ‘problems’)?
• How can I help you do your job better?
• Do you see any challenges coming up for us?
• What figures do you have in relation to your target?
• I liked the way you handled that difficult customer this morning.
• That was a good suggestion you made about the reporting system.

This is the time to give your team members feedback on their performance, be it good or not so good. In the next chapter we’ll look in detail at how to do it.