BE CAREFUL HOW YOU SPEND YOUR TIME

Do you remember when you first became a manager? You probably inherited a team of people who came with all sorts of problems for you to resolve. It made you feel so important having all these people who needed you to solve their problems large or small.

After all, that was why you were promoted into a managerial role – you knew the business, knew the customers and had vast experience of handling problems. I’m sure there were lots of other reasons for giving you the job. However, dealing with problems has always been seen as part of the job. But don’t you sometimes get a bit fed up with having to solve all these problems?

My first job in management was as a regional sales manager in charge of six fields sales engineers. This was in the days before mobile phones so the guys used to phone me at home in the evenings. At first I would let them phone me anytime because I wanted to be ‘there for them’. I was their leader and I thought they couldn’t survive without me.

However, when I was getting phone calls just as I was about to tuck into some well-deserved dinner, changes had to be made. So we agreed on a time window when I could be phoned and that worked okay for a while. However, I started to get sick and tired of these problems eating into my personal life. It wasn’t the case that the six of them would phone me every night but some would phone more than others and some would demand more time on the phone. At that time I didn’t know what to do about it, so it was tolerated – it was just part of the job.

I was eventually promoted to an office-based sales manager job and there were even more problems to be dealt with. It wasn’t just the sales guys I had to deal with; it was the people from the finance department, the marketing department, the distribution people, and of course the customers.

I remember when I took my first week’s holiday from this job and thinking before my return to work, ‘My desk will be piled up with problems to be solved, there will be people standing in line at the door of my office waiting for me to solve their problems.’ The funny thing was, there weren’t as many problems as I’d thought there would be.

Solving problems is part of your job as a Motivational Manager. Do it well and you’ll have a happy and motivated team. Do it badly or spend too much time dealing with problems and you’ll have exactly the opposite.

In Chapter 4we looked at spending quality time with your team, listening, giving feedback and coaching them. One of the reasons some managers don’t do this well is because they spend too much time solving business problems.

I’m sad to say that some managers like solving business problems. They see it as a major part of their job and it makes them feel important and worthwhile.

However, while a manager is sitting at his desk solving problems, the listening, feedback and coaching isn’t getting done. And if that isn’t getting done, you’re in danger of creating a demotivated team who take too many sickies and don’t make a positive contribution to your business.

So we need to look at the whole situation of dealing with problems.

Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.

Henry Ford (1863–1947, American industrialist, founder of Ford Motor Company)

BUSINESS PROBLEMS – PEOPLE PROBLEMS

If you want to be a successful Motivational Manager, you need to minimise your time spent solving business problems and focus on any people problems you may have with your team.

This book isn’t about time management, so I suggest you get hold of a book on the subject or attend a training course and take a long hard look at how you spend your time.

Your success as a Motivational Manager will be determined by the amount of time you spend with your team. If you’re faced with too many business problems then I suggest you have a meeting with your boss. If you need any help in this area, go back to Chapter 5and have a look at where we talked about giving feedback to your boss. You need to make the case that business problems get in the way of managing your team and therefore jeopardise your ability to achieve your objectives.

I remember one day, just as I was about to leave the office to spend some time with one of my sales people making calls on customers, my boss, the Sales Director, stopped me to suggest I join him at a meeting to discuss how we could solve some problems in the administration process.

Now that would have been the easiest thing in the world for me to do; sit in on another meeting and possibly prove to the people there what a clever chap I was. However, I resisted the temptation to give in to my manager’s request and said, ‘My plan is to spend some valuable time with our salesman, John, helping him to increase his sales conversion rate and so bring more sales into the business. Are you telling me you don’t want me to do that and instead attend this meeting?’ There wasn’t much he could say about that other than to suggest I continue with my plan to spend time with John.

I’m not saying that I won every one of these discussions; sometimes I was overruled and made to do what the boss wanted. However, my prime objective as a Motivational Manager was to achieve my outcomes through the efforts of my team. Attending meetings and solving business problems wasn’t going to do that.

Fight hard for the time you spend with your people, that time will determine your success.

A man must be master of his hours and days, not their servant.

William Frederick Book

RECOGNISING PEOPLE PROBLEMS

As a Motivational Manager you need to determine what problems exist with your people and if these problems warrant your time and energy. Before you decide to act on any potential people problems you need to establish four things:

• 1.Does a problem exist?
• 2.What kind of problem is it?
• 3.Whose problem is it?
• 4.What actions should you take?

Does a problem exist?

You need to be really sure that you do have a people problem. Do you remember in Chapter 2where I talked about how I used to get angry when a member of my team showed up late for a meeting or an appointment with me? My anger was primarily a reaction to my programming. I was brought up to believe that it was important to be on time; however, is it a problem?

Is it a problem if one of your team:

• Isn’t a good team player?
• Is a bit overweight?
• Doesn’t complete reports on time?
• Isn’t a good writer or speller?
• Is always late?
• Has bad breath?
• Is a sloppy dresser?
• Is a bit negative?

I can’t answer any of these questions – only you can.

I once had a salesman on my team called Brian who, to my mind, had a strange taste in clothes. He was always clean and tidy but his hair was a bit long for my liking and he wore too much male jewellery. Again, the manner in which I reacted to his appearance was all down to my inbuilt programmes, the way I saw the world. However, what he did do was bring in the sales. The customers liked him, he always hit his target and so, I achieved my outcomes.

It would have been easy for me to allow Brian’s appearance to become a problem. Trying to resolve this problem, by getting Brian to dress in a way that I thought was more appropriate, would have had negative consequences. I would have been in great danger of demotivating Brian and affecting his ability to bring in the sales.

In order to determine if a problem exists, consider these four points:

• 1.Think, don’t react.
• 2.Can you do anything about it?
• 3.Is it worth doing anything about it?
• 4.You can’t make people what they’re not.

Think, don’t react

Remember what I said in Chapter 2about the first Factor of Success: ‘Successful managers have a deep understanding of their own minds. They’re aware of their needs, their strengths and weaknesses, and their emotions. They’re honest with themselves and with their team members. You have to decide who runs your mind. Is it you or is it somebody else?’

Don’t react to any inbuilt program about how people should behave. Don’t allow something to become a problem that isn’t a problem. Getting angry and stressed isn’t good for your health and is not a productive way to motivate your team.

Can you do anything about it?

If, for example, one of your team is a bit overweight and you think it’s a problem, can you really do anything about it? I don’t think so.

Is it worth doing anything about it?

Again, it’s back to thinking and not reacting. Ask yourself, ‘Is this perceived problem affecting my ability to achieve my outcomes?’ The answer will tell you if you have a problem or not.

You can’t make people what they’re not

Don’t waste your time trying to change people who can’t be changed. Some managers still believe that if they see a perceived weakness or problem with a team member then they can be changed. They send them on training courses, tell them what to do, threaten them with disciplinary action or the sack and then wonder why there’s no change. The Motivational Manager concentrates on developing the strengths of team members, not trying to correct their ‘weaknesses’.

Let me summarise: if you want to know if a problem exists, ask yourself, ‘Does this “problem” affect my outcomes, goals, objectives, targets or whatever I’ll be judged on?’

If it does have negative consequences for your outcomes, then you have a problem.

WHAT KIND OF PROBLEM IS IT?

Once you’ve determined that you really do have a problem with a member of your team, you need to determine what kind of problem it is. Knowing what kind of problem it is will enable you to decide the best course of action to resolve it. Typical problems could be:

• Unable to bring in the sales;
• Unable to handle a difficult customer;
• Unable to get reports in on time;
• Unable to do the job quickly enough;
• Keeps making mistakes;
• Upsets customers.

There are four factors to consider:

• 1.Is this the right person for the job?
• 2.Do they have the skills to do the job?
• 3.Are they motivated to do the job?
• 4.Is there some other factor?

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Is this the right person for the job?

You may have inherited a team member or you may have selected them yourself. However, you’ll have to ‘bite the bullet’ and decide whether or not they are the right person for the job.

I’ve experienced customer service people who shouldn’t be let anywhere near a customer, secretarial assistants who couldn’t spell or type fast enough, engineers who couldn’t read blueprints and plumbers who couldn’t plumb.

A telecoms manager on one of my seminars was telling me about one of his engineers who worked in the tunnels under London maintaining cables and equipment. This guy was always off sick, and when he was at work he kept making mistakes and generally not doing his job very well. The engineer had been spoken to on several occasions about his poor performance; however, he hadn’t made much progress. Eventually they discovered that he suffered from claustrophobia. He was trying to deal with it himself and didn’t want to tell anyone as he thought he would be perceived as weak and not able to do the job like the rest of his mates. He was obviously in the wrong job and was immediately transferred to another role where he wouldn’t have to work in enclosed spaces.

A client of mine realised that the customer service person they’d recently employed couldn’t handle the pressure of difficult customers and situations. They realised that training wouldn’t solve the situation, so they transferred her to a job where she produced quotations and didn’t have to speak to a customer.

In the opening chapter of this book I told you about apprentice engineers who worked with me in my first job. These guys went through all the training that I went through but some of them found it really tough. There was no way that these people would ever be successful engineers and hopefully they all found a career more suitable to their talents.

If you have someone in your team who is unable to do the job and is unable to learn, then you need to transfer them into something they can do or advise and help them to find other employment. Now I know that may seem harsh and it’s not always easy or feasible to release people. However, you’ll never achieve your outcomes with the wrong person in the job. The business may suffer and you’re in great danger of demotivating the other members of your team. They won’t want someone on the team who can’t do the job.

Do they have the skills to do the job?

There are organisations that are excellent at training people to do the job they employ them to do. Sadly, there are many others who don’t effectively train people to do their job.

There was one company I joined after three years’ experience in selling. They had a first-class induction training programme. I spent the first two weeks on a residential training course learning all about the products. They went into fine detail and regularly tested me on my product knowledge.

The second two weeks were spent ‘in the field’ calling on customers with a field sales trainer. The next two weeks were spent back in the training school, learning how to sell the products. I learned a great deal about selling with this company and it gave me a great deal of confidence when I was left to ‘fly solo’.

Funnily enough, they weren’t as good at managing their people as I first believed and as a result suffered a huge turnover of sales people. I certainly learned a lot about selling from this organisation. However, I also learned a lot about how not to manage people. This stood me in good stead when it came my time to step up to management.

However, as I said earlier, too many organisations don’t even train their people well enough to do the job. I’ve known sales organisations that employ experienced sales people and expect them to sell the new product or service with very little product knowledge training or awareness of the new market in which they’re working. They seem to believe that if a sales person has experience and has been trained in selling, then they’ll have all the attributes needed to do the job.

I’ve also known organisations employ really smart and articulate customer service people but not give them enough training in the product or the service or the industry they’ll be working in.

If you have an issue with an individual who isn’t performing the way you need them to, you need to consider carefully if they have a skill problem. Perhaps the job has changed since they were employed and their skills haven’t been updated.

Remember, your team members may not want to admit to not having the skill to do a job. Some people aren’t comfortable telling you that they don’t know what to do. They don’t want to be perceived as stupid in front of you or their colleagues.

Spend some quality time

In Chapter 3I put great emphasis on the need to spend quality time with your team. This is absolutely vital if you want to identify the cause of problems or spot them before they happen.

A client company of mine was having problems with underper-forming sales people. I quickly established that the area managers spent very little time with the field sales people. They tended to manage their teams from behind a desk, analysing sales reports and other data.

The area manager would occasionally sit down with each sales person and go through these reports. The manager would look at each customer report in turn and question the sales person on why a sale had been lost.

The sales team basically saw it as a ‘find fault’ exercise; they hated it, it demotivated them and the message from the manager was, ‘Get it sorted.’

When I was a field sales manager I used to spend a great deal of my time with my sales people, calling on customers. This gave me lots of opportunities to ‘catch people doing something right’ and give them some Confirming feedback. It also gave me the opportunity to give some Productive feedback if I observed something I wasn’t so happy about. I was able to monitor at first hand how things could be done better. I could also see where mistakes were being made, which might lead to problems at a later stage and possibly a loss in sales.

Spending time with one of my team away from the customers, over lunch or a drink after work, gave me the opportunity to identify any human problems they might be having. If they were experiencing some problems at home with their partner or family, then this could obviously cause problems at work. There may not be much you can do about these problems, but at least you can show your understanding and be supportive of the individual.

Susan worked on my telesales team a few years back and she used to make a lot of simple mistakes when processing a customer’s order. After observing her for a short period of time, it dawned on me what was happening. At the end of each call to a customer, there was a process of completing the customer’s order details on the computer. I noticed that Susan was easily distracted by other things going on in the office. She was always jumping from her seat to help her colleagues or anyone who came into the office. Susan was a really lovely person, always looking to be helpful. The problem was, she would speak to someone or leave her desk in the middle of processing a transaction. The result was that things would get missed out and mistakes made.

I spent time coaching Susan to complete each transaction before doing anything else or speaking to anyone. I just had to improve Susan’s skill in handling a transaction.

Let’s consider another example. Say one of your team isn’t producing reports fast enough. There’s no point telling them to work faster or ‘buck up’ their ideas. Perhaps you to need to send them on a training course in how to use Microsoft Word or Excel or whatever programme they’re using.

If you have a skill problem with a member of your team, don’t regard them as a no-hoper. Coach them on the job or organise some external training.

Are they motivated to do the job?

Sometimes an employee is labelled as having the wrong attitude to do the job. It’s acknowledged that they’re the right person for the job and they certainly don’t lack training. However, they just don’t seem motivated.

Some years ago when computers started to become an integral part of many jobs, some organisations encountered problems with certain employees. They were heard to say, ‘These computers are a waste of time, I’d rather do it the old way’ or ‘There’s no way I’m using a computer’ or ‘I hear that computers make mistakes and give you even more problems’ or ‘This is a complete waste of money.’

On hearing these comments, some managers would accuse the employee of being negative and having the wrong attitude, of living in the past, not thinking of the good of the company and not being motivated to do the job.

These responses from managers may be true but perhaps there was another reason for the negative comments.

It was found that once the dissenters had been trained to use the computers, they often became their strongest advocates. In other words, it wasn’t a motivation problem, it was a training problem that could be easily resolved.

Sometimes when employees are faced with a new job, a new task or a different way of doing things, they may appear negative and lacking in motivation. However, they may just be afraid or insecure about taking on a new task, not being able to do it and making a fool of themselves. And of course, if you’re not spending quality time with them, then they’re unlikely to share their concerns with you.

I had a client who had difficulty sending some of her female team members on my two-day residential training course. As mothers, they were citing children commitments as a reason not to attend the course. The manager offered to resolve the child-care issues but still met with resistance from some of her team. She put it down to a bad attitude and a lack of motivation.

However, more thorough investigation may have identified what the real problem was. Perhaps the team members had a fear of training courses, of meeting new people or even staying in a hotel. They may even have had a spouse who didn’t want them staying away from home overnight. And of course, it may just have been a problem with childcare.

There could be a way around these sorts of concerns, possibly by reassuring the team members that they won’t feel threatened on the training course. You may even wish to phone their spouse and discuss the situation with them.

Again, you may not be able to resolve these issues but your greater understanding and willingness to listen will improve your status as a Motivational Manager.

Sometimes you will encounter a motivation problem when a team member is ‘punished’ for doing the job well. Have you ever heard the saying, ‘If you want a job done well, give it to a busy person’? This often happens in an organisation when an employee does a job well and is always busy getting on with it. People then give them more work or responsibility because they know they will do it well. However, the employee gets overloaded with work and starts to get demotivated.

That’s why it’s so important to spend quality time with every member of your team, not just the poor performers. People who are overloaded with work may not always tell you, perhaps because they don’t want to appear as a whinger. Nonetheless, they are in danger of becoming seriously demotivated. Spend time with them and assess their workload. If it’s too much, find someone else to do it.

There’s another reason why you may think you a have a motivation problem with a team member. Sometimes people don’t perform well or appear demotivated just to get your attention. Now I appreciate that this is a situation that some managers find difficulty in getting their head around. However, it does happen. We looked at acknowledgement in Chapter 4and the fact that some people may behave badly in order to get your attention.

I’ve been in the situation where I’ve spent time with one of my team trying to find out what’s wrong with them and why they’re demotivated. They come up with all sorts of issues that seem trivial and we go round and round these issues not getting anywhere. I end up thinking, ‘What’s wrong with this person? I can’t understand them and I don’t know what to do with them!’

All the time I spent with them may just have been satisfying their need for acknowledgement. The issues they raised were trivial and there wasn’t any real answer to them, so I needed to try another approach.

I eventually found that it was better not to concentrate on why they were demotivated; it was far better to concentrate on all the things they did well. So I made sure that I ‘caught them doing something right’ as often as I could and gave them lots of Confirming feedback.

Of course, it has to be said that if you’ve been using all the skills we’ve covered previously in the book, you’re going to have fewer motivational problems in the first place.

Is there some other factor?

Even if your team members are motivated and willing to do the job, you may still experience people problems if they suffer from a lack of resources, such as they:

• Don’t have the right equipment to do the job;
• Don’t have much support from colleagues;
• Don’t have enough time to do the job;
• Don’t have the right environment to do the job;
• Feel they don’t earn enough money.

I mentioned earlier about a telesales team I inherited and how I faced the challenge of turning around this underperforming team. I appointed Christine as the team leader and manager and I wanted her to spend more time coaching people on the job. However, this wasn’t getting done to my satisfaction and I realised I needed to spend more time with Christine, coaching her. When discussing with Christine how she spent her day, it became apparent that there was one task that took up nearly two hours of her time. It was a credit control procedure that required Christine to check all the orders coming in and resolve credit issues. I asked Christine, ‘Why do you do that job?’ ‘Because I’ve always done it, its part of my job.’ ‘Do you like doing it?’ ‘No, it’s a real pain, I see myself as a team leader and coach, not a credit control person.’ ‘Do you think it should be done by the credit control department?’ ‘Yes of course it should, and they could probably do it a lot better and quicker than me.’

So the next day I had a meeting with the credit control manager and he responded, ‘Yes you’re right. Christine shouldn’t be doing that job; it’s a historical situation and should really be dealt with in the credit control department. Transfer that function to my department and we’ll deal with it from now on.’

Overnight Christine found herself with two hours extra in her day; time that could be valuably spent coaching her team members and bringing in more sales.

I accept that not all resource problems are so easily resolved. However, your job is to spend time with your team and minimise the number of obstacles that get in the way of them doing their job.

There are many resource problems that you won’t be able to do anything about. For example, it’s not always easy to get a team member more money. However, if they have money problems then you may be able to get them some professional advice. Many organisations have support procedures within their human resources department.

Some other resource problems can be dealt with by reframing. Let me give you an example. One team of sales people that I managed felt they had a big problem in achieving their sales targets because our two major competitors did so much television advertising. Our company had 14 per cent of the market for our product and the two main competitors had approximately 40 per cent each. They had a huge TV advertising budget and we had virtually nil.

I reframed the situation for my team explaining how we could develop our business in a more exclusive niche market than our high-volume competitors. I used the analogy of the car industry; BMW aren’t as big or sell as many cars as Ford, but that doesn’t mean their product isn’t as good.

Sometimes a team member will feel that they aren’t receiving enough support from other departments in the organisation. This may be true and it’s your job to do your best to resolve any problems with other departments. It may be tempting to ignore the problem and hope it goes away, and you may or may not be able to do anything about it. However, you need to demonstrate to your team that you are doing whatever it takes to resolve these problems. If unsuccessful, you need to use all the motivational skills described before. Spending time discussing concerns will show the team member that you care; it’s all about treating each member of your team as a valued and respected person.

Keep giving Confirming feedback and outweigh the negative feelings that result from a lack of resources.