SUCCESSFUL MANAGERS DON’T MAKE IT HARD

Firstly we need to consider what we mean by a ‘successful’ manager. I believe that there are two factors that identify a successful manager:

• 1.A manager who gets the job done.
• 2.A manager who does it in the easiest and least stressful way possible.

Let’s be totally clear about point 1: as a team manager you’ve got to achieve your target, your production figures or whatever it is that your organisation requires of you. It’s one thing to have a happy motivated team; however, it’s another thing if they’re not ‘doing the business’. If that’s the case, then you’re not a successful manager.

You also want to be able to go home at night in the knowledge that you’ve done what was required of you. That can be a great confidence booster and it also makes you feel good about yourself.

However, I’m sure that in being a successful manager and achieving your business goals, you don’t want to kill yourself in the process. Too many managers are suffering from stress, losing sleep and damaging their family life. That’s not what success is all about and I’m sure it’s not what you want. Some managers seem to believe that stress and hassle is ‘all part of the territory’ and that they should just accept it.

I’ve known ‘successful’ managers in terms of achieving their business targets who were not successful in their personal life. How many marriages have suffered because one of the partners was spending too much time being successful in their job? How often has the relationship with our children suffered because of a lack of quality time spent with them?

I’ve know managers who’ve collapsed in the workplace due to stress. I’m sure you’ve also heard of sports coaches who’ve suffered heart attacks while watching a game.

It’s been said that success has to come at a price. However, that price should not be paid in terms of a troubled personal life. We can pay the price of success by changing our viewpoint, increasing our knowledge of human nature and making changes to the way we lead our teams.

John Wooden, ex-UCLA basketball coach, was voted the best sports coach of all time in a recent poll. ‘I had a successful basketball career,’ he wrote in his 1997 book Wooden. ‘But I believe I had an even more successful marriage.’

Successful managers get products out of the door or hit their sales target, and if they’re in sport they win the championship. However, they also do it at the lowest possible personal cost to themselves and their families.

How do the good guys do it?

I’ve spent many years studying successful managers, whether they were in business or in sport, trying to establish what makes the good guys so good. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that these managers and coaches know:

• 1.How to do all the business parts of the job.
• 2.How to do all the human parts of the job.

There’s no doubt that a manager can have a certain level of success if they’re good at the business part of the job but not so good at the human part. Some managers can go through their whole career by being competent in all the business and technical aspects of the job.

Does a sales manager need to know about selling? Of course she does. Does an IT manager need to know about computer hardware and software? Of course he does. Does a football coach need to know how to play football? Of course he does.

It’s going to be pretty difficult to manage your team if you don’t know how to do what your team members do. However, contrary to what some people believe, the successful manager doesn’t have to be as good at the job or as knowledgeable as their team members.

If you look at the careers of some of our successful sports coaches you’ll find some guys who were pretty average players. Many of them were nowhere near as good as some of the star players they coach today. However, that hasn’t stopped them becoming successful as coaches.

It’s important to have the knowledge about the industry or business that you’re in and understand how your team members do their job. However, that’s not what will ultimately determine your success as a manager.

Mike Krzyzewski, the basketball coach, says in his book Leading with the Heart: ‘It’s important for a leader to focus on the technical details of his industry or business. But it’s vital to focus on details related specifically to people in the organization.’

To be a successful Motivational Manager you’ve got to know the business you’re in, but more importantly you’ve got to know how to get the best out of your people. In my career I worked for seven companies, three of which I joined as an experienced manager. Of the three I joined as a manager, one sold car maintenance products, the next one sold tools and industrial supplies and the last one sold beer; three totally different industries with different customers and cultures.

I can remember some of my new team members saying to me at each company I joined, ‘It’s different in this business, you’ll find it difficult because it’s not the same as you’re used to.’ (Do you think they were pleased to see me?)

Of course it was a different industry but managing the team members wasn’t different and that was what I was hired to do.

At interview stage, even senior managers had reservations about my lack of knowledge of their industry. However, when I joined these organisations I made it my business to find out as much as I could about the industry and the products. I never became an expert in the products or services but I sure knew how to manage their people, communicate with them on a human level and bring in the sales.

The ironic thing is that most organisations will help managers become better at the business factors but do very little if anything with the human aspects. And if you think about it any further it’s probably the reason you bought this book.

Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relationships with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important a subject not to receive first line attention.

William Hewlett (1912–2001, American businessman, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard)

HOW TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP

In my quest to find out what makes the good guys good I’ve read many reports and articles. I’ve read the books and watched the TV documentaries about successful sports coaches. Much has been said and written about these people and what made them successful. There’s obviously a lot of comment about and emphasis on all the technical things they did and how they really knew the game they were in.

When you read what the players say about coaches when they write their autobiographies you’ll obviously find comments about the technical aspects of the game. You’ll discover how the coach was tough and competitive and how he drove the players hard. But you’ll also hear many other comments which are not about the business side of the coach’s activities but more about the human, and I believe this is where you’ll find the real secret of their success.

Some of the comments I’ve read about coaches include:

John Wooden:

‘One of the true gentlemen in sports or any other walk of life.’

‘He taught them to be good people, good sports and still be competitive.’

Scotty Bowman:

‘A great sense of humour that people never see.’

‘Deep down, a caring man.’

Mike Krzyzewski:

‘You cannot mistake the fact that he loves his players. He cares about their schooling and them being model citizens.’

‘Coach K still puts up the wins proving once and for all nice guys can finish first.’

As I said earlier, I believe that the media misrepresents these coaches and what makes them successful. Of course they’re tough and competitive; they make no bones about the fact that they must achieve their goals. However, they do that by demonstrating to their players that they care about each of them as individuals.

Sir Alex Ferguson recently celebrated his thousandth game in charge of Manchester United, probably the world’s most successful soccer team. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Sir Alex does get angry when his team aren’t performing, but there’s another side to his personality that people don’t see or don’t want to see.

As Peter Schmeichel, the ex-Manchester United goalkeeper, said in a newspaper article, ‘The kind and understanding side to his personality is something people outside United don’t see. Fergie can be explosive, yet once he’d got a problem out into the open and dealt with it, it was gone. He never bore grudges. One minute he’d be furious, the next he’d ask – How’s your family?’

Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese manager of Chelsea football club, is the world’s highest-paid football manager. In an interview for Men’s Health magazine, he was asked what quality was most important in contributing to his success as a manager. ‘I think its love,’ he replies. ‘Love comes first, and because of love, other things arrive. I think without my love for my wife and for my kids, I wouldn’t be the manager I am. I think life is about that.’

The Men’s Health interviewer, John Naughton, goes on to say: ‘Mourinho’s love extends beyond his family: his love applies to his players as well, and in particular to John Terry and Frank Lampard. Mourinho speaks of them like favourite sons. He has undoubted love for them, as they, quite obviously, have for him.’

Here are some comments about coaches taken from an article in the US version of Men’s Health magazine written by David Brooks and Chris Lawson:

Wayne Graham, baseball coach, Rice University: ‘A demanding coach is redundant. If they are going to be happy with you and produce, they have to know you care.’

Frosty Westering, head football coach, Pacific Lutheran University: ‘Both men and women have emotional needs. We all want to belong to a group. We all want to feel some worth, to know that people care about us and love us. When you can meet those needs for people, even in an aggressive, competitive arena, they’ll respond with incredible effort.’

Are you tough enough?

The most important need for any human being is to feel cared about and accepted. We will do almost anything for someone who cares about us. We are drawn to and attracted by people who care about us.

Successful managers and sports coaches know that they need to care about their people if they are to get results and minimise their own stress levels. They are skilled at the human part of their job, they have emotional skills.

Daniel Goleman is a psychologist and author of the international bestselling books Emotional Intelligence and Working with Emotional Intelligence. In his book The New Leaders he states: ‘The fundamental task of leaders, we argue, is to prime good feelings in those they lead. At its root, the primal job of leadership is emotional.’

Goleman has his critics, particularly among those who think his is some sort of touchy-feely warm and fuzzy type of approach. Other critics see emotional intelligence or EQ as some sort of new buzz word or dippy theory.

You only have to look at the characteristics of emotional intelligence – self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill – and you’ll find them in successful managers.

Many successful entrepreneurs also have high EQ. I’m thinking of people like Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group of companies. People like Branson know how to make the emotional connection with their people.

Emotional intelligence isn’t some new fad or psychologist’s theory; it’s just the factor that’s been driving successful managers and coaches for years, except they weren’t aware of it. However, they soon realised that to get the best out of their people they needed to concentrate on the human interactions and make that emotional connection. They discovered that you must be tough enough to be a Motivational Manager. Let’s find out how to do it.