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Super Employee vs Supervisor

“There are 10 skills that every manager should know. What got them to where they are, will not take them to where they need to be.”

Most people do not start out as managers or supervisors; they start their careers as employees just like everyone else. If you are a supervisor, I assume this is how you started your career as well. But along the way, something happened to you. It’s like something clicked in your mind. You said to yourself… “I am going to be good at my job!” You came to work on time, kept the right attitude and did what it took to become very adept at your job. Like any other perfectionist, you worked hard to master your position. You tackled every problem and figured out the best way to solve each situation. You became so good at solving problems that your co-workers began to come to you with their own conundrums. Managers and supervisors would sneak in and say… “I need your help.” And in your mind you would think… “You sure do!”

You were no longer just a mere employee, a transformation had taken place. You went from being an employee like everyone else, to what I like to call a SUPER employee!

No problem was too difficult. For every situation, you had a method for dealing with that particular problem. One day the powers-that-be came by and said to themselves… “WOW! A SUPER employee! Let’s make ‘em a SUPERvisor.” But they forgot to tell you the big secret…

When you were a SUPER employee, 100% of your time was devoted to doing your job. You handled every problem with he greatest of ease. One the other hand, when you became a SUPERvisor, 80% of your time was now devoted to dealing with people. And dealing with people means dealing with their problems.

Most employees have a life of their own, and they tend to make bad choices from time to time. They will bring their problems to work with them, too, because it’s a part of their life. You could put up a big neon sign at work that read… “Please DO NOT bring your problems to work!” but they will walk right by that sign and think that it doesn’t apply to them.

Whose job is it to handle these problems at work so that your employees stay productive? Welcome to the world of supervisors: You’re It.

Human nature tells us that when we are faced with a problem, we are more likely to lean on what we are good at to solve that problem. What are you good at? You are good at being a SUPER employee. So you tend to lean on your SUPER employee skills to solve your SUPERvisor problems, and that is why you hear managers make statements such as… “By the time I show them how to do it, I can do it myself!”

Unfortunately, when you use a SUPER employee technique to try and solve a SUPERvisor problem, it just makes the problem worse. You see, for every problem there is a “technique” to solve that problem. This has been going on since the dawning of time. Early man grew tired of raw food so they developed “techniques” to master fire. In your life “techniques” have been used countless times. We use “techniques” to make our lives easier or to put it on autopilot.

You learned a lot of your “techniques” from your parents growing up. Your parents used “techniques” on you all the time. Do you remember when you were a teenager and you would go and ask your parents for money? This presented a problem for your parents. They did not want to give you their hard-earned money to go and blow on something trivial. This is when they would pull out some of their techniques to try and solve this problem. See if you remember any of these…

“Mom and/or Dad, can I have some money?”

Technique #1: “Money doesn’t grow on trees!”

Technique #2: “Go get a job.”

I would bet you have used those “techniques” on your children, as well. In management, there are “techniques” designed to solve the problems you encounter with your people.

There are people out there who are experts in the field of management and human behavior. Their job is to design and develop “techniques” that build productivity and reduce problems. These “techniques” are what you, the manager, should know and use on a daily basis. You should be well versed in these “techniques”.

For every problem in management there is a “technique” to handle that problem. When you get to the place where you have a “technique” for every situation and you can dispel problems with the greatest of ease, that is called a “skill”. The more “skills” you have as a SUPERvisor the more valuable you become to your company.

In my audio series “Strategic Management: The REAL DEAL on How to Supervise People” I talk about the top ten skills that companies feel make you the most valuable to them. You must master these skills if you are going to be a true SUPERvisor. These skills are designed to build productivity and reduce problems, and they are a necessity to every manager. Unfortunately, most managers are just Super employees masquerading as SUPERvisors. Make a commitment to learn these supervisory skills today, and increase your employee’s morale, watch your accomplishments soar, and add more value to your work- and you.

The REAL DEAL
Jeff Compton

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15

06 2010


by Jeff Compton
posted in Leadership Development, Management, Supervising People, The REAL DEAL
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Influence: How And Why People Agree To Things

  • One of the most illuminating books I have read in a long time! JC

Influence: How And Why People Agree To Things

by Robert Cialdini

Influence: How and Why People Agree To Things by Robert Cialdini teaches us the basics of how people are influenced. It breaks influence into six key factors:

  1. Reciprocation
  2. Consistency and Commitment
  3. Social Proof
  4. Authority
  5. Liking (the person who is trying to influence us)
  6. Scarcity

Each of the above points is detailed in a chapter. Academic studies and examples are given in a very engaging fashion. Some of the studies are for the birds. For example, mother turkeys, who are known to be caring parents (as far as birds go), tend to respond only to the “cheep-cheep” sound of their chicks.

Hearing the cheep-cheep, the mother turkey coddles and cares for the young turkey chick. It is a short-cut response that nature has given turkeys to know how to behave. It tends to work well in nature. But, tricky scientists recorded the cheep-cheep sound and placed the recording into a stuffed Polecat, the natural enemy of the turkey, and found that the mother turkeys adopted the stuffed polecat. Coddled it and cared for it.

That was quite amazing, as the usual response of a mother turkey to a stuffed Polecat without the cheep-cheep recording is an outright assault on the Polecat. This reflexive behavior tends to work most of the time, but sometimes is inappropriate. The mother turkey is responding in what Cialdini refers to as a “click, whir” method. Once some reactor sets off a signal (click), the mother turkey plays its own internal tape (whir) which signifies the appropriate response.

Only, sometimes, the response is not appropriate. And, some predators have learned the mimic strategy to trick their prey. Now, this may be useful if your goal is to be adopted by a turkey (or maybe its something that could protect you from a wild turkey attack!), you say, but how does this apply to me?

The answer is that people themselves have “click, whir” behavior. Because people wish to avoid the work of making decisions, they have internal tapes they run which tell them how to respond under various conditions. Most of the time our internal tapes are appropriate. But, sometimes, they are not. And some human predators have learned to exploit our “click, whir” behavior. Often, these predators come in the form of salespeople.

Cialdini discusses how to say “No” to each of these six influence factors by being aware of how influence works and reading your internal gut feeling.

This book is excellent reading for anyone who wants to learn how to influence others. Job hunters, managers, and marketers will benefit from reading this book. Although we do not suggest you try to use this knowledge in a devious way, knowing how to approach asking for a request is useful. Investors can benefit also.

For example, “social proof” states that we often look to others to determine what is correct behavior in a situation. We most look to others to deem what is correct in times of uncertainty. This can lead to “pluralistic ignorance.” Everyone is assuming that the other guy knows what he is doing and we follow. Manias and gross overvaluation of publicly-traded stocks come to mind.

In an attempt to avoid the hard work of thinking, we follow the herd off the cliff, blindly assuming where everyone else is going must be safe. As stated in Influence 95% of people are followers and only 5% of people are leaders.

Often, we are most likely to follow “experts.” This is the authority factor above. We tend to believe and follow anyone who we assume is an expert. However, following experts can also lead to problems.

Influence points out that about 10% of medication administered by hospitals may be in error. This is a serious problem and can obviously lead to death.

Why is it that hospitals have such a problem with errors in medication? Despite the training and knowledge of R.N.’s, they tend to unquestioningly follow the instructions of the doctors. Even if the instructions don’t make sense.

Cialdini tells the story of a man who complained of an earache. He had an ear infection and the doctor prescribed eardrops for him. On the prescription, the doctor wrote, “Place drops in R ear.” As the doctor was in a hurry, he abbreviated “Right” with R.

Sure enough, the trained nurse obediently followed the instructions and placed the required number of drops in the patient’s anus. Neither the patient nor the nurse questioned the instructions, as they came from an authority.

Read Cialdini’s Influence: How And Why People Agree To Things. Even if you never feel the need to be adopted by a mother turkey, maybe it will keep eardrops out of your anus, help keep you from buying things you later regret, and help you understand how influence works. We highly recommend this book.

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09

08 2009


by Jeff Compton
posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment

7 Tips for Effective Listening

7 tips for effective listening: productive listening does not occur naturally. It requires hard work and practice – Back To Basics – effective listening is a crucial skill for internal auditors

by Tom D. Lewis & Gerald Graham

I know this article is for auditors but the 7 tips can be used by anyone in business. If  you want to be successful. The you better learn how to listen.

TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT THEIR job, internal auditors must be able to write, speak, and listen effectively. Of these three skills, effective listening may be the most crucial because auditors are required to do it so often. Unfortunately, listening also may be the most difficult skill to master.

Effective listening is challenging, in part, because people often are more focused on what they’re saying than on what they’re hearing in return. According to a recent study by the Harvard Business Review, people think the voice mail they send is more important than the voice mail they receive. Generally, senders think that their message is more helpful and urgent than do the people who receive it.

Additionally, listening is difficult because people don’t work as hard at it as they should. Listening seems to occur so naturally that putting a lot of effort into it doesn’t seem necessary. However, hard work and effort is exactly what effective listening requires.

Internal auditors must listen to explanations, rationales, and defenses of financial practices and procedures. They are constantly communicating with fellow employees whose backgrounds range from accounting to finance to marketing to information systems. In addition, explanations by fellow employees of any “unusual” practices often pose a significant challenge to an internal auditor’s listening skills. Auditors can use the following techniques to improve these skills.

1. CONCENTRATE ON WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING. When listening to someone, do you often find yourself thinking about a job or task that is nearing deadline or an important family matter? In the middle of a conversation, do you sometimes realize that you haven’t heard a word the other person has said? Most individuals speak at the rate of 175 to 200 words per minute. However, research suggests that we are very capable of listening and processing words at the rate of 600 to 1,000 words per minute. An internal auditor’s job today is very fast and complex, and because the brain does not use all of its capacity when listening, an auditor’s mind may drift to thinking of further questions or explanations rather than listening to the message at hand. This unused brainpower can be a barrier to effective listening, causing the auditor to miss or misinterpret what others are saying. It is important for internal auditors to actively concentrate on what others are saying so that effective communication can occur.

2. SEND THE NONVERBAL MESSAGE THAT YOU ARE LISTENING. When someone is talking to you, do you maintain eye contact with that person? Do you show the speaker you are listening by nodding your head? Does your body language transmit the message that you are listening? Are you leaning forward and not using your hands to play with things? Most communication experts agree that nonverbal messages can be three times as powerful as verbal messages. Effective communication becomes difficult anytime you send a nonverbal message that you’re not really listening.

3. AVOID EARLY EVALUATIONS. When listening, do you often make immediate judgments about what the speaker is saying? Do you assume or guess what the speaker is going to say next? Do you sometimes discover later that you failed to interpret correctly what the speaker was telling you? Because a listener can listen at a faster rate than most speakers talk, there is a tendency to evaluate too quickly. That tendency is perhaps the greatest barrier to effective listening. It is especially important to avoid early evaluations when listening to a person with whom you disagree. When listeners begin to disagree with a sender’s message, they tend to misinterpret the remaining information and distort its intended meaning so that it is consistent with their own beliefs.

4. AVOID GETTING DEFENSIVE. Do you ever take what another person says personally when what her or she is saying is not meant to be personal? Do you ever become angry at what another person says? Careful listening does not mean that you will always agree with the other party’s point of view, but it does mean that you will try to listen to what the other person is saying without becoming overly defensive. Too much time spent explaining, elaborating, and defending your decision or position is a sure sign that you are not listening. This is because your role has changed from one of listening to a role of convincing others they are wrong. After listening to a position or suggestion with which you disagree, simply respond with something like, “I understand your point. We just disagree on this one.” Effective listeners can listen calmly to another person even when that person is offering unjust criticism.

5. PRACTICE PARAPHRASING. Paraphrasing is the art of putting into your own words what you thought you heard and saying it back to the sender. For example, a subordinate might say: “You have been unfair to rate me so low on my performance appraisal. You have rated me lower than Jim. I can do the job better than him, and I’ve been here longer.” A paraphrased response might be: “I can see that you are upset about your rating. You think it was unfair for me to rate you as I did.” Paraphrasing is a great technique for improving your listening and problem-solving skills. First, you have to listen very carefully if you are going to accurately paraphrase what you heard. Second, the paraphrasing response will clarify for the sender that his or her message was correctly received and encourage the sender to expand on what he or she is trying to communicate.

6. LISTEN (AND OBSERVE) FOR FEELINGS. When listening, do you concentrate just on the words that are being said, or do you also concentrate on the way they are being said? The way a speaker is standing, the tone of voice and inflection he or she is using, and what the speaker is doing with his or her hands are all part of the message that is being sent. A person who raises his or her voice is probably either angry or frustrated. A person looking down while speaking is probably either embarrassed or shy. Interruptions may suggest fear or lack of confidence. Persons who make eye contact and lean forward are likely exhibiting confidence. Arguments may reflect worry. Inappropriate silence may be a sign of aggression and be intended as punishment.

7. ASK QUESTIONS. Do you usually ask questions when listening to a message? Do you try to clarify what a person has said to you? Effective listeners make certain they have correctly heard the message that is being sent. Ask questions to clarify points or to obtain additional information. Open-ended questions are the best. They require the speaker to convey more information. Form your questions in a way that makes it clear you have not yet drawn any conclusions. This will assure the message sender that you are only interested in obtaining more and better information. And the more information that you as a listener have, the better you can respond to the sender’s communication.

LISTEN ACTIVELY

Not everyone has to possess the same style of listening, but internal auditors who use “active” listening will likely become much better listeners. Active listening demands that the receiver of a message put aside the belief that listening is easy and that it happens naturally and realize that effective listening is hard work. The result of active listening is more efficient and effective communication.

The Listening Quiz

Are you an effective listener? Ask a peer that you communicate with regularly and who you know will answer honestly to respond “yes” or “no” to these 10 questions. Do not answer the questions yourself. We often view ourselves as great listeners when, in fact, others know that we are not.

1. During the past two weeks, can you recall an incident where you thought I was not listening to you?

2. When you are talking to me, do you feel relaxed at least 90 percent of the time?

3. When you are talking to me, do I maintain eye contact with you most of the time?

4. Do I get defensive when you tell me things with which I disagree?

5. When talking to me, do I often ask questions to clarify what you are saying?

6. In a conversation, do I sometimes overreact to information?

7. Do I ever jump in and finish what you are saying?

8. Do I often change my opinion after talking something over with you?

9. When you are trying to communicate something to me, do I often do too much of the talking?

10. When you are talking to me, do I often play with a pen, pencil, my keys, or something else on my desk?

Use your peer’s answers to grade your listening skills. If you received nine or 10 correct answers, you are an excellent listener; seven or eight correct answers indicates a good listener; five or six correct answers means you possess average listening skills; and less than five correct answers is reflective of a poor listener.]

The answers most often given for effective listeners are: 1. no, 2. yes, 3. yes, 4. no, 5. yes, 6. no, 7. no, 8. yes, 9. no, 10. no.

TOM D. LEWIS, PHD, is an associate professor of accounting in the College of Business at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

GERALD GRAHAM, PHD, is the Clinton Distinguished Professor of Management in the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University in Witchita, Kan.

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18

07 2009


by Jeff Compton
posted in DRIV Strategies
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