Reducing Your Managers’ Concerns

Managers’ concerns about aspects of their job will influence their confidence to perform. Do you know what concerns your managers have?

I am always impressed by the potential and commitment of the managers I meet. They can realise much more of this potential by having the support of their line managers. This might involve listening to their concerns, offering mentoring or investing in their further development. Knowing that they are not alone in having these worries can also help.

As part of our training service, I summarise the delegates’ initial concerns and key learning outcomes from each course. Over the last five years of delivering our Supervisor’s Toolkit course, there are some common themes. This is across a wide diversity of industries and people.

Eight Areas of Managers’ Concerns.

1. Clarity of Position

• Establishing where my responsibilities lie.
• Managing upwards to get accountability and support so I can do my job better.
• Dealing with family members and ‘leap-frogging’ (staff going around me to boss).
• Having clear structure in the business with correct communication chain.
• Balancing friendship versus manager.
• Gaining respect as a manager.

2. Self Belief

• Building confidence in myself and the team.
• Improving my patience and tolerance with individuals.
• Being more positive about myself – trusting myself and my judgement.
• Improving self discipline.
• Putting learning into practice – using on a daily basis.

3. Supervision

• Better understanding of what a supervisor is.
• Improving my supervisory skills – getting people to do what is asked of them.
• Getting results and greater productivity without upsetting people.
• Managing aggressive people or those stuck in their ways.
• Instructing people how to do the task.
• Getting staff to report back when they have done job.
• Managing poor performance.
• Dealing with negativity or anger in self and others.
• Managing change especially with older people.
• Coping with personal problems of staff without getting too involved.
• Making people aware they are not working as hard as they think they are.
• Standing back, but getting the job done.
• Reducing fire-fighting.
• Coping with unmet expectations.
• Adapting style to meet individual whilst being fair and consistent.
• Keeping people to the psychological contract.

4. Leadership

• Improving understanding of leadership in the business.
• Changing the culture/mind set of the business.
• Getting the best from everyone.
• Building trust – understanding individuals better.
• Getting other people to understand and take responsibility for their role.
• Matching people’s strengths to the job.
• Changing and influencing people’s way of working.
• Spreading positivity.
• Making things easier for everyone.
• Keeping people focused.
• Being open to other’s ideas.
• Having the confidence to lead from the front.

5. Communication

• Improving lines of communication and relationships.
• Tackling negative attitudes on a daily basis.
• Adapting communication to different situations and attitudes.
• Being more assertive.
• Communicating better with foreign colleagues.
• Getting point across without getting stressed.
• Being able to cope with confrontation.
• Explaining something to someone who appears to not be listening.
• Dealing with challenging suppliers.
• Sharing knowledge with other departments/colleagues.
• Recognising our behaviour’s impact on the performance of the whole team/factory.
• Listening to everyone.
• Talking to people rather than down to them.
• Saying no.
• Choosing to be in the right ego state.

6. Teamwork

• Building and maintaining a team.
• Motivating the team.
• Getting more out of my team without annoying them.
• Managing a team over a large area.
• Keeping the team together and not leaving people behind.

7. Time Management

• Using time and resources effectively.
• Prioritising things into right order.
• Balancing priorities – theirs and mine.
• Leaving on time – self management.
• Improving planning – finding the time to plan.
• Reducing time wasters.
• Dealing with interruptions.
• Avoiding procrastination.
• Setting goals.
• Getting a better work-life balance.
• Managing stress.
• Reducing overtime but still doing the required training.

8. Delegation

• Improving my delegation – delegating more rather than doing it myself.
• Trusting the people you delegate to.
• Ensuring the person you have delegated to has the same priorities.
• Delegating to peers and upwards.
• Identifying what to delegate and overcoming beliefs why I shouldn’t delegate.

From my experience, people usually know the answer to their problem. They just need to hear themselves say it. Sharing ideas and challenging self-limiting beliefs will bring invaluable insights. My recommendation is to find the time to have regular in-depth talks with your managers about their key concerns. You can then support them in resolving these. It is truly time well spent.

For further information, please contact us.

Also published on Medium.