As it’s nearing year end, the time is right for us to talk about performance evaulations, and how we can now whether we, as slacker managers, were successful or unsuccessful in our year’s efforts.
Here’s a list of 5 habits of highly successful slacker managers. To me, slacker managers are those managers that are the most productive and work the smartest, not the hardest. That’s the essence of slacker management.
Do only what needs to be done by you – If you can find a way to focus on what’s really important, each and every day, you can be a GREAT slacker manager. Better still, if you can do what’s important, and that only YOU can do, every day, you can be most effective and get the most done with the least amount of resistance.
Link your firm’s goals, to your department’s goals, to your team’s goals, to your goals, to your associate’s goals, and share the links with your team – I’m currently a VP of information technology at a regional financial services company. Our firm’s primary goal is to provide the best financial advice to our clients, and to be the best place to work. As an IT department, our 2 big goals are to take client service to the next level and to create a great environment to work in. My team’s most important goals are to make every experience with customers as positive as we can, and to have fun together, and to remember that quality, not quantity, is our measure of success. My personal goal is to make my team the best team to work at in our firm, and to handle each escalation with care, and to create a personalized best place to work for each associate. Each person on my team sets personal goals to become the best customer service and IT professional they can be, to fully contribute to our team environment, and to create great customer service experiences for every client that we talk to. Which reminds me: I need to remind my team of this next week at our team meeting.
Help your people reach their goals, even if it means growing into another department – People want to do what they are interested in. They may want to attend classes and grow in a direction other than on your team. Don’t just support them; help them grow into their next role, hopefully on another team in your firm. What better way to grow a great team than to show folks that you can work anywhere in your great company if they do a great job for you? Sure, it may temporarily weaken your team because you have to find a new person, but these folks get planted like seeds around the firm, to talk about how important YOUR TEAM is to the rest of the firm.
Focus on your, and your team’s, strengths, and find ways to partner with those who can fill in the gaps – David Zinger, the other half of the Slacker Manager team, is far more of an expert in strengths based leadership, though I’ve studied more than enough to be dangerous. I’ll share this: If you can find ways to do more of which gives you strength, and less of what makes you weak, you’ll have way more fun at work and do a better job at what you do every day. And if you can find someone who loves what you loathe, give it to them and let them do it, so you both can get stronger and enjoy your job, and your life, a whole lot more.
Don’t be afraid to fail; be afraid to stop trying to succeed – I have tried more than my share of things that didn’t work in my management career. I read my team a book about dog poop (didn’t quite work the way I wanted it to), I’ve asked my team to create a mini-float for a FISH! competition (spray paint in cubicles on the 26th floor of an enclosed office building is a great way to send your team home sick), and countless other things I’ve managed to forget. But I’ve also empowered my team to make their own schedule, create their own personal development plan, schedule formal one-on-one meetings only as often as they feel they need them, allow them to create templates for frequently asked questions and problems, create and improve our knowledge base, establish an employee welcome wagon for new hires, and award each other as the associate of the month. A few swings and misses, but far more hits than even I had expected. The things I “mandated” never worked out, while the things they suggested they’ve committed to and done amazingly well.
What about you? What are YOUR recommended habits of highly successful slacker managers? How do you work smarter, not harder? How do you get your team more fully engaged?
[Phil Gerbyshak enjoys failing forward and helping his team achieve great new heights, by working together to understand their goals and achieve more than they could alone.]
Phil,
Good post and you know I love the focus on strengths!!!!!
David
David – your strength is strengths, no doubt about it.