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Directing Others

Practice: Clarity and Direction as a Manager

Four strategies can help you improve communication, helping you to communicate for clarity and direction.

Being positive

What to do:

  • be courteous
  • make personal connections
  • provide positive reinforcement
  • discourage negativity

What not to do:

  • tolerate negativity, including gossip
  • be dismissive, disinterested, disrespectful, or oblivious

Seeking and providing feedback

What to do:

  • solicit feedback
  • provide feedback

What not to do:

  • get defensive or angry

Keeping employees in the loop

What to do:

  • explain changes and decisions
  • be open, honest, and candid
  • tell the truth
  • share information

What not to do:

  • be vague, evasive, or avoid answering questions
  • fail to clearly explain changes and decisions
  • share secret or discreet information

Listening actively

What to do:

  • give your full attention
  • check for understanding
  • paraphrase or restate
  • use open-ended questions
  • listen for feelings
  • summarize

What not to do:

  • interrupt
  • fail to pick up on nonverbal signs
  • judge, dismiss, or ignore feelings
Communicating for Clarity and Direction as a Manager

Would you be surprised to learn that management studies indicate that 50% to 80% of a manager's time is dedicated to communicating in some way? Clearly, the ability to communicate effectively is an integral part of being a manager.

Consistent use of four communication strategies will promote effective communication and help you do a better job directing others:

  • being positive
  • seeking and providing feedback
  • keeping employees in the loop, and
  • listening actively

Never underestimate the importance of being positive. It can provide a couple of impressive benefits – a more positive attitude toward work and an increase in productivity among your employees.

There are several aspects to being positive:

  • providing positive reinforcement – Giving praise for a job well done or offering encouragement and support as employees complete tasks are ways you can provide positive reinforcement.
  • being courteous – Saying "please" and "thank you" demonstrates respect and helps keep communication positive. Also, be prepared to apologize when necessary. Being courteous is a great way to demonstrate respect and encourage positive relationships and working environments.
  • making personal connections – Inquiring about your employees' work or following up on a previous conversation shows interest and helps you make personal connections. A brief e-mail, phone call, or conversation is all it takes to demonstrate interest and create positive relationships.
  • discouraging negativity – Another way to encourage a positive environment is by discouraging negativity when you encounter it. For instance, don't tolerate gossip, complaining, and negative talk.

Seeking and providing feedback

Seeking and providing feedback is an effective way to improve communication. And the better a team's ability to communicate, the better its chances of success. An environment supportive of open communication can help and will ultimately improve your ability to direct your team.

Improving communication is your responsibility. So a logical place to start is with your own ability. Seek feedback from your employees and colleagues about your ability to communicate.

Ask them questions like, "Am I clear?", "How could I improve?", and "Do you have any suggestions?" Extend your queries to include the team and organization, and you'll solicit feedback that can be used to improve communication throughout the organization.

Keeping employees in the loop

Being positive and seeking and providing feedback are the first two strategies for communicating for clarity and direction. Keeping employees in the loop is the third strategy. When you have to make a decision or a change that affects your team, it's important that you're open and provide an explanation for why you did what you did. When others understand your rationale, they're more likely to trust and support you.

A couple of pointers will help guide your efforts when you're explaining decisions and changes in order to keep your employees in the loop:

  • always tell the truth – First, always tell the truth. Getting caught in a lie is the surest way to lose the respect of your employees and to damage your credibility. Be truthful and candid in all your exchanges. When you don't know something, say so.
  • share appropriate information – Second, share only appropriate information. For instance, as a manager you may be privy to information such as individual salaries, details of yet-to-be-announced business deals or projects, and client information that you shouldn't share. When discretion or secrecy is necessary, say nothing at all, rather than lying about what you do know

In addition to being truthful and sharing only appropriate information, you should take care to be open and candid. If you're vague or evasive, your employees will question your truthfulness and feel disrespected, and you may lose trust and support. All of this will make it harder for your team to be successful.

Listening actively

Listening actively is a crucial component of communicating for clarity and direction. Active listening provides two very useful benefits – you'll gather more information and build a positive rapport with the other person.

You can be more effective and productive by making an effort to listen actively. Active listening involves giving your full attention, checking for understanding, listening for feelings, and summarizing what you hear.

Always give your full attention to the other person. This demonstrates that you are interested in and value what the person has to say.

As you listen, it's imperative that you don't interrupt. You'll gather more information and gain a better understanding if you wait until the person has finished speaking to respond.

You can check for understanding by restating or paraphrasing what you've heard in your own words. Aside from making sure you properly understand what you're being told, this offers an opportunity for the other person to elaborate or correct misunderstandings.

As you listen to what's being said, also "listen" for feelings. Do this by paying careful attention to body language. Watch for gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements that also convey information. Listen to tone of voice and consider choice of words and changes in delivery, such as hesitation or excitement.

When the conversation is over, summarize the important details of the message. This is an important final step – it provides one more chance to demonstrate interest and gives the speaker another chance to verify and clarify the message, if necessary.

Communication is a huge part of your role as a manager. You're responsible for improving communication on your team. Remember, teams that communicate well achieve better results than teams that don't. Given this fact, you'll want to do whatever you can to encourage good communication. Effective use of the four communicating strategies will help you improve your team's ability to communicate. Being positive, seeking and providing feedback, keeping employees in the loop, and listening actively will help you build an open environment where you can effectively communicate for clarity and direction.

Organizing as a Management Function

The purpose of management in any type of organization is to make sure available resources are used most efficiently in the pursuit of goals. Organizing is one managerial function that helps ensure resources are used efficiently.

For the purposes of this course, organizing is defined as the process used by managers to define the task and team relationships that help employees work together to achieve goals. As you direct others, efficient use of resources is your responsibility. Organizing your team's efforts will help make the best use of resources as your team pursues its objectives. Generally, the better organized an effort is, the better the results will be. Continuous and consistent organizing can provide you with some benefits that encourage an organized effort and, therefore, are important considerations in your management function.

The structured and clear approach to work that comes from being organized is also important because it promotes efficient use of resources. In Frank's case, had the advice come at the beginning of the instructions, he would've made better use of his time and avoided frustration.

Managers who are efficient at organizing their teams or departments set a good example for their employees. If you're organized, your direct reports will strive to approach work in an organized way too. And the more organized everyone is, the better the outcome. This is just one more reason being organized is important.

The final reason organizing is important is that it pleases clients. Aside from demonstrating your commitment to your managerial role, organized effort typically generates better results. And being recognized for success is a definite career booster.

Organizing: Typical actions

So, how should you go about organizing? You create a structured approach to work that establishes how your team members will work together to achieve their objectives.

This structured approach to work is a formal system of tasks, processes, and work relationships.

The organizing function of defining the structure involves two key actions:

  1. identifying what's necessary – You must identify the activities, tasks, and resources necessary to achieve objectives. Defining the tasks and processes to be used to get work done provides clear direction as your team works to accomplish objectives. This includes the allocation of financial resources. Properly organized, your team will always have the resources it needs, when it needs them, to achieve objectives.
  2. allocating authority and responsibility – You must also allocate authority and responsibility for the work to be done by defining working relationships. This will help the team work efficiently and involves establishing who's responsible for what and who has authority for making decisions.

Organizing is an ongoing effort that occurs at all levels of an organization. As you organize for your team, other managers are organizing for their teams. Organizing at the company, unit, department, and team levels has a common focus – making sure resources are used efficiently as objectives and goals are achieved.

Because businesses are ever-changing, the structures created need to be flexible. This will help you respond to changes that occur, allowing your team to change or grow as necessary to meet objectives. The primary purpose of the structure is to direct the efforts of others, and they can't follow what they don't know. You need to make sure the structure is clearly communicated to all your employees.

As a manager, you're responsible for the organizing function, which results in the establishment of a formal system or structure to guide your team's work. As you work to establish the structure, you identify the activities, tasks, and resources necessary to achieve objectives. You also create authority and responsibility relationships. Both are necessary to guide how work will be accomplished in your department or on your team. The guiding principle of organizing is to make efficient use of resources while working to achieve objectives.

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