Being a manager today is a difficult task. With all the craziness around remote work, it has only intensified and makes it more difficult to be effective and successful. Here are two observations.

First, we use the label loosely. “Manager” as a title is different from manager as a function. You can manage regardless of your title. And you can hold the title of Manager without managing effectively.

Second, most managers don’t fully manage. Most managers get the promotion primarily due to their technical competence and years of experience. There really isn’t much required in demonstrating other factors, such as the ability to delegate or to create a motivating environment.

Four Functions

Here are four functions of a complete manager. All are important. All are necessary.

1. Manager as performer. Managers must demonstrate that they are good, hard workers. They are able to apply the law, code and regulation to specific client situations and much attention is paid to learning the ropes. It’s an import one, but not the only one.
2. Manager as producer. Managers must get results, usually noted in producing accurate and timely deliverables. They show competence and dependability.
3. Manager as motivator. While no one can motivate someone else, managers must create motivational environments for their people. Since everyone is different, managers seek out ways to create settings that are appropriate for their individual staff.
4. Manager as coach. Helping workers to develop disciplines and routines is an often-missed opportunity to fully manage. Younger staff usually struggle with assessing priorities, their time and good decisions. Complete managers know how to develop their staff into high performing professionals.

Most mangers do a couple of these four functions really well. That’s how they got to where they are. It’s the remaining functions where they stumble from being great managers.

Two Concerns

In my partner and manager coaching, I often hear two comments about their manager style that are unsettling. One is that they manage in a hands-off fashion. That preference is fine with more proven or achievement-oriented staff, but unfortunate for the staff who need more interaction, have questions or need direction. And being too far away from the engagement’s progress is always detriment.

Another comment is that they manage by always knowing what’s going on with every engagement. It sounds admirable to be able to speak specifically at any time about where every engagements is, but sometimes is overplayed to becoming a micromanager. That’s unfortunate for the staff who have earned the right to be trusted to get their work done without constant oversight.

Be Complete

The complete manager knows the engagement requirements, their time constraints and the needs of their staff, and then adjust their managerial approach accordingly. Rather than wanting everyone to cater to their preferences, the complete manager also accommodates the needs of the entire situation.

Being a manager is difficult. Being a complete manager requires even more diligence. Strive to be a complete manager.

The post The Complete Manager appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

You may not be aware that this week is National Sleep Awareness Week. Since 1998, the celebration begins with Daylight Savings Time (March 14 this year). It recognizes the impact of sleep (or lack of) on our mood and performance. And there is plenty of research on this important topic.

Why Manage Your Sleep

For instance, Nick vanDam, Chief Learning Officer at McKinsey, writes, “The frontal part of the neocortex, the prefrontal cortex, directs what psychologists call executive functioning, including all the higher-order cognitive processes, such as problem solving, reasoning, organizing, inhibition, planning, and executing plans. These help us get things done.”

Did you ever consider that you may be letting your clients and our team down when you are sleep deprived? They are depending on you to think clearly, make good judgments and solve problems. If you don’t take care of your sleep requirements, you won’t bring your best self—the one that your clients pay for.

How To Manage Your Sleep

Like other aspects of your life that you have to manage (time, priorities, energy, interruptions, etc), you must manage your sleep effectively. If you don’t do it, who do you think will?

Make sure you get enough quality sleep. Here are some tried and true suggestions that are very effective.

1. Create a definite stop. When you decide to stop, STOP. Don’t linger on with checking email, voicemail and other things that delay the stop. STOP.
2. Give yourself a “power down” period. It doesn’t have to be long, but it helps if it is consistent. Literally, power down: slow your breathing, slow your thoughts and physically relax.
3. Don’t pressure yourself. If your body or mind won’t immediately cooperate, talk to yourself. “I see you’re not quite ready to power down. That’s ok. I’ve got some time. Just relax.” All the while, focus on powering down.

These steps aren’t novel. You’ve probably heard them before. Now it’s a matter of doing them because your sleep is essential to your professional contributions and your career enjoyment.

The post Don’t Forget To Manage Your Sleep appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

Four Stressors

As a result of the pandemic of 2020, you’ve had to adapt your work arrangement—where you work, the way you work and the way you relate to your coworkers. Gone are the chats in the break room, in-person mentoring and general camaraderie. For the most part, you have lost the ability to connect with your colleagues and work in a more normal fashion. Stressor number one.

Aside from having to make work and social adjustments, the pandemic has taken a turn in the wrong direction. Infections and deaths are spiking and there is no end in sight. Each day is worse than the day before. And the virus variants only make life more on edge. Stressor number two.

Add to that the undercurrent of social unrest and political strife. People are on edge and wondering what will happen next. It feels very chaotic and out of control. There is a significant divide in our country that seems unresolvable. Stressor number three.

Finally, the holiday season that you usually rely on to relax, restore and recharge was turned on its end. You had to make adjustments that hindered your normal celebration traditions. As a result, you are entering the new year and the spring season without being fully charged. Stressor number four.

Individually, each stressor is enough to throw you off balance. Collectively, they can easily put you at risk. The danger is that you are more susceptible to a sinking attitude and general malaise that can overwhelm you. Entering the season already stressed and partially exhausted could have you running out of steam more quickly than you expect.

Stress Relievers

I just completed a series of leadership training courses for senior associates, supervisors, managers and senior managers. As an opening exercise for each class, I asked about their New Year’s resolutions and 2021 goals. I was pleased to hear so many report of their desire to take on routines and practices that emphasize healthy living. Their aspirations were physical (diet, exercise and sleep) psychological (unplugging, connecting with friends) and spiritual (morning routines for focus, gratitude and meaning). I also asked about their feeling of readiness and, on a scale of 1 (poor) to 6 (energized), most indicated they were at a 3 or 4. Not very encouraging.

So I write this Message and the next couple of Messages to implore you to be attentive to your health. You are the only one who can protect yourself and your choices, routines and personal rules for living well are more important than ever.

As you enter the new year and prepare for the work demands of the spring season, pay attention to your health. Practice the things that you know that are good for you and act before you begin to wane. This is a time to protect yourself from being at risk.

The post You May Be At Risk appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

Some tend to get defensive (no I don’t), resistant (not that big a deal) or skeptical (I’ll take it under advisement). A few go so far as to agree and accept what they hear but do nothing with it. I’m always interested to observe how individuals respond to the feedback they get because it says volumes about who they are and their likelihood of accelerating their development.

People who give you feedback, especially corrective (vs confirming) are going out on a limb. They are telling you something that will make you better or more effective. They are giving you a gift that you should accept with appreciation and gratitude, not sling it back at them with resentment.

Feedback is especially important (and more scarce) the longer you’re in the profession. People are less willing to tell you things that they assume you’ve already heard before but have decided not to act on. This is one of the reasons why seasoned professionals have executive coaches.

In the end, it’s a balancing act where you are constantly having to expand your capabilities. You must balance when to be competitive with being cooperative; when to go the extra mile without being taken advantage of; doing it on your own with asking for help and being driven with being patient.

And you have to accept hard-to-hear feedback without taking it personally.

So, how do you respond to feedback? Do people experience you as welcoming to their insights? Do they sense that you are appreciative? Do you make it easier the next time for them to tell you more of what they see? Your response to their feedback says it all.

The post Your Response To Feedback appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

From my experience, there are three areas where you may be particularly vulnerable to having your enjoyment diminished. Your ability to manage them reflect your resilience—your ability to endure difficult situations and recover quickly from them.

For instance, when you’re stressed, you become more aware of things that are not perfect (defined as the way you think they ought to be). For instance, in every firm, there are inequities. Under stress, you become acutely aware that there are some things that are unfair, unjust or not right. Rather than magnify them, are you able to maintain a proper perspective?

Another is when you are so focused on the volume, compressed time and deadlines before you that you forget about other important work, relationships and taking care of yourself. Are you able to retain a balanced life in the midst of your stress?

A third is when you become frustrated when you are directed to do things using old processes, old technology and old practices that you know are antiquated. Under stress, they really wear on you. Are you able to keep your frustration in check and work through it?

I’m not suggesting you let these things go or simply settle for status quo. You owe it to yourself and your firm to take appropriate action. Just don’t be led to believe that you have a dissatisfying or intolerable situation, when you really don’t. It’s not perfect—nothing is. So don’t be deluded into thinking it should be. You’re not settling when you let go of “perfect” and enjoy what you really have.

The post Your Resilience Will Carry You appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

So why does Ford invest so heavily in its best model instead of directing resources toward improving a lagging model? After all, they are already the best. Seems like they should try to get another model to the same status. But that’s old-school thinking—identify what you’re not very good at and bring it up to par.

It’s the same thinking that all professionals should be good at everything. But the research and practice over the last few decades has clearly indicated that, even if you improve something at which you aren’t very good, you will never be the best. So it would be better to concentrate your efforts where you can be really good and move that needle there.

For instance, if you aspire to be a strong business developer, you are likely to not devote the effort to deepen your technical knowledge. You would rather invest in developing relationships and finding business opportunities. If you really enjoy serving clients, you may be more interested in developing staff instead of marketing. The point is that you should aspire to be excellent in a couple of areas and competent in other important areas. If you’re a duck, let the rabbits do the running and you do the swimming. This approach allows you to practice YOUR way and enjoy your career. And in the end, that’s what it is all about.

Clarify where you should concentrate your efforts and set your development and results goals accordingly.

The post Set Goals For You appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

So, if your success and glow were so fulfilling, why aren’t you at your best more often? Why is your normal so common, even though you really enjoy when you are your best?

In performance management, we know that there are 3 primary areas that contribute to the gap between your normal and your best. When you pay attention to all three, your chances to be your best greatly increase.

First, your focus. Determine your priorities and when you will work on them, undeterred by other noise, distractions and other stuff to do. It’s a challenge but necessary.

Second, your attitude. How often do you check your attitude? Do you catch yourself complaining and whining? Since your attitude isn’t directly related to the immediate situation (unless you choose it to be that way), you should remember that you actually enjoy the important work you do and resist being dissuaded to feel otherwise.

Third, your results. Not just barely getting by, but taking pride in what you produce. You know what it takes to be excellent. Don’t leave it to someone else to fill in the voids when you should be making the effort to do so yourself.

These 3 areas are what separate your normal from your best. Be your best more often and raise the bar on your normal. For this week, if you were going to select one that would close the gap, which would it be? Are you willing to raise the bar on your normal, not only today, but from here on out? If you’re still unsure, remember a time when you performed at your best…

The post Normal From Your Best appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

While the goal is to prevent stress before it overtakes you, sometimes it sneaks up on you like a sarcastic answer to a stupid question. So what do you do when you’re in the middle of a cortisol takeover?

There are numerous ways of lowering a stress-induced onslaught, but probably the most effective is the power of humor. Laughing not only is the best way to reduce stress, but also to increase your grit (stick-to-it-ness). If you can laugh, you can endure just about anything. So increase the humor in your life. A smile please?

1. Allow yourself to laugh. When you’re stressed, you don’t permit yourself the luxury to see and hear humor, even when it’s staring you in the eye. When you read that the military special ops teams use humor to keep them from getting wigged out, whatever you’re doing doesn’t even come close. Let loose and chuckle.

2. Look for what is humorous. Walk through your office and look at everyone hunkered down, focused and…STRESSED. You’d think they were about the business of curing cancer or preventing nuclear war. Laughing requires you to veer from intense, focused attention, giving your mind a chance to get a grip. When you return to the task at hand, you are better prepared to engage it with renewed energy and perspective.

In the end, stress is simply a red light on your dashboard. When it blinks, it is a reminder that it’s time to laugh. And if you think this message wasn’t worth reading, it is probably an indication that you need to read it again. And smile this time.

The post Stress Is Your Red Light appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

As I always do, I asked them why leaders in general are so poor about offering confirming feedback. I heard all the reasons you can imagine, some of which you use: don’t think about it, too busy, not your style, etc.

I realize that focusing on what’s wrong is the way you were trained: find a problem and solve it. But this approach is ineffective with people. Confirming feedback is essential to sustain what you want. Think back to your psychology 101 class and remember that the best way to extinct behavior in lab rats is to ignore it. They learn quickly to let go of unrecognized behavior in place of behavior that gets them what they want.

Now, I’m not comparing your people to lab rats, although there may be more similarities than you care to admit. But the lesson is clear: you have to reinforce the behavior you want from your people. I’m not talking about giving out trophies because someone comes to work on time three days in a row. I am talking about recognizing the behavior and actions you want to see again.

“I really like how you think through a situation before you ask me for help.”
“When you say you will get something to me by a certain date, it’s nice to know I can count on you.”
“You do a nice job taking the time to work with the first-year staffers.”

And it goes both ways.
“Thanks for taking a few moments to help me through this. Now I know what I need to do.”
“I know you don’t always have time, but I like it when you give me immediate feedback.”
“Thanks for introducing me to this client. It helps me know put a face with an engagement.”

No more excuses. If you leave this week without giving 15 confirming comments (that’s 3 a day), you aren’t leading.

The post Go Ahead. Tell Them. appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.

But when you have to negotiate hills, turns and traffic, you’re a disaster. You can’t stay in your lane because you don’t anticipate the curves ahead and react only when you are already in them. The kicker is that it’s not so much a problem for you because you eventually find your lane. But you irritate those around you because you didn’t anticipate and adjust to the different conditions.

The same is true with how you serve your clients. Don’t assume that once the project or engagement has been set in place and agreements have been signed, it’s going to go the way it is planned. So you chug along as if the road will remain straight all the way to the end. Did you forget that clients live in constant change and are pressured to adjust? You can be sure that their adjustments will definitely affect you.

You have to constantly evaluate the landscape. What has changed or been altered since you last talked or since the scope was defined? It is safe to assume something has. That’s why you should do things like open your meetings with a context statement: “This meeting was scheduled to review 2 things—your overhead rate factors and your personal plane financing. Which would you like to look at first?”

If you assume that the priority today is what it was the last time you met and you prepare accordingly, you run the risk of appearing to emphasize the wrong thing, confirming that you are unable to keep up with them.

This week, for every client interaction, use the opportunity to demonstrate your competence in your ability to anticipate and negotiate the twists and turns your clients put before you. You know…be a good driver.

The post Be A Good Driver appeared first on Partners Coach by Guy Gage.