Know Thyself as a Manager

Blogger Phil Clark posted a great blog titled Communications Made Simple. In it he lists 4 questions a manager should ask him/herself daily which are:

1. Does the person know the critical duties of their job?
2. Do they know what my (the manager) priorities are?
3. Have I let the employee know if they are doing the job correctly?
4. Do the employees know what I look for in successful performance?

He has a very good point. All too often I see managers assume their staff knows exactly what to do, how to do it and when it's got to be done for. That is not the case. In one organization where a staff survey was implemented and analyzed the staff stated that in many cases they didn't even know who some of their managers were. I kid you not! When asked who their direct managers reported to in their department, branch, etc they couldn't answer. That alone should send a signal.

I wonder if the survery was redone, if the results would be different?

Managers need to pay attention. Often they don't see some staffers are about to burn out, are up to their eyeballs in work with no relief in sight or are doing things that are no longer a priority. At the very least, they need to know enough so they can determine whether or not some of the work is redundant and speak to their managers about redefining priorities.

If they know what their managers' priorites are, then you can be certain they'll know whether what they're doing is in alignment with that or not. That one answer alone will save a lot of people a great deal of grief, wasted time and energy, not to mention money to the organization.

Have you asked your staff these questions?

Best..

Donna Karlin

*Note: Welcome new subcriber from The Republic of Tanzania. 114 countries and counting!