‘ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR’

1. Demonstrates the ability to clearly explain their thoughts and opinions

2. Expresses thoughts and opinions using ‘first person’ language

3. Verbally distinguishes between fact and opinion

4. Articulates the reasoning behind their thoughts and opinions

5. Seeks to understand the thoughts and opinions of others by asking open questions, using

probing questions to achieve clarity

6. Demonstrates understanding of the other persons thoughts and opinions by reflecting

back their understanding and summarising

7. Identifies and expresses what they see as differences of opinion and checks that others

agree

8. Seeks ideas for solutions from others

9. Offers solutions

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavioural Performance Objectives’ http://www.10mmt.com/e-books/ A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

DEALING WITH REQUESTS

1. Asks questions to fully understand the request to ensure clarity about: 

• The size and complexity of the task i.e. the level of detail / accuracy needed, how much research needs undertaking, what the ‘end product’ should look like e.g. a two page summary or a full report?
• The deadline – when, specifically, the task needs to be completed 
• The  importance of the task and deadline

 2. Uses relevant facts in order to make a decision on whether to accept or decline the request e.g.

• The time needed to complete the work vs. the time available to meet the deadline
• The time needed to complete work on hand of equal importance
• The relative urgency / importance of other work on hand

 3. Assesses the consequence, or cost, of accepting the request as a way of deciding whether to accept or decline e.g.

• The new task would take 2 hours (fact)
• The task I am currently working on will take 4 hours and must be completed by 5pm (fact)
• The task I am currently working on has the highest priority (fact)
• To take on the new task now would mean I would miss the 5pm deadline on the current task (consequence)

 4. When refusing a request, explains that decision to the other party by

• Explaining the difficulty in meeting the request and why – using the objective criteria.
• Explaining what the (negative) consequences would be of accepting the request.
• Explaining that they are unable to accept the request

 5. If appropriate, looks for some compromise solution e.g.

• Offering to accept the work – but with a longer deadline
• Offering to accept part of the work
• Offering ideas on how the work could be completed by someone else

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

CLIENT SERVICING

1. Demonstrates a breadth and depth of knowledge of our services / products

2. Applies sound professional practices (as agreed / set down in …)

3. Provides advice which peers / manager would consider appropriate

4. Produces accurate advice / strategic plans that address the client’s needs

5. Gains the confidence of the client by demonstrating that the advice given has been accepted and applied

6. Applies a range of strategies which have contributed to developing long-term relationships with clients

7. Demonstrates a full understanding of the clients business

8. Effectively uses time and resources so that commitments made to the client are achieved and deadlines met

9. Client feedback reflects a high level of satisfaction     

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavioural Performance Objectives’ http://www.10mmt.com/e-books/ A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

 ‘ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR’

 1. Demonstrates the ability to clearly explain their thoughts and opinions

2. Expresses thoughts and opinions using ‘first person’ language

3. Verbally distinguishes between fact and opinion

4. Articulates the reasoning behind their thoughts and opinions

5. Seeks to understand the thoughts and opinions of others by asking open questions, using probing questions to achieve clarity

6. Demonstrates understanding of the other persons thoughts and opinions by reflecting back their understanding and summarising

7. Identifies and expresses what they see as differences of opinion and checks that others agree

8. Seeks ideas for solutions from others

9. Offers solutions

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavioural Performance Objectives’ http://www.10mmt.com/e-books/ A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

My view is that it’s useful for staff to have a more structured approach for evaluating processes and that SWOT can help with that. Here is the outcome of the work I did with those managers (using the example of the evaluation of a new system).

Strengths

What do you think works well with the system?

What have been the benefits of using the system?

What does this system give the customers?

How does it help you reduce waste, increase efficiency, improve quality of service?

How has the system improved the way you work?

Weaknesses

Is there anything that doesn’t work well?

Are there any weaknesses in the system?

Have you encountered any problems or impediments?

Is there anything you don’t think adds value?

Are customers saying there’s a problem?

Opportunities

What needs to be improved?

How could we do that?

What are we missing that could work well?

How can we overcome the weaknesses?

Threats

Is there anything outside the team / unit that is having a negative impact on the effectiveness of the system – that’s threatening its effectiveness?

In what ways could we mitigate that threat?

A start point is to give your staff member time and support in preparing for the meeting. How?

Take a look at this checklist that you could use with your staff member to help them prepare:

PERFORMANCE REVIEW / APPRAISAL CHECKLIST – STAFF MEMBER

In order to prepare for our performance review/appraisal meeting I’d like you to consider the following:

1. Your performance against the agreed objectives

Please bring examples of work which demonstrates your achievement of the objectives:

• Identifying achievements and successes
• Identifying areas for improvement
• Highlighting any barriers to performance
• Including examples of special projects or work done ‘above and beyond’ the objectives

2. Review of performance objectives

Please consider:

• Any changes facing the team or business that will require new performance objectives
• Any performance objectives that are no longer appropriate or need amending

3. Areas for development

Please consider any development needs you might have. These might relate to:

• Building on your strengths
• Addressing any areas requiring improvement
• Meeting future challenges

4. Your job satisfaction

Please consider the following questions:

• What gives you the most satisfaction in your work?
• How could we ensure you maintain or improve your satisfaction?
• Are there any other ways you and I could improve your job satisfaction?
• Is there anything I could do; more of, less of, or differently in order to improve your job satisfaction?

My advice is to take control of the ‘coaching process’ – to make it easy for your manager to provide the coaching you need. Here’s some ideas on how to do that.

Define the purpose of the coaching

A start point is to define the purpose of the coaching session i.e.:

• What you need to know or learn
• Why you need to know or learn this

It’s far easier for a manager to respond to a request which specifies what the person needs to know, rather than ‘can you give me some coaching’. It’s also more likely a manager will want to find the time for the coaching when they understand why it’s important.

Here’s an example:

Hi Claire. I wanted to ask you if you would have some time to talk through with me how you have built your network of contacts. I need some help on understanding how to identify contacts and how then to approach those people. I recognise I need to start building a network so that I can promote our business more effectively but I’m not sure where to start. Would you be happy to spend some time talking this through with me? When would be a good time for you?

Use effective questions

What and How questions

Seek to understand what another person does, or would do, in any given situation:

• How did you build your network of contacts?
• What do you do to identify suitable contacts?
• What happens when a person you contact doesn’t seem interested?
• How do you maintain the relationship with contacts you have made?

Why questions

Seek to understand the reasoning or rationale behind the actions the other person has taken or the decisions they have made.

Why questions need to be used with some caution. A questioner who overuses why is running the risk of pushing the other person into being evasive, aggressive or just uncooperative.

A more effective way to access the information or opinion needed is to re-phrase the question using what, how, or when or a statement made in a questioning tone of voice:

Instead of ‘Why did you do that?’ try ‘What’s the main reason you took that approach?’

Instead of ‘Why did you not follow up that contact?’ try ‘What were the reasons for not following up that particular contact?’

Instead of ‘Why do you say that?’ try ‘How does that…?’

Summarising and closing

It is useful at the end of the coaching session to summarise what you have heard, to check that you have fully understood, and to describe what you will now do as a result of the session. And, of course, you will also want to thank the person for their time and input.

Most managers are long on work and short on time. Though most would like to coach their staff more often they find it difficult to make this a priority. This technique is all about making it easy for your manager, or anybody else, to give you the coaching you need.

Some years ago I worked with the MD of a commercial publishing business. I had spent a day facilitating a business planning session with him and his senior management team. At the very end of the day, and apropos of nothing as far as I could see, he did the following:

1. Pushed back his chair onto two legs and opened his own legs, thereby elevating his crotch area to roughly the eye level of his team sitting opposite (I know this sounds unlikely, but he managed it).

2. Held out his arms and made ‘come on’ gestures with his hands (hold arms straight out, palms upwards, and flex fingers repeatedly towards palms – give it a try and you’ll see what I mean), frowned and then said:

“Feedback, now, from you to me. Tell me what you think of me.”

Stunned silence.

3. After the senior management team (sans delivery of feedback) had left, he said to me:

“D’you know. That always happens. Why don’t people ever want to give feedback to their managers?”

What’s the problem?

a) If you’ve managed to visualise the body language from my description, you’ll have noticed some pretty obvious lack of congruence between that body language and the verbal message. Clearly, there’s little point asking for feedback if your body language is screaming ‘don’t tell me, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.’

b) The ‘what do you think of me’ question is just too tough. With a question like this you are asking for feedback on yourself – your characteristics and personality. The ‘what do you think of me as your manager’ is a little better, but not much. Most people find it difficult to give this type of feedback because it’s just too personal.

So how can I ask for feedback on my management style?

The answer is make it easy (or at least easier) by making the question ‘low risk’. You do this by asking for feedback on your behaviours – what you do, not who you are.

Here’s a really neat way to ask for feedback from your staff:

“I’d really appreciate some feedback on the way I’m managing you. So, is there anything I could do differently that would be helpful to you?”

Not only are you asking here for behavioural feedback, you’re asking for a way forward by asking what they would like to be ‘different’.

And, of course, you’ll be using congruent body language because you’ll be genuinely interested in the response.

Here’s a quick and easy way to approach writing firm objectives.

Looking at each of the tangible elements of the job, ask the most relevant of the following questions:

1. How much / how many?
2. What’s the quality standard that needs to be achieved?
3. By when?

The key here is to describe specifically what you need the staff member to achieve.

So, for question one, rather than ‘improve sales’ you would write ‘improve sales by £2k per quarter’.

Question two may be about following procedure or guidelines, or related to some contract. So rather than ‘follow procedure’ you would have ‘follow the procedure for processing client requests as described in the client contract’.

For question three, this is about having a clear deadline. For example, ‘by 30th June’ or, if it’s an ongoing task, ‘within 3 days of receipt’.

Here are some more examples:

• To achieve a sales target of £25k each quarter
• To reduce error rates by 2% by 31st March
• To process claims with 100% accuracy
• To follow the data reporting procedure as laid down in the staff handbook
• To process customer requests within 3 days of receipt
• To complete the budget reports within 4 days of the month end

As ever, it’s all about achieving clarity. The clarity that motivates your staff to high performance.

It’s all about making that start!

Step one: identify the tasks

The first step is to identify the tasks that would be suitable for delegation.

1. Make a list of all the tasks you currently perform.
2. Delete from the list the tasks you must do yourself. These may be tasks which:
   • Are a requirement of your job which no one else can do
   • You are ‘legally’ responsible for carrying out
   • Only you have the expertise and experience for and it would be impossible or impractical to help your team members gain that expertise and experience.
3. The tasks that have not been deleted from the list are those that you potentially could delegate totally or partially.
4. Ask the question – which of these tasks, if delegated, will free up the most time, so that I can concentrate on those tasks only I can do?

Step two: identify the individual

The second step is to identify the individual who would be best suited to undertake the delegated task.

In identifying the individual you may want to use some of the following selection criteria:

• Spare capacity (i.e. they’ve got the time)
• Best fit – in job terms
• The team member has a special interest in the task
• The delegated task may help to meet a development need
• The team member already has the skills or knowledge to complete the task

Step three: identify the appropriate degree of delegation

At this step you should consider the aptitude and potential of the team member and decide upon the ‘degree’ of delegation:

Degree 1: full delegation

The team member takes over the task fully.

Degree 2: shared delegation

You and the team member share the task and agree who will be responsible for which parts. This is useful when the person is not ready to take full responsibility but can do elements of it now and learn others later.

Degree 3: contributory delegation

At this stage the team member is not ready to take on a large part of the task but may contribute to some part of the task.

Now you’ve got the what, the who, and how much in place – is it time to delegate?