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

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.

Proudfoot Consulting‘s Productivity Survey for 2007 (PDF, 3.1MB) shows that in the UK 33.3% of the time spent in work is unproductive. Taking into account that they estimate that the optimum ‘labour utilisation’ time is considered to be 85% this means that UK businesses are wasting just over 18% of working hours.

Here’s what they say about the reason:

“Whatever business you’re in, pay particular attention to the calibre and capabilities of those who directly supervise frontline workers. Poor worker supervision has always been a prominent reason for wasted working time in our Business Reviews and in the last two years has risen to become the dominant factor.”

That’s just short of a day a week, then, lost to poor supervision. Not good practice in any circumstance but in the current economic climate, potentially disastrous.

Before we explore this issue further I should point out that this report is based on research of large businesses (with turnover in excess of £100m). Clearly, managing staff in a smaller business can be very different. For example, there’s less likelihood of there being a long ‘chain of command’ and it’s clearly more difficult for staff members in a small enterprise to be unproductive, at least intentionally.

However, I’d say it’s worth all businesses, whatever the size, periodically taking a critical look at how they manage their staff.

Here are a few questions you can use to assess your people management practices (based on my model of effective people management):

1. Are your staff crystal clear on what’s expected of them? Have you described and agreed what good performance looks like for their job? Are these agreed descriptions written as performance standards or objectives?
2. Do you monitor your staff’s actual performance against the standards or objectives on an ongoing basis? Are your staff involved in monitoring their own performance?
3. Do you and your staff review together their performance on a regular basis (every three months is standard good practice)? Do you give them objective, evidence- based feedback? Do you agree on areas of outstanding performance and how these can be built upon? Do you identify and agree any areas of improvement?
4. Do you discuss your staff’s job satisfaction with them so that you can, together, develop ways to maintain or enhance their satisfaction?

Do you now feel like having a lie down?

I do know this all sounds like an awful lot of work and it certainly does take some time commitment to manage your staff effectively. However, research does demonstrate again and again that not only does effective people management positively impact productivity and business performance but it also positively impacts your staff’s job satisfaction.

A win for the business, a win for your staff and not nearly as hard as it sounds with the right tools and techniques.

Here she talks about her experience of working with me, the impact it has had on her staff’s performance and, importantly, the impact it has had on her confidence and wellbeing.

Over to Sara….

Taking the right steps with Ladder Consulting

I am the kind of person that finds it easier just to do it myself instead of relying on my staff to do the work. What that means for me is that I am always overworked and tired. What it means for my staff is that they are not challenged and I tend to go through staff without really knowing why.

I met Joan through my business (she’s a member of the gym I own) and one day I happened to mention that I was having staffing issues and she asked me how I managed my staff. I said ‘what do you mean manage my staff? At this point I am just happy that they show up for work.’ And to be honest they are very reliable in that aspect of working for me!

Joan suggested that we meet outside of my place of business and discuss some steps I could take to improve my situation.

I have had different kinds of managers throughout my varied career; micro managers that watch every thing I do; selfish managers that never seem to be there for the staff.

I wanted to be the kind of boss that staff respected and wanted to be a part of my team. So therefore I set out to befriend my staff and let them pretty much do their own thing as long as the job was getting done. But as I said earlier, that meant that I was left to do most of the work.

After my first meeting with Joan I asked her to work with me to help improve the situation. Through the consulting sessions with her I learned that although I was friends with my staff, I did not expect anything from them. I had no set performance standards for my staff so they really did not know what was expected from them. I had staff that gave me exactly what I asked for — nothing!

So with Joan’s help, we designed performance standards that were clear and quantifiable. I started by listing all the duties that I wanted my staff to perform. Joan helped me to categorise and word them in a way that enabled me to communicate to my staff exactly what is expected of them. The performance standards also allow me to evaluate my staff in a professional manner.

Joan coached me through the first meeting where I presented these performance standards to my staff and truly helped me to clearly communicate and engage with them. I had immediate positive feedback from my staff and even enthusiasm for the job they needed to do.

Our workplace is a more positive and fun place to work. Everyone is clear on what is expected of them and the work is now getting done by the people who should be doing the work — my staff.

I am less tired and stressed and I finally feel I am building confidence in myself as a manager.

Would you like to achieve some of the results Sara has achieved? You can trial, for free, a tele-consulting session with Joan.

Contact me and I will send you details of how the sessions work, what you can expect to achieve and how to book a session.

Related posts

• Are you clear on what you want from the people you manage? Are they?
• Managing by numbers is easy — but how do I manage behaviours?