How do you manage your boss?

As a manager, a huge part of your role is to be able to manage your team effectively, take responsibility for their development and wellbeing and get them onside to working towards a common goal. This of course starts with managing yourself. Effective leaders are, first of all, effective in managing themselves, their time, their focus and their emotions. But have you considered that you may also be responsible for managing your boss?

Manage your manager with confidence

Does analysis paralysis prevent you from managing effectively?

The ability to make decisions that are timely and powerful is a critical management skill; being overly contemplative and over-analysing a situation can be damaging as Shakespeare’s Hamlet would attest to.

So how do managers know that chosen decisions are the best ones and avoid falling into the trap of just “making a decision for the sake of it, because any decision is better than none?”

To help managers produce effective decisions there are a few simple rules:

Plan, plan, plan
A common error is reactive decision making - a situation that at best ends with a serendipitous result but more often with a poor outcome.  Planning allows for decisions to be made simply, comfortably and in an effective way.

Planning provides benefits to decisions:

• opportunity to establish independent goals through a conscious and directed series of choices
• a standard of measurement of whether there is movement towards or away from a desired result 
• finite (often limited) resources can be committed in a structured and orderly way

Do your research but avoid information overload 
Information overload can be defined as "a gap between the volume of information and the tools needed to assimilate it”; the more information overload, the worse the quality of decisions made. The overload of information can be related to problems processing and tasking, which impacts decision making.

• There are a number of factors concerning information overload and consideration of these may help focus information collection and processing:
• Personal Information characteristics - qualifications, experiences and attitudes 
• Information Characteristics - information quality, quantity and frequency 
• Tasks and Process - standardised procedures or methods for gathering information and undertaking work 
• Organisational Design - organisation processing capacity and relationship - both of which affect the ability to collect, assimilate and analyse information
• Information Technology - IT management, and general technology that assist with both collection and analysis

Keep decisions rational
It is often considered that people are rational, free to make their own decisions and therefore behave according to the rational choice theory - making decisions by determining the likelihood of a potential outcome, the value of the outcome and then multiplying the two. However, in reality, there are some factors that affect decision making abilities and cause people to make irrational decisions.

Cognitive and personal biases can lead to decisions being affected and it is therefore important to be aware, to understand and to reduce (or eliminate) these.

Some common biases in decision making include:

• Selective search for evidence – the tendency to be willing to gather facts that support certain conclusions but disregard other facts that support different conclusions 
• Premature termination –  the tendency to accept the first alternative that looks like it might work 
• Cognitive inertia – the unwillingness to change existing thought patterns in the face of new circumstances 
• Selective perception – screening out information considered unimportant 
• Wishful thinking – a tendency to want to see things in a positive light 
• Recency – the tendency to place more attention on more recent information and either ignore or forget more distant information 
• Repetition bias – the willingness to believe what one has been told most often and by the greatest number of different sources 

Use a logical approach
Within decision making, managers must consider a structured approach that ensures:

• Objectives are first established 
• Objectives are then classified and prioritised by importance 
• Alternative actions are developed 
• The alternative(s) are evaluated against all the objectives 
• The alternative that is able to achieve all the objectives is the tentative decision 
• The tentative decision is evaluated for more possible consequences 
• The decisive actions are taken together with any additional actions required to prevent any adverse consequences from becoming problems and re-starting both problem analysis and decision making.

Building effective decision making steps
Managers do not work in isolation in decision making and are most effective when working with the team when implementing the logical approach above. This enables a collaborative approach to developing the following steps - increasing awareness of and overcoming any possible social, cognitive and cultural obstacles along the way.

1. Establish team ethos -  creating and nurturing the relationships, norms, and procedures that will influence how situations are understood and communicated 
2. Increase group perception -  recognising that a situation exists that needs a decision exists 
3. Interpret - identifying competing explanations for the situation and evaluating the drivers behind those interpretations 
4. Judgment - sorting various possible actions or responses and determining which is more justifiable 
5. Motivation - examining the competing commitments and then prioritising and committing to team values/needs over other personal or social values 
6. Action - following through with action that supports the more justified decision 
7. Reflect on action

So, does analysis paralysis prevent effective management? It does – but following these rules will help to overcome potential decision making obstacles and prevent this scourge of the well managed organisation.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

How to Lead a Team and Gain Respect After Internal Promotion

Most of us start at the bottom of the career ladder and work our way up. We become so proficient at our job, earning respect of the management and becoming a valued member of the team. Eventually promotion is offered, usually within the same team and we can find ourselves leader of the team we were once part of. This does have its advantages, however, doesn't come without its problems.

New to Team Leadership

There is nothing that can gain respect more than people knowing that you have been there and done the job for yourself. You know the systems and procedures, what is expected and the problems that your team may encounter. You can see things from their point of view. This can be a great advantage when leading a team. You know when to cut the slack because of genuine difficulties, but you also know an excuse when you hear one.

The problems arise though when some of the team members may have been there much longer than you, may be older with more experience, or may feel that they were the ones that deserved the promotion. You may find it difficult to be assertive and to feel that you are taken seriously as a manager. Since you were once in their position, you will know how hard the job is and may feel guilty for enforcing deadlines.

So how can you gain respect from your team and get them to do what you need them to without them thinking that power has gone to your head?

Firstly, stop beating yourself up and congratulate yourself on your promotion. It is quite normal to feel this way when you have been used to working on the other side of the fence, as it were. The dynamics of your team have now changed so now you need to embrace this change and take control.

In order to gain respect, you have to give it. Show your team that you value them and support them by listening to how you can help them. Listen to any ideas that they may have. Think back to when you were in their position. If you had a problem, how would you have liked your leader to have handled it? Remember that the only way to get what you want is to ask for it. Never assume that anyone in your team knows exactly what is expected of them. When enforcing a deadline, explain to them when it has to be done by and why, then ask how they think they can achieve it, what do they need to make this happen, how can you best help them? Once they know that they have your full support, then they will do whatever they can for you.

Capita Learning & Development offers a training course in New to Team Leadership, which will help you develop and grow your leadership and management skills.

Yvonne Bleakley
Learning Consultant, Capita Learning & Development

As a manager, do you know your impact or are you relying on your intentions?

“It is not enough that your designs, nay that your actions, are intrinsically good, you must take care they shall appear so.” (Henry Fielding).

An effective manager is one of the most significant and valuable assets that the team can possess and the very things the manager does and says could increase the effectiveness of the team - the “Hawthorne Effect” (the increase in productivity and effectiveness that occurs due to the impact of the motivational effect on the team as a result of the interest being shown in them) is prevalent.

Effective Management

But there is a danger that the manager can be the single biggest thing that gets in the way of people performing. In their actions and behaviours, managers - who are human after all - may mean well but it is worth considering that it is the impact of what the manager does, not the intention behind actions and behaviours that ultimately matters.

“Impact not intention” – this must be the manager’s mantra.
Consider the manager who:

• always books things in their teams diaries “to save them the effort” 
• filters communications for the team because “they are too busy to do it themselves” 
• takes on the frequent checking of work with an individual “because it shows I am interested” 
• insists on a weekly one to one with each of their team “because it shows I care”
• pays special attention to underperforming individuals and allows the good performers to carry on without managerial input “because they don’t need me” 

Sound familiar?

“But I meant well, it’s just what they want, what they need,” is the cry that goes up. But who decided that? Are these the best thing for the individuals involved to help them perform?  What are these actions really saying to the team?

How do you know whether your actions and behaviours when managing the team are the ones that are most effective for them?
These managers may be misguided but all want the same thing – for the individual to perform. But what do individuals need from their manager in order to perform?  Why not start by asking the individual?

Whilst it is important to remember that managing people is a collaborative approach and the team cannot decide in isolation what they get, in the managerial process of seeking to ensure that people are developed, the team is built and the task is achieved it is valuable to keep in mind that we are talking about the individuals job and their performance so their voice is crucial.

“Seek first to understand. Then to be understood” wrote Steven Covey.
For a manager, getting feedback on own performance is often ignored in favour of giving feedback on others. But reflect on how valuable it would be to know those behaviours and actions that support and reinforce and those that disturb, disrupt or damage.

There are a few things worth considering:

• Developing and establishing a 360 (or 180) degree feedback system
• Building in time at the end of performance meetings to discuss what you do that supports or gets in the way of your people
• Getting other managers to observe your performance and feedback
• Having effective performance discussions with own line manager, ensuring that objectives relating to the management of people are agreed, measured and fed back on  

Samuel Johnson said "Hell is paved with good intentions."
No manager wants to live in hell so create the opportunity and take the time to check your impact matches your intentions.

Written by David Mathieson, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

What Makes An Effective Team Leader Or Manager?

Some managers inspire and motivate, but many fall short in their attempts to engage their employees. An "effective" manager takes responsibility for ensuring that each individual within his/her department succeeds and that the team or business unit achieves results. The good news is managerial skills can be developed through training, mentoring, and experience - it doesn't have to revolve around natural talent.

The top 5 most common traits in successful managers include communication, leadership, adaptability, relationships, development of others, and personal development.

As a new or established manager, what skills and behaviours should you be demonstrating in order to lead and manage successfully.

1. Communication - effective managers develop their ability to understand others' communication styles, as well as their own, and how they can be harnessed to create a positive impact on working relationships within a team and the wider organisation.

2. Leadership - Leadership is an essential quality for any manager but one that is sometimes overlooked during the process of promoting a new manager. As a new or established manager are you instilling trust, providing direction and delegating responsibilities effectively within your team? These are all characteristics, which can be developed.

3. Adaptability - The ability to adapt also contributes to a manager's effectiveness. When a manager is able to adjust quickly to unexpected circumstances, he is able to lead his team to adapt as well. Adaptability also means that a manager can think creatively and find new solutions to old problems.

4. Relationship building - Effective managers should strive to build personal relationships with individual team members, which helps build trust. When managers establish relationships with employees it builds trust and employees feel valued, which in turn leads to increased efficiency within the team.

5. Coaching others - Effective managers know when their employees need more development. Coaching skills drive performance within a team and help others achieve more of what they are striving for. Training is the first step to learning, coaching then accelerates that learning process to build skills and deliver real ROI.

If you are reading this blog post and you have experience of the positive effects of other qualities demonstrated by a successful leader or manager then please post your comments below.


In this training update from CAPITA Learning & Development we will look at these top areas that you, as a new or established manager, should be demonstrating in order to lead and manage successfully.

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Each year CAPITA Learning & Development develops hundreds of top leaders and managers through our Leadership and Management faculty. For more details please contact us on 0800 022 3410 or email us with your query: enquiries@capita-ld.co.uk