Integrity

The first trait on my “Traits of a Good Manager?” list are high personal integrity and moral courage.

Integrity (2010), according to Dictionary.com, is: “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.”

The first step in this process, as I discussed in my May 27, 2010 blog, is for each of us to figure out what moral standards and ethical principles we are going to follow.

We must first form, and then inform, our conscience!

We must model the behavior we want from our employees. Without integrity, it's tough, if not impossible, to lead people for very long.

Integrity brings moral courage with it. Integrity forces us to tell the truth even when it puts us (or the company) in a bad light. Integrity is the foundation of our commitment to doing the right thing even when it might cost us our job (or the company money). Integrity gives us the courage to stand up and say “this isn't right when no one else dares.

And it is Integrity that gives us the authority to lead”...and the right to call ourselves leaders.

So, my friends, I hope you'll take some time to look at your life and your actions and change them to conform to the words you spout to your people every day.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Management Basics

In last week's entry, I talked about Management as a profession. There I listed a number of the key tasks and skills accomplished by professional managers. In this and the next few blogs, I will look at these tasks and skills in greater detail.

The primary management tasks are:

• Leading
  
• Planning
  
• Budgeting
  
• Organizing
  
• Staffing
  
• Communicating
  
• Directing
  
• Risk management
  

Character / personality traits critical to a successful manager:

• High personal integrity and moral courage.
  
• An ability to communicate clearly through the written and spoken word.
  
• A desire to know people and help them improve their performance.
  
• An innate sense of justice and a desire to be fair and evenhanded in his/her treatment of others.
  
• A commitment to excellence.
  
• High tolerance for stress.
  
• An passion for order and organization.
  

This list is in no particular order, nor is it comprehensive. Ask any manager, though, what are the main things he or she does and I'm pretty sure most of these will be in virtually every manager's list.

As for the character / personality traits, I know there are a lot of managers out there missing one or more of the critical traits I listed; heck, I've worked for a few myself. I suspect, though, that most folks would want their bosses / employees to have at least these few good traits. I know they're the biggies I look for when hiring managers...and when deciding whether to work with a client or not.

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Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Management is a Profession

Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary defines a profession as “...an occupation or vocation requiring training in the liberal arts or the sciences and advanced study in a specialized field.” Dictionary.com defines a profession as “...a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science: the profession of teaching...”. 

Management is a Profession.

It has a defined body of “specialized” knowledge. It has specialized tool and techniques. It requires certain skills of its practitioners. These management tools, techniques and skills are equally applicable, useful and effective across industries, activities and cultures.

Management is a Profession.

It's practitioners and their skills are as transferable across industries as those of the medical, engineering, security of legal professions. The skills necessary to successfully plan, organize, staff, support and control a half-billion dollar software development project are the same necessary to successfully run a half-billion dollar power plant construction project.

Management is a Profession.

And yet, it never ceases to amaze me how many otherwise intelligent people in other professions fail to get that. Often the same people who accept that an electrical engineer, a human resources specialist, a lawyer or even a CEO can be effective in any industry refuse see accept that effective project managers can be effective regardless of the type of project or the industry in which they practice their profession.

For some reason, these folks fail to realize that management is a profession in and of itself and that it is just as likely that a project manager who is effective running a half-billion dollar software development program will be just as effective running a half-billion dollar power plant construction project. I've seen companies turn highly-skilled engineers into untrained, ineffective “project managers” simply because these individuals “know our business”. The fact that they knew nothing about putting together a coherent plan, had never developed a budget, did not understand how to control costs, and really hated dealing with people didn't stop these companies from setting up their nominal manager for certain failure.

Management is a Profession.

Professional managers are trained to plan and schedule complex projects, coordinating the work of myriad different professions to successfully complete the project. Professional managers are skilled at identifying, avoiding and mitigating risks in all areas. They are trained to develop detailed budgets. They understand how to direct and control the work of others; to reduce costs and earn the company a profit. Professional managers are trained to find, organize and motivate other skilled people to achieve the company's specific goals and objectives.

Professional managers understand the importance of communicating clearly. They are skilled at reading, understanding and negotiating practical, workable contracts that eliminate problems, rather than contribute to them. They help guide other professions in developing the standards and specifications needed to effectively define the amount and quality of the work to be done. Professional managers are able to get folks in diverse different professions to understand each others' terminology, skills and professional needs.

Professional managers are experts at building solid customer relations and they know how to repair customer relationships that have broken down. They provide a buffer between upper management and the operations personnel tagged to “get the job done”.

Management is a profession...and professional managers are critical to the success of virtually every commercial, and most non-commercial organizations in the world today.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Is Social Marketing Right For You?

You hear a lot about social networking these days and the value that “being connected” can bring to your business. You can tell it's the latest trend, because all the “business experts” are pushing us to get onto Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn. There are classes and courses and a lot of folks who profess to be “gurus” on how to use these great new tools to help your business grow.

Let me tell you a secret: there is no secret to making social networking work for you.

It's just another way to reach your current and potential future customers. As with every other marketing method, approach and tool, you've still got to address the basics.

1. You've got to know your customers. You've got to know who they are, when and where they buy, how they make decisions and what they want and need. If your prime customers don't use Facebook and still think “twitter” is a semi-embarrassed laugh in church, then social networking is probably not going to work for you.

2. You've got to know your tools. You have to spend time to learn how Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites work; how people use them and how they will work best for you.

3. You've got to decide what type of relationship you want with your customers. Social networking is all about building long term relationships. If you're not looking for long term relationships with your customers, social networking is probably not going to be very effective for you.

4. You've got to be consistent. Your message, your conversations, your persona and your actions on social networking venues need to be consistent with your marketing in other media / venues. And because word travels so much faster in a social networking environment than in other venues, it is critical that your words accurately reflect your actions and vice versa. Nothing gets around social networks quicker than a company claiming perfection but delivering crap.

5. You've got to know who you are. Know who you are before you venture into this world. If you don't have a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for, people will know it...and they'll tell their friends about your inconsistencies very quickly. So before you start any social networking, make sure you know yourself.

6. You've got to know your product / service. And finally, you've got to know what it is you have to offer. Your product has got to live up to or exceed your Facebook claims. Your marketing group cannot promise things your operations group can't deliver...and the product's got to meet or exceed your customers' marketing-driven expectations!

So there it is. Social networking is just another way to reach your customers. It's not going to “change the face of marketing”; although it has definitely increased the speed at which your message...and your mistakes...are spread.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Procrastination

Well, it's three days until the start of the Labor Day weekend. I guess Summer's almost over.

There's a large part of me (OK, OK, I know - what part of me isn't large?) that's tempted to just screw off the rest of this week, waiting for the holiday. Even though I know that in my situation I really can't afford to just leave work undone for three or four days. As a small business owner / independent contractor, the sooner the work gets done, the sooner I get paid. So I really can't afford to screw off for three days.

But the temptation is still there...and it's still pretty strong, actually.

For folks whose weekly pay check is not really tied to the amount of work they do in any given week, the temptation is often irresistible. For some reason, in the week (or two) before a holiday, everything seems less important, and everything is certainly less appealing than kicking back and slacking off to “get ready for the holiday”.

And it's not all that tough to do.

Getting in thirty or forty minutes late (“Holiday traffic is starting early this year!”). An extra 10 or 15 minutes at lunch. Thirty or forty minutes talking “business” with my colleague in the next cubicle. Leaving twenty or thirty minutes early (“Gotta beat the holiday rush”).

It adds up pretty quickly.

Now that six hours of solid work I give you on a normal day is down to four or five. And of course, there's the hour or two I need to spend playing that on-line game Information Technology (IT) just keeps forgetting to block - mainly because the IT techs are in the middle of a never-ending tournament.

Now I'm down to two or three hours of distracted (“how the heck do I get into that IT tournament?”) work time.

Let's face it, it would probably be more productive to just let me take sick time ('cause there's no way I'm going to waste my vacation time) for the next three days.

Sound familiar?

Well, even if you won't admit it, I guarantee that even in this bad economy, it's happening in your office as you read this. And if you're reading this at the office, I guess that means you're slacking off, too; surfing the web; doing “research”.

So how do we stop all this slacking in preparation for the weekend?

I'll tell you tomorrow.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.