In my observations at being a leader and a business owner, it is impossible to drive results without trusting people AND verifying that they did what they say they are going to do. I learned this phrase from an Operations Manager that I worked alongside in my Retail years: “Trust but Verify.” It is a powerful message because the first part is important to creating and maintaining a bond with someone you manage. Yes I TRUST you. TRUST is a powerful word, and in business, trust can take a long time to build but once it has been built it can become a powerful bond that is hard to break as long as both parties maintaining the upmost integrity. Yes I trust that you have done what you say you have done correctly but I must always verify. The second part, Verify is how a manager exercises their need to follow up to ensure the task got done as it should. Inspections should be quick and thorough but attention to detail is necessary. Whenever inspecting ones work you should be looking for opportunities to coach to improve efficiency and help the employee further see the vision of the work that needs to be done. Always pay attention to detail because the details are everything Observation helps a manager or leader notice behaviors and trends, earlier we talked about how to create a normalcy for individuals so you can visualize when their behaviors are out of character or no longer fit the normal them. Trends are usual created by behaviors and when driving results it is important to always be observing and monitoring trends and behaviors of both your employees and your business and take action immediately to correct unfavorable ones. Lastly on observation, there is a time and a place for both Micro and Macro-management. Many employees dislike micromanagement and feel as though management is “always breathing down their backs.” Micromanagement can help drive results greatly when a leader is using it properly. Macro-management can have the reverse effect by having too general or too broad of a leadership approach. This allows too much freedom in the workplace and can create an unmanageable work environment which will be bad for business. Having the right mix of both Micro and Macro will allow you to work your teams harder and more effectively in highly active business times and give them the freedom to relax a little in the slower times. All times in the workplace must always add value, however, and be considered productive and not busy work.
PLANNING
Planning is the conscious, systematic process of making decisions about goals and activities that an individual, group, work unit, or organization will pursue in the future. Planning is not an informal or haphazard response to a crisis; it is a purposeful effort that is directed and controlled by managers and often draws on the knowledge and experience of employees throughout the organization. Planning provides individuals and work units with a clear map to follow in their future activities; at the same time this map may be flexible enough to allow for individual circumstances and changing conditions. Planning activities include analyzing current situations, anticipating the future, determining objectives, deciding in what types of activities the company will engage, choosing corporate and business strategies, and determining the resources needed to achieve the organization’s goals. Plans set the stage for action and for major achievements. Value is a complex concept. Fundamentally, it describes the monetary amount associated with how well a job, task, good, or service meets users’ needs. Those users might be business owners, customers, employees, society, and even nations. The better you meet those needs (in terms of quality, speed, efficiency, and so on), the more value you deliver. That value is “strategic” when it contributes to meeting the organization’s goals. On a personal level, you will do well when you periodically ask yourself and your boss, “How can I add value?”