Hello and welcome to the 2nd presentation in this series "Manage People Masterfully - 7 Situations New Leaders Need to Know".

This slide deck explains the 1st of the 7 situations: 'Manage People to Deliver Reliable Results'.

Results are important in most situations leaders face. So, this 2-part presentation is relevant to all 7 situations. Part one covers '3 keys' & part two covers '3 doorways' to lead people masterfully.

It takes about 3 minutes to just view the slides and about 15 minutes to view the slides & read these notes.

IS THIS APPROACH RIGHT FOR YOU? This approach to managing people (masterfully) has a strong 'humanistic' philosophy & mindset. You may agree with this philosophy - or not. My reasoning behind this mindset is that, fundamentally you need to care about people to be a good leader.

This approach is best suited when you manage people on-site; when you have daily contact and can engage in face-to-face conversations. Ideally, you would manage no more than 8 direct reports. This approach is more relevant for front line or middle managers however, the principles and situations covered are relevant for all people leaders.

Please email your questions or comments to jonathanbiss@gmail.com

Enjoy...

The 3 keys described in this presentation apply to how you lead people in every situation.

KEY 1: YOUR MINDSET or attitude, is one of the most powerful things you bring to a situation. Your attitude in each moment, is a choice.

KEY 2: YOUR SKILLS determine your competence. This approach to managing people has a master skill-set that you use in every situation. How effectively you can have conversations is perhaps the most fundamental skill in working with people.

KEY 3: YOUR SYSTEM. Leading people is complex. So, you need to follow a proven system that works & gives you confidence in any situation.

The KEY MINDSET in this approach to managing people is that your main purpose as a leader is to ensure people are successful in their job each day & each year. You focus on managing people's success, not just their results or performance.

Everything you read, see, hear, feel & learn in this series of presentations should convey a genuine & practical intention to support people's success.

When your sincere purpose as a leader is to support people's success, your interactions & relationships are transformed from trying to control people's results & performance, to inviting collaboration to ensure their success.

This does not mean you take a 'soft' approach to unreliable results, poor performance or negative behaviour! This approach is always respectful, honest, courageous & caring - all focused on ensuring people's success at work.

Your interactions & relationships when managing for success are personal, engaging & caring.

Managing people's success is inspiring because it believes in & calls forth their ability & potential.

Supporting people's success at work invites collaborative relationships. People like working with leaders to pursue mutual success. People tend to resist their performance being managed.

Sincerely personal, inspiring & collaborative relationships focused on mutual success are enjoyable & fulfilling for leaders & their staff.

The MASTER SKILL for leading people at work & in life, is having EFFECTIVE CONVERSATIONS.

To be defined as 'effective' a conversation must;
1. Build FULL UNDERSTANDING of each person's point of view on the topic/ issue discussed.
2. Create action toward agreed RESULTS, and
3. Maintain or improve the RELATIONSHIPS between everyone involved.

NB: 'full understanding' does NOT mean you have to agree with a point of view. It DOES mean each person feels fully heard & fully understood.

"The quality of a conversation is a 100% accurate reflection of the quality of life in that moment."

Listen to any conversation; is it honest, attentive, respectful, constructive? Or, is it defensive, rushed, dismissive or aggressive?

The quality of your life, the quality of your results, your relationships, your thoughts & feelings; are hugely helped or hindered by the quality of your conversations, in that moment & over time.

What would life be like if EVERY conversation you had was effective (full understanding, good results & good relationships)?

We're busy so, we try to be 'efficient' in our communication - 'bullet point conversations', quick instructions, brief emails, etc. Efficient communication does have its place...

AND, when you see how managing people with the systematic use of effective conversations can be so successful & enjoyable, you may be encouraged to use your natural abilities more.

Most leaders are 'hard' OR 'soft' based on their personality preference toward 'people' or 'tasks'.

Task focused leaders value results & like to get things done. They're comfortable to push for results & don't think much about relationships or people. Their communication is naturally 'transactional' - focused on tasks (what), quality of information, outcomes, & making quick decisions about 'next steps'.

People focused leaders value relationships. They're uncomfortable pushing 'hard' for results. They prefer to build relationships with people in order to get things done. Their communication is naturally 'relational' - focused on people (who), quality of connection, process, & gaining clear understanding about 'next steps'.

The trap, of course, is that we think being hard on results also means being hard on people or, being 'soft' means being soft on both results & people. A masterful leader knows how to be 'hard' (firm) on results AND 'soft' on (supportive of) people & relationships - AT THE SAME TIME.

Holistic success, meaningful success - includes achieving results AND enjoying our relationships with the people we work with.

Just good results without relationships feels ... empty? Just good relationships without results feels ... unsatisfying? mediocre? unprofessional? less than what we know we can & should achieve!

When we choose to be fully present with people, to pay full attention to the verbal & non verbal conversation - we are NATURALLY MASTERFUL at 'effective conversations'.

You already have the innate ability, you just need to 'use it' rather than 'lose it'.

Conversation is perhaps the most powerful management/ leadership tool you will ever have. Used well - it can create what seems like miracles. Used badly - it always creates misery.

Your sincere intention & focus to ensure people's success - is made very practical & relatively simple because you follow a 'System for Success'.

The rest of this presentation explains how to set up & use your own System for Success.

This proven system allows you to be calm and confident in any situation.

This approach to managing people masterfully is made up of a system of steps. Each step is a relatively simple, very sensible conversation that sets people up to succeed.

You will always know what conversation to have, when, with who, how & what to say in any situation.

Of course, your System for Success includes steps to understand & deal with people who are not successful including the usual performance problems or 'people issues'.

Your 'System for Success' is made up of a system of scheduled formal & semi-formal conversations through the year with informal, daily conversation linking everything together.

It's important to understand that these three types of conversation must be linked to create the system. The formal performance review conversations are often disconnected from the daily conversations.

How can you set up the formal, semi-formal and informal framework of your System for Success? For most new leaders it is relatively simple to do this. It may not be perfect to start with (it may never be) but, you can get something in place today - and then refine it as you use it. Tell your team and get them involved. Your purpose is to systematically manage people for their success.

Most organisations have a series of formal performance review meetings through the year.

The first one is usually to formally set job expectations, goals, targets, objectives, KRAs, KPIs, etc for the year. Then there is a formal 'Performance Review' meeting, usually at the half-year point, and an end-of-year 'Final Performance Review'.

These formal performance review systems are important & useful - and, are never perfect. They actually can't be perfect for reasons I may explain later (and how to work with that). Imperfect as they may be - always use your organisation's formal performance review system and documentation as best you can. They're a vital part of your System for Success.

By 'semi-formal' we mean the regular, scheduled 'catch-up' or 'work in progress' meetings you MUST have with your team - as a whole group & individually one-to-one. You must have these regularly at a frequency that suits your business - at least monthly!

If you do not have these regular meetings & conversations, you make it much more difficult to support people's success.

These regular one-to-one conversations are when you develop a relationship with your staff. You take the time to talk, connect, listen, understand and establish an effective working relationship.

The informal conversations are the routine conversations you have as part of working with people each day. They are the most common type of conversation you have as part of your system for success.

Your System for Success depends on you, the leader setting up & using your own semi-formal and informal conversations. The formal system can NEVER set people up to succeed on it's own.

However, if your formal, semi-formal and informal conversations work together - you can create a robust, practical & versatile system of sensible conversations to set people up and support them to succeed - every day.

The following five conversations form the heart of your relatively simple, sensible series of steps in your System for Success. If you master these five conversations you are well on your way to calmly, confidently and competently supporting people to succeed - in most situations.

Read on to find out how to start implementing these conversations in a systematic way.

This 'Level 1' conversation is the anchor on which all conversations in your System for Success are held securely in place. This conversation determines if subsequent conversations are secure or, if they will literally 'go adrift'.

This is the most basic conversation a leader MUST have to set people up to succeed. Simple, sensible, essential & - not always easy!

When you feel a workplace conversation (with anyone) has gone 'adrift' you need to "check the anchor" - check how secure your agreement is.

You have FORMAL 'Level 1' conversations at the start of each year. You should also be setting & clarifying expectations at your regular, SEMI-FORMAL 'work-in-progress' meetings. And, you have INFORMAL, in-the-moment 'Level 1' conversations to set & clarify expectations day-to-day.

This conversation determines how much people are working WITH YOU toward their own success - OR NOT! It's fine for you to support the success of people you lead, however, it's very frustrating if you're putting in more effort & care for their success than they are!

You CANNOT support someone to succeed if they don't take personal ownership for their success, in their job & for each daily task & requirement.

The symbol for this conversation is a handshake. We are highly attuned to the quality of a handshake (or agreement), if we pay attention. When we're fully present & pay attention to the whole conversation, words, body language, facial expression, inflection, etc we are very good at picking up how reliable an agreement is, or not.

Which 'level 2' conversations do you need to revisit to ensure you have a reliable 'handshake'?

This 'level 3' conversation is to EMPOWER people to meet your expectations by giving them the right mix of AUTONOMY (freedom & authority to make decisions, take action & 'get on with it'), & SUPPORT (any help, resources, etc they need).

The autonomy you give a person MUST be based on their current (not potential or past) level of competence, confidence & motivation to meet each expectation agreed.

Most managers either 'abandon' a team member or 'micro-manage' them, giving too much or too little autonomy for each task.

Think about that; every team member will have varying levels of confidence & ability in each task or requirement of their work.

Don't guess how much autonomy they can handle - have the conversation.

Autonomy & support are literally two sides of the same coin. They always operate together.

Anyone not competent, confident or motivated enough to have full autonomy - needs specific support to 'compensate' for their lack of full competence, confidence or motivation in delivering that task or requirement.

The support provided must always be specific to the person's needs. It may be tools, resources, advise, coaching, etc. If the required support cannot be provided this must be discussed as part of this 'level 3' empowerment conversation.

How effective are you at providing the right level of support for people to 'pretty well guarantee' their success in meeting agreed expectations'?

A GAP CONVERSATION is used when you think, feel, intuit there may be a gap in an expectation being met.

The attitude you have when initiating a 'Level 4' gap conversation is "I wonder if there is a gap in a) the clarity of our expectations of each other and/or, b) the level of our personal ownership & accountability for our part in the expectation(s) being met and/or, c) the appropriate level of autonomy & support provided?"

A gap conversation is a polite, tentative, supportive way to 'check-in' that everything is on-track for an expectation to be met - or not.

How many of these gap scenarios (a, b or c) do you see are relevant for your work situation now - with team members and also with colleagues or other people you rely on to 'get things done'?

If you have a 'Level 5' conversation to confront an expectation not being met - it should not be a surprise to anyone. You've had the 'level 1, 2, 3 & 4' conversations - a number of times, but the agreed expectation is still not reliably being met.

So, a level 5 conversation is simply stating this obvious fact to the people involved (to which they should all easily agree), & you invite them to talk about what is really required to support success on this task/ agreement more effectively.

This series of 5 conversations - used sensibly, systematically & respectfully, with the sincere mindset of managing people to be successful in their work, helps new leaders to manage people's results (& build relationships) - in most situations.

Follow the system, have the conversations and sincerely support people's success in all aspects of their work.

Part 1 of this presentation covered 3 keys to manage people masterfully; your mindset, your skill-set & your system.

If you have questions on anything in part 1 please email me at jonathanbiss@gmail.com

Part 2 of this presentation, builds on these keys with three doorways from an 'old' way of leading people to a 'new' way; from seeing problems to seeing possibility & potential on the other side of the problems, from conversations by habit to mastery, from trying to control people to respectfully talking about & reviewing people's choices.

See you at part 2.