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Professional development is not
an expense; it’s an investment in your
future, especially for team leaders,
because that is problem prevention.
The more we equip supervisors, the
better they are at heading off problems.
Supervisors need to have some type of
training so they have tools to draw on.
For a small company, professional devel-
opment doesn’t have to happen off-site.
The best training is often done on the job
by a peer coach or mentor. Supervisors
who can work as mentors and coaches
can help employees develop competence
and confidence. Managers and seasoned
supervisors can also serve as mentors for
new supervisors.
The trick in using a lot of in-house
training is choosing the right people to do
the training. You have to find the supervi-
sors and managers who are skilled in
helping people learn and develop skills.
You can also use line employees. If you
have one employee who is very organized,
you can ask if he would be willing to coach
a coworker.
Short chunks of time for training can
be really effective. People don’t have long
attention spans. If you have a one-on-one
meeting with a coach or mentor once a
week or twice a month, that can be more
successful over time than sending someone
to a daylong training.
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When we get promoted, our managers
often think we’ll just naturally know what
to do and not to do. What most companies
forget is that we choose our supervisors
and managers based on how good they
are at their job, because they have the best
technical skills, they are the most depend-
able, hardworking, organized, practical,
down to earth, etc. Because they are so good
at their jobs, they get made supervisors,
and now they need a whole different skill
set, because they now are successful only
through the work of others. There is a loss
of control, and they may have trouble del-
egating. And, most importantly, they now
need a huge range of people skills.
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There are some tricky parts to this. With
some sales processes, you have legal restric-
tions and you can’t say much. Otherwise,
they should share as much as possible
in as many ways as possible. You need to
The other piece of this additional
responsibility issue is that, as we
diversify, we have to ask people to
do stuff they don’t want to do. We
give up tasks that are no longer
necessary and learn new things,
and not everyone will be happy.
Managers have to be realistic.
Employees don’t have to whistle
while they work; they just have to
do it and work well with others.
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communicate three times as much during
hard or uncertain times. Nature abhors a
vacuum, and if you don’t tell employees
what is going on, they will make it up.
We had a client in a comparable
industry, and the owner had decided to
acquire another company but he didn’t
think he had enough information to tell his
own employees. Unfortunately, the owner
of the acquired company told his staff, who
then mentioned it to their colleagues in this
small and close industry. The employees
found out through this informal grapevine
and they were ticked off at the boss. He
thought he was helping them because he
had no final details of the deal, but there
was a huge loss of trust.
When you talk to employees, you have
to tell them the truth. If you’re selling the
company, tell them you will keep them
informed. Human beings can cope with
almost anything if they know what it is they
have to cope with. The thing we can’t deal
with is uncertainty. You have to at least talk
about the uncertainty and say this will just
feel crummy for a while because we don’t
know what’s happening. When you get
bosses trying to smooth things over and
pretend nothing will change, it doesn’t
work. Today’s employees are too cynical,
and they have great hypocrisy meters.
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One of the best things you can do is
video yourself leading a meeting and then
take the tape home and watch it. It will tell
you more than you want to know about the
effectiveness of your meetings and your
facilitation skills.
Don’t spend time in a meeting doing
things that could be done by e-mail,
like making announcements. It is face
time – time to interact and not just tell
them things. If you’re bringing people
together, you have the benefit of multiple
brains. Meetings are the time to discuss
the future and explore problems with
our system and processes. Often we face
system problems that seem impossible to
solve. With multiplied brainpower, you get
synergy – one person’s suggestion gets
improved by another’s ideas and another’s,
and you get solutions that no one could
have thought of on their own. Employees
have answers. The challenge is getting
them to trust that we really want to hear
it. The hardest thing is getting employees
to believe they have a voice. Companies
that are successful are the ones that truly
involve employees and listen.
