Passive Team Management – Why Your Team Is Struggling to Reach Targets

Passive team management is damaging to team performance. In my experience, over 50% of managers are TOO passive, and as a result their teams struggle to reach targets.I share 5 actions every manager should do well to improve team performance and be show active team management.--- --- Many passive team managers feel like that are adopting a hands off approach to empower the team yet their passive behaviour leaves the team confused, unsupported and disengaged.I have worked alongside plenty of board directors that display passive leadership and a very passive management style whose teams struggled to improve in any meaningful way. My point – passive team management happens throughout the management ranks. There are too many passive managers, in part because they have not been taught what good active management looks like.I share 10 signs that you might have too much of a passive management style. By reducing these behaviours you join the group of more active team managers.There are a lot of dangers of passive team management, such as lower co-ordination and teamwork. These dangers stop your team performing nearly as well as they might. Active managers avoid these dangers by having a much more involved team management approach. Finally, I take you through 5 actions you should do more of right now for better active management. These actions are a great starting point and ANY manager can do them. The better you do these actions, the more likely your team will beat targets. If you have any questions on “Passive Team Management – Why Your Team Is Struggling to Reach Targets”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Colesenhance.training 

I share 3 methods to improve strategic thinking skills for managers. Demonstrating strategic thinking skills, as a manager, opens doors and elevates you in your boss’s eyes. You can help them solve some of their biggest problems.--- --- The first of the methods to build strategic thinking skills starts with the patterns around you. The more you work to understand the context of the team, function and business that you are in – big picture thinking if you will – the more equipped you will be for how to improve strategic thinking skills. Think about your company strategy and how it fits into this landscape. Does your company strategy enable the company to win? Does it provide clear advantage? How do you and your team help support and implement the company strategy? The second of the methods to build strategic thinking is all about your mindset. The more curious and open you are to others ideas, views and outlooks the more equipped you will be to deal with the uncertainty and ambiguity of strategic thinking. How to improve strategic thinking is in part how to improve your openness and willingness to see the world through different eyes.  Lastly, in how to think strategically, and to actually influence and impact company strategy, structured thinking and problem solving is pretty vital. You have to bring a lot of people with you. Creating clear structure to your thinking and to the build up of your strategy ideas and direction will massively help you get agreement and alignment behind your ideas.  If you have any questions on “3 Methods To Improve Strategic Thinking Skills For Managers”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you Jess Colesenhance.training

I am sharing 5 proven practical ways to build collaboration in your team. The higher the collaboration in your team, the higher the team performance. There is a lot you can do to build team collaboration.  I take you through the actions for cultivating collaboration in teams. --- ---  If you don’t have trust, you don’t have a team. To create team collaboration you first have to build trust. I share 8 proven ways to build trust in teams to get high levels of team collaboration. The leader of the team has a huge influence on the levels of trust in a team.  Next, to improve team collaboration and get great team collaboration you need a lot of communication. Without communication there is not collaboration. Show the team how to communicate. Demonstrate what you expect of them and keep encouraging high levels of communication.  The next of the actions to improve collaboration in teams is to help or persuade the team to work together. Create lots of opportunities for team members to work with each other. Ge them talking, problem solving, planning etc.  The next of the actions to build collaboration in teams is to build a helping team culture. There is a process to achieve these which needs a bit of work and discipline. Creating a helping team culture is one of the best ways to build collaboration in your team.  The final of the actions to encourage collaboration in teams is to remove conflicts in teams quickly. Conflict stops collaboration in the team. Step in to resolve conflicts quickly.  If you have any questions on “5 Ways To Build Collaboration In Your Team To Step Change Performance”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

Top managers create clear direction in their teams to be able to consistently beat team targets. How top managers create clear direction is exactly what I am sharing today.  As I am sure you have worked out, creating clear direction in teams in not straight forward or easy. It takes work to set clear team direction. What you get back in improved performance is worth every single minute spent.  Learn the top six ways for how top managers create clear team direction --- --- How top managers create clear team direction starts with choosing one way (or less than 5) to measure or define direction. Most companies have a lot of data. There are so many different ways of measuring progress, it can be tempting to follow lots. Don’t. To create clear team direction choose one.  Next for how the best managers create clear direction, managers translate company strategy into simple language. People don’t follow what they don’t understand. Jargon or corporate speak is not useful. Make sure each individual in your team has targets and goals they can relate to aligned to company and team direction. Essential for setting team direction.  In communicating clear team direction, you can’t say your message once and expect it to be enough. People lead busy lives and there are a ton of distractions every single day. Keep repeating your message to set clear direction and for instilling team direction  Next in giving direction to teams work to foster engagement and buy-in from the team. I share really practical tips on how to achieve this fairly quickly.  Always keep your direction and any KPIs you use visible. Keep reminding the team every day and week about progress and the goals.  If you have any questions on £How Top Managers Create Clear Direction To Consistently Beat Targets” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training  

I am sharing 7 great ways to handle employee push back on ideas, solutions and requests.  It can feel like a massive drag, difficult and even undermining when you get challenge from employees. Team member push back sucks up your energy and time. Turn what could be a hassle into incredibly valuable feedback that can easily double the value you create as a manager. I share the best ways to deal with team member push back – constructive AND undermining --- ---How to deal with team member push back starts with thinking about all the different reasons employees push back. Sometimes they do it for negative reasons. MOST of the time it is because they don’t understand, they have different idea or solution, or they have spotted something wrong.  There are loads of ways to handle team member push back really constructively, so you and they get something from the exchange.  You should never let a team member damage manager authority through publicly undermining you or trying to make you look silly. Towards the end I share 4 vital ways to stop employees undermining manager authority. I think as a manager you WANT challenge from employees and constructive push back. I know helps you do a much better job as a manager. To ensure you get the right kind of push back, I share what you should do to encourage it WHILE in parallel stop employees undermining your authority. The more negative push back you prevent, the less you have to deal with.  I share 7 straight forward steps to handle constructive challenge confidently. These are practical actionable steps that I have been using for decades.  How to manage staff who undermine your authority through push back? That starts with asking them questions about why they are challenging or pushing back. I share 3 other really effective steps that will make any team member think twice before they attempt undermining manager authority. If you have any questions 7 great ways to handle employee push back on ideas, solutions and requests, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Colesenhance.training

 Every time you speak at work, people judge you.  By getting into these habits for clearer communication and improving the confidence you display EVERY TIME you talk, you change and improve their perceptions of you  I share 5 habits for clearer speaking, teaching you how to express your thoughts clearly.--- ---   The first great habit for clearer communication is to say less. A lot of people say too much. They write or speak what is their head without organising it first. For clearer communication just think about the core message you want to send and focus on that. I share a set of steps to go through to condense down for how to express yourself clearly at work.  The next of the habits to speak coherently is about structuring what you say or write. I share several very simple structures that will help you do just this. Structure helps the other person take in and understand your message without their brain having to run a mental marathon. This is one of most important actions to speak clearly.  The next of the actions to speak coherently is to be explicit. This is obvious yet so much of our speak is not direct or explicit. We hedge. We add in emotional or provocative language. We ask permission. We show deference. Etc etc. We speak unclearly because we are worried about upsetting. Being explicit is a core part of communication skills and one of the great communication tips to focus on and PRACTICE.  Next to communicate clearly create emotional predictability for your audience. This is about reducing distractions, so your audience only has to concentrate on your message.  Put all these communication skills into practice and you will speak with confidence and speak clearly all the time.  If you have any questions on “5 Habits For Clearer Communication. Actions To Speak Like Top Leaders” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

Learn exactly how to sound assertive at work. When you speak confidently and assertively, you are more likely to communicate clearly, constructively and get your message heard, taken in and understood.  To help you sound assertive quickly, I am sharing 11 tips to speak confidently at work.--- --- How assertively you speak at work has a direct impact on everyone’s perception of you. The more confident and assertively you speak and communicate, the more willing others will be to do as you ask and follow where you lead.  Being confident and assertive, when backed up by being good at your job, is going to help you progress your career faster than those who are not as confident.  Communication in any job matters more than most people think! How to be assertive and speak powerfully starts with being very aware of your intend behind the communication. I cover 4 different communication styles. For how to be assertive and confident you want to stick to the assertive style and not use the others. Your mindset drives the styles used.  The first of the tips for confident communication is all about what you do with your message before you speak it. Some mental preplanning is needed. The next of my tips to speak confidently, is to keep the emotional language to a minimum. The next of my  tips to instantly sound more confident is use a lot of “I” language. The last of my tips to talk confidently is to remove most (/all) of the deference in your language.  How to be assertive when communicating is also about how you deliver your message. I share 7 tips to talk confidently at work. All of these will help you with how to communicate assertively. IF you have any questions on “How to sound assertive quickly – 11 tips to speak confidently at work”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Colesenhance.training

 How to establish authority as a manager quickly and effectively without annoying, alienating or upsetting. The more manager authority you have, the quicker you get work done, the quicker others do what you ask, the less push-back you get and more able you are to influence and impact team performance. I share 5 super important approaches to how to earn authority as a manager quickly, regardless of your job title or confidence levels. --- ---  Why increase authority as a manager? In short – it enables you to do a much better job, be more influential, have a great impact and get a ton of personal rewards … when used in the right way.  How to build authority as a manager, without relying on your job title or position, starts with building trusting relationships. With good relationships, you will be a lot more persuasive to those people, get a lot more help, get a lot more done, … in short be much more likely to have a performing team. This is massively important to gaining authority as a manager.  To increase your authority as a manager make the time to understand the team and the situation in depth. When you really understand the problems being faced, you can create good solutions. Jump into action too fast and you risk making poor decisions or making things worse. Exactly what you don’t want when getting authority as a manager.  Publicly removing problems that impact the team is a brilliant way to increase manager authority. You demonstrate 4 key areas of expertise and show you can help the team. This is great for building authority as a manager.  I explain why consistency of direction and expectations is so important for gaining manager authority. A lot of managers make easily avoided serious mistakes that damage your attempts at getting manager authority. Learn how to avoid these mistakes.  Finally, for how to establish authority as a manager a lot quicker, borrow credibility from your boss, peers and leadership team members. I explain how this dynamic works and give you 5 practical tips you can implement right away to gain authority through your boss and other managers.  If you have any questions on “How to Establish Authority As A Manager Quickly”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

 Every team has a worst employee. When you improve your worst employee, you increase overall team performance, usually by a lot more than the contribution of one person.  Any manager with people skills can improve their worst team member. You just need to know what to do and take action.  I share 7 practical proven actions to improve your worst team member quickly --- ---  One of the most important tactics to handle your worst employee is to not ignore the problems, especially when they are relatively minor. Problems get worse over time if left alone. Problems are much easier to fix before behaviour patterns become established.  How to handle low performers or those missing your expectations starts with understanding what is holding them back or causing them to be your worst performer. This is a really important step to do well.  Another key step in how to handle the worst performer in your team is to ask yourself “Is their potential worth developing?” Will the effort you put in to improve them be worth the gains you get or are they a lost case?  The next steps in what to do about low performers is set out your expectations. This is not talking about a bunch of financial targets. Setting expectations well is not easy and I share tips on how to set expectations quickly and effectively.  Next in how to handle your worst employee, give them lots of direct and honest feedback. Comments like “Good job” or “well done” or “work harder” do not count as useful feedback.  If you want o give your worst team member a realistic chance of improving, you must help them improve.  Finally, if you don’t get improvement after trying to help them, or they are not putting in the effort, you must remove them from your team – into a more suitable job or out of the company.  If you have any questions on “7 Practical Proven Actions To Improve Your Worst Employee Quickly”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

Staff who do not take the initiative are very frustrating and time consuming to manage. There are a number of reasons that stops staff taking the initiative. The manager is in a great place to remove these reasons and encourage staff who don’t take the initiative to be a lot more proactive.  I share 4 powerful ways to energise employees who do not take the initiative --- ---  Staff who don't take the initiative are a real anchor on team performance. As a manager you can almost see your bonus shrinking.  There are a number of factors that stops staff showing initiative. Some of these are environmental which the manager can change. The others are to do with the individual. Either of these stops staff being proactive.  To encourage staff to be proactive, it is really important the manager doesn’t make classic mistakes like micromanaging or punishing mistakes. I list more mistakes managers much avoid that  stops staff thinking for themselves.  To encourage proactivity, the manager should take several actions to build and maintain psychological in their teams. Trust and safety are key starting points. I list more actions for the manager to undertake.  When managers don’t align their actions with what they ask staff to do – this create confusion and damages trust, which in turn will stop employees being proactive.  On the positive side, there are lots that a manager can do to develop confidence and capability in staff who do not take the initiative. Often this can be because staff simply don’t know what to do. To build real confidence quickly, I suggest you take 4 key actions with staff who are not proactive.  Finally, towards the end, I share how you should adapt your management style to the person and situation to encourage any staff not taking the initiative to be a lot more proactive.  If you have any questions on “4 Powerful Ways To Energise Staff Who Do Not Take The Initiative”, please lemail me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training