As a manager you have a juggling act to perform, one which balances different points of view, and often requires considerable diplomacy.
Classically these are the viewpoints of:
• Yourself
• The organisation
• Your department (or division, section)
• Your people
• External contacts (e.g. customers or suppliers)
Sometimes (regularly?) conflicts arise: something is right for the department and the people, but not for either the organisation or you. On occasions you will find yourself disagreeing with a company policy but having to support it even though you know that your people see it as wrong and personally inconvenient.
How you handle this balancing act is important, and it may be necessary to explain the reasons behind your actions. It is an area for some consistency.
You need to keep certain factors in mind when balancing the interests of different parties:
First and foremost your responsibility is to the organisation and to achieving the targets set for you. You can only do this with the support of your people, so in the long-term you must carry them with you (some disagreement may be seen as inevitable)
You have a responsibility upwards and downwards within the organisation (perhaps one answer is to support a policy, insisting that your people comply, while communicating upwards in an attempt to have it changed if it can be bettered)
You must never be seen as selfish, simply acting to make your own lot better (this will, rightly, always be resented)
You must sometimes be seen to fight your corner on behalf of your section and its people (this will be appreciated, more so if what you take issue with is a nonsense and, especially, if you win!)
Continually Seek To Demonstrate Your Skills At Balancing Different Interests:
As well as making clear your position in respect of the organisation and the other players you need to consider - and make clear - the relationship between you and your own staff. You must always be fair (but rarely democratic). People must see the realities involved. They must understand that there is a balance and that you cannot always be automatically on their side, right or wrong.
Finally - Make It Clear That You:
• See your success as tied in with and, indeed, dependent on them.
• See your role as essentially supportive (in all sorts of ways: guidance, counselling, development and motivation)
• Believe that by working together you can all succeed - not just by everyone doing their share of the work but by everyone contributing creatively (ideas may come from anywhere)
Today's News: It does seem to me that we are being bombarded with webinars and teleseminars right now. Choosing what is good and what is not must be very difficult and personally I tend to listen into and recommend a very few - mostly from experts who I both know and respect. Yesterday I recommended Paul McCord and today I can share with you an upcoming event from Jill Konrath:
EMAIL COLD CALLING: HOW TO LEVERAGE EMAIL TO GET YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR
Date: June 19, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM Central
Integrating email cold calling into your account entry campaign is essential with today's savvy phone-averse and time-starved decision maker. Don't be fooled by the ease of emailing though. Attend Jill's teleseminar and find out how to use email effectively.
P.S. If you're a woman in B2B sales, check out the Sales SHEbang - a new resource, community and conference Jill recently launched. I think you'll like it!
Tomorrow: The next edition of the FREE Top Sales Experts E-book is absolutely huge!! It is 136 pages and counting. The first draft is ready for editing, so all fifty contributing authors will be checking their work this weekend so that we can hit our publication date of Tuesday June 17th - I think you are going to love it
As ever, have a great w/e and be sure to join me again next week - JF
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