Once you become a manager you are always a manager. You can’t take it back and think like you did before you managed people and guided a team to deliver business results. While you can read and learn all about management from books, podcasts, video’s etc. nothing comes close to jumping in and doing the work. I guess this is the same with anything in life and we must try first so we can really learn. 

Now and then all managers need time out to assess how they are doing and review the important aspects of their role for continued growth. Motivating their staff, not least themselves can dilute as time goes on. This dilution is natural as we’re not machines, so are you booking in your manager's health check?   

In my manager's health check training we look back at what is important for continued motivation and success of your team and you. In this article I’ll outline some of the things I teach and role play to help coach managers so you can start your health check right away.

1. If you see your results levelling off and you’re running from one meeting to the next always in a rush, take that step back and understand how you are fairing with the two most important parts of your role?

   1. Set the direction (vision), goals and operation practices for/with a team based on needs of the business.

   2. Motivating and empowering team members to ideate, create and execute tasks and processes that drive performance and deliver results for the company year on year.

You can bet your problem(s) will fall into either of these options and into a specific area in either of 1 or 2 statements. Reflect on this, spot your gaps and fix them and better still discuss and fix with your team.

2. All managers in any industry need to deal with the Manager span of control cogs as per figure 1 below.

As with any role there are competencies that are more important than others to do a good job. As a manager one for example jumps out at me that has a massive impact across all cogs. What do you think it is?

For me communication is at the heart of all the cogs and as a manager being competent in all forms of communication is important.

Important competencies:

• Communicating - impact and influence 

• Empathy - listening, valuing the differences

• Motivation - Every interaction whether positive/negative message should invoke employee motivation 

• Operations excellence - goal setting, budgets, schedules, resources, Team throughput

• Empowering change - self, others and Team's 

For me these top 5 competencies are important across all the cogs. As a manager your super power should be communication and the ability to reach and motivate people. Without empathy then, you will never fully understand people and what motivates them. A keen eye for operations and the running of a tight ship while managing constant change is important. Your team or business won’t grow and innovate without solid performance operations to make the bigger jumps from. But you jump as a team, not alone as you can’t leave anyone behind as you implement ongoing change.

3. Communication - Active listening

When I became a manager I had no formal training. I went along to the interviews and remember talking about team operations and getting stuff done versus people management competencies. I reflected back on how I was managed and mirrored that approach. I guess that is what the interviewers wanted to hear! Approaches are different these days but back in the day Active listening training what was never part of manager 101 as a solid base to good communication. This should be mandatory learning and practice for all new managers. It wasn’t until I became a coach that I really learned to listen properly and leave my baggage at the door. It's hard to go into your reports 1:1 and not think about the meeting you just came from, the tasks you have to do by the end of the day or the difficult 1:1 in a few hours time with your manager or another report. But you have to find a way and it starts with listening training.

4. Combating Ill behaviours that demotivate and create a toxic culture is so important.

Managers need to deliberately think about, notice and then have the courage to do something about ill behaviour. As a middle manager you are in the thick of it and will need to step up to reinforce the company policies. As a senior manager you are assessed on doing what you say and leading by example making it easier for middle management to have the difficult conversations when they spot the need. It's too easy for bad behaviour to be normalised but unfortunately it happens everyday.  

5. Do you understand your work style and personality type as well as your teams and others you often interact with?

There are many tools that can be used for this like the classic MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator). After doing a good few of these over the years I prefer the models that use colours as they are easier to remember and therefore use. So many times we come away from training sessions excited about what we learned about each other but then revert to the same habits and never use the learning. My favorite is Insights Discovery with its Cool blue, fiery red, earth green and sunshine yellow type classifications. Knowing where you fit, how you like to operate, what you will be like on a good and bad day is powerful but also to understand that in others too. Very quickly we can use this approach to be more effective managers with my acting on my favourite words, deliberate focus. Being aware of working styles and personality types will greatly enhance your communication and leadership competence.

6. Awareness + responsibility = Performance.

This is what we need to coach out of people as a manager. Basically we’re talking about overall emotional intelligence. Bringing awareness of self and what you are doing and awareness of our social interactions so we’re curious and non-judgmental with co-workers. Simultaneously taking the responsibility to self-manage our performance and all the relationships around us by supporting, challenging and trusting colleagues for happy work life. This is based on Whitmore’s coaching for performance and is still so relevant and true many years after it was written.

7. Managing Conflict is a skill we all need

A manager will need to use their conflict management skills most weeks. We first need to understand the different communication styles (there are plenty of different tools that can be used) and then backed up by mastering assertive communication. We can all manage conflict and still be respectful, direct and calm. We need to know the formula and then practice it. After that the biggest challenge is having courage to face conflict in the workplace and roll into assertive communication without pause.

8. If you want true team performance whereby team members constantly deliver, manage continuous improvement and are contributing to the future of the business, you need to build your True-Team house:

1. Build a solid True - Team house on 4 core pillars

• Clarity - Team & Business goals

• Operating principles

• Openness, honesty and trust

• Team Care

2. Understand the foundation of team goal mindset

3. Create team Purpose & Goals

4. Create routines and habits for solid engagement, operations and process

5. Create team operating Beliefs and Values

6. Create rules on how the team work, make decisions and communicate

7. Manage team health and aspire to overall team wellness

8. Actualise goals, performance empowerment and mindset for excellence 

All this is done with the team and the manager. It's not a command and control exercise. The team needs to believe they can manage the business themselves by self organising and self managing. 

As a manager, supporting this True-house you will:

1. Help to break down barriers and build relationships with other teams

2. Ensure there is a connected two way information funnel driving business needs and customer engagement into the house. 

3. Mentor, coach and develop the team professionally, personally and process wise.

After working through this training over the course of a full day with stories, case studies and role plays you will be reinvigorated to take your team to another level. An emphasis on action and taking away tools that can be used immediately is paramount before business as usual takes grip again.