Work Team Management

LEAD A TEAM

Understand what it is to lead a team . Understand the difference between power and authority . Know different functions to perform in management work , and the skills that need to be developed to perform those functions. What habits are important to consider in a manager? Know different types of manager. Indications that a manager does not adequately perform their functions

Personal approach:

Some time ago after finishing "Superior Course in Business Management" I realized that I had been told about how to set up a company, how to prepare a marketing plan, the "management" of a Human Resources department (select, hire and fire workers), the importance of a commercial team, many practical cases of decisions in the company, investments and of course how to prepare a business plan. However, there was no discussion at any time of how to lead people, or how to create and coordinate work teams…

lead-a-team

At that time four years ago I decided on my own to train precisely in that “small gap of a Higher Course in Business Management”, learning to lead people, without a doubt it has been a pleasant, profitable and enriching decision, I started based on a Management course of ESIC Company and entrepreneurs. I took as a base the section “Leading people in current times” was the germ of my work, but it was a job that is alive, and like any living being develop and complete itself, it is avid, continuously seeking to develop from books, articles that we can find in that wonderful Pandora's box that is the Internet (and I would like to thank all the people who collaborate in this mission of enriching with their opinions, articles, courses, etc., so that many others have free training at their fingertips,without a doubt this work wants to be my own contribution to what I have collected so far from this great field).

From a formal point of view, leading is the process of working with and through other people in order to achieve organizational goals in an effective way.

When you accept the responsibility of leading people, you should not forget that you acquire the responsibility that your decisions will influence other people. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the famous Petters principle is so often followed.

"Each person reaches their maximum level of incompetence…"

There are many managers who rise to this category after performing their job very well, they have been very good in the technical aspect of their job, they know all the instrumental resources of their task, but they have no idea how to lead other people (¿ Is it their fault? Or perhaps the company that does not take into account that this person has not received training to lead? Is it that leading is so "easy" that it is taken for granted?).

Therefore, companies should not forget that people should be LEADED, and this should not be confused with MANAGE, manage, material resources, a budget, etc., but the management of people must be based on leadership.

What does leadership mean?

It is the ability of a manager to influence his collaborators and get them to carry out their tasks with enthusiasm to achieve objectives for the common good.

But influencing others how?

With power. It is the ability to force or coerce someone, so that they do your will due to your position or strength. (Boss).

With AUTHORITY. The art of getting people to voluntarily do what you want because of your personal influence. (Leader)

Without a doubt, all of us who are directed are clear about how we like to be influenced, and yet when we are promoted it seems that we forget how we liked it, or we would have liked it if they addressed us and we began to commit the same mistakes that people who one day criticize for "leading us so wrong"…

Reflection exercise:

1-Think of a person who has influenced your life, someone who has left a great influence on you, perhaps your mother, your father, that teacher… analyze six characteristics he had as a person, which qualities you remember about him.

3- Now think about that person you would never like to see again, that person who has marked your life negatively, who wanted to impose himself on you indicates six characteristics of that person that made you “almost” come to hate him.

FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD

I think we should start by making a classification and a distinction between what are the functions of a manager, and indicate that to develop those functions people must have certain skills (or work to develop them) that allow them to be trained for it.

The maximum objective of any manager is to achieve the objectives entrusted to him by his company, that is beyond doubt.

For this you must develop two types of functions with your group (which does not have to be a team yet), and these are

MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS .

Instrumental or management.

PREVENT AND PLAN ORGANIZE DECIDE- EXECUTE COORDINATE TO ASSESS CONTROL AND EVALUATE.

But of course to perform these functions you must develop some skills or abilities:

MANAGEMENT HOMEWORK SKILLS .

Ability to perceive and direct change. Ability to anticipate, organize, coordinate and control. Time management. Clarity of objectives. (Distinguish main from secondary.) Ability to analyze problems and make decisions. Supervisory and control without burdening. Ability to delegate.

These skills are usually the ones mentioned before, and they can be generally possessed when you are a worker with good results (although this is not always the case), and for this reason the company decides to promote you to lead a work group. But we cannot forget that we are going to direct people because we are going to have other functions that are:

MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS.

Interpersonal or relationship.

WORK AS A TEAM.FORMAR.LISTENING / INFORMING / COMMUNICATING.MOTIVATING. EVALUATING.

And of course, it is also necessary to have or develop specific skills or abilities that are

INTERPERSONAL MANAGEMENT SKILLS .

Leadership.Communication.Motivation.Evaluation.Conflict management.Negotiation.Teamwork.Meeting meetings.

Personal approach:

Knowing these functions and the skills necessary to direct, my first advice would be to take a paper and a pen (maybe there is one that is not very clear what it is, why not search the Internet for an article that can clarify that concept? With a good search engine, for example http://www.google.com, once I have a clear idea of the concept, I can do an analysis, a self-assessment, on those functions or skills that I have not yet mastered, those that are capable of improvement.

A good manager must be a person a little "dissatisfied" with himself, one of his missions in life should be the search for continuous improvement, how can I ask who I direct to seek quality, improvement in their work, if I am not humble and able to demonstrate that I also seek that improvement as a professional and person?

MANAGING HABITS

Now that we know what functions and skills it would be good to have or improve, the manager must become aware of some habits that can help him, mark his path, they would be the beacons that should guide him while developing his functions.

1st Strategic Habit.

Perhaps the best definition of this habit was the plan to achieve satisfied customers.

The mission, in a common vision plan for all employees, and the rational strategies of each business unit are almost never usually clear enough, coherent or challenging enough, the manager has to make sure that this does not happen, train his team so you can be clear and carry out this mission.

Achieving a common business vision across all employees is a good caliber challenge and the first index of truly effective leadership.

2nd Habit of Results

Almost all managers are tireless workers, although sometimes ineffective because they are determined to do a good job based on effort, rather than results-oriented.

Why are the two or three RESULTS that it must achieve not defined monthly (be careful, not annually)?

The absence of this habit is not only ineffectiveness, but something even more serious: the lack of integration of all the functions and operations that it performs that seem to be each on its own.

3rd Habit of the Delegation

It is the habit of the development of the collaborators par excellence.

The delegation is the first habit to develop by professionals, without this habit it is useless to talk about leadership, change management, or talent, etc.

This behavior necessarily entails a high level of demand for responsibilities, it would not be good to delegate without determining responsibilities, both for the delegate and the person who delegates.

Demanding serious and well-done work is one of the best ways to develop people.

4th Habit of priorities.

If the above habits are put into practice, it works easily.

Focusing on what's important and the opportunities working on it, instead of focusing on continuous problems, requires a new mindset, another way of seeing things.

Developing people, developing the business, enhancing productivity and exercising leadership requires focusing on what's important.

A good professional only has time to do what is important.

5th Habit of Self development.

The exhortation "Know thyself" sculpted in the temple of Delphi and was treated by the Greek classics in addition to Buddha, Confucius and Lao-Tze.

It is essential to analyze your own Strong and Weak Points:

How he works, what his values are, what things he must correct that make him react badly, what are the nature of his main prejudices, if he thinks rationally or emotionally, if his reasoning follows a logical or intuitive scheme, etc.

An effective manager audits himself; he reviews his own performance evolution, he should even go further to the 360º evaluation, let his collaborators, his superiors and his colleagues evaluate him, in this way he would have a much clearer vision of what aspect he should develop.

6th Habit of Communication.

This is the habit that gives rise to communication, motivation, teamwork, good relationships and personal quality.

And in communication, greater importance must be given to ACTIVE LISTENING.

The Habit of Trust must be common for Managers and Employees.

7th Information Habit.

Information powerfully influences the employee's vision, giving him new opportunities.

It neutralizes "power" and makes the position on the organization chart less relevant.

Information is not data. They are interpreted and enriched data.

A good practice is to build and care for a good information network by consciously forcing yourself to capture and find new important external information and pass it on to others.

8th Habit of Change.

Every company has to be constantly transforming, so how can we fail to understand that its managers also have to transform.

In today's world, every 2 years at least and around 5 at the most, depending on the field in which one works, or has acquired new knowledge or has become obsolete.

Always training would greatly enhance your current strengths. It would make him a good professional into an excellent one. Discuss your best opportunity.

I am totally convinced that with these habits you can start working to develop the capacities or skills necessary to develop an almost perfect managerial function, but if we are not able to realize that these habits are essential as a starting point, as pillars of A good leadership, as much as we are clear about the necessary skills personally, I don't think we will be able to develop them.

Symptoms that something is wrong.

Many times we screw up, not because we want to do things wrong, but because we do not know that we are doing it wrong, in an airport there are blue signs that mark the correct runway would be the equivalent of the habits mentioned above, then there are other red ones that They indicate that there is danger there, in any profession there are signs that should make us perceive the danger of making mistakes, that we are making a mistake.

When will I know that I may be wrong:

I overestimate my strengths and ignore weaknesses and threats. I do not pay attention to the emotional world of the people I work with. Too high or unrealistic goals. Reduced or no capacity for recycling and learning. I lack empathy and poor communication skills.Authoritarianism and rigidity. Lack of improvisation and little ability to face difficult situations. Local vision. Lack of self-esteem. Lack of responsibilities Little self-control. Few ties. Not knowing how to share achievements or recognize the merits of subordinates.

IMPORTANT QUALITIES TO DIRECT.

There are personal qualities that can undoubtedly help us to have greater ease when developing the task of directing people, this summary is taken from Javier Fdez's course. Aguado MANAGEMENT SKILLS COURSE.

Being able to develop these qualities requires

WANT TO ACQUIRE THEM (desire) TO KNOW THEM (what and why) CAPACITY AND WILL (how to assume them).

“Only on you it depends, if doing what you must do, you will realize yourself or you will lose the opportunity. You are the author, you depend on you, you position yourself, you dominate yourself, you own yourself… No one will steal from you, but you can steal from yourself ”Tadeusz Styczen

EMPATHY.

I can only help motivate those who understand. Empathy is identifying what others want, for this we need to: "Get out" of my own environment and accept that I am not the universal model. "There are other valid visions" Then put on the glasses of the other, to observe reality from their angle. It is not identifying what others want from our vision of life, not everyone sees money, fame, prestige values for motivation.

SERENITY.

Serenity is not being carried away by impulses. It requires deciding in order, establishing the importance of my actions “Try to move 10 years forward. What value will this decision have today? ”It is also important to have the will to assume that order, not only thinking about what would be better, but putting into practice what is decided, the way forward. All this requires reflection, resisting even pressures, containing nerves and impulses but without passively waiting.

PATIENCE.

Patience is the tranquility that comes from living in order. Strength has two functions: rush and resist. It is precisely a function of patience to resist, to give time to time, but without losing sight of the decision. Only those who are patient with themselves will know how to be patient. Because self-control gives me the ability to understand that others will also have problems.

"Who is unbearable for himself, becomes unbearable for others."

But patience is as far removed from uneasiness as from passive resignation.

SINCERITY.

Sincerity depends on trust. Furthermore, without sincerity there is no trust and vice versa. PROMOTE CONFIDENCE: Show loyalty to the principles that I have assumed. And to generate confidence I must demand regularity in behavior. (Well, a single failure can break it and it is very difficult to recover it.) What should I do? I must be aware of what is happening, I must facilitate the sincerity of others, open channels of communication and, above all, properly manage the data. (When I get news of difficulties, problems, errors, "DO NOT KILL THE MESSENGER FOR BAD NEWS.") Sincerity always supposes respect for the truth. Sincerity implies, first of all, sincerity in words, and sincerity In words, it requires me not to say the opposite of what I think. Sincerity also implies sincerity in behavior.The internal contradictions between what is affirmed and what is assumed disrupt the subordinates and damage their scale of values. Lying expels trust from interpersonal relationships and spoils organizations, everything becomes appearance. Sincerity also means knowing how to recognize mistakes. When the mistake that has been made includes an unjust act, it is not only worth acknowledging the fact and apologizing, it is mandatory to return. If, for example, I have appropriated the merits of an employee, I must make public that the merits were his; If I have appropriated money, I must return it in full. To be honest is also to say "to the face" of truths that help others.Lying expels trust from interpersonal relationships and spoils organizations, everything becomes appearance. Sincerity also means knowing how to recognize mistakes. When the mistake that has been made includes an unjust act, it is not only worth acknowledging the fact and apologizing, restitution is compulsory. If for example I have appropriated the merits of an employee, I must make public that the merits were his; If I have appropriated money, I must return it in full. To be honest is also to say "to the face" of truths that help others.Lying expels trust from interpersonal relationships and spoils organizations, everything becomes appearance. Sincerity also means knowing how to recognize mistakes. When the mistake that has been made includes an unjust act, it is not only worth acknowledging the fact and apologizing, restitution is compulsory. If for example I have appropriated the merits of an employee, I must make public that the merits were his; If I have appropriated money, I must return it in full. To be honest is also to say "to the face" of truths that help others.If, for example, I have appropriated the merits of an employee, I must make public that the merits were his; If I have appropriated money, I must return it in full. To be honest is also to say "to the face" of truths that help others.If, for example, I have appropriated the merits of an employee, I must make public that the merits were his; If I have appropriated money, I must return it in full. To be honest is also to say "to the face" of truths that help others.

LOYALTY.

Loyalty is basically coherence with the word given, the willingness to respond to the commitments made. Loyalty makes me more of a person. The man is the only one capable of committing for the future and who then puts the means to fulfill it. If I give up my word at the first setback, the time that I am faithful to my commitments is likely to be shorter and shorter.. Those who already know me will doubt my word and in the face of myself I will generate continuous stress by constantly changing my intentions.

DISCRETION.

Respect the confidentiality of my colleagues, of my employees; I will never gain confidence if I air another person's intimate feelings or events. Reject gossip, whether in the form of defamation or slander. Do I avoid leaving the people I work with in a bad place? "Language control" is essential for any manager. The fundamental objectives of this skill are: To say what needs to be said, to tell who needs to be told, at the right time and in the right way.

PRUDENCE.

Etymologically, the term prudence comes from procul-vider e, see far. The responsibility of an organization to anticipate the future, to take measures that will overcome obstacles.

The enemies of prudence are:

Precipitation, which comes from lack of advice and leads to recklessness. Passion. Self-interest blinds decision-making, stubbornness in my own ideas, inconsistency, vanity, which prevents objectivity.

Personal approach:

A while ago I heard a maxim that said "motivation is a door that can only be opened from the inside…", I believe that we can apply it to many things to professionalism, the desire to improve, etc., only if we become aware and We want to do it, we will be able to improve.

What is the use of an imposed training course, of course we can get ideas, or even that it is so good that it hooks us, but what I have no doubt is that if we are the ones who demand training we will get much more out of it, even if the course is not so practical.

I firmly believe in self-training, I am confirmed by the evaluations of the people I lead, in recent years while designing my training I have learned to direct a little better at least that is what these evaluations reflect, of course I still have a lot of work left, but that is precisely what makes me continue to like my work, knowing that I still have to do better.

Typology of managers.

There are many definitions in terms of management styles, basically all are based on the predominant type of management when developing management functions. One of these definitions may be this (found on the Internet of course…) from a study carried out in the European Economic Community, among managers, summarizing five types of managers have been determined:

THE SOCIAL INNOVATORS (27%)

Managers open to numerous changes in the culture of your Company.

They consider people as a key resource. They will be concerned with the well-being of men and women as well as with respect for social values.

Your companies will try to improve your productivity through training and skills assessment. They will ask their collaborators to be able to self-train.

The ability to communicate will be a key factor in success.

This manager believes in the habits we have discussed to develop his work and enhances his relationship functions and interpersonal skills.

THE VOLUNTARY MUTANTS (14%)

They believe in important changes in their Company

They will try to reduce labor costs through restructuring and the reduction of indefinite duration contracts.

Progress will be made towards greater personalization of salaries for employees, their interest in results, and a reduction in working hours.

They are concerned about the training and satisfaction of their employees.

They develop their managerial work based on instrumental or managerial functions, but they also value and seek to develop relationship functions.

THE REGULATIONS (27%)

They are not very open to changes that may alter the way of operating or the culture of the companies.

Reluctant to any increase in the autonomy of their employees.

Promotion is frequently linked to the degree.

They foresee less restructuring.

They are managers who all their work is based on instrumental management, without much appreciation for the ability to delegate, they are not concerned with developing in relationship skills.

THE COLD (11%)

They are highly reluctant to modify either their culture or the type of relationships that exist between people.

The colds are above average when it comes to implementing restructurings and reducing the number of their permanent employees.

The "colds" are less concerned with the welfare of their employees than with respect for social values.

They are usually found in large or very large companies.

We find the dinosaurs of leadership, the only important thing is the benefits, and the function that best develop is to execute and decide.

THE CONCERNS (21%)

This type of Leaders reacts to the pressures of the environment without a clearly pre-established strategy.

The culture of these companies will hardly evolve.

Only a weak proportion worries about communicating values of their company.

People and their skills do not represent a decisive commitment to the future of the company here.

They are not concerned with proposals to improve employee satisfaction.

These managers do not worry about any type of function, or management, or relationship is the typical manager who only cares about his salary, who does not move so as not to go wrong in the photo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Master in ESIC Business Management and Entrepreneurs collection.

Higher School of Commercial Management and Marketing.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS COURSE

Javier Fdez. Aguado

Higher Institute of Banking Techniques and Practices

Internet Articles

The 8 Management Habits

Sergio Cardona Patau

Cardona Labarga, Strategy and Leadership Center

The Five Types of Directors

(Analysis of the survey carried out by COUTTS CONSULTING GROUP, with more than 1,000 Executives)