It’s OK to be the Boss

OVERVIEW:

Managing people is harder today than ever before. There’s no room for down time, waste, or inefficiency. Managers have to do more with less. And employees have become high maintenance. They might disagree openly and push back, and they won’t very likely trust vague promises of longterm rewards. Most employees look to their immediate bosses to help them get what they need and want on a day-to-day basis at work.  How do managers tackle this huge management challenge? Most of them take a hands-off approach. They try to “empower” employees by leaving them alone unless they really need them or something goes wrong—they say that they don’t want to “micromanage” and don’t have the time to hold every employee’s hand. Of course, problems always come up and often snowball into bigger problems. Then managers spend too much of their time fixing things and falling behind on their “real” work . . . which leaves even less time for managing people . . . which opens the door for even more problems.

OBJECTIVES:

As a result of completing It’s Okay to Be the Boss Management Workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the importance to themselves, their employees, and their organization of being strong, highly engaged managers.
  • Describe common obstacles to being an engaged manager, explain which obstacles they can control, and describe strategies for working around obstacles they cannot control.
  • Describe eight back-to-basics techniques for helping their employees succeed and be able to start practicing those techniques.
  • Develop an action plan for applying the eight techniques in carrying out their daily management responsibilities.

 

TIMING: Full Day (7 hours)

OUTLINE:

  • Get in the habit of managing every day
  • Learn to talk like a performance coach
  • Take it one person at a time
  • Make accountability a process, not a slogan
  • Make expectations clear every step of the way
  • Track performance in writing
  • Solve small problems early before they turn into big ones
  • Do more for some people, less for others