TRAINING & EDUCATION Upwards, Sideways and Down: Part 2
Transforming Performance
In Part 1, Trainer and Conference Speaker Frank Newberry asked if you were a one-dimensional person at work; alone in your own comfort zone - or whether you were working with people from different parts of the organisation to transform work performance. In this concluding part, Frank looks at how we can begin to start transforming work performance by managing upwards and sideways - not just down
Managing Upwards and Sideways? Just to clarify right at the outset:
1. Managing upwards just means that you more carefully manage your relationship with your boss, and/or your boss’s boss, even in many cases managing a working relationship with leading board or committee members
2. Managing internally sideways means that you manage more carefully your relationship with your peers (people at your level) in other departments in the organisation
3. Managing externally sideways means that you manage more carefully your business relationship with your organisation’s customers and end-users. Even if it is not part of your role, it is worth checking how the work you do directly or indirectly affects your organisation’s customers. If you can see the connection, then you can get involved in sideways management
4. Managing sideways may also mean that you ‘partner’ with your suppliers, merchants and contractors
5. Managing downwards refers to you supervising staff. This is not the topic of this two-part article. That said, you can always get your staff involved in the process of managing upwards and sideways
Only a few people make time to manage upwards
Let us start with you managing upwards. In my experience, only a few people make time to manage upwards. More often than not this happens when it becomes a necessity, e.g. performance standards are slipping and you are not getting support from your manager. In this sector, many people are being managed or supervised by people from a different work background than their own.
Your manager may not have your expertise or experience in the work, and perhaps there is now a leadership vacuum, i.e. a lack of meaningful input from above.
Moving onto internal sideways management. Again, in my experience in small organisations, sideways managing is hardly ever done (compared to big organisations). In larger outfits - we may be
132 PC December/January 2020
fighting for the attention of our peers in other departments - just to get our jobs done reasonably well.
About 50% more important to your success
Moving onto external sideways management. Good customer relations and good deals from suppliers are vital, and we need to be seen to be managing our time to actively pursue both. As mentioned already - you may want to check your connections to customers and end-users.
As mentioned in Part 1 - upwards and sideways activities are about 50% MORE important to your success than managing downwards (keeping team members working well).
Also mentioned in Part 1 research also shows that - upwards and sideways activities are well over TWICE as important (as supervisory actions) for our career success. So where do we start?
We start with you!
A great place for you to start is to update your Job Description and the Employee Specification for your job. They may be vague, or out of date, or they may not even exist - great! Check around for best practice and then update the documents to show what you think would be best - in terms of you maximising your contribution.
Visit the key players (above you, sideways and down) to get their input on the documents you are updating. Incorporate their good ideas and explain how your updated approach will help everyone, then agree a ‘trial period’. Strive to make your updated approach work, then review and adapt your approach in the light of lessons learned during the trial.
If you do not yet deal with suppliers, you might want to give it a go for a ‘trial period’. You could do all the preparation and then negotiate deals for the manager responsible to ‘sign off’ for you. You can try out ‘partnering’ with suppliers on results and outcomes - not just on price. Give suppliers regular updates on results.
Time well spent
There is a Time Management issue. Getting around to everyone will take time, but it is time well spent. That’s why it is vital that you get a ‘trial period’ signed off by your boss. It will reflect well on your
manager if you make a success of your updated approach to the work.
Finally, here are some tips on how to approach people to discuss maybe doing things a little differently in the workplace. Research suggests that people seem to like it when you:
1. Show interest in their world of work 2. Avoid complaining about your work 3. Can see the funny side of things 4. Are open about what you want 5. Ask politely for their help 6. Offer to help them © 2019 Frank Newberry
Let great value training come to you!
A great way to help your colleagues and your boss to transform work performance is with one of our popular and great value, LANTRA Accredited Supervisory Management training programmes.
Proven, unique and highly interactive:
• Programmes are now being run exclusively In- House (at your place of work)
• At dates, times and durations convenient for you and your organisation
• At (or near) your workplace, all inclusive, no travel costs or overnight stays
This great value training will be preceded by some diagnostic work (at no extra charge) so that you get only the Supervisory Management training you need - and nothing more!
The LANTRA Accredited modules you can ‘pick and mix’ from are:
Taking Charge - For new or untrained supervisors and managers
Getting Better Results - For when the work team needs to do better
Enhanced Communication Skills - For when communication needs to improve
Problem Solving and Decision-Making - Based on your real-life work problems
Dealing with Difficult People and Situations - Whether colleagues, customers or suppliers
For more details on this programme contact Carol on 01902 440251 or visit
www.groundstraining.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
