Communicating a Challenging Decision and Retaining Commitment

A manager in a technology manufacturing business had to run a difficult bonus review meeting with one of her direct reports. Under previous arrangements, put in place when the company was much smaller, the direct report only had to satisfy some basic requirements in order to qualify for his bonus. The manager wanted to change this situation, and link the direct report’s bonus to target achievement. Mindful that this was likely to be unpopular, the manager booked out a whole morning for the meeting in which she was going to broach this subject.

Using concepts she developed working with Sean, the manager first agreed a principle with her direct report: bonuses should be based on performance.

This done, they worked together to create a set of objectives for the coming year relating to a particularly important aspect of the direct report’s role. With the objectives agreed, the manager told the direct report that his bonus for the coming year would be dependent on the achievement of the objectives they had just created. After a short discussion, the direct report agreed to this and they set a follow up meeting to monitor progress towards the achievement of the first objective.

The manager felt in complete control in the meeting, and concluded it in 20 minutes, leaving a whole morning free for other work. She later reported that it was 100% successful in terms of creating motivation in the direct report and securing agreement to a difficult decision.

 

Increased Engagement

A manager in a financial services business asked a particular team about how he was perceived, and found out that they were afraid of him. He used ideas developed with Sean to overhaul how he dealt with the team:

• For the first time ever, the manager praised them on what he thought they were good at
• The manager also changed the style in which he wrote emails to the team, and where possible opted for face to face communication
• The manager created an action list for the month, and as the month progressed he praised the team when they completed each action

As a result of this, the manager reported that the team had become more motivated, more committed to what they were doing, and it was easier to persuade them to take on extra projects.

 

Stronger Leadership and Management for an Emerging Manager

A manager in a financial services company was part of a small group that attended a leadership and management development programme run by Sean. The programme followed the signature Mitchell Phoenix’ structure: the group attended a seminar a month, applied the leadership and management principles they had developed in the workplace, and then reported the results of this at the following seminar.

Here are the manager’s results, in the sequence they were reported.

Month One: A newly-promoted manager had a poor relationship with a direct report. As a result of material covered on Day 1, the manager decided his negative view of the direct report was not useful for the team or the business, and resolved to change it.

The manager had to bring the deadline for a project the direct report was working on forward by one month. Because of their difficult relationship, normally this would have caused friction. The manager praised the direct report, asked for their input, gained commitment, and had a productive conversation about how this change in deadline could be accommodated. The task was delivered on time, to the required standard, and the relationship between the manager and direct report was strengthened.

Month 2: Emboldened by this, after Day 2 the same manager ran an informal appraisal with the direct report mentioned above. The manager’s resolve was rewarded: together they decided that their priority was the same – to be part of a successful team. So, they put in place weekly one-to-ones where the manager could communicate his expectations of the direct report and how the direct report could give more to the team, and the direct report could be clear about what he needed from the manager to help him to do this.

Month 3: After Day 3 the same manager decided to involve the whole team in his new approach, and cut the length of time of the regular team meeting from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes by focusing on action points and noting these down with names and dates for completion. Quicker more productive meetings and the sense of achievement that completing agreed actions to a set timeframe created, increased engagement in the team.

Month 4: After Day 4 the manager felt confident enough to devolve significant responsibility to individuals in his team, with the result that they became further engaged. The team wrote the terms of reference for a particular process, which the industry regulator took up as a standard procedure for any other business which wanted to use them.

Month 5: On Day 5 the manager reported that market research for the organization had shown that the profile of his department had been significantly raised in the preceding months, people were happier, and the manager himself had more time to focus on the team’s long-term direction. The manager concluded that controlling our own prejudices, coupled with regular meetings, confident delegation of concrete actions with dates for delivery, and checking up to praise others on their contribution, means “you can make things happen quickly.”