I've been invited to assist with the development of a company stategy for management style. I would like some advice on how to sell what I've learnt through manager tools to those that need to know.
The background to this is that we have recently undertaken a staff survey and the results varied from the reasonably good down to very poor in the 'my manager' section. We are from a different industry but those that saw the recent comms regarding Google should have an idea of where we are. We are a group of experts promoted without a clear direction on what good looks like for management. There are some great people here but others see management as a chore.
I would like us to promote the management trinity into our culture as I am sure it would not only vastly improve the engagement of our staff but hit the right notes for the staff survey.
My real issue is that I've been invited in as a recently promoted middle manager and I know there will be a number of higher ranking managers. Any advice anyone can offer on how best to approach this opportunity would be appreciated.
Thanks
Nick
To sell
To sell anything:
Identify your customer
Understand your customer's needs
Present your solution in such a way that the customer understands how it addresses their needs
Provide after-sales support in such a way that it encourages follow-up sales
Your customers, in this case, are the rest of the management team.
If this is your first middle-management gig, you're likely to have a hard time selling a set of techniques based on "I've been listening to this really great podcast, and I think all of you should try it." You'll probably have a better time with "I've been listening to an interesting podcast, and I want to try it, does anyone want to try it with me so that they can help me evaluate it?"
Nick's point is good
I think that's a useful approach: not "I have the answer," but "let's try this out and see what we think," even though you're pretty sure a serious implementation of Manager Tools behaviors will be a big help.
One thing I got out of the article I read about the Google survey results was that it only reinforced the point about managing X being a different skill than doing X. It's something we all know, but it's nice to see new evidence that audiences will find credible.
flexiblefine
Houston, Texas, USA
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