On the same day as Wiarton Willie, Punxsutawney Phil and five of their marmot-meterologist cousins in North American come out to predict how much more winter we’ll have, many managers keep emerging from their holes to see how much more economic winter we’ll have left. Typically if its clear and sunny, the groundhog sees its shadow and hibernates for six more weeks. If it’s cloudy, the expectation is that there will be warmer weather ahead and winter will be shorter. Perhaps that’s the opposite of what you would expect – sunny = more winter, cloudy = early spring. In the same way, managers need to see cloudy days as a sign things will get better. Every day this recession goes on is a day closer to recovery.

Managers right now are coming out of their burrows, seeing the shadow of economic distress and predicting that things will be tough for a long time to come. It’s the same phenomena that strikes in good times – we think they’ll go on forever without a correction. And now that we’re in tough times – we think they’ll go on forever. Of course neither are true.

The challenge for managers is to keep their organization moving forward. I have had the pleasure of meeting with a number of companies lately that are doing pretty well – they have chosen not to participate in the downturn. They are focused on markets with lots of growth potential and that are profitable to serve.

Chart Your Course

As a manager, determine where your organization needs to go in order to be successful. Instead of being paralyzed and going back in your hole for 6 more weeks, be proactive. Which target markets do you need to go after that will generate the profit you need? What will it take to attract those customers. That doesn’t mean you have to go after premium customers. McDonalds and WalMart are doing well in the lower end of the market – the challenge is keeping your costs low and getting lots of customers to buy from you – that doesn’t work for many small businesses.

Stay Committed

Once you decide where you want to take the organization, it will take commitment to get there. Initially you will face resistance because others will not see the need for change or realize the full potential. Keep focused on the end result and taking the steps to get there.

Organizations are successful when they have employees who get things done instead of just talking about what needs to be done. There are many more people who are ready to either tell you what’s going on or what’s wrong or what needs to get done – there are far fewer people who will actually get it done.

How to tell the difference at work

- Look at who is generating the output and getting the results. They don’t just talk a good game – they walk their talk. Many of the best doers aren’t even good talkers – they prefer to keep their head down and let their work speak for them. That’s not to say that doers don’t sometimes need a little polish. It’s just that we should not discount them just because they are less eloquent.

How can managers do a better job at hiring and promoting people who execute well?

In a job interview, be very worried about a candidate who talks too much about their philosophy and less about accomplishments. Rather than have them tell you they are a team player – have them tell you about how they worked in a team to generate results. Have them be specific about the results they have generated for their organization; how they perservered with very little resources and still achieved results. For promotions – look less at potential and look instead at what the person has accomplished. There is a saying that men get promoted based on potential whereas women get promoted based on results. People who don’t get results need to be confronted, coached. corrected or ultimately weeded out of the organization.

In many cases, the manager themselves is not good at execution. Often they will make excuses instead of getting results. They then tend to surround themselves with like minded people and pretty soon the department, plant or company is not getting results.

Sometimes we want to do the right thing and yet we get the opposite to what we wanted. Lets call it the law of unintended consequences: Every well-intended action could create exactly the opposite reaction. Let’s look at some leadership actions that can create a consequence that was unintended.

Using an All Star Team to Tackle an Important Project

It seems like the right idea – get all your superstar employees together to work on an important project. Unintended consequences: You are not developing your bench strength and other up and comers may leave or get resentful. Your competition could come along and steal your all stars leaving you with nobody left to run the business. Put together teams that mix new employees with high performers – its better both in the short term and long term.

Being too Nice and Easy with Staff

Nice and easy might describe what a young guy is looking for at the bar on a Friday night – it is not what employees are looking for from their boss. Being too nice likely means that the manager is not saying some things that need to be said. They avoid conflict. They avoid confronting a performance problem, hoping it will take care of itself. Unintended consequences: Good employees lose respect for their boss. Poor performers do not improve. Everyone is less happy than the boss intended. Employees want to be challenged and they expect their boss to step up and tackle difficult situations.

Doing Things For People Instead of Helping Them Do For Themselves

We are compassionate and want to help people. When we do things for staff instead of delegating to them we can create an unintended consequence: Dependency. They often are not grateful because we are denying them a chance to feel good about overcoming a challenge on their own. We are also trapping ourselves in doing the same tasks over and over. Tell people what is expected, encourage and support them and do not take the task back from them. After they succeed – congratulate them.

February 26th is the Business Breakthrough Seminar at the Caboto Club. Register at www.LeadershipWizard.com

We learn best from experience. Even though the school of hard knocks is time consuming and expensive, no amount of management training can completely prepare you for what you will experience as a manager.

On your leadership journey, seek out and savour these valuable lessons:

Enjoying Success and Experiencing Failure

While most of us prefer success over failure, managers can get spoiled by success. During good times, it’s important to think about what is contributing to the success so you can repeat it in future situations. A challenging or even disastrous project is also a good teacher if you can observe what went wrong and how to avoid it the next time. Humility is acquired through disappointment and is a great antidote for excess ego.

Operating in Luxury and on a Shoe String

Managers can get spoiled by having lots of financial and human resources at their disposal. It’s good to learn how to extract maximum performance in these situations. It helps to experience how to manage when money is tight and there aren’t many people around to help. Challenge builds character.

Working for a Great Boss and Working for a Terrible Boss

Having a supportive, encouraging and motivating boss is preferred in terms of overall personal growth. A manager can also learn a lot from a boss who is either too easy on people or too bossy. The lessons learned help the manager decide what approaches he or she will use and which will be avoided.

Hiring the Right Person and Hiring the Wrong Person

Despite improvements in interviewing techniques and pre-employment testing, there is still a high degree of variation in hiring success. A great hiring decision pays for itself many times over while a bad hire will create much aggravation and soak up lots of time in addressing performance issues.

Losing a High Performer and Not Confronting a Poor Performer

Having a high performer leave your organization can be a major blow and it can provide good management lessons on how to retain top talent. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the poor performer who the manager avoids confronting, or gives too many chances and ultimately terminates and then wishes he had done so weeks or months earlier.

Dealing with Customers, Selling your Product or Service

Working in sales and marketing, especially if it requires dealing directly with customers, can give the manager insight and sensitivity to how decisions impact customers. Since the lifeblood of an organization is revenue, the manager can enlighten her staff on how to balance keeping customers happy with applying company policies.

Dealing with Conflict

Conflict is essential for organizational health and continuous improvement. The manager plays the role of antagonist, negotiator, and peace keeper. Rather than avoiding conflict, the manager learns to embrace and work through conflict as a necessary companion to change.

Battle scars help managers achieve success and be more adaptable to a wide variety of scenarios and situations. It increases both opportunity for future promotion and increases value within the organization. If you aspire to management excellence, seek out these learning experiences. If you are looking to groom leaders for succession, put them in situations where they can learn these valuable lessons.

Now that 2008 is behind us, its time to get back to work and make 2009 better than ever.

There are two areas that you can generate breakthrough results in 2009:

1. Customers

In a difficult business environment, customers are very fragile and need to have good reasons to part with their money. They still have money to spend. They just want to make sure they are spending it on the right thing. Instead of just discounting to cut price which hurts margins, think about how you can add extra value. Package your services to anticipate and give customers what they want. It is especially important that your staff treat customers well and be positive. Customers will be stressed out so the last thing they want is negative attitude from staff.

2. Leadership

Tough times calls for great leadership from managers and supervisors. Staff are going to be nervous about their jobs. Develop a plan that you believe will take your organization to the next level. Realize that even if your staff have secure jobs – they might have extra stress at home if their spouse has lost their job. Keep staff informed on what’s going on, what the plan is and encourage them to do their best. Emphasize both efficiency and effectiveness – doing the right thing and doing things as efficiency as possible.

The Business Breakthrough Seminar

February 26th – a full day seminar at the Caboto Club brought to you by AM800. It’s for managers, supervisors, sales people and customer service people. We will focus on how to generate more business, how to motivate staff, how to serve customers more effectively and how to build the ultimate network. The investment is $199 per person and tickets are at www.LeadershipWizard.com