Heart of Management

Category: Diversity

Management of diversity in the workplace

  • A management tip (that I learned the hard way):

    If you start feedback with a “but” – you’ve already lost the conversation.

    I used to jump straight into feedback.

    Direct. Sharp.

    “Not accurate enough,”

    “I expected more,”

    “There’s a gap that needs to be closed.”

    From my side, it was just being straightforward.

    From their side?

    It felt like the end of the world.

    Then it hit me:

    Wait a second.

    I hate it when people start with that tone too.

    No one likes feeling like they have to defend themselves before they’ve even had their coffee.

    So I started differently.

    Something small.

    A sentence like:

    “I want to start with what worked well.”

    And that changed the whole tone.

    Not because I gave up on the feedback –

    But because I started with an open heart, not a pointing finger.

    It sounds simple,

    But it completely shifts the energy of the conversation.

    What’s worth remembering?

    The sharpest feedback is the kind that doesn’t feel like a knife.

    A good start leads to an ending someone can actually take with them.

    Good feedback is the kind the other person can truly absorb.

  • Trust

     

    In the next few posts, I plan to write about several issues which are in my opinion, the basis of management.

    I believe that trust is the baseline of every relationship, thus, trust is also the basis of every managerial relationship or leadership . It doesn’t matter whether you lead a single person (a one on one connection) or a team, trust is the first thing you’ll have to build, and maintain.

    I usually make a distinction between different levels of trust:

    1. At the first level stands what I call “Personal trust”, this is the basic level of trust between two people. To achieve this level of trust, people usually should at least know each other enough, so they understand in the most general terms, which common values they share and which they don’t agree upon. The best way to bring people to this level of trust is to make them spend some time together. A good way to speed up the process would be to facilitate a meeting with personal introductions and activities that will make each partner expose more information about himself (his personal life, his family, hobbies, beliefs etc.).
    The “Personal trust” is about knowing the other person / people on a personal level and being able to authentically respect at least some of his / her personal traits.

    2. At the second level stands what I call “Professional trust”; this is the belief that the other person is capable of performing the task at hand. The best way to build trust to this level is to give the involved parties an opportunity to watch the others perform their tasks. This usually require some time, so that each one has the chance to witness the other performing and getting the job done several times.
    The “Professional trust” is about believing that the other person is capable of doing his job.

    3. The third level is what I call “Mutual goal trust” or “Mutual mission trust”, this is the belief that the other person is committed to the same goal or mission that I’m committed to, and even better, that we share our views on how to achieve this mutual goal. In order to reach this level of the trust the involved parties should spend time to agree upon and clarify both mission and the path to get it.

    Often you’ll meet groups of people that didn’t go through all the above mentioned phases of trust. You might hear a sentence like “He’s a good guy but I’m not sure he’d be capable to help me” – achieved level one of trust but not level two. Or “I don’t trust this guy but he is surely a pro” – level two achieved while level one is missing.

    I sincerely believe that in order to get the best possible performance at any given task or mission, whether it’s you with your only subordinate Joe, or a leader with many followers, one must go through all three levels of building trust.

    That’s it for today,
    HoM (that is “Heart of Management”)