Follow-up to yesterday’s posting from the Ask Tom mailbag:
Question:
What do you feel are truly the most effective skills that I need to think about as a new sales manager?
Response:
Yesterday, I posted the list. Today, let’s talk some details.
I listed hiring and firing at the top of the list. The most important skill for any manager is to develop the ability to select the right team members. The manager who selects the right team members makes all other management skills seem like a walk in the park.
The manager who selects the wrong team members will forever spend time trying to fix the problems that come from hiring mis-steps. And that time spent trying to motivate, coach and correct behavior will be the most frustrating thing in the world.
Take a sports team and put them up against any other team. To pick the team who will win the game, you only have to know the answer to one simple question.
Who is on the team?
Hiring and firing are at the top of the list. Arguably, the most important skill. -TF
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September 25, 2006 kicks off our next Management Class in Fort Lauderdale. Register at www.workingmanagement.com.
I do not believe “hiring and firing” are the key skills required. It is very important but not the critical skill.
Moreover a manager may not have the liberty to choose people.
A manager may choose the right people but may end up doing all the work himself. Another manager may choose “ok” people but may trust his employees enough to distribute work and also be able to keep their motivation level high.
“Trust and Motivation” are for me the barriers that a manager faces.
Harpreet
I have to disagree with your sports analogy. Small teams can and do overturn great opponents. A good team on paper is no guarantee of a good team on the field.
Surely hiring and firing are skills that are, or should be, rarely required? I could hire the greatest team in the world, but if I lacked good core management skills they would leave within months.
Thanks to Harpreet and John for important insights. It’s great to see thinking going on.
Dear Tom.
Again i agree fully with You.
5 years ago, i took on an assignment with a company that was very close to bancrupcy. It was quite small (100 people).
The key factor for the turn-around was rebuilding the team.
>50% of the staff was exchanged in 2 years (including all top managers). This is the very extreme, and should not have to happen, but it did.
Today the company has 90 employees, has made earnings the last three years, and people are happy, safe and confident again.
The last 2 companies i worked with, both with large scale problem situations, where changed, mainly by finding the right management-team, and they then built the rest of the team.
Adn this is one of the main responsibilities of the management, to keep the team together, and to keep them motivated.
And i also like the comparison with sports. It gives the picture in a very good way. The team has to share the same vision, strategy, and set the same goals and targets.
The winner on the field, is the one with the most skilled and motivated team.
Many greetings from Sweden
Timo,
One of the reasons that sports makes good examples for management is that so many things are even for competitors. The field is exactly the same size. The length of the game is the same, the ball is the same.
The difference in winning now comes down to management issues. This is why sports teams spend so much energy on recruiting talent. That is where the biggest payoff is.
Still, talented teams have to possess discipline, a good playbook system, technique and stamina. But all of these issues are so much easier with talented players.
I think a good management means
1)Making people work, with time-dependent attitude
2)Helping people work, when time-critical situation arises
3)encouraging people, work time-sensitive to goals