Five Habits for Effective Managers

Habit one:

Delegate don't abdicate... when giving tasks to subordinate staff we need to maintain responsibility for the result (the thing many of us want the least), whilst giving away our authority (the thing many of us want the most). In other words, effective managers do not forget about the task, they follow up to see the desired result is achieved.

Habit two:

When giving instructions confirm understanding by soliciting feedback... the worst three words ever spoken at work are, 'do you understand', 99% of the time to save face the person being instructed will answer yes. We should ask the person being instructed to repeat the instructions in their own words to ensure our message has been understood.

Habit three:

The 80/20 principle, 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers... be wise with your time and focus 80% of your attention on the top 20% of your customers.

Habit four:

The 20/80 principle, 20% of our staff will produce 80% of our results... we should therefore avoid the natural tendency to spend the bulk of our time ‘fixing’ our poor producers. We are better off if we support the top producers, who, because of their competence, are often left to their own devices (and can then feel unnoticed and unappreciated).

Habit five:

Traditional company procedures are viewed as ‘a guide for the wise and the rules of fools’! Being flexible and adaptable in business situations, rather than always following 'the system' in the current complex and fluid climate means we may well benefit if we are prepared to modify our attitudes and take a different course of action to the norm, (easily said however hard to do).