Kent Blumberg

The Elements of Great Managing: 5 Caring about the people you work with

[Part 5 of a 12 part series exploring the concepts in 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Wagner and Harter, Gallup Press, 2006.]

The fifth element of great managing is caring about the people you work with.  Gallup measures this by asking how strongly employees agree with the statement, "My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person."

Walking your business

I am a believer, and practitioner of the daily walk around my business.  If you want to know what's going on, you have to get out of your office and out on the shop floor or in your customers' shops.  Kevin Meyer has a nice story to tell about just such a walk, in Belize.

the Elements of Great Managing: 4 - Recognition and Praise

[Part 4 of a 12 part series exploring the concepts in 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Wagner and Harter, Gallup Press, 2006.]

The fourth element of great managing is providing regular and specific recognition and praise.  Gallup measures how strongly employees agree with the statement, "In the last seven days I have received recognition or praise for doing good work."

Note the seven day restriction.  Gallup has found that this qualifier is required to sort out high performing groups from also rans. While it sounds like a tough measure, the truth is that the best managers are always finding things to praise.

Tuscon Giraffe

I found this giraffe at the Tuscon zoo on November 5, 2006.  I like the shot because you can't tell it's in a zoo, and because the lighting came out just the way I planned (that doesn't always happen).

Shot on my Canon EOS 20D.  ISO 400, 1/80s at f/5.6.  75-300 zoom at 190mm.  Flash set to fire.

Simple processing in Adobe Photoshop CS2.  No cropping was needed.  Used a levels adjustment layer to get contrast right, then sharpened using the unsharp mask filter.

The Elements of Great Managing: 3 - Matching strengths to jobs

[Part of a series exploring the concepts in 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Wagner and Harter, Gallup Press, 2006.]

The third element of great managing is matching each person's unique talents, skills and knowledge to the needs of the team.  Mid-twentieth Century motivational writers and speakers often told us that anyone could do anything.  While that might seem uplifting on the one hand (no limits) it also was unrealistic.  No matter how hard he tries, for example, a 5' 4" basketball player is not likely to excel in today's NBA.

The Elements of Great Managing: 2 - Materials & Equipment

[Part of a series exploring the concepts in 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Wagner and Harter, Gallup Press, 2006.]

The second element of great managing is what the authors call "Materials and Equipment."  This is about the extent to which your team strongly agrees with the statement, "I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right."  In Gallup's database, less than 1/3 of work groups strongly agree with this statement.

The Elements of Great Managing: 1 - Job Clarity

[Part of a series exploring the concepts in 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Wagner and Harter, Gallup Press, 2006.]

In my last post, I summarized this book.  Today I want to explore the first element of great managing in more detail.  This element is what the authors call "knowing what's expected."

Gallup's data show that groups which more strongly agree with the statement that, "I know what's expected of me at work" turn in higher productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction and safety performance than groups which do not strongly agree.

Alligator eye

Another shot from Alligator Bayou.  I captured this one on March 17, 2006 late in the afternoon.  Shot with a 300 mm lens on a Canon EOS 20D, ISO 1600, 1/400s at f/6.3.

Processed in Adobe Photoshop CS2.  Cropped, adjusted contrast with levels, added warming filter 85 at 25%, sharpened using unsharp mask.

New Book: "12 - The elements of great managing"

The Gallup Press recently released 12: The Elements of Great Managing, by Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter, PhD.  The book is an extensive exploration of Gallup's employee engagement model, which is based on 12 elements. 

Gallup first explained these elements, and the research that led to them, in 1999's First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton).  That book, though, devoted only a chapter or so to the model, and was based on only a few years of research.  The latest book is based on ten times as much data, and is jam-packed with research results and anecdotes to help you understand each element.

Healthy skepticism

You read about a new idea in the latest best-selling business book.  Or a consultant comes to you with a novel proposal.  Or one of your direct reports makes an innovative suggestion.

Before taking action on the idea, a bit of healthy skepticism might be in order.  Otherwise, you may end up as what Adrian Savage calls a Management Fashionista.

Wikipedia defines a skeptic as, "...one who questions the reliability of certain kinds of claims by subjecting them to a systematic investigation."  So just how do you, a busy leader, practice skepticism?