Menu Close

lcpp109

TOC Next Previous

Management Approaches/Behavior

As a member of the LCCS management team, you follow the guiding principles and emphasize the management priorities shown above in your LCCS management practice. Within these principles and priorities, your management practices within LCCS focus in twelve areas as shown below. Under each area are the knowledge, approaches, behavior, and management techniques expected of LCCS management team members.

A.             Supporting and furthering LCCS’s mission:

·       Understand and value LCCS’ mission.

·       Value LCCS’ employees and activities.

·       See LCCS’ goals as personal action steps.

·       Be responsive to the needs and interests of LCCS’ clients.

B.             Participating on the management team:

·       Understand your roles with others, where and how you fit-in.

·       Work within the scope of your responsibilities and authority.

·       Follow LCCS’ policies and procedures.

·       See how your duties/responsibilities relate to other areas of the agency.

·       Understand LCCS’ budget, financial reports, and other management data.

·       Respect the confidentiality of management discussions and problem solving activities.

·       Support management when you or your subordinates are unhappy with policies and decisions.

·       Do not pass your frustrations and negative opinions down-the-line to your subordinates.

C.             Bringing leadership to your level within LCCS:

·       Bring the same energy and commitment to the job when things are not going well as when they are.

·       Accurately understand and value your skills and limitations.

·       Be well-organized and prepared when handling any job.

·       Handle tasks in a timely manner.

·       Take personal responsibility when you see something that needs done and no one is doing it.

·       Pitch in and work a little harder, do a little more when necessary.

·       Invest most of your time and energy in getting the job done.

·       Focus primarily on what is working, on what is going well.

·       Focus your attention/energy on how to get ideas to work and away from why they will not work.

D.             Receiving input:

·       Do not hold yourself out as the standard for how other employees should think and feel.

·       Assume employees believe what they say and do not intentionally misrepresent anything.

·       Understand that employees seldom complain when there is not a real problem.

·       Stay open to the ideas and suggestions of employees.

·       See and understand problems and ideas from employees’ points of view.

E.             Defining tasks and assignments:

·       Make sure a job needs to be done and is worth doing before having anyone do it.

·       Make sure a job can be done before holding employees accountable for it.

·       Provide clear structure and direction for your subordinates.

·       Help your subordinates understand how their jobs fit in with LCCS’ goals and activities.

·       Build on employees’ abilities and strengths instead of focusing on their limitations and weaknesses.

·       Give employees reasons/explanations when requested.

F.             Delegating responsibilities:

·       Clearly define and communicate your goals and motivations.

·       Be clear about what you want/expect from your subordinates.

·       Be sure employees know why tasks need done, why they are important.

·       Make sure employees know how to do what is expected before holding them responsible.

·       Retain general responsibility when delegating tasks and activities.

·       Do not delegate responsibilities that require your direct action/involvement.

·       Do not delegate a task and then try to manage it.

·       Delegate both operating responsibility and functional authority.

·       Delegate as much scope of responsibility/authority as necessary to get the job done.

G.             Coordinating resources:

·       Be familiar with and know about how to use outside resources to benefit LCCS and its clients.

·       Be familiar with and use all the resources of LCCS.

·       Understand and use the informal procedures and processes within LCCS.

·       Be familiar with and use the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees.

·       Make sure work and responsibilities are distributed fairly.

·       Distribute work and responsibilities based on employees’ strengths, preferred areas, and away from weaknesses.

·       Do not take advantage of employees who cannot refuse.

·       Do not take advantage of employees who are especially good-natured or cooperative.

H.             Supporting subordinates:

·       Do not hold yourself out as necessarily the best judge of how the work environment is for employees.

·       Advocate for the needs and interests of your subordinates within the context of the needs and interests of LCCS.

·       Trust your subordinates to act in the best interest of LCCS and its clients.

·       Give your subordinates as much personal control as possible over their work environments.

·       Give credit where and when credit is due.

·       Be sensitive to the motivations and interests of employees.

·       Be sensitive to the feelings and opinions of employees.

·       Value the varying styles and personalities of employees.

·       Be patient and tolerant with employees.

I.             Problem solving:

·       Anticipate problems and opportunities.

·       Deal with problems and conflicts as soon as you become aware of them.

·       Be slow to confront or argue.

·       Fit the intensity/forcefulness of your reactions and criticisms to the seriousness or importance of the problem or incident.

·       Be assertive but tactful.

·       Ask employees to help solve your problems instead of simply trying to get them to accept your solutions.

·       Deal more with the problem and less with the employees when employees are upset or unhappy with each other.

·       Be flexible and willing to compromise.

·       Do not deal with employees in win/lose terms.

·       Accept shared responsibility for assuring employees get their interests met, get a good deal.

J.             Decision making:

·       Remember and own what you have said, agreed to, and what you have done.

·       Work to decrease use of power and control and to increase your influence.

·       See each of your decisions as an opportunity to improve conditions for clients or employees.

·       Try to understand the what/why of problems before taking action.

·       Evaluate the cost/benefit of actions before taking them.

·       Make the difficult or unpopular decisions and accept responsibility for them when you believe it is necessary.

·       Be prepared to handle employees’ being upset or unhappy with you at times.

K.             Monitoring activities:

·       Understand that there are ordinarily several ways to get the job done and usually not a best way.

·       Attend to details without getting bogged down in them.

·       Understand the 80% rule: not until 80% of your subordinates can do a task right 80% of the time should you insist on 100%.

·       Give employees clear, frequent, and accurate feedback.

·       Spend more of your time telling employees what they are doing right than what they are doing wrong.

·       Assume employees are trying to do well, are trying to succeed.

·       If employees are not succeeding, assume that they do not know how, do not think it matters, or are being prevented from succeeding.

·       Teach your subordinates to work smarter instead of pressuring them to work harder.

L.             Disciplining subordinates:

·       Be quick to praise and slow to criticize.

·       Hold employees responsible only for what they can do and can control.

·       Handle it as a training problem when employees cannot do what you expect.

·       Handle it as an attitude problem when employees will not do what you expect; but be sure not to confuse will not and cannot.

·       See attitude problems as management opportunities and intransigent attitude problems as management failures.

·       Compliment publicly, criticize privately.

·       Before recommending or taking disciplinary action, make sure the employee knew what behavior was expected, knew how to do what was expected, could have done what was expected, and actually did not behave reasonably and responsibly.

·       When reprimanding a subordinate, keep it short, limit it to your immediate point, and finish by affirming the employee’s value and abilities.

CHAPTER SEVEN

TOC Next Previous