How managers can build relationships to keep everyone focused, learning, and committed

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Management provides feedback from customers to everyone in daily operations.  As they share the answers there is focus, learning, and commitment.  There is an illusion that it will continue but too often it does not.  Unfortunately, this failure to maintain focus breeds additional focus interference.   Over time, leaders naturally resort to managing the soft skills of customer focus along with the hard skills.  They manage customer focus areas such as teamwork, customer service, and collaboration.  This leads to more questions being asked by management and feedback being shared with operations – to let them know “How they are doing.” 

The Team Leadership Practice is the opportunity for a secondary asking process to involve your team members, customers, and partners (internal and external to the enterprise).  Through a proven “best practice” based on back-to-basics, keep it simple, do it now, and the entrepreneurial spirit this activity was a tool in growing an enterprise from 1 to almost 2000 operating units over 35 years – withstanding two of the toughest tests, those of time and growth.  The practice reveals that frontline managers can lead focus in three critical areas simultaneously.

·         Customers

·         Team members

·         Partners (internal and external to the enterprise)

While every manager already manages relationships in each of these areas they usually are addressed one at a time.  Leading relationships through a process of asking works with the basic human nature of all people to first build an experience of learning, and then secondly reinforce it with feedback.  Every manager can start the experience with a cycle of four action points:

·         Thanking and Asking

·         Feedback

·         Involve

·         Focus  (repeat the cycle)

Frontline leaders who manage relationships using feedback and do not follow-through by leading relationships with the experiences of asking will struggle to building long-term:  focus, attention, intentions, commitment, learning, accountability, ownership, appreciation, and recognition. 

Leading by asking will help a frontline manager get everyone involved, participating, and self-motivated.  Acting to lead relationships will help enterprises to:

.     Lead associates to receive an often missing feedback--that from their own daily activities

·     Keep everyone’s attention on what is important

·     Translate what needs to be done into how to get it done in daily operations

·     Help everyone take ownership of results and participate in the vision

·     Compliment and provide follow-through for existing programs and systems for the long-term. 

·     Help everyone stay focused and learn more about customers.

·     Everyone can demonstrate their intentions towards customers.

·     Peer recognition and appreciation in daily operations.

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©2004 George Reavis - george@thankingcustomers.com

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