Frontline management

What an incredible group of participants in the Daikin Frontline Management program! They have not only learnt new skills – they have also applied them to benefit the business and to improve the way in which they work with their teams.

Here are some of their amazing success stories of what they put in to practice following attendance at the training sessions:

“The greatest asset I have gained is being able to better manage my time. I have found the simple task of starting a list of jobs to work on throughout the day has been a good way to gauge your progress for the day. I also enjoy crossing jobs off, as they are completed, as this can give you a sense of achievement.

Having defined start and finish times for meetings has also been beneficial. In the past, I could sometimes get held up for an extra half hour or so at my first or second appointment. With better time management skills, I will now make it quite clear to my customer how long I will be able to spend with them and set a clear agenda for our meeting.

Communication was a session that was also very relevant to everyone in our team. I learnt that continuing to type an email whilst trying to listen to another colleague was not only a bit rude but the message was sometimes not taken in properly or misunderstood.

It also becomes very clear that you are missing out on five or six types of non verbal communication when you don’t pay enough attention to the person relaying the message. Nowadays I will say to the message giver something along the lines of’ could you just hold on for a minute and I will be with you ‘or ‘I have to get this email or phone call, I will come up and see you to discuss whatever in ten minutes or so’.

I like the phrase we were given two ears and one mouth and they should be used proportionally. Active listening was a real ear opener, for me, a few little things I picked up from this session were Place the focus of attention totally on the ‘speaker, Repeat tentatively (in your words) your understanding of the speaker’s meaning, Allow silences in the conversation and most importantly - Be aware of your body language. “

Another participant comments as follows:

“I have increased my emphasis on personal effectiveness. This has involved things such as;

• Consideration of the Time Management Matrix is helping me when I am sorting out my tasks and determining the most appropriate priorities (put them in the relevant quadrant, urgent or non-urgent, important vs not so important).
• I am paying more attention to regularly updating my To Do List and reviewing the priorities of the tasks in the list.
• I am scheduling non-urgent tasks to a more suitable time rather than letting them distract me from current tasks.
• I now schedule time to attend to email. This has reduced interruptions

When possible I have been trying to set SMART Goals for the planned tasks that I do. This has helped me focus on what is really required and when it is required. This is also helping me manage having a number of tasks on the go at the same time.

I was interested in the session where we discussing the differences between managing and leading, where managing deals with day to day issues and leading is more about dealing with change and setting direction.

This is very relevant to the projects that we do in IT where we are designing and implementing new processes and functionality for the business.

It is not just a matter of building something and handing it over to the business users. We need to ensure that there is effective change management so that the new development takes the business in the right direction with the right results.

The course has reiterated the importance of having a good understanding of people in order to effectively communicate and interact with them. When dealing with people I am focusing more on trying to understand their objectives and why they behave the way that they do.

When having a discussion I am trying to ask more questions in order to gain a better understanding of the situation. I am also more aware that depending upon the person I may need to vary the way that I communicate with them.

In terms of being innovative, read this wonderful story that has made a difference to customers:

- My first idea was to set up a central tenders email address. Due to numerous changes in staff and an increase in quotation requests, quotes were not going out on time and there were too many emails going between staff and there was a double up on quotes.

- I discussed with internal sales and other commercial account managers that we should have a central place for all request to come to, got feedback from all on how it should be done. I suggested a process on what would not add to anyone persons workload but make all our jobs hassle-free and assist our customers

- I received great feedback and made changes to way we monitored it. I then took the lead in getting management to set up a new email address and then notified everyone. It has now been running well and both customers and internal staff have benefited from quotes going out on time.”

Well done to the class of 2010 - may you go from strength to strength in your management and leadership skills.

Frontline Management - why now?

I am often asked about why it is important to hold nationally recognised qualifications.
Some organisations prefer to do training that is needed simply to fill skills gaps and do not want to spend the time or the money linking these immediate needs to training packages.
There is certainly an argument though that, particularly when the labour market tightens, individuals who have sent themselves a clear career path value qualifications. National certificates and diplomas are are worth their weight in gold in terms in terms of creating the entry point into a job.
As an article in the My Career section of the Sydney Morning Herald on November 1-2, 2008 briefly mentions, in a tighter marketplace the key action items to holding a job and progressing career prospects are:
Upgrade your qualifications and nurture your networks.
Your viewpoints are welcome!

Innovate or Evaporate

As part of the SHRI conference we paid an on-site visit to the PHILIPS innohub - a most amazing centre for innovation and experimentation for the Philips group. New inventions are on display including an ironing board with a built in steamer and jacket refresher that clears odours. There is also lighting that changes colours to enhance moods and lighting that is more enviro-friendly yet as bright as conventional lighting.
The presentation from the team who work with Philips in this centre included some great discussion on what makes for innovation. They quoted Steve Jobs from Apple as saying, "Innovation is teamwork" but acknowledged that there are so many different versions and understandings of what innovation could be. At Philips, Innovation is understood to mean "creating new value and bringing it successfully to market."
Ideas are seen as the start of the journey. For all these ideas to generate, there cannot be silos and people have to be actively connected.
How does one ensure that innovation is stimulated throughout the organisation? People need to be encouraged to come up with the small ideas that could make the difference.
At the innohub, there are idea generation workshops to actively harness the creativity and to try things out through simulation.
There is also a focus on seeing the vision and exploring the options. As part of this process, story-telling is seen as vital.
One area where companies are using innovative thinking is to go beyond customer service and enter into the realm of staging customer experiences.
Companies are looking to be more than simply the sellers of goods and services and want to transform into centres of excellence.
As Proust writes, "The real voyage of discovery consists not of seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes."
In a diverse team with different people moving into different roles, we could meet this challenge.
This is all about looking for the small improvements that can result from small ideas and thereby setting the scene for continuous innovation.

Management and Leadership

We have been conducting the Toll Supervisory program and some interesting insights have come to mind that could be applied in other organisations who are implementing the Frontline Management program:
1. We ensured that there were guest speakers from within the business who came along to share their experiences and their 'war stories'. This has allowed the participants to meet members of the senior management team who they would not usually encounter and also to feel more engaged with the business.
2. Where speakers were not available, they have been filmed and shown to other centres who have then discussed some of the suggestions and ideas.
3. Sessions have been video'ed to allow participants who are away to keep up with the program and to ensure that there is continuity. These DVD's are available to all participants as well if they would like to revise any aspect of the program and it would reinforce some of what was learnt.
4. As we had run focus groups prior to the commencement of the training, the case studies and scenarios have hit directly at the types of situations that the supervisors confront. This has ensured that the skills needed to deal effectively with the issues are being practised in the training room.

Performance Appraisal

I listened in on a performance appraisal training session at a major insurance company.
Some notions that came to mind:

As an HR manager one should clarify what intention of the session is. It is essential to have a very clearly understanding of what is the outcome to be achieved. Is the intention to have managers and team members understand the appraisal document and process OR to ensure that people have the skills to deal with the appraisal session OR all of the above.

Performance appraisals are such a touchy topic – they touch on $’s. Get the organisation to state very clearly where remuneration fits in appraisal.
Try to ensure that there is someone internal to the organisation who is capturing the developing ideas and feedback from the session. So many suggestions that came out during the session were not heard and were not recorded therby lost to the organisation.
Be prepared for the questions. Spend time pre-empting all the types of possible and probable questions that could arise during the session. Receive input from a range of people in the organisation as to the types of questions that could arise. List these questions. Rehearse, replay and rehearse again answers to these questions. Get your wording right.
During the session get the questions out on the table. Rather raise the concerns in the room - this is far better than people leaving the room and setting off a range of grapevining amongst themselves. The more transparent the session, the less noise there will be afterwards.
Ask: "Your views please" and "What are the questions?” Not: “Are there any questions?”
Get team members to work in groups to come up with questions; list them on a flip chart. Call for people to comment and do not shy away from the questions – this creates the feeling that the organisation has a hidden agenda.
Make everything as visible as possible. Don’t just talk - use hand-outs, diagrams, posters, powerpoint slides. Say your key messages again and again. People hear what they want to hear. Offering the same message in different ways allows a better opportunity for the group to absorb the message.