Are you doing the things you want to do?
Are you reaching your goals?
If you can say "yes" to these questions, consider yourself successful-at least for the time being, because success is relative. It changes with time and conditions. For example, adults and teenagers have different goals for success.
Success has different meanings. What one person considers as a successful achievement (for example, running a mile in four minutes or spending a day without arguing with the children) may be pointless to another. The meaning of success depends on your value system, expectations, personality, drive, education, health, and maturity, and, of course, timing.
Most people, particularly businesspeople, may associate success primarily with wealth and social status. For others, success may mean mastery of an art, science, or a trade and the development of outstanding work, or it can mean the development of good human relationships in creating and maintaining a home. For young people just starting a career, success may mean having landed the type of job they want in a firm they like. In the latter situation, further success will be associated with learning the job, improving work performance, dealing with workday problems, getting along with co-workers, gaining visibility in the office, or being recognized as an achiever.
FAILURE
One thing that worries many of us is failure. We also fret about not being accepted by our peers. These problems can be best overcome through education, experience, and self-confidence. Confidence can be built through expertise and success on the job. Success breeds respect and self-satisfaction, as well as more success. Assume an "I get results" attitude. Once you acquire a reputation among your peers for being able to get good results without flak and tension, you are on your way.
Success sometimes depends on seemingly trivial things. Again and again we are reminded in career development literature that people often fail because they cannot get along with others. Think about that. The most frequent cause of on-the-job failure is when people do not want to work with you, or when you cannot work harmoniously with them.
People may not work well with others who are troublemakers. Troublemakers, by habit or because of temporary frustration, may make sharp or upsetting remarks about others or the work at hand. They may be slow to cooperate, take negative points of view, or complain and spread rumors. They may ask prying, personal questions.
These habits can upset an organization's entire staff and cause a great deal of trouble. If you find yourself developing any of these habits, try to analyze the cause and take care of the problem. If you cannot handle the problem yourself, perhaps counseling will help. It's well worthwhile to keep yourself from allowing a negative pattern to become entrenched.
DELEGATION
Delegation is a way for managers to multiply their effectiveness while training and developing employees. When delegated, tasks are assigned to employees to be performed either under supervision or through report-back accountability. Successful managers know how to delegate; they are judged, in part, by their ability to develop subordinates. After all, it is management's responsibility to get work done through others.
Some managers, especially at operative levels, are afraid to delegate because they think the work won't be done right-it won't be done their way. Some managers also dislike releasing any of their power or authority. In today's complex organizations, however, it is essential that managers delegate for two reasons: to develop subordinates and to allow for company growth. If managers cannot delegate, their capacity to handle additional work is severely limited.
Delegating does not mean simply handing something to an employee and saying, "Have this ready for me tomorrow." Good managers discuss how and when the employee should report progress; they set goals and clarify instructions. Training may be necessary, depending on what is being delegated. Once a task is delegated, managerial snooping is not recommended.
Good delegation is assigning a project to someone else and trusting that person to do it right. It is a sure way to involve employees in goal setting and planning, because they must know not only what, but why, when, with what resources, by whom, and according to what priority. It is important for a manager and subordinate to agree on standards for measuring results, including deadlines and minimum quality of work.
If an employee is not doing well, the assignment should not be snatched away unless the problem is very serious. Making mistakes is a valuable learning experience, and everyone makes them. If a manager snatches back a task because an employee makes a mistake, that employee's initiative and morale will surely be damaged. It is better to give the employee more instruction, examples, and an opportunity to complete the job well. Once an assignment is satisfactorily finished, the manager should express his or her approval.
The following delegation checklist will help you determine when it is appropriate to delegate tasks:
- When someone else can do it as well as you or better.
- When you might do it poorly because of lack of time.
- When subordinates can do it well enough for the cost or time involved.
- When a subordinate can't do it as well, but your doing it interferes with something more important. Delegate and, coach the subordinate on how to do it, and expect less satisfactory results than you personally would achieve. If this can't be done, subordinates may be unqualified to do this job. You need controls on this situation.
- When a project will be useful for developing a subordinate, if costs or time permit, and if you can afford the risk.
- When it actually costs too much for you to do it.
- When you are spending too much of your time on operations.
- When no one can do it as well as you and when the time it will take you isn't out of proportion with its importance.
- When it's confidential or beyond what subordinates can handle.
- When it doesn't cost too much for you to do it, or when the time of passing it on would consume the savings.
- When you have to set the pace and pattern, to show how to take long steps.
- When you must keep close enough to see trends, keep informed, maintain control, and so on. If delegating keeps you too far from certain matters that you must be informed on, then the question is not, "Can the employee do it?" but rather "Can I keep necessary control by delegating?"
Successful management skills are developed best through a variety of firsthand experiences rather than through secondhand activities such as reading, talking, or writing. For example, describing the parts of a rifle will not teach a soldier to use it, or lecturing to students about the theory of internal combustion will not make them good auto mechanics. The same holds true for management skills. If you want to be an effective manager, you must learn through hands-on experience.
Obviously, not everyone is interested in a management career. Finding and motivating those who are takes time. New managers need a receptive and positive attitude toward the learning process. Recruits need to seek a broad base of experience and meet and work with a wide variety of people, some of whom may reject or disparage them.
There is no substitute for the right experience. Those who study successful executives observe that these managers have skills that are not learned in formal educational programs, even in graduate school. They are skilled at assessing and leading people; getting along with others and knowing how to make their subordinates feel good about working with them.
Good managers take personal responsibility for getting things done and accept the consequences of their actions. They also learn from feedback about their activities.
How do aspiring managers get the kind of experience they need? The seriously career-oriented person finds ways to combine academic training with opportunities to learn by doing-in school, in church, and in community-related extracurricular activities such as sports and scout work.
The do is essential to learning. Lectures, case discussions, or textbooks alone are of limited value in developing ability to find opportunities and problems. Guided practice in finding them in real business situations is the only method that will make a manager skillful in identifying the right things to do....
GUIDELINES
As you begin your management career, the following guidelines collected from the experiences of others may help to point the way. Try to apply them and make them work for you.
- Hours of learning lead to years of achievement.
- Equip yourself for a leadership role. Knowledge and techniques of management will help you be a better manager than someone who is not professionally qualified. Managers continue to need career education to keep up with new trends.
- Managers are paid for achievement, not for personality. Learn to evaluate your results.
- Pause periodically to take inventory: Where are you going with your career? Which of yesterday's goals have you met? Where do you want to go next?
- What changes do you want to make in yourself? Think about your personal philosophy, self-discipline, interpersonal relations, and education in relation to the cultural environment in which you live.
- The only way to become equal is to feel equal. Do you wear your anxieties on your sleeve?
- Do not undervalue the contributions you can make. If you were not important to the company, you would not be there. Evaluate your contributions realistically; then decide to upgrade them.
- In settling conflicts, keep your remarks brief and as impersonal as possible. Whether the other persons involved are furious or just concerned, the guideline is the same. Keep your cool and hear them out. Concentrate on listening.
- Become a skillful change maker. Learn how to introduce and implement change. Prepare yourself and your associates for coming changes. Create and introduce gradually the setting that includes your changes.
- Discipline yourself to make the personal and social commitments needed for success in leadership. It takes an investment of time, money, self, and work to succeed. Are you ready to make this investment?
