We conclude our conversation on how and why to delegate almost all of your routine reporting to your directs.

1. Why to Delegate Reporting.
   1. Managerial Economics 101
   2. Development of Directs
   3. Broadening of Directs
   4. Exposure of Directs
   5. Relatively Low Risk
2. How To Prep For Delegating Reporting
   1. Inventory Your Reports
   2. Segregate Into Thirds
   3. Delegate Bottom Third First
   4. Choose Direct Based On Skill, Need, and/or Desire
3. How To Handle The Delegation Conversation
4. How To Follow Up

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This cast describes how and why to delegate almost all of your routine reporting to your directs.

We may be the only place on earth in management development that is willing to come back over and over again to delegation. Because so many management theorists want to talk about the overall management of companies, or the theory of management, or the ideas behind management, very few of us, perhaps only us, seems to want to talk about the behaviors of management. What managers do day-to-day – how they behave, what behaviors they engage in, does matter. It does because so many of us intend to do our best, but don't know how.

Delegation is one of the un-discussed hows of management. Some theorists probably assume it's happening . . . but probably without really knowing exactly what it is or looks or feels like. Some others wouldn't give it a second thought. We know at Manager Tools that it's the fourth member of the Trinity, the one that's about building the organization's capabilities, beyond the individual.

Really effective executives are often seen to be over-delegating. Yet too many managers aren't delegating enough. We think that other than fear of risk of failure, the question would be – what do I delegate, and how do I do it? Here's what, why, and how, in detail, as only Manager Tools can do. ;-)

1. Why to Delegate Reporting.
   1. Managerial Economics 101
   2. Development of Directs
   3. Broadening of Directs
   4. Exposure of Directs
   5. Relatively Low Risk
2. How To Prep For Delegating Reporting
   1. Inventory Your Reports
   2. Segregate Into Thirds
   3. Delegate Bottom Third First
   4. Choose Direct Based On Skill, Need, and/or Desire
3. How To Handle The Delegation Conversation
4. How To Follow Up

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This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High D Managers: always putting results in front of relationships. People MATTER!

All bosses have weaknesses. In our first in the series, we said the error that so many High C bosses make is being so perfectionist that no idea is ever good enough. When someone else suggests something, they immediately "try to add too much value" as Marshall Goldsmith says, by pointing something that isn't as perfect as it could be, and other ways the idea could be made better. We said that High I's tend to start a lot of stuff, but then not finish well.

And for High D's . . . well, where do we start? High D managers are the most feared, and some would say most hated of all of the categories of managers. [That is, if you're just looking at DiSC behavioral analyses – abusive bosses are probably the most hated of all. Sadly, most abusive bosses are . . . High D's. – M&M] High D's step on others to get what they want. They're driven to achieve, even at the expense of the resources they'll have to go to again. High D's don't sugarcoat their communications, which is another way of saying their bluntness goes past political incorrectness into rudeness and into relationship destroying. They take risks that others would never take. If they win, they're celebrated, and if they lose, many suffer, including them. But only long enough to set another BHAG, and start thinking about Everest again.

Here's what to do.

1. Don't Assume Your Boss is a High D
2. Don't Kill The Goose For Its Golden Eggs: Get To Know Your Team
3. Results Don't ALWAYS Trump People: Invest In Relationships With Others
4. Mind Your Tongue: Truth And Relationships Don't Always Mix

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This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High S Managers: overprotecting your team.

All bosses have weaknesses. In our first in the series, we said the error that so many High C bosses make is being so perfectionist that no idea is ever good enough. When someone else suggests something, they immediately "try to add too much value" as Marshall Goldsmith says, by pointing something that isn't as perfect as it could be, and other ways the idea could be made better. We said that High I's tend to start a lot of stuff, but then not finish well.

And for High S's . . . we see you overprotecting your team, and we see you delaying decisions and change. We know that you struggle with asking too much of your team, and identifying with them so much that you hesitate when it's time to ask them to work really hard. We know you're less comfortable with the rapid change your peers might want, and so you delay decisions and actions, taking a "wait and see" approach. We understand you, we respect you, we're glad you're sensitive. And it's holding you and your team back.

Here's what to do.

1. Stop Overprotecting: Be Willing To Delegate
2. Stop Overprotecting: Don't Accept Reverse Delegation – Your Favorite Letter
3. Stop Waiting: Remember the One Third/Two Thirds Rule

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This cast recommends building relationships internally at your organization when you attend training events.

We're always getting asked about how to grow one's professional network, as busy as everyone is. It's a great question, because we do know how busy everyone is. The answer is really pretty simple – we've got to start combining the growth and strengthening of our networks with other activities we engage in. We get the sense that everyone thinks that somehow that we're supposed to work, and then separately go to some "networking event" where our networks will all get together and build themselves. It's certainly true that the fact that there are such things that bill themselves as "networking events" – often sponsored by chambers of commerce – makes it easy to think that that's how networks are built. That's probably most true for those of us who don't go to them! And just for the record – we hate the darn things, and wish they'd go away. We went to one . . . it was creepy.

But anyway, here's a simple way to add to your network building tools:

1. The Busy Networker's Principle: Build Your Network By Introducing Yourself
2. At Company Training, Meet 3 Associates
3. Follow Up and Stay in Touch
4. The Mother Ship Rule: Meet 5 Associates

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This cast describes Manager Tools' first principle about managing directs from different cultures, based on the Wendii curve.

We get lots of questions about managing directs who have different cultural backgrounds than the manager.

• How do I manage my Indian technology experts?
• How do I handle the Lone American on my team? Can he deal with consensus culture? Will he be a bull in a china shop? How can I reduce the chances he is a loose cannon?
• Will my German employee be rigid and require rules? How can I get him to open up?
• Shouldn't I be managing differently based on where my employees are from?
• How do I address the cultural differences between us?

The consulting and management advice and business press industries have all supported, frankly encouraged, and probably caused in a way, these questions over the past 20 years. It made sense, as our workforce became increasingly globalized and mobile. The idea started with, how can we be respectful? The question boils down to, how can a manager be most effective when managing a culturally diverse workforce?

Show Outline

1. Cultural Diversity Cannot Be Reduced To A Series of Anecdotal Comparisons
2. The Wendii Curve - Individual Diversity Trumps Cultural Aggregation
3. Manage The Individual, Not Their Cultural Background
4. How? Get To Know Each of Your Directs
   1. Conduct One on Ones
   2. Provide DiSC Profiles
   3. Share Your DiSC Profile

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This cast addresses how to manage a high performer who is arrogant or dismissive of others.

What do you do when one of your top performers is also a lousy team player? Or, put differently, what do you when one of the most irritating people on your team is responsible for lots of your team's success? Whether you see it as a producer who's a jerk or a jerk who produces . . . the approach is the same.

Do we want them on our team? YES! For now, yes: they're producing. IN the future, yes, if they change their behavior. We give them lots of feedback – positive and negative – about both sets of behaviors. But what if they don't change their stripes about others, and continue to tear the team apart? What then?

1. Give Top Performers Positive Feedback For Performance
2. Give Feedback For Their Team Transgressions
3. These Are Not Two Approaches – It's One Approach: Performance Improvement
4. Don't Stop Giving Positive Because The Negative Continues
5. Give Positive Alone, Or Before Negative
6. Keep Your Boss Informed
7. And If They Don't Change, Fire Them



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This cast addresses how to stop intra-office gossip.

What's that old saying? Management would be easy if it weren't for the people part of it? ;-) We think that epigram was coined surely by a manager who was NOT thinking about hiring those people, or promoting those people, or developing those people, or coaching those people. No, we think that manager was thinking about those people doing stupid, inefficient things like fighting and complaining and showing up late and wanting to leave early and dropping balls…and gossiping.

Gossip is a world-wide management distraction that will never go away. You hear rumors that Bob said X about Terry's ego, or Jane said Y about Darlene's skirt. Feelings are hurt, work suffers, somebody complains, and when you try to get to the bottom of things, there's nothing concrete. What to do?

1. "First, Set No Policy" (The Manager Tools Rule of Policy Setting)
2. Give Feedback To Those Whom You Are Told Are Gossiping
3. Only Accept Behavior As Proof
4. The Question Is – Do You Trust The Input?
5. Don't Worry About Being Right
6. Keep it At The Lowest Level

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This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High I Managers: starting well and ending poorly.

When we started this series on the most common failings of different types of bosses, we said all bosses have foibles. In our first in the series, we said the error that so many High C bosses make is being so perfectionist that no idea is ever good enough. When someone else suggests something, they immediately "try to add too much value" as Marshall Goldsmith says, by pointing something that isn't as perfect as it could be, and other ways the idea could be made better.

Alas, the direct who hears this doesn't hear, "this is good, let's make it better, because I would never suggest making improvements to a truly BAD idea". What they hear is, "this is wrong, and this is how I can make your wrongness right."

Oh, and by the way, if you're thinking to yourself, why wouldn't anyone want their idea made better, then you're likely a High C boss and you need to go listen. ;‐)

But what about a High I boss? What is their common foible? We said that many High C managers can be found in IT and technical areas. High I bosses, if you want to increase your chances of seeing one in the wild, are likely over in Sales and Marketing. (This is an overgeneralization! One of Mike and Mark's favorite managers ever is an off the charts High I working software development in the telecom space, and she knows who she is.)

The High I manager often is one step away from chaos in managing their work and their team. They don't plan, and they believe that their insights and network can solve any problem. They start work and then lose interest, and their team feels pulled in a hundred directions, and at risk of working on the wrong thing, never being sure (because of never being told which is most important).

1. Follow Through ‐ Stop Starting Stuff You Don't Finish
2. Follow Through ‐ Work The Plan and Make Sure Your Details Are RIGHT
3. Follow Through ‐ Report Professionally on Your Work

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This cast describes the first principle of how to develop subordinate managers - Measure Basic Behaviors.

One of the many ideas that hurts us managers is the fallacy that management is about personality. Just think about it for a second. Don't you know at least one good manager who is outgoing, energetic and a persuasive speaker? And then another good manager who is reserved, quiet and communicates little? Of course you do. The diversity of good managers' personalities gives the lie to the fallacy, yet it still persists.

Further, this idea promotes the belief that management is both unteachable AND individually based. Both are wrong, and counter to good management practices and development. But management IS teachable, and if we have managers working for us, we're obligated to teach it. But how?

1. It's Okay To Ask Others To Behave The Way You Do
2. Ask for Those Specific Behaviors
3. Measure What You Ask For

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