1. Bite Your Tongue, Hold Your Breath, Count to 10
Speak when you are angry. It will be the best speech you will ever regret.
2. Share the Load
Upon moving into a managerial role 15 years ago, the dedication and follow through that were among my greatest strengths proved to be a double-edged sword. Once I learned to let go, delegate more and selectively share the burden, it was beneficial to the entire team.
3. You Don't Know Until You Know
Communicate with your employees, customers, vendors and superiors. Assuming your target audience already knows a piece of information can lead to mistakes, misunderstandings and misconceptions - all of which can have a negative impact on the morale of your team. It's better to risk offending through reiteration, compared to the problems that can arise from gaps in communication.
4. SHHHHH -- Listen to that Little Voice
Don't ignore your gut feelings. In addition to research and feedback from others, there are times your own beliefs can differ from the initial consensus. I cannot count the times that we have accomplished work that was initially thought beyond our capability or with an efficiency believed to be impossible given our resources. Persistence and experimentation can make all the difference!
5. To Know Them Is To Love Them
Our work study students are trying to manage their class schedule, work, study time, sleep time, sports, and social time. Knowing as much as possible about each individual is very important for success. If you have a night owl, he will probably arrive late some mornings and those in sports will need to be off some afternoons. The customers you serve have similar patterns and constraints. Knowing as much as you can about the people you work with help to alleviate a lot of stress.
6. Care for the Caregivers
Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers. Provide training to improve your employees' skills and keep your equipment up-to-date and well maintained. Everyone wants to be dealt with respect, dignity and treated fairly. Identify the strengths of your team and allow them to operate in their strengths. Have the same expectations and guidelines for everyone.
7. Information Is Power
Stay abreast of technology. Embrace new technology and change. You don't want your customer coming to you with innovative ideas in your own area of expertise.
8. Out of Sight Out of Mind
Stay in touch with customers. We provide classes, open houses, email and network in person, as well as hang posters around campus reminding customers about our services. If you don't take care of the customer, someone else will.
9. Know Your Competition
Know your competition's strengths and weaknesses, as well as you know your own.
10. Ask for Help from the Obvious
We utilize a group of our customers as an Advisory Council that meets about three times a year and discusses software, hardware, service, quality etc. This group has served us well.
11. Woo the Whiners
React with a sense of urgency to every customer complaint or negative comment. Never allow a complaint to go unresolved.
12. Ask Yourself, Would You Do It?
Having been in print management for 15 years, never tell someone to do something that you are not willing to do yourself.
13. Do the Right Thing
You and your staff should always act honestly and with integrity. A shared understanding for the needs of the organization will guide employees to do the right thing. Always follow through on the commitments you make. Making rush decisions just to get it done and move to the next task is a very poor way to be successful.
14. You Can't Hear If You Don't Listen
After learning how often I interrupted discussions during a leadership training program years ago, I picked up on 'active listening' and started to recognize how much I and some others did the same thing. Interrupting, even to agree, stops progress, undermines the person speaking and gives the impression that the person interrupting just wants to move on. Active listening is a skill I work at constantly.
15. Measure Your Financial Health
Make the necessary adjustments to remain viable. It is critical to involve your staff in the budget process. The value of knowing specifically how their actions impact the bottom line is immeasurable.
16. Capitalize on Current Events
Seek innovative ways to capitalize on current events to the advantage of your department. For example, several years ago during that controversial Florida election with "dangling" chads in the media, we packaged chads from our punch machine into small packages and sold Bag 'O Chads. Sounds trivial but students and customers loved the timeliness and the humor which got our operation noticed.
17. Lead by Learning
During leadership training, the group was asked to write what their personal vision of sound leadership was. Mine was critical thinker, active listener, commands mutual trust and respect. A leader is composed, cool headed with an understated personality. A leader is a person who will let the team stumble and won't take over just because they can, but will help the team when they need it. Broad organizational knowledge is the basis to improve or change culture, productivity and effect decision making. However, a sound leader will also spend quality time in the ranks, learning, viewing, asking questions of the people doing the work with the intent to build and keep mutual trust and respect, which doesn't thrive on its own.
