The Management Funnel
I imagine each of you has heard of the sales funnel - the process of moving from initial contact to closing. Until a recent conversation with one of my clients, however, I had never heard of the management funnel.
Let me combine a few principles to illustrate my version of the management funnel.
Leadership vs. Management
Everything DiSC - the assessment products that can transform your team and business - are built on a distinction between leadership as a one-to-many relationship and management as a one-to-one relationship. This distinction makes sense and has a couple of benefits. First, it doesn't privilege leadership over management - both are significant and both contribute to the success of an organization. Second, it helps to clarify how some people are successful at one without being successful at both.
Management focuses on those one-to-one relationships where a supervisor influences the behaviors and attitudes of direct reports so that the individual and team succeed.
Three Keys to Success in Any Area of Life
The three keys to success in any area of life are: 1) Natural ability, 2) Training, and 3) Practice. When a person excels in each of these areas you have the makings of a superstar.
The factor we often overlook is training. It's easy in our culture to talk about self-made people, focusing our attention on natural ability and practice (or effort). But there are few examples of success that don't involve the influence of others through some form of training.
The Management Funnel (see illustration below)
In the sales funnel the movement is from the large opening where you have many contacts to the narrow opening where you close sales. So the movement is from good to better.
In the management funnel the movement is from the large opening which is preferable to the narrow opening which is less desirable. The manager's interactions with the direct report are the funnel and the direct report is in the funnel. At the large end of the funnel is the direct report who is exceeding expectations. That person has a great deal of latitude - freedom in which to operate without direct contact with the manager. As the direct report struggles to meet expectations he/she moves to the narrow end of the funnel where there is little freedom of movement - the direct report has more contact with the manager who must provide enhanced supervision.
This helps to illustrate why certain behaviors are tolerated differently among employees. This will never be seen as fair by employees, but is the reality of business. Being on time to meetings is a positive behavior for all employees, but I may tolerate tardiness with an employee who exceeds expectations in the areas that matter most to me and the organization while finding similar behavior unacceptable when it comes from an employee who is struggling to meet the basic expectations of the role. Similarly a high performing employee may have greater latitude with expenditures than a struggling employee. Clearly performance is tied to trust and trust influences the need for direct supervision and the degree of freedom one enjoys.
Caveat
Yes, it is true, I tell clients not to spend the bulk of their time on their underperforming team members. Yet the management funnel makes it appear that you are doing exactly that. While you are coaching your achievers to greater success, you are coaching your underachievers either up or out of the organization. That process of up or out should be of limited duration and the vast majority of your team members should be either meeting or exceeding expectations. So, I still contend that most of your time should be spent developing your better performers.
Application
How are you operating within the management funnel? If you supervise others, are you providing the appropriate freedom based on performance? If you are being supervised, are you exhibiting the behaviors and attitudes that will enhance trust and increase your freedoms?
Have you learned that management is a one-to-one relationship requiring you to supervise each employee differently? (Think parenting.)
Are you providing the training and encouraging the practice that will allow your direct reports to achieve success as they combine these elements with their natural ability?
At Julian Consulting we help you to successfully implement the management funnel! Call TODAY to determine how we can best serve you and your team.