New Supervisor and New Manager Training Blog

New Supervisors Understanding Conflict from a Team Perspective

2011-12-10T16:12:00.000-08:00

To be a successful, new supervisors and managers must understand and deal effectively with conflict - because conflict is inevitable. By providing new supervisor training, your managers can learn to:

Look at conflict with a new attitude

Shift the effect on the team that you are managing from corrosive to energizing

New supervisors can learn to "revision" conflict and to convert it from an impediment to an opportunity. New managers can see it not as bad but as inevitable. Well positioned new manager training should teach supervisors the skills to anticipate conflict and treat it as momentary while understanding how to resolve rather than avoid or deny it.

If you sense conflict, model this approach. Call the team together and ask if they, too, are feeling discomfort. Talk about what to look for. Plan to touch base again to share the data gathered.

Your team will feel more connected and more focused on learning together how to identify conflict and harvest the underlying opportunities.

Conflict from Corporate Culture Clashes

2011-11-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

Mergers, acquisitions and new partnerships are ripe ground for conflict. You need to plan carefully for change and provide new supervisor training to prepare your managers for the bumpy road ahead.

When an established larger company, for example, merges with a younger, more aggressive company, the two cultures inevitably clash. Appropriate intervention is needed to integrate the more staid group with the younger company’s more innovative business style.

There is also the problem created when people brought into an overall organization are treated like second-class citizens by existing employees. The new arrivals feel this arrogance and are likely to leave the company and take with them the expertise that prompted the acquisition initially.

However, in an Engaged Organization, where commitment is valued over compliance, this does not happen. Managers within the parent company who have been exposed to new supervisor training are effective at communicating the rationale for acquisitions and gaining authentic buy-in from all his team members.

The Influence of Authority on Conflict

2011-11-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

“Top-down” companies and fast growing startups are often prone to problems with authority when new employees are reluctant or unwilling to contribute their ideas because they feel locked out of existing groups. Direct and honest communication suffers, opportunities can be lost and nagging conflicts grow.

Authority issues also are factors in conflicts between the “Home Office” and the “Field.” If these two entities cannot communicate openly, real issues are left to fester rather than being addressed directly and early enough to avoid conflict.

It’s critical to avoid the “us” and “them” syndrome. With new and supervisor training, your managers can learn how to keep the communication lines open. The worst situation is when the Field sees Corporate as unresponsive and uncaring, while Corporate gets frustrated with complaints from those in the Field.

Avoiding Errors in Decision-Making

2011-10-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

A sound decision making process is often critical to success. Yet there are recurrent errors in thinking that can sabotage new supervisors and managers. As a business leader you need to make time for a thoughtful analysis of these errors as well as to provide new supervisor training that alerts your managers to these pitfalls.

Avoid costly mistakes to your business by watching out for the following errors in thinking for new managers and supervisors:

Too strong a focus on short-term business results without considering long-term consequences
Undervaluing the benefit of “generalist” leaders who welcome a breadth of ideas, perspectives and goals as opposed to “specialist” leaders with a narrow focus
Leaning too far toward alignment and teamwork if it discourages a healthy mix of ideas and principles

See that your meetings and decision-making processes invite questions on assumptions, a variety of opinions, and substantiation of proposals with data and logic.

New Manager Best Practices that Drive Sales Growth

2011-03-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

In a recent new supervisor and new manager quarterly poll, a large % of new leaders stated that "ensuring the best customer care possible" was keeping them up at night.

A small % increase in customer service performance can boost profits by as much as upwards of 50%. Research has shown that high levels of customer care lead to greater business sales growth.

Read more about some of the best new leader and new manager training programs, hiring practices and make the link between industry leading business sales revenue growth and service...

Your organization's new managers?

2011-03-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

All organizations, big and small, suffer from bad new managers. Stopping to think about your organization, do you know:

• The impact of a bad new managers on employee performance?
• How and when to rollout effective new supervisor training programs to tackle the issue head-on?

Search for the Right New Manager Training Resource. Right Now.

2010-12-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Introducing a powerful new Search Tool to help you track down the right New Supervisor & New Manager Training Best Practice Resource right now. Search this blog and the vast collection of corporate training communities and related best practice blogs with a single click.

Step 1 - Locate the Search Tool to the right of this post

Step 2 - Type your keyword search phrase. eg. Performance Culture

Step 3 - Click Search

Step 4 - Review the results, sorted by:

This Blog | Sites Linked to this Blog | Recommended Blogs

See illustration below. Enjoy.

New Manager Training Resarch Study Results

2010-09-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the past 12 months, we conducted an online research study where visitors to our website were anonymously surveyed across an area of topics related driving performance through investments in human capital. In particular, one such survey asked respondents the following question:

What new manager training issue is keeping you up at night?

From a list of predefined responses, here are the results for your viewing pleasure.

Improving performance & productivity--32%
Engaging your workforce--27%
Increasing bench strength--12%
Managing change--24%
Other--5%

How would you answer the above question regarding management training, new manager & supervisor training best practices etc.?

New Manager Training Best Practice Resources

2010-05-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

From time to time, we like to provide visitors and subscribers to this blog with a refresher on where they can find helpful resources devoted to best practices in the area of New Manager & New Supervisor Performance, and related areas.

We hope you find these resources insightful and relevant:

Enjoy!

Supervisor Performance Improvement in a Call Center Environment

2010-03-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

Below is an abstract of a front-line and new supervisor development in a call center environment focused white paper.

Rachel has just finished your agent orientation program and is ready to hit the phones. She’s passed the call center product knowledge test with flying colors and seems to have better than average communications skills. She’s actively using the new soft-skills she learned in the final phase of orientation and you’re sure she’s going to be one of your stars.

But you have this nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten to teach her something. And you ask yourself, “Is there anything else Rachel should know before she begins her ‘tour of duty’?” Is there any other new supervisor training she needs that will make her more effective in handling customer service contacts, as well as be a more satisfied call center employee?

The answer is “yes.” There’s one more piece. The missing link here is to equip Rachel with knowledge about the unique call center environment and how it operates. Let’s face it – she’s had to learn a lot in the last few weeks. And part of that training should have been an operational overview so Rachel can better understand the context in which she plays such an important role.

So what exactly do new employees need to learn about the call center? We asked agents and supervisors alike what the missing pieces were and below is their “Top 5” list. How many of these areas are you covering in your own management training programs?

Read about the "Top 5" list by downloading the entire white paper PDF..

SOS - Survival Skills for Managers in Tough Times

2009-11-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

As you read this, 25-40% of your workforce does not trust their manager. This mistrust leads directly to a lack of engagement, decreased productivity, and increased attrition.

If you think that these tough economic times will keep your top talent engaged and employed, think again. Now is the time that you're "A" managers are worth their weight in gold. They know it. Your competition knows it. Are you doing anything to keep the good ones aboard?

In this turbulent economy, you need your managers to be able to do "more with less." To meet this challenge, managers must have the proper management skills, practices, systems, and structures to help them (and you) succeed. Done right, management development should tangibly reduce employee relations issues, drive productivity and engagement, increase revenue, enhance product quality, and improve retention.

Research shows that organizations that make training available in tough economic times fare better and realize higher profits than do organizations that offer little or no training. According to a study commissioned by the ASTD, organizations that invest in training realize 218% higher gross income per employee. Moreover, companies that make training a priority are estimated to grow at a rate three times faster than those without training.

Smart companies view a downturn in the economy as the perfect time to invest and build their management bench-strength. By 2010, we anticipate a mass exodus of baby boomers reaching retirement age and exiting the workforce-leaving companies with a key talent shortage. That's why proactive organizations continue to spend on developing their new supervisors.

To reap the benefits however, management development must be done right. We define "right" as following a proven 6-step process to ensure that you create tangible business results for you, your managers, and your organization.

Identifying the desired results using a strategic link analysis, success metrics, and a business case blueprint
Assessing the current situation by aligning leadership and employees, obtaining buy-in, pinpointing skill gaps, and setting baseline
Designing the exact solution utilizing interviews, pilot workshops, customized case studies, predisposition letters, feedback systems, and individual development profiles
Delivering targeted action learning and performance coaching modules supported by a simple Learning Management and Implementation System to handle internal marketing, registration, reporting, and follow-through
Implementing coaching and following through with targeted job aids, customized mastery sessions, implementation focus groups, and individual skill implementation plans
Measuring impact and results of skill adoption on key business metrics including revenue, margin, productivity, engagement, and retention.

5 Keys to Successful Performance Management

2009-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you want better performance from your employees, the following four statements may surprise you:

Forget about making managers' lives easier
Dump your performance appraisal and "coach" moniker
Shift accountability away from employees
Stop paying them off.

While these statements may seem to contradict what you have heard about successful performance management practices, we have found that the following five practices break away from conventional thinking to help solve the age old problem of the cumbersome, ineffective, and often ridiculed performance management practices.