The Agile Manager Skills That You Need To Have!

The goal of any negotiation is to find a way to reach an agreement with  the other side of the table. 

The challenge that we run into during this  process is that no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating  techniques are being used we need to understand what the other side  wants and the only way that we can get that information is if they tell  us. However, sometimes we run into situations where the other side is  not telling us the truth – they lie. When we find  ourselves in these situations, it’s going to be even more of a challenge  to reach an agreement with the other side. 

We need to know what action  to take based on what kind of lies are being told.

Welcome to the 21st Century. 

For some reason everyone seems to be talking about artificial intelligence as of late.  What’s the big deal? This stuff used to only exist in science fiction  movies and now it sure seems like it is in the process of taking over  the world. 

Managers are going to be affected by  the arrival of artificial intelligence and so it sure looks like we are going to have to make sure that we  have the manager skills to fully understand what is going on here.

If there is one workplace problem that managers want to find a way to solve, it would most definitely be the challenge of disengaged employees.  

What managers would like to learn how to do would be to understand how  to use our manager skills to better motivate employees and how to get  more manager training on how to build better relationships with those  employees. So the big question is what is the manager factor that is  most closely linked to employee engagement? Interestingly enough, the  answer turns out to be when employees feel they can trust their manager. 

As managers, how can we make this happen?

Ok, so I’m willing to admit it – I’m not perfect. 

Yes, I  am always working to try to become perfect, but so far I have not been  able to even get close to that goal. Most managers would say that they  are in the same boat as me. It’s a bit depressing to set out to try to  accomplish something and then despite using your manager skills you  basically fail at doing it. When this happens, because there is no  manager training for dealing with failure a lot of managers tend to  throw their hands up and say  “oh well”. It turns out that this is not  the right thing to do. 

Instead, we should all be doing what the U.S.  Army does when they have a failure.

Let’s think about your team for just a moment or two. 

The people on your  team most of the time don’t do things by themselves. Instead, they work with other people on the team in order to accomplish tasks. However, it’s that working together thing that can cause problems.  Interpersonal issues can crop up, personalities can clash, and managers  (that’s you) despite all of our manager training can provide unclear  directions. The result of all of this is that your team members can be  left with conflict issues and this can end up stifling your team’s  productivity. 

What’s a manager to do?

Let’s face it, the job of a manager is very much both team- and  direction-focused. 

Managers are the ones who need to use their manager  skills to set the course, ensure consistency and develop and reinforce  core values for their teams. After you get that part of the job taken  care of things become considerably easier. The rest of the job is simply  to hire great people and get out of their way. In order to be a  successful manager, it’s going to take a great team standing behind you. 

What can you do to make this happen?

Yea! It’s time to work on a team! 

How many times have you heard someone  say this to you? As managers of a team, we are expected use our manager  skills to lead by example and so we are the ones who are supposed to be  able to show our team what it means to work successfully as a part of a team.  We’ve all been to the manager training courses where we’ve been taught  about the power of working in teams. Sure seems like we should do this  all the time, right? 

Well, actually not…

How about if we agree to talk about a touchy topic: hugging.  

Yep, even in this #Metoo era, the concept of opening your arms up and  then enveloping a coworker in a big hug is something that is still done  in the workplace. You’d think that all of this would be going away in  our ultra-sensitive political climate; however, that is not the case. In  fact, there appears to be even more hugging going on at work these days. 

What do managers have to do in order to make sure that our embraces are going to be welcome?

No job that any of us have will probably last us for our entire career. 

What that means is that we’re all going to be packing up our manager skills and switching jobs at some point in time.  This is where things can get a bit tricky because none of us have had  any manager training in how to do this correctly. Yes, we may be willing  to jump to a new company to take on that shiny new job. However, we  need to realize that there are a whole bunch of ways that that a job  switch could go wrong. 

What’s the best way to change jobs?

Let’s face it. 

A big part of the job of being an effective manager is the art of conversation.  During an average day, we end up talking with a lot of different people  about a lot of different things. It would be fair to say that our  conversations have a lot to do with our ability to get things done.  However, then there are THOSE conversations. You know the ones that I’m  talking about. 

Dead-end conversations.