We all have to start with a baseline , managers are the vehicle that turn intentions (mission, strategies and expectations) into results. I have been doing this for a lot of years, many of my peers have as well – we are getting ready to finish up our careers and pass the baton to others. So, what are my thoughts?

• Management is probably the best and most challenging job around. If you really want maximum impact – sign up now.
• Great managers really do what many will not try or do. It all starts with the choices that you make everyday. Those managers approach and blast away barriers. Don’t shy away from the difficult task of stopping busy work for the really important work.
• Management is a social act. Sitting in your office is not very social. You have to get out, have conversations and develop relationships. Simply put: erode relationships, erode results. Get out there and bring out the best in others.
• You are in the middle and much is expected of you. Too many times I have heard, “that is why you make the big bucks.” Completely understanding the expectation (from your manager and the needs of your team) will help you chart your path.
• Time is critical. Look at your inbox (unread), calendar, to do list and count the instant messages during the day. Each and everyone of those are opportunities to engage and excite. How are you spending your time? Would you change anything?  Great conversations are worth lots. Remember, relationships = results.

There has been much written on management over the years. There has never been any new silver bullet to being completely successful. What I learned over the years, is nothing new. Remember to spend time on yourself (learning, developing and listening). The true important part is – How you apply the learning’s and experiences.

Company Z is a small company made up of about 200 folks. Enough to have some senior, mid level and front line folks. Got to have some bosses… Debbie is a new employee to Company Z, she is a project manager with a pretty impressive resume. She comes with experience and a passion for her work. Debbie starts out fast and really does good work. Her immediate supervisor, Brenda, finds that she does really well and starts to give her more of the meaty assignments. Over time, Debbie has proven that she is definitely a strong performer. What happen next? She gets promoted! This promotion moves her to a different team and now she reports to Bob, VP of product development.

Bob has been with Company Z since it started. He was in that first wave of friends that sat around the bar stools during college discussing an idea. He is best friends with the CEO. That friendship is his biggest claim to fame! Bob still tells the stories of that evening when Company Z was drawn on napkins over many beers. He definitely views himself as a visionary. Dreams up plenty of ideas and delivers on none. Many of Bob’s employees are very happy to see a new manager on his staff, as the last one was just a nightmare to work for. Debbie starts out well, she is working with her team and overall things are better.

As time goes by, Bob and his visionary style has an effect on Debbie. Bob likes to drum up the idea’s and dump them onto Debbie. There are no expectations, no reasonable understand of goals and just plain minimal thought put in. Bob’s way of dealing with not seeing enough progress is to belittle Debbie. He is short with Debbie and spends more time yelling and belittling at her. Debbie feeling the pressure starts to pass on same to her team. She is expecting them to pick up the pieces she is dropping. The team has seen this behavior before. This goes on for a couple of years, until Bob decides that he wants to leave.

A new VP is hired and Debbie decides to ask that she go back to project management where she has done a good job for the company. This management gig was just not her passion. Everyone thought that would be a great move. Debbie was extremely successful as a project manager. Problem was Debbie has not returned to the past. Her time with Bob, had changed Debbie – forever. Debbie thought she would be happier, but that just is not the case and decides to leave the company.

I think we all have seen some scenario similar to this one. Fact is, a bad boss can damage your spirit, career and passion. Everyday we all look into the mirror – do you like what you see? No, I don’t mean the visual aspects – just the work part… Are you true to yourself? Are you happy with your job? Are you doing your best? Are you Bob? Are you the early Debbie that is turning into the promoted Debbie?

How does a leader get his team members to engage in the team’s mission? From my experience this comes in different forms and processes. If you are in the military, like I was out of college, you learn that the leadership team gets it’s orders from the top and passed down to the team. There really is no collaboration with the team members to define the mission, the how to accomplish the mission has been trained over and over again till every member of the team can do it in their sleep and they usually are given all of the details. This top down approach probably worked in the old days of corporate life, but today I don’t think so.

Developing this team mission should not be something that the leader does in a vacuum and presents it to the team. The leader must involve the team. Helps with engagement of the team to follow the mission. The team mission statement should be one of the first things a leader should do in team building session when the team is first set up. The team is going to have to live the mission every day, so it better be something that they are committed to.

What are some of the key components that need to be considered:

• Reason for the team
• Identify the team’s “value add”
• Provide the focus of the team
• Identify the team’s purpose

The next step of insuring that the team is still engaged in the mission is to tackle the team goals, teams need goals for many reasons:

• Identify the results to be achieved
• Outline the actions need to accomplish results
• Draw up a road map for the team

In order to get to the goals, is for the team to work on identifying success criteria. Using those same teambuilding sessions – time to brainstorm on, “What does success look like for our team?” With that list the team should be able to turn them into meaningful team goals. Define them into short term and long term goals for the team. Be very careful to tackle too many goals. No more than five should be the starting point. Make sure that the goals are measureable and be able for each team member to track. Having goals and tracking them are not the end. There is the monitoring and course corrections along the way that the team should always be engaged in.

You know have now worked with your team to develop the mission that they are set out to accomplish, you have goals that they can track and with all of this the team should be very engaged in the team’s mission.