Author/Reprinter: China Project Management Resources Network
Many, many histories can cultivate a little tradition, and many, many traditions can cultivate a little culture.
From today's point of view, some traditional management practices are mistakes that should be avoided in the past or now. Anyone will make mistakes, and those who do not make any mistakes must also be those who do nothing. The question is how do we avoid making mistakes? Generally speaking, there are 11 mistakes that managers (supervisors) are easy to get lost and make. They should be our valuable indicators for review and reflection. It is like a ruthless mirror that requires us to face it bravely and learn from our mistakes. Valuable lessons and experience have made myself a successful and effective supervisor.
Refusal to take personal responsibility
Once something went wrong, the chairman called me to scold me. I told the chairman that it was my fault, and I never said whose fault it was in front of the chairman. When I got back to the office, I called a few vice presidents over and told them in the first sentence that when I was scolded by the chairman just now, I didn’t say any of you. Responsibility, but you made such a mistake for me.
If I say in front of the chairman that this is the fault of Vice President Xu, this is the fault of Vice President Zhao, and this is the fault of Vice President Wang, the chairman will only say one sentence: General Manager Yu, I’ll treat you for nothing, if Today is their fault, what are you doing? If I were told by him like this, I would have no face to stay. So in front of the chairman of the board, I provoke it on one shoulder. This is called taking responsibility. What is wrong is wrong? Why should I shirk the responsibility on others? The most important thing is to admit your mistakes boldly, then think of ways to solve the problem, and learn from experience and lessons.
Effective managers will always take personal responsibility for the results of things, and will not easily pass the trouble to others. US President Truman once hung a striking slogan on the door of his office: "buckets stop here!" It means that the problem ends here and will not be passed on to others. Every supervisor should take this sentence as his motto.
There are two kinds of people in the world, one is trying to defend, and the other is constantly behaving. Supervisors should try their best to behave, less excuses, and dare to take responsibility. When there is a problem, see if it is your own cause? When you are going to ask your boss for advice, ask yourself if you have taken up your responsibilities, do you have to enter the boss's door? In short, we must always remember the words of Steven Brown, a well-known American management consultant: If managers want to exert management effectiveness, they must have the courage to assume responsibility.
Not to inspire subordinates
The so-called enlightenment refers to the education of any person, anytime and anywhere. Whenever you see that your subordinates are wrong, you can be inspired, even the guards can be inspired, but many people in charge are often unwilling to open their mouths. Once I saw a clerk writing an envelope, and he made a mistake, so I immediately called the others together. Please see, this envelope should be written as "General Manager Liu" with 4 characters as big as "General Manager" 3. The word should not be lowercase, as if someone is not worthy of being a general manager; instead, it is a mistake to capitalize the name, and the name should be avoided and small; it is wrong to write respectfully afterwards, and respectfully open it, so why should people respectfully open it? turn on? When writing to the general manager, you should write Daqi, Junqi, or Qiqi, so that you can be polite.
This is called opportunity education. I spend a lot of time in education in the company, but it is hard work before the ease. Don't forget that 70% of the education of your subordinates depends on you. However, some people say that education is a matter for the human resources department. This idea is wrong. A supervisor should take 70% of the responsibility to educate his subordinates, and only 30% of the responsibility lies in the human resources department, and the human resources department only takes care of basic education. The real supervisor should have professional education, not "graze the cows", and seize any opportunity to inspire your subordinates.
Only emphasize the result, not the thought
People must first have thoughts, then thoughts, touches, and finally become behaviors, and after a long time it becomes a habit. It is difficult for behavior to become a habit. The writer Chen Zhifan has a sentence in the book "Cambridge Reflections": Many, many histories can cultivate a little tradition, and many, many traditions can cultivate a little culture. It can be seen that culture is a habit for many years, and it is not easy to develop a habit. For example, the concept of punctuality is a kind of thought, a kind of behavior, if you turn it into a habit, it will form a culture. The world powers have very strong time concepts.
Many bosses like to say: Don't tell me the process, I only need the result. This statement sounds very handsome, very individual and graceful. If you are an army commander or a division commander, you can order your subordinates and your brothers to take that mountain down to me. Don’t tell me how much blood was shed. I have no impression of blood; don’t tell me how many people die, I don’t care, I Just ask me to take the mountain top before noon today.
Yes, this concept is emphasized in the military, and many bosses like to have this style. However, today we are doing business, not asking our subordinates to die. We should emphasize thinking. If you don't reverse his thinking, it is useless to say 100 times.
If your subordinates follow you and their minds do not grow, they are the same when they come in and when they leave, you cannot be a successful supervisor, and he will have resentment towards you. The thoughts of subordinates are educated and indoctrinated by supervisors, and supervisors should educate them like their own children. If you don't teach him thoughts, he will have no thoughts, and it will not be possible to produce touches. Without touches, it will not develop behaviors. Without it, it will be impossible to produce habits.
Non-discriminatory management
Everyone has to go through family, school and social education. We can no longer control how his parents educate them; we have no time to pursue what his teacher told him at the beginning. The supervisor should be their "parents" and have the responsibility to educate them. The problem is that everyone has different backgrounds, different personalities, and different experiences. No two people in the world are exactly the same. So how should we educate? That is the rejection of equal management. One key can only open one lock, not all locks with one key. For example, when criticizing people, you can criticize the thick-skinned people in public; for those who love face, you should call the office to talk alone.
It takes some thought to be a supervisor, to study your subordinates, to understand and judge from their behaviors, movements, eyes, language, and thoughts. If he likes money very much, let him do sales; he is very careful and can let him do design work; he only looks at people on the ground and is suitable for keeping warehouses; people who use calculators for meals should be accountants; mother-in-law’s People do customer service; those who can’t sit still let him do field work. This is called using people to use strengths. The worst thing is to treat people as the same. Different families and different schools nurture different people. Each place has a different culture and subculture. As a supervisor, you should pay attention to these issues. There is a manager under me. He regards power as very important and doesn’t have any big demands on money. So I handed over the company seal to him, stamped "Boom Boom Boom" in the office every day, and put his position in place. In the middle of the office, everyone was watching him, giving him a sense of power, and he was very happy as a result.
For people with simple thinking and high obedience, we can give him work instructions, give him efficiency requirements, give him budget control, and implement straight-line management from top to bottom; for those who are highly educated, sensitive, and have seen the world. People with complex experiences and emphasizing team spirit should be involved in two-way management instead of one-way street. What method a company uses, there is no complete formula, some emphasize system, and some emphasize human management. It is useless for a company to rely on its own rules and regulations. Every company has its own rules and regulations, and they are similar. Therefore, management must adapt to the target and cannot be treated equally.
Forget the company's lifeblood: profit
One day, the president of a company had lunch in a restaurant. Halfway through the meal, there were 4 familiar voices from the next room. The discussion among those people was quite lively, and he couldn't help but eavesdrop, and found that several senior executives under his staff were talking about his department triumphantly.
The chief engineer said: "No one can compare to me. The department that contributes the most to the success of a company is the production department. If you don't have a decent product, it means there is nothing." The sales manager rushed and said, "Wrong! The best product in the world is of no use unless you have a strong sales department to sell it."
The vice president in charge of the company's internal and public relations also commented: "If the company does not have a good image, a fiasco is absolute, no one will buy a product from a company he does not trust."
"I think your views are too narrow." , The vice president in charge of human resources launched an attack: "We all know that the strength of the company lies in its employees. Remove strong and highly motivated employees, and the company immediately stalled."
Four ambitious young people continued to discuss, for them The department strives. The discussion was not over until the president finished lunch, so he stopped at the door of the wing when he left the restaurant. "Everyone," he said, "I can't help but listen to your discussions. I'm glad you can be proud of your department, but I can't help but say, experience tells me that none of you are right. In any company , No department can be responsible for the success or failure of the company. If you go to the core of the problem, you will find that managing a successful company is like a stunt man maintaining 5 balls in the air, 4 of which are white. Write separately Work: products, sales, corporate and public relations, employees, the other is the red ball. At any time, people who play stunts must remember that no matter what happens, never let the red ball fall to the ground, because the red ball There are two words written: profit." The president's words are absolutely correct. Without profits, even if the company has the most perfect product, the best image, the most capable employees, and the most compelling financial foundation, it will soon fall into trouble.
Supervisors have four major responsibilities, creating profits for shareholders, seeking employment for the society, seeking benefits for employees, and seeking quality for consumers.
The most important thing is the first one. Creating profits and allowing the company to develop is the primary responsibility of all supervisors. The head office evaluates you, and the top executive evaluates you, only asking one thing: Is there a profit? Of course, the so-called pursuit of profit does not mean to make money by unscrupulous means, but to regard the pursuit of profit as a responsibility and goal, and always keep it in mind.
I only see the problem, not the goal
As a supervisor, you must pay attention to your goals. Just like swimming, you must swim while looking ahead. Don't hit the pool wall to find out. Don't spend too much time on small issues, spend more time on goals. If a supervisor focuses on small issues, he will forget his goals, lose creativity, or at least gradually dry up. Many supervisors seem to be very busy, but they are often busy. They spend 90% of their time every day and only contribute 10% to the company. One of the main reasons for this inefficiency is that they only pay attention to small things.
Do things in accordance with the general principles, do the most important and urgent things first at work every day, and let go of other things that cannot be done. It is impossible for one person to do everything, and there will always be endless things to do.
We emphasize that we must look at the goals, not that we should not look at the problems, but we must look at the problems, and we must look carefully, because the problems are opportunities.
But only by looking at the problem from the height of the goal can a problem become an opportunity. Therefore, the supervisor should not say that I have encountered a problem, but should say that I am facing an opportunity, which means different things. If you focus on trivial matters, it will be difficult to see the real problem and you will not see the opportunity.
If you fail to do this, your competitors will be one step ahead, because there is a famous saying in marketing: Anything you can't think of, your opponent will help you think of it.
Not a supervisor, just a buddy
Supervisors must have their own majesty. Don’t break the rules in the company. Once the subordinate’s feet step on your shoulders, the next step is to step on your head. We need to love, support and reward our subordinates, but they can’t speak while standing on your head. This is called unethical and bad rules. If a supervisor indulges his subordinates, it will be difficult to manage in the end. The first time he breaks the rules, he will begin to punish. If there is no punishment, he will become a "model", the company's standards will be destroyed, and things will be difficult to handle in the future.
It is difficult for many executives to do this because he often hopes to gain support from everyone in the company. When he is not stable enough, he often forms relationships in the company and uses his buddies' loyalty to bring everyone together, but in this way he will speak without authority. What is the reason? Because he didn't regard the company's requirements and discipline as very important, but he placed more emphasis on personal feelings and personal utilitarianism. As a result, he moved with emotion and regarded everyone as buddies. Sometimes people behave like this. If you are good to him, he is not grateful, but thinks you can be very casual.
In our company, I have a problem with male employees slapping female employees on the shoulders. If male employees tell pornographic jokes, they are not allowed. This is a bad rule. Once, in the warehouse, I overheard a male employee tell a joke to a female employee, and the female employee smiled.
I immediately went over and told the male employee: "Go back and tell this kind of joke to your mother and your sisters. If you think you can't tell, then our employees can't. This is called corporate ethics." I said this. , They appear very confused and embarrassed. What I mean is that companies must also have ethics. If I laugh with them at this time, it would be equivalent to treating them as buddies, which would break the rules and cause management trouble.
So my subordinates are with me, no one can joke with me casually. I don't have to think about too much when I lay off people, it is very vicious.
I dare to do this because I don't treat them as buddies, and I don't owe them favors, so I don't need to shed a tear when layoffs. I am very relaxed today, because in fact I love my subordinates very much, but I don’t want them to treat me as a difficult brother, and they have to abide by the company’s rules in the company.
No standard set
There is a company in the UK that specializes in making world-famous cups and plates, and their products break more than the qualified ones. There was a designer who dropped the plates specially, 6 out of 10 broke, and only 4 qualified, but the order was out of stock after 3 years. The company is not afraid of falling, and all broken plates are included in the cost of other plates. It's still hard to buy in this way, why? It is a boutique, and the company has high standards and dignity.
A company setting standards of conduct is to make the company have dignity and the dignity of the company's employees. The company does not have standards, and a manager does not design standards, the company will be out of order. If you enter a company, people will ask how you got in. You said, it’s not easy to get in. It takes a written test, an oral test, and a skinny. Conversely, if you say that it is easy to get in, just go in casually. People would think that this company is not worth staying. It has not been screened and has no strict standards. People have this kind of psychology: the more you have a standard of behavior, the more you have a performance requirement, the more dignified he feels.
The so-called standard is actually a kind of pledge, a kind of dignity, and a kind of quality. Like a Mercedes-Benz in Germany, what do you think of when you see a Mercedes-Benz on the street? That is a kind of dignity. Why do rich people like to buy Mercedes-Benz? If the manufacturer does not have that standard, would you buy its car? For the same reason, whoever has a standard like Mercedes-Benz has dignity. Companies have standards that can make employees feel that working in this company is an honor. When all the people involved regard the standard as a pledge and a quality requirement, the self-esteem in the company will become stronger and stronger, and the management will become easier and easier. Therefore, supervisors must not only implement standards, but also set standards. Only with management standards can they have high management performance.
To indulge the inadequate
Some supervisors like to find love in the office, looking for the love of his subordinates. In fact, it is wrong. Management is not a game. See who loves the most. Don't be a good person. I often say a word in the company: Being a person (referring to a person who doesn't follow principles and just interacts with mud) don't do things, and don't be human when doing things. If you can't do this, you can give up your seat and let those who are willing to be black faces to be supervisors. Today the company entrusts you with a task, hoping you can complete it. And if you are afraid of offending this one and the other, then simply don't do it.
The ancient legalist Han Feizi had an incisive discussion on this issue. In today’s words, it is: a supervisor can only suppress oneself, which is called fear; a supervisor can only correct oneself, which is called chaos; a supervisor can only save oneself , That's cheap. The supervisor does not need to tell himself not to do this or that, to correct here and there, and always save for himself. I have the ability, I am in a mess, everything is normal for my subordinates, and socializing with customers outside every day, the company is safe, which is amazing. If you wear Peugeot all day long, the desk lamp shines your lonely back and work late into the night, and you end up vomiting blood and becoming ill from overwork. why? The management is like a pyramid. If the top is a bit bad and the bottom is stable, nothing will happen; if the bottom is broken, no matter how good the top is, it will be crumbling. Therefore, you must strictly manage your subordinates, correct your actions, and ask your organization to save money. If the supervisor only asks for himself, it is tantamount to tolerating people with insufficient ability.
Some bosses like to find someone whose ability is inferior to him as a deputy, and the deputy also finds a person whose ability is worse than him as a subordinate. If this continues, the ability is getting worse and worse, so the supervisor always says that his subordinates are not good enough. It was all caused by him himself. Chinese people have a local concept of employing people. They like to use people who are close to their own geographical or personal relationships, even if they are less capable. These are all people with insufficient connivance. Excessive indulgence of people with inadequate ability, let those who are incapable and do not seek improvement in the organization, it is unfair to other people, so everyone has no energy, the result is that the poor drags down the good, and finally drags down the organization .
Only superstars in the eyes
Don't only have superstars in your eyes, but emphasize teamwork. Just like a team, it is difficult to win if it only emphasizes superstars and not all efforts. There is a saying from McDonald's that our company does not have a store manager, and the store manager is called to outsiders. McDonald’s store managers also have to order meals for customers. This is a rule of the company’s headquarters. McDonald’s employees all over the world must order meals for customers regardless of their positions. They realized that the company's success today depends on all employees, not the credit of a superstar.
If you invite all the top people in your line to your company, at the end of the year, only one person can earn the top spot. why? Because so many top players do not exist at all, and even if they exist, there is only one "first", and other people get the title of "losers". There are very few real superstars for a company, and most of the company's business is done by ordinary people. Only focusing on superstars, the only result is to reduce management performance and reduce company performance.
Even if the company has a superstar, you must downplay his contribution. If you are a superstar, you must have this kind of mind. The supervisor must put 90% of his love on 90% of people, and don’t put 90% of his love on 10% of people. That would be unfair to the other 90%. Anyone who contributes to the company should be regarded as the hero of the company, so that the company becomes a TEAM.
Many companies go to dig out some famous people and invite them as super stars, but we often hear that it didn't take long for them to part ways. why? Because some super stars are not grateful, they think that today is the result of their own hard work, not the result of the company’s cultivation; they are not gregarious, they think that they are outstanding in the company, and they do not compromise. They have difficulties in the company, and often do not. Willing to wrong themselves; apart from demanding high salaries, they have no contribution to the company. Therefore, bosses should not only have superstars in their eyes, but
should pay attention to cultivating subordinates and turn them into stars.
Opposition within the company
Once, I asked the chairman: What are they doing? The chairman looked at me seriously: Who are they? Our maintenance worker downstairs, I said. When he asked me this way, I didn't react. Once again, I asked: their project..., "Who are they?" Before I finished speaking, he interrupted me. At this moment, I remembered the same experience last time, and immediately realized what the problem was. I admit to the chairman that I was wrong. The chairman said: "Mr. Yu, there are only us, not them." This matter taught me a deep lesson. In the company, in front of customers, do not say "them", but "us".
As a supervisor, don't underestimate the difference in this word. For example, when I was working at JAL, I went to Tokyo Nakata Airport for training. Once I passed a nearby supermarket and bought a box of almond tofu. I went back to eat it and it broke. I passed there the next day and went in and told the salesperson that the almond tofu I bought yesterday was bad. bad? Did you bring it? The lady asked. I said, it’s not worth any money, I threw it away, it’s okay, don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to ask for money. No, no, this is a big deal, wait a minute. After she finished speaking, she ran upstairs. Not long after, she ran down. There was a man next to him with a bag in his hand. He walked up to me and said, sir, there are 5 boxes of almonds. The tofu is guaranteed to be fresh. You can eat it. This is the money you bought for almond tofu yesterday. We will return it to you.
It is our shame to sell this kind of tofu in our store, but we have already called and the supplier will come to a meeting next week. We have to study why this happened. Sir, if you still pass here next Monday, if you are interested, you can come to me and I will tell you where we made a mistake. From now on, I will go shopping whenever I pass by. why? I believe it, they will take responsibility for anything I buy there in my life. In fact, the lady was not the one who sold me the stuff, nor was the store manager, but they didn’t say: this is not mine, this is the supplier’s fault, this is the fault of the lady yesterday, this is your own 'S fault. And they only said that it was "our" fault!
The supervisor should always emphasize the concept of "we". If anyone has done something wrong, it is our fault, and then go to review what went wrong. This concept should be established from the beginning of your career, and a habit will form over time. In the end, there will be no opposition in the company, and the company or your department can truly unite as a whole.