Is This Your #1 Business Challenge Too?

This Your #1 Business Challenge Too?

Tip: Business management is developing managers. You've got to grow them...so you can grow!

          Duration: 6 mins. 25 secs.

I had a great family get together in Indiana this weekend after speaking at the Energetic Women's Leadership Conference in Indianapolis. (The conference was a gathering of women from all over the US who are in the Energy industry - primarily gas & electric).

One of the many highlights was getting the latest updates from my stepson Chris regarding the state of their business in 2019 (we have 4 business owners in our immediate family!). They are exceeding goals! I was so happy to hear!

"So, what are your current challenges, what do you want to be different?", I asked. His answer, "Building middle management." Their business is family owned and operated with very aggressive growth goals. They need an effective, competent second tier leadership/management team if they want that to happen.

So we talked through some of his efforts and in several aspects he has some great things in place. For example, they have scorecards to keep everyone focused on the metrics that matter. They are very sensitive about company culture. They certainly do a lot of fun things together.

The one thing he really was stalled on was building a management team that could replace him so he could be free to develop the best, most market responsive strategies to grow the business overall.

So I shared with him my newly formed Executive Advantage Blueprint for Smart Management. I walked through each "smart management" building block - some of which, to varying degrees, he had in place.

What was missing is what most leaders miss...see if any of this applies to you:

View full text here: http://www.joanncorleyspeaks.com/2019/06/is-this-your-1-business-challenge-too.html




Notes: 
// JCS Business Advisors is a strategic business management consultancy. Through our expertise in human behavior, we develop high-performance leadership teams and organizations as we partner with forward-thinking senior leaders, entrepreneurs and their HR counterparts, bridging the knowledge & execution gap of connecting people, performance, and profits.

// Email: joann@jcsbusinessadvisors.com // Ph: 888.388.0565 // Schedule a complimentary advisory call and receive a copy of our latest executive briefing.

//Learn more about our "all-in-one" blueprint that develops competent leaders and managers, effectively manages operations, people, talent and time.

Special Note: I want to make a bold statement. Every business owner and/or senior leadership team needs an advisor who has expertise in human behavior. It is the #1 driving element of their business they do not recognize (as well as many business coaches), yet directly impacts every area.  Take advantage of our complimentary 30 min. Q&A (ask us anything) and see how that translates to your business. Contact

The Management Dilemma - Do You Really Want to Be One?

Focus: Management Success, Professional Success, Career Planning

Audio Lesson - Duration: 4 mins. 41 secs.

1.  Double click arrow to LISTEN NOW: 
2.  Read along with the transcript below or print and read for later

3.  Right click the MP3 FILE link MP3 File to download and "save as" to

     your hard drive for continuous listening or to transfer to your mobile device for portable learning.

4.  For additional lessons use the Search Box (top left).

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The Management Dilemma - Do You Really Want to Be One?

Wc: 648

I recently ran across a staggering statistic the other day. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are 6,000,000 plus employees in the country who hold the title of manager (and that does not include those who hold the title of supervisor).

I’m going to guess that of those, very few laid in bed at night as little tikes saying, “Yes, when I grow up some day, I want to be a manager!” 

So, I’m going to make a bold proclamation right here, right now and say that there are millions of people slaving away in cubicles or in the lucky office with the window that REALLY don’t want to do what they’re doing.  But, they have to – they have no choice…really.

No choice? Well they do and they don’t. With the typical (and I believe antiquated) career path design present in most companies today… “have to” is real if a career is to be built and more money is to be made.

The inevitable need in the structure of any business is to manage it. Every component of a business needs to be attended to so the outcomes can be attained.

As business has evolved over the years, various components have come and gone. There use to be the need of managing a typing pool (some of your reading this article probably have no idea what that is)…boy, those days are long gone! Now there’s a need to manage the networks that connect the computers that replaced the typewriters.

One element of managing a business that has never gone away is that of managing the people who function in the context of the many business components. Managing the people is a needed role that I call the “default role” in business.

Why default? It’s my belief that many managers do not really want to be a manager per sae. They are managers by default. They were good at executing key functions and that qualified them to oversee other people who were doing those functions….whether they could actually oversee them effectively or not.

In many cases this has presented some challenges. Many of the skills necessary for effective oversight are outside the scope of what they were good at before. And, many were asked to move into this role without:

-identifying key skills necessary to be competent in the role

-determining their own level of competency of those skills

-and then acquiring training to fill the gaps.

Sound familiar? Well over the past several years, I’ve discovered this very fact as I’ve traveled across North America conducting management and leadership workshops.    I learned that only a small percentage of that six million have adequately been trained to be competent in this essential business function.

The irony?....this role impacts EVERYTHING!!!...yet it doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

In truth, this role is so essential, that the way it’s viewed and treated needs to be elevated to that of a profession. Ok...think about that last statement….a profession…not a pseudo profession, not a default role, but a REAL profession.

Now I know there are people out there that do, even if unconsciously. But I believe that the vast majority of employees in the work place today do not consider the role of management a profession and for some not even an admirable one. I know there are plenty of reasons for that.

Let’s collectively as a management community elevate the game so to speak. Even if you are a “manager by default”, professionalism can still be your mantra. This lesson is all about making a conscious decision..."yes I want to be a manager..not I have to...but I WANT to." 

Honestly, if at some point you really can't say that with heart....then it's time to start lookin' for another job.

Manager as Developer

Date: April 30, 2012
Editor's Notes: I will be previewing over the next few weeks management training- coaching lessons that will eventually be included in the new Mobile Training & Coaching APP for managers and individual contributors committed to their own professional development.

If you are interested in being the first to know about it's release - email me at - joann@trainbymobile.com, and I'll put you on the list.


Focus: Management Success

Enhancing the Role of Manager in 21^st Century Workplace

Audio duration: 3 mins. 01 secs.

Double click arrow to LISTEN NOW:  

-Read along with the transcript below or print and read for later.

-Right click the MP3 FILE link MP3 File download and "save as" to your hard drive to access off-line for continuous listening or to transfer to your mobile device for portable learning.

-For additional lessons use the Search Box (top left).

-Remember, the audios are loosely scripted to sound more natural.

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Manager as Developer – Enhancing the Role of Manager in 21^st Century Workplace 

WC: 436

Transcript - print now

Have you ever thought about the connection between management and photography? I love photography.  I actually developed that love from a friend who had a dark room in his apartment.  I particularly love black and whites and I had the opportunity to acquire a cool camera to express that new found love. 

The bonus to knowing this friend?...I got to be in the dark room and watch the pictures I took develop.  I loved the process of watching what I had seen and captured through the lens slowly come into full view in the chemical wash. 

I see management in the 21^st century workplace in a similar way.  These days, just supervising the activities of employees doesn’t seem enough to meet ever changing business needs and to maintain our company’s competitive edge.  The need to retain talent, the different generations and levels of maturity that comprise our teams members call for a kind of management that can make the most of everyone’s capabilities. 

That’s where the role of developer comes into play. My old trusty friend Webster defines develop as follows: to make visible or manifest, to work out the possibilities, to cause to unfold gradually.  My favorite from that list is “to work out the possibilities.”  

As we exercise the role of developer, how satisfying would it be to nurture and facilitate in an employee what’s possible; perhaps a needed characteristic that, up until our involvement, was weak or nonexistent? 

And there in lies the connection between photography and managers who develop.  We get to look for and identify what’s possible, then take a snapshot of what we see and help that characteristic, talent, or skill come into existence. 

What a great opportunity to exert leadership.  I just bet there will be many times in which we’ll be able to see what’s possible when a team member does not.  That, by the way, is having vision, seeing for them, seeing when they cannot.  We can move from manager to mentor and what a meaningful and satisfying place to be. 

I recommend that time be taken to assess what’s possible and needed to develop for each team member.  Next, sit down and talk with each of them about what you see in them; share your vision. Then, ask them what they see and together begin to create a plan to realize that vision. 

A final note: there is an additional benefit to this experience. Besides going from manager to mentor, you’ll also enhance your relationship by adding the qualities of collaboration and partnership.

The Leadership Transition to 21Century Management

Focus: Management Challenges, Management Success

The Management Landscape Has Undergone a Sea Change

The Industrial Age                           The Information Age

v                   Please superiors                               Delight customers

v                   Command-and-control                      Empowering and participatory

v                   Stable                                                Agile

v                   Meddle                                              Enable

v                   Conforming                                       Outside-the-box action

v                   Need-to-know                                   Open and transparent

v                   Fiefdoms                                           Interdependent networks

In the prior Age, management skills stemmed from a heroic military model — plan, control, delegate, coordinate, and motivate.  As the Information Age hurtles forward toward the next millennium, within a business environment characterized by permanent whitewater, the high impact leadership competencies are now dramatically different:

The Explorer:           Forges a vision and is an agent of change

The Beacon:            Instills trust and inspires passionate commitment to the vision

The Advocate:         Clearest voice in support of visionary, strategic, and values-driven behavior

The Facilitator:        Creates a consultative and teaming workstyle within the culture

The Partner:             Encourages a collegial, supportive, and collaborative workstyle

The Coach:               Brings out the best in the organization’s people, in terms of their aspirations, potential, performance, and contribution

This set of six leadership roles, when used, creates extraordinarily powerful leverage for the executive.  Do you know how far from criterion you are on each of the six?  Do you know the best ways to close the gap?

Well, just as in sports and in the performing arts, it’s now increasingly becoming the case in business that the more successful you are, the more likely it is that you will use a coach to deepen and extend your success.  Tune up your game.

High Performing Managers vs. Under Performing Ones

We now actually understand a great deal about what differentiates the successful leader from the under-performing one.  Successful people are aggressive learners.  They are individuals who:

-Constantly seek feedback and are extremely analytical about their successes and failures

-Possess a finely tuned capacity for self-reflection and self-awareness

-Seek a wide variety of experiences, out of both a sense of curiosity and the sense that experience is the best medium for self-discovery

-Constantly strive to learn something new and different by searching for comparisons, contrasts, and generalizable insights

-Find ways to apply new learnings to new situations

-Use strengths to modify weaknesses

-The bad news is that only about 10% of us are by nature active learners.  The good news, though, is that much of what it takes to be an aggressive learner is coachable.

So, What Does It Take?

Much of what our coaching model focuses on is building a set of skills that helps the candidate become a more agile learner.  Increasingly greater agility is pursued in four different spheres, each of which has a marked influence on a person’s learning curve and on their performance as a leader.

I.                  Mental Agility.   The candidate discovers ways to more consistently:

v                   embrace complexity

v                   confront ambiguity

v                   expand their interests and perspectives

v                   pursue complexity out of heightened curiosity

v                   view penetrating questions as more important than answers

II.               Interpersonal Finesse.   The candidate develops more techniques with which to:

v                   self-reflect and augment self-awareness

v                   catch their own counter-productive behavior and modify it

v                   vary their role and style to the situation

v                   embrace conflict and harness it for creative ends

III.            Change Mastery.   The candidate’s executive repertoire is broadened when they:

v                   learn how to behave as strategically as possible

v                   employ hypothetical modeling in their thinking and problem-solving

v                   embrace the underlying spirit of continuous improvement

v                   come to understand how critical tenacity is in any change initiative

IV.            Goal Orientation.  The candidate hones a high-impact results orientation by adding or refining the following capabilities: 

v                   create a presence and inspire others by consistently acting “on purpose” (i.e., acting strategically)

v                   address their own performance and others’ in a systematic, developmental, and strategic way

v                   differentiate among the various levels of priorities and act accordingly (i.e., the two-by-two matrix of Urgent x Important)

v                   deliver on promises and expectations

If you feel you need individual coaching and power session with me to talk these things through.  Don’t hesitate to contact me: joann@joanncorley.com. Or to learn more about coaching - click here.
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