Credibility: The Key to Management
7 February 2014
Read by 2413 persons
Notice to fans of all kinds of management innovations: an excess of management advice can prove - at best - ineffective!
Indeed, management is not limited to tools and trends. One can even safely say that tools don't make the manager! Those who believe they can "manage" others by using "organized influence" techniques end up being controlled by them.
Thus, the essential is certainly not found in these terms: "total quality management", reengineering or BPR, benchmarking, company projects, etc.
These techniques only produce their effect under the impulse of credible management.
But who are the "clients" of management? Let's not be mistaken, management is not the exclusive domain of company management. We are all concerned.
Management, supervision, employees, workers, users, suppliers.
We all encounter "management problems" every day. Everyone offers their diagnosis. A lack of motivation, a lack of qualifications and sometimes even the character of the people or their backgrounds are denounced! And we've even avoided explanations of a hereditary type!
Looking closely, these difficult moments are often the result of broken promises and the gap between "saying" and "doing." Speeches are not followed by actions. These inconsistencies are perceived by the least literate of employees. They are heard by the customer at the counter, or on the phone.
And yet this situation is not inevitable. We know how to be credible with our clients: can one imagine a bank that is not credible? And what supplier would claim to retain their customers without being credible? The role of a manager should start there: to seek and maintain credibility within the company, and beyond.
This know-how outside our companies, this credibility cultivated with clients day to day, couldn't we reproduce it internally? And in our social lives? Our employees are our first clients and our first suppliers. How to become credible and remain so? Credibility is learned and perfected.
And to begin: it is better to be sparing with promises than to spend your time running away or hiding deadlines.
Management through credibility fights against the easy temptations of unconsidered speeches and promises. Each of us is not about to forget the promises we have received. Others also remember our promises for a long time.
Our best management tool is in credibility: doing what we say, permanently, and letting it be known. Aligning our words with our actions.
But it's not just about being credible for oneself. For managers, credibility is much more than a personal line of conduct. It is a condition for the success of common projects. It is not enough for the manager to do what he says, it is also necessary that his entire team acts in the same way.
At this stage, obtaining the team's credibility is not a matter of obligation or constraint.
A clear vision and the enhancement of human resources are the conditions.
* Director of HR (Human Resources Management) in France.
Mohamed EL OUAHDOUDI.
Leconomiste.com
Posted online February 7, 2014.
Indeed, management is not limited to tools and trends. One can even safely say that tools don't make the manager! Those who believe they can "manage" others by using "organized influence" techniques end up being controlled by them.
Thus, the essential is certainly not found in these terms: "total quality management", reengineering or BPR, benchmarking, company projects, etc.
These techniques only produce their effect under the impulse of credible management.
But who are the "clients" of management? Let's not be mistaken, management is not the exclusive domain of company management. We are all concerned.
Management, supervision, employees, workers, users, suppliers.
We all encounter "management problems" every day. Everyone offers their diagnosis. A lack of motivation, a lack of qualifications and sometimes even the character of the people or their backgrounds are denounced! And we've even avoided explanations of a hereditary type!
Looking closely, these difficult moments are often the result of broken promises and the gap between "saying" and "doing." Speeches are not followed by actions. These inconsistencies are perceived by the least literate of employees. They are heard by the customer at the counter, or on the phone.
And yet this situation is not inevitable. We know how to be credible with our clients: can one imagine a bank that is not credible? And what supplier would claim to retain their customers without being credible? The role of a manager should start there: to seek and maintain credibility within the company, and beyond.
This know-how outside our companies, this credibility cultivated with clients day to day, couldn't we reproduce it internally? And in our social lives? Our employees are our first clients and our first suppliers. How to become credible and remain so? Credibility is learned and perfected.
And to begin: it is better to be sparing with promises than to spend your time running away or hiding deadlines.
Management through credibility fights against the easy temptations of unconsidered speeches and promises. Each of us is not about to forget the promises we have received. Others also remember our promises for a long time.
Our best management tool is in credibility: doing what we say, permanently, and letting it be known. Aligning our words with our actions.
But it's not just about being credible for oneself. For managers, credibility is much more than a personal line of conduct. It is a condition for the success of common projects. It is not enough for the manager to do what he says, it is also necessary that his entire team acts in the same way.
At this stage, obtaining the team's credibility is not a matter of obligation or constraint.
A clear vision and the enhancement of human resources are the conditions.
* Director of HR (Human Resources Management) in France.
Mohamed EL OUAHDOUDI.
Leconomiste.com
Posted online February 7, 2014.
