Introduction
Is reassurance one of your management skills? Do you believe that reassurance is important? Or are you a “tell it how it is” sort of manager? It’s a matter worthy of your attention.
An Undervalued Skill
My dictionary defines “reassurance” as “to restore or maintain a person’s confidence”. Confidence is very important in business. Confident employees expect to succeed, expect that their work is valuable and expect that they can “make a difference”. Their confidence is infectious. They make others feel more confident. They are “good to have around”. Managers need them.
Praise And Reassurance
The same dictionary defines “praise” as the “act of expressing approval or admiration”. That makes it a form of reassurance. Other forms of reassurance are equally important.
Sharing Information
Some managers keep too much valuable information to themselves. They don’t “level” with employees. When you share important information you’re telling employees that you believe them to be trustworthy professionals. No secrets: no rumours is a good approach.
Seeking Opinions And Ideas
Ask, ask, ask. “What do you think we should do?” should be one of your favourite and most used questions. It means that problems aren’t constantly being “dumped in your lap”. But it also tells employees that you value their opinion, experience and expertise. It reassures employees that they are worthy contributors.
Delegating Authority
It’s easy to delegate work. As the great Duke Ellington is supposed to have once told a musician, “You’re paid to play, I’m paid to think”. You want employees who think. But to really “make things happen” they need the authority to adjust the volume, the tempo and the voicing to give you what you want. You need them to do more than just “play“.
Providing Resources
“Do more with less” is a common mantra. And top people can do so. But even your best people need adequate resources to achieve results. Le Bron James will have trouble scoring if no one gives him the ball. Provide the balls, provide the right plays and provide the support that’s needed. And it tells your people that you believe that they deserve what they need to provide what you want. You don’t need anything elaborate but making silk purses out of sows’ ears is as difficult as it ever was.
Seeking Reinforcement Opportunities
Sincere and well deserved praise should already be part of your management armoury. Beyond that, look for opportunities to reinforce sound performance. Don’t wait for the “gold medal performance” to let staff know you value what they’re doing. Look for opportunities, even small ones, to say “that’s exactly what I wanted”, “that’ll make a big difference”, “keep doing that” or “try it and keep me informed” are simple statements that tell employees that it’s the day to day successes that should to be repeated.
Freedom To Recommend Improvements
Some managers find it difficult to deal with the idea that employees know more about their jobs than they, the managers do. Just because you were the best sales director, production manager or financial controller 5 or 10 years ago, doesn’t mean you could do the same job today better than the current incumbent. Encourage staff to recommend improvements that will improve business results. But remember, both you and they need to know the exact business results you’re seeking.
Some Groundrules For Effective Reassurance
- Reassurance must be sincere, true, accurate and informed. Using reassurance to “give a boost” to a poorly performing employee may make you feel good. But he or she will think what you’re saying is at least “suspicious” if not unsupportable.
- Be specific. Avoid broad generalizations like “You did a great job” without adding “To retain the Jones Corp account”. Add “That inventory analysis will take 5% off our costs” after you say, “That’s exactly what I wanted”.
- Flattery is fatal. Using flattery to reassure may make an employee feel good. That’s all. It won’t improve business results. It will irritate other employees who know that it’s undeserved.
A Case Study
Years ago I was the Training Manager in a national company. We introduced a fully residential weeklong management program called “The Advanced Supervisors Course”. We had to adopt that name for cultural and political reasons. The program was designed for middle managers. It must have been successful. Within 12 months, three members of the top management team had asked if they could attend as participants!
The program was intense. It involved about 9 hours classroom work each day plus individual and group assignments. The final assignment was an elaborate and difficult “in basket exercise” designed to determine how much of the material had “stuck”.
Among the participants in the first course was a woman who had joined the company in a clerical role and been promoted to a role managing 100 people and seven frontline managers.
As the very spirited post assignment discussion finished, she tidied up her papers and said quietly to herself, “I can do it”. I accidentally overheard her. There were some high powered people in the group: graduates, technical experts and some very experienced managers. Three years earlier she’d have been in awe of such people. Now she knew she could mix it with them and they acknowledged it too.
Conclusion
In the final analysis, management reassurance can go only so far. What you’re really trying to achieve is that moment of personal insight when your employee says to him or herself, “I can do it“. And that reality is widely acknowledged by peers.
What To Do Now
Firstly, recognize the importance of reassurance as a motivating force. Next, find at lest one opportunity a day to “restore or maintain” an employee’s confidence. Get some practice. Then make reassurance a regular feature of your management style.
