Common sense wins the world: the common secret of successful people

Chapter 16 Common Sense of Management--The Secret of Having a Good Team (1)
All problems can be solved in management.Management has three characteristics: it is both a prevention mechanism and a solution mechanism, and it is also a cohesion mechanism for integrating teams.If you want to build a good team, you must learn the common sense of management and become a master of management.

For managers, what common sense needs to be paid special attention to?

Let go of "uncontrollable" things
The first means of management is control, which is based on result orientation to ensure the realization of the plan.The mistake many people make is that they make control the goal of management and therefore try to control everything.

Management must ensure a sense of control, but what is more important is macro control, not detail control.Good managers don't try to control the details, but rather lead the way.

The motivation to manage is not from others, but from oneself.You must guide others to control by self-control, and manage others by managing yourself. This is a lesson we all have to learn throughout our lives.

Management is everywhere, but there are always things that are out of control.Therefore, managers need to grasp the stable points and give up the uncontrollable links.A good manager never reaches out, but gives the team some freedom.

A colleague of mine at the FBI, Fletcher, resigned a few years ago.He also joined the business world and established his own company.In the early days, his business was booming, and he felt a sense of success in transformation.But a few months ago, Fletcher called to say that the situation of his company was very bad. Many key employees had resigned, and the salary increase could not be kept.He's also having trouble with new recruits, and it's as if he's become "notorious" in the recruiting market overnight.

In short, an efficient team he has worked so hard to build seems to be falling apart in an instant.Where is the reason?I got his call, booked a flight to Washington that evening, and met him at his company the next morning.I read the situation carefully:

1. Is there any problem with the management system?
2. Is the salary mechanism reasonable?

3. Is his personality intimidating to employees?
4. Has the company background been criticized?

In the end my conclusion is: none of the above major factors are wrong, he is a good guy, the only small problem is that Fletcher has too much control in the company.He intervenes everywhere in the uncontrollable, unknown and uncertain things, exerting his willpower.This confuses the employee because it's out of his control, makes people feel like they have very little freedom to do things, and the atmosphere is increasingly suffocating.

"He's a good boss, but he's everywhere," says employee Joel.
"It's disgusting that he's managing us like lovers," employee Porter said.
This is the common sense error that Fletcher made.What the human brain needs is creation. Every employee is an independent creation. They need freedom and their own decision-making space-this place is a forbidden area for leaders, and it is also beyond the control of leaders.But Fletcher didn't want to give up his dominance. His biggest failure was his vain attempt to turn employees' brains into hard drives, all connected to his brain, and he gave orders for everything.

This issue is very sensitive. How do we deal with these uncontrollable things in management?Are you decentralizing or centralizing?

Real management is to do the controllable work well, and then let it affect the uncontrollable work.Avoid personally intervening, but use your own work to generate positive guidance and promote team members to spontaneously assist you in other things.Only in this way can we become truly controllable, lead everyone to improve their performance together, and cultivate and accumulate their own working ability.

Keep information flowing at all times
You need to have a pair of "ears close to the ground" to listen to all aspects of information.But don't open the door and come in and listen, stand outside the door, close to the ground, not high up, so you can hear the coming changes.You need to always ensure that the information is first-hand and the data is real.And you have to get a lot of data - you can collect information from the bottom, bypassing the middle link, which can ensure that the information you get is the freshest, and there is no moisture.

You gotta be willing to listen and keep your head down

Even if you already know the answer, you can assume you don't know it and listen to your subordinates report it to you.Listen to a wide range of objects, including employees, users, customers, suppliers, and even all those who are closer to the front line than you.Listening to them can increase your knowledge of things within your control and beyond your control.You should lower your posture, be modest and prudent, listen more, and don't make judgments lightly.

More face-to-face communication with employees
Try to communicate directly with junior employees, but don't put pressure on them.When learning information, learn to walk on two legs.You can collect information from employees first, and then listen to the opinions of middle-level cadres.Between the two, look for an entry point, balance their interests, and become their cohesive agent.

Follow the plan to be in control

There are too many uncertainties. Only by making a plan can we ensure that most work is controllable.Harold once said to me: "I never believed that the brightest brain could handle a situation that I didn't know very well. I only believed in rigorous planning, uncompromising execution and true Report." This is the style of the FBI, and it is also suitable for the management of most companies in the world.Whoever can foresee and make a targeted plan in advance will have the upper hand.Planning is increasingly important to management, it prevents uncertainty from happening, and it also addresses the impact of these "out of control" events on us.

Take the initiative to ensure control
When a problem is about to arise, don't wait passively, but go forward.Because it is too late to react when it actually happens, managers must be prepared to respond quickly, take the initiative to attack, and ensure the right to decide and control major issues.But for things that are not under your management, you should humbly play the role of a listener: let the capable person handle it, and then listen to his report at the weekly meeting.

Treat each other with sincerity, not withholding and hypocrisy
Build a culture of candor and bluntness in your company, making sure no one hides problems.Every manager needs to always have a clear picture of what is going on with the team and avoid being duped by lies.If something happens in the team and you are the last to know, then you are a failed manager.

keep you engaged
Just sitting in your own office, making a cup of coffee, and reviewing the reports that have been processed layer by layer, you can't manage a team well.Get out of the room, join them, maintain your participation in the work-if this work requires your participation, increase the confidence of your subordinates, gather the strength of the team, and ensure your leadership over major events, so as to prevent your subordinates from going in the wrong direction.

Create a flat management structure

Stop admiring the multi-tiered organizational structure that slows you down and leaves you no time to respond to emergencies.It is necessary for the team to become a flat and efficient organization with both flexibility and stability.The more multi-level the management structure is, the more things the managers cannot control; on the contrary, the flatter the management structure, the easier it is for us to control and make decisions, and maintain direct contact with every employee.

Evaluate your team regularly
Regular inspection and evaluation of the team.You have to understand that they are people, not machines.Humans make mistakes, they are lazy, and they are defeated by their selfishness.The work efficiency of the team is always dynamic and depends on the working attitude and working methods of the members.Employees who don't work hard need to be purged, and employees who perform well need to be motivated so that they can be promoted.Let the door of your team be always open to outstanding talents from the outside, be renewed at any time, and always maintain vitality and fighting spirit.

Use your judgment and be flexible

Let your common sense guide the team, use your best judgment, and demonstrate your leadership.Everyone in the team is following in your footsteps, so you have to make fewer mistakes in order to ensure that the work is controllable and avoid work disorder caused by poor decision-making.

Generally, managers who can build a strong team are those who have not forgotten common sense in the fierce competition.They are principled yet flexible enough to respond to challenges with poise and ease, earning the love of their employees.Your goal is to become such an excellent manager, evaluate your mission, goals and strategies, and take the company to greater heights in an uncertain and ever-changing environment.

Leading to needs rather than satisfying them

Common sense of management needs

In management, we must first understand people's needs, because all the characteristics of human nature are determined by internal needs.Human nature is complex, but also simple.As long as we grasp the root of need, we can motivate people very well.

人的需求是多样性的。正如同马斯洛的研究，人有五个层面的需求：1.物质的需求；2.安全的需求；3.社交的需求；4.尊重的需求；5.自我实现的需求。

Using the needs hierarchy theory to analyze, we can discover many real problems and recognize the essence of management—management is to guide people's needs and let them release their work potential, rather than simply satisfying their needs.The means of satisfaction ignores the previous link of giving. If you only emphasize satisfaction, it is easy to reduce the enthusiasm of employees, breed inertia, and cause a defect that the income and benefits are high but the work is very inefficient. For example, the previous state-owned enterprises were like this reflection of the situation.

People work to earn money to support their families, which is a typical material need;
People hope that there will be fewer traffic accidents, which is a safety requirement;
People are eager to join higher-end social clubs and societies and make more friends, which is a social demand;
People want to get a good name, this is the need for respect;
People want to get a sense of accomplishment and make a career, which is the need for self-actualization.

Our management is essentially based on these five needs. Whether you really pay attention to these different types of needs and can formulate management rules in a targeted manner determines whether you can become a competent manager.

If a company can meet the five needs of employees, the company must have strong vitality.If your management system and incentive model for employees can be designed on this basis, comprehensively guide the differentiated needs of employees at all levels, and stimulate their work motivation, then your team will also be invincible and can do Those with good performance can achieve your business goals.

The starting point of management is to let employees agree with the team vision

Bosses and employees have some similar needs, and we need to find this common point.One of the big connected needs is the team vision.Letting employees agree with your team vision is the starting point of management and the basis for forming cohesion.

In 2012, 34-year-old Crip came to apply for the director of the California branch of the AutoNavi research firm.Two years later, he is now one of my most valued company executives.But at that time, Crip and I were once in conflict, with huge conflicts in business philosophy and development strategy.

I knew that his and my career needs were not aligned.

Krepp believes that AutoNavi should not only do business management consulting, market research and financing intermediary work.He felt that these businesses lacked the uniqueness to make the firm one of the top strategic consulting firms in the United States and the world.He said: "We should set our goal at the same level as Roland Berger, go out of the United States, go to Europe and East Asia, and participate in the region with the fastest economic development in the world. Based on this goal, we should formulate long-term development. strategy."
He was a man with big ideals, and we all saw that.That's Crip's vision, that's his career, that's why he's here with me.But that's not the case with the company's overall strategy.On the one hand, due to the non-disclosure agreement we signed with the FBI, AutoNavi cannot disclose the details of its existing training strategy; popularize work.This is exactly what SMEs need most.

Therefore, I need to convince Krepp, at least guide him to agree with the company's goals, and take the initiative to approach the company, and work together for this goal.This became the starting point and necessary condition for us to judge whether Krepp could manage successfully at that time.how do i do itI did not force him to obey the company's strategic plan, but gave him a certain degree of freedom in decision-making.

"It's good for you to think like this. I suggest you try it in the California branch to accumulate some experience for the company's future transformation."
I identified with his career goals, which surprised him.Crip had expected the company to reject his proposal without hesitation, and then give him a cold answer of "obey or leave".He later recalled: "When the boss gave me positive feedback for the first time and gave me a certain decision-making power, I immediately felt that this was the platform I was looking for." Crepp soon arrived in California, and he did Some homework, not surprisingly, suffered some setbacks.In the field of strategic consulting, from personnel to capital, AutoNavi was not as ready as it is today.

Two months later, Crip emailed me, "Boss, you're right!"
Without a common vision, people lack a common belief, and then it is impossible to form a synergy.Excellent companies start by establishing a common vision in management, use this tool to integrate human resources, guide employees to work hard in one direction, and make the company continue to grow and expand.By realizing the common vision, the individual goals of the employees can be realized respectively, and the organization and the individual are win-win.

To guide employees' material needs, you need to master their motivations
Alfred said: "If you can activate an urgent need in the hearts of others and guide it, you can go anywhere." This is part of the law of motivation and an important part of the law of management. Option: We manage a person by channeling his needs, which is much more effective and long-lasting than driving away with a whip.

If there is a way in this world to make a person do one thing well, it is that he is willing to do it himself.There is no better way, only this one.Even if you point a gun at his head, or even use the most violent and terrifying means to intimidate, although it can still achieve the goal, it will not be more effective and more motivating than this method-give him what he needs , and then guide him to take the initiative to do this.

"I need it, so I will do it!" From the day we came into this world, the starting point for everything we do, every decision, and every action is because of our own needs, not being forced by others.For example, you donated 1000 yuan to the Red Cross during the earthquake. Is it because the victims need the 1000 yuan?This is true on the surface, but not at the root.The essential reason for your donation is what you need to do, not what people need you to do.Your psychological motivation is - I want to do a sacred thing, to achieve a good deed.As for the needs of the victims, that is something that you consider next.

Forgive me for saying this, but it is the truth.As Onferto, the behavioral expert who worked for the FBI, told me: "Grande, if you master all the motives of a person's behavior, you control his entire life. Behavior is driven by our basic desires. Desire determines behavior, and demand determines motivation. If you want to persuade a person, the best way is to arouse his urgent need first, and let him do it for you in order to satisfy his own needs. You won't have a problem you can't solve."
A man set up a small company in Beijing, planning to work as a film and television broker.He was worried about a question: "Mr. Gao, I am in the early stage of starting a business. Everything is difficult at the beginning, and this small team needs to work together. In order to increase their motivation, should I give them dividends, or should I raise their wages first?" In other words, he was in a dilemma on how to guide the material needs of his employees.

This is indeed a problem faced by all enterprises - it is as difficult to deal with as "which came first, the chicken and the egg".However, considering his company's situation, my suggestion to him is: first increase the wages of employees, and after a period of time, let them build up a sense of trust in the company, and then give a certain degree of dividends.Because from the nature of the company, the motivation of employees to work here is lack of certain long-term expectations.There are many film and television brokerage companies in China, but the average life expectancy is not long.Many related companies closed their doors after only operating for two to three years.Practitioners must be more current in terms of treatment.

Only by mastering the motivation of employees can you formulate a system for reasonable material treatment.Otherwise, you may feel that you are sincere, but employees do not buy it.Money is an important work motivation, it is a medium of exchange.Employees live on it, buy a house, buy a car, and enjoy good food.At the same time, whether the material needs are met is also an important reference for comparing the value of employees with their peers: "How much do others get, how much do I get?" Of course, this must become an aspect that you pay special attention to in management.

The guidance of psychological needs is the core part of team management
Everyone has psychological needs.Including you and me, all have their own or public or secret psychological needs.Some people hope that the boss will respect him in front of his colleagues, so that he can feel a sense of self-respect and discover the importance of himself; some people are eager to get the help of their seniors, the support of their superiors, and get opportunities for advancement and promotion in their careers. window.These are essentially spiritual needs.

(End of this chapter)