The American Manager

Introduction to the AM Communication Series of Articles. We have in our queue essential actionable practices for optimizing your daily worklife...and your lifelong professional career. In preparation for this Series, we must take our own medicine, so to speak, because we believe "Communication is what the listener does" (1).

Self Preparation for communication is not script-writing your message, it is examining if we are ready to be communicated with. Simply absorbing facts, be they written, verbal, non-verbal, thematic, pictoral or environmental, and formulating a response is not nearly sufficient. After all we are fallible Humans.

We subject ourselves to a battery of filters, shape shifters and peculiar lenses to take in information. These obstacles can create a different reality than the real reality. Ask yourself the next time someone cuts you off in traffic what your immediate feelings are. Then script a response consistent with that reaction. We must know ourselves and our particular tendencies to color the information we take in with all that we have experienced.

The first easy Step in Preparation is to acknowledge intellectually that we cannot absorb pure information. Its just not possible. Once one can have this self knowledge as a baseline of listening, it is surprising that our intake is measureably clearer than before the acknowledgement. Self Deception is our first obstacle and it is simple to recognize and therefor reduce its power. In other words dont deceive yourself into thinking the information you absorb is free from your attitude and emotions effects. Those filters are information shape shifters. We must practice understanding that we effect our understanding of incoming messages.

Recognizing may appear to be only a partial action at best, but in this case it serves to begin to purify our information from our own influences (read that as contaminants).

Tomorrow, listen to what your mind says to you when someone directs a message. You will be surprised what a useful tool this is in preparing to listen.

(1) Drucker Through Horstmann

If you want inside information on how "that other Manager" got a promotion, or a perk or even a lunch with the Boss, stop complaining. Complaining is not only a vivid advertisement of a bad attitude, it also provides anyone looking for a way to ignore you, the perfect justifier.

Business Owners, Executives and High Level Managers are finding new life, revenue and profits in this economy by employing subordinate relationships where this strategy was previously thought unnecessary. Networking the people you trust below you on your Organizational Chart can yield new revenue sources and available Client bases.

We have a Construction Management (CM) Client who held this kind of connecting as off limits, until they took our advice to give incentives to Non–Marketing Managers, which brought in solid Projects and Contracts. One Manager had a Designer relationship and uncovered a large public project in the development stage which was in limbo on how to deliver it by a Facilities Director. This Designer relationship with the CM’s Manager was key in providing a solution to the Facilities Director and building trust enough to win the contract and a future repeat Client as well. While this kind of Marketing can be unpredictable, the approach requires a careful placement of incentives to drive accountability internally. Many Organizations are uncovering talents and resources previously hidden due to compartmentalizing subordinate managers into a single skill dimension. We continue to address a common unintentional restriction of multi-dimensional minds into a single dimensional job description. When Executive Management opens a door of opportunity to release a talent of proven performers, the payoff comes in many levels.

Peers of such Managers will recognize the trend and be highly motivated by the examples and results attained by those who achieve success delivering for their Organization in a new role…even part-time or temporarily. This positive reaction also creates an atmosphere of initiative when made visible in a strategic way within the Organization itself.

Our Philosophy on Management Consultants (MC) is that they, in large measure, lean toward over complicating their delivery of changes, processes and strategies. There exists now a fair number (although a minority) of MC's that are focused on creating the shortest path to increasing results (read that as "profitable results for the Client").

The objective here, is to deliver corporate, organizational and entrepreneurial Management practices that produce high performance results. (How's that for a 15 second commercial?)