Keith Tatley

Manager Foundation

How to achieve Manager Zen. Using Zen techniques to achieve management bliss.Acceptance is an unconventional but powerful way to improve employee performance.Managing is hard, because people are complex and managers don't get the training and support they need to succeed. But Zen philosophy provides us with many practical lessons we can use to make managing easy.Sometimes you seem like management is an uphill battle, that's a sign that you're going against the flow. Life is easier when you turn around and go with the flow instead. See how the Zen Principle of acceptance can help you to find answers to your toughest problems

Video: Manager Zen: Acceptance

OK so the Manager Zen Principle of Acceptance is that you should accept that all employee performance problems are your fault because if they are your fault then you can also fix them. These are the next steps after acceptance:

<h2>1st Label the Problem, Then Match a Solution to the Label</h2>

Accepting responsibility means taking actions to fix the problem or prevent it from happening again. It will help if you have the belief that you can fix any employee problem. I do believe you can by using one of these management tools based on the situation. The technique is to first label the problem and then match a solution to the problem:

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	<li>
	Employee isn’t meeting your standards: Set clear performance expectations upfront. Challenge: Have you had a clear conversation with your employee telling them what you expect from them? Tip: In every <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course-view/2676815/overview?">One on One meeting with your employee</a>, agree priorities with them
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	<li>
	Employee doesn’t have adequate skills: <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course/2837651/overview?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Develop your employees</a>
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	Employee doesn’t have the capability to do their job (as in you have the wrong employee for the job): Use <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course/2630961/overview?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">delegation</a> / job restructuring to match the right responsibilities to the right employees. And/Or: hire better employees
	</li>
	<li>
	Employee isn’t doing enough of the right thing (or omission): Use <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course-view/2823195/overview?">performance communication</a> to motivate employee to do better
	</li>
	<li>
	Employee did something wrong: Use <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course-view/2823195/overview?">performance communication</a> to make it clear to employee not to do it again
	</li>
	<li>
	Employee does not listen to what you say? Develop your performance communication skills or improve your relationship with your employees with regular <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course-view/2676815/overview?">One on One meetings with your employee</a>
	</li>
	<li>
	Employee is consistently underperforming: Motivate them more, allocate (or delegate) the right work to them, coach them to improvement <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course/2837651/overview?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(develop them)</a>
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	Employee is consistently underperforming and not willing or able to improve: Follow the fix or fire process
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	Employee did something egregiously wrong: These are also known as sackable offences
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</ol>

As you can imagine, there is more than one solution to an employee performance problem. For example if your employee does something wrong, you can fix the problem by:

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	<li>
	Setting upfront expectations
	</li>
	<li>
	Giving them corrective performance communication and/or
	</li>
	<li>
	<a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course/2837651/overview?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Developing their skills.</a>
	</li>
</ol>

Labelling a problem is a good way to know what the solution is.

<h2>Manager Skills:</h2>

So as you can see there is a solution for all of your employee problems. Being a boss is like any other profession - there are <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course/2526443/overview?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">essential manager skills</a> that you need to know to be a successful boss.

<h2>Next Steps: Solving the problems:</h2>

Now that you have labels for employee performance problems and know what the potential solutions are, you can experiment with solutions until you find one that works for you and your employee. Of course, it’s not just what you do, but how you do it that determines whether you succeed or fail. Manager Foundation has best practices for all of the above <a href="https://academy.mygo1.com/p/#/app/course/2526443/overview?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">management skills</a>. Just search in the Academy to find them.

<h2>Summing up</h2>

Remember it’s tempting to blame others, especially when it really is their fault. But blame doesn’t do anything about fixing the problem. If you want to live in blame and never fix the problems then that’s up to you. But if you want to fix the problem then the first step is to accept responsibility for the problem.

Acceptance: Next Steps: Fixing Problems

Don’t confuse this message of acceptance:

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	<li>
	Acceptance is not effective if you turn this into self-blame. Self blame doesn’t solve problems it creates problems because:

	<ol>
		<li>
		Accepting responsibility is accepting that you could’ve done something differently. Self-blame is finding fault with yourself. Self blame is not mentally healthy because it results in self judgement and self hatred
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		<li>
		Self-blame allocates the fault with you which is means that you are the source of the problem. But acceptance means you did something wrong which means you can change what you did
		</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>
	Just because you accept the responsibility for the problem doesn’t mean that you have to let your employee off the hook. Because if the problem is caused by your employee then accepting responsibility for the problem as a manager means holding your employee accountable for their actions.
	</li>
	<li>
	The converse of this is also true: accepting responsibility doesn’t mean that you have to be on the hook (while your employee who made the mistake gets let off). Because accepting responsibility means you accept that you are going to be the one to fix things. Sometimes this means accepting the responsibility to hold your employees accountable. And
	</li>
	<li>
	Accepting responsibility for the problem doesn’t mean that you have to do the hard work to make things right. Because then you’re not functioning as a boss. Your role as a manager isn’t to do everything yourself, your role is to guide your employees and inspire them to better performance.
	</li>
</ol>

Remember the difference between blame and responsibility.

Warnings: What Acceptance Isn’t

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			Managing employees is a stressful job because:

			<ul>
				<li>You are responsible for the performance of your whole team,</li>
				<li>You have to manage many diverse personalities and</li>
				<li>The more people you manage, the more potential for conflict there will be.</li>
			</ul>

			 
			But  stress can make you a worse boss, because stress can affect your decision making and how you relate to your employees. If you've ever worked for a stressed out boss - you know how difficult this is. 
			 
			The first step to managing others is to first manage yourself and your own emotional state so you can be a better boss for others. 
			 
			Improve your Manager Zen by managing your stress better. Start by finding out your stress score. 
			 
			Note this interactive may take a few seconds to load.
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Manager Zen: Acceptance

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