Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors, Second Edition (Perfect Phrases Series) - Softcover

Runion, Meryl

Softcover

ISBN 10: 007174231X ISBN 13: 9780071742313

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2010

Synopsis

The Right Phrase for Every Situation . . . Every Time

Communication is the single most important skill for excelling as a manager. What you say and how you say it sets the tone for your department and your entire organization.

Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors, second edition, has been completely revised to help you communicate in today’s workplace, where collaboration, cooperation, and personalization are critical to building an efficient, productive work environment. Learn the most effective language for:

• Setting a tone of mutual trust and respect
• Dealing with difficult employees and delicate problems
• Conducting interviews and performance reviews
• Empowering your people
• Disciplining workers or terminating employment

About this title

About the Author

Meryl Runion is president and CEO of SpeakStrong, Inc., and a Certified Speaking Professional.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PERFECT PHRASES for MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS

Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases for Overcoming Any Management Situation

By Meryl Runion

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-174231-3

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 The New Workforce Demographics Require New Dynamics of 
Communication
Chapter 2 The New Dynamics of Communication
Chapter 3 Put Your Best Foot Forward: Perfect Phrases to Establish Your 
New Role
Chapter 4 Perfect Phrases to Create a Mission, Vision, and Values-Based 
Team
Chapter 5 Perfect Phrases to Foster Open Communication
Chapter 6 Perfect Phrases to Ace the Interview You Conduct
Chapter 7 Perfect Phrases for Employee Orientation
Chapter 8 Perfect Phrases for Netiquette, Social Media, and Other Online 
Activities
Chapter 9 Perfect Phrases to Address Diversity
Chapter 10 Perfect Phrases for Delegation
Chapter 11 Perfect Phrases to Set and Communicate Standards and Goals
Chapter 12 Perfect Phrases to Coach Employees
Chapter 13 Perfect Phrases to Handle Performance and Behavior Problems
Chapter 14 Perfect Phrases for Performance Reviews
Chapter 15 Perfect Phrases for Ending Employment
Chapter 16 Perfect Phrases for Virtual and Face-to-Face Meetings and 
Announcements
Chapter 17 Perfect Phrases to Empower the Team
Chapter 18 Perfect Phrases to Communicate Up the Ladder
Chapter 19 Dynamized Management Communication Can Energize Productivity

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The New Workforce Demographics Require New Dynamics of Communication

This is not "your father's Perfect Phrases book." That's because we don't workin our father's work environment. Many factors are changing the way we relate,influence, and succeed. These factors change the nature of power. What got us tothe top in the past will hold us back in the future. The old model of managementcommunication— top-down, controlled messages, paying lip service toemployees while imposing force—doesn't work in this new world. We need newmodels and new phrasing for our new workplace demographics.

A Woman's Nation

Since 2008, women have officially outnumbered men in supervisory positions, andsince October of 2009, they have taken predominance in the workplace as a whole.The Shriver Report declared the United States to be a woman's nation, with thepostscript that "a woman's nation changes everything." While the report notesthat not everyone experiences a feminized workplace culture, clearly the trendis toward acceptance and valuation of traditional women's characteristics. Theseare the qualities of collaboration, cooperation, and personalization of businessinteractions. Of course, men can and often do also embody these values. And manywomen don't. Some women struggle with a collaborative style, either because itis not natural to them or because they have spent decades adapting to apredominantly male communication workplace culture. Still, women are seen as thedrivers of these trends. According to author Judy B. Rosener, women have shownthemselves to be "far more likely than men to describe themselves astransforming subordinates' self-interest into concern for the whole organizationand as using personal traits like charisma, work record, and interpersonalskills to motivate others." This collaborative trend is expected to persist aswomen continue to grow in workforce predominance.

Generation Y

The youngest generation of workers is also pushing management toward a newcommunication dynamic. Generation Y is naturally conversational, informal,egalitarian, and personal. To inspire and motivate younger employees, managersare learning to develop their personal working relationships and deliverindividual benefits to meet individual needs. The workers who make up this newgeneration expect their input, opinions, and desires to be acknowledged and forcommunication to be reciprocal. Most workers under age forty have never known aworkplace without women managers and colleagues, and they are increasinglycomfortable with a diversified workplace. Of course, this generation is alsoknown for growing up with pervasive technology.

Globalization

Globalization is another transformative factor. We're talking to and workingwith people from all over the world whose cultures are unlike ours. No matterhow much we homogenize, our diversity still has a way of showing up inexpectations, reactions, and miscommunications. This requires collaborativedialogue.

Social Media

Social media is also having a dramatic effect on the workplace culture. Twitter,Facebook, and other forms of social media aren't just elements of the businessclimate to consider; they are drivers and reflectors of a new type ofcommunication. We've gone from mass communication to masses of communicators.That alone is eroding the authoritarian communication model. Sound bites andmessages in 140 characters or less are vogue. That feeds the desire forsuccinctness. Plus many employees are constantly logged on and linked in totheir social networks. Meetings and events are peppered with audiences who textor tweet play-by-play analyses while the facilitator tries to keep theirattention. And that's if the leader is engaging. If he or she is not engaging,the texts are unrelated to the event.

Social media also creates a whole new set of conversations that managers need toinitiate. Our fathers' managers had to concern themselves with workers whoplayed cards on company time. Today's managers monitor computer games andtexting.

Stretch or Be Stretched

It's a stretch-or-be-stretched world out there. A manager who doesn't adapt tothe dynamic new work climate will not be effective. Management theories arehelpful, but managers also need concrete, tested communication action steps andphrases.

This book gives the accidental (and deliberate) manager immediate benefits byproviding words to use in hundreds of contemporary management situations. Theyare quick, easy, and effective.

You'll find ready-to-use (and ready-to-adapt) phrases for every managementsituation. But first, we'll dive into the new dynamics of communication thatprovide a foundation for all the phrases included in these pages.

CHAPTER 2

The New Dynamics of Communication

The new way of talking can be summarized as five new dynamics, each with severalcomponents. Review them and apply them to the phrases in the subsequentchapters.

New Communication Dynamic #1: Be Gracefully Assertive

Say what you mean, and mean what you say without being mean when you sayit.

As managers, it's our job to coordinate, not just let things haphazardly unfold.That includes giving clear directions, holding employees accountable, andaddressing inevitable issues. Judging from the numerous questions I get frommanagers about situations they should have addressed literally years ago, manymanagers don't manage. I also get countless questions from employees whosemanagers are heavy-handed. Their managers aren't managing either—they'recommanding. There's a fine balance between passive and aggressive communicationthat I used to refer to as being assertive. Now I add the adjectivegracefully to that phrase to encourage a style of influence that doesn'toverpower.

Here are some tips for being gracefully assertive.

1. Say what you mean. The new dynamics require us to be authentic.Although some people try to fake authenticity, the trend is toward genuineinteraction between individuals. That means dropping roles. We can't put ourmanager hats on and become different people when we manage. It doesn't work toact like our image of what a manager should be. This new dynamic calls for us toretire role-playing and talk like real people communicating with other realpeople.

2. Mean what you say. We protect the power of our words when we do whatwe say we will. Our words are as powerful as our commitment to them. If we don'tdo what we say we will, after a while no one will believe anything we say. If weschedule meetings and consistently show up late, if we overbook ourselves andfall short on commitments, or if we talk about valuing diversity and inclusionyet act like we don't, it signals employees that our words are empty. They willassume our words are also empty when we speak about larger considerations suchas opportunities, promotions, and loyalty.

3. Don't be mean when you say it. The word assert means "tostate or express positively." I like that definition. But unfortunatelyassert also means "to act boldly or forcefully, especially in defendingone's rights or stating an opinion." Too many managers berate employees andjustify it with the assertiveness label. The concept of being gracefullyassertive bypasses the aggressive connotation of self-expression.

Graceful assertiveness is part of a larger trend toward magnetic influenceinstead of coercive dominance. Stereotypical used-car salespeople can still makea living these days, but the most successful salespeople, marketers, andmanagers use the influence of attraction over the power of push.

New Communication Dynamic #2: Personalize

The saying "It's business; it's not personal" ignores the fact that because weare people, there is a personal aspect to all business transactions andcommunication. In fact, business communication is becoming increasinglypersonalized. The new dynamics of communication are person to person, engaged,and conversational. Networking and relationship-building skills are increasinglyessential to success. Here are some personalization tips.

1. Acknowledge emotion. Change experts observe that when managers allowemployees to express their emotions around change, they reach acceptance muchmore quickly. While we don't want emotion to dominate our business interactions,a little acknowledgment goes a long way.

2. Be conversational. Communication is more than relaying information.It's an interchange of ideas between people. Communicate as a unique individualtalking to anther unique individual rather than as an institution talking toanother institution.

3. Illustrate ideas with living examples. Stories engage and examplesilluminate ideas. For example, instead of passing around a dry list of socialmedia policies, bring those policies to life with concrete examples thatpersonalize the policies.

4. Monitor impersonal and utilitarian language. It may be accurate torefer to employees as human resources or human capital, but avoid speaking inways that imply you see the people you manage in terms of their function insteadof their humanity. Terms like associates and team member arebecoming popular to personalize the workplace culture.

5. Individualize. While every job has its standards and most policiesapply universally, the current workplace culture demands that jobs and decisionsallow room for individual adaptation. We need to balance standardization withindividualization.

New Communication Dynamic #3: State Concisely

Whether you love or hate the microblogging phenomenon Twitter, don't ignore it.It has changed the world we manage. Twitter and similar sites both shape andreflect the nature of today's workforce—even beyond those who use it.Countless managers pontificate in the unabridged, encyclopedic, and uninspirednarrative, and most employees these days want the pithy, concise version.

Obviously one way to develop the art of brevity is to learn your way aroundmicroblogging sites. It has taught me a lot about superfluous words. Twitterteaches users to say something meaningful in 140 characters or less. With thatlimitation imposed on them, Twitter users are forced to develop pithiness. Manyof our employees practice the art of concise speaking through micro-bloggingdaily. Not every message can be condensed to 140 characters, nor should it be.But pithy words get heard. Anything we communicate that doesn't add to a messagedetracts from it. So choose your words wisely and speak concisely.

New Communication Dynamic #4: Synergize

The workplace isn't a democracy where the majority rules. It is a synergisticsetting where the majorities and minorities and all else involved contribute tothe structure. Well, the good ones are. Some workplaces still are rankistdictatorships, others are meritocracies, some are anarchies, and most are a mixof styles. However, the trend is decidedly in the direction of synergy—ofoperating by dynamically discovering, engaging, and incorporating input from allelements of a group or unit.

Rankism is the antithesis of synergy. Rankism describes the abuse of the powerin rank. This can be blatant, but it also can show up in subtle ways likebloviating because you think those below you in the hierarchy are too captive toobject or too stupid to be able to think for themselves. Rankism often isinvisible to those with higher rank and glaringly obvious to everyone beneaththem on the organizational chart. Synergistic managers honor expertise andinsight where they find it, even if it comes from the janitor, mail clerk, orsomeone young enough to be their grandchild ... or old enough to be theirgrandparent. Here are some synergistic principles.

1. Partner with the people you manage. The old rules viewed managementas a series of impersonal transactions with obedient subordinates. In the newdynamics, we engage, include, and respond. We are a part of the team.

2. Pay individual attention to employees and adapt management styles,expectations, and job descriptions to their unique needs, talents, and styles. Ihave staff doing jobs I never imagined at the interview because I laterdiscovered new talents.

3. Invite active employee participation in shaping policy throughtechniques like crowdsourcing and spaghetti management.

According to Wikipedia, crowdsourcing is "the act of outsourcing tasks to agroup of people or community through an 'open call' asking for contributions."Think of architects who build without sidewalks until they see where peoplenaturally walk. People vote with their feet for where those walks should be.Think of IBM, who developed its social media policy through a wiki that allowedfor employee input. These decisions were made synergistically.

Spaghetti management engages employees in the formation and development ofpolicy. While MBO (management by objective) creates focus, and MBWA (managementby walking around) allows for casual interaction, MBTS (management by throwingspaghetti against the wall) empowers employees by inviting them to get involvedin shaping vision and policy. When we managers throw out possibilities to seewhat sticks, it signals that we don't think employees are just order takers. Itcan take a while for staff to recognize what we're doing and to discover thatnot only do they really have useful input but we actually want to consider thatinput. Then, look out! The floodgates open.

4. Harmonize individual functions within each team. Open communicationcultures will uncover ideas that conflict, need refining, and sometimes don'twork. When people, ideas, and objectives collide, it isn't a simple matter ofone being right and another being wrong. It can be a minor interface issue or aproblem of elements being out of sync with one another. What is inappropriate inone context could be most appropriate in another. Harmonizing individualfunctions moves judgment to discernment, negation to discovery, and dismissal todistinction. It keeps us from shutting down something (or someone) that could beuseful once it aligns with the whole and the whole aligns with it.

This process moves us from "no, but," to "yes, and." We find the gem inside thegrumble, the insight inside the insult, and the creative outlet for thecomplaint. We acknowledge negativity and move to creative resolution and sharedgoals. We consider whether opposition indicates underlying issues. If it does,we uncover the issues and seek not an alternative perspective but anexpanded one.

New Communication Dynamic #5: Dynamize

In computer speak, dynamize means transforming a static data structureinto a dynamic one. In medical speak it means releasing the potency of amedicine. In management speak it means using language and communicationstrategies that impel (not compel) forward thinking, speaking, and action. Thesocial dynamics of our culture demand momentum. Our younger employees grew upwith lively television shows, technology, and lifestyles. Social media is allabout momentum. Users have to respond quickly to catch a "wave." Here are someways we can dynamize our communication.

1. Speak to what is happening in the present and then look ahead. Myassistant, Ashley, once had a manager who said the same thing every day tomotivate employees. It didn't. That's static. We maintain momentum when werespond to events right in front of us. We speak in a fresh, new way eachmoment.

2. Bridge the current moment to a visionary future filled withpossibility. Too much emphasis on past mistakes kills momentum. Quickly shiftingthe focus toward possibilities creates a forward momentum. Talking about what wewant more than what we don't want dynamizes conversation.

3. Adapt salutations and closings to message content and the recipients.Perfunctory salutations and closings in correspondence kill momentum. Askyourself—did you choose the salutations and closings, or were theyhabitual and unconscious?

4. Welcome audibles. An audible is a football term for allowing thequarterback to change a play if the formation on the field indicates the need.Audibles allow for spontaneity, which creates momentum. Audibles give thefeeling of being on a moving train. They also are necessary for productivity.Audibles empower our employees to adapt to a changing playing field.

While we're at it, we need to call our own audibles. An agenda is a great thingto have at a meeting, but we need to let our agendas serve us instead of usserving our agendas. If circumstances suggest we adapt the agenda, we allow forthat.

5. Mentor. Empower employees to be their best selves and to develop andapply new skills. We want our employees to be better people after theycommunicate with us. We want our words to impel them to action and bring out thebest in them.

(Continues...)

(Continues...)

Excerpted from PERFECT PHRASES for MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS by Meryl Runion. Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 007174231X
• ISBN 13: 9780071742313
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 208