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Management Observation Program – Introduction

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StrategyDriven Management Observation Program Introduction“You can expect only what you inspect.”
Military Axiom

Managers are responsible for establishing and reinforcing work priorities and standards of performance. Reinforcing expectations requires interaction with subordinates and is most effective when the manager personally observes, rather than reading or hearing about, performance behaviors and immediately provides feedback. Lasting individual and organization performance improvement occurs through ongoing reassessment supported by performance data collection, documentation, and analysis used to reinforce desired individual and group behaviors, modify counterproductive behaviors, and eliminate organizational barriers to performance excellence. A well designed and executed management observation program serves as an effective performance improvement and reinforcement tool to achieve these long-term performance changes.

The management observation program is an integral part of an organization’s evaluation and control program. By design, these observation programs compel direct management observation of and feedback on work performed while supporting the performance data collection and analysis needed to realize lasting, beneficial personnel and organizational performance change. They typically consist of predefined performance assessment scorecards, a data collection and analysis application, key performance indicators and reports, and a governing procedure. This procedure defines required observation topics, frequencies, and quality standards as well as documentation and feedback protocols and data analysis, trend reporting, and corrective action; all aligned to support achievement of organizational values and mission goals.

Focus of the Management Observation Program Category

Articles in this category will focus on the underlying principles, best practices, and warning flags associated with establishing and executing a management observation program aligned with organizational values and mission goals that effectively modifies personnel and organizational behaviors for the achievement of superior results. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to a robust management observation program.

Articles

Best Practices

Warning Flags

Management and Leadership Best Practice 1 – Open, Honest, Timely Communications during Times of Uncertainty

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article | Business Communications | Timely CommunicationsPeople, regardless of their position, experience anxiety relative to the unknown. Is my job secure? Will I be able to provide for myself and my loved ones? and Will I lose my home? are just a few of the questions that preoccupy the minds of all organization members during uncertain times. Like all distractions, these self survival fears steal time and focus from the job at hand, negatively impacting productivity. Unlike other distractions, these fears are nearly impossible to ignore and will only subside once conditions become more predictable. Therefore, it is critically important that the manager-leader minimize the magnitude and duration of uncertainty by providing subordinates with as much clarifying information as possible. The manager must communicate.

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Project Management Best Practice 2 – Define What is Not In Scope

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All project managers know one of the greatest risks to the on-time, on-budget completion of their project is scope creep; the gradual expansion of functionality, broadening in organizational application, and/or increase in quality requirements often without a commensurate increase in project resources or duration. Subsequently, project managers strive to clearly define their project’s scope in order to defend against scope creep. But when doing so, they often forgo an invaluable tool; defining what is outside their project’s scope.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 10 – An Interview with Don Schmincke, co-author of High Altitude Leadership

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag posts on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 10 – An Interview with Don Schmincke, co-author of High Altitude Leadership explores the leadership dangers challenging all managers in their efforts to achieve superior results. During our discussion, Don Schmincke, co-author of High Altitude Leadership: What the World’s Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success and founder of the SAGA Leadership Institute, shares with us his insights regarding:

  • three high risk leadership dangers that can devastate a manager’s effectiveness
  • the significant role of biology in leadership ability
  • how a compelling saga can inspire an organization to achieve significantly higher levels of performance
  • the High Altitude Leadership Team Assessment

Additional Information

Complimenting the tremendous insights Don shares in High Altitude Leadership and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his websites: High Altitude Leadership (www.HighAltitudeLeadership.com), the SAGA Leadership Institute (www.SAGALeadership.com), and Don Schmincke (www.DonSchmincke.Wordpress.com). Sign-up to receive a copy of The High Altitude Leadership Team Assessment by clicking here. Don’s book, High Altitude Leadership, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

Don Schmincke, co-author of High Altitude Leadership, is the founder of the SAGA Leadership Institute, an organization that helps CEOs achieve outstanding results in strategy, leadership, sales, and cultural alignment. From CNN to the Wall Street Journal, his use of anthropology and evolutionary genetics to remedy the high failure rates of management theories has established him as a consultant renegade and leading global authority. To read Don’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:00 — 52.2MB)

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StrategyDriven Goes Green

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