To improve collaboration and work more effectively, talk openly and candidly with your team. When problems arise, go to the source and tackle issues head-on. Listen to what other people say and be willing to make changes based on their feedback. Use your positive influence to drive to a mutually beneficial results.

The key to working effectively with others is recognizing what drives them, valuing their perspectives, and encouraging them to fill in where you have gaps.

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The Product Management Perspective: As product managers we’ve said a lot about how we should be driving the product direction and not let development drive it. While I agree with the overall concept, there are a lot of developers that know their (your) products very in-depth, they are passionate about their products’ success and they really do (quite often) have good ideas. We should listen to them. I’m currently ramping up to speed with my new products and relying heavily on my development teams. I put tremendous significance on their product knowledge and their desire to make the products better. Your relationship with the development team(s) is critical; do yourself a favor and listen to their ideas.

Even managers have managers. Our bosses don’t always make our work life easy. A bad boss can impede the ability to work efficiently, can foster a negative work environment, or can be an obstacle to career advancement. Effective leaders understand how to manage these relationships in order to take charge of their own success. If you feel that your manager is making it difficult to do your best work or to enjoy your job, here are some ways that you can better manage the relationship:

Pinpoint the Issue

What exactly is it that is causing the problem for you? Do you feel undervalued as an employee? Do you feel that your manager changing decisions is undermining your work? Do you have a personality conflict? Getting to the root of your frustrations can help you understand how to solve the problem. Next, look to understand your manager. What are his personal values? What is her work philosophy? Understanding how your boss approaches management of the company or department and its employees can help you understand how approach him.

Improve Communication

Communication is key to every relationship in business. The type of communication you have with your manager can make or break your relationship and the success of your job. Start improving communication by having regular meetings with your boss so that you are both on the same page about the work you are doing. Take the opportunity to inform your boss about your current projects, issues with any employees you manage, client needs that you are addressing, and any other work you are doing. Even if you don’t have a formal meeting, make sure that you are keeping your boss in the loop. This kind of communication can reassure your boss of your competence (in case questions about your abilities were causing micromanagement or other problem behaviors) and can help you build a strong relationship over time.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Your boss didn’t e-mail you with the information you needed when you asked. Maybe he showed up late for a meeting that you were running. Bosses are people, and people aren’t perfect. Decide what’s important, and forget about the things that aren’t. If you get upset about every little annoyance, you’ll never be happy. Learn to prioritize what’s important, and find ways to resolve issues.

Don’t Try to Change Your Boss

People are who they are, and unless they are abusive or destructive in some way, you shouldn’t try to change them. You’ll only become more frustrated and unhappy in the process. Instead of trying to change your manager’s behavior, work on finding ways around your boss to do the job you need to do. If you know he is often late, plan to start a meeting with less important business or with socializing briefly with clients. If you know that your boss is bad about responding to e-mails, make a habit of stopping by his office or giving him a quick phone call. You’ll be able to get your work done, and you can move past the frustration of trying to make things different.

Know When to Leave

Sometimes, a bad boss is just a bad boss, and dealing with that person can keep you from the job satisfaction and success that you desire. Learn to recognize when the situation is just unmanageable, and don’t be afraid to move on and find a better situation. While it is important to know how to work with every type of personality, it is also true that compatibility can be critical to career success. Don’t be afraid to look for a boss and a work environment that is a better fit for you and that will inspire your best performance.

Even if you are a manager yourself, learning how to manage relationships with your boss and other superiors is a critical skill for career success. Ensuring a good relationship with your boss will help you to do your best work and to advance. If you have a difficult or counterproductive relationship with your manager, these steps will help improve the relationship.

Heather Green is a freelance writer for several regional magazines in North Carolina as well as a resident blogger for onlinenursingdegrees.org. Her writing experience includes fashion, business, health, agriculture and a wide range of other topics. Heather has just completed research on online nursing programs and online nursing schools.

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The Product Management Perspective: The nature of product management organizations often leads to loose-knit teams where each PM spends more time with other teams (e.g. development) and where team members are less engaged with each other than in most other disciplines. More than 81% of product managers report to a director or higher, which explains why PM teams are often “loosely coupled” (as our dev friends like to say). If you are a product manger, applying the ideas above will help. Whether he’s the CEO or more like a peer, you will benefit by strengthening the relationship with your manager.

The people whose careers seem to grow the fastest follow similar patterns of behavior. They understand competition exists, they recognize the steps they need to take to succeed, and they understand who is responsible. They take charge of their career and accept full responsibility for their growth.

The following five actions will help accelerate your career growth:

1. Improve skills and knowledge: Instead of hunkering down in your current state, take specific actions to improve your skills. Look for opportunities for training. Read books. Read blogs. Make an effort to learn new skills and practice them as much as you can in your current job. Remember these words from Eric Hoffer: “In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
2. Develop trust: People naturally want to surround themselves with people they trust. Developing trust takes time and consistent effort. Trust goes two ways: you need to behave in such a way that people will trust you will do what you say. And equally important, you need to trust others.
3. Help others: One of the keys to growth is helping others. When you make the effort to assist someone else to become better at what they do, you become better yourself.
4. Believe in yourself: As your skills increase, you gain more experience and a clearer understanding your significance to your organization. Believing in yourself, your skills, and your ability to succeed — without becoming arrogant — is a good thing. And never forget the people who have helped you along the way.
5. Work yourself out of the job: This one may not make sense on its face, but the idea is to work effectively and close the loop on what you are doing. Think in terms of projects: plan what you are going to do, work at it and when it’s finished move on to the next project. Work effectively and make it so that anyone could step in and take over. As you do that you will automatically make yourself more valuable to your company, and they will have no choice but to promote you or find something more challenging for you to do.

One of the Harvard Business Review management tips states it very clearly: “Responsibility for your professional development lies squarely on your shoulders.” Go out and make it happen.

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The Product Management Perspective: Career growth is important to every product manager I know. The role lends itself to working with many people in different parts of the company and with customers and others external to the organization. Practicing the five actions listed above will increase your value to your company and accelerate your career growth. And when you work yourself out of the product management position, perhaps you’ll find yourself in an executive’s chair.

The word ‘conflict’ is used in so many ways that I’m conflicted as I try to make sense of it (ok, that was a ‘tongue-in-cheek for my good friend Jim Holland). For purposes of this post, ‘conflict’ is a mental struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes or demands. It’s manifest in both internal and external ways; internal conflicts based on our beliefs and ethics, and external conflicts between individuals, groups or countries.

What if conflicts at home, conflicts at work, and conflicts in the world stem from the same root cause? What if we systematically misunderstood that cause? And what if, as a result, we unwittingly perpetuate the very problems we think we are trying to solve? The Arbinger Institute answers these important questions in the book The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict. The book teaches important principles through an intriguing story of parents who are struggling with their children and with problems that have come to consume their lives. We learn from once-bitter enemies the way to find peace whenever war is upon us. Yusaf al-Falah, and Arab, and Avi Rozen, a Jew, each lost his father at the hands of the other’s ethnic cousins. The Anatomy of Peace is the story of how they came together, how they help warring parents and children to come together, and how we too can find our way out of the struggles that we face.

Through its story the book lays out key principles that can help you resolve any conflict. It talks about decision points that play a critical role in avoiding conflict and helping us for healthy relationships with the important people in our lives. When we choose to act contrary to our sense of what is right, we commit what the book calls ‘self-betrayal,’ which leads us to do things to cover up our choices. Over time these choices can lead us to behaviors that are detrimental to some or all of our relationships.

When we make good choices we free ourselves from a “heart at war” where we see other people as objects that are either detrimental to us, or as things we can use for our own benefits. Good choices lead to a “heart at peace” where we see others as people with hopes, needs, cares and fears as real as our own. We focus on the good things that are happening in our lives and the people that are helping us.

“Lasting solutions to the battles in our workplaces, homes and battlefields will come only as we end the war in our souls.” The Anatomy of Peace goes into rich detail about the negative effects of conflict, and more importantly how we can resolve problems before they even start. The compelling story draws you in and helps you feel what the characters are feeling, from problems with children to conflicts with executives in the boardroom. You will benefit significantly from reading and understanding this book.

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The Product Management Perspective: Product managers play a key role in the culture of the teams they work with. PMs have the power to resolve negative conflicts and lead their teams to a unity of purpose.

Conflicts will arise. Some will say that “conflict is good” for the process. I agree it’s healthy to get all the ideas out on the table, have spirited discussions about the opinions, and defend your data and experience. However, you should never let conflict into the process. In other words, treat others as people and respect their points of view.

Managers and executives, who are trying to improve the performance of their teams, are actively helping to improve the overall performance of their organization. Wondering what you can do to boost your team’s engagement and output? Keep in mind these key elements of performance management:

Image Source: Guillermo Camargo

§ Leadership. In order to get a group performing effectively, you need a leader who thinks and communicates clearly. An effective leader is one who has a clear vision of his or her team’s purpose and can effectively communicate that vision to the members of the team. The leader must be also able to motivate the team to accomplish goals. The leader can best do this by persuading the team that their goal or purpose is worthy of achievement and that they will benefit individually and collectively by accomplishing these goals.

§ Planning. Once a team’s goals have been set, a clear and realistic plan must be established for reaching those goals. The plan must have clear, consecutive and concrete steps for achieving milestones along the way to reaching a goal. A good plan will also outline the roles and responsibilities of each member of the team for achieving the team’s goals.

§ Communication. Each member of a team must be willing and able to speak up and inform other members of the team about progress he or she has made to help the team achieve a goal, as well as any setbacks. Members must also be willing to accept feedback from others, whether it’s about their strengths or areas for improvement. Procedures need to be in place for team members’ to check each other’s work. These procedures should also help team members look for problems so that mistakes can be identified and corrected quickly.

§ Time Management. The leader of a team needs to be able to manage time efficiently, and be able to coach team members on effective time management. A good way to do this is to lead by example. One way to provide a good example of time management is to make sure that meetings are short and to the point. A meeting should have a specific goal, and all members of the team should be aware of that goal before the meeting begins. All members of a team should be encouraged to participate but also encouraged to stay on topic. Setting time limits on meetings usually results in more getting accomplished during a meeting than having a meeting without a time limit.

§ Conflict Resolution. Any team will have personality clashes or disagreements as to the best way to get something done. When conflicts arise, procedures should already be in place for each person to have his or her say. The leader of a team may need to either make a decision or coach the team members involved in the conflict in the art of negotiation. A conflict between team members may be an opportunity for the team leader to remind members about the ultimate goals of the team.

§ Development Opportunities. Members of a team often need motivators other than money. If they believe that working on mundane or unpleasant tasks to accomplish the team’s goals will ultimately help them increase their leadership, technical or communication skills, they may go at the tasks with gusto.

§ Leaders should also remember that managing performance is an integral part of measuring and tracking organizational output and improving performance among team members.

John C. Stevens manages a phone room for a public opinion and market research firm. He has written training materials and developed procedures for checking and ensuring that telephone interviewers read verbatim and adhere to other industry standards, making sure to measure his team’s performance with performance management software. He recruits and trains interviewers to conduct public opinion and market research surveys, and has built a strong team that has gathered information accurately, resulting in satisfied clients. Prior to his career in research, he worked in business to business telemarketing and political fundraising. Mr. Stevens attended The Ohio State University and is now working on a degree in web development from Franklin University. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and son.

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The Product Management Perspective: Though product managers are not usually responsible for performance management, they can have a major impact with other organizations (e.g. development) regarding the execution of work. Look for ways to inspire members of the teams you depend on to work effectively and succeed at getting your products to market. This will involve patience, persuasion and perseverance. Use all three effectively and your products will reflect your efforts.

Change is inevitable and so is the resistance to change. People are often not welcoming of change unless it is implemented by leadership correctly. It’s natural that people become complacent with the status quo and perform rote tasks without giving their actions much thought. Change brings about fear of the unknown, which creates an atmosphere of unnecessary anxiety. That doesn’t have to be the scenario if employees understand the change, the strategies that will be used, and their role in accomplishing the goals.

Effective leaders need to understand that their primary responsibility is to infuse confidence in employees and ensure that they also have the ability to assume the new responsibilities. Equally important is that employees are instilled with the mind-set that they are capable of successfully executing the change strategies for themselves and their organization.

A successful leader who leads by example and keeps his promises will gain the trust and loyalty of his employees. Valued employees are more willing to contribute to the organization’s success when they believe they have a stake in it and are motivated by their own accomplishments. Toyota is a prime example of this mindset – their engagement approach gets employees involved via quality control improvement at all levels of the organization.

Toyota Case Study

The president of the U.S. based Toyota Corporation was reminded of the importance of employee engagement to organizational success when a factory dilemma occurred. Although Toyota’s leadership style promotes employee involvement, the working environment of one of their factory sites was not motivating its front-line workers. They failed to suggest quality control improvement that is inherent in “Kaizen.”  Kaizen is the Japanese philosophy of continuous incremental improvement in life that Toyota has incorporated into its leadership style.

The Toyota president’s decision to hold weekly meetings with the front-line workers to openly discuss their concerns demonstrated his leadership commitment. He learned that the lack of motivation was attributed to various workplace inadequacies; some of them as basic as poor lighting in locker rooms. As the meetings continued, the workers became more vocal and their grievances more complex. It was revealed that a critical factor for the lack of motivation was the absence of encouragement to participate in quality control improvements for the products they created every day. When the changes were made to remedy the workplace inadequacies, the result was a success, due in part to appropriate business process management practices, and an overall acceptance of “Kaizen”.

Train. Evaluate. Repeat.

Thorough training in all phases of the workflow process and an understanding of the purpose drive organizational change success. Once processes are in place, continuous evaluation is necessary to verify that workers are following procedures as designed, proficiency levels are monitored, and accountability is present based on clearly defined expectations. An exemplary leader immediately assesses any glitches with feedback from his staff and re-evaluates the process to implement improvements A.S.A.P., upon which further assessment is necessary so that additional adjustments can be made if necessary.

Basic economics: Supply and Demand

An effective leader successfully executes her organization’s processes to ultimately meet the demands of customers by focusing on what they really want and providing those goods and services. A product that is of high quality, delivered on time, with quick and effective handling of customer complaints, will enhance customer satisfaction. What matters to the customer should be incorporated into the change process and measured for its effectiveness by customer feedback, retention rates, and growth.

Communication is key

Successful communication means that dialogue must flow in all directions in order to build trust at all levels – between senior level management, middle management, supervisors and frontline workers. As noted in the Toyota example, bottom-up communication is equally important as top-down communication in preventing dissension or the perception of favoritism and distrust.

Management and leadership are not synonymous

Well managed organizations do not necessarily perform at an optimum level. Organizations that are high performing have a successful leadership structure in place that is committed to the business process, change management, and the traditional functions – budgeting, organization, planning, problem solving and staffing. Effective leadership establishes the organization’s vision and sends it in a clear direction. It also inspires and motivates its employees, aligns key personnel for collaboration, and creates an atmosphere that is conducive to cooperation. Priceless leadership is the “heart and soul” of the organization and the management system is the “brain.” Both are essential for optimal performance.

There are many different leadership and management styles, some of which are arguably better than others. More importantly, a successful leader must be able to “morph” their leadership style into the most effective for the given situation, while continuing to guide the organization toward successful change.

The University of San Francisco, in partnership with University Alliance, has provided this article. The University of San Francisco offers higher education opportunities through a variety of online master certificates, including business process management. To see additional information please visit http://www.usanfranonline.com

I was first introduced to the statement ‘leadership is a relationship’ in the book The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. The authors go into great detail about the importance of building camaraderie among the people you are leading. When you have a meaningful relationship with another person you work more effectively together. You have a common goal and a consistent purpose. Your efforts are channeled toward the same common outcome.

Effective leaders recognize the importance of building solid relationships. They spend time focusing their efforts in key areas that will build connections with the people they lead. Here are three simple tools that great leaders use to improve their working relationships:

• Listen: Leaders let other people talk and they pay attention to what they’re saying. They remove anything that would distract from their conversations and focus on what people are trying to convey.
• Understand: They appreciate what other people do and value their contributions. Leaders are not only open to new ideas but are also eager to learn new things. They know that taking the time to understand where people are coming from will pay dividends in the long run.
• Acknowledge: Leaders acknowledge the contributions of others. They are quick to give credit to others for their successes. They celebrate achievements and delight in the accomplishments of their team. They know that people will be more motivated to work hard and try new things if their leader acknowledges their efforts.

What are you doing to build effective relationships?

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The Product Management Perspective: Product managers depend on others in engineering, marketing, sales, etc. for their success. This dependence makes building relationships essential. People are assets; the only way to effectively work with others is to build positive, effective working relationships. Listen to them, consider their circumstances, show empathy, then move forward and make decisions that will be beneficial for everyone in your organization.

• Commitment to the organization: Why do your team members work for your organization? Do they believe your vision? Do you inspire them? Are they sticking around only because the economy’s tough and they’re scared to look for another job? If they had a choice, would they work for you?
• Career goals: What goals are your team members working towards in their current position? What drives them? Why do they get up every morning and come to work for you?  What are their career aspirations? What are you doing to help them advance? (Hint: if the answer is “nothing” they won’t stay with you long.)
• Personal life: What do your team members like to do in their spare time? Where do they hang out? What are their hobbies? Are they married? How many kids do they have? And maybe the most important question…does their spouse like you?

If you can answer all of these questions (without having to ask), you care about your people. If not…you have some work to do. Your next presentation to the CEO isn’t nearly as important as the next meeting with your team.

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The Product Management Perspective: Though it’s a bit different for product managers (because they don’t “manage” people), it’s still important to get to know the team members. The better you know them the more effective you will be at inspiring them to do great things. If they know you care they will definitely go out of their way to make you successful.

The great thing about activities like mountain biking is they give you a chance to get away and help you put life into perspective. Many of the things we do for recreation provide apt lessons for other things we do in life. During my experience on the mountain I thought of a few leadership analogies:

Don’t ride alone: I was a slow getting ready and ended up taking my first ride down the mountain alone. The ride up seemed long (and boring) and I wasn’t sure which trail would be the best to go down (my buddies, who know the area much better than I, were far ahead). Success comes when you work together with your team members. Those who try to do things alone and get all the credit end up doing lower quality work. Effective leaders know their team members and guide them to work effectively together.

Learn from the falls: During my Sundance excursion I had two spectacular falls. The first one I saw coming, but still ended up on the ground with scraped hands and knees. The second fall caught me completely off guard. My front wheel hit a rock and I flew over the handlebars face down on the ground. Both times I got up, shook off the dust and kept going. I realized the mistakes I’d made (each different) and was careful not to do the same thing again. All leaders make mistakes. Successful leaders get back up and move forward. They don’t feel sorry for themselves and they don’t make the same mistake again.

Enjoy the ride: When you’re biking down a mountain it can get intense with all the turns and rocks and potential hazards. It’s easy to tense up and focus too much on what could go wrong, and miss the beauty of entire experience. After my first trip down the mountain I realized I needed to relax. I met up with my friends and we rode together. It made the day much better. Sometimes in work situations we get far too caught up in the day-to-day grind and end up missing the “beauty” around us. Leaders find ways to get their teams excited about their work. They know that committed individuals work more effectively and are much happier. Leaders find ways to make work more fulfilling for their teams.

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The Product Management Perspective: One of the biggest fears of many product managers I know is that their product will not be successful. Too often they react by closing off (i.e. keeping it inside) and not sharing their concerns with others. This behavior never works in the end. Bad ideas and bad products will be exposed. My advice is to be open with your team, acknowledge potential problems early, learn from your mistakes, and keep moving forward. Product management can be a thrilling job…enjoy the ride!

John C Maxwell defined leadership when he said, “The true measure of leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less.”Maxwell has correctly identified that leadership is not just about traits, position, personality and experience; it’s more about having an ability to influence people by maintaining integrity and trustworthiness.

If you want to further understand John Maxwell’s viewpoint on this, you’ll probably need to look at what types of behavior are most commonly associated with effective leadership. As you attempt to answer that question, you suddenly realize that the behavioral skills that even the most effective leaders possess are very common in non-leaders as well. For non-leaders, these are behaviors that will help to build or enhance their personal leadership skills and will ultimately assist in helping to produce clear, tangible results for the business.

So what are the behaviors that can potentially turn a non-leader into an effective leader?

Displaying a positive mental attitude. A positive mental attitude creates a mindset of abundance, enthusiasm, and solutions. Instead of thinking about what can’t be done, a positive thinker will not be constrained by ‘can’ and ‘cannot.’ A positive thinker is free to think of new ways to solve problems because they are not limited by fear of failure. Attitudes are contagious.

Encourage others. Encouragement is the skill of an effective leader. Show your belief in others. Look for opportunities to give them positive/constructive feedback. By encouraging others, you are not only helping to improve your relationship with them, but you may also be helping them to achieve something great.

Listen more, talk less. The simple key to working well with others is to listen more and talk less. When we listen, we can learn about the other person’s motivations. When we understand those, we are in a better position to guide and influence them. A useful way to remember the proportion of listening to speaking is to remember that you have two ears and one mouth. Quite simply, you should listen twice as much as you speak.

Engage with others. Engaging with others is not just about engaging with those who share your values and beliefs (the like-minded), but also about engaging with those who think differently from you and are doing something that may seem completely different and unrelated. Do not be afraid to engage across diversity, for that is how you will learn.

Be a great follower. Since leadership is an activity and not a role, recognize that you won’t always be leading; you must be willing and able to follow others too.  Developing this as a conscious practice will help you build your relationships; more importantly, it will allow you to observe others as they lead. Being a good follower will involve keeping your manager informed, always supporting your manager behind their backs, embracing change, bringing solutions (not problems) to your manager, admitting your mistakes, being a team player and being the eternal optimist.

Embrace a learning culture. Being effective requires us to continually learn and develop ourselves.  In doing this, we can become a positive role model for others, helping them see the importance of learning as well.

Continually develop your communication skills. Good communication skills require a high level of self-awareness. By understanding your personal style of communicating, you will go a long way towards creating a good and lasting impression with others.

Irrespective of your own status, when you consistently display the right behavioral skills, you are building and maintaining integrity and trustworthiness. You are in effect, building a strong capability to influence others by having people listen to your ideas, valuing or following your suggestions for action, and turning to you for guidance or advice.

Peter Davey is a Senior Trainer for a UK-based management training provider and consultancy. t2 Management Training offer leadership and management training to all types of managers – from team leaders to Directors and CEOs – and work with some of the biggest companies in the country.

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The Product Management Perspective: Many of the behaviors described here are key to successful product management. Product managers need to keep a positive attitude and encourage their teams to work hard and work effectively. They need to listen to the market and learn what makes potential buyers want to buy their products. They need to communicate effectively, both inside and outside the company. Perhaps most important, product managers need to be learners.