"P" Point Management

“P” Point Management:
Simple Clues for Closing Gaps

“When you want to fool the world, simply tell the truth clearly” (Otto Von Bismark).

Here’s the simple and clear truth: The biggest problem we have today in managing our lives and our organizations is the prevalence of gaps. Success in living and managing is not all that difficult. We just make it more difficult than it needs to be by creating and ignoring gaps.

First, there is the gap between confusion and clarity that keeps us all hostage. This is the huge mountain of information we have created. Most of us have to spend a lifetime wading though all this sea of confusion before we can finally see land and figure out what is really most important. Then we have to learn how to live and communicate this simple and clear truth to others, who are still wading through their own sea of confusion.

While this de-confusing process is going on, we start becoming aware that there is the gap between who we really are as individuals and who we pretend to be. We have to learn how to walk our talk to get from where we are to where we want to be. Along side of this gap there is another one between how we see ourselves and how others see us. We have to learn what these perceptions are, decide what needs changing and then begin changing both the behavior and its perception.

The next gap we begin to see is the one between what we know and can do as people and managers and what other people and employees know and can do. Finally, there is all these other gaps going on with everyone else. Gaps, gaps and more gaps.

The real job of the manager is to close all these gaps. Effective training has to close the gap between the trainer and trainee so he or she can start closing gaps within the organization. P" points are gap-closers. “P” Point Management is a practical, straightforward system to simplify all the unnecessary complexity and confusion that wastes much valuable time. It represents the simple art of being smart in getting more done by doing less, smarter. If it seems too easy that is because it is. All the hard work has been done in discovering it.

“P” points are power activities managers can do in strategically using small, but intense, well-placed and well-timed interventions that produce major results in closing gaps. “P” point management separates the few critical power activities from the many unnecessary and wasteful ones that result in the unproductive 80-20 rule.

Below are fifteen simple “P” points managers can use to make real progress in closing gaps.

Management "P" Point # 1: First, manage yourself.

You can't begin to manage others until you first learn how to manage yourself. Many good managers have wasted much time learning this valuable hindsight lesson. Being a good role model for others to follow is the most important activity any manager can focus on. You have to live up to ideal standards that survive microscopic observation. That takes much self-awareness and self-control.

A critical “p’ point activity is to know how others perceive you and then work on closing the gap between that person and the one who you pretend to be. Another advantageous “P” point is being aware of the image you project in your wardrobe, car, house, office décor, leisure activities and other revealing reflections of your personality. Most importantly, close the gap between what you say and what you do.

Management "P" Point # 2: Talk, write and hear better.

Successful management today requires power communication skills. You can't just be a good communicator. You have to be a great communicator. You can only command small bits of people’s attention so what you say and how you say it has to be clear, concise and powerful. “P” point communication skills include using two-eared listening to hear everything that is said and not said; playing with word psychology to take advantage of connotations and value dimensions of words; and audience-connecting to learn how your listener processes information. Power communication avoids communication termites such as over-interpreting non-verbal communication, distracting mannerisms, assumptions, pre-judgments and pre-occupations.

Management "P" Point # 3: Think better.

One important critical thinking “P” point is slowing down to think about your own thinking and becoming more aware of your mental unproductivity. This opens the door to realizing how to improve the quality of your thinking by avoiding critical mental mistakes such as over-simplification, dualistic thinking, mirroring, unverified assumptions, and perceptual biases. Critical thinking also helps you to uncover other mistakes including over-generalizing, obsessing with artificial certainty and premature closure, being held hostage by impossible paradoxes and falling prey to the bad habit of paradigm-morphing.

Management "P" Point # 4: Improve your likability.

Being friendly, positive and approachable helps bring about success with the more difficult and unpleasant aspects of the job. Likability is often a conduit for gap-closing. “P” points for improving likability include having a pleasant appearance, displaying a positive attitude, showing high energy, listening to others a lot and demonstrating control over your reactions.

Other strategic “P” points to build likability are making a commitment to continuously improve, learning to live more in the now moment to enjoy what you have, and slowing down to see what is really most important. Probably the most important “P” point activity in projecting likability is a positive attitude. The real test is to maintain positivism when things are not going so well.

Management "P" Point # 5: Stay focused.

With today’s fast pace and all that is going on it is a real challenge for the manager to stay focused. Concentrated attention is needed to avoid all the entertaining and amusing distractions going on within the organization. It is also required to avoid the tendency to skip around keeping busy with different priorities, not really being productive or getting anything finished.

“P” point areas of focus that have the biggest payoffs include the organization’s mission, goals and values; employees’ productivity and welfare; knowing the details of how important things work and getting useful feedback to assure continuous improvement. Perhaps one of the most important “P” points to keep in focus is your own self-care. Excellent management requires a physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy manager.

Management "P" Point # 6: Use your creativity and intuition more.

The problems that confront today’s managers are complex and unique. Many solutions require tools that haven’t even been invented yet. Managers have to join their creatuitivity skills to uncover valuable intuitive insights and to encourage divergent, wiggly 3-D thinking in their organizations. They have to get both their right and left brains working together scientifically and artistically.

The major “P” point to tapping into creatuitivity is to remember how much of it you had as a child. It was suppressed because it wasn’t viewed as a priority value. Other “P” point activities to increase this valuable management skill are verifying hunches more, suspending judgment about things, looking at ordinary things differently and engaging in creative projects without worrying about your finished product.

Management "P" Point # 7: Fix mistakes.

Mistake-making is a part of management, and to avoid doing anything risky just because it might result in a mistake might waste a valuable opportunity to make real progress,. It is a good idea to remember: Managers are bound to make mistakes but are not bound to those mistakes they make. A “P” point regarding mistakes is to develop a good recovery strategy. Being able to rectify mistakes doesn’t undo them but it sure makes their impact less disastrous.

A simple one that works well is to own the problem non-defensively, offer a sincere apology, implement a temporary quick fix, plan a long term cure to keep the problem from re-occurring and offer a token of penitence for absolution. A good “P” point attitude to have about making a mistake is that it is an opportunity to start over again with the correct information.

Management "P" Point # 8: Get balanced.

An effective manager must remain balanced, personally and professionally. This is so he or she can have the best vantage point to see in all directions and make the smartest decisions. Being out of balance mentally most always results in a lopsided viewpoint. Being out of balance physically can put your health at risk.

There are many “P” point balancing acts that challenge managers. A few of these include talking vs. listening, thinking vs. acting, working vs. playing, changing vs. stabilizing, controlling vs. allowing freedom, giving vs. taking and striving for the ideal vs. accepting the real. One of the biggest challenges for today’s managers of a diverse workplaces is to consistently enforce sanctions to promote employee equality for the good of the organization while still allowing for each individual employee’s freedom, growth and concerns.

Management "P" Point # 9: Teach employees how to solve problems.

A critical “P” point in teaching problem-solving is to demonstrate this important skill firsthand in an actual problem situation. That requires trust and patience with the results. Learning useful problem-solving strategies is an important “P” point too. The best framework to use in solving problems is the medical model which goes through specific stages systematically, including diagnosis of core cause, analysis of alternative solutions and prescription of the best solution.

Some other problem-solving strategies are identifying the real problem from symptoms, separating solvable problems from unsolvable ones and breaking complex problems down into more manageable parts. Unusual “P” point problem-solving strategies include working backwards, changing languages, analogizing to other fields and reapplying older solutions in newer and more unusual ways.

Management "P" Point # 10: Ask good questions.

Much of the information on which a manager has to act comes from the questions he or she asks. A lawyer friend of mine once reminded me that the quality of the answers you get is mostly a result of the quality of questions you ask. It is imperative to ask the right questions in the right way to get accurate, clear, concise and complete information.

“P” point activities to improve the quality of answers you get are avoiding offensive or accusatory questions, stopping to think what you are trying to ask and why, and phrasing the question to achieve a balance between setting artificial limits and being too open-ended. Another important “P” point is to not ask questions to which you already have your own answer. The object of asking a question is to learn information you don’t know.

Management "P" Point # 11: Manage change productively.

Managers must become masters of managing change productively by overcoming resistance of employees, minimizing disruption to the organization and reducing discomfort to all. “P” points in this process are establishing a quality work environment that is supportive of change, understanding the change process itself and learning how to sell the change by dispelling doubt and assuring success.

Other "P" points are staying ahead of external trends that affect the organization and keeping personal changes from spilling over to the workplace. A critical “P” point for managers is to be able to spot unproductive, undesirable changes that violate known principles essential to the organization’s productivity and welfare of employees.

Management "P" Point # 12: Work smarter

Practicing all these other management “P” points is working smart. Since time is the manager’s most important resource, excellent time management skills is a “P” point worth practicing. Good time management is simply developing a system to set priorities straight and then avoiding typical time wasters such as disorganization, uninvited disruptions, lack of planning and undisciplined behavior.

Working smart involves two other important “P” points: Taking care of yourself and saving enough time to laugh. You are no good to the organization if you aren't healthy and things are rarely as tragic as you often imagine. Taking good care of yourself in these regards can restore needed energy and enthusiasm for the workplace.

Management "P" Point # 13: Resolve conflicts.

Conflicts are necessary for employees and organizations to grow. They are not problems to avoid but opportunities of which to take advantage. “P” point conflict resolution activities include determining the importance of the issues, uncovering the investments that have already been made with certain outcomes, anticipating the impact different outcomes will have on everyone and learning the difficulties in implementing the various resolution strategies.

The values of all these aspects dictate the appropriate application of either acting, adjusting, accommodating or avoiding the conflict. A major “P” point for managers to practice is to resist the natural tendency to try and resolve conflicts too quickly before all the issues have been explored in sufficient depth. Another important “P” point is to separate all the thoughts and feelings that are confusing the conflict.

Management "P" Point # 14: Apply principles.

There is so much to know and do and so little time in which to do it, that managers must learn and apply valuable principles that generalize to many similar situations. There simply isn’t enough time to try and invent a new solution to solve each new problem. Managers can improve his or her arsenal of “P” point principles by re-reading psychology books to remember important information about human beings’ motivations, individual differences, learning, group processes, and general behavior. One important principle about people is that they often have opposite drives and needs that both have to be satisfied, such as the need to be seen as a unique individual but also to be treated equally.

Another way to discover important life principles is to observe nature where they are abundant. Remember that the fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one important thing. Taking the time to understand the details of how something works is also an excellent way to learn principles that explain other things. Another good observation is to notice how things are inter-related, especially below the visible surface.

Management "P" Point # 15: Give back stewardship service.

Saying “thank you” with valuable acts of stewardship is the last responsibility of a good manager. “P” point stewardship activities include building employees’ self-esteem, mentoring potential managers, teaching valuable skills to others and cultivating virtues. Others include being active in the community, enforcing and reinforcing sanctions fairly and consistently, and being a good role model for others to follow.

By practicing these management “P” points, the manager will be closing important gaps in improving the productivity of the organization for all stakeholders. The “P” point manager gets more done by doing less, smarter. Now the only gap you need to make a commitment to close is the one between what you know and what you actually practice.

“Tell me quick and tell me true, or else my friend, the heck with you. Less of how your product came to be and more of what it does for me” (an impatient Sonny Harris).