I have a half hour slot in our companies board meeting.
I want to use this time wisely!
Any advice/inspiration/ideas on what questions to ask/what approach to take to get the senior team to share their vision on what would make a good manager.
I'm using this information (along with other findings) as a basis for learning objectives and TNA.
Much appreciated!
Louise Hall
Louise Hall
4 Responses
A clear objective and real examples
As with any exercise, the group needs to know and understand the objective behind what follows.
I would ensure this makes a strong link to the key business drivers.
Then, to help flesh out what they see as the characteristics of a “good manager”, maybe you could use the exercise of getting them to think of famous people who they regard as good managers.
One thought here…are you looking for “good managers” or “good leaders”, as the profiles could well be different.
As a suggestion for a question:
“In order to achieve our business objectives, what do you believe are the charaterstics of a good manager? Use examples of famous managers you know to illustrate these characteristics.”
The example managers could be from business, the arts or sport, etc.
Managers- who needs them?
Louise,
I suggest a frank question like the above ought to be punchy enough to get the board’s attention and then major on how you see ‘managers’ delivering the boards strategy via KPI’s and balanced scorecard methodology.Please you ensure you link this to the latest forecasts by product/customer from the company accounts and how the market is impacting ‘managers’ resources re time,skills etc
Don’t ask the board !
Don’t ask the board Louise ! You will almost always get a narcissistic response . Give the board an exercise to ask the customer what they expect of great managers at your organisation instead !
Training Vision
Louise
I think you might do both your Board and yourself a favour and use half the Board’s time to say you want to see each Director separately at a later date to get their views, and use the time at the Board to win their commitment to spending more time with you one-to-one.
I sit on about 6 Boards and have consistently found that such discussions are far more productive, at least in the first instance, by ‘dividing and ruling’!
I hope this is not too Machievellian thought?! (Do let me know off line if you would like to discuss how you might then proceed?)
Best wishes
Jeremy