How Were You Trained To become A Manager? Who trained you and who trained them?

Did you receive any training before you became a manager? Most managers were never even trained to become managers but were placed into a position simply because it came available and they were next in line! There was no selection process. No tests or psychological profiling that went into their placement. And that is most typically answered with a resounding YES!!! by all of the people who suffer under the auspices of a bad or mediocre manager. So tell me, what training did you receive? Did you go to management classes taught by an outside vendor? because 90% of all in-house management training is taught by someone who has limited management training themselves and merely inherited the Training Position. This alone is responsible for thousands of lost man hours and thousands of unhappy employees because inadequately trained managers do not know how to use the exceptional people that are working with and for them. They don't know how to confront, delegate and utilize the people working under them. So bullying in the workplace stays strong because managers are not trained on how to deal in these areas! Great Managers understand and have learned how to deal with all kinds of personalities and learn how to out perform other departments by making their people happy and wanting to do great jobs for their manager. Most managers are improperly trained and therefore limited in their knowledge and their abilities to perform or excel outside of the scope of their experience. That means they can only teach you as much as they know. But we all know that each generation teaches less than they know so you aren't even being trained via what they know but only what they can pass on to you. What most companies desire is to achieve excellence in their organizations. Most understand that this excellence is achieved by utilizing their greatest resource – people. And most companies understand that the greatest loss of productivity is through the mismanagement of people and the under utilization of their abilities and skills. Now I ask again, who trained you and what additional training are you achieving on your own? I write this management blog for the mere pleasure of helping struggling managers learn more about how to get the most out of themselves and out of their people. I hope you enjoy reading it and forward it on to your peers. But let’s talk about what is really happening. If you are relying on a simple afternoon training class or some video training you were required to take then you are missing the most important part of management training. The interaction. The ability to ask questions in and of a person who has suffered through many of the things you are trying to figure out. Who has gained knowledge and background after years of managing as well as taking courses from others who we can learn from. The Great Management Trainers are never boring because we have been forced to set through hours and hours of terrible management meetings, hours and hours of boring meetings because the managers didn’t know how or understand the purpose of those meetings. And we have put ourselves out there to learn from other trainers and learned that boring is not only bad but ridiculous! Now you need to step up your game. You want the bosses to notice you? Then you need to be noticeable! You need to start showing them the results that only a great manager can achieve. And you can start that process by self training. Don’t wait for your company or your bosses to train you. Don’t wait! Take on the leadership you want by learning to be the leader they need. Read some of my past blogs and then follow the new ones and encourage your bosses and other managers to hire a GREAT management trainer (hint hint nudge nudge) to come in and start the process to make your company into the successful and powerful organization they want it and you need it to be. I am Steve Sapato with http://www.mentalprosperityblog.com and I have been training corporate managers for over twenty years. 563-370-4938

Great Managers~ Restaurants~making your staff more money by is using a 30 yr old technique

Have you been blessed by working for a great manager? Me too. I have learned many great styles and techniques as well as 'catch phrases' that endure time. I would love to hear yours so please comment and let me know. And pass this on to help others! One of the phrases that have stuck in my head for 50 years now is 'if you have time to lean, you have time to clean.' I love that. I hated at the time because it meant my boss wanted me to keep working! Now get ready to share yours, please. I have the great pleasure recently of having someone I managed over thirty years ago come back into my life. She is now a great manager and as we talk she reminds me of things she has learned and recently she told me I was the inspiration for her helping her staff make more money. Now don't get me wrong, I have lots of techniques I use and train that I tell restaurants will increase their business by ten percent and sometimes double the tips their servers receive. It is why I travel and train. I know things! Surprise surprise. But this one phrase I had long forgotten and my friend reminded me. She told me that her staff said that working her shift made them a lot more money than working for any other manager. By using one phrase she helped her people make more money. Would you like your staff to make more money? Because that is what great restaurant managers do isn't it? It is one of the reasons that Great Managers seldom have to look for a great staff because the staff tells their friends how great it is to work with you and they come and apply giving you a never ending supply of great staff while at other restaurants you hear, "I can't find good help these days." If you have heard that, maybe this one phrase will help you solve that huge problem of getting good help! Are you ready? When your guests check out all you need to do is ask them - Did your server take good care of you today? Wait, not done because it's the next phrase that makes all the difference! And of course they better be saying yes to that question or you had better be doing a lot more to make your guests happy. When you ask, - Did your server take good care of you today - and they answer yes! Then the money maker reply is... - Did you take good care of your server?- It's innocuous, it doesn't raise their hackles, it's not pandering, it's not offensive in any way AND it makes your guests realize that you not only value them but you value your staff. And my great friend Toni Finch said her servers love working with her for many reasons (it's why she is a great manager)but one reason they tell her is because she uses those two phrases together and they make her staff a lot more money! What makes you a great manager? Lots and lots of things. This is just one small idea that will create a loyalty from your staff and also make them more money. And that is what drives many people today, show me the money~ I hope this tidbit makes you and your people a better place to work and a happier place to spend your time. Would you like to learn more ways to increase your bottom line profits? Learn how to increase customer loyalty? Have great people standing in line to work for you? I am Steve Sapato and I would love to train you and your staff so that all of those things can happen. Great Managers are made not born. mentalprosperityblog.com - Now please leave your catch phrases here so we can all learn and grow.! Have an amazing year!

Great managers use great communication

Great managers use great communication What makes a great manager? There are all kinds of things that make a manager great. We have discussed many of those things in previous blog posts. If you have an article or an opinion I would love to hear from you. Just send your suggestion or article to steve@stevesapato.com As I travel from company to company and organization to organization I am always surprised by the level of non-communication that exists in almost all companies. The level of communication typically determines the level of success of an organization: the greater the communication the greater the organization. This greater organization comes from many different areas. When an organization is communicating well, so many things happen because people are more involved and happier as well as superior productivity and increased production and services. But this communication does not happen by accident. It has to be well planned, completely accepted and on-boarded and have a functional method of monitoring the results and methods for continuing the communication. In many organizations this entire system is mapped out, written down and has check-offs to insure participation and use. When the top of an organization communicates well all the way to the bottom of their organization you will find the employees and staff to be much happier and content in their jobs. Almost every study shows that when people are happy and content they almost always produce more results and improve productivity. When employees are treated with that level of respect that says I believe in you and trust you to know what is happening with our organization or company and actually have an opportunity to input information they feel involved and understood. Now let’s go back to what makes a good manager great? It is great communication with their entire staff. It is learning methods that insure that your area, department or organization is informed and involved. It is being open to all communication that will aid you in learning about how your own department works. It is your ability to discern how well you think your communication is working and then finding a method to monitor and insure that the communication you think is taking place is actually taking place. And now I get to ask, what are your current procedures for making sure your organization is achieving maximum communication from the top all the way to the bottom? I am Steve Sapato with mentalprosperityblog.com and I help organizations build Great Managers. Let me know how I can help you. steve@stevesapato.com

Great managers know their people

Great managers know their people, know how to treat them, know how to keep them and know how to move them forward.

Were you truly trained to be a manager? To manage your friends?

One of our greatest challenges in any business is improper training and no one suffers from that more than the position of Manager.
I was recently speaking to a group of managers and several asked similar question. They all revolved around them being promoted within their department to the managers position.
And I hear some of you saying, well Steve, what's wrong with that?

The answer is nothing and everything.

If you organization is as sharp as I hope they are then what probably happened was that the department manager was replaced and you were invited to step into the managers role. With that being said, I hope your company then sent you or brought in an expert on being a Great Manager (me). And that they spend several weeks training you about what being a manager means, how you need to understand people, attitudes, difficult situations. How you need to know the five emotional languages your people speak without speaking a word. I hope they taught you about the D.I.S.C. method of knowing your people so that you would recognize what each person brings to your department and how you will need to deal with them in such different ways.

And IF they promoted you to be the manager of the department you were just working in I hope your company really spent some time training you AND working with your people so that when you move from being their 'friend' and co-worker into the management position there won't be the typical awkward and often times hostile environment that occurs when you have to manage them, discipline them and reprimand them.

If your organization does not do both of those things you will be in for a huge learning curve that will undoubtedly affect morale, productivity and office relationships.

And if your organization did not set aside time to train you as a manger you will have to take your personal time to read the right books and listen to the right material so that you can optimize your newly acquired position.
If you don't do your due diligence in these areas you are facing hard times and possibly even being a failure as a manager because your people will resist you moving from their co-worker to becoming their manager.

I hope you understand these issues and ask for all the help and assistance you can get and do not let your own pride prevent you from becoming one of your companies greatest assets; a Great Manager.

I am Steve Sapato, author and trainer in Mental Prosperity the way to find your success in your future at mentalprosperityblog.com

Sell? NO!

We all need to know how to sell something... after all, we all buy everything from somebody. ~Sss

Have you ever said, I can't sell? Well like it or not we are selling something every day. I sell my kids on cleaning their room, my spouse on helping out, my coworkers on doing a great job, my employees on how they can be better. My boss on how great I am. If you area Dr. then you need to sell your patients on why the should do what you tell them to do. 

I have heard so many people say about a person, oh, they are in network marketing an they try to sell their friends. I would never sell to my friends.

Really? Isn't that what the insurance agent is told to do first thing? How about the cutlery salesperson? The car salesperson? 

We sell to each other every day because we all need to buy things every day.

Open your heart an mind to becoming a person who can SELL. Then sell yourself as the best you can be at whatever you want to be.

Need help being better at "persuasion" (shhh~ that's the secret word for selling)? Call me, I am a business coach who trains people on how invite people to use your services because you are the best!

Are you feeling valued at your job? What can you ...

What makes a great manager? According to the experts over 80% of all employees do not feel valued at their jobs.
I know what you are thinking, thank goodness I am not one of them!
Now isn't that close to what you were thinking? Oh sure it could have been 'my people feel valued' or it could have been 'I know a manager who's people don't feel valued'.
Now let's face it, what makes you think your people are not in that 80%? What makes you think you are in the top 20% of all managers in the nation?

And the trouble is ALL managers are thinking the exact same thing! If all managers are thinking that then where does that leave you? and therein lies the problem. Most of us do not see ourselves as the problem! We see ourselves as the exception.

My question is, how will you find out if you are in the top 20%? How will you truly find out and you need to know that 80% of all of the managers who read this blog will not do anything to find out because they really don't want to know. As Yoda might say, question you ask, find out you will.

If you do not take some action after reading this then you are most likely in that 80% and you will deny it until the day you are fired or embarrassed.
And the top 20% are wondering, how do I find out if I am in the top 20%? How do I find out if my people feel valued?
That is what separates the top 20% from all the rest. They take action. They want to know. They need to find out. And they understand you can't just walk up to your employees and ask, "Hey, Bob. Do I make you feel valued at your job?" "Hey Karen, do you feel valued here at work?"

They know that kind of confrontation will never yield the true results you need to know in order to find the truth.

If you as a GREAT MANAGER want to know which of your people feel valued or even better, which of your people do not feel valued than you need to find the proper methods for polling or surveying your people so you get real results and not just a stamp of approval or the "yes" person attitude you want to find.

I can offer you methods to find the truth from your people. Drop me a note and I will send you some links. Don't forget to pass this on to all of your manager friends. And don't forget to subscribe to this blog: http://greatmanagersaremadenotborn.blogspot.com/
And learn more about being better at my website www.mentalprosperityblog.com

I'm Steve Sapato and I will see you at many of the Great Manager events coming to your team soon!