Understanding Learning Styles

A guide for new managers

Understanding the purpose of your job

It is important to understand the difference between the function and the purpose of your job.

Understanding the purpose of your job

The function is what you do, the purpose is why you do it. Understanding your purpose requires that you be very specific about the benefits you create for others.

Understanding the purpose of your job

Purpose is a highercalling than the jobfunction. It is your personal mission statement. It motivates you to be the best.

Understanding the purpose of your job

A purpose statement has three parts:

Understanding the purpose of your job

A purpose statement has three parts:

What you do

Understanding the purpose of your job

A purpose statement has three parts:

What you doWho you serve

Understanding the purpose of your job

A purpose statement has three parts:

What you doWho you serveand the benefits you create

What comes next?

Goal Setting

Goals may be simple or complex.

Goal SettingEverything you do begins as a goal.

Goal SettingRegardless of the objective, if you reached it, you followed basically the same process.

Goal setting strategy

Goals Should Be Statements of the Desired End Result.

I want…I need…We must…

Goal setting strategy

First, find what you really want, what you really need.

Dream big. Dare to fail. – Norman Vaughn, member of Admiral Byrd’s South Pole

exploration.

Goal setting strategy

Next, set the road map. Plan your strategy.

The secret to getting there is to know where you're going.

Goal setting strategy

Third, believe in the plan.

Thinking about what you can’t do is worry. Thinking about what

you can do is planning.

Goal setting strategy

Develop your strengths.

Your powers are not in your strengths but in how you use your strengths.

Goal setting strategy

Finally, Evaluate your progress.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Communicating

Good communication skills are vital to interpersonal relations. Effective communication is more than talking and listening, it includes both skills and emotions. Skills can be making eye contact or adjusting body position. Emotions include empathy and valuing people.

Communicating

Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA found that effective communication depends on:

the words people say (7%) the tone of voice (38%) body language (55%)

Mehrabian, A. Silent messages: Implicit communication of emotions and attitudes. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth 1981

Communicating

Keys to becoming a better listener: Maintain strong eye contact Remember names Listen for emotions Ask questions Focus on what is being said, not what you are going

to say

Communicating

Keys to becoming a better listener: Do not interrupt Avoid being defensive Be aware of body language and other nonverbal

communication Show openness Tune out the environment

Modeling Behavior

Modeling Behavior

One of the biggest complaints from staff is that their managers don’t model good behaviors and attitudes in leader-follower interactions. When followers observe managers practicing good customer relations, they are more likely to do the same.

Modeling Behavior

The most efficient way to produce results and communicate an organization’s commitment to customer service is to demonstrate it through positive behavior and attitudes.

Modeling Behavior

If managers want productive employees and organization-wide commitment to customer service, they must first set a good example by practicing what they preach.

Psychological Reciprocity

What you give out to people comes back to you. People are instinctively impelled to return the same feelings and attitudes they perceive from others. To establish trust and loyalty, show it to the customers.

The language of complaint starts with they. The language of solutions starts with I.

Internal beliefs

WE unconsciously evaluate all our experiences, successes and failures. Based on our perceptions, we draw a circle that forms our inner belief system. We make unconscious assumptions about our relationships, our environment, our possibilities, and ourselves. We form a mental paradigm of our belief system of what we can and cannot do. This invisible boundary controls our actions, feelings, behaviors, and abilities. As our personal growth increases our paradigm, our behaviors expand to fill it.

Internal beliefs

Internal beliefs

Any attempts to change a persons behavior without first changing the mental paradigm will likely to fail. A leader’s role is to expand the follower’s belief system. Find the potential in subordinates and express a belief in the subordinate’s abilities.

Internal beliefs

People have an innate need to know that they are valued. They need their work to have meaning.

Internal beliefs

Leaders’ beliefs about people become self-fulfilling prophecies. People unconsciously pick up their manager’s beliefs in them and react accordingly.

Internal beliefs What you value

becomes who you are and influences what you do.

Internal beliefs Coaching & Counseling:

• Ask about their goals or objectives.• Listen without distractions or interruptions• Coach knowledge, skills, or actions as needed.• Praise specific behaviors.• Challenge them to become their best.

Internal beliefs Coaching & Counseling

Don’t get discouraged

The early bird gets the worm. But the second mouse gets the cheese

Behavior Styles

Behavior Styles

Everyone has a learning and communicating style based on patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that are learned from the social environment and life experience. These behavioral differences have the potential to create great misunderstandings that can be avoided if people learn to see themselves from each other’s viewpoint.

Behavior Styles

What one person might consider as straightforward and instructive may be seen as detached by a second person, or as pushy and intrusive by a third. The different perceptions stem from differences in values, attitudes, and communication styles.

Behavior Styles

We can improve communication by understanding how each of us relate to our environment. Managers must enlarge the set of situations in which they are comfortable and confident.

Behavior Styles

Behavior Styles

By examining our own values and beliefs, work styles, communication patterns, and the personality differences between others and ourselves we can discover how to succeed in a diverse workplace.

Behavior Styles

Some people are results-orientedOthers are more task-or process-focused.

Results Task

Behavior Styles

Some people are motivated by recognitionOthers are more interested in security

Recognition

Results Task

Security

Behavior Styles

Behavior Styles

Talkers are outgoing, friendly, and affable. They like parties and gatherings, are comfortable in groups, and like photos and recognition. Talkers may become emotional under pressure.

Behavior Styles

Doers are often motivated by recognition but more process-focused. Usually impatient, dominating, and restless, they feel pressed for time and do not like to waste it on idle chatter. They want to make decisions and get to the next goal, seeming hostile to anyone or anything in the way. Doers may become belligerent under pressure.

Behavior Styles

Controllers are results-oriented but security-motivated. Reserved distant, logical and unemotional, they want facts and accurate information. They are not swayed by enthusiasm and personality and may even be turned off by it. Controllers can be critical under pressure.

Behavior Styles

Plodders are task-oriented and security-motivated, easygoing, steady, and dependable. They are detail minded and want to go slow and gather information prior to making decisions. Plodders may be indecisive under pressure.

Behavior Styles

RecognitionTalker Doer

Results Task

Plodder ControllerSecurity

Behavior Styles

Most everyone is a combination of all four styles so remember...

It’s very hard

to peal off a label.

Teamwork

A group of individuals working together toward a common goal.