Management Tip: See Yourself Through the Eyes of Your Employees

If a stranger asks you to rank your management team on a scale of one to ten in areas such as communication, delegation, etc, what would you say? Most people would rank them unrealistically high for fear that their answers would get back to their boss. How many of you can say that you would answer 100 percent truthfully in your own opinion?

Despite all the trainings and coaching that management personnel can put employees through, a true manager also knows that they themselves are not perfect and they can always improve their management skills. Most of us work with a variety of people, and all people require different levels and amounts of coaching and mentoring from their superiors.

Everybody cares about what others think of them, it’s human nature. But what if you could find out exactly how you were perceived as a manager in your organization? Think how you could use that information to motivate and engage your employees better.

Feedback programs can be a sensitive subject for all parties involved because of fear. Managers fear they are not doing a sufficient job and employees fear if they are honest, they will get in trouble for any negative feedback toward their manager.

As a manager, you may think you are an outstanding communicator, but how do you rank in the eyes of the people in which you are communicating? How are you perceived as a manager?

The Checkpoint360™ is a tool that looks at how a manager thinks he conducts work on a daily basis and how the employee perceives the work of this manager. Both parties (manager and employees) carry out the assessment and reports two important factors:

1. Strengths – The areas you and your employees consider you to have a strength. The ‘keep doing’ items.

2. Perception by others - This outlines the areas that you may not be as strong. This could be one of two things: A performance gap is when you may think you delegate work effectively on a day-to-day basis, however, your people may be unsatisfied with your method for doing so. It could also be a perception gap. You may be delegating work effectively each day, but employees perceive that you are not. With these types of results, depending on the issue, the Checkpoint360™ report will provide you with a positive direction on how to change that and raise your game.

Either way, once you know how your people are thinking, you can modify behavior, change the way you manage, work on your skills, and immediately raise your game as a superior manager. In the example of delegating work effectively, perhaps you need a weekly meeting where employees outline the work that was appointed to them so all employees can see how you are delegating the work load. The team will have a clear outline of what is required of them and possibly notice ways that they can help each other work more effectively.

The Checkpoint360™ is only focused on strengths and development areas, not weaknesses. It is not about attacking managers; it is about helping them develop skills by means of strength analysis report.

Equipping your organization with the Checkpoint360™ solution has numerous benefits, but one in particular is priceless and one that most managers will never have in their career: A view of yourself in a working environment through the eyes of the people you are trying to motivate that work for you!