First among Equals : How to Manage a Group of Professionals

by Patrick J. McKenna; David H. Maister

• ISBN13: 9780743225519
• ISBN10: 0743225511
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-09
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

Whether you have just been appointed as a group leader or you are a battle-scarred veteran, you know that managing professional people is difficult!

• Intelligent professionals are often free-agents, accustomed to having autonomy

Author Biography

Patrick J. McKenna is a widely recognized expert on managing professional service firms and a partner in Edge International in Edmonton, Canada, a consulting firm serving professional service firms throughout the world. Mr. McKenna is the co-author of two Canadian Top 10 management bestsellers, Beyond Knowing and Herding Cats.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xxi
PART ONE GETTING READY
Clarify Your Role	3	(8)
How, exactly, do you add value as a group leader?
Confirm Your Mandate	11	(16)
Is there an explicit agreement about your rights and responsibilities
Build Relationships___One at a Time	27	(18)
What are the key skills you must have?
Dare to be Inspiring	45	(14)
Do you know how to inspire people?
PART TWO COACHING THE INDIVIDUAL
Win Permission to Coach	59	(16)
Hoiw do you get people to accept your guidance?
Listen to Build Rapport	75	(8)
Do people think you are a good listener?
Deal Differently with different people	83	(22)
How can you understand and respond to people's differences?
Help underperformers	105	(8)
How can you be useful to those who need assistance?
Tackle thE Prima Donnas	113	(8)
How do you deal with diffucult people?
Build support for change	121	(10)
How do you get people to buy into the need for change?
PART THREE COACHING THE TEAM
Clarify Group Goals	131	(6)
Does your group have specific, clearly articulated, shared objectives?
Develop your Group's Rules of Membership	137	(14)
What do members of your group owe to each other?
Build Team Trust	151	(14)
What gets group members to trust each other?
Throw down a challenge	165	(10)
has your group selected an exciting challenge?
Energize your meetings	175	(18)
What are good meeting disciplines?
Give Recognition	193	(8)
How do you acknowledge accomplishments
Resolve Interpresonal conflicts	201	(6)
What do you do when team members fall out?
Deal with your cirses	207	(14)
How do you respond to dramatic events?
PART FOUR BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Nurture your Juniors	221	(10)
How do you deal wiht your junior staff?
Integrate new people	231	(6)
How do you ensure the success of new hires?
Control your grop's size	237	(4)
How do you respond to the problems of size?
Measure group results	241	(18)
How do you measure your group's success?
Whjy Bother?	259	(8)
Why would your want ot do all this?
Notes on Sources	267	(6)
Further Reading	273	(2)
Bibliography	275	(2)
Acknowledgments	277	(4)
Index	281

Excerpts

Chapter One: Clarify Your Role How, exactly, do you add value as a group leader? Benjamin Haas is the managing partner in the Chicago office of the human resource consulting firm Towers Perrin, which has about 8,500 employees in seventy offices worldwide. He articulated the core truth about being a group leader: The reality is that a leadership role is fundamentally different from the individual contributor role. A leader has fundamentally got to be somebody who is effective at making things happen for other people.It's a real different mind-set in terms of what you do and how you impact the business. A leader has to bring a certain energy and optimism to the business. Part of our job is to build energy and enthusiasm. A leader must create a sense of shared ownership. The kinds of people we're managing want to feel like they are owners and not employees.Another key ability is to assess people and determine what's going to be the right role for each individual that meets their needs and also allows them to contribute effectively to the organization. We could not agree more with these comments. Your job as a group leader is to help your people, and your team, win.Prior to becoming a group head, many people will have been asked to spend their whole working lives focusing on their own individual performance. The transition to being responsible for the performance of others is a difficult one for many to make, particularly since, in all likelihood, they still carry some client-service or production responsibilities.There is an issue here both of attitude (willingness to focus on other people and their success) and of skill (the ability to win influence over other people without being domineering). Skills can be taught; attitudes are harder to change.John Schoenewald, CEO of AFSM International, noted: To be effective, a leader must show he truly cares about others -- not only caring what the employee does but, as important, how he does it. I have seen leaders who are consumed with themselves and their personal goals. This is especially common in high-tech services. They don't have time nor do they take the time for coaching, as they are goal-oriented and desire results through technical solutions. In the high-tech services industry, technicians as well as managers, for the most part, fall into the category of loners. They are individuals who would rather work independently. That's why they choose a technical field and not the sales profession. This situation creates a challenge for effective teaming. Most technical teams I've managed have all the correct ingredients for success, but they try to achieve team results through individual efforts. The best group leaders see themselves as catalysts. They expect to achieve a great deal, but know that they can do little without the efforts of others. It is challenging to manage a group of people with different skills, diverse experiences, a variety of work styles, and sometimes, conflicting priorities. Casey Stengel, the renowned former manager of the New York Yankees, once said, "Getting good players is one thing. The harder part is getting them to play together." As we shall see, it requires commitment, curiosity, and courage.In order to help other people succeed, you will need a willingness to get most of your fulfillment from the success of others and a special set of skills: the ability to influence other people's emotions, feelings, attitudes, and their determination.Jack Newman, now retired from managing a substantial and well-integrated group at global law megafirm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, clearly understood his role:It's significant that I have two business cards. One is mine. The other is the group's. There are twenty lawyers on that group card, and it fits into the client's pocket just as easily as mine does. On that card, the client can