Improving managerial skills提高你的管理能力

　　 This issue focuses on improving managerial skills.

　　 A poorly trained manager can make an employee's life miserable. For example, you'll talk to a person one moment and he or she is thrilled with a new job or promotion. Then, three months later, that person is down in the dumps. In 99 out of 100 cases, the reason employees feel demoralized and no longer like their jobs is because they have a new boss who doesn't appreciate them, doesn't listen to them, or generally erodes their self-esteem.

　　 Three Basic Skills for Managers

　　 Three basic skills that every manager should use in order to be effective on the job are
　　 · Being specific
　　 · Enhancing others' self-esteem
　　 · Listening effectively
　　 Being specific means giving work instructions that are precise, and being clear about what is to be done and the results to be achieved. Being specific means describing the behaviors of people rather than labeling people. It includes giving both positive feedback that tells them what to repeat and corrective feedback that is firm, yet non-critical.
　　 Examples of how to be specific
　　 · Please include the cost of materials in your proposal.
　　 · Please don't leave our telephone customers on hold for longer than 15 seconds without getting back to them.
　　 · I was pleased to see that you went to the customer's office to help with the installation.
　　 Being specific is especially important when giving corrective feedback. Managers need to tell their people exactly what to change and why. In giving correction, being specific makes the difference between leaving people feeling punished versus feeling supported in changing what is wrong.
　　 Build Them Up
　　 Self-esteem is a private, individual matter. It is not fixed, but goes up and down from day to day, or even from hour to hour. Thus, enhancing self-esteem is no easy task. Managers can't "make" people feel good about themselves. Rather, self-esteem is like a door that's locked from the inside.

　　 So what can managers do to impact a direct report's self-esteem if it is largely self-determined? Managers can help create a work environment that invites people to feel good about themselves and the work they do. Managers must not damage or lower the self-esteem of others. They must eliminate "eroders"—something said or done to someone that wears away their feelings of self worth and satisfaction in performance. For example, it is eroding to greet a tardy employee with a sarcastic comment such as, "Late again! You win the prize for being the least reliable person in the department."

　　 Instead, managers must develop ways of communicating genuine respect and concern to the people they supervise by actively helping people to enhance their self-image and to feel better about themselves and their performance. For example, comments like, "I knew you could do an exceptional job on that new assignment—and you proved me right!" if si

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