The Secrets to Successful Management:
Principles, Methods, and “Out-of-the-Box” Thinking Among Managers

The Secrets to Successful Management:
Principles, Methods, and “Out-of-the-Box” Thinking Among Managers

92% of employees leave their jobs due to poor management.
Proper management is the number one factor influencing the performance of the employee team and thereby the company’s success. An employee who looks up to a respected employer will give their maximum effort to please them, knowing that positive feedback and appreciation will come. And who doesn’t want to feel appreciated?

Various surveys and studies conducted in the last decade present an interesting picture of the distribution of reasons for leaving a job:

  1. Lack of job satisfaction – 22%
  2. Lack of work-life balance – 18%
  3. Low salary or dissatisfaction with compensation – 16%
  4. Limited career opportunities – 14%
  5. Toxic work environment or conflicts with colleagues/managers – 12%
  6. Lack of recognition and appreciation – 10%
  7. Relocation – 5%
  8. Health problems – 3%

Items 1-6 on the list above are directly related to management. That is, 92% of employee job departures are directly related to poor management!

In recent years, there has been a growing understanding in Israel of the importance of management. Generation Y (Millennials) has matured and entered the workforce. Their quick response, desire to move forward, and FOMO syndrome, which causes them to always be searching, made employers realize that there is competition, and the goal is to attract and retain a good employee for as long as possible.

The dynamics and pace of life almost make us forget what happened here not too long ago. Managers’ lives used to be easier. An employee needed to earn a living, and their primary goal was to create full security for their employer. The employee was grateful for being chosen among all candidates and given the opportunity to earn a living. Over the years, with the strengthening of individual rights, the employee’s position also strengthened, but it remained inferior compared to the employer, creating the need to protect the employee and the development of labor laws in Israel. Today, Israel’s labor laws are among the most advanced among OECD countries. However, as of the writing of these lines, the employee’s status has strengthened, and employers are trying to retain their employees and ensure appropriate conditions for them.

In this article, we will discuss the most effective methods for achieving goals and reducing employee turnover in companies:

Recruiting Employees. We are all familiar with recruitment processes, from job advertisements, collecting candidates’ resumes, to inviting potential candidates for interviews. However, this seemingly simple process has quite a few “hidden stones.”

In my eyes, the saddest and most unfair paradox for the potential candidate is tenure. It ultimately determines whether they will be invited for an interview, despite the fact that a young employee’s abilities might be significantly higher compared to a more experienced employee.

This brings us to the first secret of successful employee recruitment. Looking at resumes as a complete data set, where each piece of information adds and completes the puzzle of the candidate’s profile.

From my managerial and practical experience, in every recruitment for my department/team, I understood the crucial importance of the initial resume screening. This leads me to the second paradox in the recruitment process: the “dirty work” that every manager prefers to “dump” on the recruitment department is actually the cornerstone of successful recruitment. Why? Because there is no 100% match. The manager themselves needs to examine the candidate’s basic data and decide if it is worth investing in. This way, the element of surprise is eliminated. Familiarity with the candidate’s basic professional data allows for an efficient face-to-face interview, a flowing conversation, and finding common ground between the candidate’s experience and job requirements, or in other words: setting expectations. My practical experience over the years has shown that when a candidate openly discussed their abilities and potential gaps during the interview, they entered the role more relaxed, goal-oriented, and highly motivated.

Ongoing Management: Manipulation is not a Dirty Word. I am aware that this part of the article might reveal to some people, whom I love and respect immensely, that what I did in managing teams was a planned and calculated action that caused them to act as they did within the team and ultimately for the business itself. On a personal note, I am convinced that, in hindsight, these people appreciate the positive developments and work experience that occurred during their working years and career development.

We tend to perceive the word “manipulation” only in a negative context. There is an explanation for the negative feeling we have. Manipulation takes away a person’s sense of control; they are essentially “steered” by another person. Generally, people have a hard time losing control, even if the result is positive. The truth is, every management process is one big manipulation because it can be defined as an action carried out in a planned and controlled manner, intended to make someone feel and act in a way that brings about the desired result for the manipulator. The basis for all this is: “Which manipulation does the manager choose to use?” After all, the same goal can be achieved in several ways.

Here I place a small asterisk (*): some managers use manipulations without being aware of it. They act intuitively and not in a controlled manner. I define this situation as a reflex, an action performed subconsciously. It is a response that occurs when the reality around us causes us to react in the same way, creating stable neural connections in our brain. For example, we see the behavior of a loud person who chooses to voice their opinions at every opportunity and not listen; our response to this behavior is a reflex. It is a response that takes us back to a similar situation we experienced in the past because we have formed stable neural connections. There are manipulative-reflective people who do not understand they are manipulating, so they cannot plan the path or predict where the manipulation will lead them and the person it is being applied to. Such behavior causes the victim of the manipulation, in the best case, to understand the situation and exit it, and in the worst case, the unplanned manipulation can end in psychological trauma requiring long-term professional treatment. Let’s put aside this situation as we have no control over it and move on to other situations where the manipulator knows exactly what they are doing and what goal they want to achieve.

There are two types of manipulations: positive manipulations and negative manipulations. How do we distinguish between the two? Positive manipulations generate power and energy, boosting self-confidence and the feeling that you can do anything out of a desire to prove to yourself that you are capable of doing amazing things. Negative manipulations drain energy and mood, cause a lack of self-confidence, fatigue, and as a result, lead to thoughts that you are not good enough. This creates a strong desire to prove to everyone that this is not true, even at the expense of the mental and physical health of the person who fell victim to such manipulation. It is important to emphasize that, in my opinion, there is no need or interest in any type of negative manipulation as part of the ongoing management of employees. Moving forward, we will focus on positive manipulations and how they help in daily management.

Example A: How to get team members to interact with each other and share relevant and critical information in real-time?

 There are teams that only operate for their own benefit and within their area of responsibility. They do not talk, do not share information, and do not ask for help. Asking for help, in their opinion, is a sign of weakness. Of course, such a work environment creates inefficiency and a sense of discomfort. During my work, I established teams of accountants where my main goal was to create interaction between people. I developed a program called “Improvements in Intelligence.” Once a week, we gathered as a team and shared what we heard, saw, or researched professionally during the week. If someone attended a training session, they shared what they learned; if someone heard on the news about a planned reform, they made sure to share it with us, and thus we developed a common conversation. Gradually, these meetings turned into friendly meetings with light conversations and experience sharing alongside professional discussions. These meetings brought the team members closer together, and later, all the critical and super-important weekly planning for the proper functioning of the department was done easily and efficiently.

Example B: How to get team members to care for and support each other.

 The workplace has long been more than just a source of income. In the modern competitive world, the workplace occupies a very significant place in our lives. We spend most of our time there, so it is very important that we feel comfortable and secure in that place. To build a positive and supportive work environment, we must focus on one central factor: building trust and support among team members. We must assume that every team member wants a safety net at work. The understanding that each person bears equal responsibility towards others is critical. We all have personal events, a need for vacation, or an early departure from work because a child is sick. A good manager will clarify to the team members that backing up others is one of the department’s pillars. The backup must cover at least 80% of the tasks, and the manager’s role is to distribute the tasks professionally among the team members. The safety net causes the employee to know for sure that on the day they need it, someone else will always be there for them, and they also bear responsibility towards others. The additional advantage of this method is that every employee gets a full picture of the department’s activity, learns new areas, and expands their knowledge.

Example C: How to get team members to look out for each other and behave calmly even in stressful situations.

Your colleagues will feel the energy you bring to the workplace. We all have mishaps that throw us off balance. It’s enough that a child didn’t wake up on time in the morning, we got stuck in a long and exhausting traffic jam, we argued over a parking spot, received an unpleasant message, and that’s it, we come to work in a bad mood unrelated to anyone around us, and our impatience is evident. Everything annoys us. This is life, and a good manager needs to build a supportive and calming work environment capable of dealing with emotional loads. You might say to me: “I’m a manager, not a kindergarten teacher.” That’s true, but an agitated employee is a problem, not just for them, but a reality you need to control.

When relations between team members are good and they talk openly, the case ends with the agitated employee sharing what happened to them, and simply sharing the complex situation calms and balances them, returning them to a state of mind where they can work. In other cases, when relationships within the team are not open, the manager’s role is to identify the fragile mood of the employee and deal with it before an “explosion” occurs. You can go out and prepare morning coffee together, start with a small talk, and get the employee to share the situation they experienced, asking if you can help in any way. In certain cases, when the manager identifies a complex situation, it may be worth considering offering the employee to work from home or take a day off. To be less involved in such situations, the manager should invest in building a supportive relationship within their team. Every conversation should be conducted alongside the guiding principle of maintaining and supporting each other, a situation where all team members benefit equally.

There are also technical actions aimed at creating a sense of unity within the team. I want to mention some of them that, from my experience, helped create a positive atmosphere of unity. Of course, these solutions need to be adapted to the workplace and the team itself, so this list is a general recommendation for managers.

  1. Go for a late lunch with the team once a month. Why late? Because it is better if it is a quiet place, not too crowded, to allow team members to hear each other. This is a simple and routine action based on several foundations in human psychology-physiology. The joint walk to the meeting place reduces the stress hormone, cortisol. Already during the walk, people begin to relax from the workload and prepare for the conversation around the table. Speaking of tables, order a round table if possible. A round table creates a sense of equality and prevents hierarchy, there is no “head” of the table, there is eye contact, and everyone has the opportunity to talk and feel they are at the same level and importance in the discussion. The idea is to create an open and enabling atmosphere among the participants so that everyone can freely express their opinion. Regarding the joint meal, there is also a psychological-physiological process we inherited from the ancient human period. The fact is that we can only eat when we do not feel threatened. It works the other way around as well: while eating, the level of the stress hormone drops, we relax and become more relaxed and attentive to our surroundings. From this came the business lunch meeting – when negotiations or complex discussions are conducted during meals, the distance between the sides breaks, and the “defense walls” relax. Joint meals are indeed calm and connect. It is recommended to have these meetings on Thursdays. After the meeting, team members will go home with the feeling that: “the weekend has begun.”
  2. Give a proper place to the family. The importance of the family in the employees’ lives should not be underestimated. The family has a very significant impact on the employee’s mood and decisions. Career and family are the two sides of the coin called life. At the end of the workday, when the employee returns home and talks with their family about the managers and colleagues, for better or worse, one thing leads to another. Like it or not, theoretically, we exist in the daily lives of our employees’ families. Connecting work and family can be done through a family event for the department team, with spouses and children. You can organize a pool party or picnic. It is an excellent opportunity to get to know and bond with the active souls of the workplace. At the end of the event, if you want to truly pamper, you can give each employee a personal gift, something like a photo frame. This gift will encourage employees to put pictures of their loved ones in the office, which is definitely another way to create a sense of home.
  3. Memories from special moments of the team. Usually, every team has shared memories. For example, from company events, joint meals, private events, etc. It is recommended to develop a happy photo from these moments and hang it in the office; you won’t believe the effect it creates!

There are many more ways to create a sense of unity among team members. Be creative and assume that every action you take as managers is reflected in the hearts and minds of your employees and accordingly changes their behavior.

Example D: Reading body language – a mandatory skill for every manager. 

Not everyone is born with high emotional intelligence. Those who have it have won the lottery, no less. But the good news is that you can improve and learn body language. The subject of body language is very broad and requires writing a separate article just on this topic. There is a lot of material online from body language experts; I highly recommend taking an interest and reading at least a few articles on the subject. It is an important skill that assists in managing employees.

In conclusion, let’s talk about money: Salary and conditions constitute a relatively small percentage in the employee’s decision whether to stay or not at the same workplace. Studies show that only between 12% and 25% of all cases of leaving a job are related to salary and conditions. Not only that, periodic and continuous improvement of salary and conditions might actually harm employee motivation. They take it for granted and might lose the connection between their output and the improvement in salary and conditions. The solution to this is a personal meeting that includes an employee evaluation questionnaire held once a year between the two parties, employee and employer. In this meeting, there will be a discussion about employment conditions, performance level, and salary. This process is very important because most employees are very afraid to approach managers to talk about their conditions, so the process intended for this helps employees not to reach burnout and also facilitates opening the discussion on the subject. Bottom line, employees must see financial expression for their effort. This can be reflected through gifts, bonuses, or annual premiums, increasing the accumulation of annual vacation days, value of a recovery day, etc.

In conclusion, the central message I want to convey to you is: When an employer invests in the employee’s experience and sense of security, they remove the task of “buying the employee with money.” They do achieve loyalty, a sense of belonging, and “unit pride.” Try it!

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