Mr. Ely

Human Resources, Recruitment & Training

Moving Up the Management Ladder: Utilize Your Prior Experience to Manage Your Staff Today

By John Ely, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Signature Worldwide

My management career started very early at the age of 24, when I was chosen to help open a new manufacturing facility in Sacramento, Calif. We were the typical high-tech firm in Silicon Valley, and even as early as 1984, the company realized that manufacturing costs in the hotbed of the world’s technology center were escalating as more firms popped up near our facility in Palo Alto. This influx of technology research and development raised the education level of workers coming into the area, and in turn, pushed the labor costs up. Our best option was to build a new facility in the central valley of California which at that time was still “undiscovered.”

I was excited that management felt I had the skills to build and develop a team at our new plant. However, I was also apprehensive, because up until that point, managers had simply been people who told me what to do. I was a junior engineer and had absolutely no experience managing people. I had only mastered our processes.

Offer Personal Attention

I entered the proposition with an open mind, and found that I had a natural propensity for working with teams. I learned more in those first few years about people, management and business in general. It wasn’t easy, but I had good guidance from many of my managers. The first lesson I learned was that I needed to pay personal attention to everyone on the team. One of the more senior managers of the initiative took me (and a few others) under his wing and helped us develop our management skills by setting good examples.

I remember him taking time with me to inquire how I was doing as both an employee and an individual. We would have one-on-one conferences at least twice a month, sometimes more. During these hour-long meetings, we would discuss the hiring and training processes for new team members I was assembling; identify the superstars; collaborate on how to help the new employees that required more guidance; and review what to do when progress stalled.

We also talked about how the new position was affecting me personally and professionally. Was I able to keep pace with the implementation schedule? Was I acclimated with our human resources policies and hiring procedures? Do my new staff members understand their roles, and are they making an impact? How do I feel about all the changes?

By caring about me and my progress as an individual, this manager had me bought into his professional vision for me, the department, and the company. Unknowingly to me, he was teaching not only how to supervise, but how to lead. At times, I still felt I was thrown into the deep end before I learned how to swim, but I always felt I had somewhere to turn when things began to spiral out of control (and occasionally they did).

Observe & Modify

Like my story, Celine Klinker, my co-worker and veteran of many hotel management companies, had similar experiences in early positions of management, even though we worked in vastly different businesses.

“I worked my way up through the ranks of the hotel business when there was very little ‘official training’ and more ‘trial by fire.’ So when I became a supervisor and manager, I tried to implement some training with varying degrees of success.” Klinker shared. “I learned just as much by watching and working for bad managers as I did good managers.”

Many new managers move up the corporate ladder via promotions and ever more challenging assignments without the luxury of formal management training. So this evaluation of both good and bad management styles is a common method for building management muscles.

“In a lot of cases, I also studied the most experienced managers within the organization, but I didn’t limit my curiosity to just the veterans,” Klinker added. “While we can learn a lot from company veterans, there is also an opportunity to learn from those outside our company, brand or even industry!”

Go “Outside”

It might seem counterintuitive, but newly hired managers often bring great ideas while disrupting the status quo.

“Having been a product of promotion from within, I was grateful for the opportunities. But it took me a while to realize that sometimes the ‘outsider’ was the right choice,” Klinker said. “These outsiders bring ‘new eyes’ to an organization based on their personal experiences. I have learned many new techniques that otherwise might not have been introduced.”

The technique of partnering with different personality styles was a particularly valuable lesson for me — one that was brought to light when a new president showed up to lead the firm that I worked for 20 years ago.

This dynamic leader brought each one of the directors and managers in for an individual meeting (interrogation) during which, he asked us nothing about our specific tasks or duties. Instead we talked about how we “felt” about the company, our work environment and teammates. A week after those initial meetings, he brought us back together as a group to explain our personality styles and how we could use that information to work together more efficiently. I was amazed that our new corporate strategy was based on communication and human interaction, as much as sound business principals and processes.

Every great manager I’ve had over the years has left me with a feeling that they genuinely cared about me, and not just the bottom line of a financial statement. They took time to work with me and let me make mistakes along the way.

My co-worker also shared that opinion and added, “I was grateful there was someone who believed in me when I did not always believe in myself and that they pushed me to do things that I would have never considered doing.”

Copy the Greats

I learned a great deal from all of my managers and supervisors, and I continue to learn from my superiors, subordinates and peers today. In writing this article, I thought back to the people who made the most impact on me as a manager, and I made another connection. In a way, the best managers in my life have been a lot like my best teachers and professors. They were not only proficient in their respective fields and well educated, but they took a direct, personal interest in me as a person.

As managers, we tend to focus on the tasks at hand, the strategic direction we are to follow, and the proper delegation of duties amongst our team. We might all become better managers if we take a few minutes to sit and recall those folks who have made a positive imprint on us and list the reasons why. Those influencers may have been managers, teachers or parents, who shaped our professional direction. But the one thing I bet they all have in common is a genuine concern for us as people and not just employees — a technique we should all be able to implement.

John Ely is senior VP of marketing for Signature Worldwide. He is responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating strategic marketing and corporate growth plans, and has industrial and consumer marketing experience. He has an associate degree in electrical engineering, a bachelor's in technical management and a master's in marketing and communications. He is a member of the American Marketing Association and Product Development Management Association. Mr. Ely has served as a professor at Franklin University and is certified as a "Teaching at a Distance" (TAD) online educator. Mr. Ely can be contacted at 614-766-5101 or johnely@signatureworldwide.com Extended Bio...

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