Osiris Training

I’m giving the captaincy to someone else. Your job doesn’t exist in the new structure. On this occasion you have been unsuccessful. The budget cuts mean we can’t continue to fund your post. There is a lot of bad news around at the moment and it’s down to managers to tell people what they don’t want to hear.

Is there a good way to break bad news? No, bad news is bad news however it is delivered and whoever delivers it. This does not let line managers off the hook, you can’t delegate this task to HR or send a text. Well not if you want to retain any credible to be a decent human being!

If you are interviewed for a job you know there is chance you will be unsuccessful. If there is a major restructuring you know there is a possibility your job will go. If there are big budget cuts you know there may be no money for your post. If bad news is expected it is less of a shock. Most people say the worst part is waiting to hear. They want a clear time scale for when they will know and the sooner the better. They want to hear first not read about it in the local paper. No one wants to find out from a colleague the bad news that your manager hasn’t yet found the right moment to tell you.

Everyone is happy to ring up the successful candidate and give them the good news but I appreciate a manager who rings up the unsuccessful candidates to tell them the outcome of their interview and provide some helpful feedback.

As a general rule bad news should be given face to face. In the current financial climate bad news is often about service reductions. This is a different audience. The politicians and senior managers will talk to the media to explain the budget positions, the tough choices to be made and awkward questions to be answered. But it is the local line manager who finds themselves standing in front of parents of people with a learning disability attending a Day Centre earmarked for closure or relative of the elderly people in a home to be closed. People will be upset and angry. You are the figure of authority they direct their feelings at.  You can’t duck this staff need to see you giving the bad news and not leaving them to take the stick. The services users have a right to hear it direct from management and a right to tell you the problems and distress this will cause. It’s difficult, you probably don’t want the place to close either. It’s not for you to defend the council’s policy or criticise the Government. You are there to give the facts, explain what will happen next and absorb the pain and frustration .It’s not pleasant but it is in the job description.

Blair McPherson author of People management in a harsh financial climate and Equipping managers for an uncertain future both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

“I am and always will be a goby scouser who supports Liverpool”. This is a strange way for a chief executive to describe themselves. These are however the words of a senior manager of a large not for profit organisation talking about themselves in an interview in a national news paper.

I have noticed that our leaders, political and corporate, seem to want to be considered one of us. Suddenly they all feel they have to tell us which football team they support, who their favourite rock group is, which act they favour on Brittan’s Got Talent and how much they enjoy the simple pleasures like a take away and a bottle of wine on a Friday night.

This urge to tell us a little bit about themselves is a very obvious attempt to connect with us and it is important to connect with your audience/staff but this seems so superficial. We are not the same. Whatever your musical tastes, however you spend your time out side of work you will always be the one in charge. What we want is reassurance that you know what you are doing. When senior managers like senior Politian’s start telling us they are into the latest bands I just think of some middle-aged parent trying to use the latest street slang to impress their children’s friends. It’s not cool man.

I wouldn’t want to work for an organisation where the chief executive used the word “goby” never mind described themselves in this way. I expect a little more class and gravitas.

Blair McPherson author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

It started with Jane Tennison (played by Helen Mirren) in Prime Suspect who was every bit as tough as the men who called her Governor. The latest example is the cult French T.V. drama Spiral. Laure Berthaud is a feminist anti hero leading a team of male cops. Set in Paris and inspired by real cases the emphasis is on gritty realism from mutilated bodies dumped in the back streets of the rat infested inner city to the desolate tower blocks of the suburbs where boy racers torch stolen cars whilst the drivers are still in them, a practise they humorously refer to as “barbecues”.

The young lawyers are disillusioned, the politicians are interfering and the police are over whelmed. There are good cops and bad cops but none of the characters, villains, lawyers or politicians are all bad or all good. The script is co- written by a serving police officer and police officers on set advice on authenticity. The gritty cop drama showing the short comings of the legal system and the frustration of those who work with in it is nothing new but having a woman in charge in this macho environment is. So is art mirroring life or just dramatising it?

Other parts of the public sector may be less macho than the police but they to have their feminist anti heroes who rebel against convention in their private lives, who refuse to be subservient in they work lives, who can out drink, out manoeuvre and outperform the” boys” much like Jane and Laure.

Blair McPherson author of An Elephant in the Room-an equality and diversity training manual and Equipping managers for an uncertain future both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Most organisations don’t know how many disabled people they employ, how many gay people work for them or which faiths make up the staff group. All they do know with any degree of certainty is the age and gender profile of their organisation plus may be some information on ethnicity. The reason for this is that staff have proved very reluctant to disclose what they consider to be highly sensitive information about their sexuality, a disability or even their faith for fear of prejudice and discrimination.

People can see if you’re black but not if you’re gay or hard of hearing. Why tell them if you don’t have to?

If you don’t know who you have employed how do you know if your recruitment policies and practices are fair? How can an employer demonstrate that their workforce is in fact representative? How would you know if discrimination is taking place?

 The challenge is to create a safe environment within your organisation so that staff feel able to identify themselves for who they are without fear of prejudice.

 It’s going to take more than a 2 day awareness training course to bring about what is a culture change in most organisations. The starting point has to be with senior managers to show leadership and give permission for people to discuss issues of race, gender, disability sexuality and faith openly. The aim is for people to say what they are really thinking in order that they can be challenged or supported. Of course senior managers and HR (Human Resources- Personnel and Training section) will be only to aware that this process has to be managed since it will unleash some powerful emotions. Some skilled facilitation is required within a range of forums designed to increase awareness and encourage discussion. A case example of applying his approach and the discussion material used can be found in An Elephant in the Room-an equality and diversity training manual published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Encouraging staff to talk openly involves finding innovative ways to get hot issues out into the open. This gives the organisation/senior managers the opportunity to challenge myths and explain policies. The case study shows how a large organisation used it’s intranet to get these questions out in the open –and answered- however uncomfortable the questions might be. A lot of the questions came from a series of two day equality and diversity awareness courses. The case study includes some of the most frequently asked questions and the answers that were provided.

The case study also details how equality and diversity champions were recruited and supported. These were people from all levels within the organisation who were prepared to put time and energy into raising awareness. Typically with in organisations groups set up to address equality issues all too often become characterised by inertia and a lack of passion. The case study shows how this was avoided by replacing nominated representatives with people who identified themselves as champions and examines the issues this raised and how they were addressed.

Blair McPherson is a former Director of Community Services with a large local authority and author of a number of management books the latest of which is Equipping managers for an uncertain future published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

The actor who played Dr Who (Christopher Eccleston) was asked whether he preferred playing heroes rather than villains. He replied that acting was all about finding the hero in the villain and the villain in the hero. Management is also about heroes and villains. The manager cutting services, increasing workloads and making people redundant is often seen as a villain. The same manager champions equal opportunities, upholds professional values, challenges bad practise and inspires staff. So if you are a manager who is asked to play the villain then the bad guy you will be but you need to find the hero within the role. You may be carrying out unpopular decisions but only a pantomime villain would judge success by the volume of boos. Being a hero doesn’t involve a big dramatic show of defiance “ the manager who resigned rather than cut services” it involves struggling on day in day out just trying to make a difference in a thousand little ways that go unnoticed by the majority.

Blair McPherson author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Employee surveys plus an analysis of harassment and bullying complaints revealed that many staff thought their manager had poor people management skills. As a result  the organisation set out to improve managers’ people management skills stating that all managers should have leadership qualities that is the ability to inspire their staff and a willingness to take responsibility.

There was no additional money to fund this leadership development programme.  The Senior Management Team decided to stop funding MBAs and instead use the budget released to build a leadership development programme.  The building block for this programme was to be one to one executive coaching.  The idea was to give managers more insight into how their behaviour effected those they managed and thus help them use this to develop their people management skills. I think the fact that it was called executive coaching gave it a status which helped in getting the pilot of the ground.

The pilot with senior managers

In order to lead by example the senior management team agreed to pilot a form of executive coaching operated by two management consultants who they had previously worked with in team building exercises.  360 degree feedback questionnaires were issued to colleagues and direct reports.  A management consultant observed each member of the senior management team in a range of management situations, team meetings, board meetings, addressing large staff groups, making presentations to multi agency groups, influencing and shaping strategies and negotiating with partner agencies.

The consultants spent the equivalent of two days with each member of the senior management team over a period of three or four weeks.  The consultant then sat down with each individual and discussed the outcome of the 360 degree feedback and the management interactions they had observed.

There was initially some apprehension as senior managers are not accustomed to getting direct feedback on how they are perceived by colleagues or a detailed assessment of their observed performance.

The feedback was well received even though some of the messages were blunt e.g. “talks too much”, “needs to listen more”, “needs to recognise the need to move at the pace of the slowest ship in the convoy”, “can come over as demanding and impatient”.  This was balanced by plenty of positive feedback around individuals being supportive and making their expectations clear.

A detailed case study of introducing coaching and mentoring into a large local authority is published in Equipping managers for an uncertain future published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Blair McPherson author of An Elephant in the Room-an equality and diversity training manual and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk

Whoever the audience, whatever the topic it helps if you can make them laugh. Humour can defuse a tense situation and it’s hard to stay angry if you’re smiling. People like a laugh and they like people who make them laugh. But it’s risky as the PM found out. Service cuts and redundancies are no laughing matter so your joke may be seen as flippant and be taken to show you neither understand the implications for your audience nor care. Three things to remember first it’s not how funny the joke is it’s how appropriate it is. Second, making a joke at your own expense shows you have a sense of humour at someone else’s expense shows you are insensitive. Third, people laugh at the bosses jokes even if they are not funny.

When it goes horribly wrong, not only don’t they laugh but they get upset, saying it was only a joke is not a good defence. To then accuse the offended person of lacking a sense of humour just proves how insensitive you are.

Those guilty of sexist ,racist and homophobic remarks often claim they were only joking and say the person who complains is being” over sensitive” and even” other people thought it was funny”. As someone who has chaired many disciplinary hearing if that’s your defence expect the worst.

The advice to managers is clear don’t make inappropriate jokes, only tell funny stories at your own expense and if you upset some of your audience apologise immediately. Otherwise you risk being considered a bit of a comedian and not a very funny one at that.

Blair McPherson is author of An Elephant in the Room- an equality and diversity training manual and People management in a harsh financial climate both  published by www.russellhouse.co.uk