Promoted to manager? Making the SHIFT

Moving from individual contributor to manager can be both rewarding and challenging. Many employees have not been given the tools they need to manage successfully and deal with employees’ challenges. The SHIFT Process™ is one way a new manager can plot a roadmap for helping employees (and their own career) to be more successful.
Whether one of your employees brings you an issue, or you are driving your team toward their goals, or you are struggling with how best to manage under difficult circumstances, these five steps will help bring clarity and focus for you.
Specify the desired outcome. Start by defining what you do want — the success definition. Many managers know what they don’t like or don’t want. They know what they want to move away from. But few have determined what success should look like and how they will measure a positive outcome. Take the time to write out both quantitative and qualitative measurements. Paint the picture of what you want.
Highlight the obstacles and categorize them. Too many managers shy away from talking about the things that get in the way of success. “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions” is a common management mantra.
But if you don’t highlight the obstacles and gather them, how will you know what plans you need to make to get around them? Doing a laundry list of obstacles is unhelpful, though, unless you also categorize them: What can you control? What can you influence? What’s out of your control? Focus on those things you can control and influence, and put the non-controllable ones to the side.
Identify the human factor. What derails most well-laid plans? The human beings putting them in place. People who don’t get along or don’t understand what’s asked of them,or aren’t skilled to do what’s required. A good manager has best allocated the human resources. Knowing each person’s strengths and areas for improvement and how best to deploy them is critical.
Take time also to identify your stakeholders. Who can help you and who can hurt you in the process of getting to your goals? Be sure to involve them as appropriate.
Find the alternatives. There is never just one way to get to a goal. Some managers get fixated on how it has to be instead of dealing with the variety of options they have. First set criteria for decision-making — how will you know which alternatives might get you to the success outcomes and overcome the obstacles? You will need to measure them against criteria such as costs, human capital, ease of implementation, etc.
Once you have the criteria, you want to brainstorm your options. Which one best meets your criteria?

Take disciplined action. Once you know the option you want to pursue, create a clear step-by-step plan. Document exactly what needs to be done, who will do it and when and how much each step might cost. Delegate steps to people and be clear about deliverables.

Beverly D. Flaxington is the author of Make Your Shift: The Five Most Powerful Moves You Can Make to Get to Where YOU Want to Go and creator of the trademarked S.H.I.F.T. Process ™. She is a three-time bestselling and Gold-award winning author, a management consultant, a successful entrepreneur, a former COO and managing director and a college professor at Suffolk University. Visit www.the-collaborative.com; find her books on Amazon and bn.com