5 Tips on Becoming a better Operations Manager
There will be a million hurdles and responsibilities, your GOAL is to get the work done with RESPECT!
Leading a world class customer services operations team on a regional level with different languages is a challenging task due to language barriers, communication gap and of course motivating isn’t easy.
Here are my 5 tips based on my personal experience leading teams across various markets. 5 Tips on Becoming a better Operations Manager
- People
- Processes
- Budget
- Delivery & Improvement
- Agility
Please check out this post to learn more about Operations Manager‘s Roles and Responsibilities.
Let’s delve into the specifics now.
1. People
- Understanding people and their needs is essential (both internal & external stakeholders)
- Win your teams confidence by solving their day to day problems (no matter how small the problem is be there for them when they need you the most)
- Hold regular one2one communications, share performances and document them (check Organizational Process Assets or talk to your Business HR to receive one)
- Set clear expectations and don’t promise on what you cant deliver (example: Salary increment/Promotions & Progressions)
- Keep up your promises – this is a tuffy… as a People Manager you must keep your word
Well, you cannot make everyone happy all the time but focusing on the People & your organizational goals will lead you and your team to success.
key skills required: Leadership, Team building (trust building), Motivation, Communication, Influencing, Decision Making, cultural awareness, hiring, empathy, honest, Rewards & Recognitions
Related: Here is why coaching makes you a better Leader – Project Insights (projinsights.com)
2. Processes
- Knowing the actual work is critical to guide your team and provide ideas/suggestions – this will build teams confidence and help you manage & balance workload
- Build and nurture subject matter experts – these resources will drive your operations to success and you can focus on business improvement. Monitor and provide timely feedback
- Share frequent performance updates
- hold regular team huddles at least once a week
- celebrate new fiscal year with an All Hands meeting by presenting the achievements of past year and show them the future
- showcases the company culture and how interested you are in the process, involving your leadership team builds the confidence
Are you doing these All hands virtually here is – 15 Fresh Ideas For Your Next Virtual All-Hands Meeting
3. Budget
You cannot run the operations or a project without a well-planned Budget
- Prepare your Annual Budget estimates containing the projected revenue, headcounts, expenses (technology/software/Salary/Travel, overtime costs as per the local regulations & requirements)
- Understand your organizational goals align it with the estimates, do call out the risks on meeting the targeted P&L
- As an operations manager you must control the Attrition to avoid re-hiring and knowledge loss – 15 Effective Ways To Improve Talent Retention
- Knowing your team members’ compensation may give you a better understanding of their challenges and concerns. It differs from company to company and the hierarchy you are in but holding this key information will help you understand and call out risks to your operations timely
4. Improvement
When the process improves there is an opportunity for your business to grow
- Consistently aim to automate the redundancies through Six Sigma or lean related projects
- Holding regular connect with your customers and Subject matter experts (SME’s) will solve this problem
- Identify the experts in your team and pose the problem your client is facing and seek ideas/suggestions.
- Probe right questions
- Team members may not be able to express the problem statement
- be open and brainstorm as you may know the required solution or the output
- Collaborate with your Technology Solution Departments, this is the team in your company who builds Robotic Process Automations. They may have ready-made solutions or they can custom build for you
5. Agility
- Being agile helps you to be more flexible and ready for change
- Builds strong collaboration and team work
- Always focused about the customer and the delivery
Related Topic to understand more about Agile Manifesto and its value: Overview of Agile Manifesto and its Value
For SME’s/team leaders who are aspiring to become a PMP or an existing manager facing hurdles, my personal recommendation is to study for PMP Certification this course provides you the foundation on
- People – soft skills required to run the projects smoothly
- Process – technical aspects
- Business environment – connection between projects and organizational strategy
Personally, this course helped me to improve my operations and my understanding of the above foundations better.
Note: there are quite a few online training institutions available online, here are some of them. I will continue to add more training providers in the coming days. Please feel free to visit.
Conclusion
You will get a million “No” from your team, repeatedly saying it can’t be done.
It is your job to motivate and identify the working solutions to solve these problems working with your cross functional teams and improve the overall business and the people around you!
What are your challenges running Operations and how did you change the people and environment overtime?
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Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to read this article. For more content on Project and Operations Management and best practices, I encourage you to explore my other articles here at www.projinsights.com
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