TED POLLOCK

MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT

Most people have had the experience of having made a mistake and realized that "something" had warned them of trouble ahead.

Of course, after a mistake has been made, all you can do is wish you had explored that "something" further. The next time the feeling hits, therefore, instead of stifling that inner voice, consider doing the following:

- Stop. No matter how great the pressure, if you have a hunch that you`re on the wrong track, pause. Determine whether it is merely anxiety. Pressure can cause a feeling of worry when there is no real reason for it. And there are some that use anxiety as an excuse for abandoning perfectly sound courses of action. If your nerves are keyed up, your health rundown, if the stakes of a particular course of action are high, that voice nagging you may be false-which is no reason, however, not to pause to think things through.

- Recall when you last had this feeling. And the time before that. How good is your unconscious mind at picking up details your conscious mind hasn`t yet spotted? Have you regretted in the past not listening to its signals? What of significance are you most likely to overlook or ignore? Can you discern any sort of pattern in any past mistakes you`ve made?

- Review what you`ve done so far. Put yourself in the place of another person-your boss, a colleague. This calls for imagination, but this is where you also begin to tune back into your logical, analytical thought processes, meshing them with what your intuition tells you. Go over everything step by step. How much does the success of your plan depend on the cooperation of others?

- Have you overlooked any cost factors? Ignore nothing, however trivial, in this quest for what may, or may not, be wrong.

- If you still can`t find any trouble, put the problem out of mind for awhile. Usually it`s just one detail that needs attention. Now that your intuition has demanded you look back, its importance to the whole may become startlingly apparent after you`ve been away from it awhile. Then, too, the consequences of proceeding without correcting it will be all too clear.

Without realizing it, managers often do things that call for intuitive skills. In hiring, for example, no matter what the applicant`s qualifications and how carefully they are checked out, the manager`s final decision to accept or reject is based in some part on his intuition about that person.

But if intuition is too frequently ignored in the situation where it should be heeded, it becomes less acute. What happens then is that those decisions that depend in part on the sharpness of intuitive judgment are made less well. As with other skills, practice in whetting and developing your intuition is all-important.

MANAGERS AS COMMUNICATORS

Whether or not they have ever given it any thought, all managers realize that among their responsibilities is that of communicating-upward, downward, and laterally. Few, however, have taken the time to inventory precisely what is expected of them in the area of communications.

Here is a list of communications responsibilities to remind you of what you ought to be doing. Managers-

- Keep informed on how their people are thinking and feeling.

- Encourage their people to express their ideas and opinions.

- Listen with understanding and purpose.

- Respond intelligently to criticism of their own actions.

- Handle questions satisfactorily.

- Keep their people informed on changes in policies and procedures and all other matters affecting their work.

- Recognize good work and express appreciation.

- Explain the why of their decisions.

- Make significant contributions in meetings, both in listening and in speaking.

- Express themselves clearly and effectively-in writing, speaking, and manner.

- Inform higher levels of management of their people`s accomplishments and development.