I was working with an individual recently who is new to her role as a manager.

We had an hour to work with so we focused on examining what would make the biggest difference to her at this stage of her management career.

We got in a conversation about how managers are always busy trying to juggle their “day job” with their management responsibilities and therefore often adopt a reactive approach to the management aspects of their role.

This leads to periods of low level management, with managers letting the basics slip and then suddenly launching into periods of intense management activity, with the intention of creating huge changes in behaviour, skills and performance.

Management is not about isolated “grand gestures”, it’s about ongoing actions that build and “layer up” to create higher levels of engagement, motivation and performance.

We discussed the principle of little and often and how seemingly small actions, but done regularly, have a huge impact on an individual in the long run.

A regular drip or splash in the right place can create incredible results. Have patience, don’t be lured into quick fix tactics.

I ended the session confident that the individual I was working with had what was needed to start building her management career and confident that we would be in contact again to add to that platform.