SuperNanny Shows Us 3 Useful Business Strategies for Managers

I don’t have children, but I love watching SuperNanny. Here’s why: Every single time she creates clear structure, talks calmly but firmly, and reminds people of their responsibilities. Her strategies are especially useful for people who are either too nice or too tough in managing their people. Here are 3 SuperNanny teachings for managing your adults and their “inner child”:

1. Set up structure, post it, and be consistent and fair in applying it. It’s so tempting as a manager to jump in and start solving problems. Sound familiar? That feels a lot sexier than laying out a general plan for interactions and processes. It’s worth it, though, even if this structuring task is boring compared to saving the world!

2. Be firm about your standards, and explain why you are taking immediate action. The key is to explain why, and for corporate citizens, rather than children, they need to hear multiple reasons for your standards so that you appeal to their inner extrovert, introvert, change-lover, and change-hater equally and consistently.

3. Don’t forget to praise and play together. When there is so much work to do and so few resources, praise and play can fly out the window in favor of grinding work. Even a second of praise and a minute of play or friendly, unpressured chat mean a lot.

None of the above means that you have to either put people in the “naughty chair” or conversely, throw a party for every success. Instead, SuperNanny’s 3 techniques above put you in the habit as a leader to give an immediate response to either reinforce or extinguish behaviors and create helpful attitude adjustments.

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