For many people, the terms “manager” and “leader” are synonymous.
Are You Managing to Lead
September 29th, 2009Managing Your Boss
September 12th, 2009How good is your relationship with your boss? If you’re asking yourself “what relationship?” then read on.
- What baggage are you bringing into the relationship? Do you see your boss as an authority figure (a k a your father or your mother)? Ask a trusted colleague if you overreacted to the latest run-in with your boss. Be open to hearing honest feedback.
- You and your needs are a fraction of your boss’s responsibility. Stop taking your boss’s behavior personally. She/he probably spends little time thinking about your problem or concern. If you can learn to become immune to your boss’s minor slights, which are often a product of his/her stress, you will be happier.
- Put yourself in your boss’s shoes. Let that perspective guide you. If you were the boss, you’d want your employees to come to you with solutions, suggestions, ideas and ways of elevating your profile within the organization. Are you doing this with your current boss?
- How many bosses have you had in the last 1-2 years? Do you resent having to prove yourself yet again? Get over it. Rapid management changes are the norm. The sooner your new boss knows you’re on his/her side, the better.
- Do you understand your boss’s communication style? Does your boss want just the facts? Or does he/she enjoy a more collaborative style and like brainstorming and discussion? When is the best time to speak with your boss; is he/she a morning person or is after 5 PM better? You need to know how to read your boss or all your good work will fall upon deaf ears.
- With a new boss, make it clear how you can help. Talk about how you want to ease his/her transition into the company and outline areas where you can contribute. Don’t wait for your boss to come to you. You can get lost in the shuffle during the boss’s learning curve.
- Ask for what you want. This goes for money, a promotion or ownership of a new project. Make sure you choose an appropriate time and have a well-prepared case. Be prepared for a no. Hope for a yes. Be willing to negotiate. Know what your fallback position is.
- Speaking of negotiating, when was the last time you negotiated with your boss? Most people run from negotiating. It’s too confrontational. Did it ever occur to you that negotiating might be a strength that your boss is looking for from you? Winners know how to negotiate. It’s a crucial skill to have in your toolbox. Time to swallow the anxiety and do it.
- Do you feel used, abused, and exhausted at work? What boundaries have you created with your boss? Take a look at how you might be allowing this to happen. Are you afraid to ask for what you need? Are you using work as an excuse not to deal with other aspects of your life? Blaming your boss for your inability to take charge of your life is unfair.
- Do you feel smarter than your boss? Okay, maybe you are. How are you going to use your smarts to position yourself for the next step, assuming that’s what you want? And how will you do it without threatening your boss? You need to earn your boss’s trust. This is a process that happens over time. And be sure to continue to monitor your need to grandstand. Arrogance is not a plus.
- Do you need to be right? Can you see your boss’s point of view? Are you willing to compromise your position for the good of the boss, department, or company? Keeping the bigger picture in mind is key and shows commitment to the team. So, ask yourself “do I want to be happy/successful or do I want to be right? ”
Finally, if you truly do have an ogre for a boss, and nothing seems to work, get out! Sometimes you need a fresh start with a new boss to create the kind of work environment in which you can flourish.
Dale Kurow, M.S., is an author and a career and executive coach in New York City. Dale works with clients across the United States and internationally helping them to become better managers, figure out their next career moves and thrive despite office politics. Visit Dale’s web site at http://www.dalekurow.com/newsletter to sign-up for her free monthly e-zine “Career Essentials,” chock full of useful tips and strategies you can use immediately.
What Your Employees Want You to Know (But You Might Be Afraid to Ask)
August 30th, 2009This is a challenge for every company owner and manager. You have tremendous plans for growth and expect a lot of your employees. But do you know if the company is meeting your best employees’ expectations? Are you providing the type of environment that supports high productivity and high quality? Do you really want to know?
If you do, consider creating a Company Performance Review to find out what your company culture really is. Find out how employees feel about their environment and morale at your company. The Company Performance Review asks employees if they see certain behaviors occurring at your company – behaviors that could kill a company over time if left unchecked. It will help you determine if there are ethical issues you need to be concerned about in your company.
This review must be completed anonymously, or employees won’t be comfortable answering honestly. The object is to make all employees suddenly more aware that actions that are sometimes common in companies can do real and lasting damage. It takes effort to increase the recognition of ethical issues to make it easier to begin setting standards.
For instance, here are some questions you might consider asking employees – but only if you are ready to deal with the answers in the whole culture (don’t kill the messenger).
Do employees?
Give a full days work for a full days pay
Accept gifts or favors from suppliers
Falsify time sheets or other reports
Gossip about other employees
Do other work on company time or with company equipment
Do managers or supervisors?
Discriminate by gender or race
Allow unsafe or unhealthy work conditions
Discourage criticism
Forget or fail to give promised performance reviews or salary increases
Have unfair work performance expectations
Does top management?
Ignore long-term problems
Live up to our mission statement
Provide rewards such as promotions on a basis other than competence
Mismanage company funds
Really care about employees
When you get the answers tabulated consider these thoughts:
Are there ethical issues you uncovered with this survey that surprised and concerned you?
Are you setting the right example for employees?
Are you satisfied that the standards of behavior you have set are high enough?
Are there items that should be added to this list that are unique to your company or industry?
Do you have a policy and procedures manual or employee handbook that sets standards on these issues?
Should some of these behaviors be cause for termination of employment?
Honest feedback can be hard to hear. I suggest you work with an industrial psychologist or other professional to help you hear the positive message in the survey results and formulate a plan of action. The real reward will come later when you administer the survey a second time and the results have changed for the better.
About The Author
Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt Publishing, a top 50 woman-owned and run business in Los Angeles and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A Practical System for Turning Strategies into Action (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses with her book and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business Plan Workbook, and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook. See www.janbking.com for more information.
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the byline is included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.
janbking0191@sbcglobal.net
Practical Tips to Motivating Employees
August 26th, 2009Some employees are true self-starters and seem to motivate themselves to excel. But even with your highest flyers, there could be times where he or she hits a funk and needs some positive motivation. Look to these tips to help you through the trial:
Make sure the goal is crystal clear – The first step in motivating an employee is ensuring he very clearly understands the goal and when it needs to be met. If goals aren’t clear or if you can’t articulate the goal yourself, spend time getting clarity with both yourself and the employee.
Put them on the same side of the table as you – Design your rewards (financial, prestige, etc.) around attainment of the goal and get them working with you as opposed to against you. Putting some tangible rewards around goal attainment will allow the employees to see the fruits of their labor.
Don’t be afraid to expose poor performance – If progress isn’t being made against the goal, be very explicit and deliberate about showing objective performance measures and progress against the measure. Objectivity is very important here; if you are concerned about being objective, use a trusted colleague or HR representative to cross-check you.
Clearly articulate the consequences of continued poor performance – Ensure the employee knows what can happen if performance doesn’t improve. It could be loss of financial reward, a lower job title, or in extreme cases, termination. Again, be objective and use a trusted colleague or HR rep if necessary.
Follow through – Don’t make idle threats or statements that the employee knows you won’t follow through on. If you set a goal to be achieved by a certain date and both your reward and consequence are clear; be prepared to follow through on either the reward or consequence.
Lonnie Pacelli has over 20 years’ experience with Accenture and Microsoft and is currently president of Leading on the Edge
Managing The E-mail Monster
August 17th, 2009In common with many people today I conduct an increasing percentage of my business remotely, coming into contact with different groups of people only when the event occurs that has been the object of an email correspondence.
The title of these events is normally “How To Create A Sustained Performance Improvement” and during the introduction I explore some of the problems that are currently blocking performance our performance at work.
Almost invariably the answer to the opening question “What prevents you from performing at work?” is “E-mail”, and the answer is normally sung out as one voice.
The groups all agree on the problem and it is very difficult sometimes to bring them back to the purpose of the current event when they become embroiled in an orgy of horror stories about the way that E-mail is ruining their lives.
One day I took a step back and decided that if this was such an overwhelming concern it deserved the time it would take to examine its nature to see if we could effect a cure.
The first group that I listened to were all from the same department in the same organisation but working in different locations.
Their stated problem was that nobody wanted to be seen to get in the way of an idea so every E-mail that was generated was copied to everyone in the department by everybody else and that every body felt that they had to be seen to be making a contribution so they had to make a comment on every E-mail they received.
Individuals would routinely receive the same E-mail many times and each time felt that they had to comment on the comments that had been made since their last comment.
I asked the group how they would solve the problem and one wag suggested that each individual should be made to pay for every email that they forwarded on the basis that this would focus their minds and get rid of what was unnecessary.
The group could not work out how to make that happen practically but they explored the idea of personal responsibility and realised that in order to achieve the required focus payment wasn’t really necessary, but that accountability was.
They left that day with a plan to place before their IT manager, to log every E-mail that was forwarded internally.
This log was converted into a bar chart and a copy placed on each notice board so that every individual could see exactly the amount that they were personally contributing to the problem, or the solution.
A very simple strategy to solve what I had thought was a universal problem, except that this was only one facet of the nature of the E-mail monster.
I listened to other groups complain in the same way about the affect that emails were having on their ability to work and noticed a different problem and that was SPAM.
When given the space to pursue this E-mail conversation it soon became apparent that there was another phenomenon that affected a different group of users.
They were not being deluged with E-mail forwarded by their colleagues but were having their ability to do any real work compromised by the number of apparently unsolicited emails they received from external sources.
This was a different problem that clearly required a different solution.
While listening to these different conversations it soon became apparent that the longer the conversations were allowed to go unchecked the more they started to resemble conversations overheard in a playground about who had the biggest brother or who had found the most conkers on the way back from school the previous night.
Each story told was preceded by a casual estimate of the number of E-mails the individual received each day that always carefully outbid the previous story teller before embarking on the tale of what a monumental task it was to delete all of these E-mails.
I slowly came to realise that the number of E-mail and the size of the problem was being worn as a badge by the complainant, being used in a backhanded way to complain about how popular/important they were.
Having made this discovery it was easy to go to the next logical step which was to realise that in order to feel more important individuals were actually encouraging their own bombardment by signing up for regular mailings on the premise that they may be useful and then in fact deleting them as soon as they arrived.
In this way individuals were building for themselves a comfortable feeling of their own importance that was reinforced every day by their in-trays which contained hundreds of E-mails that were laboriously deleted every time, but were never unsubscribed.
This is my challenge, and it will hurt.
Count the E-mails in your inbox in the morning.
Count the number that you delete without a thought.
What if instead of the delete button you clicked on unsubscribe?
It will hurt to even think of this because you are ripping away your safety blanket that gives you daily reassurance that people keep sending you emails because you are important or popular,
We can reclaim our day from the E-mail monster that we have created for ourselves by hitting unsubscribe.
It is our choice?
This morning I received fourty four E-mails in my in tray (I have exaggerated the number to make me sound important) and without thinking I deleted thirty nine of them.
Realising what I had done I went to the deleted mails file where I was able to unsubscribe from five of them and put twelve into the junk mail file.
The first one or two “unsubscribes” felt awful because these were people whose mail I would no longer be receiving, I had cut myself off, but as I went on it started to feel so good, the feeling that these E-mail monsters would no longer be in charge of my day.
I got so carried away that I continued through my deleted mail file for another 30 minutes unsubscribing and junking most of what I found.
This was probably one of the most effective half hours of my year.
Peter A Hunter
www.breakingthemould.co.uk
If you have ever experienced or learnt something which you then knew was instinctively right – you will never have forgotten it.
Peter Hunter learnt something years ago which, regrettably, most of us have still yet to learn.
When we do – once we have understood the simplicity of his book ‘Breaking the Mould’ – it will transform our lives forever!
Vic Baxter – Business Workout.
Managing Things and Leading People
August 9th, 2009“Too many managers treat “their people” as assets with skin wrapped around them.”
High-performing teams and organizations balance the discipline of systems, processes, and technology management on a base of effective people leadership. Here are some key of the key distinctions between the two:
The Management-Leadership Balance
Management:
Systems, process, and technology
Goals, standards, and measurements
Control
Strategic Planning
A way of doing
Directing
Responding and reacting
Continuous Improvement of what is
Leadership:
People – context and culture
Preferred future, principles, and purpose
Commitment
Strategic opportunism
A way of being
Serving
Initiating and originating
Innovative breakthroughs to what could be
Both management and leadership skills are needed at the organizational, team, and personal levels. It’s not a case of either/or, but and/also. Futurist, Joel Barker provides another helpful distinction between the two roles; “managers manage within paradigms, leaders lead between paradigms”. Both are needed. Trying to run an organization with only leadership or management is like trying to cut a page with half a pair of scissors. Leadership and management are a matched set; are both needed to be effective.
Systems and processes (management) for example, are critical to success. You and your organization can be using the latest technologies and be highly focused on customers and those serving them (leadership), but if the methods and approaches you’re using to structure and organize your work is weak, your performance will suffer badly. People in your organization can be “empowered”, energized, and enlightened; but if your systems, processes, and technologies don’t enable them to perform well, they won’t. Developing the discipline and using the most effective tools and techniques of personal and organization systems and processes is a critical element of high performance.
But as the sweeping movement to teams, “empowerment”, and involvement intensifies, many more daily management tasks are moving to the front lines where they belong. So leadership becomes even more critical. Unfortunately, many people in so-called leadership positions aren’t leaders. They’re managers, bureaucrats, technocrats, bosses, administrators, department heads, and the like; but they aren’t leaders. On the other hand, some people in individual contributor roles are powerful leaders. Leadership is an action, not a position.
A leader doesn’t just react and respond, but rather takes the initiative and generates action. A leader doesn’t say “something should be done”, but ensures something is done. An effective leader is a “people person”. Effective leaders connect, stay in contact with, and are highly visible to everyone on their team and in their organization. Leaders have developed the skills of supercharging logic, data, and analysis with emotion, pride, and the will to win. Their passion and enthusiasm for the team or organization’s vision and purpose is highly contagious. They fire the imaginations, develop the capabilities, and build the confidence of people to “go for it”. Leaders help people believe the impossible is possible, which makes it highly probable.
Do you like to be managed or led? You’re not alone. Very few people want to work for a manager. Most of us would much rather be led by a leader. To manage is to control, handle, or manipulate. To lead is to guide, influence, or persuade. You manage things — systems, processes, and technology. You lead people. The roots of the rampant morale, energy, and performance problems found in many organizations are Technomanagers who treat people as “human resources” to be managed. If you want to manage someone, manage yourself. Once you master that, you’ll be a much more effective leader of others.
Jim Clemmer is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader, and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, teams, and personal growth. During the last 25 years he has delivered over two thousand customized keynote presentations, workshops, and retreats. Jim’s five international bestselling books include The VIP Strategy, Firing on All Cylinders, Pathways to Performance, Growing the Distance, and The Leader’s Digest. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/articles.
The High Maintenance Manager Work with Them or Leave Them
July 23rd, 2009Over time, I have heard from several
people who shared their stories of working with
high maintenance managers (HMM). The most interesting
were from people with family businesses whose
spouse or parent is a HMM. That adds some interesting
implications!
What happens when your HMM has crossed lines with you? Ideally
you want all conflict, especially from situations where
you feel beaten down, to cease. If you have years of
experience working with all kinds of people (including
a few HMMs), you know that striving for conflict
resolution with this type of person can sometimes
be rewarding, and is often frustrating. How far you’re
willing to take the process with this person will
depend on what has defined the person as being a
HMM and your current state of affairs (i.e. your
stress level).
Use the Help of an Advocate
Does your HMM respect (and even fear) someone at
the office? Could that person be your advocate?
This is probably the best alternative for getting
the person to change his or her approach and for
reducing the amount of your stress. This is what
I did – and have done a couple times – and it worked
well. It’s important to try to talk with the HMM
first, before going to the advocate. It is also
helpful if you, the HMM, and the advocate can meet
together. If that is not possible, a discussion
between the two of them while you are absent is
the next best thing.
The advocate needs to know and understand the HMM
from experience and needs to understand the issues
at hand. Be brief and to the point when you update
him or her, giving an executive overview” of the
problem. If they talk together in your absence,
get an update from the advocate, noting the points
discussed, the position taken by the advocate
during their meeting, and the advocate’s perceived
response by the HMM.
Then schedule a new meeting with the HMM, making
certain you are no longer steamed when you meet.
If necessary, schedule a meeting for a few days
later.
Meet With the HMM
Whether you have an advocate or not, you will need
to meet with the HMM. Because HMMs tend to talk
very fast and to think while you are talking
(rather than listen to you), remember to speak
slowly. When you take a turn to talk, count 1 or
2 seconds before you start. Be deliberate.
If necessary, write out notes before the meeting,
bring the notes with you to the meeting, and use
them. Notes will help you stay focused.
Start the conversation by mentioning something
positive. For example, “When I heard that you
were selected to manage the project, I was glad
about that because I knew you were bringing a
lot of experience to the project.”
Don’t back down on the issues. Don’t wimp out.
Don’t make excuses for the HMM. Don’t accept his
or her excuses (you can listen without agreeing).
See where the conversation goes as you discuss your
points. Are you getting any agreement? Is there
evidence that you are being manipulated? Is the
HMM trying to fight with you or is she trying to
solve problems? Can the HMM agree to disagree
with you agreeably? Or does he agree to disagree
in a disagreeable fashion?
Getting Pushback
If you don’t have an advocate, and meeting with
the HMM proves to not help very much, you need
to decide how much you can take. What other types
of changes can you make? At what point does life
become too short to deal with the situation?
Some of us put up with way too much for way too
long. After some time that can really wear you
down, making you susceptible to stress and disease.
Is it really worth it? If not, what can you do
to make a change?
~~~~~~~~~
As of this writing, I’ve come up with 18 bad habits
of high maintenance managers. I’ve had some fun
discussions with people who currently work for a
high maintenance manager and they’ve found
it helps to tell stories and
laugh in order to use the laughter to lower the
stress about their situation.
If you are currently in a work situation with a
HMM, can you find an advocate to help you out?
Will you meet with the HMM to discuss your issues?
Are you getting pushback? In the meantime,
can you discuss it with someone and laugh?
© 2005 Borgeson Consulting, Inc.
Glory Borgeson is a business coach and consultant, and the president of
Borgeson Consulting, Inc. She specializes in working with executives in the
“honeymoon phase” of a new position (typically the first two years)
to coach them to success. Glory is the newly appointed executive’s
Secret Weapon!. Top athletes have a coach; why not you?
Click here for Borgeson Consulting, Inc.
This article was originally published in The Business Express, Borgeson’s
free monthly ezine. You may subscribe by clicking here:
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Managing Disasters Using Helicopters – An Indian’s perspective
July 22nd, 2009“Although human subtlety makes a variety of inventions it will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.”
Whenever man has tried to supersede nature, disasters have happened. Today’s world scenario proves that development is also harnessing the destructive minds resulting in such huge disasters, which become just impossible to handle without the aid of latest technologies. With terrorism on the rise, plate tectonics becoming unpredictable and floods getting out of control, it is time for India to devise a full-fledged disaster management system.
Can we forget the floods of Orissa & earthquake in Gujarat where it was impossible to reach to the people by roads? The effects of Tsunami wash away followed by devastating snowfall in Kashmir is still fresh in people’s minds. That is where helicopters could have been a much faster and easier mode of procuring relief not only in form of distributing food packets but also providing emergency medical service.
Thus, our government and public service agencies should realize that helicopters are the most versatile machines in existence today, which can help handle such difficult situations with ease, and hence their presence in every disaster control team is inevitable.
Unfortunately, in India, commercial helicopters are realized to be only a luxurious mode of air transport for destinations otherwise normally unapproachable by air. Actually, helicopters are capable of doing a lot of public service from air medical services to law enforcement, traffic management, fire fighting, assisting in power transmission among various others. They are being extensively used in the developed countries to combat difficult situations & make life much easier & simpler for the public. Although there are more than 30 applications of helicopters in civil & commercial use, India right now can concentrate on few very essential public service requirements.
Emergency medical service (EMS)
Calamities do not come after identifying the time & place. The crowded roads & long distances add on to all the hindrances in transporting the patients from the point of accident to a hospital. Helicopters are the fastest and the safest mode to provide emergency medical services immediately at the place of accident and transport the patients to the hospitals. Where as a normal ambulance takes more time & can carry not more that two patients, a helicopter can carry six to eight patients in much less time. Air ambulance is a very common phenomenon in the west, which we should also acquire now. The bursting population and crammed roads should not play havoc with the safety of the Indian citizens.
Law Enforcement
The lawbreakers have become hi tech today. They commit a crime and escape . It becomes difficult to chase them through our crammed roads. Thus, the importance of the helicopter as a tool for the Law enforcement community is growing. During daylight, or at night with a high power searchlight, the helicopter can prove invaluable when searching for lost persons or for suspects at a crime scene. The use of even more sophisticated equipment such as the forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system is also a possibility. A helicopter easily accomplishes transporting needed ground units to areas where accessibility is limited.
Fire Fighting
Helicopters are very useful even in fire fighting. Airborne command and control at the scene of a large fire could insure that the right fire fighting assets are at the right place at the right time. Fire fighting agencies need many kinds of tools to respond to emergencies, and the helicopter can provide a fast and flexible tool to assist these agencies. Helicopter ” water bombers” are capable of discharging thousands of liters over fires & save the forests.
Traffic Management
India being such a vast & diverse country with a huge population can actually use helicopters for establishing an efficient & fast management system between the rural & urban areas. This exercise would not only be time saving but also highly cost effective. When properly utilized, the helicopter has been proven across the world to be a highly cost effective means of increasing the efficiency of existing sources of the city’s administration. With roads becoming overcrowded, it is important to start thinking of harnessing the third dimension in this century.
Multiple Use
If the intended use of a helicopter is defined before purchase, it can serve multiple purposes. It will clearly dictate the type of helicopter & onboard equipment. For maximum utilization, the primary & secondary missions have to be set out from over 30 known uses that the helicopter has been pressed into all over the world. They range from aerial application to search & rescue, electronic news gathering, package express , ranching, exploration, mineral prospecting among others.
For example, a helicopter used for policing can be smaller & require much less equipment than one for a dedicated Air Medical mission. Thus, if the primary mission is decided as law enforcement, a secondary mission might be emergency medical transport. Such decision will also gain support from the hospital community who might help pay for the onboard medical equipment. Once the intended uses & the level of onboard equipment is established, the weight and cost of the helicopter & the equipment needs to be compared with the budget. If both, the helicopter (weight wise) and the budget (cost wise) are strained, priorities must be established- i.e., for the primary and then the secondary missions.
Keeping in mind the missions, our government and public service agencies can fully utilize the services of a helicopter.
Accounts of lives saved by helicopters with emergency medical personnel on board are numerous. It is predicted that world helicopters used in these areas will more than double during the next decade. Thus, it is time for us Indians also to evaluate our agency needs and see if the state helicopter program can help increase our efficiency and effectiveness in serving the needs of our community.
Mehnaz Ansari
Working on a project for help identify the potential use of helicopters in disaster management in India.
I have a keen interest for writing for a cause.
Apathetic Employees Can Anything Get Them Moving
July 9th, 2009Have you ever wondered if anything can get your employees to care about the work they’re doing?
Managers who are self-starters, who enjoy and are motivated by the work they do and the organization they work for, are sometimes puzzled by the perceived lack of motivation of their subordinates. The operative word here is “perceived”, because they may, in fact, be motivated — just not in the same way as you.
If you think about it realistically, you don’t necessarily want them to love the work, do you? What you expect is that they perform well on the job and contribute to the success of your department. They can do that without being cheerleaders, because everyone is motivated by something. It’s a matter of finding out what it is.
Here are a few of the causes that might make your people tick:
Career ambition
These people want to move up in the world, either in your organization or another. If they can clearly see the relationship between their performance in their current positions and the chance of promotion, that will do it for them. Your job is to help them see the possibilities.
Approval and validation
In his groundbreaking 1982 fable, “The One Minute Manager”, Ken Blanchard urged managers to “catch them doing something right.” The idea was to give immediate positive feedback to people, which immediately makes them feel valued. Many people long for approval and validation, and will work hard to achieve a goal that will provide it for them. Your job is to provide positive strokes whenever possible.
Competition
The sales environment is the obvious place to see competition among colleagues and peers. Often it’s their competitive nature that makes great salespeople. But this personality trait is not confined to one discipline, and some people will perform well on the job in order to be seen as the best. This can be tricky to manage, and your job is to enable an outlet for this need in one employee without creating enmity in the others.
Money
Let’s face it, financial compensation is an important reason to work in the first place, and there’s nothing wrong with that. For some employees, it’s a powerful incentive and motivation. Your job is to demonstrate the connection between on-the-job achievement and compensation. Of course, if you can’t legitimately show that connection because it’s not there, you may have an employee who will never be motivated in that position.
As a manager, you need to find out what motivates the individuals that make up your team, and then do what you can to help them make performance on the job the factor that satisfies their particular needs.
Remember, what is rewarded is repeated. It’s a matter of discovering and offering the right rewards.
Helen Wilkie is a professional keynote speaker, workshop leader and author specializing in applied workplace communication. Read more articles on her website at http://www.mhwcom.com Subscribe to Helen’s free e-zine, “Communi-keys”, and get your free 40-page e-book, 23 Ideas You Can Use RIGHT NOW to Communicate and Succeed in Your Business Career!
Motivating Teams
July 6th, 2009Introduction:
Working with teams, whether as leader of a single team or manager of several, is an essential part of a manager’s remit. Teamwork is rapidly becoming the preferred practice in many organizations as traditional corporate hierarchies give way to flat, multi-skilled working methods. This section is an indispensable and practical guide to leading teams with expertise, covering subjects such as defining the skills required to complete a project, establishing trust between individuals within a team, and maximizing the performance of that team. The section is vital reading for any one involved in teamwork, whether as a novice or as an experienced team leader.
This month we will discuss:
1) Understanding How teams work
Understanding How Teams Work
Teamwork is the foundation of all successful management. Managing teams well is a major and stimulating challenge to any manager, form novice to experienced hand.
1) What Makes A Good Team?
A true team is a living, constantly changing, dynamic force in which a number of people come together to work. Team members discuss their objectives, assess ideas, make decisions, and work towards their targets together.
A) Working Together
All successful teams demonstrate the same fundamental features: strong and effective leadership; the establishment of precise objectives; making informed decisions; the ability to act quickly upon these decision; communicating freely; mastering the requisite skills and techniques to fulfill the project in hand; providing clear targets for the team to work towards; and – above all – finding the right balance of people to work together for the common good of the team.
B) Analyzing Team Tasks
Successful teams can be formed by 2 to 25 or more people, but much more important than size is shape – the pattern of working into which team member settle to perform their given tasks. There are three basic methods of performing a task:
Repetitive task and familiar work require each team member to have a fixed role, which is fulfilled independently, as on assembly lines;
Projects that require some creative input require team members to have fixed roles and working procedures, but also work in unison, as when generating new products;
Work that demands constant creative input and personal contributions requires people to work very closely as partners. This style of working is prevalent among senior management.
Working Well Together
A team of manager’s discuses a new plan that has been put forward by a member of the team. All of the team members are free to join the discussion. Later, the team leader will assess the contribution.
C) Achieving Potential
There is no limit to the potential of a good team. Given an “impossible” task, team members will reinforce each other’s confidence as they seek to turn the “impossible” into reality. The collective ability to innovate is stronger than that of individuals because the combined brainpower of a team, however small in number, exceeds that of any one person. By harnessing this power, a team can go beyond simple, useful improvements to achieve real breakthrough. For example, in one company an engineering team was asked to double machine reliability. They thought it impossible, but went on to produce a plan that pebbled performance.
Working Towards Understanding
Encouraging open communication and the free flow of information within a team ensures that each member is fully aware of the talents and experience available within the group.
Note:
Remember that team members must support each other
Break long-term aims into short term projects.
D) Knowing Team Goals
Once a team has been formed, the next major step is to establish its goals. There is little point in having a team that is raring to go if its members are all pursuing disparate aims. Goal may very well change over a team’s existence: for example if a new product is being launched on the market, the first priority will be for the team to concentrate on research into its competition. If the aim is to improve customer satisfaction, the first goal will be to find ways to provide a higher standard of service.
According to the circumstance, teamwork goals might include:
Increasing the rate of productivity in a manufacturing company;
Improving the quality of production;
involving all employees in decision making process to increase job satisfaction;
Looking at working systems and practices to reduce time wastage;
Working together with customers to build closer relationships so that the need of the market can be better understood.
Improving Performance
In a survey of 230 personnel executives, the American society of training and development found that teamwork led to a substantial rise in performance in key areas.
Cultural Differences
Cross-functional, multi-disciplinary, interdepartmental teams are spreading fast in the west, having been established in Japan for many years. In some British companies, managers already spend half their time working in such teams; and the democratic attitude of many North American’s has helped them to adapt well to this way of working. Continental Europeans still tend to be more comfortable with traditional hierarchical systems, but increasing competitive pressure and the need for speed-your-market are now forcing change on mangers in many industries.
Note: Allocate a clear deadline for each of your projects.
www.careerpath.cc
Manik Thapar (MBA)