More and more I hear and read about a looming crisis of leadership at the middle management level and the inevitable resulting increase in, poor performance, accidents and production mistakes and hence declining profits. I'm afraid to say these observations are not just rumours. In my own work as a management consultant I've noticed a distinct increase in negative behaviours in many middle managers in all sorts of companies. In this short article I'll explain what I mean by "negative behaviour More..

Are You Prepared for a Disaster?

Yesterday I look at my calendar and saw that my newsletter was on my calendar for today. I wondered what I would write about. By the end of the day, I had my topic. Back-up and Recovery System. Are you prepared for a disaster? Around 2pm yesterday I looked up from my computer and saw a reflection of smoke. I knew right away someone's home was on fire. Thinking it was one of the homes behind me I stepped out my patio door. It was the house right beside mine that had caught fire. I immediately we More..

How to Make a Difference Every Day

Every day, everyone can make the world a better place. It's simple; it's quick and it is free. All it requires is a recipe containing you (yes, that's YOU!), awareness and a natural disposition to be brave enough to change the day ofeveryone you come into contact with in a positive way. Appreciating what people do for you, whenever you come into contact with them is the first step. It may not sound much, but saying a sincere 'Thank You' means much to many people - it is not what they experience More..

Building Shareholder Value Through Your People

Increasing shareholder value is the most important driver for organisations in the modern business world. Shareholder value is built through growing profit and building confidence in the organisation, which moves share prices upwards. Shareholders like this! And the employees of an organisation have a crucial part to play in both elements of this. They contribute to sales by selling more, both to new and old customers. They build the customer base by word of mouth from existing customers. New c More..

How To Learn Great Management from Our Kids

Learning comes from many places. And one of the most wondrous opportunities is right in front of us. At dinner, at play and at bedtime, every evening. It is there on the sports field, on vacation and during homework. Our children have clues we can use in our business and organisation, right away.. Listen to Them Kids tell us a lot about themselves, if we are prepared to listen. Often, especially when they are quite young, they ask us unexpected questions, that, if we are prepared to hear what t More..

Why I always Keep my Promises

Integrity is very important to me, and I try hard to 'do unto others as I would wish them do unto me'. It hasn't always worked that way for me though. There have been times in my previous career - times that I can remember vividly even now - when promises were not kept, things were borrowed, never to be returned and where I was not on the best end of wheeling and dealing that are part of corporate politics. For me, creating honourable relationships with my people has always been important. It More..

Procrastination and JDI!

In a management role procrastination can seriously hold back progress and demotivate individuals and teams who, full of innovation and drive to move forward, get frustrated and confused when action is held up. There are a number of steps that will help the procrastinating manager. Firstly, recognise it is a good and reasonable defence mechanism, which relates to the things which might have occurred in the past. A hurried decision which might have had an unsatisfactory and upsetting result. It More..

Planning For Growth

Are you planning your business or are you planning your growth?If you are like many high-performing business people, you have an annual ritual to set your plans for the coming twelve months. Some people do it in December, others at weird, miscellaneous times of the year, but most -- me included -- tend to do it the beginning part of the New Year. It doesn't matter exactly when you do this, but it is important you do it sometime soon. It has been said all the way back to the time of the ancients More..

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How to Coach Your Employees - 5 Simple Steps Anyone Can Do!

Want to get more from your people, but you don't know how? Are you up for a small challenge and prepared to do things a little differently? If so, we have five changes to your style that you will find easy to incorporate into the way you work and your people will love you for it; you will have more time and your business will flourish. Think about it - is that not worth just the little effort required? Stop Fixing Things Next time someone comes to you with a problem in your business, STOP, bef More..

Employee Success! - 7 Ways Feedback Works

By sharing how well you are doing and how well your expectations are met, yourpeople get to understand better. So, frequent, realistic, objective feedback isnot seen as criticism, more a way of each in your team helping each other getbetter, building on the success you already have. So, why does Feedback work? It's Honest Being open and honest with each other builds your team- everyone sharing themselves takes some time, but when it happens, there issynergy which elevates performance. Offering More..

Be a Leader - The Importance of Going Home Early!

How you run your business is, of course your business. A little focus from yourend will dictate the way your people act and behave. So the onus is on you toshow the way. Why does this matter? If you create a style of working within your organisation which is able to get the very best from your people, you will have a vibrant business, your people will develop beyond their (and even your) expectations and above all, you will enjoy your work and success more than ever before. Try these eleven qu More..

5 Creative Evolutionary Leadership Niche Strategies!

I have a short story to share with you about an important skill many leaders need to develop, use and perfect. Life is a journey. The signposts along the path pointing out the way are many and are sometimes hard to understand. We hear news stories telling us it is the dawning of a knowledge-based society. As a leader, you may wonder about the amount of knowledge that is reported to be so plentiful. You recognize the many difficulties challenging you, weakening your leadership power and reduci More..

The 5 Things Great Managers Sense about their People, Every Day

Using all of your senses, to help you test how your people are feeling in your business, is a learned skill. Once you start to use it, your abilities to notice become refined and you have a background sensor working for you, day after day. As a precursor to having the quick route into how your people are feeling each day, it is a big help if you have open and honest relationships with them to start with. This comes from keeping in regular conversation with them, being true to your word and under More..

Turn Your Speech Into A Leadership Talk

My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers. On a daily basis, these leaders are getting the wrong results or the right results in the wrong ways. Interestingly, they themselves are choosing to fail. They're actively sabotaging their own careers. Leaders commit this sabotage for a simple reason: They make the fatal mistake of choosing to communicate with presentations and speeches -- not leader More..

Einstein, The Universe, And Leadership

Every since serving a hitch in the military, I have been nagged by the question that's been hanging around leadership since time immemorial: How can some leaders persuade people to believe in them and follow them and other leaders can't? But it wasn't the military that provided me with a framework to answer that question. It was Albert Einstein and his quest for the unified field theory of the universe. Einstein is well known for his special and general theories of relativity, two of the crowni More..

Ten Top Ways for Managers to Motivate Their People

So to help start the ball rolling, here are ten top ways to get your peoplemotivated. Ten small steps for you to start with. Recognise them Recognise your people as people, by saying 'GoodMorning', checking that they're OK and taking a little time with them. Challenge them People need stimulation at work, so to encouragegrowth, build on their achievement of one skill, with the introduction of another.Instruct, coach and then delegate the new task. Encourage fun Whilst it is a fine line betwe More..

Why Saying Well Done Works

Encouraged by the recognition, Sarah Lewsiton went home from work that day, full ofself-belief and wonder that she had made the leap at last. In her last job, she had always felt that she was unsuitable, in fact below par, for the place. On her very first day at this new job, it was different. On the very first day,her supervisor had recognised her in a way that no-one had done before. At 17,she had gone into the workplace ready to conquer the world. A positive girl,she had never understood th More..

Customer Focus - Just 5 SimpleThings You Need to Think About

You can boil down the difference between successful businesses and the rest in how they work with their customers, in just five areas. So, what does this mean? What They Want Selling what your customers really want is just critical. Being on good enough terms with your customers to research, (hey maybe just bychatting with them - radical idea, huh?), helps you find out how you can bestserve their needs. Price is Right By balancing the kind of pricing you want to offerwith exceptional service More..

Performance Management - By Assuming Nothing

Unhappy as Jenny undoubtedly was, she held on very tightly to her job. After all, she had worked her way up over the years to the supervisory role she was in - and she wasn't going to let go. Yet it was clear that she was unhappy, under pressure and unsure of what she could do to make things better. For her business and more so, for herself. For me, she was letting me down in a number of ways and my inability to resolve her performance had, for a while, been my Achilles heel in the view of my bo More..

Solve Problems Permanently - Ask WHY

As Albert Einstein said:- "The significant problems we face today, cannot be solved at the same level ofthinking we were at when we created them." Problems don't go away unless you get to the cause - the source of them.Repeatedly 'fixing' issues that arise takes a physical and mental toll on youand your team. The key is to solve problems once and for all and move on. Picture this scenario:- Luke runs a small engineering factory, making electronic tagging systems forretailers. His business has r More..

Agendas Make Meetings Productive

Having an agenda template that works well for you, week in, week out, creates a consistency which gets your people bought into the process. Delivering an efficiency and effectiveness which makes the most of the valuable time you have together. Key points to note are:- Circulate Share your agenda in good time, well before your meeting (with reading material for preview). This gives time for review, preparation and challenge. Roles In a meeting there are various roles to be taken on from the sta More..

Top Ten Tips for Outstanding Customer Service

Remember the 80:20 rule? You may not get everything perfectly right, but gettingmost right will be much, much better than the majority of your competition. TheseTop Ten Tips for Customer Service will get you well on the way. Be Your Customer Live the life of your customer and experience what they do. Stand in line, callyour call-centre, soak up feedback. Give Memorable Service Make the life's mission of everyone (yes, everyone!) to be customer focused -even those seemingly out of direct line o More..

Resolving Needs - What Your Employees Wish For!

For your people, they want to do a great job - no, really, despite your experiences,they do. And what might seem to 'the management' the important things,just don't stack in the day-to-day reality of the workplace. Here's why. Your people want to focus on looking after their customers, yet there aremany things, often just little things, that get in their way. Removing these littlethings they are having to tolerate, allows them to deliver the very best serviceto their customers. Yet they are re More..

Prioritise Your Day - Keep Focus - Win!

Whether you run your own business or manage a team, there are times when thingsdon't go to plan. Like:- Your key people don't show up. Adeadline shifts. Your boss turns up unexpectedly. You get really busybeyond expectations. ...and more. How do you get clear on the priorityof the day? Value it - that's how! So, if you run any sortof business, consider what the most important thing would be to your business,if you were down to the barest of bones in personnel numbers, for just oneday, w More..

Future Business Success - What Does Good Look Like?

When you know you need to shift up a gear, in any area of your business (or your life for that matter), it's really important to have a vivid representation of what you are seeking. Some call these "Goals", others "Visions" and yet more describe it as a "Mission". But there is one focused way to ensure that your path is perfectly directed to where you want to get to. By asking the question:- "What does good look like?" ...and applying that to where you are right now, you will easily see a pa More..

Management - Mary Poppins Style!

Mary Poppins describes a style of management which has for too long been hidden in manybusinesses and organisations. Think about it. She's "Practicallyperfect in every way" - is that not what we want from a boss? Someone who isalmost brilliant at everything - yet with a hint of not being absolutelyperfect? Someone we can trust and depend on - yet who is truly human with is and falls down occasionally too? And then there'sthe cut to the chase with, "Bert, what utter nonsense. Why do you always More..

When Politics Prevent Innovation - Or? Still Fighting Battles and Losing Wars

The objective is to beat the competition and make money. Everything a business organization does should be focused on that simple objective, with interpretation through various Vision and Mission Statements. However if we take a survey of how our organizations spend our energy, often that objective is lost in a web of internal politics and positioning. Of course competition is normally good - regardless of whether it is internal or external - to the point we do not lose focus on company objectiv More..

Budgets that Damage - The Downsides of Making the Numbers

In my organisational career, I had budgets from the age of 22 to 47. I lived and breathed them and many times, budgets, the gospel that they were, caused havoc, albeit within the corporate retailer framework that I worked. Here are two examples of the damage caused. Example One Typically budgets were initially discussed in January, just after the Christmas rush. They were always dependent on year-on-year sales growth and at the time in question, individual businesses were not expected to delive More..

5 Questions Great Managers Ask (and they arent hard!)

However hard we try, we seem to make life more difficult for ourselves; more challenging; more complex. Yet it needn't be so. try out these five questions with a regularity; a discipline and you will reap rewards. You will certainly reap rewards. What do my customers want? Getting inside the head of your customers is a recipe for success. Taking therole on of one of your customers or clients and seeing from their perspectivehelps structure a sound and growing business. Better still, ask them wh More..

3 Simple Things the Best Managers Do - And You Can Too!

If it's so simple, why don't managers all over the globe get this right, everytime? Well, because it's so simple, it seems too easy, so busy managers squeezea lot more in, time after time. And that makes things much more complex - justthe way a manager should be. NOT. Keep it simple, deliver quality andyou will not go far wrong. Here are the three things... They Value their People So what do the best managers do? They are very interested in what they heartheir people say and respond according More..

Time-Wasting Problems - One Question to Move You Forward

In any organisation, progress is frequently impaired by the time taken up toresolve problems that occur again and again - usually with people's performance(or not!). At a macro level, there could just seem to be 'lots of problems',which is a symptom in itself. On a micro level, managers are often frustratedby the amount of time they spend fire-fighting, whilst the more creative work ofplanning, developing people, marketing and more are left way behind. There justisn't time. Build onto that the More..

Best Practices Plan: Dissemination of a Great Idea

Good news spreads quickly News of the invention of the wheel must have traveled in every direction as quickly as horse or camel could run. Those who learned of its advantages over the litter and the sledge adopted it right away. And no sooner was it adopted than it began to be adapted: made lighter, stronger, faster. Wheels were soon attached to axles, then to axles with pivots. The idea catches on Then transportation lost its monopoly on the new technology, and wheels helped to make pottery, More..

Building Bridges of Communication

Building a 'bridge of understanding' between parties is fundamental if your business communication is to succeed. If you are a consultant to a client, or a salesperson attempting a closer relationship with your customer, here are five techniques that help achieve just that. 1. Eliciting clients' views and perspective on issues. The consultant or salesperson should not be the final arbiter of what the client or customer should think. It is invaluable, both as a dialogic tool and as a way of buil More..

The Seven Essentials of Business Communication

There are seven essential elements to successful business communication: Structure Clarity Consistency Medium Relevancy Primacy/Recency Psychological Rule of 7Ã‚Â±2 If you are going to communicate effectively in business it is essential that you have a solid grasp of these seven elements. So let's look at each in turn... 1. STRUCTURE How you structure your communication is fundamental to how easily it is absorbed and understood by your audience. Every good communication should have More..

Minimising Conflict With Effective Communication

Did you know there are 5 types of communication that lead to conflict? Let's look at them... Definition of 'Conflict' It helps if we first define what we mean by 'conflict' Conflict is an expressed struggle between at least two parties, both of whom perceive interference from the other towards achieving their goals A conflict can only exist when both parties are aware of a disagreement The importance of a team's values to communication There are negative team values that can actually sabotage More..

Assertive Communication - 6 Tips For Effective Use

What IS assertive communication? Assertive communication is the ability to express positive and negative ideas and feelings in an open, honest and direct way. It recognises our rights whilst still respecting the rights of others. It allows us to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions without judging or blaming other people. And it allows us to constructively confront and find a mutually satisfying solution where conflict exists. So why use assertive communication? All of us use assert More..

The Power in Praising People

One of the keys to success is to have successful relationships. We are not islands and we don't get to the top by ourselves. And one of the key ways to grow successful in our relationships is to be "life-giving" people to others. Every person we meet, we either give life to or take life from. You know what I mean. There are people who encourage you and when you are done being with them you feel built up. Then there are others who you feel torn down by. Successful people are people who have maste More..

Finding the Right Way to Motivate Your Employees

Fear, Incentives and Growth Zig Ziglar says that there are three main ways to motivate people in general and employees specifically. They are fear, incentives and growth. Let's take a look at each one. Fear. This is not good. Number one, it isn't right, and number two, it doesn't work well in the long run and isn't good for the overall health of the organization. Yet, still there are people who use it. They make blatant or veiled threats in order to get people to work. There is a better way. More..

Managing Workplace Conflicts

Kinds of Workplace Conflicts Let's start by identifying where conflicts happen. Think about the kinds of conflicts that happen around your workplace. ? Disagreements over turf (who should do what) ? Disagreements over policy (how things should be done) ? Conflicts of personality and style Common Ways of Dealing with Conflict These are some of the ways we typically deal with conflict. Do you see yourself in any of them? ? Avoid the conflict. ? Deny the conflict; wait until it goes away. More..

Increasing Employee Retention Through Employee Engagement

You've seen it happen many times. An organization that provides top wages and benefits loses a great employee to a competitor for no apparent reason. Of course, some employee turnover is to be expected, but if your company is truly engaging your employees, there is no good reason for the unexpected loss of quality staff members. Many companies already know that wages and benefits are important to employees, but compensation alone is not enough to keep the highly skilled, motivated and experience More..

Examining the Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

Researchers have undertaken numerous studies to look at the connection between customer and employee satisfaction. A majority of these studies were able to uncover a correlation between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability. In a recent study for an international computer firm, the data reinforced the crucial link between customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and profitability. Some of the key factors they found: Profit and growth are stimulated primarily by cu More..

3 Innovation Keys - Do Your Innovative Efforts Need More Power?

Recently, I attended a webinar with nearly 400 other ChiefLearning Officers - during one polling period, we wereasked what primary driving force pushes organization-wideor individual innovation - the majority agreed thatleadership is that force. Indeed, those CLOs agreed innovation was the most importantquality their organizations desire in teams, individualsand leaders. In today's fast-paced society, where images, ideas andideals fly past through our minds at warp-speed, the onlyway to surviv More..

Can You Sleep While The Wind Blows?

Let me repeat a story I heard many years ago that has stuck with me throughout my life. The lessons from this fable are many and have been applied to a variety of areas of my life. It recently popped into my mind again as I was thinking about the needs businesses have today for business continuity planning and disaster recovery contingencies. As I remember the fable, a farmer had been desperately looking, with no success, for a hired hand. Finally a young man showed up and said, "I hear you've More..

Three Professional Services Resolutions for 2005

With client expectations higher than ever before, and the gradual industry recovery ahead, consulting firms will need to focus more than ever on carefully identifying and serving the right clients. Based on a recent interview with Brad Smith, VP of Research at Kennedy Information Inc., industry growth data prove that this is a great time to "niche thyself" and capitalize on targeted industry opportunities. Consulting industry growth has been declining for three years, and more consolidation is More..

Five Strategies for Profitable Services Growth

In today's era of Professional and IT Services competition and consolidation, some small to medium-sized companies are proudly delivering 20%-50% annual growth. Unfortunately, the vast majority of firms have experienced two consecutive years of fee erosion, commoditization, client defection, and company identity crises. We set out to discover where the growth opportunities exist in today's economy, and to share our findings. The Study Our ten-month study uncovered the major gaps between the t More..

Why Management Kills Creativity

Ten or so years ago, an international consultant, specializing in employee involvement and team development, published a story relating to workplace communication that is heartwarming and damning at the same time. In 1981, Peter Grazer was working as the project engineer on a construction project to modernize a silicon manufacturing facility in St. Louis, Missouri. A crew of ironworkers had been assigned a particularly daunting task of erecting some structural steel in a difficult to reach area More..

A Winning Way to Handle New Ideas

Janet DiClaudio, who was charge of medical records at two large American hospitals, had an unusual problem. But, the past master in finding creative solutions to work related problems that she was, she found an equally unusual solution. Of course, proper record keeping is critically important in any hospital. Moreover, if it is run on a commercial basis, medical records will determine how and what the institution gets paid. On the other hand, filling out medical records is not the most excitin More..

10 Steps When You Need Help in Your Business

If you think ahead and plan, many nightmare panic and chaos situations can be overcome.By ensuring that you have a great group of people around you, there will be moreto fall back on when the going gets tough - because that, as they say, when thetough really do get going. Big challenges can be very difficult to face -and they can be fascinating and exhilarating. So here's some thoughts on how tomake the best of these times, by getting ready in advance and making it work. Plan Ahead Look out for More..

How to Get the Best from Outsourcing

There's a great little article ('Business Lifeforms') on the back pages of the UK's leading management magazine, Management Today each month. It's a spoof (at least I think it is!) about some fictitious key player in a fictitious organisation. For January, it's about Ken, who's a 'Facilities Manager'. Now Ken has seen it all and truly worked his way up from the bottom to the top. Until, that is, a couple of years ago when new MBA-armed suits took over and decide to slash Ken's department (until More..

What Makes a Crisis a Crisis?

If you're old enough and were living in America about 30 years ago, you may remember the scandal in the motion picture industry known as "the Begelman affair" or "Hollywoodgate." A skillful analysis of the crisis that rocked Columbia Pictures, a leading company in its field, is presented by Steven Fink in his book, "Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable." I am telling the tale over, but not for the sake of relating a "juicy" story (such pastimes being hardly something I care for). Ra More..

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