PMN at Hamara Healthy Living Centre

The Progressive Managers’ Network is coming to South Leeds, in partnership with the Hamara Healthy Living Centre.
Would you like to learn a management tool that is guaranteed to:

Save you time
Increase levels of trust in your team
Improve communication
Make you a noticeably better manager
Get more done – more quickly
Accelerate the professional development of your team, and
Reduce the [...]

The point of the excercise?

The point of the exercise is to do work you care about with people that matter.
Managers who can help employees find the ’space’ to do work that they care about with people that matter will soon find themselves recognised as an outstanding leader of a high performing team.

Do you know what your team members [...]

Problems With Partnerships

Fellow Leeds blogger Todd Hannula has shared some of his concerns about ‘partnership’ over at his Social Catalyst blog which prompted me to comment.  I think this matters because so often I see partnerships of competent, mature and capable organisations that  in ‘partnership’ become the corporate equivalent of  a three year old having a temper [...]

Urgency and Influence: The Role of the Manager in Uncertain Times

The news is full of ’sub-prime crises’ and ‘credit crunches’.  Whether we are on the edge of a real recession, or just talking ourselves into one, I am not sure – but either way it is sensible to prepare for rougher times ahead.

At these times good managers know how to develop a sense of urgency [...]

Understanding Your Organisation – Part 1

Most of the managers that I work with have an incredibly detailed knowledge of the organisations that they work in – or at least of the parts of it that they come into regular contact with. Far fewer have a good understanding of what their own organisation looks like from a more strategic or [...]

Certificating PMN

I have recently been asked by a couple of PMN members whether I can issue certification of attendance on PMN training programmes for them to include in the CPD records.
This is certainly something I could do. Let me know whether you think it is a good idea. Also what information would you want [...]

The single most costly and common error a manager can make?

The ‘fundamental attribution error’ is, in my experience, the single most common and expensive mistake a manager can make.
The fundamental attribution error is our tendency to over-emphasize ‘dispositional’, or ‘personality-based’, explanations for behaviours observed in others while, simultaneously under-emphasizing ’situational’ explanations. In other words, we tend to assume that someones actions depend on what [...]

Why NVQs are not enough

I have just started working with a national charity to improve performance management through an investment in management skills. The HR manager who I am working with said
“All of our managers have been through the NVQ level 3 in Management – but they are still unable or unwilling to recognise and manage under-performers”.
This shows [...]

David Maister on the Role of Management

The role of management is to:

Provide a clear purpose for the organization, so that the individual can decide whether that purpose is one they can believe in and contribute to;
Help the individual find his or her passion, providing alternatives, encouragement, support during rough times;
Provide clear and honest feedback;
Enforce common standards so that the individual is [...]

Thinking strategically; flies, bees, pike and shoulder blades

Most strategy training talks about the importance of developing a strategic plan and then aligning employees with the strategy.   This is an outmoded view of strategy.  I prefer to see strategy as a thinking and doing process – with the focus on achieving success tomorrow – rather than today.  Many managers struggle to find the [...]