The music is not my cup of tea – but the sentiment is! Sorry I can’t embed the video here – you’ll have to pop over to you tube to see it.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
The music is not my cup of tea – but the sentiment is! Sorry I can’t embed the video here – you’ll have to pop over to you tube to see it.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
How best to respond in uncertain times?
Images in the media of managers clearing their desks and heading for home with their possessions in cardboard boxes makes us all think about our own job security. So what should you do to maximise your chances of thriving through the credit crunch.
It is an unfortunate truth that tough times are sometimes when people are at their most responsive to the performance improvement message – and you will get recognition for making tough decisions. Get rid of the dead wood and watch the remaining talent flourish.
Filed under: change, communication, delegation, feedback, leadership, management, performance improvement, performance management | Leave a comment »
I am a massive fan of both giving and getting great feedback. And yet I know that many managers avoid giving feedback – or even worse give it in ways that are so subtle as to be pointless.
What Every Manager Should Know About Feedback is a superb article that reflects much of what I teach on my Giving and Getting Great Feedback workshop.
I recommend both the article and workshop highly.
Filed under: communication, feedback, leadership, management, performance improvement, performance management | Leave a comment »
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has spent much of his life researching ‘flow’ – that state of being when you become fully immersed in a task and time flies by. This flow state can only occur when the level of challenge is carefully matched to your level of skills and confidence. Flow is most likely to occur when you are faced by a demanding but achieveable task. Flow matters for managers because it a state that is associated with optimal performance. It is also closely associated with learning and self improvement.
It strikes me that delegation used in conjunction with feedback (another pre-requisite for the flow state) and coaching provides managers with the perfect tools to ensure that team members get a balance of skill and challenge that will enable them to enter the optimum state of flow at work.
Employees who are operating outside of the flow channel – either bored or overly anxious are likely to be performing well below their potential.
The thing about the flow channel is that you cannot remain stationery. Unless you are confronted with new challenges it is likely that boredom will become an issue and performance will dip.
Filed under: change, coaching, delegation, feedback, leadership, management, Motivation, performance improvement, performance management, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »
“Our traditional organizations are designed to provide for the first three levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; food, shelter and belonging. Since these are now widely available to members of industrial society, our organizations do not provide significantly unique opportunities to command the loyalty and commitment of our people. The ferment in management will continue until organizations begin to address the higher order needs: self-respect and self-actualization.”
Bill O’Brien – CEO Hanover Insurance
What significantly unique opportunities do you offer to your employees?
Filed under: change, creativity, leadership, management, Motivation, passion | Leave a comment »
This piece of research caught my attention recently;
“While 84 percent of organizations know that workforce effectiveness is important to achieving business results, only 42 percent of those surveyed say managers devote sufficient time to people management.”
What stops managers from spending time on developing workforce effectiveness?
Why do so many managers ‘duck’ managing people.
For me the managers job is not about ‘managing people’. It is about providing them with a relationship to the organisation that allows them to develop their potential and to do great work.
In my experience managers that work systematically on building this relationship and then use:
to develop each persons contribution to performance very soon become outstanding managers recognised as leading high performing teams.
However it does take time – perhaps 60-90 minutes per week for each person managed to do the most effective job. But the returns on that investment can be enormous – I would estimate productivity gains per person to be in the region of 25-40% within 6 months.
Filed under: 121s, coaching, feedback, leadership, management, one to ones, performance improvement, performance management | 2 Comments »