Tag: leadership

Are you derailing productivity?

iStock_LowProductivityGraph_350

It’s in your best interest as a manager to ensure that your team is productive, but despite your good intentions, there are plenty of ways managers unintentionally stifle the successful workplace environment you’re striving to foster. Here are a few common ways your efforts to be a supportive manager may actually hinder your team’s productivity potential.

1. You don’t scrutinize meeting agendas. Though ensuring you have a relationship with the people you report to is important (nearly 55% of respondents to a Society for Human Resource Man­­age­­ment (SHRM) Employee Job Sat­­is­­fac­­tion and Engagement survey said it was a key factor in the level of engagement they feel with their jobs), meetings aren’t the way to foster a connection among employees. To facilitate productivity, all meetings should have one defining purpose: to move further toward a defined and desired result.

Before a meeting, ask yourself:

(1) Is there an agenda?

(2) Does each item on the agenda have a defined and specific outcome that will lead to either continued momentum, and/or completion?

(3) Does each agenda item specify the amount of time and attention it will receive?

(4) Does each agenda item have an “owner” assigned?

(5) Are all the people who need to be involved in an agenda item available?

(6) Does everyone on the invite have a “place” on the agenda?

(7) Does the meeting end time coincide with the amount of time each agenda item will receive?

Lead by example, and encourage your staff to get in the habit of strategically scrutinizing every meeting for these criteria as well.  If every question above can’t be answered in the affirmative, consider alternative ways to communicate.

2. You force your way. Taking a “hands off” approach isn’t all there is to delegating; you must also be mindful about allowing employees to have a voice. “It isn’t about you, it is about the work,” says Dr. Jené Kapela, a leadership coach, consultant, and the founder of Jené Kapela Leadership Solutions. “Don’t be concerned that things get done your way —just that they get done well. Your staff members will do a better job if they can do things in a way that makes sense to them.” With that in mind, however, she says you’ll need to create opportunities for those discussions to take place—and keep an open mind about any approach.

3. You don’t confirm communication. Miscommunications usually aren’t revealed until a mistake occurs in the midst of a project, or until an employee hits a “roadblock” that causes him or her to seek clarification. By that time, countless hours of what could have been productive time are lost. To eliminate potential miscommunication, Mark Goulston, management consultant and author of six best-selling books including Just Listen suggests tweaking your language when you give direction. “Instead of asking ‘Do you have any questions?’ replace it with a phrase like ‘So that we are clear, please tell me what I have asked you to do, by when and why it’s important to what we are trying to achieve,’” says Goulston. Not only will repeating the information help the em­­ployee begin to process the task and reveal miscommunication before it’s problematic, you’ll gradually gain a better understanding of how to communicate effectively with the different personalities on your team.

4. You do more than one thing at a time. Though multitasking may seem like the only way to handle a demanding workload, it’s ineffective in terms of maximizing productivity. “Constant multitasking makes us more prone to mistakes, more likely to miss important information and cues, and less likely to retain information in working memory—which impairs problem solving and creativity,” says Maura Thomas, author of Personal Productivity Secrets. Further, she points out that it can lead to job unhappiness and undue stress among your staff. “In multitasking environments, employees work in reactive mode all day long; it prevents them from being proactive, and robs them of the opportunity to assess their overall workload and choose what to work on next.”

To encourage more single-task focus, remember that the team looks to you for the “right” behavior. Don’t take your smart­­phone into meetings, don’t check emails while you’re on conference calls, and establish a protocol for how “urgent” requests for information are to be handled. For example, you may instill a policy that when urgent needs arise, colleagues visit one another in person, versus sending urgent emails that make it impossible to temporarily disconnect from online distractions.

by  on 
in CENTERPIECE,LEADERS & MANAGERS,PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

” This information is proudly provided by Business Management Daily.com:http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/38721/are-you-derailing-productivity ”

 

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Growing your business

We are in the second month of the year and I know some small business owners maybe still undecided about which way to go with their business, so the following article will provide you with some good tips.

http://www.portalcfo.com/key-leadership-characteristics-the-things-you-need-to-do-to-help-your-business-grow/

I have always felt that if the company has strong leadership it helps. This dictates the culture of the organization.
customer service
Many times you go to do business with a company and you can tell what they stand for by the quality of service they provide and the environment.

In addition to having a passion for what you do you must be visionary – explore mobile marketing, most people do their searches on their smart phones and they take quick action so do not get left out.
mobile app sample

Check to see how many clients you got from your yellow pages ad or your newspaper ad, I am sure it does not justify the cost. If you want to increase your customer base and keep your existing customers mobile marketing is the way to go. Just send me an email for more information.

The other key area you need to look at is your processes – are these documented so that if one of your employees leave he/she does not walk out with your company’s knowledge and leave you hanging because no one else knows what to do. You need to have all your processes properly documented. Once you do this and any employee decide to leave you have procedures to show the new person how to do the work.
stress
So many small and medium size companies run into problems because they train and train but there is nothing documented to describe what to do. If you need help with this let me know.


How to deal with difficult people on the job

Dealing with difficult people on the job can drain the energy from any supervisor or manager.
Sometimes one wonders are these people just being difficult or is this the only behaviour they know.
On the other hand some people on the job purposefully make your job miserable.

I can think of so many examples, but here are just three:
– The person who always does the opposite after you sit, discuss and agree on a specific plan of action for a project,handling an account or handling a particular issue.
– The person who does not agree with their appraisal, says nothing when discussing the appraisal with them, and signs disagree with a lengthy addendum.
– The person who is disgruntled with something and refuses to see your point of view whenever you get into a discussion.

With so many goals to achieve and daily deadlines to meet how do you handle these people and keep your sanity at the end of the day?

I have learnt that:

– you must know yourself,
– have faith in yourself,
– know which battle to choose,
– be well knowledgeable about your functions and anything relating to it,
– always be factual,
– there is no harm in apologizing when you are wrong,
– always show your appreciation for work well done.

Below is an article I found with some other great tips:

http://www.aboutleaders.com//bid/153739/excelling-with-difficult-employees?source=Blog_Email_[Excelling%20with%20Diffi]”>

Enjoy and feel free to share your experiences.


Best way to Plan

God’s Purposes – taken from The Bible In One Year by Nicky Gumble

Back in 1981 Pippa and I felt that God was calling us to full-time ministry in the Church of England and for me to become an ordained minister.  We also felt that we should do our training in Durham starting in September 1982.  I was on the top of the waiting list for the theological college at Durham University.  I was told it was almost certain someone would drop out and I was virtually guaranteed to get a place.  Based on this I announced our plans widely, including telling the set of chambers, where I was practising as a barrister, that I was leaving.

Just before I was due to start we received news that, exceptionally, no one had dropped out that year and it would not be possible for us to go.  We tried everything to persuade them to change their minds.  We desperately tried to find another theological college that would accept us.  We prayed and pushed as hard as we could but to no avail.  The door was firmly shut.

The following year was extremely difficult.  I was given very little work by my chambers as they knew I was leaving and so had no incentive to build my career.  It was a huge disappointment and mystifying at the time.

In the end, we went to Oxford to study the following year and eventually started a curacy at HTB in 1986.  With hindsight, had we got the place at Durham, the timing would have meant that a curacy at HTB would have been out of the question and we would not be doing what we are doing today.  I am so thankful to God that he blocked our plans and that what we now believe were his purposes prevailed.

There are times when life is not easy.  It is difficult to work out what God is doing in terms of our work, family, temptation, finances, disappointments, bereavement or opposition.  How do we cope in these situations?

1.  God’s purposes and our plans

Proverbs 16:8-17

It is right to plan.  However, we need to do it with the necessary humility, recognising that our plans will only succeed ‘if it is the Lord’s will’ (see James 4:13–15).  The writer of Proverbs says, ‘In your heart you may plan your course, but the Lord determines your steps’ (Proverbs 16:9).

His purposes are ‘good, pleasing and perfect’ (Romans 12:2).  Sometimes we align our plans with God’s purposes, but from time to time – certainly in my experience – God thankfully overrules our plans.  We should always bear in mind that we may have got it wrong and ultimately it is the Lord who determines our steps.

God often works out his purposes through good leadership.  Good leaders motivate others (Proverbs 16:10).  They do not base their decisions simply on what is popular: ‘Sound leadership has a moral foundation’ (v.12b, MSG).  They cultivate an environment of candour: ‘Good leaders cultivate honest speech; they love advisers who tell them the truth’ (v.13, MSG).  They ‘invigorate lives; they’re like spring rain and sunshine’ (v.15, MSG).

Thank you, Lord, that although we make plans in our hearts ultimately it is your purpose that prevails.  In making our plans may we always say, at least in our hearts, ‘If it is the Lord’s will’.

 

 


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