Tips On How To Corner Time 
We either have money and no spare time, or in the times when we have no money - we have lots of time! So how do we get the money, but keep the time too?
The Power Of Incentives And Rewards
Goal congruence and commitment to the task at hand is hard to achieve day-in and day-out. How can managers motivate a team to constantly fire on all cylinders - even when energy starts to flag?
Managing Remote Employees
Remote working is undoubtedly the way of the future. But just because they're out of sight doesn't mean they should be out of mind. Don't leave them stranded.
Eight Ways To Make Teams Work
No one says team-building is easy. It takes work to get a team functioning well. Here are some specific strategies that will help individuals get the most out of teamwork and have everyone contributing to the success of the team.
Motivating Each Generation
We all know that it has never been harder to attract, recruit and retain staff, so it makes sense to focus on how we look after people who work for and with us. Motivating each generation will help you create a workplace that people won't want to leave!
Managing A Problem Team Member
We've all experienced problem team members. They just don't fit in with other staff. They constantly snipe at management and colleagues and they are painfully unproductive. What do you do? Manage the process and minimise fall-out.
5 Ways To Address Negativity In The Workplace
We all like to have a whinge from time to time - about our co-workers, unpopular changes, and how nobody ever cleans up the tea room. A certain amount of complaining is normal. But there are some who become stuck in their unhappiness, to the point where they are having a negative influence on others.
What Motivates People At Work?
Employees have higher expectations of how they want to be treated at work. They don't just want a job that is secure and paid well; they want a job that gives them high levels of job satisfaction - and if their present employer doesn't provide it, they will be tempted to search for one that will.
Rewarding Employees Without A Rewards Program
Employees are not usually asking for gifts and extra money. They're usually asking that their supervisor care about them and appreciate the work that they do.
The ABC Of Dealing With Bad Behaviour
Managers should not have to put up with behaviour in the workplace that is disruptive, creates friction, damages the culture and, ultimately, costs the business money by driving good people away.
Aligning Total Rewards For Organisational Success
For many organisations, total rewards are their single largest overall expense. In times of belt-tightening - such as now - aligning your total rewards with your overall strategy is especially critical, to ensure that the right decisions are being made about both cash and non-cash rewards and that you are getting the best possible return on your rewards spend.
How To Improve Your Business Results - Through Your People!
Research consistently shows that higher engagement in the workplace is predictive of improved business performance. So, how do CEOs lift the engagement of their staff to a higher level - throughout the whole of their organisation?
Managing A Millennial Sales Team
Seasoned sales managers are facing challenges managing new Millennials - also known as Gen Y, or people born after 1980. These new sales professionals have a different approach to life, which greatly impacts their ability to sell effectively. Here's how to get the most from them.
Get Meetings Out Of The Comfort Zone, Drone Zone And Panic Zone
Meetings definitely bring out the best and worst in people. So here are five ideas to use today to make your meetings challenging and productive, and get everyone excited and creative.
How To Motivate Your Employees To 'Want To'
Are you trying to get your workers to change? Then you need to be aware of a basic motivational, psychological truth. People only change when they WANT to. Here's how you can to increase your employees' 'want to' factor.
The Ultimate Guide To Setting-Up A Remote Workforce
The pros and cons of the growing 'remote' workers trend.
Creating Job Accountability
What is accountability? Simply put, accountability is having a person agree to: "I understand my role; I know what I am supposed to deliver; I know the reward I will get for doing it and I agree that my survival on the job depends on these parameters".
Removing The 'Threat' Of Performance Measurement
If the employee benefits from performance monitoring, the job wins and your company gains too. All three of these positives can be realised by any willing manager!
How To Give Constructive Criticism
Praising is an essential tool to reinforce good behaviour - but it is diminished in its effect without criticism. Employ these tactics to turn both praising and criticizing into great learning experiences.
Management By Wandering Around - Performance Plans
I am yet to find a more effective way to ensure people perform at optimum levels on a consistent basis than Management by Wandering Around (MBWA), originated by Tom Peters.
A Checklist For Introducing 360 Degree Feedback
For an organisation to evolve, the people working in it need to adapt. 360 degree feedback is playing an increasingly vital role in the change process.
Feedback - Your People Need It
Ideally you will have a performance management system that incorporates WHAT people need to do through a job description and HOW they are to do it through core competencies and behaviours. However, whether you have that in place or not, early setting of expectations and provision of feedback is essential.
Discover The 4 Talents Every Project Needs To Be Successful
There are four meta-talents that are essential for success. Organisations - and especially teams - need all 4 meta-talents to implement work projects and change initiatives.
To Compete Globally, Create Passionate People!
An investment in people will reduce costs, increase loyalty, increase performance, and ensure long-term, global, sustainable competitive advantage.
A Successful Recipe For Accountability
What if being accountable was empowering for you and your employees? Research indicates that rather than a negative force, holding people accountable for their actions and results has very positive effects on morale and performance.
Help Your Employees "Make" Time
Employers should be concerned about overworked employees. Why? Errors, accidents and low productivity for a start.
Staff Burnout
There's a similar pattern of actions and causes between burnt-out employees and the experience people go through when they suffer from a nervous breakdown.
Determining Your Pay DNA
Discover what drives them - then pay them!
Total Rewards: The Segmented Employee Value Proposition Comes of Age
A top-down approach for total rewards that segments the employee population and customises to them will give a better return on investment by pushing performance to the next level and potentially saving dollars at various steps in the process.
Ensuring Accurate Assessment In Performance Management
Exceeded expectations. Achieved expectations. Did not meet expectations. How many companies are aware that their current performance management system may be failing to correctly assess and reward employee performance?
Building Teams
You can't buy a great team. You can invest in talented people and the best equipment, but an effective team can only be created through the courage and discipline of the team members.
Turning People "On"!
If you have responsibility for getting results through people, while keeping your costs under control, you'll already have discovered that the challenge of motivation and retention in your organisation is a bit like trying to keep frogs together in a wheelbarrow!
How to Motivate Your Team To Achieve Next-Level Performance
You must address mediocrity issues ASAP so that they don't snowball into a major problem.
Motivating Your Team
For a person to become motivated, they must work in an environment that fosters motivation. Paying close attention to the following factors will create that environment.
Six Trigger Points Reveal The Root Cause Of Difficult Employees
How to manage difficult staff and promote positive behaviour at work.
The Third Key To A Remarkable Workplace - Passion
You can achieve extraordinary results if you are passionate about your work. What's more, if you and your employees are passionate, then your business success will soar! Here's how you do it.
Giving More Meaning To Employees Doing Mundane Work
So your staff members complain their work is dull and boring. It is possible to stamp out boring and mundane workplaces, regardless of the nature of the work.
Workplace Incentive Schemes
The carrot and stick may have worked for donkeys, but in today's workplace, incentive schemes need to be more innovative.
Here's A Formula For Failure!
If you don't want to fail, pay careful attention to this formula. If you do want a good lesson, have a gutsy go at failure now and again!
Do Your Staff Suffer From ADE?
By now you would have heard of the childhood condition ADD or "Attention Deficit Disorder". This should cause some concern for managers as they struggle to deal with the needs of staff with short attention spans. I believe there is another condition, however, that is of even more interest if you manage people - ADE. It stands for the Actively DisEngaged employee, a new phenomenon we are seeing in workplaces all around the country.
Tips For Successful Performance Reviews
The following 10 tips are designed to help you prepare for your next performance review process.
Tips To Avoid Wasting Valuable Talent
Many organisations fail to get the most out of their employees because of senior management indifference, line management lack of effort and silo mentalities. Talent management is not an 'HR problem'; it is a senior management problem.
Motivation Or Manipulation?
What is the line between motivating sales staff and manipulating sales staff? How do you make sure you don't go over the line and place people under extreme pressure to achieve?
Equitable Equity
Rewarding key staff with shares is a good idea, but it can go horribly wrong.
Boost Productivity And Profits By Reducing Your Staff's Financial Stress
Are the profits of your booming business being constrained by a tight labour market? If so, improving the productivity of your existing team may provide more effective relief than hiring a new employee. After all, your existing team already know how to generate profits for you. But did you know that approximately 15 percent of your team is underperforming because they are stressed about money? Remove their stress by helping them learn better personal financial management and both you and they will profit.
Paying Incentives - Do You Need To?
If an incentive plan is designed correctly and implemented properly it can reinforce the key objectives of the business, support the culture you want and have a significant affect on the performance and profitability.
Overcoming Apathy In The Workplace
Are some of your staff adding to their annual leave while at their desk? If they're bored, chances are that they're spending a lot of time doing non-work related activity.
Employees Not In The Workplace
For a growing number of businesses, the work place is no longer a single company office.
Improving Productivity
How to eliminate workplace conflict and instantly improve productivity.
The Problem With Time Management
In the same way that you coordinate the schedule in your PDA and your laptop with the one in your desktop computer, you need to continually coordinate with your bosses to ensure that you are clear, on track, and working from the same plan.
The Instant Turnaround
Do you have a company, department, team or sales force where the employees routinely underachieve, fail to take initiative, refuse to work together as a team, or intentionally sabotage the success of your organisation? Would you like to turn your situation around immediately - as in overnight?
The 10 Commandments Of Performance Improvement
Performance management and the improvement of employee performance are hinged on all levels of management accessing and implementing processes, which effectively assist staff and, in turn, the company, achieve specific and measurable outcomes.
It’s Time To Bury The Walking Dead
You can receive varying levels of service. The service at one company I dealt with recently was exemplary, whilst the other could best be described as zombie like. A large percentage had ‘died' many years ago, the problem was no one told them to go home and ‘get buried!'. Zombie like service exists everywhere, maybe even in your organisation. Take charge, grab your shovel and bury them now!
'Un-learn' To Create A Remarkable Workplace
The primary focus of many businesses is shareholder wealth. The drivers of this (I don't believe they deserve to be called leaders) fail to understand, or perhaps choose to ignore the fact, that shareholder wealth is one of many possible outcomes of good business practice - not a reason for being in business.
Discovering What They Think
Most managers would like to know what their people ‘really' think. They would particularly like to have some hard data on where the company stands on each of the critical "4Cs" of employee satisfaction: Commitment, Culture, Communications and Compensation.
How Anyone Can Develop Effective Work Teams
The development of teams and teamwork has, until recently, been a Human Resources issue and categorised as "nice to have" rather than "must have". Programs designed to promote teams and teamwork were run in parallel with the "real" business of making a profit. Not the case in the current environment though.
Four Positive Employee Behaviours That Will Lead You To Guaranteed Success
If you're a manager, you can't afford to have negative, non-performing employees on your payroll.
Maximise The 4 Talent Types For Team Results - Part 1
Every individual on your team has unique talents. One person likes to launch new projects while another prefers tying up loose ends. Talent differences are useful - but sometimes they can lead to trouble. Our best talents also have a flip side. We can use our talents to a fault.
Maximise The 4 Talent Types For Team Results - Part 2
In the article Maximise The 4 Talent Types For Team Results - Part 1 we examined the talent types Diamond and Club. This article continues with Spade and Heart talents.
Maximise The 4 Talent Types For Team Results - Part 3
In the article Maximise The 4 Talent Types For Team Results - Part 1 we examined the talent types Diamond and Club. The article Maximise The 4 Talent Types For Team Results - Part 2 continued with Spade and Heart talents. This article outlines action ideas to integrate the four talent types.
Employee Surveys
Employee surveys, when used properly, are a powerful tool in building a workforce that exhibit engaged and motivated characteristics.
Teaming With Success
We're surrounded by examples of great, and not-so-great, teamwork. You too are a part of a variety of teams. How well you work together determines how successful you are. Are you teaming with success?
Clarifying Job Expectations
How can they meet your expectations, if they don't know what they are?
Managing Top Young Talent
Successful companies know that the young talent of today determines their direction tomorrow. Your company must be skilled at finding talented young managers, then nurturing them into the executives of the future.
Innovative Tactics For Onboarding Top Talent
Over the years, organisations have adopted some tried-and-true approaches for onboarding senior level executives. In addition to these approaches, there are other, more innovative - even surprising - tactics that can drive even greater results for both the individual and organisation.
Employee Engagement: What's The Hype All About?
Employee engagement has been a hot topic of conversation for at least the last several years. What is it and why does it matter?
Employee Survey Advantage
Ever heard an employee say, "I don't know why they survey us; they don't do anything with the results..."? This article outlines the "Rule of Twos" that can help keep companies on target by revealing easy to remember rules on how to take appropriate action after a survey.
Workplace Discipline
Addressing disciplinary issues is a reality for most managers. No matter what the detail of the situation, introducing discipline can be a very sensitive and stressful process that many managers deal with in only a cursory manner or avoid altogether.
Straighten Up And Fly Right
There's nothing more frustrating than a star staff member whose performance suddenly deteriorates. Restoring them to their previous stellar productivity may not be as hard as it seems.
Motivating Staff Through Business Success
There cannot be a CEO or a Divisional Manager anywhere who doesn't believe that the performance of their organisation would reach new levels if only their employees displayed a greater sense of teamwork and motivation.
Empower Your People For Results
Empowering people is closely aligned with facilitative leadership. And while ‘facilitative leadership' is a term that has many different meanings for different people, essentially it is all about letting your people reach their potential.
How To Compensate Your Sales Team
Although this article will not spell out what and how you should be paying your salespeople, it will guide you through the issues and factors that you need to consider in making successful compensation decisions, whether large or small.
Are Your Staff Committed, Compliant Or Disaffected?
Like it or not, we live in a world where staff loyalty must be earned. Facing the difficulties and opportunities peculiar to the post-modern marketplace, businesses need their best team-members to contribute their heart and mind to the job and not just their body.
Five Factors That Disconnect Your Team
Allow Your Team To Purge
When gripes simmer away for long enough, they may cause a team member to start looking for greener grass elsewhere. Soon the team leader has to train new "sheep" - this one also looking for grass that's greener than their last workplace.
High Staff Turnover–? You’re To Blame!
Here’s a scary thought: most employees don’t leave jobs – they leave managers.
Scoring Human Communication
When an organisation brings any new initiative into the environment, it seeks to find ways to validate the effectiveness and the return on investment - and rightly so.
Organise Your Time With The Building Blocks Of Productivity
Why spend extra hours in the evenings on work that you could have fit into the day with the right construction of your schedule?
The Revolution At Work
Welcome to a workplace with multiple generations!
Talent Management – What Is It Really?
There seems to be a constant flow of new buzz words popping up and a recent one is “talent management” – logically following on from “the war for talent”. Depending on where you look, you will find various definitions of it. We won’t try another definition here but let’s assume it is about finding talented people, having them perform well and keeping them in the organisation.
Why High Performing Teams Don’t Perform
Ever wondered why “High Performing Team” training often does not produce “High Performing Teams”?
What Do You Want To Achieve With A Bonus?
Be clear on your objectives before you start.
Improving The Odds...
When you toss a coin, the chances of it coming up 'heads' are fifty-fifty, yet tests show that people call 'heads' almost 80 percent of the time.
Teamwork: The Heart Of Exceptional Performance
I’ve spent the last eight years exploring why teams succeed and fail in Formula 1 motor racing. So what is the secret of success? In one word, teamwork.
How To Motivate Unmotivated People
All it takes is an understanding of the appropriate steps to take and a willingness to do them. This article contains the steps. The willingness is up to you.
Staff Performance Appraisals
Aligning the company objectives with employees' performance.
How Do You Make Your Staff Feel?
Management by wandering around.
Motivate Like A Master... Without Spending A Cent!
No matter what industry you're in, motivated and engaged employees are critical to success. Here's how to motivate like a master - without spending a cent!
Putting A Lid On Absenteeism
Absenteeism is an age-old problem, it's exceedingly costly and it's not going away. It can often be caused by stress from bosses who are too authoritarian, but there are countless other causes as well. And the solution is almost never simple.
The Secrets Of Performance Management
How to get people to do what they are supposed to.
The Health Of Australia’s Workforce
Although we’ve historically been, and arguably still are, the “lucky country” it could easily be argued that we’re not the “healthy country”.
Stop Making Decisions!
Hundreds of decisions are made in the workplace every single day. If just a fraction of these are pushed down by managers to employees, engagement levels will skyrocket.
Motivating Your Sales Team
Money is not necessarily the only, or best, way to motivate your sales force.
Creating A High Performance Culture Using Creativity
'Creativity in business' is definitely a broad term, and many organisations think they are unique. However if we take a closer look at the processes, people and systems, you'll find many organisations are quite similar.
Make Your Workplace Rock
Somewhere between anxiety and boredom lies enjoyment. It's finding that point for your staff that's the challenge.
Keys To Becoming More Efficient
Dealing with information overload, and how to assess and store information, is a problem that confronts just about everyone in management.
Incentives And Rewards For Sales Support Staff
Support people frequently see - and hear about - the large gifts or rewards given to the sales people in their business. And these gifts or rewards - such as the annual sales dinner, the ‘conferences’ away and, of course, the money - seem even larger when compared with their own salary.
Performance Management Implementation Checklist
An effective performance management program can make a significant contribution to a business. It brings together a number of fundamental people management systems and processes such as job design, measures, development and rewards and ensures they are linked to overall corporate goals.
10 Ways To Make Your Employees More Productive
It's a simple equation. Improving staff productivity is likely to boost the profitability of your business. So, what straight-forward steps can you take to get more out of your people?
Getting Value From Performance Reviews
The best performance reviews encourage managers and employees to communicate, share ideas, opinions, and information.
Measuring What Really Matters
Companies with the greatest commitment to investing in people reap the highest financial return, yet Australia ranked below average in a recent global study on human capital management.
Little Things That Make A Big Difference
Little things make a big difference when you are a manager. Your attitude to the little things can make or break your relationship with employees. Get your people on side and they will do anything for you ... get them offside and they will do anything to make your life difficult.
Workplace Generational Differences - Fact Or Myth?
Much has been written about the 'workplace generation gap', and how misunderstanding the diverse needs and attitudes of staff of differing ages can cause workplace conflict and confusion.
How You Can Immediately Improve Staff Performance
Often as managers we are pressured from above to lift the performance of our staff. Increase productivity, improve quality, achieve better response times or less errors! Below are a few tips that will help you get just that little bit more out of your people - it’s really not that hard.
The Evolution Of Diversity: Beyond The Business Case
Companies are beginning to realise that they not only exist within a broader community, but that any sustainable organisation is a community.
Cause & Effect: People Practices And Financial Results
Companies are constantly searching for the "missing link" of human capital management: the cause and effect between people practices and financial results. Our work shows that the alignment really hinges on the ability of the organisation to address key questions: Do we know where to invest our human capital efforts to support our business strategy and market orientation? Are our human capital practices integrated and aligned with one another?
Feedback: Truths And Myths Of 360s
"Understand thyself, improve thyself and then improve the bottom line" is a pervasive notion in today's business world. At the root of this idea is self-awareness; in the business world this means knowing your strengths and weaknesses so you can play up the former and work on the latter.
Learning The Skill Of Managing Effectively
There is a world of difference between being busy and being productive, and managers need to understand what makes them - and their staff - productive workers.
Unleashing People Power - Winning The Talent War
It fascinates me that many company owners, directors and senior executives claim their “people are their biggest asset” yet their behaviour bears no reflection of that statement. So why do they even bother to make the statement in the first place?
Share-based Incentive Schemes: Optimising The Benefits
Companies preparing for an Initial Public Offer (IPO) often take the opportunity to incentivise directors and employees through the issue of shares (or options to acquire shares), either as a once-off event or, more often, as part of an ongoing incentive programme. Not infrequently, the design and implementation of such a plan are amongst the last matters to be addressed.
Business Success: It's The People, Stupid!
How to grow your business and keep your staff happy.
Getting The Most Out Of Your People
People can make or break your business. The people you employ and the way you manage them can make the difference between business success and business failure.
What’s With Their Attitude?
Understanding the generations and their attitude to work.
Employee Share Plans
The objectives of employee share plans include growing value of the company and providing a mechanism to enable employees to share the increased value at some time in the future; and this is tied in with the need and the mechanism for retaining the best staff for the longest term possible.
Using KPIs To Keep Performance Improving
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used by organisations both to measure individual employee performance and to measure overall organisation performance. This article covers their use for individual employees.
Motivating Employees
Retaining and finding good staff is becoming harder and harder. Positively influencing staff is one way to develop an environment and culture where people want to do well and want to stay.
Learning, Trust And Making Mistakes
If you really, truly want your staff to be creative, motivated and happy - tell them you want them to make mistakes. Tell them you'll punish them if they don't.
Motivation
Mission statements have had a bad press in recent years. They should be exciting, visionary and meaningful. They should motivate your staff.
Performance Management On A Shaky Foundation?
Renovate, restore, remodel – or tear it down?
Considering Linking Performance Reviews To Competencies?... Think Twice.
Thanks in large part to the various corporate scandals now in the public eye, many organizations have begun to focus on HOW work gets done, not just on bottom line results. When we talk about the HOW, we are talking about competencies. This means that competency models are now receiving greater attention than ever before.
Harnessing The Power Of An Engaged Workforce
Keeping employees engaged and aligned with the needs of the organization is the responsibility of executives at all levels. And for good reason: New research shows that the more engaged the workforce, the more innovative, productive and profitable the company.
Rewarding Employees – Tax Effective Employee Incentives
For many small businesses, rewarding employees for a job well done can be somewhat daunting due to the FBT cost and tax complexities involved with providing any tokens of appreciation.
Stretch To Your Goals With A Flexible Strategy
Flexibility has become a key objective on the strategic agenda of many organisations. It is often seen as a panacea for companies experiencing complex and turbulent environments. This has resulted in the implementation of solutions which seek to increase the flexibility of people, processes and systems in organisations. Unfortunately, in many cases the implementation of flexibility has, contrarily, resulted in more inflexible operations.
How To Manage Underperforming Employees
Managers need to understand how to handle poorly performing employees whose lack of motivation can impact on business profitability.
Show Me The Recognition - Why It Isn’t Always About The Money
Contrary to the now infamous line from the movie “Jerry Maguire”, when the athlete shouts “show me the money” at his agent, cash is not always king. While compensation is one form of recognition, companies can significantly improve their employee engagement and commitment using other techniques.
Ready For HR Process Engineering? Here’s How To Start
Many organizations, in order to affect better management, embark on business process improvement projects. These endeavors can be time-consuming and, if not properly conducted, can disrupt workflow in the very groups that they are intended to improve.
The Future Of Performance Measurement
Today the problem is not that the wrong things are being measured, but that too much is being measured. Executives appear to be obsessed with quantification.
Emotional Intelligence - Using It To Build An Effective Team
You have an important project to deliver and have built what you consider to be an excellent team. The members of the team are all experts in their field. You are confident that the project will be delivered on time and within budget, yet work begins to fall behind schedule. You find yourself needing to approve unbudgeted costs and before you know it you have failed to achieve the goals of the project.
Building Teamwork Within Your Business
Effective teamwork within a business can improve your relations with customers, generate higher quality results, and foster a sense of achievement.
Doing More Than The Numbers - How You Do Them Is Important
We recently heard someone authoritatively state that performance reviews were unnecessary if suitable numbers were in place. They were referring to a sales process that was, in itself, very logical, measurable, and had been proven to be effective. But what of the people who interact with those in the sales function who help make it effective?
The Most Powerful Resource - The Human Resource
It is true that many organisations fail to maximise the resource that is their most powerful and usually their most expensive – the human resource. So how can organisations utilise this powerful resource? All the evidence suggests that organisations who empower their people with the abilities to achieve goals, continually redefine parameters and accomplish the vision, are the organisations that will survive, indeed thrive.
The 3 Most Common Executive Complaints
The three most common complaints I hear from executives and senior managers are - (1) Personnel are not committed to corporate goals; (2) Personnel don’t adhere to the vision statement; and (3) Personnel turnover is high, expensive and detrimental. *
Why Teamwork Does Not Work
The title of this article will be a little confronting to most people. After all, isn’t ‘teamwork’ the catch cry of today? Indeed the corporate saviour? The only way forward? The method by which we will conquer all? The problem is that most people misunderstand teamwork and most importantly don’t know how to implement and facilitate the correct use of teamwork. People working cohesively and effectively as a team can achieve outstanding results however most teams achieve only a small percentage of what is possible.
Empowerment
What is empowerment and how does it work? It is not ‘participative management’ as many people and organisations believe. It is much more than just that. When empowerment is functioning, employees believe that they need the organisation as much as the organisation needs them. In empowered organisations people do not need to be told what to do, they know what to do. Management must recognise the potential of people. Only with empowerment is it possible to fully utilise the capabilities and potential of employees.
Leaders Circle Of Influence
A national survey of employees found that 85 percent of those interviewed said they could work harder in their job. More than half claimed they could double their effectiveness “if they wanted to”. Why is it that some people consistently do a great job while others are inconsistent or are consistently poor performers?
Why Parties Are Good For Business
Remember the KC and the Sunshine Band? Ok maybe you don't? Or was it Kool and the Gang? Either way, remember the song ‘Celebrate... good times, come on...'? Simple words. Great intentions. And great intentions that smart managers apply to their high performing teams.
Internal Customers Must Be Raving Fans Too
Recently I had lunch in a Melbourne restaurant that in my mind was famous. The décor was still sensational and the food extraordinary. I will be doing some investigation before I go back however. You see in my eyes staff relationships are not what thy used to be, and as a consequence what was once exceptional service, is now ordinary, meaning for me the whole experience I pay top dollar for, is now not worth it. Are you and the people you work with, to use the words of Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, “raving fans” of your products and services? More to the point, are you raving fans of the service you provide each other?
Non Financial Measures - Making Them Meaningful
“What gets measured gets done” said Tom Peters and it makes sense. Measures such as dollars, dates and percentages are relatively easy but when it comes to results that don’t lend themselves to these measures, it becomes a little more difficult.
Getting The Most Out Of Your Staff
Think of the last time you gave someone feedback. Was it detailed? Specific? Spontaneous? Unexpected? Positive? These are the types of feedback people need to improve in their work roles. In addition, it needs to be frequent - and preferably in conjunction with the behaviour.
Providing Direction - Stop Your People Guessing What You Want
Most people know what takes up their time at work - but they are not often sure it is what the boss wants or the business needs.
Building Teams And Fostering Teamwork
Members of a fully functional team can be neither dependent nor independent; they must be interdependent within the context of a team relationship.
You Can Teach An Old Employee New Tricks
Understanding how adults learn is critical if you are undertaking workplace training. It is not enough to concentrate on content or prepare fancy overheads, handouts, games and book lists.
Are People Your Most Important Asset? - Not Necessarily!
The challenge for existing businesses is this: to carry out effective planning and setting the direction, you need to involve key people.
How To Mould A Team Out Of A Group Of Individuals
The very best managers are those who can gather together a group of individuals and mould them into a team. There is a distinct difference between pulling together a group of individuals to work on a project and developing a cohesive team. Why?
Salary Packaging - Alive and Well
How to use packaging to reduce tax and make your take-home pay go further.
Succession Planning
Insurance for your business.
Bringing It All Together - Performance, Market and Job
Maintaining the system in a logical and transparent way is crucial as people expect to have their salaries reviewed at least annually and want this to be on a consistent and fair basis. An effective salary review process also enables the business to reap the benefits of having a comprehensive salary system.
Teamwork
Getting the very best out of your next work group. Team building involves group members setting clear goals and results to get tasks done and for work satisfaction. Team building looks at defining the job that needs to get done and the way for doing that job. It does not look at personal issues between people.
Who Gets Paid What?
Getting the internal relativities right.
It's All About Performance - Or Is It?
Donald was the best sales executive they had. He consistently met or beat targets but in the end they restructured and made him redundant. Why? No one really liked him. He upset his peers, staff and customers. He did not "fit". Sound familiar?
Is Pay Important?
Yes, if you get it wrong.
How To Manage The Employee With Attitude
Mary had "attitude". Her manner was rude and uncooperative and her colleagues complained, but she was efficient.
Having Trouble With Your Staff Staying Results-Focused?
Having a staff performance management system in place in your business assists in promoting the skills and motivation of employees and also keeps staff results-focused.
Human Capital Management For Small To Medium Enterprises - RIT-AIR ™
Unleash the potential of your people. The implementation of strategy, and the ability to achieve a company's objectives, is largely dependent on the people in the organisation. People are undoubtedly our greatest asset, but are often one of the poorest managed.
Who Comes First - The Customer Or Employee?
The commonly held view that the customer comes first is worth examining. Think about the last time you received less than satisfactory customer service. What caused it? Probably an employee! Either directly, bad manners and a "don't care" attitude, or by not addressing your needs – "sorry, I can't handle that order, you'll have to call another number".
People Are Your Greatest Asset: Fact Or Myth?
Is this the greatest modern myth - "people are our greatest asset" - or is it the greatest - but neglected - truth? It has been quoted so many times it has, almost, become a cliche.
Motivation
All managers, at some stage, wonder how they can motivate their staff. And if they are honest with themselves are left, at times, wondering how they are going to recapture their own enthusiasm for their work.
Time Management
Time is the one thing that is distributed equitably to everyone. We all have 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in each hour. Depending on choices we make regarding lifestyles etc, the way in which we spend our time can and does vary greatly.
Viagra or Niagara?
Do you or your people know what to do but sometimes lack enthusiasm or energy? Read this article to discover some simple, easy to use techniques to keep you and your team fully charged and eager for success.
Perform Or Else!
Lessons for business from sport.
Let's Meet, Let's Talk And Let's Listen To One Another
Have you been working so hard that you cannot see past the situation you are in and feel 'locked in' with few, if any, options and choices?
Organisation Effectiveness – The Role of Performance Based Reward Systems
This article addresses the role of reward systems in achieving organisation effectiveness.
Margerison and McCann - Team Management Index (TMI)
Charles Margerison and Dick McCann developed Team Management Systems (TMS) - an integrated system of feedback instruments designed to improve the way people work together in any organisation and, thereby assist in the development of high performance teams.
People Strategy - A Business Process Perspective
This article addresses contemporary organisational thinking on issues of people strategy. Where appropriate linkages are drawn with remuneration management.
What Do You Do When Staff Run Off The Rails?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if every member of our sales team was a high performer, everyone did their job just the way they were supposed to, and everyone got along brilliantly with everyone else?
Big Hitters Are Usually Optimists
One of my pleasures as a conference speaker is hanging out with the Big Hitters. The top performers who do most of the business in real estate, insurance, financial planning, retail selling, franchising etc. One thing sets these people apart...
8 Ways To Get The Best Out Of Your PA
A good PA can be tremendous asset to a Manager and I've had the pleasure of working with quite a few 'Top Gun' PA's over the years, who have taken care of all the details of my appearances at various Sales Conferences both domestically and internationally.
Performance Review Meetings
Many managers dislike the process of employee reviews. They see them as a necessary part of their role as a manager.
Why Develop Teams
A company with well motivated, well balanced teams is an effective company. In the modern world, an ineffective company will not exist in the long term. Rod Margee, London Stock Exchange
Performance Management - Does Sport Do It Better Than Business?
Yes it does!
Salary Systems
Still an important part of performance management.
Getting The Best From Your People
Within small and medium sized businesses there is sometimes a belief that some of the human resource management (HRM) techniques are only for the 'big companies'. In practice, it could be argued that getting the best from your people is more important the smaller you are – each person becomes a larger percentage of your workforce.
Seven Key Strategies To Raise The Passion Levels Of Your Employees
If your employees are passionate, then your business profits will soar!
How To Get What You Want From People Every Time!
As a manager, secretary, spouse or parent, you need to influence people to get through the day. You certainly need to be good at it if you want to build a successful business.