Management Articles & News
How Much Is Poor Time Management Costing You?
* If you were paying you to prioritise emails over coaching your team, would you feel you were getting a good return on your investment? * If you were paying you to waste time on trivia rather than planning your next quarters sales plan – would you think you were getting good value for money? * If you were paying you to sit in numerous unproductive meetings would you feel that was a worthwhile contribution?
Have You Got A Minute?
Such an innocuous little phrase, yet when you are hard at work, really focused and engrossed in what you are doing this seemingly harmless request can be a nightmare distraction.
I'm Too Busy - Oh Really!
If I had a dollar or even better a pound for every time I’d heard a business leader say this I’d be very rich.
The Hidden Competition: Avoiding the 2 Most Common Competitors
There are really only two types of competitor: 1. Obvious 2. Hidden The obvious competitors are, well, obvious! You'll probably know who they are. You might even meet up for a drink with them and bump into them at networking events. You'll have analysed their offerings and differentiated yours. You know these guys. In fact if you're a Lean MarketerTM you probably know them better than they know themselves! But what of these "hidden" competitors? Well, ...
Sacking Clients: Brand Power Wheel
Remember in the last message we talked about your directional pipeline and how sometimes you'll be approached by prospects who just don't fit with what you want to achieve? We looked at the different types of prospect - Desperate, Curious, and Inspired.
The Makings Of A Personal Essay, Really
Sometimes I can be dense when it comes to realizing the potential of my own life experiences as essays for magazines. I, of course, fully believe that everything in my life is newsworthy, but sometimes have trouble figuring out which experiences will hit home with other people.
Earn More By Learning More
Keep an Open Mind We live in a diverse and fast pace world. Businesses hire from all walks of life to create an eccentric and hopefully a better business. There is nothing wrong with this idea, but the real problem happens when two people just focus on their differences. Not everyone is just like you, and it is almost pointless to try to find and hire these people. You don’t want clones of yourself for how will you ever gain new ideas or perspectives? Different ideas can help you, but you ...
Can A Business Still Be Profitable When People Skills Are Absent?
In our current world of rapid and amazing technological advances, many entrepreneurs have managed to dramatically limit the need for staff in highly profitable operations of all kinds.
The Collapse Of Enron
The collapse of Enron: managerial aspect Executive summary The downfall of Enron Corporation is one of the most infamous and shocking events in financial world in the whole history of the mankind, and its reverberations were felt on global scale. Prior to its collapse in 2001, Enron was one of the US leading companies and frequently considered among top 10 admired corporations and most desired places to work, and its board was often recognized among the best five US companies in accordance ...
How Can A Communications Audit Help You?
Organizations communicate in two directions: internally to staff and externally to clients, customers, shareholders, stakeholders, the media. Faulty internal communications can lead to mistakes, discouraged and unhappy staff, employees leaving the company. Poor external communications can jeopardize image and sales. It really is that simple. Any overall management strategy needs a communications plan or the whole operation might fail.
Be a Change Agent ( Part 1)
Aligning business organizations to be successful in the present and keep on doing this in the future means to develop a new style of Leadership. To celebrate success in our days a leader most is able to craft a strategic vision, define objectives, design, implement and monitor the execution of a strategy and be a change leader in those same organizations.
Stop Your Employee From Becoming Your Competitor
You know the routine. You've hired an eager individual willing to come onboard and learn the business. You've taught them, trained them, worked hand in hand and side by side for 2 solid years. Then all of a sudden your employee quits for no apparent reason.
Mental Toughness For Modern Life
Have you ever wondered how would survive in a hostage situation? Being captured and held as a hostage by terrorists? What would give you the will to survive and stay alive?
What Is Productivity? And, Why Does It Matter?
What is productivity? And, why does it matter? By: Robert F. Abbott When Phil hires a new helper for one of his construction projects, he first watches to see whether or not the newcomer has the right attitudes and habits to keep him as an employee. And, if the newcomer meets expectations,' Phil introduces him to his philosophy about work by telling him the woodcutters story. Two woodcutters who are working together for the first time, set off in the morning to cut down trees. One ...
People Or Objects? - - You Decide
"How you think determines how you act. How you act, in turn, determines how others react to you." - David J. Schwartz – The Magic of Thinking Big "…no matter what we’re doing on the outside, people respond primarily to how we’re feeling about them on the inside." - The Arbinger Institute – Leadership and Self-Deception -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Becoming a great leader requires people to behave in rather unnatural ways. Most people ...
Ten Ways To Improve Your Customer Service
1. Stay in contact with customers on a regular basis. Offer them a free e-zine subscription. Ask customers if they want to be updated by e-mail when you make changes to your Web site. After every sale, follow-up with the customer to see if they are satisfied with their purchase.
The Compassion Paradox
Effective leaders are comfortable with paradox. They can call on skills and work in ways that seem to be contradictory.
Hire The Person, Not The Resume
“… [get] the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats (and the wrong people off the bus) and then [figure] out where to drive it.” - Jim Collins – Good To Great
7 Essential Elements To Every Organizational Change
[This article is based on excerpts from the special report "Overcoming Resistance to Change" by Dr. Mike Beitler.]
Outsourced Learning: Are You Ready For Learning Bpo?
As the business world enters a period of hyper-competitiveness, every business process will be subjected to examination and possible restructuring. We have already seen outsourcing and offshoring used to an extent that nobody would have dreamed of a few years ago. McDonald’s is testing the offshoring of its drive-thru process to India. How about, “Do you want fries with that?” with a New Delhi accent?
Anxiety Disorder And Stress Can Be Cured
Anxiety or stress is state of uneasiness and apprehension. Life transitions, such as moving, job change, marriage, or the birth of a child, often account for much of the psychological pressure and consequently, anxiety.
Accepting Responsibility for Your Sales Success
That we live in a time of relentless and pervasive change is no longer news to anyone. There is one important implication of this situation that continues to be a challenge. That is that our employees need to continually change their behavior to adapt to the world around them.
Ten Steps to Take the Work out of Work – Replicate Yourself!
They say that management can be a lonely place. A manager has to lead from the front, make challenging demands of their people and if part of an organisation, pass on the dictats of the more senior and remote bosses up at the top.
Take The Guesswork Out Of Problem Solving
In today’s chaotic world and uncertain economic times too many good people are burdened by too many problems that seem insurmountable and too many businesses find it increasingly difficult to compete effectively. The old traditional methods of finding solutions to these problems don’t seem to work like they used to. In fact, the world seems more burdened today with more complex problems than at any time in history. What the world needs is a brand new, reliable approach that DOES work.
Follow Up: It Makes A Difference
A while back the headlight switch on our minivan quit working, so early one Saturday morning we took it to the neighborhood repair shop that has been mailing postcards to us the past three years. They said it would take 90 minutes to check things out.
The Three category Approach to Performance Management: Effort, Ability, or Environment
Performance Management is the act of managing personal or organizational performance. What can complicate this process are all the factors that can arise where a textbook process meets the situations and people that exist in your world. As an effective director, manager, or supervisor it is your job to ensure the success of the organization by achieving of all key performance indicators.
Turning a Negative Employee Into a Positive Asset
Several years ago, I took over the supervision of a section in a Public Agency. I was a newbie in management, enthusiastic, and excited about the opportunity that lay before me. I was informed by my manager that I had a problem employee on my team. He described her as unpleasant, resistant, not a team player and told me that I would have my hands full managing her. He stated that she had been forced upon him by another department and now we had to deal with her. I listened and filed his ...
The High Cost of Employee Turnover Among Project Managers
Imagine for a moment this scenario from a frustrated Senior Manager of a large pharmaceutical organization: “Our organization has experienced a large turnover among project managers in the past year. This creates problems providing ongoing quality and service to our stakeholders. We just don’t know what is causing the problem!” Sound familiar? Well you’re not alone. I remember that filmmaker Woody Allen once said that “80% of success is showing up.” However, the greater challenge is ...
Rotten to the Core: The Story of How the Best and Brightest can be Ruined
The objective of an incentive is to incite action within an organization using a device or mechanism that that allows the rewarding or recognition of behaviors. This can be accomplished by offering preferential treatment, money, privileges, promotions, verbal praise, or complements. With that states, I suggest the answers to the questions above are:
Business Fit
I have been an entrepreneur for over twenty years and have absolutely embraced information that would help maintain a well managed and profitable business. We have been a part of the information era for sometime now. As business owners, we have access to more information than ever in this generation of technology. But how can we use this technology to aid our business?