by Rob Gilmore
[Workforce Week August 19-25, 2007 Vol. 8 Issue 34]
Ten things that can explode into costly lawsuits, unionization and an unhappy workforce.
What are the biggest employee-related mistakes employers make these days? And how can you defuse these potential time bombs before they explode into costly disputes? Here's a quick overview of the top 10 employer mistakes and how to avoid them.
1. Failing to establish an effective sexual harassment policy.
Recent Supreme Court decisions hold employers liable for their supervisors' actions unless complaining employees fail to take advantage of company complaint procedures. In light of these rulings, implementing policies and procedures for dealing with sexual harassment is more important than ever. It is also essential that supervisors be trained on these policies and procedures. Finally, an employer must act in a timely manner to investigate all sexual harassment complaints that are brought to its attention.
2. Failing to pay overtime to nonexempt employees.
Many employers pay employees a salary regardless of the number of hours they work and whether they are subject to the wage and hour laws. Unless they are exempt as administrative, executive or professional employees, you must pay them time-and-a-half their regular hourly pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 per week. When in doubt about whether an employee is exempt, pay him or her hourly wages. This will avoid having to pay back wages if you're audited by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
3. Failing to complete I-9 forms for new employees.
Many employers merely photocopy employee-produced documents without filling out the parts of the forms that describe the documents. This can be a costly mistake if the Immigration and Naturalization Service audits you. (One employer was reportedly fined $100,000.) You are not required to photocopy employee-produced documents, but even if you do, you must fill out the forms completely.
4. Failing to take and document disciplinary actions.
Supervisors, not wanting to be perceived as villains, hate to write up employees. Then, when the company can no longer tolerate unsatisfactory performances, the files do not document the poor records and you have no grounds on which to justify discharges. This leaves you open to lawsuits alleging discrimination. Employees who have been discharged for poor performance often have glowing evaluations in their files. This can expose you to lawsuits.
5. Failing to quickly discharge poor performers.
Employers are advised to progressively discipline employees and to give one warning too many rather than one too few. But often a time comes when failure to act is as bad as overreacting. If you have retained employees for many years despite poor attendance records, multiple infractions and even several "final" warnings in their files, you are asking for trouble. These employees are most likely to sue when finally discharged. The best course is to discharge a poor performer as soon as prudently feasible. The more seniority an employee has, the harder to justify discharging him or her.
6. You must be sure that laying off a group of employees has no disparate impact on any protected group.
To avoid lawsuits, verify that the group doesn't contain a disproportionately high percentage of age-protected employees or employees of a particular ethnic or racial group or sex compared to the rest of the work force. The decision of who will be laid off should be based on objective criteria, such as qualifications, experience, and ability to perform certain work essential to the company. If the decision to lay off one employee as opposed to another is based on such criteria, make sure the file supports this decision.
7. Failing to get a signed release from a terminated employee.
As an employer, you may have a legitimate reason for terminating an employee. However, you fear a lawsuit if the employee is a member of a protected class. Many employers are reluctant to use releases because they fear the release may educate the employee about rights and litigation possibilities of which he might otherwise be unaware. But this may be a case of sticking your head in the sand. In light of media attention given to employment discrimination verdicts, employers should not rely on a hope that workers do not know their rights. The right approach to avoid litigation often is to get signed releases from departing employees, particularly if any severance or separation pay is provided to the employees.
8. Conditioning employment offers on medical exams.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) bars employers from asking applicants about their disabilities or requiring medical exams before offering employment. You can ask applicants to take job-relevant medical exams only after offering jobs. The burden is on you to establish the medical exam's relevance to job requirements. In addition, employers often fail to accommodate their employees' disabilities after they are hired. The ADA requires employers to reasonably accommodate their employees' disabilities.
9. Failing to take proactive steps to keep your work force union free.
Employers must constantly communicate with their employees to deal with their grievances. If employees do not believe their employer is interested in their issues, they may look outside the workplace for representation.
10. Failing to retain labor and employment counsel to avoid making the first nine mistakes.
The proliferation of complex statutes prevents most employers from keeping on top of employment law without professional help.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
360 Degree Feedback
Evaluating performance based on just the manager's review isn't always the most effective way to grow people within global organizations. Looking for a more balanced assessment of performance? Look in every direction with 360 Degree Reviews.
Now you can receive performance feedback from a variety of different sources including self and peer review - and even external sources - to get more insightful and realistic assessments of employee performance, competency gaps and development needs.
The 360 Degree Multi-Rater shapes the course of each employee's progress with:
Multiple-Input Ratings. Get comprehensive assessments from every relevant source
Detailed Gap Analysis. Identify areas for improvement and development, 'hidden strengths' and 'blind spots'
Pre-Populated Forms. Save enormous amounts of time over a standard paper-based system by using the role-based competencies and behaviors built into our simple, web- based forms
Comprehensive Writing Assistant. Create concise and meaningful assessments using suggested review text created by experts
Legal Scan. Automatically spot non-compliant language, significantly reducing HR review time
Now you can receive performance feedback from a variety of different sources including self and peer review - and even external sources - to get more insightful and realistic assessments of employee performance, competency gaps and development needs.
The 360 Degree Multi-Rater shapes the course of each employee's progress with:
Multiple-Input Ratings. Get comprehensive assessments from every relevant source
Detailed Gap Analysis. Identify areas for improvement and development, 'hidden strengths' and 'blind spots'
Pre-Populated Forms. Save enormous amounts of time over a standard paper-based system by using the role-based competencies and behaviors built into our simple, web- based forms
Comprehensive Writing Assistant. Create concise and meaningful assessments using suggested review text created by experts
Legal Scan. Automatically spot non-compliant language, significantly reducing HR review time
Which will become pervasive, Business Intelligence (BI) or Corporate Performance Management (CPM)?
Lately I have read articles and analysts’ reports discussing whether Corporate Performance Management (CPM) rather than business intelligence (BI) will become pervasive in the future. This seems to be a discussion about apples and oranges where we are talking about two entirely different things. CPM is a business application or process while BI is a technology.
All CPM projects use BI but not all BI projects involve CPM implementations. Using this logic, BI might become pervasive while CPM may not, however, if CPM does become pervasive then BI, since it is a technology used in CPM applications, will also become pervasive.
Why the confusion and the discussion of an either/or situation? Too often in our industry we confuse tools and vendors with business applications or processes. Too often products become identified with a term and then everyone’s projects become identified with that product. Let’s look at the consumer (IT and business) and the supplier (software vendors and their partners).
On the consumer side, it is human nature relating to associate the product/vendor used in an IT project as The application rather merely as the tool used for a particular application. Too often, over the years, I have heard that Oracle, DB2, Business Objects, Cognos or fill-in-your-own-IT-vendor was not very good for a particular DW, BI or reporting project. Asking a few questions during an assessment or project review, however, it is uncovered it was not really the tool that was the problem but rather the data (integrity, quality, availability or timeliness) or how the tool was implemented.
On the supplier side, some vendors follow every hype cycle or IT industry buzzword and label their products or solutions using their products as the latest and greatest fill-in-your-buzzword! Since many consumers do not have time to really analyze fact from hype, the label sticks and the product becomes associated with the business application or process.
And the jumbling of products with business applications or processes is reinforced by industry analyst reports, articles in industry publications, white papers, webinars/seminars/podcasts and case studies. If everyone says it, then it must be true!
By Rick Sherman
All CPM projects use BI but not all BI projects involve CPM implementations. Using this logic, BI might become pervasive while CPM may not, however, if CPM does become pervasive then BI, since it is a technology used in CPM applications, will also become pervasive.
Why the confusion and the discussion of an either/or situation? Too often in our industry we confuse tools and vendors with business applications or processes. Too often products become identified with a term and then everyone’s projects become identified with that product. Let’s look at the consumer (IT and business) and the supplier (software vendors and their partners).
On the consumer side, it is human nature relating to associate the product/vendor used in an IT project as The application rather merely as the tool used for a particular application. Too often, over the years, I have heard that Oracle, DB2, Business Objects, Cognos or fill-in-your-own-IT-vendor was not very good for a particular DW, BI or reporting project. Asking a few questions during an assessment or project review, however, it is uncovered it was not really the tool that was the problem but rather the data (integrity, quality, availability or timeliness) or how the tool was implemented.
On the supplier side, some vendors follow every hype cycle or IT industry buzzword and label their products or solutions using their products as the latest and greatest fill-in-your-buzzword! Since many consumers do not have time to really analyze fact from hype, the label sticks and the product becomes associated with the business application or process.
And the jumbling of products with business applications or processes is reinforced by industry analyst reports, articles in industry publications, white papers, webinars/seminars/podcasts and case studies. If everyone says it, then it must be true!
By Rick Sherman
Monday, August 20, 2007
Managing Performance in a Virtual World
VIRTUALIZATION CHANGES THE GAME for performance monitoring and management. Read on for a primer on optimizimizing virtual environments, without compromising performance. Automation and adaptability is key….
Ah, virtualization…the promise of infinite flexibility and an example of software and hardware working together in perfect harmony to solve real problems within the data center. Without question, virtualization is a technology that is transforming the IT landscape and the practice holds significant promise to those who are looking to improve availability and IT processes — and ultimately make IT more responsive to business needs.
Virtualization provides too many benefits to just stand by and watch. According to the Yankee Group, 9 out of every 10 enterprises will have implemented virtualization into their IT infrastructure by the end of 2007. While the business case for adopting virtual infrastructure technology is clear and compelling, it is important for companies to understand the performance characteristics of virtualization so they can first put the right management tools and business drivers in place. One area in need of attention is application and performance monitoring and how that process will be able to function effectively in a virtualized environment.
Most companies recognize the value that application and performance monitoring brings to the table. Keeping a close watch on all systems and applications to ensure they are available, and then having the technology in place to resolve the issues and report back to the business with a clean bill of service health provides a level of assurance that can't be quantified in dollars and cents. ("Priceless") But just when everyone gets comfortable, virtualization comes along and changes the IT infrastructure into a dynamic and fluid (and chaotic!) entity.
Given that virtualization implies continual change, managing performance in a virtual environment will require the ability to adapt constantly to changing behavior patterns. While it has always been a challenge to manage the performance of all the moving (and changing) parts that comprise a company's IT systems, virtualization technologies promise to make it all that much more complex.
Certainly, existing systems management tools have been good at understanding infrastructure availability, but they lack visibility into the behavior of virtual resources and application performance. With Gartner reporting that 27 percent of IT executives have no confidence in their current performance monitoring tools, how can companies have confidence in virtualized environments if there is no confidence in the physical world?
DON'T HATE - AUTOMATE!
The industry is going to continue to see an up tick in the request for virtualization technologies, so we'd better get used to dealing with added complexity and constantly changing environments. The bottom line is that enterprises will never be able to scale their virtual and physical data center environments without automation.
Why? Because we have reached a point where it is humanly impossible to keep track of all of the constantly changing components and events within IT that affect the quality of service and the user experience. However through automation - and the availability of self-learning and continuously adaptive technology — we are able to achieve a level of business intelligence that allows us to understand system behavior and anticipate user interactions, heading off any anticipated problems before they even occur.
This approach makes performance management more intuitive and efficient. Using intelligence in this capacity - to automate the decision-making processes --represents a shift in thinking about managing IT, and the industry is following suit as more and more system administrators turn to automated, behavior-based tools in order to scale along with the increase in user demand.
What do you think accurate, realtime knowledge is worth to a system administrator who is in the IT trenches struggling to return a critical server to operation? Or a team in a data center where there is literally no physical room to house servers? Or maybe the question is better positioned as "what is the cost of downtime and will I have to pay Dr. Evil 'One Billion Dollars' to get up and running again?"
BEST PRACTICES: GET PREDICTABLE!
IT is supporting a mind-boggling number of increasingly complex and unpredictable user and technology interactions. Without the restrictions imposed by siloed, proprietary infrastructure platforms, performance has become difficult to predict. To restore predictability and bring performance consistency to virtual environments, IT management needs to adapt in the following ways:
SELF-LEARNING CAPABILITY: Heuristics and behavior analysis have been used in the IT security realm for years. Real-time behavior analysis provides the same benefit of self-learning anomaly detection in the data center. Rather than trying to model constantly changing performance variables, performance management should analyze behavior in real time and correlate infrastructure performance quickly to application performance and vice versa.
AUTOMATED THRESHOLD MANAGEMENT: As part of the self- learning capability, thresholds should be adaptive. Performance management tools for virtual environments should be able to learn and build behavior profiles for servers, virtual machines (VMs) and applications and also adapt thresholds for changing behavior.
VISIBILITY INTO INDIVIDUAL VM AND SYSTEM BEHAVIOR: With so many moving parts in a virtual infrastructure, it can be nearly impossible to isolate the cause of an application performance issue. It is critical to have visibility into the health of each VM and the health of the overall system.
PROACTIVE CAPACITY PLANNING: Performance management tools need to offer resource allocation and capacity planning before deployment as well as in production. The value of virtualization is flexibility and resource optimization. Tools that can deliver that optimization from the onset are the most valuable.
CONCLUSION
The benefits of virtualization are compelling, but successful adoption depends on having the right skills, management tools and business drivers in place. One critical area of importance is application and performance monitoring and how that process will be able to function effectively in a virtualized environment.
Companies will need to get a better grip on managing performance in a virtual environment by implementing management systems capable of learning and adapting to constant change. Self-learning performance management technology provides visibility into the behavior and the interdependencies of the virtual and physical resources and--most importantly--the applications and business functions they support.
By Jean-François Huard
Ah, virtualization…the promise of infinite flexibility and an example of software and hardware working together in perfect harmony to solve real problems within the data center. Without question, virtualization is a technology that is transforming the IT landscape and the practice holds significant promise to those who are looking to improve availability and IT processes — and ultimately make IT more responsive to business needs.
Virtualization provides too many benefits to just stand by and watch. According to the Yankee Group, 9 out of every 10 enterprises will have implemented virtualization into their IT infrastructure by the end of 2007. While the business case for adopting virtual infrastructure technology is clear and compelling, it is important for companies to understand the performance characteristics of virtualization so they can first put the right management tools and business drivers in place. One area in need of attention is application and performance monitoring and how that process will be able to function effectively in a virtualized environment.
Most companies recognize the value that application and performance monitoring brings to the table. Keeping a close watch on all systems and applications to ensure they are available, and then having the technology in place to resolve the issues and report back to the business with a clean bill of service health provides a level of assurance that can't be quantified in dollars and cents. ("Priceless") But just when everyone gets comfortable, virtualization comes along and changes the IT infrastructure into a dynamic and fluid (and chaotic!) entity.
Given that virtualization implies continual change, managing performance in a virtual environment will require the ability to adapt constantly to changing behavior patterns. While it has always been a challenge to manage the performance of all the moving (and changing) parts that comprise a company's IT systems, virtualization technologies promise to make it all that much more complex.
Certainly, existing systems management tools have been good at understanding infrastructure availability, but they lack visibility into the behavior of virtual resources and application performance. With Gartner reporting that 27 percent of IT executives have no confidence in their current performance monitoring tools, how can companies have confidence in virtualized environments if there is no confidence in the physical world?
DON'T HATE - AUTOMATE!
The industry is going to continue to see an up tick in the request for virtualization technologies, so we'd better get used to dealing with added complexity and constantly changing environments. The bottom line is that enterprises will never be able to scale their virtual and physical data center environments without automation.
Why? Because we have reached a point where it is humanly impossible to keep track of all of the constantly changing components and events within IT that affect the quality of service and the user experience. However through automation - and the availability of self-learning and continuously adaptive technology — we are able to achieve a level of business intelligence that allows us to understand system behavior and anticipate user interactions, heading off any anticipated problems before they even occur.
This approach makes performance management more intuitive and efficient. Using intelligence in this capacity - to automate the decision-making processes --represents a shift in thinking about managing IT, and the industry is following suit as more and more system administrators turn to automated, behavior-based tools in order to scale along with the increase in user demand.
What do you think accurate, realtime knowledge is worth to a system administrator who is in the IT trenches struggling to return a critical server to operation? Or a team in a data center where there is literally no physical room to house servers? Or maybe the question is better positioned as "what is the cost of downtime and will I have to pay Dr. Evil 'One Billion Dollars' to get up and running again?"
BEST PRACTICES: GET PREDICTABLE!
IT is supporting a mind-boggling number of increasingly complex and unpredictable user and technology interactions. Without the restrictions imposed by siloed, proprietary infrastructure platforms, performance has become difficult to predict. To restore predictability and bring performance consistency to virtual environments, IT management needs to adapt in the following ways:
SELF-LEARNING CAPABILITY: Heuristics and behavior analysis have been used in the IT security realm for years. Real-time behavior analysis provides the same benefit of self-learning anomaly detection in the data center. Rather than trying to model constantly changing performance variables, performance management should analyze behavior in real time and correlate infrastructure performance quickly to application performance and vice versa.
AUTOMATED THRESHOLD MANAGEMENT: As part of the self- learning capability, thresholds should be adaptive. Performance management tools for virtual environments should be able to learn and build behavior profiles for servers, virtual machines (VMs) and applications and also adapt thresholds for changing behavior.
VISIBILITY INTO INDIVIDUAL VM AND SYSTEM BEHAVIOR: With so many moving parts in a virtual infrastructure, it can be nearly impossible to isolate the cause of an application performance issue. It is critical to have visibility into the health of each VM and the health of the overall system.
PROACTIVE CAPACITY PLANNING: Performance management tools need to offer resource allocation and capacity planning before deployment as well as in production. The value of virtualization is flexibility and resource optimization. Tools that can deliver that optimization from the onset are the most valuable.
CONCLUSION
The benefits of virtualization are compelling, but successful adoption depends on having the right skills, management tools and business drivers in place. One critical area of importance is application and performance monitoring and how that process will be able to function effectively in a virtualized environment.
Companies will need to get a better grip on managing performance in a virtual environment by implementing management systems capable of learning and adapting to constant change. Self-learning performance management technology provides visibility into the behavior and the interdependencies of the virtual and physical resources and--most importantly--the applications and business functions they support.
By Jean-François Huard
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Leaders are great coaches.
Rarely. A whole cottage industry has grown up around the teaching that good leaders ought to be good coaches. But that thinking assumes that a single person can both inspire the troops and impart technical skills. Of course, it's possible that great leaders may also be great coaches, but we see that only occasionally. More typical are leaders like Steve Jobs whose distinctive strengths lie in their ability to excite others through their vision rather than through their coaching talents.
People who get to the top are leaders.
Not necessarily. One of the most persistent misperceptions is that people in leadership positions are leaders. But people who make it to the top may have done so because of political acumen, not necessarily because of true leadership quality. What's more, real leaders are found all over the organization, from the executive suite to the shop floor. By definition, leaders are simply people who have followers, and rank doesn't have much to do with that. Effective military organizations like the U.S. Navy have long realized the importance of developing leaders throughout the organization
Leaders deliver business results.
Not always. If results were always a matter of good leadership, picking leaders would be easy. In every case, the best strategy would be to go after people in companies with the best results. But clearly, things are not that simple. Businesses in quasi-monopolistic industries can often do very well with competent management rather than great leadership. Equally, some well-led businesses do not necessarily produce results, particularly in the short term.
Everyone can be a leader.
Not true. Many executives don't have the self-knowledge or the authenticity necessary for leadership. And self-knowledge and authenticity are only part of the equation. Individuals must also want to be leaders, and many talented employees are not interested in shouldering that responsibility. Others prefer to devote more time to their private lives than to their work. After all, there is more to life than work, and more to work than being the boss.
Understanding the Difference Between Management and Leadership
Article by Michael Maccoby
Research Technology Management; Volume 43. No. 1. January-February, 2000. pp 57-59.
According to the current wisdom, managers are principally administrators—they write business plans, set budgets and monitor progress. Leaders on the other hand, get organizations and people to change. That's true, as far as it goes, but there is a more useful distinction between management and leadership: Management is a function that must be exercised in any business, leadership is a relationship between leader and led that can energize an organization.
Of course, the management function can include problem solving and facilitating meetings as well as the traditional bureaucratic tasks. However, it is not necessary for the same person in a group to exercise all these tasks. Different people can take on parts of the management function. Someone on a team can do the planning. Another person can do the budgeting. A third teammember can monitor quality. Members of a team can take turns facilitating meetings. The team as a whole can share responsibility for meeting performance targets. In other words, you don't need managers to produce good management.
I have seen a number of cases in which teams have been able to determine for themselves which management tasks they wish to perform as a group, which ones individual team members wish to take on, and which they will delegate to a manager.
If you gave this choice to members of a technical staff, they might decide they wanted a manager to take care of the bureaucratic stuff so they could remain free to do more interesting work —like science!. Typically, technical staff, like professionals in other fields, don't like to evaluate or discipline colleagues. They would rather hire a manager to do that kind of dirty work.
However, at the GE/Durham plant that assembles engines for the Boeing 777, there are 170 employees and only one manager, according to Fast Company (Oct. 1999). There are nine teams, each with only one directive: the day their next engine must be loaded. Teams decide who does which work; they schedule training, vacations and overtime; and they deal with teammates' issues of productivity or lack of work ethic. But this is seldom a problem. Although there are no incentives other than promotion on the basis of skills, technicians are motivated by the work itself, the drive for perfection and pride in supplying one fo the highest-thrust engines in the industry. Teams also send members to a work council that deals with issues such as supplier problems, computer systems and human resource issues, and the like.
And what is the manager’s job? Listening, informing, focussing the teams on costs (during the past 5 years, costs were cut 10 percent per year), and representing the factory to the customer and within GE.
Perceptions of Management
The Dilbert comic strip reminds us that in an age where the young may know more than their elders, technical staff may view managers as people who don't understand technology and who make life difficult for them with demands that make little sense. Perhaps technical teams with Dilbertian managers would be fed up enough to take over the management function.
The manager in the Dilbert strip is a leader only in the sense that members of the technical staff are forced to follow his directions. Of course, ideally a manager is also a leader that people want to follow. In that case, there can be a relationship that strengthens a group and focuses it on meaningful work. The questions we should ask about a business leader who has a following are:
Why do people follow this leader?
What should the leader do to make teams and organizations successful?
Here are some answers:
People follow a leader either out of fear or for a mix of positive reasons such as hope of success, trust in the leader, excitement about a project or mission, or the opportunity to stretch oneself to the limit. In this regard, Russell L. Ackoff conceives of a transformational leader as creating an aesthetic vision which inspires people with an ideal of what can be achieved. Warren Bennis describes leaders who make people feel they are the best and can achieve whatever they can imagine.
Leaders can also be dangerous, however, especially charismatic Pied Pipers who seduce people into disastrous adventures. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between a Steve Jobs who promises that the team can be “insanely great” and a demagogue who turns out to be greatly insane.
Management vs. Leadership
A Function A Relationship
• Planning • Selecting talent
• Budgeting • Motivating
• Evaluating • Coaching
• Facilitating • Building Trust
Good Leaders
We need to recognize that there are two kinds of leaders: strategic and operational. The first priority of a strategic leader is to envisage the company’s future and to invest the resources necessary to create it. Operational leaders have the job of implementing the vision.
However, there are four things that both strategic and operational leaders can do to make teams and organizations successful. They are: selecting talent, motivating people, coaching, and building trust.
In Organizing Genius (Addison-Wesley, 1997) Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman point out that leaders of great teams pick talent on the basis of excellence and ability to work with others. Good leaders are not afraid to hire people who know more than they do. Jack Welch has said that his biggest accomplishment has been finding great people.
In Why Work? (Second edition, Miles River Press, 1995), I suggest thinking about motivation in terms of four Rs: responsibilities, rewards, relationships, and reasons.
A leader should design responsibilities that engage a person’s competence and values. Responsibilities are motivating when they stretch people and are meaningful to them. Responsibilities can engage such intrinsic motivations as exercising one’s abilities, creating something new, helping others and providing value to customers. Which of these meanings is most motivating depends on an individual's personality.
The combination of intrinsic motivation with extrinsic rewards and recognition can produce highly motivated people. Of course, incentives, rewards and recognition should reinforce the kind of behavior needed for the team's success. If you want people to cooperate, you need to reward and recognize successful cooperation.
A good leader also strengthens motivation and develops competence through coaching. In particular, he or she knows how to keep people focussed, recognizing that unless technical staff keep their eyes on priority goals, they will tend to drift into paths that are attractive to them, but not essential for the business.
Good leaders also fire up people by convincing them that their job is vital for the business to succeed. On one hand, people quickly turn off when they feel their work is unnecessary. On the other, they feel motivated even doing simple repetitive work when it is meaningful, like stuffing envelopes for a cause they deeply support.
Developing Trust
Finally, good leaders develop trust by walking the talk, doing what they preach. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to keep promises in today’s unpredictable business environment. The market changes, new competitors upset plans, technological breakthroughs force rethinking strategy. It is not surprising that organizational surveys typically show a large gap in trust for today’s leaders.
In this turbulent climate, leaders can increase trust by promoting transparency and involvement. Transparency means clarifying reasons for decisions, and being open about compensation policy, business results and market information. Professional knowledge workers want to know what the leader knows about what is coming down the road. They also want a say in decisions they are expected to implement. They want to be sure their views are heard and taken into account. Even when they are disappointed by the decisions, knowing they have been heard increases trust, especially when the reasons are explained.
To summarize, companies need good management and great leaders, and efficient function and energizing relationships. Bureaucracies are typically overmanaged and underled, resulting in bored, unmotivated employees. Start-ups are often intensely led and undermanaged, so that enthusiasm leads to unplanned problems, overspending and missed deadlines.
There are many different ways to exercise the management function and people are willing to follow different leadership styles. Although there are many good examples of management and leadership, there is no one best way. You can get good ideas from observing successful companies, but you need to design your own management function by involving teammembers, and developing your own way of inspiring people to follow you.
Research Technology Management; Volume 43. No. 1. January-February, 2000. pp 57-59.
According to the current wisdom, managers are principally administrators—they write business plans, set budgets and monitor progress. Leaders on the other hand, get organizations and people to change. That's true, as far as it goes, but there is a more useful distinction between management and leadership: Management is a function that must be exercised in any business, leadership is a relationship between leader and led that can energize an organization.
Of course, the management function can include problem solving and facilitating meetings as well as the traditional bureaucratic tasks. However, it is not necessary for the same person in a group to exercise all these tasks. Different people can take on parts of the management function. Someone on a team can do the planning. Another person can do the budgeting. A third teammember can monitor quality. Members of a team can take turns facilitating meetings. The team as a whole can share responsibility for meeting performance targets. In other words, you don't need managers to produce good management.
I have seen a number of cases in which teams have been able to determine for themselves which management tasks they wish to perform as a group, which ones individual team members wish to take on, and which they will delegate to a manager.
If you gave this choice to members of a technical staff, they might decide they wanted a manager to take care of the bureaucratic stuff so they could remain free to do more interesting work —like science!. Typically, technical staff, like professionals in other fields, don't like to evaluate or discipline colleagues. They would rather hire a manager to do that kind of dirty work.
However, at the GE/Durham plant that assembles engines for the Boeing 777, there are 170 employees and only one manager, according to Fast Company (Oct. 1999). There are nine teams, each with only one directive: the day their next engine must be loaded. Teams decide who does which work; they schedule training, vacations and overtime; and they deal with teammates' issues of productivity or lack of work ethic. But this is seldom a problem. Although there are no incentives other than promotion on the basis of skills, technicians are motivated by the work itself, the drive for perfection and pride in supplying one fo the highest-thrust engines in the industry. Teams also send members to a work council that deals with issues such as supplier problems, computer systems and human resource issues, and the like.
And what is the manager’s job? Listening, informing, focussing the teams on costs (during the past 5 years, costs were cut 10 percent per year), and representing the factory to the customer and within GE.
Perceptions of Management
The Dilbert comic strip reminds us that in an age where the young may know more than their elders, technical staff may view managers as people who don't understand technology and who make life difficult for them with demands that make little sense. Perhaps technical teams with Dilbertian managers would be fed up enough to take over the management function.
The manager in the Dilbert strip is a leader only in the sense that members of the technical staff are forced to follow his directions. Of course, ideally a manager is also a leader that people want to follow. In that case, there can be a relationship that strengthens a group and focuses it on meaningful work. The questions we should ask about a business leader who has a following are:
Why do people follow this leader?
What should the leader do to make teams and organizations successful?
Here are some answers:
People follow a leader either out of fear or for a mix of positive reasons such as hope of success, trust in the leader, excitement about a project or mission, or the opportunity to stretch oneself to the limit. In this regard, Russell L. Ackoff conceives of a transformational leader as creating an aesthetic vision which inspires people with an ideal of what can be achieved. Warren Bennis describes leaders who make people feel they are the best and can achieve whatever they can imagine.
Leaders can also be dangerous, however, especially charismatic Pied Pipers who seduce people into disastrous adventures. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between a Steve Jobs who promises that the team can be “insanely great” and a demagogue who turns out to be greatly insane.
Management vs. Leadership
A Function A Relationship
• Planning • Selecting talent
• Budgeting • Motivating
• Evaluating • Coaching
• Facilitating • Building Trust
Good Leaders
We need to recognize that there are two kinds of leaders: strategic and operational. The first priority of a strategic leader is to envisage the company’s future and to invest the resources necessary to create it. Operational leaders have the job of implementing the vision.
However, there are four things that both strategic and operational leaders can do to make teams and organizations successful. They are: selecting talent, motivating people, coaching, and building trust.
In Organizing Genius (Addison-Wesley, 1997) Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman point out that leaders of great teams pick talent on the basis of excellence and ability to work with others. Good leaders are not afraid to hire people who know more than they do. Jack Welch has said that his biggest accomplishment has been finding great people.
In Why Work? (Second edition, Miles River Press, 1995), I suggest thinking about motivation in terms of four Rs: responsibilities, rewards, relationships, and reasons.
A leader should design responsibilities that engage a person’s competence and values. Responsibilities are motivating when they stretch people and are meaningful to them. Responsibilities can engage such intrinsic motivations as exercising one’s abilities, creating something new, helping others and providing value to customers. Which of these meanings is most motivating depends on an individual's personality.
The combination of intrinsic motivation with extrinsic rewards and recognition can produce highly motivated people. Of course, incentives, rewards and recognition should reinforce the kind of behavior needed for the team's success. If you want people to cooperate, you need to reward and recognize successful cooperation.
A good leader also strengthens motivation and develops competence through coaching. In particular, he or she knows how to keep people focussed, recognizing that unless technical staff keep their eyes on priority goals, they will tend to drift into paths that are attractive to them, but not essential for the business.
Good leaders also fire up people by convincing them that their job is vital for the business to succeed. On one hand, people quickly turn off when they feel their work is unnecessary. On the other, they feel motivated even doing simple repetitive work when it is meaningful, like stuffing envelopes for a cause they deeply support.
Developing Trust
Finally, good leaders develop trust by walking the talk, doing what they preach. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to keep promises in today’s unpredictable business environment. The market changes, new competitors upset plans, technological breakthroughs force rethinking strategy. It is not surprising that organizational surveys typically show a large gap in trust for today’s leaders.
In this turbulent climate, leaders can increase trust by promoting transparency and involvement. Transparency means clarifying reasons for decisions, and being open about compensation policy, business results and market information. Professional knowledge workers want to know what the leader knows about what is coming down the road. They also want a say in decisions they are expected to implement. They want to be sure their views are heard and taken into account. Even when they are disappointed by the decisions, knowing they have been heard increases trust, especially when the reasons are explained.
To summarize, companies need good management and great leaders, and efficient function and energizing relationships. Bureaucracies are typically overmanaged and underled, resulting in bored, unmotivated employees. Start-ups are often intensely led and undermanaged, so that enthusiasm leads to unplanned problems, overspending and missed deadlines.
There are many different ways to exercise the management function and people are willing to follow different leadership styles. Although there are many good examples of management and leadership, there is no one best way. You can get good ideas from observing successful companies, but you need to design your own management function by involving teammembers, and developing your own way of inspiring people to follow you.
Managers vs Leaders
The Difference Between Managers and Leaders
It is often difficult to understand the difference between managers and leaders. Do managers lead? Do leaders manage? To understand how these two concepts are distinct yet different, here are 7 ways to understand them.
1. Course and Steering.
The word "leadership" comes from the Old English word "lad" for a "course". A "lode" is a vein that leads or guides to ore; a star that guides sailors, the Pole star. The word "management" comes from the Latin word "manus", the hand, from which we also get "maintenance" and "mainstay". Leadership guides by setting a ship's course. Management keeps a hand on the tiller.
2. Growth and Survival.
Organisations are no different from any other living organism: they need both to survive and grow. Survival is necessary in order to meet the basic requirements of life: in individuals, food, water and shelter; in organisations, a profit, customers, premises, and work. Growth is also necessary so that, like the individual person, an organisation can make the most of what it is capable of. The maintenance of the organisation is essentially a management function: measuring, looking back, assessing, taking stock, taking careful decisions. Taking the organisation into areas of growth, change and development, to make the most of it, is what leadership is all about.
3. Resources and Potential.
Management measures what it can count and see. A person in the enterprise is described by their name and title, measured by their output, listed in the database according to their skills and added in the accounts under the heading "manpower resources". Management deals with the past and how people performed to date. Leadership, on the other hand, sees people as capable of things you cannot measure and doing things they never thought possible. It deals with the future and how people could perform of their potential were realised.
4. Left and Right Brains.
The left hemisphere of the brain is the seat of our logical and rational thinking. The right brain is the seat of our imaginative, creative and emotional thinking. While these two sides are distinct, they also work best when whole. The left brain is an analogy for management. It deals with what can be counted; detail; control; domination; worldly interests; action; analysis; measurement; and order. The right brain is an analogy for leadership. It deals with what cannot be counted; seeing things as a whole; synthesis; possibilities; belief; vision; artistry; intuition; and imagination.
5. The Seven S's.
Richard Pascale says that the process that take place in organisation fall under seven "S" headings: strategy, structure, systems, shared values, staff, skills and style. The functions of strategy, structure, and systems are the hard S's and the proper concern of managers because they deal with things or technology. The functions of staff, skills, style, and shared values are the soft S's and proper concern of leaders because they deal with people.
6. Art and Science.
John Adair in his book "Leadership" compares management and leadership to the old dichotomy of Art and Science. Managers are of the mind, accurate, calculated routine, statistical, methodical. Management is science. Leaders are of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision. Leadership is an art. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential.
7. Short-Term and Long.
When organisation thinks about now and the near-future, it thinks of itself as a production unit. It sees the problems it might face as technical problems needing technical answers. When an organisation thinks about the distant future, it thinks about building,
learning and growing.
It seeks to identify and develop its opportunities. It defines itself by what it is, not by what it does. The difference between short-term and long-term thinking is the difference between and organisation that holds on tight to what it has and an organisation that stays loose and lets things grow. Organisation that need quick fixes rely on managers. Organisations that want to grow rely on leaders.
The difference between management and leadership is like the difference between male and female, sun and moon, night and day, fat and thin, hot and cold, coming and going, and so on. They are two sides to the same coin. In being the one, we see the other. While different and distinct, they are parts of the whole: essential contrasts, that in contrasting, make clearer the other.
Author: Eric Garner
Source: http://managementarticles.net/18-General.html
It is often difficult to understand the difference between managers and leaders. Do managers lead? Do leaders manage? To understand how these two concepts are distinct yet different, here are 7 ways to understand them.
1. Course and Steering.
The word "leadership" comes from the Old English word "lad" for a "course". A "lode" is a vein that leads or guides to ore; a star that guides sailors, the Pole star. The word "management" comes from the Latin word "manus", the hand, from which we also get "maintenance" and "mainstay". Leadership guides by setting a ship's course. Management keeps a hand on the tiller.
2. Growth and Survival.
Organisations are no different from any other living organism: they need both to survive and grow. Survival is necessary in order to meet the basic requirements of life: in individuals, food, water and shelter; in organisations, a profit, customers, premises, and work. Growth is also necessary so that, like the individual person, an organisation can make the most of what it is capable of. The maintenance of the organisation is essentially a management function: measuring, looking back, assessing, taking stock, taking careful decisions. Taking the organisation into areas of growth, change and development, to make the most of it, is what leadership is all about.
3. Resources and Potential.
Management measures what it can count and see. A person in the enterprise is described by their name and title, measured by their output, listed in the database according to their skills and added in the accounts under the heading "manpower resources". Management deals with the past and how people performed to date. Leadership, on the other hand, sees people as capable of things you cannot measure and doing things they never thought possible. It deals with the future and how people could perform of their potential were realised.
4. Left and Right Brains.
The left hemisphere of the brain is the seat of our logical and rational thinking. The right brain is the seat of our imaginative, creative and emotional thinking. While these two sides are distinct, they also work best when whole. The left brain is an analogy for management. It deals with what can be counted; detail; control; domination; worldly interests; action; analysis; measurement; and order. The right brain is an analogy for leadership. It deals with what cannot be counted; seeing things as a whole; synthesis; possibilities; belief; vision; artistry; intuition; and imagination.
5. The Seven S's.
Richard Pascale says that the process that take place in organisation fall under seven "S" headings: strategy, structure, systems, shared values, staff, skills and style. The functions of strategy, structure, and systems are the hard S's and the proper concern of managers because they deal with things or technology. The functions of staff, skills, style, and shared values are the soft S's and proper concern of leaders because they deal with people.
6. Art and Science.
John Adair in his book "Leadership" compares management and leadership to the old dichotomy of Art and Science. Managers are of the mind, accurate, calculated routine, statistical, methodical. Management is science. Leaders are of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision. Leadership is an art. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential.
7. Short-Term and Long.
When organisation thinks about now and the near-future, it thinks of itself as a production unit. It sees the problems it might face as technical problems needing technical answers. When an organisation thinks about the distant future, it thinks about building,
learning and growing.
It seeks to identify and develop its opportunities. It defines itself by what it is, not by what it does. The difference between short-term and long-term thinking is the difference between and organisation that holds on tight to what it has and an organisation that stays loose and lets things grow. Organisation that need quick fixes rely on managers. Organisations that want to grow rely on leaders.
The difference between management and leadership is like the difference between male and female, sun and moon, night and day, fat and thin, hot and cold, coming and going, and so on. They are two sides to the same coin. In being the one, we see the other. While different and distinct, they are parts of the whole: essential contrasts, that in contrasting, make clearer the other.
Author: Eric Garner
Source: http://managementarticles.net/18-General.html
Sunday, July 15, 2007
OD JOKES: MALAYSIAN ASTRONAUTS
American Spaceman is called Astronaut
Russian Spaceman is called Cosmonaut
Chinese Spaceman is called Taikonaut
Malaysian Spaceman is called Can-or-naut !!
Dr. Mahathir was thinking about sending a Malaysian
into space.
Three potential can-a-nauts were called for an
interview - one Indian,
one Malay and one Chinese.
Dr. M interviews the Indian first: "So, Muthu, this is
a dangerous
mission.
How much do you think you should be paid?" Muthu
replied: "One million
ringgit."
"Why so much?" asks Dr. M.
"Very dangerous mission, Datuk. Maybe I no come back!"
replied Muthu.
"That's understandable," says Dr. M. "Thank
you...please ask the Malay
guy to come here."
So the Malay walks up, and is asked the same question.
Alamak, 2 million," replied the Malay candidate.
"Two million? That's twice as much! Even that anneh
before you asked
for only one million."
"You see, Datuk," explains Mat. "I have 4 wives and 15
children ...
With so many of us, it is a big family to leave behind
when I am
gone..!"
"I see," says Dr. M. "Okay, can you ask that Chinese
guy to come
then?"
The Chinese guy comes in and Dr. M asks, "Ah Chong, as
you heard,
This is a very risky mission, how much do you want?"
Ah Chong smiles for a while, and says, "3 million."
Mahathir appears shocked. "What??? 3 million! Why so
much?"
Ah Chong beckons Dr. M to come closer, whereupon he
quietly whispers
into his ear, "Datuk, one million you keep, one
million I keep, and
then one more million to send that anneh into space!"
Russian Spaceman is called Cosmonaut
Chinese Spaceman is called Taikonaut
Malaysian Spaceman is called Can-or-naut !!
Dr. Mahathir was thinking about sending a Malaysian
into space.
Three potential can-a-nauts were called for an
interview - one Indian,
one Malay and one Chinese.
Dr. M interviews the Indian first: "So, Muthu, this is
a dangerous
mission.
How much do you think you should be paid?" Muthu
replied: "One million
ringgit."
"Why so much?" asks Dr. M.
"Very dangerous mission, Datuk. Maybe I no come back!"
replied Muthu.
"That's understandable," says Dr. M. "Thank
you...please ask the Malay
guy to come here."
So the Malay walks up, and is asked the same question.
Alamak, 2 million," replied the Malay candidate.
"Two million? That's twice as much! Even that anneh
before you asked
for only one million."
"You see, Datuk," explains Mat. "I have 4 wives and 15
children ...
With so many of us, it is a big family to leave behind
when I am
gone..!"
"I see," says Dr. M. "Okay, can you ask that Chinese
guy to come
then?"
The Chinese guy comes in and Dr. M asks, "Ah Chong, as
you heard,
This is a very risky mission, how much do you want?"
Ah Chong smiles for a while, and says, "3 million."
Mahathir appears shocked. "What??? 3 million! Why so
much?"
Ah Chong beckons Dr. M to come closer, whereupon he
quietly whispers
into his ear, "Datuk, one million you keep, one
million I keep, and
then one more million to send that anneh into space!"
WHO'S IDEA WAS IT THAT WE SHOULD WORK FIVE DAYS IN A WEEK? (WHY NOT THREE?)
Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up every two hours?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat?
Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?
Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?
What is the speed of darkness?
Are there especially reserved parking spaces for "normal" people at the Special Olympics?
If the temperature is zero outside today and it's going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold will it be?
If it's true that we are here to help others, what are the others doing here?
Do married people live longer than single ones or does it only seem longer?
Do you cry under water?
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
Did you ever stop and wonder...
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze
these pink dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"
Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there... I'm going to eat the next thing that comes outta it's bum."
Why do toasters always have a setting so high that could burn the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't
point to their bum when they ask where the bathroom is?
Why does your Obstetrician, Gynaecologist leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway?
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
Can blind people see their dreams? Do they dream??
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Stop singing and read on . . . . ..
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at
you, but when you take him on a car ride; he sticks his head out the window?
Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?
Do you ever wonder why you gave me your e-mail address in the first place?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat?
Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?
Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?
What is the speed of darkness?
Are there especially reserved parking spaces for "normal" people at the Special Olympics?
If the temperature is zero outside today and it's going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold will it be?
If it's true that we are here to help others, what are the others doing here?
Do married people live longer than single ones or does it only seem longer?
Do you cry under water?
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
Did you ever stop and wonder...
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze
these pink dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"
Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there... I'm going to eat the next thing that comes outta it's bum."
Why do toasters always have a setting so high that could burn the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't
point to their bum when they ask where the bathroom is?
Why does your Obstetrician, Gynaecologist leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway?
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
Can blind people see their dreams? Do they dream??
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
Why do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Stop singing and read on . . . . ..
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at
you, but when you take him on a car ride; he sticks his head out the window?
Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?
Do you ever wonder why you gave me your e-mail address in the first place?
A Four Step Process to Easily Reduce Employee Turnover
Would you like to reduce employee turnover? Who wouldn't? Do an internet search of "reduce employee turnover" and you will get lots of technical and complicated advice. Actually reducing turnover is a lot simpler than what many of the articles prescribe. The solution is simple, place the right people in the right job, recognize their performance, reward them occasionally, and treat them with respect. Yes money and benefits are important but study after study proves that they aren't the most important factors in employee retention.
So why do companies not focus on this issue? There are lots of reasons I hear but frankly they all amount to weak excuses. Take a look at the companies in any industry and you will find a number with high turnover and some with low turnover. The difference is caused by just subtle, but very effective, differences in their hiring and retention strategies. Of course the first step is to have a strategy! Here is a simple four step process to get your employee turnover lower.
First, use a validated and legal pre employment test to screen out people with a poor work ethic and bad attitude that make it through normal hiring processes. They typically take about 20 minutes and they reveal more about that candidate then you will ever get in an interview, job app or background check. Average cost $20. Let someone else hire the riff raff.
Second, use a job fit assessment to match the right people to the right job. A person may interview well, have the right education and background, but doesn't mean they fit the job. Find out if they have the same profile as your top performers. To do this is very simple with the employee assessment tools available. They are easy to use and understand, and will help you determine if the candidate fits the job. Average time is about 30 minutes with a cost under $100.
Third, do employee evaluations regularly. People need feedback, good or bad. How can we expect change if we don't communicate? Use a simple online system, so administration is a snap and there are no excuses for not getting them done. Remember, people leave supervisors, not companies. They take about an hour to prepare and about the same to present, with a cost of about $25.
Finally, implement an employee recognition program. Reward employees with gifts on service anniversaries or to recognize significant achievements. People need this recognition and, once again, there are all sorts of online employee recognition programs that are easy to implement. You control the budget but a nice $25 gift says a lot and only takes a few minutes to do. Most importantly, say thank you. It's free and it goes a long way to making people feel happy and appreciated.
So for a modest investment and very little time, you can reduce employee turnover significantly. That will give you a substantial return, given the high cost of turnover. If you are a company suffering from high turnover, take a look at these four easy steps and get on the road to improvement.
So why do companies not focus on this issue? There are lots of reasons I hear but frankly they all amount to weak excuses. Take a look at the companies in any industry and you will find a number with high turnover and some with low turnover. The difference is caused by just subtle, but very effective, differences in their hiring and retention strategies. Of course the first step is to have a strategy! Here is a simple four step process to get your employee turnover lower.
First, use a validated and legal pre employment test to screen out people with a poor work ethic and bad attitude that make it through normal hiring processes. They typically take about 20 minutes and they reveal more about that candidate then you will ever get in an interview, job app or background check. Average cost $20. Let someone else hire the riff raff.
Second, use a job fit assessment to match the right people to the right job. A person may interview well, have the right education and background, but doesn't mean they fit the job. Find out if they have the same profile as your top performers. To do this is very simple with the employee assessment tools available. They are easy to use and understand, and will help you determine if the candidate fits the job. Average time is about 30 minutes with a cost under $100.
Third, do employee evaluations regularly. People need feedback, good or bad. How can we expect change if we don't communicate? Use a simple online system, so administration is a snap and there are no excuses for not getting them done. Remember, people leave supervisors, not companies. They take about an hour to prepare and about the same to present, with a cost of about $25.
Finally, implement an employee recognition program. Reward employees with gifts on service anniversaries or to recognize significant achievements. People need this recognition and, once again, there are all sorts of online employee recognition programs that are easy to implement. You control the budget but a nice $25 gift says a lot and only takes a few minutes to do. Most importantly, say thank you. It's free and it goes a long way to making people feel happy and appreciated.
So for a modest investment and very little time, you can reduce employee turnover significantly. That will give you a substantial return, given the high cost of turnover. If you are a company suffering from high turnover, take a look at these four easy steps and get on the road to improvement.
Successful Team Building Techniques
Article Marketer
In business, it does not matter whether you work in a typical office a shop or a factory. You are built up of a group individuals with specific goals towards producing the goods that the company sells. This is what defines a team. From the most mundane task like answering a phone call, to the most complicated job like designing products, every individual making up the team plays an important role. As a whole, every employee is working towards a common goal which is to earn profit for the company and for themselves. This is what team building is all about. It is the process of enabling a group of people to reach that common goal. That is why it is a good practice for companies to come up with regular team building activities to enhance the oneness of the group and to build a feeling of solidarity and pride of work. A company is made up of different departments which sometimes causes conflicts of interests and individual differences. Team building aims to eliminate these issues.
1. What Is The Main Goal Of The Company?
- You all know that you need the job to make a living and earn profits for the company. Still, not everyone is clear about what the company's core all about
- Your main focus for team building should be a review the of the employee's orientation of the company's goal and objectives
- If you produce goods, what is the product really all about? What message do you want to impart to people as a company?
- If you deal with services, what is your main goal and what service do you actually provide?
- By reviewing these goals, a team member would have a fresh outlook about the company, making them strive harder to reach that common goal
2. What Factors Caused Poor Team Performance In The Past?
Look into your company's successes and failures. Determine which area is in need of improvement and look for ways to do so. By looking into the strengths and weaknesses that each member exhibits, you would know which areas to improve on. Also, this would give you an idea of how to optimize the team's strengths to reach that common goal and contribute to the company's success.
3. How Can You Improve The Way Team Members Interact?
Even siblings of the same genes make up different personalities. As a team, you are made up of individuals from different cultures, and would have various ideas on how to improve the way your company operates. There is bound to be friction of some kind since your team is made up of different individuals. Team building aims to avoid this and bridge the gap by coming up with activities which bond the group. Thinking of fun activities to break the ice and personalize the interaction between members is a great way to start.
4. How Can You Improve The Team's Ability To Solve Problems?
Every company is faced with challenges every now and then. One way to forge team solidarity is to look into past problems and see how they were solved. Ask each team member how they would have handled that particular problem. This would let a leader know which team member has good problem solving, analytical and critical thinking skills. The team members may be asked to share ideas and decide together which solution would suit the problem best. This is another way to build team solidarity.
4. How Can You Forge The Support And Trust Level Between Team Members?
A team leader should have people and management skills. However, it is still important for the leader to earn the trust of his team members. Supporting each other is a vital quality that a team should have. Even a simple problem like an employee who disobeys out of sheer contrariness should be looked into. What is causing this team member to contradict his superior? What can be done to improve his attitude? By team building, you can some up with ways to build trust and increase the support level between colleagues.
5. How Can You Apply The Team Building Activities In The Day-To-Day Operation Of The Company?
In the end, after all the activities that the team has performed together, there should be a sharing of experiences and thoughts on what each member has learned about their peers and about the company's goal. These should make them aware of how they can further contribute to the company's success in the future. All in all, team building activities enhance team solidarity. It is good to remember that the whole organization is team working towards the company's main goal. After a set of fun and team building activities which inspire team spirit, each member would have a clear idea of how to improve their attitude towards their peers, their superiors, and especially towards their work.
In business, it does not matter whether you work in a typical office a shop or a factory. You are built up of a group individuals with specific goals towards producing the goods that the company sells. This is what defines a team. From the most mundane task like answering a phone call, to the most complicated job like designing products, every individual making up the team plays an important role. As a whole, every employee is working towards a common goal which is to earn profit for the company and for themselves. This is what team building is all about. It is the process of enabling a group of people to reach that common goal. That is why it is a good practice for companies to come up with regular team building activities to enhance the oneness of the group and to build a feeling of solidarity and pride of work. A company is made up of different departments which sometimes causes conflicts of interests and individual differences. Team building aims to eliminate these issues.
1. What Is The Main Goal Of The Company?
- You all know that you need the job to make a living and earn profits for the company. Still, not everyone is clear about what the company's core all about
- Your main focus for team building should be a review the of the employee's orientation of the company's goal and objectives
- If you produce goods, what is the product really all about? What message do you want to impart to people as a company?
- If you deal with services, what is your main goal and what service do you actually provide?
- By reviewing these goals, a team member would have a fresh outlook about the company, making them strive harder to reach that common goal
2. What Factors Caused Poor Team Performance In The Past?
Look into your company's successes and failures. Determine which area is in need of improvement and look for ways to do so. By looking into the strengths and weaknesses that each member exhibits, you would know which areas to improve on. Also, this would give you an idea of how to optimize the team's strengths to reach that common goal and contribute to the company's success.
3. How Can You Improve The Way Team Members Interact?
Even siblings of the same genes make up different personalities. As a team, you are made up of individuals from different cultures, and would have various ideas on how to improve the way your company operates. There is bound to be friction of some kind since your team is made up of different individuals. Team building aims to avoid this and bridge the gap by coming up with activities which bond the group. Thinking of fun activities to break the ice and personalize the interaction between members is a great way to start.
4. How Can You Improve The Team's Ability To Solve Problems?
Every company is faced with challenges every now and then. One way to forge team solidarity is to look into past problems and see how they were solved. Ask each team member how they would have handled that particular problem. This would let a leader know which team member has good problem solving, analytical and critical thinking skills. The team members may be asked to share ideas and decide together which solution would suit the problem best. This is another way to build team solidarity.
4. How Can You Forge The Support And Trust Level Between Team Members?
A team leader should have people and management skills. However, it is still important for the leader to earn the trust of his team members. Supporting each other is a vital quality that a team should have. Even a simple problem like an employee who disobeys out of sheer contrariness should be looked into. What is causing this team member to contradict his superior? What can be done to improve his attitude? By team building, you can some up with ways to build trust and increase the support level between colleagues.
5. How Can You Apply The Team Building Activities In The Day-To-Day Operation Of The Company?
In the end, after all the activities that the team has performed together, there should be a sharing of experiences and thoughts on what each member has learned about their peers and about the company's goal. These should make them aware of how they can further contribute to the company's success in the future. All in all, team building activities enhance team solidarity. It is good to remember that the whole organization is team working towards the company's main goal. After a set of fun and team building activities which inspire team spirit, each member would have a clear idea of how to improve their attitude towards their peers, their superiors, and especially towards their work.
Top 5 Reasons Why Employees Hate Their Bosses (And What Bosses Can Do About It)
Every boss can't be loved by every employee. But that doesn't mean that every boss needs to be Michael Scott from NBC's The Office. Thus, in order to minimize resentment, a good boss should understand some of more common reasons why employers hate their bosses so they can respond swiftly and effectively.
1. Employees need respect. One of greatest complaints that nearly every employee has about their boss is a perceived lack of respect. Most employees feel their bosses don't respect their privacy, their ability, and their personal lives (yes, employees have a life outside of work). As such, employers should go out of their way to show respect to each employee in the organization. Remember that respect tends to be reciprocated; as such, showing respect to employees is one of the most effective ways to win their respect and loyalty.
2. Employees dislike micromanagers and under-managers. A bad boss is like an overbearing parent. A good boss, by contrast, treats employers like adults - that means giving employees plenty of space and freedom to accomplish their work. Bosses should never spy and should strive to maintain privacy. In short: if your employees are good workers, don't micromanage. Just step back and let them do their thing. However, be careful to avoid the opposite of micromanagement - under-management. Under-managed employees receive little or no support (material, emotional, financial) from their bosses. While the lesser of two evils, inadequate support also leads to resentment as well as apathy on the part of employees. After all, if the boss doesn't care, why should I?
3. Employees, like bosses, don't think they're getting paid enough. Rare indeed are the organizations in which employees feel they're well paid. (It's probably human nature to feel under-appreciated.) Still, a good boss can help placate disgruntled workers by making the pay philosophy of the company clear and by finding other ways to compensate workers.
4. Employees tend to dislike meetings as a rule. Meetings are a necessary evil. That being said, employers can make them less annoying and less intrusive by planning meetings carefully, imposing strict time limits, making goals and action items clear, and by creating an environment where employees can voice their opinions openly without fear of retribution. It might even be helpful on occasions to seek feedback from employees as to how meetings could be made more effective.
5. Employees need to feel appreciated. When creativity or hard work is unappreciated, unacknowledged, or unrewarded, employees - just like everyone else - tend to feel resentment. In turn, resentment can lead to apathy. This is why it is crucial for bosses and managers to show they both see and appreciate the work being done. A little acknowledgment goes a long way - in fact, verbal affirmation can often be as rewarding for employees as a raise or a promotion. Well, almost.
To conclude, let me observe that most of the reasons that employees hate their bosses are not related to background, personality quirks, or other things beyond a boss's control. Rather, most - if not all - of these concerns could be assuaged if the boss would simply be aware of them and take steps to reduce their occurrence. Of course, that's easier said than done, mostly because there are a myriad of ways that employees annoy their bosses - but that's the subject for another day.
1. Employees need respect. One of greatest complaints that nearly every employee has about their boss is a perceived lack of respect. Most employees feel their bosses don't respect their privacy, their ability, and their personal lives (yes, employees have a life outside of work). As such, employers should go out of their way to show respect to each employee in the organization. Remember that respect tends to be reciprocated; as such, showing respect to employees is one of the most effective ways to win their respect and loyalty.
2. Employees dislike micromanagers and under-managers. A bad boss is like an overbearing parent. A good boss, by contrast, treats employers like adults - that means giving employees plenty of space and freedom to accomplish their work. Bosses should never spy and should strive to maintain privacy. In short: if your employees are good workers, don't micromanage. Just step back and let them do their thing. However, be careful to avoid the opposite of micromanagement - under-management. Under-managed employees receive little or no support (material, emotional, financial) from their bosses. While the lesser of two evils, inadequate support also leads to resentment as well as apathy on the part of employees. After all, if the boss doesn't care, why should I?
3. Employees, like bosses, don't think they're getting paid enough. Rare indeed are the organizations in which employees feel they're well paid. (It's probably human nature to feel under-appreciated.) Still, a good boss can help placate disgruntled workers by making the pay philosophy of the company clear and by finding other ways to compensate workers.
4. Employees tend to dislike meetings as a rule. Meetings are a necessary evil. That being said, employers can make them less annoying and less intrusive by planning meetings carefully, imposing strict time limits, making goals and action items clear, and by creating an environment where employees can voice their opinions openly without fear of retribution. It might even be helpful on occasions to seek feedback from employees as to how meetings could be made more effective.
5. Employees need to feel appreciated. When creativity or hard work is unappreciated, unacknowledged, or unrewarded, employees - just like everyone else - tend to feel resentment. In turn, resentment can lead to apathy. This is why it is crucial for bosses and managers to show they both see and appreciate the work being done. A little acknowledgment goes a long way - in fact, verbal affirmation can often be as rewarding for employees as a raise or a promotion. Well, almost.
To conclude, let me observe that most of the reasons that employees hate their bosses are not related to background, personality quirks, or other things beyond a boss's control. Rather, most - if not all - of these concerns could be assuaged if the boss would simply be aware of them and take steps to reduce their occurrence. Of course, that's easier said than done, mostly because there are a myriad of ways that employees annoy their bosses - but that's the subject for another day.
What smart HR managers do!
Faiz Askari analyses the need for a structured approach to sourcing, assessment, onboarding, training and retention.
HR departments in most organisations have to constantly face the pressure of an expanding workforce. Smart HR managers adopt a structured approach for making their life easy while hiring new people and retaining the existing ones. This structured approach to talent management involves systematic processes at each stage of human resource management, ranging from sourcing to assessment, reference checks and to onboarding and retaining.
In the initial stage of sourcing, it is important to tap into the right and varied set of talent sources such as online job boards, Web-based communities, target companies to headhunt from, and universities/schools that nurture the right skills. Veena Gundavelli, CEO, SITI Corporation says, “Depending on the level of position, the sourcing strategy varies and it is important for recruiters to know that the success of closing a position with the right talent largely depends on the sourcing strategy and the execution. Assessment is a very objective evaluation step and needs to be predefined to shortlist the right talent,” Rahul Mulay, General Manager, Operations, Harbinger Group says, “An analysis of the current workforce demographics would give the HR manager information about the organisation’s recruitment successes and failures. Identifying the best ways to recruit and the pitfalls/failures are a smart way to approach sourcing.”
"An analysis of workforce demographics would give the HR manager information about the company’s recruitment successes and failures"
- Rahul Mulay
General Manager, Operations Harbinger Group
Further analysis of the exiting employees, about their age/experience distribution, tenure in the job and reasons for leaving are used to find ways to manage attrition within the current workforce. “If enough data is available, it may actually end up in a mathematical equation which can predict the attrition,” says Mulay.
HR managers clearly define systems and processes for the success of HR strategy. Once they are in place, the next step is to ensure that these systems are well complied. Vishal Chhiber, Head-HR, Kelly Services India states, “It starts from defining the job description, structuring the search accordingly and then assessing the short-listed candidates on their competence, experience and qualifications vis-a-vis the job description. Post that, the candidate is absorbed and trained within the system.”
Correct assessment
"It is important for recruiters to know that the success of closing a position with the right talent largely depends on the sourcing strategy and the execution"
- Veena Gundavelli
CEO
SITI Corporation
Develop battery of tests to assess the technical competence and assess personality traits which would include behavioural patterns in a given situation.
Assessment can be divided into several steps such as basic aptitude tests, technical assessments and HR assessments. These steps form the basic gates to pass over to reference checking, hiring and on boarding steps.
Gundavelli adds, “Successful on-boarding results into better retention rates. As part of retention, several companies adopt techniques such as assigning seniors to be mentors to the new employees, having specific people development managers to take care of new employee development, knowledge management and training, etc.”
Group discussions assess communication skills and aptitude to take a lead and participate. These are also pointers to ownership traits of an individual when assigned certain key responsibilities.
DG Subramanian, Vice-president-HR, CSM Software states, “Validate past performance with data and evaluate the consistency of those performances. Institute a detailed background check to validate evaluation judgment. By these practices the assessment process can become more comprehensive.”
In the current scenario all employees look at a career path within the organisation. Chhiber points out, “We endeavour to give a realistic career path to an employee at the time of joining so that the employees should look at learning on the job, upgrading his skill sets and then deliver consistent performance in the current role before looking on to move to the next level within the organisation. The appraisal process includes specific discussions on the career path which acts as a tool in the process.”
Understanding expectations
Ensure that the “feel good factor” is infused when the candidate is inducted as an employee. It is critical that the new entrant feels important in the new environment.
Subramanian adds, “Assign tasks which is close to the new entrants’ key competency to instill confidence. Define performance parameters to arrest ambiguity and take them through the career options as they move forward.”
Any new employee joins an organisation with certain set of expectations. Understanding these expectations on day one is essential to ensure a long-term relationship. And that can play a very vital role in controlling the attrition rate.
Mulay believes that when an employee joins and looks for a quick change, there are certain areas of expectations which are not met, “A one-on-one discussion helps to identify the reasons why an employee is looking for the change. These could be simple things which can be addressed after discussing with the employee’s manager while there are some which need more time.” But once the employee understands that the company is serious about its commitment, he generally continues.
The Indian economy is growing at a never before pace leading to lot of opportunities for the current working generation to choose from. Chhiber feels that with such growth, the biggest challenge, apart from attracting is retaining key talent. Across industries and skill-levels employee attrition is common and organisations are groping for the solutions. “Probably the right solutions would be to hire the right-fit of talent, offering meaningful and transparent reward and recognition strategies, pre-defined career paths to the extent possible and last but not the least work-life balance,” adds Chhiber.
Career growth
The role of a clear and well-defined on-boarding policy and assessment cannot be over emphasised, more so in the current scenario. The knowledge worker of today is vibrant to the environment around him and expects transparency in terms of his interaction with his employer.
“Herein projecting the true image of the organisation and the business at the time of joining, training (both technical and behavioural), as an investment in employee’s growth and free and fair performance assessment, does go a long way in increasing the belonging of the employee to the organisation, thereby checking the attrition rates,” states Chhiber.
Every employee looks for interesting work, good income, opportunity to learn, career growth and a healthy and fair work environment in any job, though the order may change for different people. Emphasising the importance of training, Mulay adds, “Training ensures that the employee gets the opportunity to learn and prepare for handling new opportunities /responsibilities. A well-designed appraisal system and periodic assessments are necessary to evaluate the performance. This also helps to plan the career growth of the employee.”
It’s important to identify the training needs of the employees in a formal process and ensure that it is executed within defined time parameters. It’s also important to nominate employees to identified training programmes, either at customer location or recognised technical bodies.
Subramanian states, “By and large employees look for acquiring additional skills, enhance their existing ones and they look forward to organisational support to fulfill their aspirations. It’s important that a balance is struck between employee aspiration and organisational requirement from the business perspective.” Given the right kind of exposure and training, it is believed that attrition levels can be sustained at moderate levels.
Key challenges
Organisations need to proactively motivate the critical employees by assigning them key responsibilities, including their leadership roles. Employee engagement is also very important as it can ensure employee’s participation and it can also take ownership on responsibilities assigned to them. Subramanian states, “Keeping open communication channels with employees and facilitate interaction with top management on a defined frequency is important.”
Growing job rates coupled with tightening labour pool is the biggest contributor to high attrition rate. “Companies are forced to think out-of-the box to create more value to the employees in three areas—career growth, financial growth and job satisfaction. Companies are also forced to think about talent pools that are from rural areas that are still not caught in the job hopping culture,” concludes Gundavelli.
HR departments in most organisations have to constantly face the pressure of an expanding workforce. Smart HR managers adopt a structured approach for making their life easy while hiring new people and retaining the existing ones. This structured approach to talent management involves systematic processes at each stage of human resource management, ranging from sourcing to assessment, reference checks and to onboarding and retaining.
In the initial stage of sourcing, it is important to tap into the right and varied set of talent sources such as online job boards, Web-based communities, target companies to headhunt from, and universities/schools that nurture the right skills. Veena Gundavelli, CEO, SITI Corporation says, “Depending on the level of position, the sourcing strategy varies and it is important for recruiters to know that the success of closing a position with the right talent largely depends on the sourcing strategy and the execution. Assessment is a very objective evaluation step and needs to be predefined to shortlist the right talent,” Rahul Mulay, General Manager, Operations, Harbinger Group says, “An analysis of the current workforce demographics would give the HR manager information about the organisation’s recruitment successes and failures. Identifying the best ways to recruit and the pitfalls/failures are a smart way to approach sourcing.”
"An analysis of workforce demographics would give the HR manager information about the company’s recruitment successes and failures"
- Rahul Mulay
General Manager, Operations Harbinger Group
Further analysis of the exiting employees, about their age/experience distribution, tenure in the job and reasons for leaving are used to find ways to manage attrition within the current workforce. “If enough data is available, it may actually end up in a mathematical equation which can predict the attrition,” says Mulay.
HR managers clearly define systems and processes for the success of HR strategy. Once they are in place, the next step is to ensure that these systems are well complied. Vishal Chhiber, Head-HR, Kelly Services India states, “It starts from defining the job description, structuring the search accordingly and then assessing the short-listed candidates on their competence, experience and qualifications vis-a-vis the job description. Post that, the candidate is absorbed and trained within the system.”
Correct assessment
"It is important for recruiters to know that the success of closing a position with the right talent largely depends on the sourcing strategy and the execution"
- Veena Gundavelli
CEO
SITI Corporation
Develop battery of tests to assess the technical competence and assess personality traits which would include behavioural patterns in a given situation.
Assessment can be divided into several steps such as basic aptitude tests, technical assessments and HR assessments. These steps form the basic gates to pass over to reference checking, hiring and on boarding steps.
Gundavelli adds, “Successful on-boarding results into better retention rates. As part of retention, several companies adopt techniques such as assigning seniors to be mentors to the new employees, having specific people development managers to take care of new employee development, knowledge management and training, etc.”
Group discussions assess communication skills and aptitude to take a lead and participate. These are also pointers to ownership traits of an individual when assigned certain key responsibilities.
DG Subramanian, Vice-president-HR, CSM Software states, “Validate past performance with data and evaluate the consistency of those performances. Institute a detailed background check to validate evaluation judgment. By these practices the assessment process can become more comprehensive.”
In the current scenario all employees look at a career path within the organisation. Chhiber points out, “We endeavour to give a realistic career path to an employee at the time of joining so that the employees should look at learning on the job, upgrading his skill sets and then deliver consistent performance in the current role before looking on to move to the next level within the organisation. The appraisal process includes specific discussions on the career path which acts as a tool in the process.”
Understanding expectations
Ensure that the “feel good factor” is infused when the candidate is inducted as an employee. It is critical that the new entrant feels important in the new environment.
Subramanian adds, “Assign tasks which is close to the new entrants’ key competency to instill confidence. Define performance parameters to arrest ambiguity and take them through the career options as they move forward.”
Any new employee joins an organisation with certain set of expectations. Understanding these expectations on day one is essential to ensure a long-term relationship. And that can play a very vital role in controlling the attrition rate.
Mulay believes that when an employee joins and looks for a quick change, there are certain areas of expectations which are not met, “A one-on-one discussion helps to identify the reasons why an employee is looking for the change. These could be simple things which can be addressed after discussing with the employee’s manager while there are some which need more time.” But once the employee understands that the company is serious about its commitment, he generally continues.
The Indian economy is growing at a never before pace leading to lot of opportunities for the current working generation to choose from. Chhiber feels that with such growth, the biggest challenge, apart from attracting is retaining key talent. Across industries and skill-levels employee attrition is common and organisations are groping for the solutions. “Probably the right solutions would be to hire the right-fit of talent, offering meaningful and transparent reward and recognition strategies, pre-defined career paths to the extent possible and last but not the least work-life balance,” adds Chhiber.
Career growth
The role of a clear and well-defined on-boarding policy and assessment cannot be over emphasised, more so in the current scenario. The knowledge worker of today is vibrant to the environment around him and expects transparency in terms of his interaction with his employer.
“Herein projecting the true image of the organisation and the business at the time of joining, training (both technical and behavioural), as an investment in employee’s growth and free and fair performance assessment, does go a long way in increasing the belonging of the employee to the organisation, thereby checking the attrition rates,” states Chhiber.
Every employee looks for interesting work, good income, opportunity to learn, career growth and a healthy and fair work environment in any job, though the order may change for different people. Emphasising the importance of training, Mulay adds, “Training ensures that the employee gets the opportunity to learn and prepare for handling new opportunities /responsibilities. A well-designed appraisal system and periodic assessments are necessary to evaluate the performance. This also helps to plan the career growth of the employee.”
It’s important to identify the training needs of the employees in a formal process and ensure that it is executed within defined time parameters. It’s also important to nominate employees to identified training programmes, either at customer location or recognised technical bodies.
Subramanian states, “By and large employees look for acquiring additional skills, enhance their existing ones and they look forward to organisational support to fulfill their aspirations. It’s important that a balance is struck between employee aspiration and organisational requirement from the business perspective.” Given the right kind of exposure and training, it is believed that attrition levels can be sustained at moderate levels.
Key challenges
Organisations need to proactively motivate the critical employees by assigning them key responsibilities, including their leadership roles. Employee engagement is also very important as it can ensure employee’s participation and it can also take ownership on responsibilities assigned to them. Subramanian states, “Keeping open communication channels with employees and facilitate interaction with top management on a defined frequency is important.”
Growing job rates coupled with tightening labour pool is the biggest contributor to high attrition rate. “Companies are forced to think out-of-the box to create more value to the employees in three areas—career growth, financial growth and job satisfaction. Companies are also forced to think about talent pools that are from rural areas that are still not caught in the job hopping culture,” concludes Gundavelli.
What is KPI?
What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)?
By Kevin Dwyer
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is neither a Goal, nor a Key Result Area (KRA), nor a Target, nor a Result nor a Critical Success Factor. And yet these terms are often used interchangeably with a KPI.
A KPI defines itself, to a large extent, by its name; it is a performance indicator, i.e. the performance of the process it is measuring should be clearly indicated by the KPI.
This should clarify that the purpose of a KPI is not, for example, to measure the risk of a process, nor its age, nor its length, but its performance.
Further, a KPI should be key, not just any casual measure of a process (or a business as a whole); this can be taken as the KPI being closely correlated with the objectives of the process being measured.
An important and often overlooked aspect of a KPI not contained within its name is that it measures a continuous or discrete but repeated process.
Typical continuous processes include manufacture (toothpaste production, widget manufacture) and service where the dimensions are large (credit management for large public utilities, help desk for large IT installations).
Sometimes services which look to be custom when considered at an individual level (your neighbour's knee surgery operation) can also be considered as almost continuous when considered at a coarse enough level of granularity (knee surgery in Australia in the '90s).
Typical discrete, repetitive processes include service (PC installation, car sales and hotel check-in).
All of this ought to be self-evident, but it is common to see. For example, Target Completion Dates or Product Specifications (or both) labelled as KPIs.
Where the intention is to measure once-off performance of a project, or as part of a business plan, a specification or target date (or both) will suffice; labelling it a KPI is both unnecessary and confusing.
Moreover, developing only one off measures as a proxy for real KPIs puts a business at risk.
The implication of using one off performance measures in lieu of key performance indicators is that many organisations do not know how well they are performing. That is, until, a significant universal lagging KPI such as profitability or lost time injury frequency ratio reaches unacceptable levels.
Lag, Current and Lead
Timing of KPIs, relative to achievement of corporate goals, is fundamental in choosing good candidate KPIs. Financial results, such as last quarter's revenue, are typically lagged by 2+ months. Annual results, especially fiscal year results, can be much more delayed.
With such lags, the problem arises as to what action might be appropriate to alter the direction of the department's performance, when the KPIs are measuring results in the past.
A correction may be inappropriate when the current performance has already significantly altered from that measured some time ago and may result in overcorrection.
Lag indicators should rarely be considered as a KPI as the benefit of KPI is to adjust processes and behaviour to get better performance.
KPIs measuring current performance are more useful. Examples include today's bookings, sales or production level. As always, care must be taken not to allow instant results to result in instant reactions which, in turn, reinforce the original problem.
Other KPIs are of the leading type; their measures are predictive of desired results at the next higher level.
An example of such a leading indicator for market share is customer satisfaction with the organisation's products and service. It is important to note though, that customer satisfaction survey output is a lagging indicator of customer service.
The primary difficulty with leading KPIs is to be sure that they are strongly correlated with the required corporate goals; modelling and understanding of key business drivers is necessary.
The corollary, of course, is that taking the time and effort to determine the key business drivers will result in a useful KPI rather than a number which is reported on monthly but caused no action to happen even when it strays outside its range of limits.
More than the nature and the design, a KPI must be understood by all staff. Further, all staff must know the corrective action to be applied. The corrective action must impact the KPI.
For example, completing plant production runs to schedule for a manufacturing plant impacts lead time which impacts stock levels, purchasing levels, in-full delivery, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The deviation from production schedule of production is a leading indicator of a wide range of performance indicators.
Understanding that deviation from production schedule is key enables all people in the plant to apply corrective action to keep to the schedule. The resultant improvement in lead time improves many other dependent indicators including productivity.
Choosing an indicator like productivity as key only has an impact on costs and few people would understand what to do other than work faster or spend capital on automation.
KPIs in most organisations are actually targets, key project dates, key result areas or tasks. As a result, performance is not actually managed.
Having well thought through KPIs and acting on them with the confidence that action will cause a change in performance is well worth the investment in time and corporate brain-power it takes to develop, select and test Key Performance Indicators.
By Kevin Dwyer
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is neither a Goal, nor a Key Result Area (KRA), nor a Target, nor a Result nor a Critical Success Factor. And yet these terms are often used interchangeably with a KPI.
A KPI defines itself, to a large extent, by its name; it is a performance indicator, i.e. the performance of the process it is measuring should be clearly indicated by the KPI.
This should clarify that the purpose of a KPI is not, for example, to measure the risk of a process, nor its age, nor its length, but its performance.
Further, a KPI should be key, not just any casual measure of a process (or a business as a whole); this can be taken as the KPI being closely correlated with the objectives of the process being measured.
An important and often overlooked aspect of a KPI not contained within its name is that it measures a continuous or discrete but repeated process.
Typical continuous processes include manufacture (toothpaste production, widget manufacture) and service where the dimensions are large (credit management for large public utilities, help desk for large IT installations).
Sometimes services which look to be custom when considered at an individual level (your neighbour's knee surgery operation) can also be considered as almost continuous when considered at a coarse enough level of granularity (knee surgery in Australia in the '90s).
Typical discrete, repetitive processes include service (PC installation, car sales and hotel check-in).
All of this ought to be self-evident, but it is common to see. For example, Target Completion Dates or Product Specifications (or both) labelled as KPIs.
Where the intention is to measure once-off performance of a project, or as part of a business plan, a specification or target date (or both) will suffice; labelling it a KPI is both unnecessary and confusing.
Moreover, developing only one off measures as a proxy for real KPIs puts a business at risk.
The implication of using one off performance measures in lieu of key performance indicators is that many organisations do not know how well they are performing. That is, until, a significant universal lagging KPI such as profitability or lost time injury frequency ratio reaches unacceptable levels.
Lag, Current and Lead
Timing of KPIs, relative to achievement of corporate goals, is fundamental in choosing good candidate KPIs. Financial results, such as last quarter's revenue, are typically lagged by 2+ months. Annual results, especially fiscal year results, can be much more delayed.
With such lags, the problem arises as to what action might be appropriate to alter the direction of the department's performance, when the KPIs are measuring results in the past.
A correction may be inappropriate when the current performance has already significantly altered from that measured some time ago and may result in overcorrection.
Lag indicators should rarely be considered as a KPI as the benefit of KPI is to adjust processes and behaviour to get better performance.
KPIs measuring current performance are more useful. Examples include today's bookings, sales or production level. As always, care must be taken not to allow instant results to result in instant reactions which, in turn, reinforce the original problem.
Other KPIs are of the leading type; their measures are predictive of desired results at the next higher level.
An example of such a leading indicator for market share is customer satisfaction with the organisation's products and service. It is important to note though, that customer satisfaction survey output is a lagging indicator of customer service.
The primary difficulty with leading KPIs is to be sure that they are strongly correlated with the required corporate goals; modelling and understanding of key business drivers is necessary.
The corollary, of course, is that taking the time and effort to determine the key business drivers will result in a useful KPI rather than a number which is reported on monthly but caused no action to happen even when it strays outside its range of limits.
More than the nature and the design, a KPI must be understood by all staff. Further, all staff must know the corrective action to be applied. The corrective action must impact the KPI.
For example, completing plant production runs to schedule for a manufacturing plant impacts lead time which impacts stock levels, purchasing levels, in-full delivery, employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The deviation from production schedule of production is a leading indicator of a wide range of performance indicators.
Understanding that deviation from production schedule is key enables all people in the plant to apply corrective action to keep to the schedule. The resultant improvement in lead time improves many other dependent indicators including productivity.
Choosing an indicator like productivity as key only has an impact on costs and few people would understand what to do other than work faster or spend capital on automation.
KPIs in most organisations are actually targets, key project dates, key result areas or tasks. As a result, performance is not actually managed.
Having well thought through KPIs and acting on them with the confidence that action will cause a change in performance is well worth the investment in time and corporate brain-power it takes to develop, select and test Key Performance Indicators.
A Four Step Process to Easily Reduce Employee Turnover
Robert Cameron
Would you like to reduce employee turnover? Who wouldn't? Do an internet search of "reduce employee turnover" and you will get lots of technical and complicated advice. Actually reducing turnover is a lot simpler than what many of the articles prescribe. The solution is simple, place the right people in the right job, recognize their performance, reward them occasionally, and treat them with respect. Yes money and benefits are important but study after study proves that they aren't the most important factors in employee retention.
So why do companies not focus on this issue? There are lots of reasons I hear but frankly they all amount to weak excuses. Take a look at the companies in any industry and you will find a number with high turnover and some with low turnover. The difference is caused by just subtle, but very effective, differences in their hiring and retention strategies. Of course the first step is to have a strategy! Here is a simple four step process to get your employee turnover lower.
First, use a validated and legal pre employment test to screen out people with a poor work ethic and bad attitude that make it through normal hiring processes. They typically take about 20 minutes and they reveal more about that candidate then you will ever get in an interview, job app or background check. Average cost $20. Let someone else hire the riff raff.
Second, use a job fit assessment to match the right people to the right job. A person may interview well, have the right education and background, but doesn't mean they fit the job. Find out if they have the same profile as your top performers. To do this is very simple with the employee assessment tools available. They are easy to use and understand, and will help you determine if the candidate fits the job. Average time is about 30 minutes with a cost under $100.
Third, do employee evaluations regularly. People need feedback, good or bad. How can we expect change if we don't communicate? Use a simple online system, so administration is a snap and there are no excuses for not getting them done. Remember, people leave supervisors, not companies. They take about an hour to prepare and about the same to present, with a cost of about $25.
Finally, implement an employee recognition program. Reward employees with gifts on service anniversaries or to recognize significant achievements. People need this recognition and, once again, there are all sorts of online employee recognition programs that are easy to implement. You control the budget but a nice $25 gift says a lot and only takes a few minutes to do. Most importantly, say thank you. It's free and it goes a long way to making people feel happy and appreciated.
So for a modest investment and very little time, you can reduce employee turnover significantly. That will give you a substantial return, given the high cost of turnover. If you are a company suffering from high turnover, take a look at these four easy steps and get on the road to improvement.
Would you like to reduce employee turnover? Who wouldn't? Do an internet search of "reduce employee turnover" and you will get lots of technical and complicated advice. Actually reducing turnover is a lot simpler than what many of the articles prescribe. The solution is simple, place the right people in the right job, recognize their performance, reward them occasionally, and treat them with respect. Yes money and benefits are important but study after study proves that they aren't the most important factors in employee retention.
So why do companies not focus on this issue? There are lots of reasons I hear but frankly they all amount to weak excuses. Take a look at the companies in any industry and you will find a number with high turnover and some with low turnover. The difference is caused by just subtle, but very effective, differences in their hiring and retention strategies. Of course the first step is to have a strategy! Here is a simple four step process to get your employee turnover lower.
First, use a validated and legal pre employment test to screen out people with a poor work ethic and bad attitude that make it through normal hiring processes. They typically take about 20 minutes and they reveal more about that candidate then you will ever get in an interview, job app or background check. Average cost $20. Let someone else hire the riff raff.
Second, use a job fit assessment to match the right people to the right job. A person may interview well, have the right education and background, but doesn't mean they fit the job. Find out if they have the same profile as your top performers. To do this is very simple with the employee assessment tools available. They are easy to use and understand, and will help you determine if the candidate fits the job. Average time is about 30 minutes with a cost under $100.
Third, do employee evaluations regularly. People need feedback, good or bad. How can we expect change if we don't communicate? Use a simple online system, so administration is a snap and there are no excuses for not getting them done. Remember, people leave supervisors, not companies. They take about an hour to prepare and about the same to present, with a cost of about $25.
Finally, implement an employee recognition program. Reward employees with gifts on service anniversaries or to recognize significant achievements. People need this recognition and, once again, there are all sorts of online employee recognition programs that are easy to implement. You control the budget but a nice $25 gift says a lot and only takes a few minutes to do. Most importantly, say thank you. It's free and it goes a long way to making people feel happy and appreciated.
So for a modest investment and very little time, you can reduce employee turnover significantly. That will give you a substantial return, given the high cost of turnover. If you are a company suffering from high turnover, take a look at these four easy steps and get on the road to improvement.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Learning Game "Greenbush"
another example - "Greenbush," kids design a neighborhood game
they researched a local area, learned about the ethnic and racial diversity of a community that was bulldozed because it was thought to be threatening
the kids brainstorm how to turn that into an augmented reality game
- 4th and 5th graders did this!
they ended up creating plans for a community museum
students presented their research at a community conference
presented research to the city council and got a resolution passed
the kids didn't want to leave the city council meeting
resolution created an annual "Greenbush" day and committed them to never again demolish this neighborhood
game-based learning is a form of experiential learning
where it's a game and why it's a game is in the sense of everything they do plays a part of creating fantasy; things are more exaggerated in order to provide an experience or solicit a strong emotional reaction
Lake Wingra - a game about a small, local lake that has a lot of controversy around it
it might be dying and would require lots of work to bring it back (addressing storm water rainoff, etc.)
someone wants to put condos on the lakefront (do this to solicit that big reaction)
design the game to tweak the kids' understanding of dirty water, types, solutions, etc.
the game tries to push them and confront them
not just inquiry-based learning
the teacher really pushes them
here they passed out some Dell PDAs we could look at to see how students choose roles and what they see
kids fill out a job application, they have a preference, take into account their real-life experiences
the next day they are assigned a stakeholder they will be representing (fishing club, environmental group, Matthews Enterprises - the evil condo developer, the outdoor rec club, the neighborhood organization, etc.; 3 of the 5 issues are real, the other 2 are fictional)
there are 4 plans - the condo plan, a marina plan with urban development and a bait shop, one to reduce invasive, one to reduce storm drainoff
that's all you need to know to start the game
game is divided into 2 parts
- students play 3 different roles, get different data for each one
get responses from the condo builders, get theories for why the lake is dying from the environmental group, etc.
- the second part centers on the Biology Center where they develop theories about why the lake is healthy or not
introduces "contested space"
the kids take on these identities and argue (in the context of debate) about issues; they do this through the lens of a researcher
they grab that role and learn for the sake of learning
the kids collect evidence and work as a group to come up with what they must persuade is the answer
these games must be tailored to your classroom
they researched a local area, learned about the ethnic and racial diversity of a community that was bulldozed because it was thought to be threatening
the kids brainstorm how to turn that into an augmented reality game
- 4th and 5th graders did this!
they ended up creating plans for a community museum
students presented their research at a community conference
presented research to the city council and got a resolution passed
the kids didn't want to leave the city council meeting
resolution created an annual "Greenbush" day and committed them to never again demolish this neighborhood
game-based learning is a form of experiential learning
where it's a game and why it's a game is in the sense of everything they do plays a part of creating fantasy; things are more exaggerated in order to provide an experience or solicit a strong emotional reaction
Lake Wingra - a game about a small, local lake that has a lot of controversy around it
it might be dying and would require lots of work to bring it back (addressing storm water rainoff, etc.)
someone wants to put condos on the lakefront (do this to solicit that big reaction)
design the game to tweak the kids' understanding of dirty water, types, solutions, etc.
the game tries to push them and confront them
not just inquiry-based learning
the teacher really pushes them
here they passed out some Dell PDAs we could look at to see how students choose roles and what they see
kids fill out a job application, they have a preference, take into account their real-life experiences
the next day they are assigned a stakeholder they will be representing (fishing club, environmental group, Matthews Enterprises - the evil condo developer, the outdoor rec club, the neighborhood organization, etc.; 3 of the 5 issues are real, the other 2 are fictional)
there are 4 plans - the condo plan, a marina plan with urban development and a bait shop, one to reduce invasive, one to reduce storm drainoff
that's all you need to know to start the game
game is divided into 2 parts
- students play 3 different roles, get different data for each one
get responses from the condo builders, get theories for why the lake is dying from the environmental group, etc.
- the second part centers on the Biology Center where they develop theories about why the lake is healthy or not
introduces "contested space"
the kids take on these identities and argue (in the context of debate) about issues; they do this through the lens of a researcher
they grab that role and learn for the sake of learning
the kids collect evidence and work as a group to come up with what they must persuade is the answer
these games must be tailored to your classroom
Learning Game "Hip Hop Tycoon"
another example - "Hip Hop Tycoon"
what if a field trip is a problem? created this game to address this question
a game that builds on entrepreneurship and math
a place-independent game, which actually highlighted to them the power of having a place to actually go (was lacking in this game)
can you open a hip hop store in the local area?
issue of communicating the game curriculum (Word document would be 50+ pages)
how do you get a teacher who thinks it sounds interesting to look at all of this?
now using a website to introduce the game to teachers
kids are willing to read text when it's used to play a game
composed of mini-games
one mini-game was to print out a large amount of text; the kids didn't even flip to the second page, whereas they were happy to read it all on a PDA
they read the text in the context of something else (they've already taken on a role)
they will read more when they're doing it for themselves, as opposed to for the teacher
what if a field trip is a problem? created this game to address this question
a game that builds on entrepreneurship and math
a place-independent game, which actually highlighted to them the power of having a place to actually go (was lacking in this game)
can you open a hip hop store in the local area?
issue of communicating the game curriculum (Word document would be 50+ pages)
how do you get a teacher who thinks it sounds interesting to look at all of this?
now using a website to introduce the game to teachers
kids are willing to read text when it's used to play a game
composed of mini-games
one mini-game was to print out a large amount of text; the kids didn't even flip to the second page, whereas they were happy to read it all on a PDA
they read the text in the context of something else (they've already taken on a role)
they will read more when they're doing it for themselves, as opposed to for the teacher
Learning Game " A historical investigation"
another example game - "Dow Day - October 18, 1967"
a historical investigation
students role play as a journalist in 1967
inquiry-based learning, actual document-based learning
collaboration, but there's only one role that you play
first person you meet in the game is your editor
politically-charged time at UW (Vietnam protests, etc.)
Dow Chemical was on campus recruiting, student reactions varied
have to write articles and then make connections to events happening today
have baseline rubrics for assessment, but also allow the teachers to modify them
one science teacher required a final presentation, summative assessment based on oral language and how they presented and supported their arguments (they truly acted like scientists)
a historical investigation
students role play as a journalist in 1967
inquiry-based learning, actual document-based learning
collaboration, but there's only one role that you play
first person you meet in the game is your editor
politically-charged time at UW (Vietnam protests, etc.)
Dow Chemical was on campus recruiting, student reactions varied
have to write articles and then make connections to events happening today
have baseline rubrics for assessment, but also allow the teachers to modify them
one science teacher required a final presentation, summative assessment based on oral language and how they presented and supported their arguments (they truly acted like scientists)
learning doesn't simply occur "in the head"
Kurt Squire
background problem: literacy in underserved youth
paucity of engaging literacy materials for middle school
learning doesn't simply occur "in the head"
- physical space, groups, tools, etc.
augmented reality
technologies that have people out walking around in the world and augmenting the real world with data
have people look at the world around them via a game
as students come within 20 feet of a hotspot, it triggers characters, data, etc. using PDAs
the world is your playground, virtual time
2-3 week units
as you meet people, they give you authentic documents
location-based role playing games - driven by emotionally compelling challenges
can this improve math and literacy skills?
the grant has them teaching teachers to design games for the local area
right now Kurt creates model games that the teachers modify
developed 3 model games
using an iterative process, at the "project refinement" stage right now
weather-dependent in Wisconsin (May through September primarily)
found that recruiting teachers can be difficult, but pairs and finding specialists across the curriculum helps
have 30-40 teachers right now
phases:
1 - pre-game: confront challenge, enter roles, background reading
2 - game: "situate" experience, introduce complexities, gather field data
3 - work time: process information, use reading strategies; this is where the choices come in (if you were going to run another test, what would it be, based on your budget?)
4 - presentations: "test your mettle"
5 - debrief: encourage transfer
give employee orientation packets for roles
example of students solving problem of kids getting sick from a picnic near the water; the kids actually visit a well and collect water
teachers interject reading scaffolding activities
students build concept maps
background problem: literacy in underserved youth
paucity of engaging literacy materials for middle school
learning doesn't simply occur "in the head"
- physical space, groups, tools, etc.
augmented reality
technologies that have people out walking around in the world and augmenting the real world with data
have people look at the world around them via a game
as students come within 20 feet of a hotspot, it triggers characters, data, etc. using PDAs
the world is your playground, virtual time
2-3 week units
as you meet people, they give you authentic documents
location-based role playing games - driven by emotionally compelling challenges
can this improve math and literacy skills?
the grant has them teaching teachers to design games for the local area
right now Kurt creates model games that the teachers modify
developed 3 model games
using an iterative process, at the "project refinement" stage right now
weather-dependent in Wisconsin (May through September primarily)
found that recruiting teachers can be difficult, but pairs and finding specialists across the curriculum helps
have 30-40 teachers right now
phases:
1 - pre-game: confront challenge, enter roles, background reading
2 - game: "situate" experience, introduce complexities, gather field data
3 - work time: process information, use reading strategies; this is where the choices come in (if you were going to run another test, what would it be, based on your budget?)
4 - presentations: "test your mettle"
5 - debrief: encourage transfer
give employee orientation packets for roles
example of students solving problem of kids getting sick from a picnic near the water; the kids actually visit a well and collect water
teachers interject reading scaffolding activities
students build concept maps
15 ways to think better
Learn to kickstart your thinking
How many times have you felt your brain just switch off? And why does
it usually happen just before you're about to write a memo to the boss
and you're staring at a blank screen or piece of paper? According to
James Thornton, author of The Brain Yields its Secrets, it isn't that
we lose intelligence as we age. It's just that we need to improve our
ability to think. So take a breather, and have a look at Thornton‘s 15
suggestions for thinking better and stirring up the creative juices:
1. Time it right. Most older people think more clearly in the morning;
most younger people, in the afternoon. Work out when your own best
'thinking time' is and set it aside it for your most challenging brain
work.
2. Get a good education - but don't overdo it. Psychologist Dean Keith
Simonton says that too much specialised higher education can damage
your ability to think creatively. 'You don't become a great novelist
by getting a PhD in creative writing.'
3. Listen to Confucius. Writing things down is the number one memory
aid used by memory researchers themselves. As the Chinese proverb puts
it, the weakest ink lasts longer than the best memory.
4. Kick start your day. Research shows that the amount of caffeine in
a cup of coffee can help you concentrate. But if you're prone to
anxiety, you're probably better off avoiding it.
5. Anchor new memories to established ones. 'Think of your existing
memory as a scaffold upon which to fit new information,' says
cognitive researcher Denise Park. 'Don't isolate new information.
Always relate it to something.'
6. Practise, practise, practise. Learning and repeatedly practising
new skills appears to change the brain's internal organisation. A
study showed that periodic training sessions helped volunteers in
their 70s perform better in cognitive and memory tasks than they had
when they were seven years younger. 'Practice really helps,' says
psychologist Len Giambra. 'A well-practised older person will be
faster than an unpractised younger person.'
7. Give your ideas a chance. Many of us are rewarded for our abilities
to rapidly evaluate facts and make quick decisions. Creativity demands
a much more leisurely and playful approach - a willingness to give
'absurd' ideas a chance.
8. Pick a stimulating profession and an intelligent partner.
Intriguing studies from Poland suggest that people whose careers
demand they exercise their intellect are more likely to sustain high
levels of mental performance during their lives. Marrying someone
intelligent may also provide you with ongoing stimulation.
9. Expose yourself to multiple experiences. Creativity often boils
down to the ability to adapt solutions from one aspect of life to
another. Velcro for instance, was inspired by burrs that stick to your
clothing. The 'ring-pull' top on cans was originally based on the way
a banana is peeled.
10. Learn from Leonardo. In his book, How to Think Like Leonardo da
Vinci, author Michael Gelb offers several brain-enriching strategies
that worked for the ultimate Renaissance man. Among them: learning to
juggle and drawing with your non-writing hand.
11. Pay attention. Do you sometimes find yourself 'forgetting' someone
’s name seconds after meeting them? The problem isn't memory; it's
concentration. As we get older, we must consciously remind ourselves
to commit information to memory.
12. Listen to Mozart. An experimental psychologist has found evidence
supporting the 'Mozart Effect' - that is, a brain exposed to Mozart's
music grows more complex connections. This allows faster, integrated
access to more information.
13. Exercise the body to improve the mind. An increasing amount of
research now supports the idea that aerobic workouts can have a
beneficial effect on a number of things, including educational
performance. It is suspected that this works by increasing oxygen and
nutrient supplied to the brain, plus a boost in natural compounds
called neurotrophins, which promote brain cell growth. Some studies
show mixed results. But exercise has so many other benefits that it
definitely makes sense to do it regularly.
14. Try something new. Near the end of his life, Impressionist painter
Henri Matisse revitalised his art by exchanging brushes for scissors,
which he used to create a series of brilliant paper cut-outs. Such
experimentation appears to be the hallmark of successful creativity,
says psychologist Dean Keith Simonton. In a study that compared
creative people who burn out with those who continue to create, he
says the main difference was that the latter were constantly exposing
themselves to new knowledge.
15. End distractions. If you're bombarded with irrelevant stimuli,
it's hard to focus. When you absolutely must do something (complete a
report, for instance) try unplugging the phone and putting a do not
disturb sign on your door.
And don't forget to follow your passion. Recently, a Dutch
psychologist tried to work out what separated chess masters from chess
grandmasters. He subjected groups of each to a battery of tests - IQ,
memory, spatial reasoning. He found no difference between them in any
of the tests. The only difference was that grandmasters simply loved
chess more. They had more passion and demonstrated more commitment to
it. Passion may well be the key to creativity.
IQRA!
Dear members,
I have posted a few articles for us to read and comment. Enjoy your readings.
Salam
I have posted a few articles for us to read and comment. Enjoy your readings.
Salam
Who's who in the house!
Dear members.
Our Thinkers and members....We have people many industries, ranging from Manufacturing, Services, Service Operations, Property Development, Consultancy, Investment and Banking, Logistics and many more.
So, we can immediately start sharing and posting ideas, thoughts, quotes, articles, short lesson learned stories or incidents that you have faced...Jokes, etc.
Language?..don't worry about language...the rule is, make sure people understand..Boleh mix bahasa malaysia ka, english ka,Manglish ka, Singlish ka..it's okay...
This blogs is open to members..only.
Cheers.
Our Thinkers and members....We have people many industries, ranging from Manufacturing, Services, Service Operations, Property Development, Consultancy, Investment and Banking, Logistics and many more.
So, we can immediately start sharing and posting ideas, thoughts, quotes, articles, short lesson learned stories or incidents that you have faced...Jokes, etc.
Language?..don't worry about language...the rule is, make sure people understand..Boleh mix bahasa malaysia ka, english ka,Manglish ka, Singlish ka..it's okay...
This blogs is open to members..only.
Cheers.
Thinkers Update
Dear Members,
Knowing this blog is still knew..with less attraction, I mean the pull and push factor is still not available, I managed to register more readers to join the Thinkers Team.
As of today, we have 4 authors and more than 50 readers. Of course, many of them have yet to reply to confirm their membership.
Knowing this blog is still knew..with less attraction, I mean the pull and push factor is still not available, I managed to register more readers to join the Thinkers Team.
As of today, we have 4 authors and more than 50 readers. Of course, many of them have yet to reply to confirm their membership.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Creating an effective presentation for your prospect
Presentations are very important to the growth of your business, that is why it is important that you know how to do them effectively. Let's take a look at what the presentation is for; the sole purpose of a presentation is to expose your prospect to the business. The key to giving an effective presentation is finding a need and then filling it with the vehicle of network marketing. Show your prospects how they can get what they want by joining your business. The very first thing you want to do when you give these presentations is that you want to RELAX and dress appropriately. Also, make sure that you are the one controlling the mood of the get together, whether it be a one on one presentation, a PBR, or a business briefing. This is very important because you don't want an ounce of negativity around you. Furthermore, when it comes down to the presentation, make sure you are fully prepared with your distributor and follow up packs. If you are doing a one on one presentation make sure you put the prospect at ease and establish a little bit of rapport. Find out exactly what it is that your prospect wants, then re-qualify them once you find out exactly what it is that they want by saying something like, "Ok, John, based on what you said you want, how much time are you willing to put into this business without interfering with what you are currently doing?" It is critical that you include the last part because it decreases the possibility of the "I don't have the time" factor. If they say they can't put any time into it then, good, you know that you don't have to waste your time doing the presentation. However, if they say they are going to be busy for a specific amount of time then offer to get back to them once that time period is over. It's as simple as that. Trust me, this will save you a whole lot of time. After you find out what they want and you re- qualify them, only then will you present the opportunity, company, products, money, and timing. After the presentation is over ask them if they see the opportunity as something they want to take advantage of, and if it looks like something that could possibly get them closer to their dream. If it does, then book a follow up meeting immediately with in the next 48 hours. Moreover, the reason we use two on one presentations is because they have been found to have a higher conversion rate ratio because it involves a third party that has been properly edified before the meeting. Edification is critical in network marketing. Before you even introduce your prospect to your support team member it is important that you edify your support team member before the two of them even meet. By this, I mean, make it seem like your support team member's time is extremely valuable and make it an honor for your prospect to be able to meet him/her. By doing this, the prospect will think that your support team member really knows what he is doing and that he can learn some valuable information by listening to him. This point is critical. When it comes to the business briefings, always tell your prospects to be at the briefings 15 to 30 minutes before the actual event starts because the event before the event is where all the action happens. Make sure that you introduce your prospect to as many people as possible in hope that they find someone that they can really relate to. Never, let me repeat, NEVER talk about the business before the actual event. If the prospect ask you or your support team member what all this is about simply say, " oh, well, that's what we're going to show you in just a couple of minutes, your going to love it." Then ask them a question about themselves. The point of the event before the event is to greet and meet people. During the event; however, is serious time. Make sure you and your support team are listening attentively to the speaker and taking a lot of good notes, and always act as if it is your first time at the event. If the speaker says a joke that you have heard a hundred times before, you should still laugh at it. Furthermore, when it comes to the business briefings, a good idea is to set up half the amount of chairs as the number of people that you expect to come. The reason for this is because if people walk in, and there are more chairs than people, they are going to assume that this business you are doing isn't going so well; however, if they are walking in and you need to go get them a seat because all the rest of them are taken they are going to think that this thing you have going on must be something pretty good. It is a psychological tactic. After the event, when you gather all your prospects into your group to see how they liked the briefing, make sure that you have one of your support members with you so that they can answer any questions or objections that come up. Remember, third party always works better. Have fun with your presentations and keep them short, approximately one hour to two hours long. You wouldn't want them to go to sleep on you, now would you???
Outsource for Productivity and Cost Effective Operations
Does outsourcing works for your advantage or disadvantage? For a layman (or an individual who grasps the concept of outsourcing at a sea-level understanding), outsourcing is a complete waste of time and financial resources, which can end up with unwanted complications. Why assign work to other individuals if you know what will be good for your business? Why delegate the work to outsourcing professionals abroad if you can do much better right at your own territory? You know what is best for your business, and you don't need other individuals to deal with things that you can handle by yourself, or with the help of in-house personnel. For a politician, outsourcing will just be a political subject that can be argued in debates within the walls of Congress and newspapers. The issue will serve as a "fortified objection" to take away jobs from your own countrymen, making your business "unpatriotic." Politicians' sympathies with regards to the outsourcing issue may win him a few votes in the upcoming election, nothing more than that. However, it is the businessman who will be using the outsourcing process; not the layman, and definitely, not the politician. Thus, outsourcing for businessman is a "modern day boon." Many businessmen are aware that outsourcing provides them the freedom of dumping all of their non-core yet important aspects of their business and delegating the work to an individual or group of individuals who can give justice to the process. Thus, it will leave businessmen free from additional responsibilities and focus instead on the core of their business. On the other hand, the outsourcing firm can also focus on the specific work delegated to them, thus it is a cost-efficient business operation. That is one of the primary advantages of outsourcing. Another enticing advantage of outsourcing is being one of the cost-effective measures that you can take for your business. Businessmen are aware that information technology (IT) services and human resource in United States or in Europe are expensive, which can affect the way they hire additional manpower in case of business expansion. Outsourcing provides an option in getting highly-productive manpower in a cheaper rate. For instance, offshore outsourcing (delegating the work to off-shore destinations such as India and Philippines) is popular to U.S.-based businesses because of the cheap working rate. An ordinary American who will earn an average of $300 to $500 per month is just a small sum, but for Indians and Filipinos, they would be quite happy with this salary range considering the currency conversion rate. Thus, this is a "win-win" solution for the company you are outsourcing to as well as for your business. Another convincing advantage of outsourcing is saving substantial amounts of money in terms of the development of some aspects of your business (such as IT development). Since outsourcing involves reduced expenditures on your part, you will be able to maximize the value of your money to have your IT services developed into the latest and most powerful modern information tool. In addition, you will avoid recruiting new personnel who will handle the development as well as training them, thus reducing the recruitment and training cost for your business. The purchase of necessary technology will now be handled by the outsourcing company, thus saving money in the long run which you can use on other important business aspect. There are other advantages of outsourcing, yet the aforementioned advantages are the most noted ones. Do not be misled by rumors and gossips about outsourcing. You are the business owner and you know what is good for your business.
6 Steps in mastering the art of great conversation
Becoming a great conversationalist takes proper planning and hard work. But, mastering the art of conversation is worth it. Outstanding conversation gets noticed and so does the person behind it. Have you ever been to a social event and watched someone with an "Aw Shucks, I'm from a farm down home" look about them because they can't string two words together. They may be too shy or just have nothing to say. Either way, it's not pretty. In most cases it's not because a person can't hold a conversation, it's because they haven't prepared for conversation. As with everything in life, great conversationalists understand this simple but important tenet: proper planning prevents poor performance (P5). The following six steps should help you be better prepared when you next enter a room full of people.
1. Say something
Readers are leaders and good conversationalists. Keep up to speed with the latest events happening in your world through newspapers, television and radio. There's always something topical happening ... make sure you know about it and that you have an opinion on it.
2. Ooze with confidence
Confidence is a massively attractive trait. People like talking to confident, authoritative and powerful people because it makes them feel safe. You'll attract more people to you than bees to a honey pot if you can appear confident.
3. Eye contact is critical
Make sure that you establish good eye contact when speaking to someone. Not the Charles Manson "thousand yard stare" kind of eye contact ... that's just scary. Never break eye contact when you're busy making an important point. If you start looking like a sneaky, edgy Coyote, it puts doubt on your integrity and on the validity of your words. So does touching your face, nose and ears whilst speaking. This just makes you look like a fibber. This normally happens when you're not sure of yourself or your subject. Sigmund Freud once said that the body oozes deceit.
4. Compliments help you make friends
We all love compliments don't we? Make the compliment sincere, brief and specific. Most important of all, the compliment must be based on fact otherwise it just becomes empty flattery. For instance, if you saw someone helping an old lady carry her groceries to her car, your compliment would go something like this: "When I saw you helping that old lady with her groceries the other day, I realized that you're a kind and thoughtful person." That compliment is based on evidence. However, if you say, "That's a beautiful red tie you're wearing ... wow, you're a real go-getter and confident person." Well, that's just plain old flattery, isn't it? Wearing a red tie is certainly not evidence of any kind of personality trait, is it? Of course, if someone compliments you, you should react in an appropriate way. When you receive a compliment, simply smile and say "thank you". By doing this, you do wonders for your confidence and you acknowledge the thoughtfulness (and courage) of the person who complimented you.
5. Become a great listener
Any conversation should follow the 80/20 rule. You do 20 percent of the talking and the rest of the time you're listening. People like to talk, so let them talk. It makes them feel important and it turns you into a friend. And, the bonus is that they think you're a great conversationalist. Sometimes its hard to get someone to open up. You can get them talking by ...
6. Asking great questions
Ask elaborating questions that force a person to open up. Here are some examples: "Really?" "How did that make you feel?" "That must have been exciting. Tell me more." Try some of these tips next time you're at a cocktail party or conference and become the person people want to listen to.
1. Say something
Readers are leaders and good conversationalists. Keep up to speed with the latest events happening in your world through newspapers, television and radio. There's always something topical happening ... make sure you know about it and that you have an opinion on it.
2. Ooze with confidence
Confidence is a massively attractive trait. People like talking to confident, authoritative and powerful people because it makes them feel safe. You'll attract more people to you than bees to a honey pot if you can appear confident.
3. Eye contact is critical
Make sure that you establish good eye contact when speaking to someone. Not the Charles Manson "thousand yard stare" kind of eye contact ... that's just scary. Never break eye contact when you're busy making an important point. If you start looking like a sneaky, edgy Coyote, it puts doubt on your integrity and on the validity of your words. So does touching your face, nose and ears whilst speaking. This just makes you look like a fibber. This normally happens when you're not sure of yourself or your subject. Sigmund Freud once said that the body oozes deceit.
4. Compliments help you make friends
We all love compliments don't we? Make the compliment sincere, brief and specific. Most important of all, the compliment must be based on fact otherwise it just becomes empty flattery. For instance, if you saw someone helping an old lady carry her groceries to her car, your compliment would go something like this: "When I saw you helping that old lady with her groceries the other day, I realized that you're a kind and thoughtful person." That compliment is based on evidence. However, if you say, "That's a beautiful red tie you're wearing ... wow, you're a real go-getter and confident person." Well, that's just plain old flattery, isn't it? Wearing a red tie is certainly not evidence of any kind of personality trait, is it? Of course, if someone compliments you, you should react in an appropriate way. When you receive a compliment, simply smile and say "thank you". By doing this, you do wonders for your confidence and you acknowledge the thoughtfulness (and courage) of the person who complimented you.
5. Become a great listener
Any conversation should follow the 80/20 rule. You do 20 percent of the talking and the rest of the time you're listening. People like to talk, so let them talk. It makes them feel important and it turns you into a friend. And, the bonus is that they think you're a great conversationalist. Sometimes its hard to get someone to open up. You can get them talking by ...
6. Asking great questions
Ask elaborating questions that force a person to open up. Here are some examples: "Really?" "How did that make you feel?" "That must have been exciting. Tell me more." Try some of these tips next time you're at a cocktail party or conference and become the person people want to listen to.
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