8 Simple Steps to Management Success

I found this great list of eight steps to ensure your success as a manager. I think it is a common sense foundation to all success in leading others. I hope it helps you. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me find a citation for the original author....

STEP ONE: DECIDE TO BE A STRONG MANAGER.
Recognize this as a huge commitment. It requires time, energy, effort and consistency. It’s going to change your role at work and your relationships. It’s going to be a hard transition. You have to make sure, before you start, that you are really sure.

STEP TWO: START TUNING IN INFORMALLY.
First, stop talking about everything under the sun with your people and start talking about the work. Start by asking questions. You will start to learn who is doing what where why when and how. Second, start finding other ways to gather information about who is doing what where why when and how.

STEP THREE: KEEP TUNING IN: THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT EVERY INDIVIDUAL YOU NEED TO MANAGE.
Make a list of every person you need to manage. Remember that every person is different and you’ll need to customize your approach to managing each person.

STEP FOUR: MAKE A PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE FOR MANAGING PEOPLE.
Remember that the centerpiece of managing people more closely is maintaining an ongoing conversation---or coaching dialogue---with every person about the work that person is doing. Just like everything else, your schedule of management conversations is going to be a moving target. But just like everything else, you have to start somewhere.

STEP FIVE: CREATE A TRACKING SYSTEM.
You need a system to monitor, measure, and document each person’s performance on an ongoing basis. Over time you’ll refine a system that works for you. The most important thing with a tracking system is that you actually use it.

STEP SIX: GO PUBLIC.
Before you sit down with the people you manage, you should think about the other key people you need to prepare. Your boss would be a good place to start. Then other key managers and colleagues. Next consider a team meeting.

STEP SEVEN: START ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS WITH EVERY PERSON YOU MANAGE.
Now there is nothing left to do but start managing people more closely. This is what it’s all about. This is where you start the ongoing conversation---or coaching dialogue---with every person about the work that person is doing.

STEP EIGHT: STAY FLEXIBLE.
People change. Circumstances change. You’ll have to keep adjusting your approach every step of the way.

Try taking these actions and watch your results - it really does work!

Poetry on Leadership

which are you...?

Tearing Down Or Building Up?

I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town;
With a heave-ho and a lusty yell
They swung a beam, and the building fell.

I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled,
And the men you’d hire if you had to build?"
He gave a laugh and said, "No, indeed,
Just common labor is all I need;
I can easily wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken a year to do."

And I thought to myself as I went my way,
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by the rule and square?

Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made plan,
Patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
Content with the labor of tearing down?

Roe Parham Fulkerson (1870-1949)

Practical Motivation for People in Teams

Set challenging targets, but make sure they are realistic and achievable. Try to involve people in determining their own objectives. People need to feel in control.

Brief the team regularly on progress and what is happening in the organisation.
Use on-going success as a motivator.

Get people involved in planning work and innovating: use ideas from individuals and the team.

Increase individuals' responsibility by delegating more. Allocate work in such a way that everyone has a chance to take on more responsibility and gain more expertise.

If possible allow people maximum scope to vary the methods, sequence and pace of their work.

Ensure that the relationship between effort and reward is clearly defined.

Provide opportunities to coaching, training and development.

Catch people doing something right and say so!

source:http://www.resultsthroughpeople.co.uk/topics.asp

Tips for a Winning Holiday Recruitment Strategy

6 Tips for Creating a Winning Holiday Recruitment Strategy for Hourly Workers!

When it comes to the holiday hiring of hourly workers, employers need to put together a recruitment plan well before the radio stations start playing "Jingle Bell Rock". Here's a list of six tips from SnagAJob.com you can use in your holiday recruitment process:

1. Get an early start. Advertise open positions as early as October in order to snatch up quality employees before other companies beat you to it. Use an integrated recruitment strategy including "Help Wanted" signs, newspaper ads and online job postings.

2. Interview equally. Use a similar interview process for temporary employees as you would for permanent ones. Remember: You want qualified workers with an interest in the industry, not just available bodies.

3. Keep an open mind. Although you're initially only looking for seasonal employees, holiday employees could become valued workers to whom you want to offer a more steady position later on – or at least invite back for future seasonal / temporary engagements.

4. Play up the perks. Highlight benefits in job postings and reiterate them during interviews. Keep in mind that job seekers are consumers too, and with family and friends to buy gifts for, they'll appreciate an employee discount on merchandise or free meals to help cut costs.

5. Focus on quality over quantity. Although the window of time may be tight when it comes to seasonal hiring, avoid offering jobs to just anyone who submits an application. Look for people who can stay focused during the holiday rush or who you would want to ask back next holiday season.

6. Give some direction. Set up a holiday orientation or training session before the rush starts. This will save you time training people on the job when business really gets crazy.

The holidays can be a hectic time both in your personal and professional life, so you can't afford to be shorthanded or hire the wrong employees. Use these tips when you're putting together a recruitment strategy for seasonal hourly workers and your holiday hiring season will go as smoothly a glass of eggnog after a Black Friday shopping spree.

How Advance Corporate Training incorporates brain-based learning

Advance Corporate Training Ltd. (ACT) is a brain-based learning specialist - our logo represents the six key secrets to ensuring learning takes hold in the learner and can transfer back to the workplace. Here are the six secrets and why engaging each one of them encourages higher learning levels.

Personal Relevance
(Association Cortex)
When we associate learning with what we already know, we are more open to a new idea. Info that supports our existing knowledge is better retained and transferred on-the-job.

Kinesthetic Learning
(Motor Cortex)
When we are engaged physically while learning, our brain operates more efficiently and we are better able to apply learned skills consistently.

Emotion & Engagement
(Somatosensory Cortex)
Emotion is often missing in many adult learning environments. When we emotionally connect to the material we learn more and deeper. ACT designs all its courses to engage this cortex.

Auditory Learning
(Auditory Cortex)
When we listen and speak we deepen our understanding. This cortex needs time to engage, so the start of all conversations should be “losable” data.

Visual Learning
(Visual Cortex)
We all need to have visual stimulation to be energized by learning. If we visualize our changed performance, we are more able to achieve it.

Broca's Area
Our ability to communicate clearly and to understand complex concepts is controlled here. Without learning that engages this area of the brain, we know but we don't understand and can't share our knowledge. True learning occurs after we achieve understanding, and performance change can not occur without understanding. This area was identified in 1861 by Pierre Paul Broca to be the “seat of articulation”.

Quick lesson on leadership

Here is a great "quick read" on leadership...

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