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Business Management Information
I Cant Use This Approach Unless My Boss Does - Power, Accountability, and Consequences
People who work with us often struggle with this dilemma: in theory, they come to believe that it would be very helpful to use our approach with people who have more power than they do, and in practice, sometimes it seems too risky to try. Some examples of things that feel too risky include raising questions with your boss about his or her performance, disagreeing publicly with people who have more power , or otherwise sharing information that might lead you or the person in power to feel put on the sp ot.
Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Improving Workplace Safety
This article relates to the Safety and Working Environment competency and explores how your employees feel with regard to their physical and environmental working conditions, the quality of their equipment and tools, and overall attention to safety within the workplace. Every organization is responsible for ensuring the health and safety of their employees. An unsafe working environment can lead to accidents, lawsuits, and missed work. Such incidents can result in significant costs to your organization. The questions included in this competency will investigate whether your staff is satisfied with the organization's facilities, whether they believe business is being conducted in a safe manner, and if the tools and equipment provided are adequate to successfully and safely complete their jobs.
Transparency: A Key To Your Effectiveness
Last month I talked about the Skilled Facilitator principle of being curious. This month I want to talk about the complementary principle transparency. Transparency has recently become a popular topic in business as organizations seek to build (or rebuild) trust with customers, shareholders, and employees. This morning as I opened the op-ed page of my Sunday New York Times, the title read, "The New Public [NY Times] Editor: Toward Greater Transparency." Whether you are a leader, consultant, facilitator or a team member, being transparent can help you build relationships and create positive results in ways you didn't think possible.
How to Reduce Temporary Employee Turnover
The use of temporary services to stock a farm of employees is beneficial in a number of ways for an employer, and detrimental in others; but the one that will always be heard is that good labor is hard to find when using these services.
Dont Take New Hires for Granted
Hiring good people is only half the battle. The other half is keeping them, especially in a relatively strong economy where quality people are difficult to attract.
Five Steps to Successful Business Succession
The great majority of family businesses in North America are still owned and operated by descendants of the founder. The business acumen that these first, second, third, and sometimes fourth generation managers possess largely determines how much longer the business will remain under family control. To perpetuate a business, the current owners and managers must first identify and then prepare a successor to take the reins.
Saying One Thing, Doing Another...
This week I was asked to speak at an internal conference for a bank. The subject was how to build a great customer experience. However, the reality was somewhat different to the title. I sat listening to speaker after speaker - all coming along with the same message ?how can we stuff more products into our clients and achieve our targets?.
Behavioral Extensions and Its Implications at Workplaces
The study of Behavioral extension involves investigating the source of an actual demonstrated behavioral action. According to Behavioral Extension belief, no action can be seen as a disconnected expression. Every action is a result of deep set embedded Behavioral sets that are almost unalterable. The unalterable Behavioral set is a result of rooted beliefs and/or prejudices built and integrated into the psyche as a part of growing up. This Psyche ends up dictating the very personality of a person. Most people on their part are not aware of their own personality construct. This awareness if existent is what is known as ?Self Awareness?.
Having Your Phil
February 2nd, at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Gobbler?s Knob in a small town in western Pennsylvania, 20,000 people and a national radio and television audience anxiously await the prognostication of America?s favorite furry forecaster. In a tradition dating back 119 years, Punxsutawney Phil emerges from hibernation?and if he sees his shadow, it?s back into the burrow for six more weeks of cold weather.
Performance Appraisal Scenarios: Improve Your Communication
IMPROVING COMMUNICATION DURING THE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL:
If the employee has trouble getting started on the self-appraisal you might say: ?Why don?t you start by talking about the XYZ project?? (Pick a topic that the employee will feel comfortable with, a success rather than a failure.) ?It seems to me that the PDQ project was harder than we expected. What?s your perspective on that?? ?I know this sort of thing is hard to do. Start wherever you like. I?m eager to hear what these past six months have been like from your point of view.?
Influencing the Organisation
There is a saying about management that suggests some managers are so focussed on the details of a business, that when the Titanic was sinking those particular managers were still straightening chairs in the dining room. Whether we love ?em or hate ?em, managers are here to stay, and their job is fundamentally to manage the resources within an organisation for optimum efficiency and effectiveness, and by doing so to achieve the organisation?s goals. To help them do this they have the gift of authority and power over the organisation?s resources.
CEOs Role in Family Business
I first met Roland (not his real name) in 1972. He was a high school student working a summer job in his father?s business.
Management Apathy
I recently received a most interesting phone call.
You Get the Behavior You Reward
On consulting assignments, here are some of the questions I frequently ask the employees I interview:
Business Relationship Germs
In management seminars I often compare debt to an infection. A reasonable amount of debt will not kill a business, but too much debt will. While most businesses carry a substantial amount of debt from time to time, it must be maintained in an acceptable relationship to stockholder?s equity.
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