Click on the cover below for the SPECIAL REPORT Communication barriers exist all around us. Misinterpretations abound in our discussions with team members. We delete, distort and generalise information in every conversation. And yet we think we clearly understand what others are saying and…
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What Makes An Ideal Manager? I’ve asked that question of many people on courses and they all come out with different answers, which is what should be expected. There are so many opinions about this subject, simply because it is so subjective! However, the truth…
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Take a moment and write down what you think I mean when I mention the word ‘Quality’. Go on, get a pen and write down your definition of the word. Now do the same for the words ‘Customer satisfaction’. (more…)
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Regardless of how long you’re in management, there will come a time when you will have to face the prospect of offering some kind of discipline to a staff member. Although thought of as being punishment, discipline should be seen as a way of convincing…
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You know the story…you’re right in the middle of something, and then a problem comes out of left-field. How do you react? How you face problems is one of the critical factors that helps determine how successful you will be as a manager. Many managers…
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What’s your main purpose in managing? After many years of deliberation, I believe it comes down to one main thing: the results or outcomes you achieve. Many managers we meet put a lot of emphasis on the activity they and their teams carry out. This…
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The saying goes “perception is reality”. Well, it is, as far as humans are concerned. What we perceive is real to us. As a manager, it would be appropriate to see how your team’s perceptions could be enhanced every day. (more…)
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This exercise shows how difficult it is to really take notice of things we see every day. Use it with your team in your next meeting, just to see how observant they are. Pick someone who has a lot of confidence. Make sure they are…
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Jack Welch was a respected business leader and writer and is quoted as proposing these fundamental leadership principles (notably these principles are expanded in his 2001 book ‘Jack: Straight From The Gut’): (more…)
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It’s been said that there are three types of people in business: – those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who ask “what the heck happened?”! At the start of each month, it’s a good time to analyse how you…
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Many companies are telling us that business is growing, albeit marginally, after the challenges of the last couple of years. How can companies monitor and drive this growth deliberately and proactively, rather than relying on business improving by default? An interesting model by Larry Greiner,…
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W. Edwards Deming is famous for developing a continuous quality improvement model. It’s a sequence of four steps that can take you through any project successfully and creates a benchmark for you to follow. It’s known as the PDCA model or cycle, the letters standing…
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