King Lear and Satan offering advice on how to have more effective business meetings? No kidding – there are tips in here from five places you never would have looked. And I’ve seen most of them work in real life!
What causes worry, stress and anxiety in employees? Unclear job requirements. Here are a few suggestions for improving employee job ownership and satisfaction by creating clear performance agreements.
Want to make a New Year’s resolution that you’ll really keep this time? Maybe put this pandemic to work for you? Use the basics of “results management” to keep yourself on track.
All three steps – Alignment OF the people, Production BY the people, and Accomplishment FOR the people – are needed for effective management. Drop out one step and you are likely to diminish or prevent the alignment, the productivity, and the accomplishment. Management isn’t difficult when you break it down to what you want: the people engaged in their work, the job done well, and the real-world satisfaction for all in its accomplishment.
I’ve been clearing out – very slowly – the client files from my career as a management consultant. I found some notes on what one workshop leader – I’ll call him Alex – said about “how to be a good manager”, and as you’ll see below, I didn’t agree with him on several of his […]
We sometimes hear about “living up to expectations”, but it’s time to recognize that it’s impossible to do such a thing without a few prerequisite conditions. We would be better off insisting that people practice communication instead of expectation.
Don’t look for accountability in a person. Create the structures and agreements that support a shared understanding of Who is responsible for producing What results and When those results are due. Then establish regular meetings to update the status of those agreements and modify them as needed.
What is “performance management”? Tracking how many hours people are at work? Or tracking the results they produce? Hmmm. It’s easier to watch the clock than do the real work of managing performance.
We used to think people should “just do their jobs”. That day is pretty much gone. Now that we need to reinvent the job – often, and sometimes every day – we’d better get really good at productive communication.
On-the-job training should focus first on what people will be accountable for producing and/or delivering. You can add the secondary matters of importance after they are clear about what counts most.
Awarded "Best Management Book" by 800-CEO-READ.
Rated #5 "Best Business Book" by The Toronto Globe and Mail.