One of the key roles of anyone who is managing is to get results through others.  To get others to deliver results for you, it is vital that you motivate them.  Managers often believe that pay and rewards are the key things that motivate people.  Without doubt pay and rewards play a part of motivating people you manage but contrary to common belief, they are not the primary motivators of the majority of staff. 

The truth is that is often things that cost little or nothing which motivate.  For example:

• Saying thank you when people have put in extra effort
• Praising people when they have done a good job
• Offering opportunities to acquire new skills or experience

What do you find is most powerful when it comes to motivating others?

The role of the leader can sometimes be difficult for those not in leadership roles to understand.  From my experience there are 6 key functions of  business leaders:

1. Providing the overall long term direction
2. Selecting the right strategies to achieve the overall long term direction
3. Making things happen without taking on all of the execution
4. Getting the right structure in place
5. Motivating and inspiring others
6. Develop people and in particular successors who will carry on the good work that they have done

I wonder what you would add to the list.  Leave a comment and let me know.

I wonder how often we all say or hear others say that there is not enough time. Trouble is we cannot add to the number of hours available in a day, week or month. As a result it is how we use and manage the time that we have have available that matters. For me there are three key questions to answer in improving your time management.

1. What are my priorities?
2. Where am I spending my time?
3. What are my time stealers?

What other questions would you add to the list?

I was reading in the November 2008 edition of the magazine Professional Manager that the Chartered Management Institute’s President Sir John Sunderland sees Change Management as one of the most in demand skills over the next 10 years.

In the currently challenging economy it is easy to see why that would be the case.  I am also wondering what other skills people see as vital over the next 10 years.  Leave a reply with your thoughts

Teams exist to deliver results and when they do it well they deliver much more than any one of us could do individually.  Pillars are the foundations that contribute to success and include:

1. Having a common purpose or goal
2. High levels of trust
3. Good communication
4. Positiveness
5. Proactiveness
6. Strong results focus

What else would you add?

The ultimate role of leaders is deliver results.  A drive for results is not enough to be successful as a leader.  The qualities of the most successful leaders that I have been fortunate to work with include:

1. Taking responsibility for making things happen.
2. Acting with integrity even when times are tough.
3. Getting on with taking decisions.
4. Deal with facts.
5. Inspiring others to give that bit of extra effort by being a role model.
6. Optimistic or what I would call glass half full people.
7. Resilient and able to bounce back from setbacks.
8. Drive for excellence and continuous improvement.

What qualities have you noticed in successful leaders?

A lot of people talk about not having enough time.  However, the amount of time we have available is not going to increase.  There are only 24 hours in day or 168 hours in a week.  It is how we use that time that matters.  We all have things that I call time stealers.  These time stealers take our attention away from the things that matter to getting results.  They include things like:

• E-mail
• Text messaging
• Surfing the internet
• Chatting on the phone during work time

What are your biggest time stealers and what have you found to be most effective in addressing them?

In the currently challenging economic climate, many organisations are having to embark on financial turnaround or financial survival projects.  While these might be necessary, what mistakes is it important to avoid?

1. Seeing it as something for the accountants rather than business change projects.
2. Focusing too much on quick fixes.
3. Deck chair shuffling.  In other words making the easy changes while ignoring the big stuff.
4. Short term focus rather than trying to create sustainable success over the longer term.
5. Failing to give sufficient time to people to make the change happen.

What additional mistakes do you see when it comes to financial turnaround projects?

There are many differing views on leadership styles.  What differentiates styles is the degree to which one directs rather than involves.  There are 5 key styles of leadership:

1. Telling or the just do it style which is good to use in times of crisis or emergency.
2. Telling and selling where you tell what needs to happen and why.  It is a good style to use when significant change is needed.
3. Consultation where you want ideas and views but retain the final decision making authority.  This is used significantly by public bodies who need to formally consult with all stakeholders.
4. Participation where a group or team takes collective responsibility for the problem and decisions.
5. Empowerment where you state the outcome you want and leave it to one or more people to work out how to achieve it.  Works well with highly skilled and experienced people.

We all have our preferred style.  What’s your preferred style and what are the benefits and drawbacks of it?  Leave a comment and let me know.

We all have experienced times when we were part of a great team and there are other times when we struggle along in isolation.  In my experience there are 6 main benefits of team working:

1. More creativity leading to more ideas and better results
2. Increased employee satisfaction
3. The opportunity to develop and acquire new skills
4. The speed at which things can be achieved
5. A sounding board for testing out ideas and thoughts
6. A support network that you can draw on

What do you consider to be some of the additional benefits of team working?