Archive for March, 2010

One of the most common reasons why people don’t invest in developing themselves is a lack of budget. Yet in truth there are many low cost ways to develop yourself that cost little or nothing, such as:

1. Borrowing a book from the library, reading it and implementing one or two ideas.
2. Signing up for free newsletters.
3. Attending a professional association CPD event.
4. Shadowing someone senior in the organisation.
5. Taking on responsibility for a project.

So what else would you add to the list? Why not leave a comment with your ideas?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Most managers, leaders and staff have one thing in common. They all have a limited amount of time available to them. So what are 3 good reasons for managers to delegate?

Reason 1: You focus on what you should be doing

The alternative is spending lots of time on activities that you should not be doing and may be no-one should be doing.

Reason 2: You are free to take on new challenges

New challenges provide you with the opportunity to grow and develop new skills and gain new experience.

Reason 3: You give your staff the chance to develop

The staff that you manage generally want to grow and develop. By delegating tasks to them, you give them the opportunity to grow and develop.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Much is written in the area of success. While it is easy to come up with a long list of things that contribute to success, I have found that there are 3 essential components in achieving success:

Right Mindset

More and more people are talking about the importance of having the right mindset and it really can make a difference. If for example you lack belief in what you can offer, it will come across. Having the right mindset is about believing in yourself and your ability to get the result that you want, even when you are not sure how.

Personal Responsibility

When you want to achieve something, you need to take personal responsibility for making it happen. By doing this, you are giving a clear message to yourself that it is down to you. You certainly can enlist the help and support of others but ultimately no-one else can do the work but you.

Active Choice

It is easy to be passive about the choices you make. Remember that every time you say “yes” to one thing, you are saying “no” to something else. Practise actively choosing rather than passively allowing things to happen if you want to achieve success.

The Bottom Line

The truth is, achieving anything worthwhile is going to be a challenge. I wonder what else you would add to the list of essential components?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

1. Maintaining morale and keeping people positive.
2. Generating new and different ideas to tackle old and long standing problems.
3. Dealing effectively with the underperformers.
4. Getting everyone to pull together, especially when they have different values or aspirations.
5. Dealing with the dominant people who try to railroad everything to suit their circumstances.

What else would you add?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Leading a team brings both challenges and rewards, so what are 10 key things that you need to be doing to successfully lead a team?

1. Be a great listener. Use your ears and mouth in the correct proportion.
2. Take decisions and don’t procrastinate. Remember, decisions lead to action and action leads to results.
3. Be clear about what you are trying to achieve.
4. Delegate as much as you can.
5. Be a role model for great team behaviour.
6. Be authentic and don’t put on an act.
7. Step into others’ shoes and look at things from their perspective.
8. Take responsibility when things don’t go to plan.
9. Encourage everyone to air their views and make their contribution.
10. Facilitate overcoming the obstacles that get in the way of team success.

The Bottom Line

Team leadership can make a huge difference to the results delivered. What do you need to do more of to get better results?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

With the massive gap in public finances, the public sector is facing up to the period of expenditure reductions. This will without doubt require many changes to be made if the economy is to get into a solid footing again. So what lessons should leaders in the public sector bear in mind when it comes to making change?

1. Others don’t see it as important

   It is fine for those at the top of the organisation to talk about the challenges and possible actions. Yet, if they are to happen, sufficient numbers at different levels need to see the importance of making change.

2. People are not equipped to deal with change

   When I worked in the public sector, either as an employee or as a consultant, I came across many people who cared passionately about what they did. They were great within their area but had never received any training in the area of change. If you are going to deliver success through a change initiative, you need to equip people to make it happen.

3. They don’t paint a picture

   I don’t mean this literally but, if you want to get people to buy in to any sort of change, you need to clearly show what’s going to be different from the present.

4. They fix things but don’t change hearts and minds

   Changes to processes and practices might require some effort but essentially they can be done. Changing hearts and minds so that people accept the new way rather than harping back about the good old days is the real challenge.

The Bottom Line

Change brings with it fear, anxiety and a desire to hold on to things even if they are not great. The challenge for the leader is to make the change compelling enough to people who can make it happen.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

“Too much to do, too little time”, is an all too familiar cry these days. So what can you do to get more done and achieve better results?

1. Know what’s important and priority and what is just a time filler.
2. Set yourself challenging but realistic targets for each day, week and month.
3. Set start and finish times for every task.
4. Don’t leave things half completed otherwise you end up with a whole lot of work in progress.
5. Get organised so that you can find things.
6. Automate whenever you can to boost productivity.

What additional tips would you add?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

As a leader, you probably started out life in a particular discipline or function. In order to make the step successfully from functional expert to leader, it is vital that you have a broader range of knowledge. This includes:

1. Finance – you don’t need to be an expert in accounting but you do need to be able to make sense of a financial report.
2. Marketing – strategies, techniques, tactics.
3. Sales – and what motivates people to buy.
4. Production and processes – and how to make these as effective as possible.
5. Customer service – and customer relationships.
6. Technology – and how to use it to good effect in the delivery of objectives.
7. Strategy – and business planning.
8. Performance management – and performance reporting.
9. Human resources – and people management.
10. Corporate governance – and risk management.

What else would you add to the list?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

There are many different styles that a leader can adopt and one size rarely fits all. So what are the key traits of leaders who adopt a coaching style?

1. They are great listeners.
2. They help others to solve their own problems.
3. They use questions to deepen understanding.
4. They don’t fix everything personally.
5. They encourage balanced risk taking.
6. They are supportive.
7. They empower.

I wonder what other traits you would add. Why not leave a comment with your ideas?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

A report by the Chartered Management Institute, published in December 2009, entitled, Innovation For The Recovery, identified the following 10 Barriers To Innovation:

1. Excessive financial constraint
2. Lack of time
3. Lack of resources
4. Risk aversion and fear of failure
5. Organisational hierarchy
6. Unclear leadership
7. Insufficient incentives
8. Insufficient training
9. Insufficient talent
10. Lack of autonomy.

To overcome the barriers to innovation, it is suggested that:

1. There is more management support.
2. Leaders model behaviours.
3. The right team needs to be set up.
4. Autonomy and freedom need to be encouraged.
5. Failure needs to be tolerated.
6. Opportunities to network.
7. Allocation of dedicated resources.
8. Appropriate incentives and reward.

At a time when the UK and many world economies are facing real challenges, innovation is surely part of the solution. An executive summary of the report is available at CMI’s website.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here