Archive for March, 2010

A recent report from The Institute for Employment Studies, “The Engaging Manager”, highlights some interesting learning points for managers.

The overarching finding from the research that had been undertaken was that the line manager relationship was criticised.

Other points that came up were that:

• Engaging managers tended to be happy in their current posts and still on the development curve.
• The majority regarded themselves as good internal networkers.
• It was valuable to learn from others (the good and not so good) in order to develop a style that worked for them.
• Goals and expectations needed to be clearly stated.
• Feedback was seen as an important element as was encouraging.
• They were willing to tackle poor performance even if they did not like doing this.
• They created a strong team spirit.
• They were willing to roll up their sleeves when it was necessary.
• They supported the development of team members.
• They were very open.
• They were able to balance autonomy and monitoring progress.

So I wonder how you stack up as a manager when it comes to engaging others?

For a summary of the report go to The Institute for Employment Studies 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

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (“NICE”), which recently published some new guidelines on promoting mental wellbeing, estimates that stress, depression and anxiety is costing UK employers an estimated £23.3 billion per year.

By any stretch of the imagination, this is a huge figure and one which, when tackled, can add directly to the bottom line results of the organisation. Amongst its recommendations, NICE suggests:

• A strategic and co-ordinated approach to promoting employees’ mental wellbeing.
• Assessing opportunities for promoting employees’ mental well being and managing risks.
• Looking at opportunities for flexible working.
• Training and re-enforcing the role of line managers.
• Supporting smaller businesses and medium sized businesses.

At a time when many organisations are facing real pressures financially, there could be a golden opportunity to improve people and financial performance.

For more information visit the NICE 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

If you are reading this post, I am guessing that progressing your career might be important to you. So what barriers might be stopping you from moving to the next level?

1. You are great at working alone on activities but struggle at managing.
2. You have not kept your skills up to date.
3. You don’t believe in yourself and what you have to offer.
4. You are more afraid of failing than trying to succeed.
5. You are not clear about what you want from your next role.
6. You don’t sell yourself effectively in your resume or CV.
7. You struggle to sell yourself at interviews.
8. You understate your achievements.
9. You won’t ask for help to get to the next level.
10. You are not willing to invest in acquiring the skills, training or mentoring to make it to the next level.

Truth is every step in your career brings with it new challenges. So what do you need to focus on to get to the next level?

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 or manager, your ability to solve problems is a key contributor to your success. Trouble is that people, in their desire to get an answer and move on to the next thing, fail to effectively deal with problems.

Often part of the challenge is that people either:

• Fail to explore the problem or
• Jump too quickly to judgement about what will and what won’t work.

So, what’s the answer to this dilemma?

1. Make sure that you and everyone else understands what the problem really is. Keep digging until you get to the heart of the problem.
2. Separate the process of evaluating ideas from generating ideas so that you don’t evaluate too quickly.
3. Don’t discount ideas or put people down who seem to be coming up with what initially seem like off the wall ideas.
4. Encourage people to ask questions to really explore the ideas being put forward.
5. Don’t mock or make fun of people who challenge what’s possible. They might be the people with the breakthrough ideas.
6. Encourage people to build on an idea and add to it to come up with an even better idea.

The truth is many ideas are lost before they have even had a proper airing. So what other tips would you add so that people avoid pouring cold water on good 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

When I was studying for my accountancy exams, one of the topics we covered was limiting factors. More recently I have been noticing that we all have the same ultimate limiting factor: 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week and 744 hours in a 31 day month. So how can you make the most of the ultimate limiting factor?

1. Determine what things are most critical to your success or results that you want to achieve.
2. Prioritise every day so that your time and energies go first on those things that contribute most to your results.
3. Work in short, focussed blocks rather than long, marathon sessions.
4. Minimise the distractions that get in the way of you getting things done.
5. Build some slack into the schedule to deal with those surprises or emergencies that occur from time to time.
6. Track where your time is going and make adjustments if it is not being invested appropriately.

I wonder what tips you would add to make the most of your ultimate limiting factor?

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