Archive for August, 2010

It’s interesting just how often, when a group of managers are asked what motivates people, they put money close to the top of the list.

Of course we all need to earn to live but in itself money is not a long term motivator. Once people feel that they are fairly rewarded for their efforts, they cease to see money as a motivator.

On the other hand, what people are craving far more of is feedback.

Feedback lets employees know:

• How they are performing.
• What they are doing well.
• They are appreciated and their success matters to you.

So the question is, are you making the time to give feedback? If not, you are probably missing out on the lowest cost form of motivation that there is.

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 have certain expectations in what others will deliver. The chances are you will write these down once agreed. The trouble is that often there is a missing link in the process and that link is ‘follow up’.

If you don’t follow up, a number of things will happen:

1. Those that you lead will not take you seriously.
2. People will fail to deliver what they have agreed to because they know that there will be no consequences.
3. Others who have a habit of making sure that they always deliver will stop bothering as they will become demotivated.

Follow up sets your stall out as a leader, shows that you are serious and provides that vital feedback that so many people are crying out for. So what changes do you need to make to follow up more effectively?

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

Everyone knows the power of setting goal and many find it a stuggle.

What can you do to improve things?

As always if you have a top tip, why not go ahead and leave a comment.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements works with accountants and health professionals to help them to realise their professional potential through becoming highly rated managers and leaders.

As a leader, you need to be willing to take decisions. So how can you get better at taking decisions?

1. Avoid jumping too quickly to solution mode.
2. Weigh up the pros and cons and then act.
3. Remember, a 70% perfect decision is much better than no decision.
4. Never forget that it is much easier to modify something you have than start with a blank canvas.
5. Accept that you will never have perfect information.
6. Don’t let fear stop you.

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

So if you are reading this, I am guessing that you are an aspiring leader. For professional people who want to move into a leadership role, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that technical skills are most important. The reality is they are taken for granted. So what six things do employers look for from aspiring leaders?

1. Good team players.
2. Innovation and an ability to create and make change happen.
3. Good effective decision making skills.
4. Strong influencing skills and the ability to take people with them.
5. A track record of achievements.
6. Potential to progress in the future rather than the finished article.

So 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

Let’s face it; we all have times when we say things in a way that we later regret.

While we are all human, if you are finding that your normal default is towards destructive comments, it’s time to take action.

If your default style is to use destructive comments, you will:

• Make yourself unpopular.
• De-motivate others.
• Alienate yourself.
• Stop any creativity or risk taking.

So if you want more success through others when leading, focus on tackling and addressing the way you provide comments.

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

Research shows that ‘appreciation for a job well done’ consistently ranks highly as a motivator in employee surveys. Yet research also shows that most people don’t feel they get enough praise. So what’s going on? Putting aside the fact that it’s likely that some of our survey participants feel they should be praised for turning up every morning, my view is that managers are sometimes reluctant to give praise because they’ve had experiences of being praised themselves in ways that, frankly, haven’t motivated them at all.  And, of course, they’re not over keen on having the same effect on their staff. It’s actually quite easy to deliver praise badly – praise that is seen as patronising or manipulative by the recipient. But done well, its dynamite. Here are five ways to do it well          

1. Prepare the praise

It’s interesting that many of the managers I know will spend literally hours preparing to give criticism, but only a matter of minutes (if at all) preparing to give praise. The result? A passing comment (literally) on the lines of ‘nice job Doug, keep it up’ Say what? Which job? The whole job? Keep what up? Not only is this type of praise confusing but, by and large, it’s not wildly motivating. Top tip – spend as much time preparing to give praise as you would to give criticism      

2. Be Specific

Describe exactly what you are praising and why. Try the following method:

• When you….
• What happened was…
• And the result is….

E.g. When I showed the client the research you had done on their business she said she was really impressed by the insights you had provided. The result is she wants us to make a proposal for a further piece of business. That’s a really good outcome for us so thank you and well done

3. Show genuine interest

Ask questions to better understand what the staff member did, for example, what preparation they did for a successful presentation, how they managed to design such effective visual aids. Describe how you feel about what they’ve done e.g. pleased, impressed, excited (the hug and kiss might be slightly over doing it)

4. Let the praise stand alone

Don’t be tempted to mix the praise with criticism e.g. That was a great presentation. If only your written work was as good. Deal with the written work issue at a different time –unless, of course, you’re a fan of the ‘tall poppy syndrome’.         

5. Do it quickly and time it well

Give your praise as soon after the event as possible – it has far more impact. Be careful not to give the praise at a time when it will appear conditional or a ‘softening up’ process e.g. just before you delegate a task or ask for the person to work late

Public or Private?

There’s an old saying ‘praise in public, criticise in private’. Though I wholeheartedly agree with the latter I’m not totally convinced by the former. Of course the principle is sound. We want other staff to hear the praise and understand what we are praising because we hope that they will want to emulate those behaviours or achievements. But not everyone is comfortable being singled out in this way and some people find accepting praise in front of their colleagues embarrassing. My advice would be to deliver the praise in private. You can then ask the staff member if they are happy for you to share the praise with their colleagues – say in the next team meeting – and take it from there

 And a few final tips

If the performance you are praising is exceptional, you will probably want to bring this to the attention of your boss and possibly higher. If you have a reward system which is credible you may want to utilise this. In any event, it’s a good idea to follow up your conversation with the staff member in writing (a note will do) and to copy that note to your performance files

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers, team leaders and supervisors learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. You can watch free videos at http://www.10mmt.com/watch-videos/

Habit 1
• Not knowing what to stop doing.

Habit 2

• Not pushing yourself and simply cruising.

Habit 3

• Not giving recognition to others.

Habit 4

• Making excuses more than delivering results.

Habit 5

• Passing the buck and not taking responsibility.

The more senior you become in the organisation, the tougher it can be to maintain some form of work / life balance.

So what simple tips do I suggest for improving work / life balance?

Tip 1: Set deadlines
• Have you ever noticed that when you set a deadline for getting something done or a timescale to do something, you somehow do it? Setting a deadline is a bit like setting an intention which sends a signal to your mind.

Tip 2: Prioritise well

• Whether you believe it or not, some things are more important than others. Make the point of identifying and prioritising how you will use your time.

Tip 3: Be well organised

• Being able to find things when you need them, whether in a computer or filing cabinet, can pay big dividends.

Tip 4: Plan things out of work

• If you don’t, you will just end up staying that extra half hour, which will in reality end up being two hours.

Tip 5: Ask for help

• Don’t suffer in silence. Ask for help if you are struggling.

Tip 6: Focus on what matters

• Rather than stuff that keeps you busy.

Tip 7: Learn to switch off

• Tough as it might be, you need to be able to switch off.

The truth is, maintaining a healthy work / life balance can actually enhance your performance. So what’s your first step?

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

One of the biggest transitions that you will face in your career is successfully transitioning to a leadership role.

In this short video I will be sharing my tips on successfully transitioning to leadership.

If you have some great tips to add to make the transition successful please go ahead and leave a comment.