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

A new report from The CIMA Centre of Excellence at the University of Bath (Finance Transformation - The Evolution to Value Creation) identifies 14 business partnering characteristics:

1. Advises on and supports decision making throughout the organisation.
2. Supports the management of risk and complexity.
3. Is valued by other parts of the organisation for the support it gives to their activities.
4. Is usually involved in the development and implementation of strategy.
5. Always advises managers on the business implications of data it produces.
6. Plays an active role in decisions on the business portfolio.
7. Originates cost reduction strategies for the whole organisation.
8. Is proactive in generating forward looking information to influence business strategy.
9. Directly communicates with external stakeholders concerning business performance.
10. Is involved in the organisation’s environmental, social and governance performance.
11. Initiates and leads change.
12. Leads in the identification and assessment of new business opportunities.
13. Doesn’t focus mainly on financial information.
14. Doesn’t undertake the traditional accounting work.

So if you are in or leading a finance function in a business, how well does your team stack up against these 14 characteristics?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. For more information click here

Put the same problem in front of 10 different groups in any organisation and they will all view it differently.  We all, to a greater or lesser extent view things through our own unique lens or perspective.

Let’s look at something that is probably quite topical in organisations right now, which is cost reduction.  One area of commonality is that every individual or group will be thinking what does it me for me or us. 

On the other hand if you asked people for their views on how others might view the issue, you might hear something like the following:

“The accountants will be in their element and finally feel like they are doing something useful”

“At last an opportunity to reign in those rogues in sales and marketing who never pay attention to any financial procedures”

“The CEO is only interested in engaging us to save his or her own skin”

“I hope that they don’t expect us to contribute as we are already cut to the bone in terms of staffing”

“No doubt it will be the lowest paid and least respected that will get a rough deal”

So if you are the leader who is trying to move things forward, how can you utilise these different perspectives?

Listen a lot

The real challenge is to get to the heart of the issue and that requires you to listen.  You often find that what they are presenting as the surface level problem is not the real issue.

Ask questions

Questions are another great way of really understanding the different perspectives.  Combine this with great listening and you are going to be well ahead of most.

Stand back from the detail

It is all too easy when times are tough and difficult choices need to be made to unconsciously become a collaborator.  While you need to listen and understand, don’t let it result in you losing sight of the issue or challenge.

Be open

In organisations, it is often the people closest to the point of delivery that come up with the best solutions.  Be open to these opportunities rather than needing to be right.

Bottom Line – We all to a greater or lesser extent view challenges through one lens. The challenge to be more successful when it comes to team effectiveness is learning to understand and utilise the different perspectives.

As a leader you recognise that more can be achieved collectively than you could individually.  Yet in my experience, leaders often make mistakes that stifle rather than encourage performance.  Are you making one or more of these mistakes?

Mistake 1: Holding on to things out of habit rather than neccessity.

Mistake 2: Playing at pretend empowerment where you keep interfering and checking up.

Mistake 3: Having to be right and so not listening effectively to others contributions.

Mistake 4: Needing to be liked rather than respected and letting popularity cloud your decision making.

What else would you add to the list?  Go ahead and leave your comment.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps orgnisations to get great results through teams.  To find out more click here

Well it was week 3 of the 2009 series of Dragons’ Den and as always there was the usual range of diverse ideas.  So what can we learn from this week’s pitches?

1. When it comes to seeking finance from an investor you need to be able to demonstrate that there is a sufficiently large market to take the product or service to.
2. You need to be able to hold your nerve under intense scrutiny and not panic even though it is tough.
3. You presentation does not always need to be super slick.  It is whether it gets you the result that you desire that counts.
4. Know your boundaries when it comes to a negotiation as it makes decisions easier.
5. Working with an experienced and successful business person can really be the catalyst to success.

What lessons would you add from your observations?  Why not leave a comment with your thoughts.

1. It is after the event and historical
2. It is rarely real time
3. It is subject to accounting rules which can lead you to believe that you are doing okay (because you are in profit) when you don’t have cash to meet obligations
4. Money by itself creates nothing.  It is what you do with it that results in creativity
5. No financial managers don’t make the connection between what they do operationally and money

A pay freeze or even a pay cut is not unusual in tough economic times.  Given this situation it might seem that it is impossible to motivate people.

Yet study after study tells us that money alone is rarely a motivator in the long term.  So what are the alternatives:

1. Praise people regularly
2. Say thank you when people have gone out of their way to deliver
3. Keep people informed through regular communication
4. Give people challenging and rewarding work

What else would you suggest?

We reached week 7 of The Apprentice last night.  This week the teams were required to select two products from a choice of 12 and sell them into retailers.

The teams were led by Mona (Empire) and Lorraine (Ignite).  Sir Alan made it crystal clear that he was expecting everybody to sell.  On Ignite only 2 out 5 on the team sold and they generated £1,302 of sales.  They we were convincingly beaten by Empire who clocked up £4,501 of sales.

So what did we learn this week?

1. If you are given a crystal clear goal (in this case to sell) you need to achieve it.
2. If you are a team member who does not rate the team leader it is no use being passive and not pulling your weight.  Philip (who was fired) found this out the hard way.
3. Never lose sight that in any interview situation, the person appointing needs to think about how well or not someone will fit into the organisation as much as their capabilities. 
4. Whenever you go into offer a new product, make sure you have as a minimum some basic information on prices of comparable products.  When asked about how the price of the sleeping bag suit compared to a basic sleeping bag, they could not answer effectively.
5. Calling for appointments to potential retailers is a numbers game.  You need to make a sufficient number of calls to secure appointments.

You can watch The Apprentice every Wednesday evening at 9pm GMT or on the BBCiplayer.