Tales From The Corporate Frontlines: Job Security in Todays Workplace (13 Jun 2006) Job Security in Today's Workplace
In today's often volatile or contingent labor market, it's crucial to understand the level of security your employees feel about maintaining their jobs. Studies show that employees who do not feel secure in their jobs are less likely to be committed to best assisting customers. This article tells the story of a manager who decides to look for ways to bolster the morale in his company when it crashes after an extensive layoff.
Make a Difference - Sweat the Small Stuff First (13 Jun 2006) In 'Leadership', Rudy Giuliani makes a very important point about how vital it is to make a visible difference, however simple and even ineffective that might seem. Yet how much can we do to affect positively the businesses or organisations we lead and manage ourselves.
Do Customers Like the Feel of Your Organization? (13 Jun 2006) What is the emotional energy like in your organization? Does it attract customers or does it cause them to flee? Most organizations exude some form of negative energy that causes them to lose customers. Do you know what causes it in your organization? Do you want to clear it and its negative effects on your bottom line?
Two Critical Success Factors in an ITIL Implementation (13 Jun 2006) Any IT manager who wants to pursue the IT Service Management journey by implementing the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) needs to understand two very important factors well in advance.
Creativity and Innovation - Large Firms Versus Small Firms (13 Jun 2006) There is a pervasive assumption that small firms are more creative and innovative than larger firms. That is, they identify problems and generate ideas (creativity) and idea select, develop and commercialise (innovate) those ideas to a greater degree than larger firms. However, there is a large degree of untruth to this assumption:
Communicating When A Crisis Strikes (13 Jun 2006) Crisis situations make special communication demands on organizations. One company dealt effectively with its crisis by responding quickly, apologizing, explaining what it was doing to fix the problem, and providing compensation to those affected.
Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Coworkers Collaborate to Complete Successful Initiative (13 Jun 2006) This article relates to the Coworkers competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It tells the story of a company that relied on the skills and efforts of various departments, containing people who might not otherwise work together, to launch and complete a successful company wide performance improvement initiative. While the Team Dynamics competency focuses on relationships within a single group, this competency targets coworker topics spanning the entire organization over multiple work units. This competency investigates your organization's ability to successfully work in partnership on projects with one another and between groups to reach the common goals of the organization.
The Leadership Alignment Model (13 Jun 2006) Over the years we have observed various companies at differing stages of health as they strive to deal with problems presented when moving from easy times to hard times. What we have noticed is how the attitudes of the top executive team determine whether their company will be able to ride out a storm and emerge a strong contender.
Organizational Culture and Creative Blocks – the Similarities (13 Jun 2006) Few Decision makers see the link between between creativity and innovation management, as performed by MBA's in firms, and creative endeavours such as screenwriting. In fact, there are very strong linkages.
Eliminate Performance Anxiety Forever (13 Jun 2006) Business executives, public speakers, politicians, musicians, actors, and anyone else who regularly finds themselves having to communicate to or perform in front of large groups of people can often find their performance undermined by their own inner state of anxiety. Not only is this an unfortunate occurrence it is also now absolutely unneccessary! All without mind altering drugs and without all their harmful side-effects!
Dialogue vs. Discussion (13 Jun 2006) It's all about how you communicate with your team that determines their involvement - or lack of it!
Let the Professionals Help You Out - Outsource (13 Jun 2006) As your website grows in terms of attracting more footfalls, generating more business, and providing more content; it will demand more time and attention from you to continue performing. As a businessperson, it is advisable that you concentrate on your core competency, which is the reason why you created the website in the first place. This article provides some insight into outsourcing your project to freelancers...
The Myth of the Management Team (13 Jun 2006) A business has a lifespan that is severly reduced if it doesn't learn how to succeed. Much like a child if it didn't learn as it developed what would it end up like after a few years. How's your business developing?
Four Steps to Better Performance Reviews (13 Jun 2006) Direct reports—people who need direction and leadership—rely on their leaders to give them feedback and mentoring, not just management and evaluations. However, these people who most need their boss's help frequently lack the guidance that would enable them move to the next levels of success—theirs, their team's and the company's. Too often leaders are not prepared or trained to conduct an appraisal that stretches performance and ensures their direct reports' development. Instead, the appraisals become confrontational and judgmental; goals are not clear; neither person is prepared; and the discussion occurs when it's too late to do anything about the problem...
Its Not Always What You Say (13 Jun 2006) A major source of communication breakdowns is incongruence between the words that people say and the nonverbal signals that they send, largely because we lose sight of the fundamental truth: You cannot not communicate. Every second that we are in the presence of another, we are constantly sending and receiving messages, often silent, nonverbal messages that can either augment our communication effectiveness or detract from it.
Resolve Differences (13 Jun 2006) Resolving conflict doesn't come easily to too many people. Most of us want harmonious relationships and smooth interpersonal interactions. However, we know that disagreements and conflicts are part of any dynamic organization. They arise because people care about their jobs and want to produce good results. Conflict is beneficial when the focus is on finding the best solution. However, conflict is unproductive when it fails to produce mutually satisfying solutions or when it becomes personal in nature.
Hiring and Retaining Good Employees (13 Jun 2006) Hiring good employees is not only important to business, it's essential. Employees are the heart and soul of a business; they are the mechanism that makes a business run; they are the breath of life ...
Why Business Owners Need Security (13 Jun 2006) The main reason is to stop any potential lawsuits from happening! But do you know how many individuals I have talked to about this very thing? Many! Do you know what the majority have told me? They h...
The Top Three Problems IT Managers Face and How to Overcome Them (13 Jun 2006) Todays business environment has changed drastically from just a few years back. Rather than working exclusively with equipment, data, and systems, todays IT managers face issues such as cross trainin...
