How Good Are Your Management Skills?

In business, we seem to focus less on management skills than the more glamorous and exciting work of leadership. However, while leaders may bring us vision, inspiration and challenge, these things need proper support and efficient implementation. That’s what the practice of management is about. Managers are responsible for making sure things are done right. [...]

Mentoring: An Essential Leadership Skill

Mentoring from a Mentor’s Perspective Building a high-performing team is a key part of being an effective leader. And this includes helping individuals within your team learn, grow, and become more effective in their jobs; which is why mentoring is such an important leadership skill. But what does mentoring involve? And what do you need [...]

Get Motivated!

Find the Drive You Need to Succeed How self-motivated do you feel? And how hard do you push yourself to get things done? Wanting to do something and motivating yourself to do it are two different things. So, what’s the difference between those who never reach their goals, year after year, and those who achieve [...]

Motivating Without Bonuses

Keeping Your Team Happy Without Cash The recession has brought many new or previously little-used terms into our everyday language – from “subprime mortgages,” “toxic assets,” and “quantitative easing” to “cash for clunkers” and, of course, “zero bonuses.” It’s a clever phrase, because technically, a zero bonus isn’t a bonus at all. But the words [...]

Stress Diary

Identifying sources of short-term stress Log your stress events. You’re tired. You’ve had a hard commute. The office receptionist was grumpy and curt when you arrived at work, and you’ve already dealt with two minor crises today. Then a member of your team spills his coffee over some important work. Should you have snapped at [...]

How Good Are Your People Skills?

Soft skills enhance your technical skills. In almost all jobs, your people skills – also known as “soft skills” – have as much of an impact on your success as your technical skills. That’s especially true when you’re in a management or leadership role. The importance of having solid people skills transcends industry and profession; [...]

Keeping Valued Team Members

Restoring Commitment to Prevent Resignations Be alert for signs of unhappiness. Which members of your team would you miss most if they left tomorrow? And what makes them so valuable? Chances are, they’ve been there long enough to know exactly how the organization works. Highly competent at what they do, efficient, organized and with excellent [...]

The CONNECT Model

A tested approach for building good team relationships Closing the gap successfully. Reflect for a moment: have you ever seen a situation where a simple disagreement between people has flared up into a bitter dispute? If you’re like most people, your answer is probably “YES!”, and you’ll have seen this often! In a personal context, [...]

The Urgent/Important Matrix

Using Time Effectively, Not Just Efficiently It’s urgent, but is it really important? We’ve all been there: The project is due for today’s meeting and we are only three quarters done. Our anxiety is at its peak, we can’t concentrate, everything is a distraction, and then, finally, we blow! Time stressors are some of the [...]

Beckhard and Harris’s Change Equation

Overcoming Resistance to Change Can people see that the alternative would be better? Traditionally, “change projects” have often been driven by technology implementations or upgrades, with business processes and working practices being changed to fit in with the new system. In today’s turbulent economy, however, change is just as likely to be driven by something [...]