Just a little more to wrap up on Gamification. It really is THE way to make work fun and addictive! Just look at the popularity of Social Media, engineered to grab your attention and make you play the game. Good luck with your Games. Just make sure that you manage the Game and that the people working for you are not playing a Game of their own! We are always here to help.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Leadership
Double your Profit
Have you ever thought why you make the profit you do? Yes the market sets your selling price based on perceived value, your value proposition. How quickly do you react to that market information? Do you have a business that is constantly trying to improve its competitive advantage? Largely that is to do with productivity, and the productivity economics in particular. Can we afford to be more productive? What can we do for achieve better work productivity? How can we increase productivity at work? What if your people were 10% more productive? Or 20%, 30%….. Ask your finance people what that would do to your profit. How do you achieve great increases in people’s productivity? That’s largely down to leadership styles and management skills to boost employee engagement. Forget the employee engagement survey, the real measure of your employee’s relationship with your company is your bottom line, your profitability. Enjoy the video then call us! It could be the best investment of five minutes of your time this year!
Continue readingLeadership and Communication
You will have heard that to be a great leader you need to be a great speaker. You need to stand before your employees and inspire them with your stirring oratory. It’s a useful skill to be sure, but Leadership comes in as many styles as there are people. Clear communication is the requirement. A quiet word can be equally, if not more, motivational. Please enjoy the video.
Continue readingPositive management
Have a look at the management practice in your organisation for a moment. I’m sure you give people objectives, goals or targets and check to see they have accomplished them. That is catching people out who have failed! Wouldn’t it be better if the management process helped people achieve what was needed. The video has a trivial example, but what could you do in your organisation?
Continue readingPraise the person, criticise the behaviour – Performance Review
Whether you do annual Performance Reviews or have adopted a process of regular ‘chats’ the title applies – Praise the person, criticise the behaviour. It is possible to have a conversation about what they did, their behaviour, as something apart from their self. You can have a dispassionate discussion as to why the behaviour was not appropriate, not optimal. It is impossible to discuss what went wrong when the person feels attacked and threatened. Conversely, when someone has done something well, praise the person for the behaviour. The balance makes a person feel more positive about their work, their manager and their employer, so they seek to achieve more positive feedback. Don’t forget “Praise the person, criticise the behaviour”! I’d call that a win-win, wouldn’t you?
Continue readingAdvanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
And not just advanced technology! Anything that is achieved that is outside people’s expectations and experience is either magic or simply not true? This is exactly why I made this Executive? What do you and what should you do? The higher you are in an organisation the more you should be looking outside, looking for opportunities and threats. In medieval times the King would have a Jester. A Fool who would tell him things he didn’t want to hear, things that would upset his cosy existence. What do you do to get outside your cosy existence, your comfort zone? Where do you look for the magic, the next innovation, the game-changing technology?
Continue readingEmployee Engagement Initiatives that don’t work!
Employee Engagement Initiatives, I’m sure you’ve tried some or seen some? They promise to fix your low engagement score yet your survey results barely change? Using to a survey is like using a microscope – any change you see will be microscopic! An effective employee engagement programme will show on your bottom line. If it doesn’t then it hasn’t worked.
Continue readingAre you an Executive? What do you do and what should you do?
Are you an Executive? A Director, perhaps the Chief Executive? What do you spend you time doing? Do you spend it on “comfort work”? Work that makes you feel busy, work that you are competent to do but work that should be delegated? If you are busy, keeping your head down, who is steering the Corporate vessel? Who is looking for the rocks on the journey or the next innovation that could move you forward? Should you be doing routine handle-turning work? Or should you be building the future? Even worse is the truth of who is steering the vessel!
Continue readingListening to Government Business Advice is a bad idea
Why do I think listening to Government Business Advice is a bad idea? We are two weeks from the supposed date for Brexit. It looks like the decision, the form of the decision may take some while longer. Parliament can’t agree. Fiddling while Rome burns perhaps? Meanwhile, businesses are all demanding that the Government do something to make business more profitable. Unfortunately, there is no academic qualification, no apprenticeship scheme, no training whatsoever needed to be elected to Parliament. The only reason to look to the Government for help is because they have the money, our money. The Government does not understand business! The video has an example of why listening to Government Business Advice is a bad idea.
Continue readingHow do I quickly engage people in the Company vision ?
Do you find people you recruit just don’t get what a fantastic place this is to work? Do they behave like it is ‘just a job’? Don’t they share your excitement, your enthusiasm and, dare I say, your passion for the organisation? This video will start you in the direction of fixing that.
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