The Project Manager in the middle

What is a Middle Manager? Why do they exist? It seems that many senior people have forgotten why. They are replacing the middle tier with management by spreadsheet and vastly increased spans of control. It saves money obviously? Only if you didn’t manage the middle managers correctly in the first place!

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Use Your Loaf

Go back in history far enough and you reach a time when groups, tribes were self-sufficient: hunter-gatherers eating meat and berries. As civilisation advanced, goods started to be traded between groups on a barter basis. Most of the goods were still consumed by the people that produced them. They had a desire to create good quality produce, both for their own consumption and for their trade. The growth of trade and commerce led to the invention of an advanced bartering system – money. Most people still consumed their own produce and traded the surplus. Mistress Goodchild was pleased to sell a few loaves in her village, particularly as everyone knew her loaves were the best. The Industrial Revolution with its focus on specialising changed Mrs Goodchild’s working life completely. She worked for a baker of course, she like to be involved with bread making. Now though her job involved a small part of the bread making process and some days she didn’t see a loaf at all.

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Identifying The Symptoms Of Bad Leadership

A popular website search last month was “How does bad leadership affect you?” While I do not generally like to dwell on the negative, it may be therapeutic for the sufferers. The sufferers being both the badly led and the organizations employing them. The most potent outcomes of bad leadership are the feelings of the people involved and the effects on the organization. Anyone who has worked for a “bad leader” understands how damaging the experience is to one’s concept of self-worth.

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Employee Motivation

Do you drive a car? You have to fuel a car to make it go. What happens if you skip the regular maintenance? Before long the car is reluctant to start, loses some of its pep and, generally, becomes reluctant to move fast at all. What if people were cars? Fuel would be the salary and maintenance would be the motivation management. Just like a car, if you ignore motivation, the maintenance, then the person will eventually stop, no matter how much salary you pour into them!

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The Herd Instinct

It is much less stressful following the herd. You don’t stick out and if something happens, another of the herd is likely to be brought down. You don’t get to be leader of the herd either. So you don’t have to lead, don’t have to make your own decisions, don’t need to be brave enough to go against the herd mentality. Is this for you?

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THE STRONG LEADER

  I was fortunate to attend a grand event which promised to be very instructive. One of the headline speakers gave a first-class performance. He was a polished public speaker and held us enthralled as he described his successes and current challenges. I was entranced by the delivery but horrified by the spoken words!

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Trust!

One of the key attributes of an employee is trust. Not just that they won’t pilfer the petty cash, but that when they say they will do something, they do it!

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Management and Publicity

Have you ever had a business conversation, or made a decision, that you thought would be better kept secret?Have you ever made a decision, and communicated it, only to find that people already know, but know something different from what you meant! Management is done on a public stage. Never forget that!

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