Related Articles

Assertiveness Helps Accomplish Everything
When trying to get something accomplished, assertive behavior is the most effective. Although other methods may accomplish the intended ends, the alternatives imperil our own rights or those of others, creating conflict and building mistrust into relationships.

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Entitlement Programs Kill Productivity
In articles I've written over the years, I have used "laissez-faire," a term more frequently used to characterize governments than businesses, to describe a rather laid-back management style. When I use this term, I am referring to management personnel who put very little pressure on employees to achieve their full potential by pushing them toward peak performance levels.

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Improving Your Inter-Company Communications At No Cost
It's all very well having a flashy (and expensive) advertising campaign, backed up by a wealth of positive PR, but if your staff are not all pulling in the same direction this could be the biggest leak in your plan.Want a more in-depth guide to internal and customer communications, plus a CD-ROM with software with advice, additional content and links to helpful sites?Buy 'Marketing your Business' todayFirstly, everyone need to be able to get accurate information, so ensure that you have a good computer network (or better still, a fully-fledged Intranet) and routinely store the latest versions of documents where everyone can access them.

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Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Workplace Ethics: Reaching the Highest Standard
This article relates to the Ethics in the Workplace competency, commonly evaluated in employee surveys. It gives examples of how employees and customers consider ethical behavior and sound values an integral part of your organization.

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Which ITIL Process Should We Implement First?
The following question is usually debated a lot amongst IT managers. "With which process should we start when implementing ITIL?" Everybody has their own views, but here are my takes on it.

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5 Steps to Identify Core Processes
Part Two of Creating Well-Defined Processes SeriesNext Week: ImplementationLast week, we raised the question: how do you know where to begin? How can you identify a gap in one of your company's core processes?The answer: follow the money trail?But how do you follow the money trail, and what will that mean for your business? To answer this, let's look at five steps to identify your core processes and any needs for change.Step 1: Define Your Business ModelThe following question might sound very basic, but you should first ask yourself: what business am I in? You'll ask this because you want to follow the money trail: to identify how exactly you earn revenue and from where that revenue comes.

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Get Over Yourself
Let me tell you a secret.Things don't always go the way we want them to.

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Action Learning: Its More Than OJT
For centuries companies have used on-the-job training (OJT). OJT works because it follows much of what we know about adult learning theory.

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Comparing Ancient Programs from the East to Modern Programs like Stephen Covey.
Comparing Corporate and Personal goal attainment programs that have developed over thousands of years with those of modern day legends such as Covey - "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"In the 1990s Stephen Covey's name became famous through the publication of the "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". As many know the "7 habits" are not a group of new concepts but age-old approaches to success represented in a way that can be clearly applied to modern day personal and corporate development.

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Resolving Needs - What Your Employees Wish For!
For your people, they want to do a great job - no, really, despite your experiences, they do. And what might seem to 'the management' the important things, just don't stack in the day-to-day reality of the workplace.

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Executive Performance -- Whos to Blame for Incompetent Managers?
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal raised the question: Who's to blame for inept managers?The answer, of course, is the superiors who hire or promote them -- but not because they intentionally select or retain poor performers. Every leader knows that his or her own success depends on putting the right people in the right positions.

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Feedback - Make it Descriptive
Have you ever heard yourself say to a team member - "You're really great" - "You're a star" - I think you're brilliant" - "You're doing a great job!"It's got to be a plus point that you're giving Confirming Feedback and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with any of the statements above; however, they could be better. There is also the danger that these statements could come across as a bit patronising.

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The 20/60/20 Rule Of Leadership. Dont Go Solving The Wrong Problems
Several decades ago, a passenger jet approached a Florida airport with the pilot and co-pilot struggling to fix what they thought was a malfunctioning landing gear. The landing-gear light was on, signaling that the gear was deployed; but both men did not hear it actually deploy.

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Reflections in the Glass Ceiling
The recent news about one of America's most powerful woman ceo's being removed from office has raised the discussion about gender bias, again. It disappoints me that in 2005, I still hear women clients talking about "the old boys' network".

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Maximizing Sales through the Ultimate Tracking Software
Every small to mid-sized business owner would love to know how to effectively keep a pulse on their marketing and customer service efforts. The common barrier that all companies run into is how to cost effectively measure and control this process.

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5 Steps to Continuous Process Improvement
Part One of Creating Well-Defined Processes SeriesWhat if your sales increased from $100,000 to $110,000 per day and your profit increased from $10,000 to $11,000 - did you improve by 10%? The answer might shock you..

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Getting to Consensus
The need to get people in an organization to pull together comes out often in discussions about communication.Let's think of it as getting to consensus, to roll a bunch of similar issues into one ball.

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Offshore This! (Outsourcing Tech Support Overseas)
So I call my telephone company and someone picks up 15,000 miles away. I asked the rep where she's from.

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Improvements In A Large Public Electric Utility In South America
The company decided to develop and implement an improvement program. The main thrust was to propose strategies and alternatives for the implementation of a quality program.

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Its Not Always What You Say
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.

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