Archive for House Of Management
January 7, 2010 at 1:39 pm · Filed under Entrepreneurs, House Of Management, Miscellaneous
Success in the modern business environment depends on effective people management skills. These skills may be developed and studied. Having a innate affinity for getting along with people and building relationships may be an advantage, even so you can do numerous things that will make this procedure easy. Build relationships: Begin by using an individual’s name. Talk to employees; look people in the eye as you are talking. Show respect, and be sure to be attentive to what the other individual has to say, irrespective of whether you are in agreement with them. The development of listening skills is among the greatest things you can do to better your talent management skills. Be sure to encourage any contributions from your team members. Live up to your word: Don’t give promises you will not keep. When you don’t keep your word, the delicate bond of trust is fractured, and individuals will not offer you their best if they don’t trust you. When you say something or give a promise, do be sure you can follow through or it would be better not to give your word at all. The truth is, when your people can’t count on you, you can be assured they will act in a similar manner. Feedback is essential: It’s a two-way street. Human Resources management skills mean keeping an open mind to all feedback. Being accessible and receptive establishes that you appreciate other people’s views, and they will listen to yours. Honest discourse also furthers creative problem solving, ways of achieving the mission of the team, and develops the company dynamic. By allowing the employees to voice their opinions, every employee invests in the project’s outcome.
Communicating is essential: Communication is the key to managing people skilfully. Keeping an open door policy, listen intently to other people, keep an open mind, and permit all your team to express their opinions. The team should be inspired to speak to each other not only with you. The sharing of ideas is critical in the creative process, and through speaking with one another, you can recognize problems at an early stage, allowing corrective action to be implemented to prevent any further problems.
Some work is necessary, but the rewards far outbalance the work. Through encouraging a good team dynamic and listening to what your staff have to offer, you can easily have the best in business success.
October 4, 2009 at 7:17 am · Filed under Education + Schooling, House Of Management, The Helping Hand
You have completed high school or college and now youre all set for your first real situation. Youve delivered out CVs and have been selected in for your opening job interview. How can you do well at the job interview so you end up being presented the post? It is always worth considering going for a medical interview course
Be prepared for the job interview. Research the corporation beforehand- every business now has a website where you can learn what they do and who their customers are. This shows the interviewer you are interested in the vacancy and took the initiative to find out all you could about the corporation.
There are countless other paths in which you can get yourself better prepared for your upcoming job interview. You could make certain that you know how to get to the interview setting so that you wont be late. You could search the unit so that you can ask pertinent questions and try to appear keen and informed. You could ask the current workers what they think of the place. That way, you will not only be able to better value whether the post is suitable for you, but also learn some valuable insights that could help you secure the post.
First impressions count up, and you plan to let the interviewer know you yearn for the vacancy, are willing to work hard and will do your best. You might not necessarily be the most qualified candidate, but still land the post as you were the most outstanding one. Good luck with your job interview!
September 30, 2009 at 8:14 am · Filed under House Of Management
We must keep in mind that as well as by increasing sales figures, profits can be ramped up by reducing expenditure and by encouraging more effective use of assets. One of the best ways to do this is through the use of performance management software. Once you know what the specialties of your staff are, you can tailor your routines to optimize their effectiveness, and as a result get the most from the company as a whole. Discovering and collating this data is often where it gets difficult.
To look at one aspect of this - employee performance, for instance - defining progress and being able to track it is a significant amount of work. The first step is to bring employee performance appraisal systems into play. Once this is done you can assess the work of each worker. The analysis of this information comes next. Before you can put it to use determining goals and checking future development you need to know what the data translates to in practice. When using performance management software you can be confident that this assessment is done for you and you only need to study the various analyses and factors to discover what the right set of goals for this member of staff would be. It also makes following the member of staff’s advancement much less effort. With more useful information in less time, this is of course a cost saving measure before putting these findings to use. If you wish to it’s possible instead to perform your own analysis, simply using the software to create and maintain a full record to use as a basis. Performance management software doesn’t only help staff. It’s often worth studying clients and suppliers to better reduce costs by precision buying. Identifying the suppliers that carry the best quality and best priced products can be a great help. Clients can be scrutinized in terms of how they impact your company, and as with internal matters and suppliers it’s possible to streamline your systems and benefit your bank balance. With this information at hand you are able to adjust your system of orders and supplies to increase income and reduce costs. Not only that but a greater awareness of your market will make for easier planning of your marketing.
Performance appraisal software allows you to watch your suppliers so you can save money and watch the market to customize plans and develop your profit margin. Synched with regular talent assessment and employee assessment such application is guaranteed to simplify staff performance management greatly. With that taken into account, the potential of this system is endless and depends exclusively on your creativity and ability to use what you learn…
September 13, 2009 at 4:14 am · Filed under House Of Management, Miscellaneous
A significant amount of companies feel that, if all of their employees have basic health and safety training, they now have everything needed to prevent a disaster. The reality is that, irrespective your industry, an education in health and safety regulations and risk asessment just is not sufficient. Equipping staff, employing an enthusiastic supervisior and supporting frequent practise are fundamental to the safety of staff.
All teams must have a capable supervisor to oversee the shop floor, but this person also needs to take another role. Your selection of supervisor must be a good communicator and additionally see health and safety education as crucial.
In addition to following health and safety legislation, a supervisory role includes supervising employee performance too. This is a challenging job. Good industry knowledge is a must for a supervisory job in addition to an extensive understanding of current legislation with regard to safety, risk appraisal and CPR. It’s just not enough to offer your staff health and safety training. To successfully identify a safety hazard they must get to put their new-found skills to the test. Employees in addition must have insights into the steps necessary to remedy the situation and also understanding what to do when anything unforeseen happens. Only when these processes have developed into a habit are staff properly educated.
Adequate safety apparatus is just as important to the safety of your workers as the training itself. When they are without gear that is essential, or even learn that gear is damaged when they are required, even the very best training isn’t going to help them. You need to check all your gear often to verify that all the necessary gear is there and also that it is all being properly maintained. If you have a fault with your safety apparatus, have it fixed or serviced as swiftly as possible. Your workforce need to get good health & safety instruction, but they also must have the right apparatus, scheduled practise drills, and an educated supervisor who gets everyone charged up about working safely. When you implement these steps you will find health and safety legislation will become part of your employee’s working habits instead of something challenging everyone has to attempt to think about constantly.
August 23, 2009 at 12:12 pm · Filed under Entrepreneurs, House Of Management
Succeeding in the modern business world depends heavily on competent people management skills. With a little effort you can learn and improve these skills. It may be an advantage to have a intuitive affinity for people, however there are a lot of things you can do to make the procedure simple. Build relationships: Addressing staff by name can be a beginning. Engage in conversation; make eye contact when you’re speaking. Show respect, also be attentive to everything the other person says, regardless of whether you are in agreement with them. Acquiring the ability to listen is among the best things you can do to develop your people management skills. Encourage any input from your co-workers.
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Exhibit integrity: Keeping your word is really important. If you can’t keep your word, the fragile bond of trust is destroyed, and no-one will offer you their best if they can’t trust you. Everytime you make a commitment or give a promise, make sure that you can follow through or don’t bother giving your word at all. To be honest, when your people can’t depend on your word, you can be sure they will behave in a similar way.
Welcome any feedback: Feedback should be a two-way process. People management skills mean having an open mind to all feedback. If you can establish that you are approachable and receptive, you establish that you respect your co-worker’s views, your opinions will be appreciated in return. Encouraging open discussion in addition furthers evolution of fresh ways of thinking, ways of fulfilling the mission of the company, and improves the company dynamic. By allowing the team some input, the success of the company will become important to every team member.
Encourage all sorts of communication: Communication is the key to dealing with employees effectively. Be accessible, employ good listening techniques, remember to welcome staff to share ideas, and give each of your employees a chance to speak. Staff should be inspired to talk to each other as well as with you. The exchange of thoughts is important in the creative process, and by speaking with each other, it becomes easy to spot any issues before they could present as problems, permitting corrective action to be implemented to prevent further problems.
Developing these skills can take some time, all the same the rewards are worth it. By establishing the bonds of a good team and developing effective listening techniques, a thriving business can be accomplished.
June 9, 2008 at 11:15 pm · Filed under House Of Management
Great leaders lead by example, not just talk or orders. Leading by example will garner respect and admiration from the troops as well as compliance. In a network marketing company, recruits join voluntarily so it’s up to them whether they will follow you or quit. You can’t use force or order them around like a boss does in a traditional job.
The best way to get recruits to do things is to motivate them with their goals dangling in front of them like a carrot by remind them why they joined. Praise a good recruit generously in front of others, with hold praise to others who don’t perform or try. Reward good recruits with plagues, certificates, trophies, awards etc. in front of the entire team. Keep everyone on the same page by making sure everyone knows what the company’s purpose is and why they should work hard to reach their individual goals.
A few years ago I was in this network marketing company and my leader was a fabulous guy with a big heart but he couldn’t lead. What do I mean by that? Well, his famous motto was “Do as I say and not as I do.” It sure says a lot about your leader when he repeats that to his troops doesn’t it?
And I came to find out that he meant exactly that. He would tell me to work hard and come to the office early, preferably at 8 a.m. sharp and he was nowhere to be found. Since it was my first week in the business I didn’t know what to do so I read all the brochures I could find and watched some convention videos. Finally he showed up, at 2pm in the afternoon.
“Where were you?” I asked. “I woke up late,” was his reply. My opinion and confidence in my leader went downhill from there.
On open house and recruiting meetings at night we were supposed to bring guests to see the presentations, his recruits and I each had a few guests. He had none. Since he had been with the company for 3 years, he said he would close the guests on the opportunity and he closed none of them.
He wanted his recruits to sell $3,000 a month in products every month but he sold $1,100 in products personally or less.
Sure it was possible for his recruits to surpass him and do it on their own but most people that come into this business want some sort of guidance and leadership from someone who’s making good money and constantly working on their business. The one or two percent that can do this all on their own without a teacher or a mentor is very rare, and if you’re that type of person you can make it in any network marketing business even with a team leader that does not lead.
I’m using this example to show that you can’t expect others to do things that you won’t do yourself. He’s still in the business but his business has remained the same as it was five years ago. His recruits have dropped out and he has to constantly recruit new people to maintain his business at that same level. What can you learn from this?
If you want your recruits to be great, you have to work on yourself personally first. You can’t teach someone how to do something if you don’t know how to do it. You can only teach people up to the current level you’re at, so if you’re making only $500 a month that’s all that you can teach someone new how to do.
Network marketing businesses can be great opportunities but ask yourself if you can lead by example and not just talk. If there were two leaders side by side in the same company and one of them were doing great stuff and blazing a trail to the top while the other leader is just barely getting by which one would you follow? The answer should be clear, most people follow leaders who take action and know what they’re doing. Make a conscious decision to become a better leader today by educating yourself, and adopting a constant and never ending improvement regimen.
Katherine Ly is author and publisher of http://www.millionaire-opportunities.com a resource for those aspiring millionaires. Let us be your guide and friend on this journey to riches.
May 27, 2008 at 4:08 pm · Filed under House Of Management
As an entrepreneur, hiring an expert can be one of the most efficient ways to turbo-charge your business. However, thousands of consultants flood the Information Highway, and each one promises to positively impact your bottom line. How do you know which expert has the right combination of smarts, skills, experience and personality to move your company in the right direction?
It’s no small feat to allow a consultant to make decisions on your behalf. Empowering a consultant to advise changes can bring up feelings of doubt and fear. To help you choose the right expert for you, here are 6 cautionary tips from Kathy Szpakowski, founder of KBS Group, one of the country’s most successful, organizational development consulting companies:
1. Make sure the expert has a proven track record for delivering on their promises. Visit the consultant’s web site and check on their references.
2. Pay attention to the expert’s commentary after you’ve stated your vision. Do you feel understood? Does he or she “get” it, or do you feel like you need to keep on explaining? If, during the initial conversation stage or in the project outline stage you feel your vision is not completely understood or that there are areas being overlooked or under-valued, consider finding another expert who is more in alignment with your point of view.
3. Observe if the expert incorporates your thoughts and ideas into the conversation. Do you feel a sense of collaboration or do you feel shot down? While working with an expert, there will be times where you might take his or her well-substantiated advice and whole-heartedly agree with certain recommendations, while at other times, you might mildly agree or not agree at all. Based on your discussion, get a sense as to whether this person will be open to a collaborative arrangement, or might be intolerant of feedback or suggestions.
4. Assess if the expert understands the term ‘within budget.’ Rather than have an expert initially tell you all of the wonderful things they can do for you, then fall over from the sticker shock when you receive their proposal and their terms, tell them the budget you need to stay within. A consultant should not be writing from your checkbook. What is important is your budget; not their price.
5. Agree to a mutually acceptable time frame. In order to ensure that the two of you are on the same page, establish timelines to determine when you want to get started, as well as how long it will take before you can expect to receive recommendations, implement the recommendations, and see results. Make sure there is also a way to measure the results.
6. Trust your instincts. Believe in your intuition. If your instincts and experience in your business tells you to go in a different direction, do it. If you don’t feel 100% committed to the recommendations, or have a ‘gut feeling’ that you and the expert are not on the same page - Stop. Ignoring these feelings and going along with any recommendations that you are not committed to, or are convinced will not work, will only make you right - they won’t.
A word of caution: after a positive experience with one expert, entrepreneurs often have a tendency to get lax when evaluating additional experts to assist in other areas of their business. When talking with other experts, it can be easy to fail to completely communicate one’s vision, the importance of integrating one’s ideas, the necessity to stay within budget and on schedule, and the absolute need to know that your new expert ‘gets it!”
Hiring the right expert can be a huge asset to your business, however, you are the only one who will know which expert is ultimately right for you. By applying the advice from the tips above, you can minimize your doubts and fears, as well as create a strategy to find an expert who can truly help you maximize your growth.
Kathy Szpakowski has 25 years of professional experience in sales, marketing, training, organizational and personal development. She is the founder of KBS Group and the creator of “Performance Management Plus” a turnkey solution that has helped entrepreneurs achieve phenomenal results worldwide. www.BetheBest-KBSgroup.com.
Kathy Szpakowski has 25 years of professional experience in sales, marketing, training, organizational and personal development. She is the founder of KBS Group and the creator of “Performance Management Plus” a turnkey solution that has helped entrepreneurs achieve phenomenal results worldwide. http://www.BetheBest-KBSgroup.com
May 7, 2008 at 7:22 am · Filed under House Of Management
Most of us have a to-do list - some of us have a very long one! While a to-do list is a valuable tool to help us stay on track for the urgent tasks of the day (and while there are many ways to improve your production and use of this list), that isn’t the focus of this article.
This article isn’t about managing your time. It is about taking the limited time resources we have and determining how to leverage that time for greater results in our lives. When we use a lever we use specific, correct actions to create great results. That is what we all want to do with our time –find the activities that will create greater results — personal, professional, business, financial, or others in our lives.
To use this lever we have to go beyond our daily to-do list. This lever will require 30 or preferably 60 minutes of your time each day. Considering the returns (leverage) you will get on this investment, it will be time well spent.
Exercise. We all know it is important for our health. Exercise, whether it is walking, running, weights, or some other regimen, makes us more fit, creates energy, gives us time to be with our thoughts, and releases valuable enzymes into our bloodstream. This is a highly leveraged activity. We all know its benefits, but do we do it?
Engage in your hobby. Hobbies are opportunities to learn. They keep our minds, and in many cases our bodies, active. Hobbies allow us to divert our attention from the workings of our day and allow us practice focus on a single task. Most of all, hobbies create joy. Do you have a hobby that could be your greatest time lever?
Develop a new skill. Learn how to juggle. Play a new game. Pick up a musical instrument. Or paint landscapes. Perhaps this skill is related to your hobby (or will become your hobby), or is work related, it doesn’t matter. Developing new skills keeps us learning, keeps our minds active and allows us to learn other things faster. What you learn about yourself and how to learn better is the great by-product of this activity.
Work on a goal. Do your short or long term goals get enough attention on your to-do list each day? How much progress would you make towards any goal in your life if you spent 30 - 60 minutes on it each day? Invest the time, and see the power of leverage in action.
Read. Read for learning or read for pleasure. Read relating to your hobby, or your goal. Just read. Reading will provide opportunities to learn and see things in a new light. Reading keeps your mind active. Reading gives you new ideas and information to when solving problems. Reading gives your subconscious mind time to relax while you engage in a useful and enjoyable activity.
Think and write. Many of us don’t take time to think. To think about our values, our beliefs, the challenges we face, the events of our day, or just to think.. Take time to reflect on your behavior, your results, your challenges - take time to think so that you can go through your day in a more proactive, thought-filled way. Consider using a journal or your computer as a way to stimulate and help your thinking. What you write may be designed to be shared, or just designed for you. Thinking and writing go hand in hand. If no one ever reads what you write, the process of writing has clarified and strengthened your thinking.
Be present with your family or friends. This doesn’t mean sitting in the same room watching television (or at least not only this!). Listen to them. Learn about their day. Show your caring through your actions. Use this time to get out of yourself and into the lives of others you care about.
Each of the suggestions above can be a lever to catapult us forward. Each will help you think clearer, plan better, learn more, create energy and generate greater focus. These are the reasons they are such highly leveraged activities!
You may be reading and saying, I wish I could do all of those things each day - but that would be seven hours a day - I wouldn’t get anything else done! Drop that thought and focus. Let your intuition guide you to the one or two of these that you will do each day, or alternate days, that will have the greatest impact for you. Don’t let the fact that you can’t do them all keep you from doing the one or two that will be the greatest lever for you.
These are powerful levers to help you achieve greater joy satisfaction and results in your life. I wish you great success in applying them - starting today.
Kevin is Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. Kevin publishes Unleash Your Potential, a free weekly ezine designed to provide ideas, tools, techniques and inspiration to enhance your professional skills. Go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp to learn more and subscribe.
April 24, 2008 at 12:52 am · Filed under House Of Management
Estimating Value
To find out the cost of each minute of your time, multiply your annual salary by 1.5- to include overheads- and divide the total by the number of working hours in a year (working hours per week time’s working weeks per year). Divide this total by 60.
1.5 * Annual salary/Working hours per week = Cost per hr
Cost per hour/60 = Cost per minute
Note:
Think through your day while making your way to work
Always delegate tasks which are not time-effective for you to do
C) Keeping A Time Log
Maintaining a daily log of how much time you spend on particular activities is fundamental to managing your time more effectively. You may be surprised at how much time you spend chatting, and how little time you spend working and planning. Your time log provides you with a starting point form which you can assess areas to improve. How long you should keep a time log is dependant on the nature of your work. If you work on a monthly cycle, keep the log for a couple of months. If your work cycle is weekly, a two- or three-week log should suffice.
Timing Tasks
Compile a simple time log by dividing your day into 30-minute chunks and recording exactly how you spend your time. This will help you determine how much time you spend on useful and unnecessary tasks.
D) Reviewing A Time Log
To analyze your time log, allocate all of the 30-minute time chunks that you have recorded into categories according to the nature of each task, such as meetings, reading and replying to mail, helping colleagues, or making phone calls. Now calculate the percentage of your time spent on each task. This will give you a better picture of your working day and will enable you to access how you can allocate your time more affectively.
E) Breaking Down Tasks
Look at the categories into which you have allocated your tasks, and divide them into groups: routine tasks (for example, writing a regular report), ongoing projects (for example, organizing a meeting), and tasks that would further develop your job (for example, making new contacts). Work out the percentage of time spent on each group.
Allocating Time
To be most effective in your job, you should:
Spend about 60 per cent of your time in planning and development
25 per cent of your time in ongoing projects
15 per cent of your time in routine tasks
In fact most people allocate their time in exactly the opposite proportions.
F) Looking For Patterns
Now that you have established how your time is being allocated, ask yourself if the breakdown meets your expectations of your working day. Are you spending too much time on routine tasks, rather than concentration on the important planning and development tasks? Look at the distribution of these tasks throughout your working day. Are there times when you are really busy and others when you are slack? If so, try to find ways to reorganize your working day so that you are able to work more consistently and efficiently, and achieve more.
G) Estimating Efficiency
How close is your work pattern to the idle 60:25:15 time distribution shown on facing page? If you find you are spending too much time on one group of tasks to the detriment of others, work out how you can reorganize your daily schedule so that your time is distributed more sufficiently. For example, if you find you are spending time on tasks that could easily be done by a junior, delegate them. This way you can concentrate your energies on the areas in which you are not spending enough time.
Questions To Ask Yourself
1) Do I do work that should be done by somebody else?
2) Are there patterns that repeat themselves in my time log? Am I always involved in routine tasks in the morning?
3) Do jobs frequently take longer than I expect them too?
4) Do I have enough time to be creative and innovative?
Manik Thapar (MBA)
Visit my site www.careerpath.cc
April 17, 2008 at 6:23 pm · Filed under House Of Management
I’ve just been reading about the frustrations of a Human Resources manager. He’s tired of having to answer the same questions about benefits over and over again.
I understand that, having been on both sides of the issue, both as a consumer of benefits and in communicating about them on behalf of corporate clients. Benefits can be the slippery eels of internal communication.
But, to put the issue into context, this is another case of complex communication. In this case, a large volume of information that’s not easy to understand.
Descriptions of benefits typically involve a high level of density: in other words, they contain a lot of information in a small amount of ’space’. Many of them resemble insurance policies — long on legal language and short on examples and anecdotes. As a result, the information is accessible to only a small proportion of the whole group.
How do you deal with this kind of communication challenge? Multiple channels, multiple times. That means repeating the message many times, and sending it through as many different channels as possible.
For example, when one of my clients changed its benefits package to offer more choices, it used this strategy. Collectively, the overall value of the benefits would work out the same for the company. But, individual employees would have to make choices, and in many cases the value of the individual benefits they received would depend on how wisely they made their decisions. In turn, that could lead to the equivalent of ‘buyer’s remorse’ and complaints.
The company took a proactive approach to the changeover. It began planning well in advance of the switch, and its preparations included the equivalent of focus groups to identify concerns, questions, and problems.
Then, in the month or so before the changeover, it began communicating on several fronts. It held information sessions with employees, it sent each employee an information package, it sent out a special edition of its newsletter, it offered in-house computer programs for calculations and enrollment, and it offered appointments with benefits personnel if employees felt they needed individual counselling.
Employees got the information in several formats, and at several different times, greatly increasing the odds that most of them would make informed decisions.
The odds that they would understand their choices went up because of different learning styles. And, needless to say, their ability to learn varies from time to time.
Some people learn best by reading (and you may be one of them since you’re reading this article). Others may learn more effectively by listening, while yet others do best when they act in some way (like using a computer program).
Similarly, you may not be receptive to new information about a benefits program right now because you’re focused on an important meeting later today. Or perhaps you’ll be more interested in the subject after you talk with a friend and colleague at lunch tomorrow.
By using multiple channels and multiple times, we provide our readers/listeners/participants with several different learning options. That, in turn, means we increase the odds there will be a time and method that’s optimal for them.
About The Author
Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott’s Communication Letter. Each week subscribers receive, at no charge, a new communication tip that helps them lead or manage more effectively. Click here for more information: http://www.CommunicationNewsletter.com
abbottr@managersguide.com
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