Long pointless meetings are useful in that they keep incompetent people from interfering with those who are working.

Bad meetings are a cultural malady that senior executives pass on to new employees.

An employee who needs permission to buy a box of paperclips can spend tens of thousands of dollars worth of employee time on bad meetings.

Many people attempt to save time by Not planning. This false short cut guarantees that everyone will spend more time later.

Unstructured spontaneity leads to serendipity, which (in business) leads to bankruptcy.

Meetings are a magnetic opiate that keep people from the tasks they were hired to perform.

The main activity in many meetings consists of simple chit chat. If it's an important meeting, then this becomes sincere chit chat.

A meeting without an agenda is like a journey without a map.

A teleconference without an agenda is like a journey without a map, in the dark.

Most meetings are social street lamps that attract the unproductive moths in an organization.

People fail to prepare an agenda for two reasons. They think they're saving time and they don't know what to put in it.

Expecting a meeting to produce results without an agenda is like expecting the Easter Bunny to leave eggs on your doorstep.

Bad meetings waste a fortune. My surveys show that companies waste almost 20% of their payroll on bad meetings.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

One of the most ignored aspects of working at home is safety. Business offices go to all sorts of lengths to avoid any injury or harm to their workers (they don't want to get sued, after all). Meanwhile, you might not even know that it's possible to injure yourself with nothing more than office equipment. If you're going to avoid a lot of pain in your future, you need to read up on home office safety now.

Your Chair.

The chances are that you're going to be sitting on your chair for quite a long time each day. If you have a bad chair, or you haven't adjusted it properly, you could give yourself a back injury -- and they're painful, not to mention expensive to treat.

When you're choosing your chair, make sure you sit on it for a while in the shop, giving yourself a chance to get used to the way it feels, and be prepared to walk away if it starts to get uncomfortable quickly. Don't pay a ridiculous amount, but don't get the cheapest and worst thing in the shop, either.

Your Mouse and Keyboard.

If you're using a computer mouse a lot for your work or doing a lot of typing, you can give yourself some pretty nasty injuries. This is because doing the same thing over and over again can give you a repetitive strain injury (RSI), such as carpal tunnel syndrome or tendonitis. This is one of the most common problems amongst office workers, home workers included.

You might have an RSI if you notice pain, weakness and fatigue in your muscles. One of the most common symptoms is pain when you're lying in bed. People tend to think that they must just be sleeping in an awkward position, or that they need a better bed or pillow, not realising that their office equipment is to blame. If you think you might be an RSI sufferer, go and see your doctor. Massages tend to be the most effective treatment, when given by a trained therapist.

To protect yourself against RSI, there are a number of things you can do. You should take regular breaks from using your computer, and stop immediately if you start to feel any kind of pain. You may also wish to invest in an ergonomic keyboard and mouse, which are laid out differently to normal keyboards and mice in an effort to make them more comfortable and less dangerous to use.

Clean and Tidy.

Silly as it might sound, the second most common problem amongst home office workers is that they make a mess. Your home office might become cluttered with wires, open drawers, and various objects all over the floor. It's quite possible to trip and fall over all of these things, and if you walk around enough in a confined space then eventually you will. Do as much as you can to keep your home office uncluttered: always close drawers, keep wires in one corner of the room and don't put anything on the floor.

Strangers in Your Home.

An aspect of safety that many people don't think of is the fact that you could be letting strangers into their home when you agree to meet clients there, and this can be risky for you and your family. You might be especially worried if there will be children at home with you while you're working.

The simple answer, of course, is to always meet new customers in a public place, until you know and trust them. Coffee places are good for this. As a bonus, you'll inevitably look more professional if they don't realise that you're a home business, and having a coffee each gives you something to do during any lulls in conversation other than just sitting there and looking awkward.

First Aid Kits.

Finally, one last note if you're doing manual work: you really ought to have a first aid kit in your workshop, as well as one that you carry around with you. You really shouldn't be doing anything physical as a business unless you've taken a first aid course -- they're quick, easy and inexpensive, so there's no excuse. It could save your life someday, after all.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Knowledge management is a technique of efficient assembly, alteration, preservation and management of data in organizations, alongside systems designed to make the most of that date. It refers specifically to utilities and ways created to preserve information and knowledge held by individuals who compose the establishment. It's at one time a software bazaar and a part of consultancy practice relates toareas like competitive intelligence. A huge area of knowledge management has to do with knowledge that is not elementary to digitally codify, like individual records.

The course of knowledge management also is known by a some other terms during it's different developmental stages. One example is 'corporate learning' and that boasts these basic targets: distinguishing, collecting and systematizing current knowledge and facilitating the creation of new knowledge. Knowledge management has been around since civilization began, being in the guise of discussions, brainstorming sessions or in more orderly ways such as apprenticeships as well as qualified teaching tutoring programs.

However, it's only today that knowledge management is being integrated as a legitimate business practice, and thus it has seen the invoking of particular data and information technology practices, the establishment of intranets within corporate settings and so forth. All these things is part of a compulsion to enact knowledge management systems.

Knowledge management systems consist of a heavily circulated hypermedia method for the categorizing of knowledge, encouragement of creativeness and the seizure, storing and sharing of that expertise and awareness. The word hypermedia is supposed to describe a conveyance by which audio, video and regular text intersect to create a lateral manner of information storage in addition to broadcasting. So in short, the term 'hypermedia' can be utilized as a plausible extension of the phrase 'hypertext'.

For instance, the Internet is one case in point of hypermedia, whereas the same cannot be said a movie on DVD. The Internet is as a place where global information isheld, accessed and transmitted through computers that are attached to the World Wide Web. The web is an area that may be effectively used to implement knowledge management systems effectively, just like the office intranet facility could also be utilized. On itself, it' not a knowledge management system. However, it can be used to keep and use a knowledge management system.

Author: Paul Abbey

About the author:
P Abbey owns and operates http://www.knowledgemanagementgo.com Knowledge management

Article source: Free Management Articles.

The maturation of multi-channel commerce

More and more retailers are realizing the benefits of multi-channel retailing. Leveraging brand equity in multiple touchpoints has been proven to drive loyalty and interaction among consumers. With trends clearly showing the Internet as the core component to pre-purchase research, brick and mortar brands can ill-afford to take a wait and see approach as it relates to core multi-channel offerings.

Three core enhancements must be executed flawlessly to have true multi-channel integration:

- In-store associate kiosks

Leveraging the eCommerce store within an in-store environment solves fundamental out of stock situations, provides a new channel for up/cross selling, and maximizes profitability per square foot.

- In-store pickup

Incorporating buy online and pickup in-store functionality eliminates the barrier of shipping in the online sales equation. With shipping costs being the number one driver to why shoppers choose to not purchase online - this initiative help reduce key customer based purchase inhibitors while drive incremental sales in-store traffic. The solution also provides added convenience and satisfaction to the consumer, as they no longer have to wait to receive their merchandise.

- In-store returns

Returning products that were bought online, in-store, can bring many back-end technology bottlenecks to the radar screen. Forward thinking retailers must accurately map their order processing and inventory data to empower service associates with the data they need to reconcile and close the transaction efficiently at the POS.

Slow processing and a poor return experience will virtually erode a consumer relationship that was costly to start and maintain.

Getting your organization on board with change

Convincing company executives that these initiatives deliver ROI may be challenging, but that challenge pales in comparison to what is faced in your store network. The perspective change within the rank and file employees in your organization will prove to be your most daunting task as it relates to these initiatives.

Within all three of the solutions above, the web transaction integrates with the physical store. The store is the final piece of the puzzle in all three scenarios, making it the most crucial element to deliver a proper transaction. If your employees do not execute properly on this level, the result will be an un-utilized solution, or even worse, a customer perspective that your employees are incompetent.

The key is getting your employees aligned with multi-channel change. This happens by driving two key operational strategies in conjunction with a multi-channel technology solution.

- Training

Store managers must take the lead in understanding multi-channel solutions, while leading efforts to replicate this knowledge among customer-facing employees.

Prior to solution launch, be sure to communicate the internal and external value among the manager base, create a solution handbook for employee questions, and bring managers in to the home office for a ? day workshop to become experts right before the solution goes live.

- Incentives

Employees must feel that the web-generated order still has some benefit to them. To drive accountability, some type of carrot must be given to ensure that employees have reason to treat the web-driven transaction seriously.

Because in-store employees receive bonuses for comp sales, create some type of awards program for efficiency as it relates to in-store multi-channel solutions. Or provide a piece of all web sales, distributed on a regional basis.

Understand the dynamics of your employees - how they work and what motivates them. By closing the gaps in training and incentives, multi-channel success becomes much closer to being reality.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Brand vision has evolved from brand positioning. Where positioning is defined as the specific niche in which a product sees itself as occupying in the competitive environment and by differentiating its superiority to competitors, the brand vision is what the company ideally wants to reflect outwardly.


Brand Vision

One key way to achieve the vision is to provide innovative solutions to market needs. Traditionally brand vision was driven by team workshops with each person contributing to the combined vision of the company. Although this route might be ideal for teambuilding exercises, it often resulted in mixed messages and confusion with regard to the brand positioning and mission. It is critical to any brand that its employees reflect the vision accurately and consistently. They are representatives or extensions of the brand after all.


David Taylor, author of 'Brand Gym' and 'How to Energize Your Team to Drive Business Growth' believes that brand manifestos are a better way to work on the vision for your brand, allowing you more freedom to express yourself, and what you really want to 'fight for'. Through this process you will discover your guiding principles, beliefs and the issues you want to take a stand on.


Inspirational Brand Vision

Every brand is different. It takes a lot of understanding to get their message across. By using creative brand communication strategies it is easy to gain the attention of your consumer. David Taylor's approach is straightforward and no-nonsense to ensure that you end up with an inspiring vision and a hands-on action plan to drive growth.


The key to creating a brand manifesto is to engage not just your head, but also your heart and gut feeling.

Creative tips to assist the creation of a brand manifesto, include:

1. If you were on a protest march in the street to fight against something, what would you write on your banner? And if you were to flip this into a positive and fight for something, what would you write?


2. What is the bigger role your brand can play in everyday life? What sort of 'legacy' would you like to leave behind after 5 years on the brand.

Communicating the Vision

By introducing brand visioning to employees it assists to build engagement, energy and alignment.


David Taylor's Brand visioning process scrutinises the following areas of business:

• Searching for true insight: creating a springboard for visioning by using different ′insight catalysts′ that cover consumers, markets and competition
  
• The visioning journey: creating a compelling brand purpose, a big idea and a rallying call; combining product ′sausage′ and emotional ′sizzle′


• Test-driving the vision: bringing the vision to life by exploring it within your business and with consumers


• Brand-led business: translating the vision into a business building mix that covers ′hero product′ innovation, communication and internal engagement

Once the brand vision is clearly understood it is easier to create the brand communication strategy. The brand communication strategy in turn is used as part of the marketing strategy to drive sales and company growth.


Taylor's guide to the essential steps of achieving persuasive brand communication are as follows:

1. Understanding the brand and setting objectives


2. Getting the team right


3. Keeping the brief and briefing tight


4. Getting the most from production


5. Brilliant brand activation


6. Developing and executing the campaign

Brand vision is the inception of any great marketing communication campaign. Know and understand the vision for your brand, live it and make it exceptional.

Author: Jonathan Andrews

About the author:
David Taylor is the brand vision and communication thought leader for Shoulders of Giants, a smart business thinking website, showcasing various brand experts discussing communication topics spanning a variety of brand communication and business related topics.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Task management is the true challenge on the modern world we live in. Time is more precious than ever and the amount of tasks each of us has to cope with is almost endless. The only difference between successful and average people is their ability to manage their tasks effectively. This ability could be improved significantly by using task management software and other task management tools.

Try the following recommended tools to improve your task management abilities:

1. Paper planning systems - Those systems help you organize your life (and your tasks of course). Think about starting each day with going through your daily task list of the incomplete activities, the prescheduled activities and meetings for the same day, the long range task and goals and only then prioritizing the tasks for the same day and starting to work. The paper planning pages and systems help you organize your task appropriately. These are the most proven task management system. It had been used by most of the successful managers of the 20th century, and it is still the most popular planning and task management tool.

2. Planning software programs - task management software programs have been here for many years. The problem was that most people manage their tasks and emails on their email system e.g., Microsoft outlook. The most effective task management software programs are the ones that have a direct interface with outlook or other email programs. This interface include powerful tools like goal planning tools, project management tools, task prioritizing tools and more all using only the outlook user interface.

3. PDAs - PDA stands for a personal digital assistant. A typical PDA can function as a cellular phone, fax sender, Web browser and personal organizer. Most of the modern managers use PDAs as Ipaq or Palm as their personal diary, meeting scheduler and task manager. PDAs are small, convenient and user friendly.

Don't wait. Start managing your tasks more effectively today by using one of the above task management tools. Go and get them.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

In a previous article I shared a couple of tips that will reduce the feelings of discomfort that often come when a performance appraisal is discussed - gather your materials in advance, make a list of the key points you need to cover, and pick an appropriate place for the discussion. Here are four more suggestions that will make the performance appraisal discussion more relaxed.

Choose a Convenient Time

When is the best time to hold a performance appraisal discussion? There isn't any one particular time that is ideal - mornings or afternoons, early or late in the week, it doesn't matter.

What does matter is having enough time. Wise managers set a specific time for a performance review - perhaps 60 minutes - and announce at the beginning of the meeting just how long they have budgeted for the discussion. But they also make sure that the next activity scheduled for after the appraisal discussion is one that is either a low-priority (so that it can be re-scheduled) or highly flexible (like working on a long-range plan). It may turn out that more time is needed to discuss some sensitive items that arise during the discussion. It may also be that the performance appraisal discussion turns into a highly creative brain-storming session that needs to continue beyond the one-hour schedule. Make sure there's enough time for unexpected events to play out.

Determine the Agenda

How are you going to kick off the performance appraisal discussion? What are the first words you plan to say? Will you review the performance appraisal sheet section by section, or do you want to start with the final rating and move backwards from there? When are you going to go over the employee's self-appraisal?

Too often these questions are answered simply as 'it just happened that way' - the manager gave no thought to the sequence of events that he wanted to follow.

A better approach is to have an agenda for the meeting. The agenda need not be written down (although that's not a bad idea) but the manager needs to decide in advance how he wants to structure the discussion.

Arrange for Work Coverage

If you don't have someone to answer your phone and you can't switch the phone to send all calls directly into voicemail, then make a firm decision to simply ignore any phone calls that come in during the meeting. Steal a 'Do Not Disturb' sign from the next hotel room you stay in and put it on the door handle of the room where you're meeting. Tell your staff and colleagues to follow the 'thousand-mile rule' - don't disturb you with anything unless it's of the same urgency that they would track you down and interrupt you if you were a thousand miles away.

Give the Individual a Copy of the Performance Appraisal to Read in Advance of the Meeting

Before I became a consultant, I spent fifteen years working for three large corporations: General Electric, United Airlines, and PepsiCo. Each one of those companies had a rigorous performance appraisal system; every one of my bosses took the process seriously.

But each one followed the same clumsy procedure when the day came for my performance appraisal discussion. At the time we had set for the meeting I would walk into his office and he would hand me the appraisal. I would try to read through the multi-page document just as fast as I could while my boss sat behind his desk trying to gauge from my reactions how I was taking it.

What a bumbling way to start the meeting! How can an employee take everything in from 2 minutes of speed reading?

Here's a far better way to get the meeting off to an efficient, business-like start. An hour or two before the appraisal meeting is scheduled, give the employee the performance appraisal. Say, 'Sam, at 3:00 this afternoon we're going to get together for your performance review. I'd like you to read through the performance appraisal ahead of time so that you're prepared for our meeting. Feel free to write any questions you have directly on the form, or highlight anything that you want to be sure we talk about. See you then.'

Sam now has some time to read carefully what you have written, at his own pace. He can reflect on the things you've said without having to immediately defend or explain himself. He can jot down notes and think of questions he'd like to ask.

If you ask people to complete a self-appraisal, ask for it at the same time that you give them a copy of their appraisal (if you haven't asked them to send it to you earlier so you can use it as an information-source in completing the official performance appraisal.) You too will be more relaxed and better prepared by being able to read, in an unpressured way, what the individual has written about herself.

One caution, however. If the person you're reviewing is a marginal performer with a bad rating, wait until the beginning of the meeting to hand over the performance appraisal. This increases your control of the situation.

Must performance appraisal discussions be uncomfortable exchanges? No. Following these small suggestions will help produce appraisal discussions that turn out to be productive learning events and true team-building experiences.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

There is a tendency to assume that employers veer towards people with less experience in the market place. Why is that? Do they consider the mature applicant to be less flexible, less driven and less technologically aware? It would be naive to think that age isn't taken into account, when employers are looking at a prospective applicant. However the number of people working beyond the age of 65, is, apparently, rising by a third, according to the 'office of National Statistics and so the competition for challenging senior roles will increase; this is especially true of the 'Interim Management' market place.

A great many 'purchasing' activities are 'project' driven - therefore it would follow that the older one is, the greater the experience on a diverse range of projects. Functional projects such as - business process re-engineering, information technology, financing of new product launches, franchising and licensing agreements, critical commercial negotiations, export development and sales improvement etc.,

In an increasingly competitive business environment, mature 'Interim Managers' would be required for their length of experience for short-term needs arising from acquisitions or sudden take-overs; relocation and expansion or consolidation of facilities in the office or manufacturing environment; privatisation issues; start-up or close-down of a company, subsidiary or division; productivity, efficiency or profitability improvement needs. The list is endless. Many organisations managing 'change' find the best way to ensure success and of course avoid costly mistakes is to appoint a senior interim manager who has the necessary skills at hand to quickly establish what needs to be done; that well-trodden path of maturity and experience is required to ensure that these needs are translated and understood properly and very importantly to ensure it all happens on time.

Often project times are in fact cut dramatically leading to considerable competitive advantages and substantial budget and cost savings.

In today's climate as companies have down-sized-thus causing the loss of a senior executive, for whatever reason, this can often cause a very negative impact on many organisations. Therefore experienced interim managers 'come into their own' during times of crisis, filling gaps caused by sudden departures of key executives, for reasons of sickness, resignation or death; for dismissals, both planned and unplanned; protracted recruitment difficulties, caused by scarcity or unusual market factors; maternity leave cover etc., It is vital, therefore, given these scenarios, that speed is of the essence. Having gained this enormous wealth and breadth of experience, the more mature applicant is sensibly overqualified and has the ability to be able to step in at a moment's notice and has the 'know how' to make a virtually immediate impact on the defined tasks, to fill the vacuum of leadership, to be a self-starter and to literally 'hit the ground running!'

The experienced and more mature 'Interim Managers' are often the preferred choice when it is necessary to fill a critical vacancy, pending recruitment. Often senior executives can take around six months or more to recruit and of course the client really cannot afford to wait that long. The primary objective is to ensure that business momentum is maintained with the 'day-to-day' running of an organisation. The senior 'Interim Executive' must, therefore, be immediately available and suitably very experienced and certainly over-qualified to be effective immediately on day one.

The client may wish the interim not to make hasty changes until the full-time recruit arrives, so that the individual is able to stamp their own mark on the company. However, engaging an experienced interim enables the client to obtain an outsider's impartial view of the business and to achieve some rapid deliverables. They have no agenda and are able to take unpopular decisions if necessary. The older interim would probably have far more confidence to be able to do this, as it only with maturity and experience of people and situations over a lengthy period of time, that would enable them to make some very tricky decisions. The more junior members of an organisation are more likely to listen and respect their judgement as they are able to stand outside the internal politics. Some very confident negotiating skills, would be an absolute necessity!

It is therefore no surprise when analysis of the age of all executives shows that 85% are between 40 & 60 years. It is generally considered that below the age of 40 it is less likely that an individual will have the necessary experience to meet the demanding standards of an 'Interim Executive' especially in terms of either his or her ability to transfer skills and experience quickly to a new client environment. It is therefore incumbent on the 'mature' applicant to challenge any perceived prejudices, by ensuring that they have presented themselves as 'the very best person for the assignment.'

Article source: Free Management Articles.

A team may be defined as a group of people who depend on each other to achieve a common goal, it may not be necessary that the members of the team may be placed in the same physical location, but they all strive and work towards the attainment of common goal. But when all work towards the same effort then it is essential that they need to have consensus in reaching out to some common consensus. It is quite common when there are a number of people then there are quite some difficulties in reaching to a common decision. It is quite common that most of the teams struggle with this issue atleast once in a while. Based on the discussions held by some of the knowledgeable people the reason for the lack of similarity in the opinions of the people is that the decisions taken are based on opinions rather than facts. It is quite common with people to express their opinions than to contemplate their opinions along with the real time facts. It is very much important to remember opinions express what we feel about a situation and on the other hand facts take us nearer to the reality and they do not have any scope for disputes. Opinions are often based on the values and the beliefs that we have acquired from our childhood about the different aspects present in the world, the values let us know about what is good, bad or normal. Opinions are always open for the interpretation of the people.

Let me pen this down with the help of an example where there is presence of two sportsmen ; of which one sports men admires a person who believes that winning does not matter, what matters is how you play. On the other hand the second sportsmen strongly believes on the fact that winning is the only thing present. Now from the opinions of both the persons we can come to conclusions on the behavior of both the sportsmen. The first player believes in ethical and a fair play and on the other hand the second player believes and yearns to win the game at any cost. The point in discussion is not on the case whether who out of the two holds better values or who is a better player; but to simply empathize on the fact as to how opinions differ with people and later on in their lives these beliefs stand as a focal point in the various discussions they engage themselves into.

What is the step ahead when values act as points of clashes: Team building exercises begin to flutter when the distinct values dwell within people, following are steps which have to be taken when values act as an obstacle in reaching out to a consensus.

Design a process: There would be many instances when values act as a fall pits in the decision making process, in such instances it is important that you need to define a process as to how would you arrive at a conclusion when there are obstacles that have to be tackled. Lay down some rules for tackling such situations.

Dip some team values in the members: When individual values act s obstacles then in such case it is essential that some team based values have to be inculcated within the individuals. Try and reach to a decision where you can take the positives of all the clashing opinions so that the outcome achieved is impressive.

Author: John david

About the author:
John david is a SEO copywriter for Professional
TeamBuilding. He has written various articles like Team building events, Team building California, Team building los angeles, Teambuilding and more. For more information visit our site www.professionalteambuilding.com. Contact him through mail at johndavidseo@gmail.com.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Jerry Pounds, writing on the Management-Issues web site recently put out an interesting piece called: 'Litigation awaits for insensitive employers.' Here's a key passage.

'Judges and juries are linking musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disease, psychological disorders, suicide, cancer, ulcers, impaired immune function and workplace injuries to a wide spectrum of emotional workplace stressors.'

Ultimately, in our litigious society, there's no way to assure that you won't get sued or that you'll win if you do. The good news, though, is that there are some basic things you can do to improve your odds.

The best defense against a claim that you were an unfair boss is to be a fair one. Sounds simple, huh? But lots of companies spend lots of time worrying about legal strategies when they should be paying attention to the quality of supervision in their company.

Bottom line: it's the immediate boss that matters. If you doubt that, try this test.

Find someone who works outside the home and who has kids. Ask the kids if they know their parent's boss's name. They almost certainly will.

Ask them if their parent's boss ever makes a difference in their mom or dad's mood. They'll almost certainly say, 'Yes.'

Or, don't try that experiment. Just read this quote from GE's CEO, Jeff Immelt. Immelt's father worked on the line at GE for more than twenty years.

'I always tell our leaders that they're GE to the people in this company. When I would sit around the kitchen table with my dad, I never knew who the CEO of GE was. I knew my dad's boss. � when he had a good boss, he was pumped. The frontline folks are critical to how the company does.'

The immediate boss, not the one at the top of the organizational chart is the one that makes the most difference. When a work team is productive and morale is high, it's usually tied to the behavior of the boss. When a worker claims to have been abused, or ridiculed, or treated unfairly, those charges are usually tied to the behavior of their immediate supervisor, too.

So, the problem for your company is to improve the quality of supervision at every level. The solution has three parts.

First, promote folks who will do a good job of supervision. Not every good worker will make a good supervisor. Not everyone who wants to be a supervisor will be good at it. When in doubt, try a person in short-term leadership assignments to see what happens.

Next, help newly promoted supervisors make the transition. That starts with basic training.

Next, provide training and support in key areas that new supervisors will have to know. That includes company policies and procedures as well as basic supervision and communications skills.

Help them identify role models and mentors. Most new managers learn the ropes more from watching and talking to others and not from classroom work.

Provide just-in-time help. That can be job aids, reference materials or a more experienced manager that the new manager can go to for advice.

Give them a way to talk to other supervisors about supervisory work. In my book Performance Talk, I tell the story of Karen, a newly promoted manager. She learns about the real world of supervision by participating in a roundtable. You can organize these locally.

Make sure that training becomes a lifetime proposition. The thing about leading others is that you will never learn all there is to know.

Finally, hold leaders at all levels accountable for their leadership. The leader, whatever the level, has two key objectives: accomplish the mission and care for the people.

Make sure your performance evaluations for bosses measure their performance as bosses. Reward good performance. Correct poor performance.

That's not easy, and in most companies it won't be quick. But doing a good job in the first place is a whole lot better than defending a bad job later. And there's a bonus. In addition to not getting sued, you'll probably be more profitable.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Time and attendance recording is the key function in any workforce management system. The workers work for pay and payrolls are prepared on the basis of time and attendance records. Accurate time and attendance records not only save employers from losing money on excess payments but also instil employee confidence in the payroll system.

Originally, time clocks installed at factory gates recorded in and out times on paper-based time cards of each employee. These time cards were collected by the payroll office and transcribed into time sheets. The time sheets were then summarized and the totals were used to prepare pay sheets. The whole exercise was a time-consuming and costly exercise. It was also prone to errors at several stages.

With advances in technology, new methods of recording time and attendance have appeared. These methods eliminate the time spent on preparing payrolls. They also enable more accurate recording and computations, and produce real-time reports for managers.

We take a look at the emerging scenario of time and attendance tracking and management.

Modern Time and Attendance Recording Devices

• Time clocks these days work with computers so that time-consuming manual transcriptions and computations are eliminated. They might come as standalone time clocks that can be installed in locations not suitable for computers, and the data recorded in the clocks can be transferred to computers later. With an Ethernet connection, even online data transfer is possible.


• The time clocks could work in combination with modern time recording devices like the following:
  
  
  
  • Biometric Finger Print Readers can eliminate the cost of employee badges, which can get damaged or stolen. They also eliminate the practice of buddy punching where another employee punches the badge of a buddy.
  
  
  • RFID Card Readers can read employee cards without the need for swiping. These cards and readers do not degrade with each use as is the case with swiping systems.
  
  
  • Barcode Readers that are used in tracking products and invoices can also be used to track time spent on individual jobs where an employee handles several jobs or tasks.
  
  


• Web Based Timekeeping systems allow employees to punch their times from their desktops or other convenient points.


• Cell Phone Web Browsers are ideal for employees on the road. They can access the Internet using WAP and punch in the times they spent on each job while traveling.

The devices listed above are only a sampling. More refined devices are either already available or are coming into the market. These devices seek to make time and attendance recording-related tasks easier, or to overcome problems of existing devices.

Technology advances have also made it possible to monitor employee time and attendance remotely in real-time. Managers can review the record of any employee from anywhere and at any time.

At the employee end, it is now possible to track accrued vacations, sick days or banked time, without requests to the payroll office.

Conclusion

Time and attendance recording processes have progressed much with advances in technology. Time clocks that can be connected to computers online or offline; times can be punched in using biometric and radio frequency id devices; Web-based systems can enable desktop, and even mobile (for employees on the road), time recording. These developments have made time and attendance recording scenario a completely different one these days.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Managing Performance is the operation of measurement of progress, of an establishment, towards a sought-after goal. It is the measure, research and optimisation of tools to render a service at a level that has been agreed upon by both party's. It centers on the delivery of service.

The basic idea behind performance management is a process over which the management unites the people, schemes and schemes, to maximise both potency and efficiency to be able to render the preferable results. Plainly put, the argument means, doing the precise things and doing the things right. That is, an industrious organisation must include one scheme that comprises leadership, and the other that insists on accomplishing quality.

An impressive performance management in an establishment can gain leadership skills that can be enhanced alongside mental attitudes, interpersonal skills and behaviors. This is a principal prospect of managing performance as it helps in retaining and maintaining individuals who embody the underlying human capital of the organizations. as they are the ones accountable for the execution of the primary plans of the business enterprise.

It is exceedingly critical for a company to have a secure, performance management. It should be able to employ the schemes, people and schemes actively, for the winning execution. This would also result in an increase in the sales and a larger profitability that would plausibly not be accessible, if the procedure was not executed.

With an effective performance management, business enterprise will prosper like ne'er before. It is an extremely essential procedure of business management, that is employed by managers of individuals, as an competent instrument, that is used by them to reach the targets of the organisation.

Performance Management may be able to implement the next business concerns objectives: The missing link between Aspirations and results: Today, businesses are progressively aware that it is normally not their strategy but the integrated endeavour and abilities of their employees to execute the strategy that makes all the difference to their expanding business enterprise. Consequently, it becomes the duty of top level managers to fill in the gap between the missing links of dreams and results, by motivating their employees, over management of their performance.

To increase the potential of an organization, in order to reach its strategy, it is principal that the organisation produces and produces the potentialities of its employees. Competent people management is the only key to better the businesses functioning.

The most principal purpose of Performance Management is to increase the potency of the employees. This should be complete, in order to better the execution of the commercial enterprise.

Managing Performance is linked up with paperwork, tricky conversations and bureaucracy, and is thus ofttimes put aside as a job no one desires to do. Nevertheless, Performance Management is a procedure that involves people and directors, that use the process on a regular basis, to increase their effectiveness towards the employer's organization.

Author: Paul Abbey

About the author:
P Abbey owns and runs http://www.managementperformanceadvice.com Management performance

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Businesses are having to make sacrifices at the moment as almost every single business sector has been hit by the credit crunch and the economic downturn and one way in which smaller businesses are cutting corners is by ditching their accountants and using business accounting software to keep track of their finances.

There are many types of business accounting software geared to sort small independent companies to corporate giants, but they all offer simple to follow bookkeeping programmes, payroll, quoting, invoicing, electronic payment processing, and stock control programmes which get the job done efficiently and with the minimum of fuss.

Business accounting software is commonly made up using a series of modules that are all relevant to the running of a successful business. Keeping on top of finances has never been more important during these difficult financial times. Companies are becoming insolvent in their droves, and although the bulk are mainly liquidating due to a lack of consumer confidence, high unemployment rates and the inability to borrow funds as readily as prior to the credit crunch, a lot of companies have been able to stay afloat by effectively cutting cost, but also by improving business efficiency.

In order to improve the efficiency of your business you need to have access to your expenditure and it needs to be accurately broken down into clear and concise forms in order to make life that little bit more simple, and thus allow you to be more efficient with your time. Once you can pin point the inefficient areas of business which need addressing, actions can be implemented to cut costs accordingly.

Business accounting software is a vital resource purely because it keeps track of a company's cash flow, which is the main objective of a business. Small businesses may be sceptical and may not think that business accounting software is a worthwhile investment, but the benefits are so great that surely a company would want to lower stress levels of management and staff, which in turn will improve working conditions and thus will improve the efficiency, as will the time saved by using easy to follow software.

Stock control is also a vital business component for many companies - there's nothing worse than getting business in only to realise that stock levels cannot meet demand. How convenient it is to keep track of exactly what your company has in stock, just at the click of a button.

Many companies opt to buy off the shelf business accounting software, which can prove to be a cheaper alternative to software that is tailored specifically to your company, but bear in mind that there may be functions on generic software that you never use, therefore you're paying for something that will never benefit your company.

Alternatively bespoke business accounting software will be geared towards a company and will only include components that will improve your business. In many cases, long term, bespoke business accounting software actually proves more cost effective for businesses as the benefits are often vital in lifting a company and improving performance.

So if you are seriously considering ways to improve your business, analyse your accounting - if you're a small business paying high rates to an accounting company then look into business accounting software as a cost effective alternative that can improve the everyday running of your business. It will prove to be a prudent move.

Author: Shaun Parker

About the author:
Shaun Parker is a Business Analyst with many years of experience in IT solutions. Find out more about business accounting software at http://www.e1business.com

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Admit it, filing for your Houston tax income return is not one of the exciting things to do. No matter how many tax return preparation encouragement or notice you get, filing for income tax returns is just tiring and always gives you a lot of headaches. However, it is something that you need to do - a responsibility that you can't put off. To help you make filing for your Houston income tax returns, here are some ideas to heed:

Do it yourself filing

• 
  If resources (any kind of resources, such as money to hire somebody to do it for you) are not that available, you just do it yourself. First thing's first, if you decide to do the filing yourself, make sure that you devote time for it. Houston tax return preparation for individuals difficult is that it is complicated, considering that it involves a lot of figures and processes. Thus, do not let your concentration wander around while you do the filing itself and be sure to have everything planned, like having a guide or checklist or something, or else you will be doing the same stuff over and over again. And that is something that nobody wants.




• You can't accomplish anything if you do not start something. Yes, you might be already be planning on how you will do your Houston tax filing - you already have in mind everything that you will do for the tax preparations. Yet, it would not amount to anything if you do not really start doing it. If you intend to start your plan of action, make sure that you still have enough time to do everything.




• Lastly, plans and preparations do not really count a lot if you do not really know what you are doing. So if you decide to do the Houston tax preparation yourself, make sure that you know A LOT about what you are doing.

Hire somebody to do it for you

• Professional help is always the best option, especially if you do not have any idea about what you are doing. They know what to do and they are paid not to go wrong with what they need to do, thus you are sure that your Houston income tax filing is in good hands. However, the thing is, you need to make sure that you have enough budget for this. If you plan in advance to hire somebody or a Houston tax firm to do it for you, you will be able to know how much it is going to cost so you will be able to save up for it.




• Make sure to also plan who you are going to hire. You should be convinced of their reputation and do not go cheap by hiring somebody for a lesser price. Go for quality. Remember, we are talking about your Houston tax preparation here, not a scarf or a car.




• When you hire a professional and if you are not yet so familiar with tax filing, make sure to discuss with the person important things such as exemptions, adjustments, credit and even advice on how you can properly do Houston tax filing yourself so that next time, when your budget is short or if you want to save money, you can try to do it on your own. However, for starters and not so confident with their Houston tax preparation knowledge and experience, then professionals are definitely a blessing.

Author: Jim Trippon

About the author:
Jim Trippon, an expert tax CPA in Houston, a name growing popular among millionaires who seek financial advice, Houston tax preparation, etc., has helped many multi-million businessmen in their business and Houston tax management. His firm, J.M. Trippon & Co., has been bigger and bigger and and is now an established name in any Houston tax problems management.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Statistics show that, on average, U.S. companies lose half of their customers every five years.

It's true that acquiring new customers will help your business grow. However, your current customers are the lifeblood of your business and keeping them happy should be your highest priority. Here are a few ways to make sure your customers keep coming back.

* Understand lost customers. Many business owners mistakenly believe that customers choose to patronize other companies solely because of better prices. While pricing can be a concern, customers often head to the competition when they don't feel valued.

A change of lifestyle may have also created a situation where customers no longer need your product. By staying in touch with their needs, you might be able to adjust your offering to continue servicing them.

* Know your customer's top priority. Maybe it's reliability or speed or cost. Your company should know your clientele's No. 1 priority and consistently deliver it. Remember, customers' desires change frequently, so ask yourself this question every six months.

* Acknowledge the lifetime value of customers. The lifetime value of your customers is the income you would gain if a customer stayed with you as long as they could possibly buy your product or service.

For example, the lifetime value of a customer employing a financial adviser could be several decades and could span several generations. Treat the parents well and you could win the children's business.

* Create a positive first impression. Good first impressions tend to generate loyal customers, and you get only one chance to make a positive first impression. Appearance is important. The exterior and interior of your business should be neat and clean.

* Listen to the customer. Employees should listen actively to customers. Reassure your customers that you genuinely want to help them. Customers will judge your business based on the politeness, empathy, effort and honesty of your staff.

* Address and resolve complaints quickly and effectively. Inevitably, your employees will encounter unsatisfied customers. Whether they're returning an item or changing a service, customers expect a fair policy. If you cannot offer a resolution immediately, let the customer know when he or she can expect an answer.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

In today's complex business environment new projects are constantly being developed as organizations seek new ways to reduce costs, improve processes, increase productivity, and build their bottom line. Managing these diverse projects along with their people, resources, technology, and communication is a difficult endeavor for which the risk of failure is often far too high. An effective solution, created to establish a more centralized management structure for large groups of projects, is the Project Management Office (PMO). The PMO provides organizations with an infrastructure of people, procedures, and tools to achieve effective project management by leveraging project management standards, allocating resources, establishing consistent performance measures, and reducing duplication of efforts.

There are many benefits to establishing an effective PMO. First, the PMO provides a framework for consistently managing projects through a standard methodology while ensuring the projects are aligned with corporate goals and strategies. Project managers have clear lines of responsibility while coordinating people, processes, and tools with one another and by doing so, avoid both gaps and overlaps between projects and reduce or eliminate duplication of effort. Standardization and repeatability afford an organization better communication, reduced project cost, improved resource management, more accountability, improved quality, better forecasting, and less overhead associated with project managers.

Enlist Executive and Management Support
The first step in establishing a PMO is gaining executive and management support. This step relies heavily on organizational change management (OCM) as it requires a potentially significant shift in organizational culture as well as roles and responsibilities. Regardless of the difficulties and resistance to change, this step is the foundation upon which a successful PMO must be built. As with any shift in organizational structure, policy, or procedure, favor must be gained through justification for the changes in terms of cost benefit and return on investment (ROI).

Determine the Structure and Build the Team
The next step in building a PMO is to determine the structure and develop the team. There is no defined template for PMO structure as every organization brings its own variables to consider. Some manage all aspects of the projects assigned under them like scheduling, budgets, resourcing, human capital, oversight, and communication. Others may strictly coordinate these functions with most of the support coming from adjacent departments. The keys to determining the right structure and team members for the PMO are understanding the most effective way they can co-exist within the organization and finding the right balance between the PMO, organizational culture, roles and responsibilities, and management style. Some things to consider in establishing the structure and building the PMO team include: availability of resources; existing project management standards and methodologies; current roles and responsibilities; the politics of the organization; project size and volume; and current project management problems.

Develop and Document Standards
Once the structure and team members have been determined, it is time to develop and document the PMO standards, practices, and methodologies for project management. These standards will allow for consistency across the organization and its portfolio of projects. They will also comprise a large portion of the training that projects managers and staff will receive in the next step. Standardization is also an important part of allowing an organization to compare various projects and allocate resources where and when they are necessary.

Identify Skills and Train the Staff
Once the development of project management standards and methodologies is complete, the PMO must identify the proficiency levels and skill sets of it project managers and staff in order to determine what training is necessary. Some of this information will be evident as a result of reviewing the statuses of current projects. Much of the training content can also be based on the standards, practices, and methodologies that were defined in step #3. The PMO should also establish an ongoing training program. In a PMO it is inevitable that staff members will come and go and organizational standards will change and evolve. A training program will ensure that all new employees receive training on those standards and existing employees remain aware of any changes.

Measure Success and Continuously Improve
Now that the PMO structure is finalized, project management standards are established and communicated, and personnel are trained, the focus of the PMO must shift to assessing and measuring success. This point in time marks the initiation of progress and performance reporting based on standardized tools, templates, and methodologies. However, it also marks the beginning of a continuous process improvement cycle and a transition from PMO deployment to operational sustainment. As the PMO evolves, project team members must maintain an awareness of the metrics by which their projects are measured as well as how process effectiveness is determined. There must be a concerted effort to identify processes which require improvement. Once identified, improvement measures must be developed and implemented.

The establishment of an effective PMO is beneficial to any organization which manages a portfolio of projects. When planning and building a PMO it is imperative that it is done in a manner which compliments the existing structure or the organization. This will allow the company to gain maximum benefit and to do otherwise would be counter-productive. Since every organization is different, the optimal structure for the PMO must be designed based on many considerations and variables. The ability of a PMO to manage projects through consistent and repeatable standards and methodologies brings many benefits. It provides the organization with accountability, continuity, simplified oversight, and the ability to measure project success more effectively. An effective PMO is a catalyst for greater efficiency as it allows an organization to do more quality work with fewer resources and less risk. The result of these benefits is an organization that will significantly improve its project success rate.

Author: Mark Piscopo

About the author:
About the Author

Mark Piscopo is the founder of ProjectManagementDocs.com, a website dedicated to advancing project management through the distribution of free project management tools, templates and educational material. Visit http://www.ProjectManagementDocs.com to download free PMBOK based project management templates, tools and educational articles.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

An employee survey can provide you with a good understanding of what is happening within your business when you are not there or what your employees think of working there. While any company can benefit from doing an employee survey, there are many reasons for those companies that have issues with such things as poor retention of employees and high turnover to those companies that have a low productivity level. Finding out what is happening behind the scenes will help you to determine what you can do to improve these situations.

For many of those who do an employee survey within their business, it is an eye opener. It can relate good things such as why employees like working with you and how well you pay them and treat them. But, it is also a great way of measuring ways in which you can improve. For many businesses, it can be a turning point.

Because the survey will be conducted through the use of a blind study, that means that the employees who partake in it can do so with the confidence of knowing that their opinions will not be judged or they will not receive harsh treatment if they do not provide good answers.

So, what areas can you learn about on the employee survey? You can learn about many areas from communication down to how well your management team is treating employees. You can learn of why people think about quitting and what things you can do to make things better for them. Little things are often important things to employees. You can also find out about really worrisome issues such as harassment and be more aware of what is really happening behind the scenes.

The employee survey can be done by any number of outside agencies who will provide for your employees a questionnaire. They will then review the information provided and come back to you with the information you need. You'll find that you have options in helping to create an employee survey or you can use a generic model as well. Whatever you choose, realizing that you can benefit from getting an employee survey taken care of is very important in helping your business take the next step forward.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Resource Planning: Before the Strategic Plan can be finally agreed and implemented, the leader(s) must ensure that there will be sufficient resources available for each activity at each stage of the plan. In reality the planning for the provision of resources must be viewed as a critical element of the plan itself. The strategic plan and the objectives within it will not be achieved if the activities needed to carry out the plan are not properly supported by appropriate resources.

Resources Forecast: A resources forecast should be carried out. All planned activities, stages, and objectives, should be analysed for resource requirements (resources as in the list below). If the forecast identifies areas where the available or deliverable resources do not match the levels required, then this must be corrected or the plan must be altered. Once the leader(s) can be satisfied that the necessary resources will be available, the plan can be finalised and implemented with confidence.

Prioritising Resources: It is tempting to rank these resources, perhaps arguing that human resources, and accompanying expertise and experience should be the highest on the list, but this is not logical. Lack of, or inadequate, financial, physical, or systems resources for any one of the many activities, or at any stage of the plan, can be as damaging as not having the required human resources. It is also tempting to think of resources as only human, financial, or physical, and also as coming only from internal sources. Again, this is not appropriate, as the strategic plan needs support from other areas, internally and externally, that should also be described as resources, such as systems, policies, suppliers, external stakeholders.

Organisational Infrastructure: The shape and complexity of the organisational structure should be designed to serve the strategic direction taken. A structure that is as flexible, dynamic, and responsive a structure as possible is essential. In some business sectors, for example in many parts of the public sector, there will be constraints and barriers that will dictate a more bureaucratic and rigid structure that limits responsiveness and flexibility. Much of this may be unavoidable, but it should be continually challenged and loosened where possible. In most other sectors there is no excuse. The leaders of organisations in commercially driven sectors, and this now includes education, health, charities, and the utilities, must strive to structure their organisations so that they can respond to the fast pace and continual changes of today's business world.

Systems, Policies, Procedures: In functional areas such as IT, Finance, HR and Personnel, Performance Appraisal and Reward, Conditions of Employment, Working Patterns, Training and Development, the systems, policies, and procedures must be operating in support of the strategic plan and the accompanying operational activities. An appropriate Quality Assurance Management System should be in place, guided by the strategic objectives, constantly monitoring the quality standards of all the systems, including its own, to ensure that they are not hindering or damaging the chances of achieving the strategic objectives.

Location: For most organisations the location is not easily changeable, and would not normally be challenged. But the leader(s) must look at the current location in terms of its strategic suitability. If the location is not supportive to the strategies, then alternatives must at least be explored. If moving to a more appropriate location is logistically and financially possible, then that relocation should take place at the earliest opportunity.

Front-line Physical Resources: For manufacturing organisations this will encompass production facilities, plant, equipment, and so on. For service sector organisations this will mean the physical resources at the point of sale and-or delivery points. The condition and capacity of physical resources in these areas must be able to meet the operational demands dictated by the strategies.

Support Functions Physical Resources: For most organisations this means activity areas such as procurement, design, research and development, administration, finance, human resources, maintenance, marketing, sales, distribution, and so on.

Managers in front-line and support areas must focus on achieving the operational objectives that have been derived from the strategic plans. The leader(s) must implement a system of regular performance appraisal and consultation to ensure that these areas are resourced appropriately and operated effectively.

Suppliers: A key resource, but because they are outside the organisation, are often forgotten. The quality of supplies, be they raw materials, equipment, parts, consumables, people, or advisory services, is a critical factor in the capability of the organisation. If inputs are not of the right quality then costs can rise, damage can be caused, delays can occur, and the operational performance of the organisation could suffer. In turn, the achievement of the strategic objectives of the organisation could be delayed or damaged.

Human Resources: The question that the leader(s) must ask is whether the quality, quantity, and distribution of the human resources within the organisation, is sufficient to satisfy the needs of the chosen strategies. Existing staffing levels, degrees of expertise and experience, flexibility, distribution, predicted wastage or turnover, are all areas that need analysing. Intangible factors, such as levels of morale, motivation, cultural attitudes, should also be evaluated. A human resources audit must be carried out and where gaps or weaknesses are identified these must be corrected, and brought up to the required levels.

Financial Resources: In simple terms, the leader(s) must be satisfied that the funding, the cash-flows, the budgets, will meet the demands of the activities. If necessary, and affordable, additional funding must be obtained, linking this resource need to external stakeholders as discussed below, such as banks, shareholders, and other investors.

Marketing and Distribution: whatever the product or service that the organisation is offering, the marketing and distribution functions are as important, if not more so, than any other internal function. Without revenue, whether from customer sales, grants, government funds, or other sources, the organisation must persuade the purchaser, or provider, to deliver revenue to it. This revenue will be a critical element of the financial resources needed to support the planned activity, and the continued flow of this revenue must be protected. This entails ensuring that the marketing and distribution function is itself appropriately funded.

External Stakeholders: This group of resource sources includes shareholders, investors and other funding organisations discussed in the section on Financial Resources. These need to be managed and informed appropriately. Other stakeholders could, depending on the nature of the business, include the local authorities, public services, local and-or national media, trade unions, local residents, national or international governments, national or international trade organisations, business partners, and so on. Where the support of any external stakeholder is identified as important to the success of the strategic plan, then effort and energy should be spent on building and maintaining a positive relationship with them. Maintaining positive relationships with external stakeholders is essential, as they are a vital resource in supporting the organisation's strategic direction.

Intangible Resources: These include goodwill, reputation, and brands. Individually and collectively these can be important to the success of the strategic plan. Goodwill is a value given to the reputation, the customer loyalty, the brand values, and in some cases the public image of the organisation. In monetary terms it is the difference in saleable value, or total value, between the tangible assets value given to the business and the actual value that a buyer would pay or an investor would calculate when deciding to invest or not. Reputation that the organisation has amongst its competitors, with its customers, in the public psyche, and although difficult to calculate, is also valuable. Brands can be highly valuable, as demonstrated by some of the best known, which generate immediate positive responses throughout the world.These intangible assets are resources, with a value, which the strategic plan will have considered and made use of, or planned to protect, or develop, as part of the plan. The leader(s) must ensure that these resources, these assets, are managed effectively and support the strategic plan as intended.

Management: The effectiveness of the individuals and teams that make up the management of the organisation are critical to the success of the chosen strategies. Without an effective management network supporting the planned activity and striving to achieve the strategic and operational objectives, the strategies will fail. As discussed in an earlier article, the leader(s) must put in place an effective management network, and ensure that this highly valuable resource is itself resourced appropriately.

The Operational Employees: Sadly this resource, this group of people, is often overlooked when the achievement of strategic objectives is discussed. Wrongly, it is assumed that objectives can be achieved as long as there is good management, good leadership, and appropriate financial and physical resources in place. Not true. Unless the workforce is appropriately skilled, experienced, qualified, continuously developed, and committed to support the achievement of the strategic plans, then the plans will fail. It is critical that the operational employees, in all functional areas, are involved, informed, and persuaded to support the strategic plan. The role of the leader(s) here is to ensure that the management team makes this happen.

Leadership: The final resource that we look at is the leadership of the organisation. The role of the leader(s) is to lead the organisation into the future, in a direction and a condition that will ensure that the organisation is successful. Whichever direction is chosen and whatever the measure of success is, the leader(s) must make certain that the strategic plan is appropriately resourced at every stage and in every activity area. In addition, the leader(s) must ensure that they lead the organisation in an appropriate manner, adopting an appropriate style of leadership for each stage of the journey that the strategic plan is leading the organisation into.

In Summary: At the start of this article it was stated that it was not logical to prioritise, or rank, the resources needed to support the strategic plan. The range of resources is broad and diverse, and all should be treated as equally important. Each stage and each activity area must be resourced appropriately, otherwise serious damage can be done to the chances of the plans being successfully implemented. However, there is one exception to this rule, and that is regarding Leadership. The leader(s) must ensure that the plan is resourced appropriately and then accept responsibility for being the most critical resource of all. Without the essential resource of effective leadership, regardless of how well other resources are provided and applied, the plans will fail.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Fundamental principles: Foreign Language courses are not like other courses so you must never procrastinate. It is impossible to succeed in a foreign language course if you keep on playing for time as the minimum time requirement for a student is to put in 3 hours weekly and 15 minutes on a daily basis. While you need not put in more than 45 minutes learning the language in one session, try to accommodate all the extra time you have in your hands.

Distribute your whole study into small units. Attend classes regularly, if you want to pass the course and you are serious about the language. Some occasional review of all material you have learned previously is also very important to your success - for example, the vocabulary. Give below are some clues which can make your attempt to learn a foreign language as easy as ABC.

Get the meaning only of such words whose meanings simply can not be speculated or guessed. Read a little bit of the language every day, especially the chapters in the textbook.

Start to communicate: Do not feel embarrassed if you make mistakes, simply hear what others are talking about and start to speak. Start to talk in the foreign language with your class mates, with yourself as well as with your pets.

Writing: Hone your writing skills everyday till you no longer fumble.

Follow a dictation of the language and check how much of it you have written correctly.

Medley of helps: You ought to have a goal and a good reason for studying the foreign language and develop good feelings towards it. Know what you are going to get from your studies and how to get them. If you need help get it and do not be afraid to ask questions or ask for help for fear of sounding stupid, or being embarrassed. There is nothing to feel embarrassed when you need help or have questions in your mind. Get audio tapes of the language and listen to them or make you own tapes and listened to yourself in order to perfect your pronunciation. To better your pronunciation, the best way is to listen to audio tapes of the language or you could record something yourself and listen. An interesting way to develop vocabulary is to make flash cards where different colors depict different genders and words like nouns, verbs and adjectives. Practice in study groups and become good friends with some of your classmates because they can help you out.

Author: Paul Abbey

About the author:
P Abbey owns and operates http://www.learningmanagementsystemabc.com/scormcompliantlearningmanagementsystem.html Scorm Compliant Learning Management System

Article source: Free Management Articles.

One of the most important assets of an organization is the individuals; the individuals are appointed and employed by an organization so as to perform some of the specific functions. When the entire individuals join together it becomes an organization, however there is a special attention given to the individuals who are doing their job alone. It is important to note the fact that the individuals work in an organization so as to show their productivity and the zeal to show that they have effectively contributed to the working environment of the organization. But in addition to this there are varied needs that must cater to their personal needs, there are things that go beyond the work environment and they look in for something that motivates them. It is important to note the fact this is the reason for the development of the informal groups develop so as to fulfill certain emotional, social and even some of the psychological needs. Another important thing that has to be noted is the degree to which a team satisfies the needs and wants of the members determines the actual limit to which the behavior of the individual will be controlled by the group. Some of the factors that lead to the formation of the informal groups are as follows:
One of the major factors that determines the formation of the groups is the sense of belonging it is important to note the fact there are several kinds of functions that are performed by the informal groups and it is important to note that the group should be in a position so as to satisfy the affiliation needs of its group members like the friendship and a backup support. It is important to note the fact that the members of the group need to belong to it, they also need to be liked by it and even like it, they need to feel a part of it and they also need to rely on the fact that they are affected by its functioning and their work also effects the group as such.
The next factor that determines the effective functioning of the team or the development of an informal group is the identity and self esteem. It is a common scenario which prevails in the organization that the groups act as a means of developing, enhancing and even confirming a person's sense of identity and self esteem. Although there are many organizations that take the initiative to have a catch of these higher needs of their employees but the nature of some of the jobs- their technology and the prevailing environment restricts this from happening. The long communication channel further adds to a greater sense of depersonalization.
Another important factor that adds to the development of the informal groups is the impact of stress. For example one of the functions of the groups is to serve as an agent for the testing of the social relations, for instance all the group members will share the feeling that the supervisor is a slave driver and with the development of the consensus of this feeling, the informal group members are in a position to develop a unity on this feeling and reduce their anxiety associated with the job.

Author: John David

About the author:
John David is a SEO copywriter for Teambuilding events. He has written various articles like Teambuilding seminars, Corporate Team building workshops, Team building activity and more. Contact him through mail at johndavidseo@gmail.com.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Today's workforce is truly mobile. Most of us now work at the office, from home and on the road. 'On demand access' to critical customer information from anywhere is becoming a 'must have' facility.

Now customers demand CRM access using a remote desktop or laptop accessing data through the Internet or on a handheld device. Suppliers are expected to have all the information at their fingertips at the moment of interaction. The same insight into their business and affairs are expected in a one-to-one meeting is expected when they phone into a call centre.

Remote access is a genuinely useful tool that can help your company to reduce duplicate entry, administration time, travelling time and costs for remote workers. It will also enable you to improve your customer service, and improve the quality and usefulness of data input.

Staff want the technology. Surveys have shown that sales management and field representatives both felt strongly that providing PDA access to CRM systems would drive increase productivity of the sales force. Eighty-three percent of sales representatives felt that a PDA sales solution would make them more productive in the field and 90% said they would use their CRM system more if they had handheld mobile access. Sales management agreed: 82% believe PDA access for sales representatives would drive field usage of CRM and 91% believe mobile CRM software on PDAs will become an important sales tool for their organization.

Two factors have stopped many companies from adopting mobile technology to improve their business functions. Firstly, companies are just inexperienced when it comes to applying mobile technologies. Secondly, even though it is not true, companies percieve the cost associated with mobile solutions to be greater than the benefits gained because they can't immediately identify how to apply mobile data to improve competitive capability. A mobile data delivery solution must be cost effective and allow organisations to experiment with mobile technologies and to gain insight on how to gain a competitive edge from the technology.

It should have the following:

* Access to information from any remote location covered by a mobile network.

* Low start-up costs allowing development of mobile strategies through experiments.

* Simplified user interface making it easy to administer data.

* Quick search and find.

Success can be measured by:

* Improved cycle times in providing a customer with accurate information.

* Efficiency increases for buyers and sales people free them to focus on developing key account relationships

* Empowered sales people and buyers with information when they enter negotiations through remote access to data

* Allowing management to be up to date with information where ever they are engaging with suppliers, customers, partners or shareholders.

* Experiments with mobile strategies to define ways of improving current business processes and prepare for new wireless technologies that will reshape the business environment.

Thanks to broadband and 3G technology this is no longer just the preserve of large companies. Now SMEs can also use the web and PDAs to access their CRM systems remotely giving benefits such as:

* Accessing important account contact and history information
* Updating account information
* Cultivating stronger sales relationships
* Improving customer service
* Scheduling activities and appointments

Article source: Free Management Articles.

It is not a rare occurrence to find people in the wrong job or profession. One reason could be that they just love the social attributes of the job. Some are in the job because they have not been able to get anything better. Others may be on a job because it is the 'family business', and they feel compelled to follow it. Many others begin a work history with the first job they can get and just stay in that industry forever. Your problem manager is defined as a product of one or a combination of the foregoing motives.

Left to his devices, the problem manager can significantly decrease production and staff morale, and contribute greatly to cost increase - quite the opposite of what most company objectives are about. The problem manager can make a large company an unpleasant place to work, and will almost certainly destroy a small company. He may not be quite so difficult to spot. The classical example is the individual, who has the general impression that the entire world rests on his shoulder, and will come crashing down to pieces, if he is not more efficient than he presently is. In the budding stages, he may appear as the supervisor who constantly berates and intimidates his subordinates; the team leader who constantly creates division within his team instead of harmony; the manager who condescends to talk to the individuals in his group but never listens to their inputs; the manager who considers self as better than everyone else, and makes sure that everyone else knows this; the manager, who would 'get the job done even if has to do it by himself.' And in their drive to achieve their very personal goals, they ignore or overlook other people in the organisation.

There are too many managers who do not understand what management is about. Despite what many may imagine, management is not about working hard; it is about working easy. An Unofficial Handbook of Management gives the following as the chief attributes of a true manager:
* Likes not doing anything
* Has no trouble telling others what to do
* Fascinated by work - likes to sit and watch work for hours
* Likes sweating the small stuff
* Always been something of a loner
* Enjoy having people despise him just for doing his job
This perhaps looks like an extract from the CV of a loafer, but the fact, which it seeks to express, is that management is not about working hard, but assisting a team to use their individual strengths more effectively.


It may not be quite easy to use a rule of thumb to identify a problem manager without creating the impression of a corporate witch hunting exercise. But there are several ways to make a tidy investigation, which will leave no one in doubt of the objectives. Quite often all that a senior manager may need to do is talk to the junior staff. Many employees will often seek a sympathetic ear to their complaints. If they are not talking, there may exist a larger problem of their distrust of senior management - or just their fear of their supervisors. Talking to the clients of the company could reveal a lot about the strengths and weakness of the managers in a company. Still a lot more can be revealed by looking at the overhead costs of the company. Overheard increase, which is not linked, to increase in productivity in a department should alert to a problem. For the same reason, staff turnover - when one group has more people quitting (or retiring) than others; when there have been instances where several individuals from the same unit have left the company in a short period of time; when one department has higher overtime costs than the others; when the employees in a particular section have been using up all their vacation and more of their sick days than the average - there is usually a problem manager in charge.

Yet it may be a lot easier to find the problem manager than to correct him. Except the individual has suddenly inherited the family business, they are unlikely to have got where they are without being good at something. If they weren't good at some particular facet of the company, they would quite certainly have been fired long ago. It is important therefore to be able to assess the value of the manager in question to the company and weigh it against their cost to the company. If the manager has increased productivity, by fifteen percent over the past year, stakeholders in the company may wish to overlook the fact that the turnover rate in that department is higher than average. However, if the books show that the cost of sale has increased by ten percent during the same period, because of increased training costs, payment to employment agencies, sick leave costs, and increased overtime, stakeholders will be very much concerned. It is important to quantify the impact of every manager's performance in monetary terms - or in terms directly related to the objectives of the organisation.

The action of top management with respect to a problem manager will depend on the circumstances. Coaching or advanced training can be recommended. The individual might be transferred to a position with less responsibility for people. Again, it must be observed that many problem managers are a result of company policy. Perhaps the goals set for the individual are unreachable, which has caused their management style; and should be adjusted. Lack of motivation is one other fault in company policy, which may produce a problem manager. If management is not sensitive to the skills of employees, resulting in people being placed in positions in which their ability to perform is not stimulated, one can correctly guess the result. A dreamer should for instance be put in charge of creative tasks rather than the accounting. The detail-oriented person should be put in charge of tasks with more structure rather in strategic planning. And, an introverted loner is not likely to go very far in customer service.

Whatever the action taken, it is important to document and quantify the measurements that are used to determine how the problem manager is hurting the company. Intangible faults should not be addressed. True bottom line impacts should be demonstrated by the use of overhead expenses as well as direct costs. The same measurements should be used to quantify the benefit to the company when the action taken, resolves the problem. An honestly implemented manager reorientation policy has the ability to produce more productive satisfied managers. And when this is achieved, the big picture - achieving greater profitability, becomes much clearer.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Many business owners find themselves in the position to confront employees about their Internet use. Non-work related activities including online games, Internet shopping, stock trading, Internet radio, streaming media and MP3 downloads represent the new temptations in the workplace.

When an employee connects to the Internet, your company is exposed to these four threats:
- Productivity Threats: Just 20 minutes of recreational surfing a day can cost a company with 30 employees over $1000 per week (At $25/hr per employee)
- Legal Threats: Employees can sue if you don't provide a work environment free of gender and minority harassment. This means taking reasonable care to block offensive Internet content.
- Network Threats: An employee can crash your network just by logging into the wrong website. Other activity like recreational surfing and downloading MP3 files can divert valuable bandwidth from critical business needs.
- Security Threats: Viruses enter networks through a variety of sources, such as web-based email, Instant Messenger file transfer, email attachments or through other files directly downloaded from a website.
Companies of all sizes must effectively incorporate email, Instant Messages and web traffic logs into their overall records management strategy. Some companies must do this to comply with industry regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and HIPAA.

The first step is to choose the types of Internet content that will not be allowed in the workplace. Keep in mind that not all employees will have the same privileges, so it is important the network management solution you choose provides a flexible configuration to suit your needs.

There are two basic types of Internet monitoring solutions: Gateway and desktop solutions. Gateway solutions are software or hardware that act as checkpoint for all Internet traffic on the network. Desktop solutions are installed on the local machine to enforce the Internet policies before the request leaves the machine. Desktop solutions work well on smaller networks and gateway solutions work well on both.

The next step is to create an official company policy specifically for Internet use. It should include all Internet activities and not just those you wish to manage. Keep in mind the document cannot account for every possible scenario on the Internet, so it is important to use broad terms with specific examples. For example, instead of stating 'Political opinions are not to be posted on newsgroups,' you may wish to use 'Messages originating from the company network or other company-owned assets may not contain political opinions.' The second clause is much stronger because it doesn't specify a message type or delivery system. If you have liability insurance, then be sure to get their approval on all documents. In some cases they will have additional provisions that directly relate to your industry.

The most difficult step will be implementing the new policies. In most cases, some or all users will experience a reduction in Internet privileges. Prepare for a temporary increase in support requests as some users will be prevented from accessing some work-related content. Internet policy configuration is an on-going process that must be routinely maintained.

Soon the complaints from users will cease and production will return back to normal. It is important to keep your filtering software updated and to maintain a history of Internet activity. If the time comes when you must confront an employee about their Internet use, you will have proof of their Internet activity and a detailed comparison to their peers. That is a much stronger case than saying 'I've seen you 10 times looking at �.'

Article source: Free Management Articles.