People who live next door to each other seldom take the time to get to know each other. Or worst yet, co-workers go into the same building daily, and may even ride the same elevator, without even saying a word to each other. And this story goes on daily all across the land - different locations, same scenario! How much more rewarding life would be if people would only take a moment to greet each other and start to develop positive relationships!

It is my belief that we are, at times, our own worst enemy. Despite our kind and helpful intentions, we tend to shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to developing and maintaining positive relationships.

There tends to be problems among people whenever they ignore each other or demonstrate a lack of respect. I drew this conclusion after studying this counterproductive behavior while in college and again while in the US Air Force. Consequently, I venture to say that ninety to ninety-five percent of the cases I counseled stemmed from lack of mutual respect and/or communication.

'Developing a relationship takes time, but applying the ingredients begins immediately.'

The way we learned to develop and maintain our relationships with others usually started in our homes when we were young. If our parents showed love and respect for each other, we tended to do the same for our family members. Having had positive interactions there, we took it to school and eventually to the work place. However, if we never witnessed or learned mutual respect at home, we developed an indifference for our fellow-human being. It is no wonder that we never knew how to show it.

Mutual Respect Goes a Long Way

Respect, whenever demanded, always results in 'defiant compliance' (doing it because we have to, usually under pressure, not because we want to for the pure pleasure) that may lead to counterproductive behaviors. When respect is earned, on the other hand, positive things begin to happen on both sides of the fence. The only effective way to earn respect is to give it away. Then, not only will it return, but it will do so a hundredfold. The good thing about developing positive relationships is that it is never too late to do so, despite how blight the situation might seem.

Hint: To create an atmosphere of mutual respect, start by demonstrating in your words and actions respect for others, starting with your spouse and children. A good way to begin is to minimize the negative talk, in yourself and in others. Speak when the atmosphere is friendly. Your family member will be more apt to listen and respond in a friendly manner. Take what you have learned to the workplace and spread respect in similar manner there.

Putting a Little Fun into Your Life

Because we are so busy with the demands of work, home, community events, and church activities, it becomes easy to overlook an all-important aspect for building positive relationships. The good news is that it does not take as much time as we might think. The benefits come in the quality, not the quantity, of time we spend with the other person.

Hint: Spend time on a regular basis, once a week, or two or three times a week, with the other person doing something that you both enjoy. Avoid getting into the routine of making it a forced activity or schedule.

Encouragement Creates Cooperation.

If we expect others to respond to our wishes and requests, we must first believe in ourselves and in the other person as capable and productive persons. This belief, when expressed in positive and supportive words and actions, sends a strong message of encouragement. The other person quickly picks up and responds positively and cooperatively.

Hint: Minimize your mentioning of the mistakes (except in hazardous or other dangerous situations) or the weaknesses of others. Instead, recognize and acknowledge their assets and strengths. Turn their lemons into lemonade.

Show a Little Love in All You Do and Say

I often heard in counseling situations that 'He says he loves me, but he never shows it.' What this person was actually saying was that she heard it in words but was not convinced by his actions (usually it a lack of action). Remember the old adage: 'Action speaks louder than words'? It could not be truer here. Love is both an emotion and an action. Saying it alone is not enough. Neither is showing it by itself. For the other person to feel secure in the relationship, regardless of the level of intimacy, they need to know, see, feel, and perceive that they are on the receiving end, that the other person truly cares for them.

Hint: Expressing our love, care, and concern for the other person is both a feeling and an action that needs to be expressed in words and action. Often such expressions are most powerful whenever they are expressed at a time or occasion when the other person is least anticipating such comments and actions.

Avoid praising; it may seem artificial. Instead give encouragement; it comes across more genuine and caring.

Although mutual respect, love, and funtimes together are all important ingredients in creating positive relationships, it is the encouragement ingredient that is the most important of all. For it is through encouragement that we focus on the strengths and assets of the others. Consequently, it is this encouragement that helps them to believe in themselves and their abilities, that helps them to accept and learn from their mistakes, and that helps them to develop the courage to be themselves, imperfections and all. (This just might be the first step they needed in helping them learn how to maximize their potential.)

There you have it: The four ingredients in developing and maintaining positive relationships, mutual respect, love, having fun together, and encouragement. Now put this recipe into practice with your employees, your customers, your colleagues, and others, and watch the positive results of your behavioral investments grow beyond all leaps and bounds.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Businesses change often and quickly and because of this they need to be prepared for almost anything. One example of a being prepared is going to be employee retention and succession. With all of the different jobs that are out there and all of the different companies that are doing similar, if not the same, work that you do, why would your employees want to stay with you? There are of course, many reasons for this including loyalty, money and security, but intertwined in each is the hope for advancement. People want to know that they are going to have the opportunity to move up in the company, that they aren't going to be stuck doing the same thing year after year. There are exceptions of course, but most people will leave a place after a while if they aren't given more responsibility, more power or at least more money. The question at this point is, how do you set that up, how do you decide who should be moved up? And of course, how do you train that person fast enough? Your answer is automated succession planning.

Succession planning is a pretty simple concept. The idea is that you will plan out which person will replace each person above them. That way, if you have a manager that quits, you already have a person selected to take that person's position. The great things about having a succession plan is you won't have to worry about training someone completely new to do a job at a completely different job than they used to work. This means less time training new managers or supervisors.

Speaking of training, the succession plan isn't all that needs to be done. What will be done is the person that you selected to promote should begin receiving training now. They should work with the person they will eventually replace and should learn from them. This will allow for a smooth transition into the job for them. They will understand how the person before them did things and how they will do it. This allows for less complications and issues and it also give that person a reason to stay at the company. It really is a win, win.

The difference between succession planning and automated succession planning is the manner in which it is done. In automated succession planning you will fill in questions about different people. You will talk about their qualities, desires, seniority, and almost everything else that determines their abilities. This will nearly take the guess work out of things. This will assist you in determining which of your employees should be given what job. It will also track their progress so you know what they are learning, and what they are not learning. And if they aren't learning it, then they should be trained again. This keeps an open line between the employee and the employer of what the plans for the employee are and what the employee's progress is.

With this type of program you can save yourself a lot of time, especially if you have a large business already. In the end, succession planning is an amazing tool. After a while you will be impressed at how much harder they will be working because they suddenly have direction for their work, a reason to continue and hopes for advancement are becoming more realistic to them.

Author: Success Galore

About the author:
Use Winner Business Planning Software to develop your business strategy. For details visit http://www.successgalore.com

Article source: Free Management Articles.

London - Tuesday, 8th July 2008. In common with many businesses, Cheyne Capital had no formal means of managing team absence, resulting in individual teams creating wall planners or spreadsheets of their own. Tracking and approval of holidays was carried out informally via email, with no reliable way for managers to avoid holiday clashes between individuals, check holiday entitlement or monitor the number of days spent on activities such as client networking.

All too often, managers would find themselves stranded, with several key staff out of the office at the same time, meaning staff either had to cancel business trips and holidays, or work unnecessary overtime. 'What did it for me was the point where all our credit analysts were planning to be out three days straight,' said John Weiss Manager of Cheyne Capital's Credit Team. If we could have clearly seen what everyone was up to, we'd have avoided the whole issue'.

Cheyne Capital looked for a solution that was simple to use and capable of showing, at-a-glance, whether clashes in schedules were likely to cause problems. Simply installed and configured, TeamSeer now provides Cheyne Capital's managers and staff with a definitive grasp on day-to-day absences, strengthens team management and clarifies internal communication.

TeamSeer integrates with Microsoft Outlook Calendar to provide a collaborative environment with 'at a glance' visibility of team availability. 'With TeamSeer, each member of staff can now see planned absence for the whole team. As such, the number of potential clashes is reduced in the first place,' commented Jonathan Griffin, Business Manager at Cheyne Capital. But most importantly for team managers, any clashes that do occur are made evident before approval is given. They know who is where and when, at their fingertips. 'This new perspective is a big boost. TeamSeer has become central to our ability to plan', added Griffin.

Author: Cheyne Capital

About the author:
Cheyne Capital is one of Europe's leading alternative asset managers. Cheyne Capital Management (UK) LLP is authorised and regulated by the UK FSA and, along with other parts of the group, is a registered investment adviser with the US SEC.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

Do you know that you get 80% of your results from just 20% of your time and effort and consequently 80% of your time is virtually wasted on non productive activities?. Once you realize this it is easy to take advantage and either reduce the hours you work or significantly improve your productivity.

The 80-20 rule was first discovered by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto a hundred years ago. Using this knowledge is incredibly powerful in combating the 'not enough hours in the day' mentality of today's society.

The 80-20 rule means that in any area of our lives, literally 80 percent of our fruits are derived from only 20 percent of doing 'what matters'. In other words, there is only a very small portion of all that we do each day, regardless of the situation, that brings us the 'higher return'.

How can you benefit from being aware of this principle? Implementing a strategy based on the 80-20 rule can result in greater wealth and greater leisure time? Just imagine how productive you will be if 80% of your time could be spent on productive activities. You have to realise that the things that matters most should never be at the mercy of activities that matter least.

Here are 5 Steps to maximumise your productivity:

1) Keep a work log for at least a week

Write down all of your activities and the time spent doing them. I appreciate this is time consuming initially but it is essential you get a true picture of your working week.

2) Analyse your activities

Separate your activities into high priority - those that produce a return or where only you have the skills to do the work - and low priority - activities others can do where the activity can be delegated to support staff. You will almost certainly find that you are spending most of your time on low-priority activities rather than activities directly providing a return. In almost all businesses these non productive activities tend to absorb time at a far greater rate than they should.

3) Delegate non productive activities

Once you can identify the low priority activities delegate as many as possible to support staff providing training where required. If necessary employ an additional member of staff to take responsibilities - the cost will be more than offset by your improved productivity. There may be a number of low priority activities you are tempted to keep. Unless it is absolutely unavoidable don't be tempted and don't get involved in non productive activities or your productivity will fall.

4) Calculate the time required for any remaining low priority activities

Once you have delegated all that you can, your next step is to calculate how much time you should be spending on the remaining low priority activities to make maximum use of your productive time. Do not work disproportionately hard at these low priority activities and set aside specific time each day or week to complete them.

5) Prioritise your remaining activities

Once you have cleared out the activities that do not bring you any return, it is time to turn your attention to the activities in your life that are bringing the most reward. Prioritise your activities and concentrate most of your time just on a few high-priority activities.

The objective throughout is to maximize your results from the areas of high return and to delegate those activities that have a low return. Having to spend a disproportionate amount of time on non productive activities is a major source of stress for many businessmen. Delegating these activities will therefore have the added benefit of reducing the stress you are under. It is all about doing less work for greater return.

For more success in life, whether that is more money, more time with your family or just making time for golf you should start implementing the 80-20 rule immediately. It will help your career as well as your personal life and, as a bonus, following the 80-20 rule day in and day out can make you very wealthy over the long term.

Article source: Free Management Articles.

After the absence - managing attendance in the workplace

The transitional period of returning to work after a prolonged period of sickness absence can be daunting for the employee AND their line manager - especially where the ill health revolved around a 'stress at work' issue. Coming to terms with changes that have taken place during the employee's absence and re-establishing team working practices will take effort and commitment from the manager and employee alike. Supportive and proactive interventions must be implemented to ensure a smooth transition back to the workplace.

The employee's perspective

Returning to work following a long period of absence is daunting in itself, but with stress-related absence this is often so threatening that some individuals never make the transition back to full time employment. If the illness was brought about by stress at work or there are unresolved bullying or harassment issues, it's likely that fear of a relapse, along with lack of confidence and low self-esteem, will inhibit rehabilitation. When work pressures only partially contributed to the illness, there may be a feeling of guilt on the part of the employee that he or she had let their fellow workers down and put unnecessary pressure on others in the run-up to their illness. Such anxieties may be groundless, but individuals feel very fragile following stress-related illnesses - with anxiety, depression and panic attacks being common symptoms of breakdown or burnout. A considerable amount of support and encouragement is required if a full recovery is to be both achieved and sustained.

The employer's perspective

The long-term absence of an employee naturally puts pressure on an organisation, both in terms of the costs of covering the absence and also in maintaining the morale of team workers. Achieving the smooth return to work of an employee who has been absent for some time requires early steps to be taken to establish a non-threatening rapport with the individual, and this should be undertaken with care and sensitivity. It should be the responsibility of the line manager or personnel officer to keep in contact with the employee - as it's important that the absent employee feels valued but not pressured into returning to work before they are completely recovered.

Once it has been established that an employee is well enough to return to work, it's imperative that a phased return is planned. This should involve the employee's GP, counsellor/coach, personnel officer or line manager, together with an external mediator if there are unresolved workplace issues that still need to be addressed. The phased return should include a short induction programme and any necessary retraining. Workloads at this stage should be carefully monitored - as too much too soon could result in a crisis of confidence and a relapse; while too small a workload can have the effect of making the employee feel superfluous.

Guidelines for rehabilitation back to work

Each case has to be judged on its merits, and in cases of return to work after several months of illness it will be important to work in conjunction with an occupational physician. The importance of this process cannot be overstated. Once an employee has highlighted that they have had a stress-related illness, positive action must be taken to remove the stressors and/or give adequate training and support to the individual to enable them to cope with the demands of their job

The normal work-related pressures should be removed, as far as is possible, for the initial return to work, and then gradually reapplied as the individual becomes fit enough to accommodate them as part of their normal everyday work. In some cases retraining may be appropriate, and this will depend on discussions with the individual, the job evaluation and skills analysis.

Ongoing appraisal needs to be a guided conversation, with the manager helping to review aspects of the job that may be difficult, and identifying areas where the individual is happy to initially return to begin work.

Key questions for consideration in ensuring successful rehabilitation of an employee back to work include:

• Has the individual been off work for the optimum recovery period? Individuals may return to work too soon and without having had enough time to rest and recover and to rebuild their self-esteem and confidence.


• What are the factors that caused the original problem, and who needs to assume responsibility?


• Is it appropriate that the individual returns to exactly the same role?


• Where the individual's role needs to be changed, has this been communicated clearly, i.e. are the manager and individual clear about roles, responsibilities and expectations?


• What working practices need to be in place to support the returned worker and what can management do to facilitate this?


• Has the individual been given any advice on burnout prevention? The value of this cannot be overstated, particularly in relation to key areas including sleep, hygiene, energy management (through nutrition), and graded physical exercise programmes.


• Have procedures been established for the regular review of the situation? Progress should be continually monitored with regular communication between the Occupational Health department, manager and the individual.


• Motivation - is the individual suited to the job? What do they want from their job?

Serious stress-related illness, and in particular 'burnout', are conditions from which it is difficult to make a complete recovery. There is, unfortunately, a high risk of relapse should either the employer or the employee not have learnt the necessary lessons. It is for this reason that the employer must monitor the employee's return to work and be alert to the early warning signs of reoccurring personal stress or any inability to cope with given tasks. Regular appraisal will identify further training needs, and provide a discussion forum to enable both parties to raise issues that may be inhibiting a full return to work. But having said this, it is only reasonable to accept that whilst the employer can provide the structure and support mechanism for an employee to return to work, they cannot guarantee that the employee will necessarily slot back successfully into the original position that they formerly occupied.

Author: Carole Spiers

About the author:
World-Class Motivational Speaker
Carole's inspirational style and range of topics are equally suitable for curtain-raiser, closing speech or a major keynote. She can carry a full-day event with confidence, either as a speaker or conference chair.
Phone: +44 (0) 20 8954 1593
Email: st@carolespiersgroup.co.uk
Website: http://www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk


Article source: Free Management Articles.

Managing Performance is the procedure of measurement of progression, of an organization, towards a preferable goal. It is the measurement, analysis and optimization of resources to render a service to a level that has been agreed upon It focuses on the delivery of service.

The initial idea behind performance management is a operation over which the management merges the individuals, schemes and strategies, to increase both effectiveness and efficiency to be able to render the desired effects. Plainly put, the affirmation implies, doing the precise things and doing the things right. That is, an industrious establishment should admit one system that comprises leadership, and the other that insists on accomplishing excellent.

An efficient performance management in an organization can achieve leadership skills that can be enhanced alongside attitudes, interpersonal skills and behaviors. This is a fundamental prospect of managing performance as it aids in keeping on and holding individuals who embody the underlying human capital of the organizations. as they are the ones accountable for the execution of the principal plans of the business concerns.

It is exceedingly fundamental for a company to have a secure, performance management. It should be able to engage the systems, individuals and strategies actively, for the productive execution. This would also result in an addition in the gross sales and a bigger profitableness that would in all likelihood not be reachable, if the operation was not put through.

With an impressive performance management, business will thrive like never before. It is an highly important procedure of business management, that is employed by directors of people, as an efficient instrument, that is utilized by them to meet the objectives of the organisation.

Performance Management should be able to accomplish the next business concerns objectives: The missing link between Aspirations and outcomes: Thesedays, businesses are increasingly conscious that it is ordinarily not their scheme but the integrated effort and abilities of their employees to implement the strategy that makes all the difference to their thriving business enterprise. So, it becomes the responsibility of top level managers to fill in the gap between the missing links of aspirations and outcomes, by motivating their employees, over management of their performance.

To grow the potential of an establishment, in order to accomplish its scheme, it is principal that the organization grows and produces the capabilities of its employees. Efficient individuals management is the only key to better the businesses operation.

The most critical purpose of Performance Management is to increase the effectiveness of the employees. This should be complete, in order to better the operation of the commercial enterprise.

Managing Performance is associated with paperwork, difficult conversations and bureaucracy, and is hence ofttimes put aside as a chore no one wishes to do. Even So, Performance Management is a procedure that affects people and managers, that use the process on a regular basis, to increase their potency 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.