People talk about not just working in your business but on your business. However, they don’t often relate this concept to their team. They work in their team, but do they work on their team?
WHAT DO YOU FOCUS ON FOR YOUR TEAM’S DEVELOPMENT?
Coaching techniques
Overcoming Procrastination
The Mystery of Procrastination and how to conquer it. I haven’t met a leader who doesn’t struggle to some degree with procrastination. The funny thing is that most of us do not want to practice this debilitating behaviour, yet it seems to persist. We allow it to prevail in spite of our full knowledge that it eats into potential productivity and profitability levels. So what is the cause? Why do we continue to do the very thing we know is unhelpful? How can we overcome such a prevailing, and often, unconscious habit? Before we can hope to overcome this unwanted nemesis to greater effectiveness
Leadership empowerment: what is it and how do you do it?
There is quite a bit of talk today about the need to have empowered employees within the workplace. Unfortunately that is often all it is – talk! But what are the benefits and how do you accomplish such a task? Let’s start by discussing the benefits of having more empowered team members. Business environments change so rapidly today. There is a need to develop more empowered employees in order to keep up with today‘s fast-paced fluctuating global environment. In order for organizations to remain adaptable to customer needs, front-line employees must be given more authority and flexibility to make on-the-spot decisions. Research in the area of empowerment has revealed that increased empowerment produces greater organisational success factors. These factors include employee contribution, innovation, organizational commitment, expands latent talents, increases capacity to accept change, and increases employee retention. These benefits are all necessary traits for improving organisational success. Having discussed some benefits and hence the desirability for greater empowerment let’s investigate what we mean by the term ‘empowerment’. There seems to be a plethora of definitions but for me the best way to discuss empowerment is to break it up into two dimensions. Hence, empowerment can be summed up by looking at both its internal and external aspects. The technical definitions that describes these two aspects are psychological empowerment (internal) and leader-empowering behaviours (external). Psychological empowerment is made up of four facets, a sense of real meaning in one’s work, a sense of making an impact through the contribution you make
Manager as Coach
Leaders who use Coaching Techniques Accomplish Greater Results! Why use Coaching techniques? Businesses that are seeking to attain or maintain their competitive advantage over their rivals are recognizing that one of the key factors to success is the relationship managers have with their staff. This is a constant factor whether it is related to front-line managers, middle managers or top level managers. The Gallup organization conducted a large research project and discovered that the most significant factor contributing to high employee retention rates, healthy customer satisfaction levels, increased bottom line results and productivity levels were the direct relationships managers had with their staff. It is worth the effort One of the most significant skills therefore for managers is to learn how to better engage with their staff. Studies show that the use of quality coaching techniques in working with staff can empower them to their potential in their place of work. Research has shown that managers in general believe that the use of coaching techniques as a part of their leadership style would bring greater work place benefits. Furthermore, managers who had been trained in coaching techniques and persisted at utilizing them over a six month period, noted that they were worth the effort to learn and implement. Different modes of Coaching by Managers When implementing coaching techniques within the workplace, there are two typical modes of operation used. There is the formal and the informal. The informal is also known as corridor coaching, where the manager uses short targeted