Posts Tagged ‘Business’

Foreman A or Foreman B – You decide…

February 4th, 2010

I had a really interesting conversation with a man who is in the building trade the other evening.  First of all he reckoned that his line of wouldn’t benefit from my type of skills.  After he told me this story, he agreed that people are people no matter what industry they work in and that we actually think the same way.

He said that the way he manages his staff is based on his observations of two foremen that he worked with when he was learning his trade.  His story was so simple yet so insightful…that I thought I would tell it again here…and let you decide which foreman you want to be…

Foreman A was always shouting at his staff, never provided any encouragement and never recognised the hard work being done by his staff.

As a result the man I was speaking to told me that he would never go out of his way for that foreman.  That he would have left him standing alone rather than help him out.  He didn’t like him.

Foreman B regularly praised his staff.  He took time to explain tasks when necessary and provided opportunities to learn new skills.  He spent time with his staff, working along-side them.

As a result, I was told that ‘backs would be broke’ making sure you did a good job for Foreman B.  That he ‘wanted’ to do a good job and would put himself out just to do a good job.  He liked him.

The guy I was talking to said he decided to be Foreman B, because that’s the type of person he wanted to be and thats’ the type of workforce he wanted to have.  He told me that the difference it has made to his business is huge.

Seems common sense?  Pretty obvious story eh?  What results do you want?  Are you being the type of Foreman that will glean those results?

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Posted in Behaviour, Business, Cause & Effect

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National Sickie Day – You suffering?

February 1st, 2010

Today is ‘National Sickie Day’, a day in which it is estimated that 350,000 workers will take a sickie.  This will cost businesses more than £30 million in lost business opportunities, reduced productivity and salary/overtime payments.

A survey by Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS), shows that of the 1,500 bosses interviewed for the nationwide survey,  half said they did not believe staff who complained of being ill.  So why do they phone in sick and feel comfortable claiming illness not to go into work?

It could be any number of reasons and managers need to find out what those reasons are if they are to actually  ‘manage’ their staff.  All too often managers feel that their staff should not take advantage simply because they pay them a wage but there’s much more to it than that.  If you are a manager, when was the last time you pulled a sickie?  Why did you?

Staff pull sickies, not just because they are taking advantage and want an extra day off but also because they are either unhappy in their workplace or something has happened at home that needs dealt with.

We need to be making the most out of our staff, especially now when the economic situation in still on a knife edge and we may well have had to cut costs by cutting the number of people we employ.  If business is to grow again we need to ensure our staff our productive and going the extra mile…not just doing enough or working to rule.

So what do we do to lower the number of staff who pull a sickie?

Employee engagement is vital if we are to make the most of our staff.  Engagement means that staff are committed to your organisation and they are aligned.  In other words, do they care about their work and do they know what their responsibilties are and how they fit with the wider organisation.  So how do we engage our staff?

First of all, in order to understand the behaviour of others you need to understand their motives, needs and desires.  The only way of finding out this information is to ask them, on a regular and consistent basis. Appraisals and regular update meetings can be the perfect opportunity to discover what makes your staff tick.  How many of you are getting the benefits ofappraisal though…and how many of you dread them coming?

Do your staff know what is expected of them?  Have you provided detail about what their responsibilities are and the impact of them not completing their jobs correctly is?  Do they have job description?  Do you keep them informed of company performance?

Are staff trusted?  Think of the last time someone gave you work and then watched over your shoulder as you completed it…feel like they trusted you to do a good job?  Ok so, their capability will affect how much support you give them, but do you consider how capable they are and behave accordingly?

Do you communicate openly and with transparancy?  It’s important to keep everyone in the loop or you will be dealing with gossip and rumour.  Neither helpful and certainly not easy to correct once rife.

What’s the atmosphere like in your teams.  If there are personality clashes or unhealthy competition, this could be a reason staff take a sickie.  Maybe they just can’t deal with the relationships prevalent in the office anymore.

Are you flexible about work hours?  If one of your staff has a burst pipe, would they ring and explain what has happened and know that you understand it needs sorted or would they ring in a sickie because you would insist on them coming into work?

Have you built loyalty in your staff by supporting them, providing them with development opportunities and career progression?  If you haven’t then why would your staff go the extra mile for you?  The last time you went out of your way for someone…why did you do that?  Your staff have the same motivation needs as you.

Finally, the biggest influence on whether your staff will pull a sickie is their relationship with you.  If you care about your staff and build rapport with them, they are more likely to go the extra for you, and less likely to take advantage.

If you are the type to crawl into work no matter what state you are in…why do you do that?  If you have built  engagement into your organisations culture then you won’t be wondering where your staff are today.

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Posted in Behaviour, Business, Cause & Effect, Motivation

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The Forgotten P.

November 26th, 2009

What happened the last time you went shopping?  For clothes….electrical appliances…furniture….or whatever…  What was your experience like?  Was the shop assistant friendly? informed? helpful?  How do you feel about poor customer service?  Ever walked out of a shop rather than buy from the person serving you?  Ever walked out of a shop because you got too much or too little attention?

The importance of people in our buying behaviour is huge.  We buy from people.  Yes, the process needs to be right…not too many needless forms…handy way to pay etc… Yes, the product needs to be the right one for our needs.  But without the right people behind both process and product… well, you know the rest.

So why then, when the effect people have on the buying behaviour of customers is so apparent do we neglect them? Why in lean times do we only concentrate on the savings we can make by slimming down processes and spend time on innovation for our products?  The savings we think we can make on the people aspect…are achieved by cutting development and training budgets….by cancelling the Christmas do. But have you thought of how that will effect your workforce or have you just looked at the immediate benefit to the bottom line?

In actual fact, people can be much more fundamental in us all surviving this downturn.  By spending some time and energy on people…we can increase their ability to complete the job correctly, make them feel needed and valued and thus improve their attitudes, morale and customer service.  Not only customer service but every aspect of the working day can benefit from your people being happy in their work.  And ultimately your business benefits.

Be wary of how your people will react to budget cuts and how they will feel about their place in your organisation.  Don’t ignore the opportunity to make the most out of people….as well as process and product.

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Posted in Business

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Your personality, your culture…

November 24th, 2009

What type of person are you?  What type of humour do you have? What are the stories you tell others about yourself? Do you have a certain way of doing things?  These are the things that make up your personality, various elements which combined are greater than the sum of the parts.

Stories – Past events that you and others tell to provide information about yourself.  That time you got backstage at that rock concert…or when you forgot your keys and ended up with the police thinking you were a burglar…or how you defended your friend in a crowed bar..

Customs and rituals -The way you do things.  Insist on research before booking a holiday…or you must always put masara on before you leave the house…you alwayss have hot chocolate before bed…

Values – What values do you have?  What’s important to you?  How do you prioritise your life?  Always put family first?  What about the work vlaues you have?

Beliefs – What are your beliefs about the world?  Do you believe people are generally good?  DO you think that given half a chance people will take an opportunities to pull the wool over your eyes?

Behaviours – What does your behaviour look like?  Do people comment how you are a good listening?  What about how you behave when someone needs help?  Do you walk to a rhythm?

Symbols – Always carry an item with you that means something?  A photo in your wallet? Do you associate or love a particular item…a friend of mine used to adore elephants and would have lots of elephants everywhere.

All of the above combine to form your personality.  The culture of you so to speak.  You have acquired a body of knowledge about how to behave and this enables everyone else to interpret and understand how to act with you and what type of person you are.

Now think about these things in relation to your family.  What culture does your family have?  What stories are told?  What rituals do you complete?  What shared behaviours and do have?  Christmas is coming, what rituals do you always complete then?  You family is made up of many parts that form a unique whole.  A collective belief that in turn shape behaviour.  We are behave according to our families culture…or at least in their company we do.

In the work context…organisations have culture.  I’m sure you were told stories when you arrived…what happened at the last Christmas do…that time that manager totally lost it….the time you all got out earlier due to a leaking pipe…

You actions within organisations often conform to their culture….without even realising it….

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Posted in Business, Human Nature

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Step down from your throne and into the Warehouse

November 18th, 2009

In Julius Caesar , when the surpreme commander Caesar moves thrugh the city of Rome, the people throw notes at him, which Caesar’s aides pick up.  This was a way of informing their leader what they needed fixing in the republic.

How often do you provide an opportunity for your employees to talk to you?  To let you know what they are thinking?  Worried about?

In this uncertain times, little is more important than communication.  And here’s the clinker, the bit that makes communication actually work….it must be two-way! It is all to easy to be isolated from your employees, to be so wrapped up in running the business and making strategic decisions that chatting to those at the ‘coal-face’ comes very low on your list of priorities.  Yet, being seen by your employees, being visible is incredibly important.

If you are likley to appear at any time, your employees are likely to make an effort and be productive the majority of the time.  And you are less likely to create a deathly silence when you actually do walk into a room!  So regular visits at varying times are important.

Also, the more regulary your visits, the easier it will be for them to open up to you, share information with you.  Yes, you may have an open door policy, but are employees using it?  It’s a great thing to be promoting but you need to make yourself approachable as well as accessible.  Have you considered that employees may find it very difficult to come to speak to you, to leave the comfort of their work station?  Taking yourself out of your office and allowing yourself to bump into employees can create a more casual opportunity for them to tell you things.  Things they may not have wanted to bother you about previously or wanted to be seen bothering you with.

So, do you want to learn about your business, know what actually happens on the floor….step down from your throne and into the Warehouse…the benefits are insurmountable!

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Posted in Business, Motivation

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Putting yourself about

November 11th, 2009

Expanding your network of contacts is generally agreed to be the best way of increasing visibility, meeting business people in increasing trust and confidence in your capabilities.  But for some, being thrown into a roomful of strangers is a scary proposition.

There are a variety of different networking groups, those who base their strategy on referrals, those which are more social,  those that enable one-to-one appointments and the social media sites.  It’s necessary to assess what your needs are and decide what format best suits you.  But how do you get past the initial fear of introducing yourself to new people and describing your business?

In basic terms, “networking” is merely talking to other people. While that might seem simple, the importance of making the right connections and putting across the right impression can make the process very daunting.

Some pointers

Be polite to everyone

This seems to be ‘taken for red’ but it would be very easy to spend your time seeking out those who have an obvious direct link to your business but it’s also important to get talking to and be polite to everyone else.  You never know who that person may be talking to afterwards or what connections they may have.

Help others before yourself

Networking is not about sales pitches, its about contacts and getting your business concept and serivces known.  So don’t be afraid to concentrate on the other person.  You will need to know as much about their business as possible in order to respond to their needs and letting the other person talk demonstrates that you are interested in what they have to say.  Reciprocation is where the real business deals are done.  Providing help and assistance to someone now may well have them ringing you later on downthe line with a nice piece of business work.

Be Patient

Networking does not bring immediate business to your door.  Be patient, build your network and the business will follow.  If things aren’t moving after a couple of weeks, don’t panic and think its lost effort.  Keep it up and in time people will get to know you, your work and the value you can add.

Any other hints and tips for folk wanting to network?  Please add your comments and lets see if we can get people putting themselves about!!

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Posted in Business

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