This is the ninth of the blog posts based on the top ten most read Straight Talk Tips that go to my clients each month. The tips are free and you can sign up for them here
How to manage change effectively
Almost all organisations undergo extensive change at some time in their history. It may come from [...]
This is the sixth of the blog posts based on the top ten most read Straight Talk Tips that go to my clients each month. The tips are free and you can sign up for them here
What makes a high performing team?
There is a lot of talk about high performing teams: but talk is cheap. Building [...]
This is the fifth of the blog posts based on the top ten most read Straight Talk Tips that go to my clients each month. The tips are free and you can sign up for them here
Essential characteristics of good leaders
From ancient philosophers to modern scholars and consultants, we have been obsessed with finding out what [...]
Most of us put off having difficult conversations for as long as possible. But even when we are in conversations, we find ways of avoiding the critical and difficult issues. The problem is that when you hold a conversation that does not directly and effectively address the real problem, no amount of talking will make [...]
The majority of organizations today claim they have a performance appraisal system in place. The procedures and documentation are carefully designed and circulated every quarter or half year. Managers line up interviews with their staff. Sometimes people are asked to complete self assessments before their appraisal interviews.
Afterwards, the data is collected and analysed to identify [...]
One of the problems that almost all business managers wrestle with is that of holding people to account. When you don’t do it effectively you find yourself surrounded by people who are driving you crazy with their incompetent performance or inappropriate behaviours.
Conversations about poor performance often end with promises of improvement that come to nothing. [...]
I have been working with a client in Lexington, Kentucky this week. It is one of the largest NGOs in the USA, serving the needs of impoverished communities in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Some of the people on my workshops were the managers of particular projects; others were from building maintenance, finance, HR and donor [...]
How do you convince someone to improve their performance when they have been paid – and promoted – for years, for what you consider to be sub-standard performance?
One of the most difficult performance management problems is the one where you have taken over a team where people have not received honest feedback in the past. [...]
One manager I’ve seen recently uses the all too familiar tell or authoritarian style with her team. She knows it all; what is wrong, who is at fault and exactly what they must do to fix it. She even knows what others think! In a meeting from which one of her people was absent, she [...]
Coaching, counselling, mentoring, one-on-ones; performance management, appraisal, review…I see managers spend enormous amounts of time talking to employees in an effort to help them improve their performance.
But with what results?
The logic starts with the assumption that there is an effective selection process in place that ensures people are placed in positions where they have the [...]