What Really Drives You Nuts? The most common complaint we hear from leaders and managers is that they can't do everything they want to do to produce results in their area of the business; they control only part of everything that needs to be managed to get the job done.Keywords:
Kate Mercer, leader, manager, control, results, job, organisation, sales, function, accountable, process, training, development, tools, knowledge, skills, matrix, structure process Switch off that 'Phone! In many organisations we visit we see meetings where people arrive late, and unprepared for the agenda items under discussion. Too often, people are more or less openly checking their emails on their BlackBerry or laptop during the meeting, or even answering their mobile and leaving the room for a while to take a call!Keywords:
Kate Mercer, meeting, organisation, agenda, listen, outcome, productivity, behaviour, culture Why Doesn't Leadership Training Produce Leaders? Great leadership is one of the keys to long-term organisational success; so how come there seems to be such a shortage?Keywords:
Kate Mercer, leader, leadership, organisation, success, boardroom, inspire, competence, learn, teach, belief, value, vision, attitude, management, business, skill, emotional intelligence, effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, training, course, programme Why Doesn't Training Stick? Have you ever wondered why the training you get on some courses, however interesting and entertaining, doesn't 'stick'? How many course folders have you got gathering dust on your office shelves? And how much of the content can you recall, or more importantly, actually use, without opening the folder?Keywords:
Kate Mercer, training, course, content, skill, ability, information, technique, practice, mindset, performance, learning, retain, development, belief, management, organisation, knowledge How Can You Recession-Proof Your Business? Amid all the depressing talk of recession, we thought we'd take a more encouraging view! Find out how to view the downturn as a challenge rather than a threat - an opportunity to fine-tune your organisation.Keywords:
Kate Mercer, build, development, accountability, growth, business, leadership, management, measurement, improvement, customer service, culture, value propositions, thrive, reward, behaviour Do You Have Time to Read This? There's nothing new about the fact that people seem to have less and less time. The more work you do, the more work comes your way. With email, the internet, mobile phones and BlackBerries we're never out of touch with increasing demands for our time. Most approaches for time management focus on techniques to manage activities. What we offer here is a review of your time management from three veryKeywords:
Kate Mercer, time, management, demand, work, internet, technique, approach, activity, organisation, effective, vision, priority, driver, motivation, challenge, delegate, important, reason, excuse, purpose, mindset How do You Manage the 'Unmeasurable'? Quantifiable stuff has to be measured in business, it's true. You'd be failing in your accountability to your bosses, your bankers and your shareholders if you didn't do it. But this alone doesn't tell you that everything you want to happen is happening. What about teamwork, values, customer service, people's attitudes?Keywords:
Kate Mercer, measure, quantity, money, sales, business, numbers, quantifiable, quantify, manage, accountability, shareholder, results, teamwork, values, service, attitude, success, revenue, practice, progress, sustainable, criteria, objective, target, behaviour, performance How can I be a great Team Leader? The foundation of all Leadership is Accountability, 'the willingness to make commitments and hold oneself to account for them, regardless of the circumstances'. There are two aspects to the definition: your willingness to make binding commitments for yourself, and your relationship with the circumstances that surround you.Keywords:
Kate Mercer, leadership, leader, lead, accountable, accountability, commitment, circumstances, team, skill, empower, vision, partnership, What's Partnership got to do with Leadership? How would it be if you and everyone else in your team came to work committed to ensuring each other's success?Keywords:
Kate Mercer, partnership, team, success, leader, leadership, vision, accountability, organisation, behaviour, result, target, work, job, role, satisfaction, motivation, achieve, empower Why is Vision Important to Leadership? Welcome to the last in my three-part series on Leadership, which I define as 'holding the Vision, causing Partnership, and holding people to Account'. Over the last two articles I have explored the areas of Accountability and Partnership. This time I am going to take a look at the key to Leadership: the creation and keeping alive of a compelling picture of the future state of the organisation. In Keywords:
Kate Mercer, vision, leadership, future, strategy, organisation, inspire, achieve, result, success, objective Working Hard? Or Producing Results? Ask anyone at a party or any social gathering 'So, what do you do?' Most people reply with a job role or title. When further pressed, they will list for you the things they are responsible for or some of the activities they carry out in their role. What you will never hear is a short and complete list of the results they are accountable for producing.Keywords:
Kate Mercer, results, accountable, responsible, job, work, role, output, business, performance, measure Beware: Groupthink! Groupthink is a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive, task-centred group, when their need for unanimity supersedes the need to make a decision based on rational information. Groupthink can lead to bad judgments and decisions being made, and can also cause a group of decision makers to rationalise a poor decision after the fact. It's a simple and totally inadequate way to deal with difficult issues.Keywords:
Kate Mercer, thinking, group, decision, management, business, cohesive, organisation, strategy, leader, result How to Make Change Stick There are two clear groups of factors to take into account if you want to make changes stick and produce outstanding results quickly, efficiently and permanently: the 'internal', and the 'external'. And there's a sensitive balance to strike when you consider which to pay attention to at any given time.Keywords:
Kate Mercer, change, internal, external, factor, manage, business, result, people, organisation, leader
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