management thoughts

5 ways to develop inner agility and your approach to problem-solving

5 ways to develop inner agility and your approach to problem-solving

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We’re living in an age of accelerating disruption, with profound changes brought on by digitization and other societal changes. Companies are responding by rethinking their business models, redesigning their organisations and adopting agile-management practices. With development of your inner agility you’ll have a more comfortable and creative relationship with uncertainty. Building inner agility means learning how to relax at times… Read more →

12 indicators of highly productive teams

12 indicators of highly productive teams

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How many of the following characteristics does your team portray? To achieve higher productivity within your teams, strive to develop the teamwork behaviours characterised here: 1. Clear Purpose The vision, mission, goal, or task of the team has been defined and is now accepted by everyone. There is an action plan. 2. Informality The climate tends to be informal, comfortable,… Read more →

Are your employees positively engaged?

Are your employees positively engaged?

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Human Resources managers, and most management teams, understand the value of strongly engaged employees. It means more productive, more competitive and more resilient organisations. While its importance is easy to acknowledge, making engagement happen is a more complex challenge. Many organisations have not developed managers that know how to effectively grow and sustain employee engagement. So how do you improve employee engagement and create… Read more →

Workforce-Workplace Forecast for 2018

Workforce-Workplace Forecast for 2018

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2018 is going to be a challenging year for employers looking to hire the talent they need. The intensifying labor shortages will prompt a variety of changes to the way employers recruit and retain talent. 1. Upward pressure on wages. The war for talent has finally arrived and talent shortages are forcing business leaders to take a new look at… Read more →

Accelerating your employees effectiveness

Accelerating your employees effectiveness

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In the majority of cases, employees who are without motivation, support, and coaching from their managers, will face a difficult time developing their talents on their own. Research has shown that the support and effective involvement of managers is the single most important factor in determining whether what an employee learns in a classroom transfers into actual changes in behaviour… Read more →

Changing the management culture

Changing the management culture

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For many entrepreneurial or owner-operator businesses, a big challenge is that the “boss” becomes the architect and decision-maker in every critical area of the business. As a consequence, people who are hired and stay with the business become comfortable with that management style. In fact, most decisions are delegated upwards. In the early phases of the business this works admirably,… Read more →

How effective are your coaching and mentoring practices?

How effective are your coaching and mentoring practices?

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Increasing demands on an organisation’s workforce requires managers to work at higher levels of performance with fewer resources and staff. Developing employees through on-the-job coaching or mentoring can increase the organisation’s ability to succeed. Coaching and mentoring can inspire and empower employees, build commitment, increase productivity, grow talent, and promote success. These are essential elements of a modern management practice…. Read more →

Make training succeed (some useful tips)

Make training succeed (some useful tips)

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Make your training succeed with these useful tips: Prioritize your areas of need. Identify those areas where an upgrading of skills would bring about a high return. Look for the high leverage positions. If your company is sales- or service-driven, a useful place to look is to those who have direct contact with your customers and the people who manage… Read more →

Why training fails

Why training fails

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When training fails, it is usually because of poor planning or because the necessary conditions for success have not been secured . A large percentage of skills training such as sales, customer service, or management training fails to produce results. And it’s not because the participants were stupid, lazy, or unmotivated or that the material was irrelevant or not well… Read more →

What happened to empowerment?

What happened to empowerment?

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It’s unfortunate that a lack of employee empowerment is commonplace. It is difficult to get employees to make fast decisions in favour of a customer. The fear of getting fired or criticised is so great that many employees do not make decisions on the spot that favour the customer. However, without empowerment you will hardly become a service leader. Companies… Read more →