Preparing for an Interview

It is important to do some preparation prior to an interview. You do not know exactly what questions will be asked, so it is important to do some general preparation about you and your abilities. The preparation will give you the ability to quickly recall information when answering questions.

Depending on what you are used to you could prepare in different ways. You could write lists, or brainstorm. You could also sit down with someone you know really well and do some 'mock' interviews to practice your interview technique.

Some people are better than others when it comes to selling themselves but what you must be able to do is show self-confidence; that you are sure of whom you are and your ability to do the job.

Think about the following points and take your notes: -

1. Research the company
1. Mission statement
2. Long term objectives
2. Read and dissect the job description (look back at the tips for preparing your application)
3. List your strengths & how they apply to the aspects of the role
4. List your weaknesses and what you do to overcome them
5. Who you are as a person
1. Your behaviour
2. High standards
3. Friendly
4. Honest
5. Approachable, etc
6. What motivates you
1. Quality
2. Adding value
3. A challenging role
4. Doing something fresh; something new; something innovative
7. Have a clear understanding of what the expectations of the job are
1. Again, back to the job description - make sure you understand what the expectations are
8. Why you think you are the person for the job
1. Be honest - sell yourself!
9. Think about your experience
1. What have you achieved?

Example interview questions

You have to consider the role and the requirements. For example, if it is a management role or leadership role, then expect questions and your answers to contain elements of leadership; if it is a technical job, then expect questions and your answers to contain examples of your technical ability.

I have listed a few 'closed' questions here (i.e. questions that can be answered with 'yes' or 'no' - do not fall into this trap, always elaborate on your response with examples).

About you: -

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your work experience
1. Tell us your best moments/not so great moments
2. What are your strengths & how do they apply to the job?
3. What are you weaknesses and how do you overcome them?
4. What motivates you to achieve; what drives you?
5. Are you a reliable person?
6. Are you flexible in your approach to work?
7. Do you feel passionate about what you do?
1. What is your favourite part about what you do?
2. What is your passion?
8. What are your aspirations?
1. 1/3/5 year plan - where do you see yourself in 5 years?

The role: -

1. What can you bring to this role?
2. Why should we hire you for this job?
3. What challenges do you think this role will bring?
4. What do you see as being the main challenge in this role?

Your development: -

1. Tell us the last training course you attended.
2. Do you actively pursue personal development opportunities?

Team Work: -

1. What are your strengths as a team member?
2. Do you have the ability to encourage and maintain good working relationships?
1. How do you do this?
3. What role do you play in a team environment?
4. Have you ever worked in a poor performing team? How did you cope?
5. Give me an example of when you had to be particularly supportive to others in a team.

Innovation: -

1. Give me an example of when you have shown creativity.
2. Give me an example of a time when you used a less common approach to work.
3. Do you feel that your ideas are always listen to?
4. Do you feel that you have good ideas?
5. Are you creative?
6. Can you provide a situation where your ideas have been criticised? How did you deal with this? Did you feel it was unfair?

Time management: -

1. Give me an example of when you had to work to an important deadline.
2. How do you manage your time effectively?
3. Describe a situation where you have had to deal with a high degree of pressure.

Policy and procedure: -

1. Can you tell me about a time when it was essential that you followed clear policies or procedures?
2. Are you capable of following policy & procedure?
3. Do you think it is important to follow policy and procedure? Why?
4. Has there ever been a time where you have not followed policy/procedure? What happened?
5. In your experience, have you ever had to complete paper work or reports as part of your role? How did you cope with this?

Communication: -

1. Do you think communication is important?
2. Would you define yourself as a good communicator?
3. Tell me about a time when you found it difficult to build an effective working relationship with a customer or colleague?
4. Describe a situation where you had difficulty persuading someone around to your point of view.
5. How do you manage difficult people?
6. Can you deal with conflict? How?

Performance: -

1. How do you measure your performance?
2. How do you know that you are successful?
3. Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.
4. Give an example of a goal you didn't meet and how you handled it.
5. Have you ever made a mistake? How did you handle it?

Quality: -

1. How do you determine quality?
2. Do you believe in delivering the best quality?

The customer: -

1. Define excellent customer service.
2. Are you comfortable speaking to people you don't know?
3. What is the best way to deal with a customer complaint?
4. Give me an example of a time when you had to satisfy a particular customer or client need (this could be an internal or external 'customer').

Other questions: -

1. If you know your boss is 100% wrong about something how would you handle it?

Prepare some questions for the panel

1. Try to stay away from terms and conditions…
2. What are the future prospects of this role?
3. Who will I be reporting to?
4. Who will be setting out my objectives?
5. Can you describe the team culture
6. What are the organisations long term objectives, and how do they apply to this role?
7. How does this role fit in with the rest of the organisation?

Other tips: -

1. Listen to the question and make sure you understand what it is that is being asked.
2. Respond appropriately. Pause before you respond.
3. Think about projects that you have been involved in and what you achieved. What learning's can you apply to this role?
4. Some more info can be found at About.Com.

Click here to read 25 questions you probably won't get asked...but worth reading anyway!!

I hope this helps you to prepare for your interview!

Thanks,

Chris

Maximising the tweetdeck search facility

I really wanted to find a way to utilise Tweetdeck to find out what people were talking about in a specific area. For example, I live in Leven and I wanted to know what people were saying about the town. A simple search using Twitter or Tweetdeck will give you the result you are looking for, although unfortunately Leven is also ‘Life’ in Dutch! I desperately needed to find a way to control the search by location in order to cut out irrelevant chat.

Using Tweetdeck you can search for a term within a certain radius of a specific location using a Geocode. I had to do a small amount of research in order to do this and I cannot remember what the references are.

Using this technique effectively will allow you to refine your on-line reputation management for your business

Geocodes are not easy to come by although a simple search on Google will provide you with one.

• St Andrews - 56.33555119444445, -2.796599861111111
• Kennoway Area - 56.22,-2.98

The term you should use in the search column is this: -

[term] geocode:[value],[value],[radius]

An example for the term ‘Leven’: -

Leven geocode:56.22,-2.98,100km

Result is anyone mentioning the term ‘Leven’ within a 100km radius of the Kennoway area. This proved to be VERY useful and now I can quickly see the relevant chat, thus saving me time and effort from weeding out the irrelevant chat.

I also have searches for 'St Andrews' in the St Andrews area, 'New Hall' in the St Andrews area and many more.

Please feel free to comment on this post.

Thanks for reading,

Chris.

Creating a Winning Team

As a manager and leader you really want your team to be empowered to make their own decisions, but that does not happen overnight. One of the first things that has to be done is to sit down with the team and agree the team operating values.

I used this technique with a newly established team just recently. It really helps to get the whole together in one room and chat about what they consider to be important in a team environment.

The flow chart below highlights the main areas of discussion when discussing team work: -

This exercise can be used along with the previous values/motivators discussion which will allow the team to think about why they are here and what they feel is important to them as individuals; setting the scene for this next discussion about team work.

Facilitating a discussion

If you have read my previous posts you will know that what I tend to do when facilitating group discussions is ask a lot of questions and use what the team come up with to steer the discussion, whilst ensuring the discussion is kept relevant and going in the correct direction. This technique will allow for open discussion. Just remember to listen and ask the team members to elaborate on points made; sometimes it is far too easy to spout out one word answers.

What you need

1. Your team all in the same room
2. A flip chart to capture everything
3. Motivation and energy
4. A positive attitude
5. An open mind

1. Identify your team

Spend time discussing with the team who they consider to be their team members. It is important that the whole team agree and that you as the manager are happy with the result the team come up with.

As the facilitator you should already know what answer you are looking for. Think about the bigger picture; there will most likely be sub teams within larger teams. It will be interesting to see what the team come up with and will highlight how each person thinks.

2. Agreeing Team Values

Make use of one of my previous posts about getting to know your employees which will help you facilitate discussion about team values and motivators. The result will allow the team to think about why they are here and what they consider to be important about working in the team. This will allow the team to really understand what their team is all about and why they do what they do. Again, it is vital that everyone agrees with what is discussed.

3. Operating from the bottom-up

By hosting a focus group like this you are allowing the bottom-up approach to take shape; allowing your employees to make decisions and influence the future of the organisation and how their team operates.

I feel that it is vital to open up the communication channels from the very start and show the team that their ideas are listened to and considered. The worst thing you can do is shut them down; you will find that a lot of good ideas will come from your team and you have to give them the platform to expresses themselves and try out new ideas, without the fear of getting into any sort of trouble.

4. One voice

A very important factor in teamwork is to ensure the team are all delivering the the service with the same message; they use the same language, they behave in the same ways.

Again, this forum setting will allow the team to start to form a message and agree on the values of the team.

5. Having a friend at work

Some may think this is not all that important but I have found that having at least one person you can confide in at work is very important. If anything, it allows those who are having a bad day to get things of their chest and know that the person they are confiding will not take it personally and not discuss it with anyone else.

It is important to highlight here that not everyone will have that one person. As a manager you have to pick up on this, it may be that you can be that person.

6. Have an overriding goal

A fairly obvious point; the team must have an objective, something to focus on - quite high level in this case.

Examples could be: -

• "To deliver the best service"
• "Get it right first time"
• "Have no customer complaints"
• "To be better than everyone else"

Typical Questions

• If you were able to create a team, what values would you expect?
• What makes a good team a good team?
• How should a good team operate?

This is a great start for discussing team work with your team and is the start of many posts about team work.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

The Ethics Matrix

Ethics Matrix

	Ethical	Unethical
Legal	Can and Should	Can but Shouldn't
Illegal	Can't but Should	Can't and Shouldn't

Something can be quickly learned from this ethics matrix. I came across this in an article that I was reading about ethics in business. Upon discovery of this simple model I related to it straight away and it totally fitted into what I was learning and experiencing at the time; it really reminded me of failed businesses, such as Enron, which I was studying at the time.

The basic idea is that we all know that we should be operating from the top left quadrant, but how many organisations actually operate from here all the time? You may find that some or most of the time we operate form the top right quadrant; where we believe that by following the letter of the law automatically indicates, and provides intrinsic comfort, that we are acting ethically...but this is often not the case; acting legally DOES NOT automatically result in ethical practice.

So what the best way to find out if you are acting ethically?

• How do your staff feel about working for you? Give them the opportunity to express their feelings and you will get an indication of how your workforce feel.
• Introduce a human element into your decision making; "How will this decision affect the employees, the surrounding community and our customers?"
• Do you feel like you are doing the right thing? Or does it feel wrong?
• Put yourself is the shoes of others; how do you think your workforce feel about what the organisation is doing?
• I guess a big indicator will be if you find yourself awake at night, thinking and worrying about what your organisation is up to.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Annual Performance Review

In every organisation there are performance reviews and there will be informal and formal checking and monitoring of performance.

The information below is a guide or set of tips for managers who chair performance reviews in their organisation and this is how I get the most out of the review meetings (basically by asking A LOT if questions).

Traditionally managers would be used to looking at WHAT you have done at performance review. It is just as important, if not more important, to consider HOW tasks have been completed and WHY; thus assessing the workers behaviour along with performance and results.

The Aims

1. To engage with the employees, find out what they are thinking and how they feel about their job.
2. To discuss past/current/future organisational objectives and how they impact upon their role.
3. Discuss personal performance to date (ties in nicely with the Octopus development tool from earlier).
4. Discuss the future of their career and personal development.

Tips
Do not give away information...the chances are you will know the answers to the questions, but it is better to get the employee to think about the answers and respond.

Pre-setting

When arranging performance review meetings it is a good idea to give the employee some advanced warning. This way you have given the employee the opportunity to prepare for the meeting. Give them a copy of the notes from their review from last time so they can take time to figure out what they have achieved versus what was agreed previously.

The setting

You need to break down the formalities to make everyone feel comfortable.

1. Sit side by side...don't have the traditional set up where the manger sits across from the employee;
2. Get a drink or water or a cup of tea/coffee;
3. Give the employee some paper and a pen in case they want to write notes;
4. Explain that you are going to take notes about your discussion;
5. Give the employee an indication of how long the review will last.

Introduction

Describe the process to the employee and the structure of the meeting including the aims.

Starting off - the past

Go on to talk about the period between now and the last review (refer to notes from previous review)

1. How has your job changed in the last 6 months/1 Year - is this a positive change?
2. What do you feel you have achieved in the last 6 months/1 Year?
3. Have you met your objectives? Why/why not?
4. What challenges have you encountered?

Talking about now

1. Describe the job role that you fulfil at the moment.
2. How does your job fit in with the rest of the team/organisation?
3. What do you like the most about your job?
4. What do you like the least about your job?
5. Currently, what would you say are your main objectives?

Go on to focus on the objectives for the next period and provoke thought by asking questions, which may include: -

Customer Focus

1. How do you think your role impacts upon the customer service?
2. What do you currently do, in your role, to enhance the customer experience?
3. What would you say your strengths are with regards to customer service?
4. Do you have something unique that makes you stand out from the rest?
5. In your role, how do you think you can improve the customer service?
6. Do you feel that you really know what the customer wants?
7. Comment on the recent survey...why do you think we were rated as we were...do you think this truly reflects our service? Why/why not?
8. What kind of challenges do you face when trying to be as customer focussed as possible?

Meeting Targets

Rate your own performance from 1 to 10 - What are you measuring your performance against?

1. How do you motivate yourself?
2. How do you get things done?
3. Who measures your performance?
4. How do you make sure you meet your targets?
5. Are you an organised person?
6. Is there anything you feel that you could be doing better?
7. How do you organise yourself?
1. Do you prioritise your own work or does someone do that for you?
2. How is your work prioritised?
8. What challenges to you anticipate in meeting your objectives?
9. What challenges do you face in your day to day routine?

Behaviour

When we talk about be behaviour we are talking about professionalism and how that behaviour is tailored for people working inside and outside of the organisation; the customer and the people you work with.

1. If someone was to ask you what you do for a living...what would you tell them?
1. Do you promote the organisation outside of work?
2. What if I said to you "Act professionally"...what would that mean to you?
3. Do you enjoy your job?
4. Are you proud of what you do?
5. Are you enthusiastic about your work?
6. How do you feel about your job?
7. Why is it important to be professional ?

The working environment

1. How would you describe the current working environment?
2. Can improvements be made?
3. Are you doing everything you can to make sure there is a good working atmosphere?
4. Who's job is it to maintain a good working environment?
5. What do you think we can do to improve the working environment?

What about the future?

1. What do you see your self doing in the future?
2. What are your aspirations?
3. What do you feel passionate about?
4. What do you think you could be doing to improve your job?
5. Is there something that we do already that you would like to get involved in?
6. How do you see you career progress in the
1. Short term
2. Medium term
3. Long term
7. What kind of support do you think you need?

Tips

1. Follow up appropriate questions with 'why'
2. Do not give away too much...get them thinking by asking a lot of questions, for example: -
1. How does that make you feel?
2. Why is that?
3. What could have been done to improve that?
3. Normally with any question you ask you should have a good idea of the response you are going to 3. get. It's best if you know what you are looking for when you ask the question, then you can comment on anything that is missing, or elaborate on specific parts of the answer.
4. Feedback your opinion on performance with <em>constructive</em> comments.

Closing the meeting

1. Give an overview of specific areas including the agreed objectives for the following period;
2. Give praise where it is due and comment on areas that require improvement;
3. Make sure the employee has something to think about when they leave the review meeting;
4. Agree your next meeting date/time.

Managing the process

As before it is important that the manager is well organised.

1. Make sure you organise your notes
2. Make sure you read over your notes from the last meeting so you know what you want to cover
3. A day or so later, feedback to the employee with minutes of your meeting, detailing current objectives and agreed actions for both employee and manager.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Writing a Management Report

As a manager there is a good chance that you will be asked to write a performance review report for your relevant department(s). I have listed a few tips that should help you to structure and present a report in a professional way so that your report will be taken seriously and, if you are lucky, it will actually be read by your manager!

There are several benefits to writing management reports: -

• Over time a collection of reports will prove as a great portfolio and growth measurement tool;
• It's a great opportunity to show your manager what you have achieved.

Report Preparation

The following considerations should be made prior to, and during, report writing: -

1. Who is the report is for?
1. How much do they already know about what you are writing about?
2. Why do they want this information?
3. Who else may possibly read it?
4. What do they want to use the report for? (Consider any economic or political influences)
2. Appeal to the stakeholders best interest, for example: -
1. Profit
2. Revenue
3. Productivity/Achievement
4. Sales growth
3. Appropriate formatting should be applied
4. Spelling and grammar should be checked
5. Keep the report professional & factual as possible
6. Keep the report as concise as you can

The Report Structure

Here is an example of what should be included in a management report: -

Front Cover

Title, author and date

Contents Page

Summary of contents

Summary/abstract

Contains a summary of the report. Briefly comment on how you feel about the performance of the department to date. A Small paragraph, enough to let the reader know the content and relevance of the report.

Expectations vs Reality

Include a comparison of your initial expectations and the most recent time frame (if it is a 3 month report then you would consider your objectives from 3 months ago and weight them against your current state)

Unit Performance

Provide a brief outline of the department/unit performance over the time period and provide reasoning for unexpected growth or decline/excellent or poor performance, etc. Provide charts and graphs if appropriate to illustrate your points.

Projection of Performance

Project performance for the next 3 months (or time period agreed by line manager) – provide reason why you believe this to be the correct projection. Provide charts and graphs if appropriate.

Current Objectives

With reference to the last three months and achievement to date, what are your current objectives and the course of action toward achieving these objectives.

Ideas and Concept Proposals

Give indications of what changes you would like to put in place and include proposals and structured ideas/concepts, based on factual data and information. Provide a SWOT analysis of any decisions that are to be made. Provide charts and graphs if appropriate.

Conclusion

Provide a summary of the main report and link into recommendations. No new information or data should be included in this section.

Recommendations

Recommendations based on previous analysis of objectives and concept proposals contained with report. Your recommendations should be clear and concise; a summary that can be read quickly and understood.

Acknowledgements

Reference to other published work and credence to personal assistance. Location of where data and information was obtained from.

Line Manager Comments

Allow your line manager to make comment and feedback on contents of report and recommendations you have made.

Important considerations

Providing factual information and data to make your recommendations look concrete is vital, it must be obvious where this data was obtained and that it is from a reputable source.

I hope this provides you with a starting point for writing a management report!

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Employee Personal Development

I'm sure that in your organisation you will have some sort of internal review process/performance review, although sometimes it is not enough to just have a meeting once per year or to just focus on the goals related to the role the employee plays within the organisation. This development tool focuses upon the individual with reference to their PERSONAL objectives, on an ongoing basis.

I have designed a development plan that can be used for all team members and I have made them available for download as .pdf documents ( Stage 1 - Self Assessment and Stage 2 - Agreed Objectives).

I personally really enjoy spending time with people and get them thinking about the future and what their aspirations may be. I want to support them in whatever it is they want to do and this tool helps me to do that in a structure way.

A planned development strategy will allow you to: -

1. Spend structured, formal and regular time with individual team members.
2. Constructively recognise employee strengths and weaknesses.
3. Agree objectives and work on areas of development.
4. Give them more exposure and room to develop.
5. Monitor their performance and give them direct and constructive feedback.

There are many advantages for the employer and the employee: -

1. A skilled, knowledgeable and engaged workforce
2. The individuals know that you care about their personal development
3. High team morale
4. The team begin to really enjoy their job
5. Everyone feels involved and that they are achieving something

Remember to use questions to get information and facilitate discussion.

Stage 1

( .pdf)

Using this form you can either choose to sit down with the employee and discuss or send them away with the form to complete the questions and get back to you...then discuss at a later date. The main idea here is to get them engaged in thinking about their career path and what development they require in order to get what they want. Question 7 "Do you have someone at work that you would consider your best friend" is really just about finding out if there is someone that the employee can fully trust, which I think is important in the workplace.

As far as development is concerned, the main areas to concentrate on are questions 2, 3 and 8. Question 8 is a good place to start you will be able to get a good picture of what the employee is working towards, which will than allow you to approach the areas of development required in order to meet their goal.

Stage 2

(.pdf)

The stage 2 form is then used to break down the goals into smaller chunks, perhaps even tasks that need to be completed in order to develop. You use one form for each objective and you may end up with 4 or 5 which may all be of different time scales.

Remember to make the objectives SMART and give the employee a clear deadline for things to be completed.

When you come to review progress you can use the section at the bottom of the form to take notes.

Building a Portfolio

After you start 'ticking boxes' and making progress you find that you start to build up a nice portfolio of achievement for the employees. This could possibly be used as a tool for promotion.

Adopting the correct leadership style

You have to be prepared for things to not go the way you planned. Also, there will be some who require little coaching and guidance to meet their personal objectives, and some who require much more attention. You won't know until you start the process and find out who needs what attention from you and what style of leadership you will need to adopt.

Managing the process

As the manager it is up to you to check progress and organise the meetings; you are the key support in their development. You will find that if you do not keep on top of it things will not be achieved, although it very much depends on how engaged the employee is. Remember to follow up on any agreed actions; organise a training course, send someone an email or schedule another meeting, for example.

Take the time after each meeting to review your notes and jot down what you think is next and schedule the next meeting in your diary before you forget.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Managing Gossip in the Workplace

Introduction

In my current job one of my current goals, as part of a wider programme, is to eradicate gossip. I have seen the results of gossip, I've found myself managing conflict due to gossip and I have been a victim myself. I am aware that this is not going to happen overnight and I am also aware that there will be many small steps that will help achieve this goal, the first steps of which I have highlighted below.

It would be naive to say that an organisation/department/team will run smoothly everyday without conflict; I am realistic and believe that conflict is inevitable and should be managed in order to keep your team progressive and innovative. You cannot go through your daily routine avoiding the difficult conversations to avoid conflict, it is important to deal with the issues your team faces head on. As a team leader your team will have more respect for you and you will also learn from the experience; each time you deal with difficult situations it gets easier. Do not let issues roll on for a long time, this encourages gossip, will ultimately demotivate and could ultimately make your team miserable...'nip it in the bud'.

Dealing with gossip

Before getting into the steps I took the very first thing I did was write to the whole team by the way of a memo. The memo gave them a brief indication of what to expect when arriving to the forum. This will align expectations; minimising any fears and getting people engaged in subject thought. At this stage I also assigned the team a few small 'thinking' tasks to get everyone engaged. My meetings only last for 30 minutes because this is the only window of time I have to minimise the impact upon our customers, but it is enough time to discuss a subject (another reason for the memo; it will get some pre-work done before the meeting).

As the team leader, one thing that is paramount in every team meeting is that you include yourself as part of the team. Do not refer to your team as 'them' or 'you'; use words like 'us' and 'we'.

1. Get your team together in one room
1. Explain to your team why you have arranged this forum.
2. Do they agree that there is an issue with gossip and that something needs to be done about it?
Tip - Use a lot of questions throughout, encourage answers and try not to give out any information, ask them for it. (How, What, Where, Why & When)


2. Define 'gossip' specific to your workplace
1. Facilitate an open forum to first of all define and describe what gossip actually is. See if team members can pull from personal experience or give some specific examples.
2. This will ensure that all team members agree on what gossip is and therefore be able to identify it in their daily routine.
3. All team members should understand and be working from the same definition.
Tip - Have some definitions prepared in order to facilitate discussion. Ask questions based around them, for example, quote a definition and ask the team if they agree with it or not, and why.



A good analogy from a writer called Don Michael Ruiz from the book "The Four Agreements"(p37-42)

Gossiping has become the main form of communication in human society. It has become the way we feel close to each other, because it makes us feel better to see someone else feel as badly as we do. Gossip can be compared to a computer virus; a computer virus is a piece of computer language written in the same language that all the other codes are written in, but with harmful intent. After this code is introduced, your computer doesn't work right, or it doesn't function at all because the codes get mixed up with so many conflicting messages that it stops producing good results.

Dictionary Definitions

1. Rumour or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature
2. A person who habitually spreads intimate or private rumours or facts
3. Team Agreement
1. Make sure everyone agrees on the definition.
2. Define your goals and aims from this discussion - what is it that you hope to achieve? Eradicate gossip?
3. Identify those that think it cannot be achieved, find out what they are thinking and their reasoning and discuss this openly.
Tip - Look out for 'nods' and 'shakes' of heads. This will highlight acceptance...also folded arms or a defensive posture. Even if people aren't saying much, if they are nodding their heads you can be confident that they are listening and agree with what is being said.


4. Agree on the techniques for stopping gossip
Discuss openly with the team, but have some of your own ideas in order to facilitate discussion. For example, if each individual has agreed to eradicate gossip, then each individual should be able to tell their colleague(s) that they do not want to engage in gossip and walk away from it. If everyone is doing this then the gossip culture will soon disappear.
Tip - One thing that you have to remember is that it all starts with the leader. You must be the example of 'good behaviour' and not be involved in gossip yourself.


5. Monitor progress
It is important to monitor the progress of the team and publically reward those who behave in the way that has been agreed. Unfortunately not everyone will learn at the same pace and you will have to privately reprimand those who are not behaving in the way that has been agreed. Remember that the team agreed to these boundaries or rules, so you do not have to appear like the 'bad guy'. In most cases you will be able to remind those who are not working towards the goals about the agreements made and be very specific about what it is about their current behaviour that goes against the agreement. Again, it is important to pick up on these issues early on so team members do no think it is acceptable to behave like that.

You have to be aware that there is a fine line between idle 'chit chat', gossip and bullying and it is important to recognise when things are getting serious. That is why it is really important to challenge issues early on. Small issues build up and eventually become one big issue, which can result in conflict, bullying and upset team members. The focus should be on having a highly focussed and responsive team who all respect each other.

In order to have a fully functioning team the team members need to be able to express their opinion and discuss topics openly.

What's next?

The next step is to figure out how the team members are going to work without gossip and have the ability to express their opinion without causing offence or taking things personally. There is danger that the team may think that they are not able to talk without the risk of getting into trouble for 'gossiping' or personally attacking people.

Managing gosip is one step towards strong communication, and it must be addressed, however there are several topics that the team must discuss. For example, not taking things personally, which will be covered in future posts.

I hope that you have found something interesting here that will help you with your own team development.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions.

Thanks for reading,

Chris.

Analysing the Business Environment

An Introduction

Analysing the market your business operates in is crucial to ensure survival, competitive advantage and differentiation. It is important to be able to recognise the soft signals in the environment through comprehensive and continuous analysis.

Effective organisational analysis will allow you to: -

• Scan and monitor the business environment;
• Keep the business flexible and adapt business to meet market needs and requirements;
• Make better strategic decisions;
• Understand the environment your business operates in.

The business environment can be broken into three levels: -

1. The Macro environment can be thought of as 'big picture' analysis considering factors out with direct control of the business.
2. The Micro environment will consider what influences the business directly; buyers, suppliers, competition and stakeholders.
3. The organisation or 'internal environment' includes analysis of internal decision making and change, mostly at the control of the organisation.

The Macro Environment

By understanding the potential conditions in the extended market you can make better strategic decisions. The model that can be used to analyse the macro environment is PESTLE.

The Micro Environment

Michael Porter's five forces model can be used to better understand your position of power and strength of your competitive position within your industry and market. With a better understanding of your position you will be able to make better decisions to avoid taking wrongs steps and to ensure your organisation remains competitive and relevant. This tool will also allow you to assess the competition, prepare you for entering new markets and the risks or opportunities that may face you.

The Internal Environment

SWOT analysis is a basic tool that can be used for making business decisions and change within the internal environment. It can be combined with the PESTLE tool to create an advanced analysis of the macro environment.

Although these tools are simple it must be understood that most types of analysis are static whilst the business environment remains dynamic; analysis must be a continuous process. These models are subjective and it is therefore a good idea to get a few people working on analysis independently. Due to the simplicity of these tools over analysis is a risk and must be managed by keeping analysis short, quick and simple. Also, it is important to realise that these tools will not provide an answer for you although the results will provide a platform to start from.

Please add anything you think is relevant by posting a comment.

Thanks for reading,

Chris.

Managing Deadlines 2: For Managers

As a follow up from Managing Deadlines 1: For Delegates I thought it would be prudent to give some advice a tips for the managers who set the deadlines and delegate the tasks.

Give a clear date a time

Make sure you give the delegate a clear date for exactly WHEN the task should be completed by. You may even want to specify a time. It is best not to say "ASAP" or "at your convenience"...be specific.

Be clear - be SMART

If you give the delegate as much information at the start this will minimise confusion and lots of questions further down the line. It will also allow the delegate to get on with the task and be very clear on WHAT he/she should be working towards.

Give clear expectations and parameters

Make sure your expectations are clear. Mention the standards you expect, what the delegate can or cannot do; HOW the task should be completed

Arrange a time to meet the delegate(s)

Depending on the size of the task it may be appropriate to meet and discuss the task or project before it is fully delegated. This will provide a good opportunity to discuss what is to be achieved and allow for any questions to be answered. You may want to set progress meetings up to check in with the delegate over the course of the set period.

Highlight personal and organisational benefits

By highlighting the benefits the employee will be more likely to buy into the task/project and complete it on time. This will provide the delegate with the WHY.

Note down your set deadlines

You will need to remember what deadlines you set and for whom. You should use your diary or a task list system (Microsoft Outlook or something similar) to do this for you; after you have set a dozen or so it can get difficult to manage. It is important that you do this...especially for those who tend to slip on the deadlines.

Inevitably a deadline will be missed and you will have to reprimand someone. However, if you delegate properly and make sure your message is clear your employees will have a better chance at meeting the deadline with the timing, standard and quality you expected.

I hope this helps you out. Please build on this by leaving a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Managing Deadlines 1: For Delegates

I was about to give written advice to a few people that work for me on how to manage deadlines...and I thought "why don't I just blog it"...two birds with one stone!

When you work for someone else there is a very good chance that you will be delegated tasks to complete. Sometimes these tasks may be delegated in a very structured manner and sometimes they may not. But regardless of how they are delegated, what should be clear is that your boss wants something from you by a certain time.

It is important to be able to manage your deadlines effectively for several reasons: -

1. To prove to your manager that you are competent
2. To show that you are well organised
3. To show your line manager that you are committed and confident
4. You will be able to manage your workload effectively
5. When your manager asks you to complete something you will be able to confidently confirm if the deadline is achievable - which in some cases it might not be.

You will know yourself how strict your manager is with deadlines, but here are few pointers for managing your deadlines: -

Put the deadline date in your diary

Note the deadline in your diary and then work back from that date. Schedule in time for when you are going to sit and work on this task or project.

Start the task early

Make sure you start thinking about the task early on. Take notes and gather any information you need. You don't want to be worrying about it 2 or 3 days before hand and then realise you need information from someone that you cannot get a hold of.

Make sure you are happy with what you have to achieve

Take the time very early on to ask your manager any questions in order to clarify your delegated task - make sure it is SMART!

Break down the task into smaller parts

Sometimes it may be appropriate to break the task down into smaller parts and work on each part separately. This will make the task more manageable for you.

Set yourself targets

Once you have broken your task into small more manageable parts set yourself targets that lead up to the deadline...and make sure you put them in your diary.

Get others to help you

Maybe you can get others to help you with certain parts of the task? Not only will this help you out, it may also tie in with individual personal development.

Submit the work early

This will give your manager time to look at the work you have completed, and if necessary, ask you to tweak or amend certain details...there is a good chance that the work you are completing for your manager is to meet a deadline from his/her manager.

Preempt the deadline

In most organisations there are things that happen at the same time every year. If you know when they are then preempt your manager delegating a task to you.

What if you don't think the deadline is achievable - can you say no?

Depending on how lenient your manager is you may be able to negotiate the deadline. If you are already very organised you will be able to show your manager the reasons why you cannot achieve the deadline and he/she may allow you to negotiate your other deadlines based on priority.

It is all quite straight forward and if you are naturally organised you will find it easy to meet deadlines.

I hope that you find this useful and please leave a comment if you can build on what I have written here.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Setting goals with your employees

When it's time for annal appraisals remember to spend time talking about career development and personal goals. Try to look at appraisals as a personal development tool...key word - PERSONAL!!

Give your employees time to discuss their own personal achievements and goals.
Find a way that you can help and support them to achieve their goals and become successful.

Inspired by this quip from Dilbert:

The surprising truth about what motivates us

Daniel Pink is the author of Drive which can be purchased from Amazon (take a look at my Amazon link on the right hand side - the book is £4.50).

I was gifted his book by a good friend, which was a great eye opener...thanks Christian!

There are two videos below that deliver the same message but I would watch both if you have time. It is very interesting to consider Motivation 2.0 and what we have been used to for many years. We all know that things are changing and we know in our hearts that something needs to change. Dan Pink makes it easier for us to understand what truly motivates people...and FYI, it's not money!

I can personally relate to it all in a big way, as an employee and as a leader/manager.

You can view other RSA Animate videos via The RSA Website.

TED.com

Thanks,

Chris.

Getting to know your employees

Getting to know the people that work for you is great for building and maintaining your relationship with your team. I truly believe that a happy and engaged team will deliver the best customer service. So it is vital, as a team leader, that you get involved with your team and really get to know them. This is not a prescription, this is what works for me. Your approach has to be honest and something that you believe in. Also, you will not be able to win hearts just by doing these things, your message and approach has to be consistent at all times, throughout everything you do.

I hope that I can give you a couple of tools to use at team meetings which, done properly and facilitated correctly, will take you no more than 15 minutes and the information you get back from your team will be rich and powerful. Your role as team leader is to facilitate the discussion and you should not be answering the questions for them, but asking the team probing and open questions to get information out of them.

It is crucial that everyone gets the opportunity to speak, which you can make sure happens, and try to manage the forum so that no one person overshadows the discussion.

What I do is get small teams together of no more than 10 people and perform two exercises to find out what motivates the team and what they truly believe in.

What you'll need is a flip chart or whiteboard, some pens...and an open mind!

Motivators

Find out what really motivates your team. Facilitate discussion around the following questions: -

• What motivates you to come to work everyday?
• Why do you get up every morning to come to work?
• Why do you bother coming to work, and why should anyone care?

These questions are just examples, however, it can be tough to get a response sometimes and that's where the last question comes in. It is a little harsh but gets people thinking about what REALLY motivates them and will illicit a response from people. Money always comes up, because at the end of the day the majority of us need a job, at the basic level, to pay bills and mortgages, but that will hopefully not be the only motivator. What you will hopefully find is that your team actually enjoy coming to work and enjoy the company of those around them.

Team Values

• What is important to you?
• What do you believe in?
• Why do you do what you do?
• What do you enjoy most about your work?

What you are looking for here is what the people in the team believe to be true to who they are, their morals as humans, what they believe is the correct way to behave in their working environment and throughout life.

It is important that there is a general consensus around the points made by the team. As the facilitator you can see who agrees and who disagrees with different statements and it is always interesting to take get step back at the end and summarise the results with the team.

The result

At the end of the meeting what you will be left with is a list of things that motivate your team and a list things that they really feel strongly about and what they feel is important to them.

Example results: -

Motivators	Values
Money (£)	Taking pride in our job
Job satisfaction	Everyone does their job to the standard expected
To be part of a team	We show respect for each other
To meet and interact with people	We take responsibility for our own actions
To develop personally	We are honest with each other
	To provide a great customer service

...but what can we do with this information?

At the very least you have engaged with your team and had some personal interaction with them. They will also be thinking a little more about their job and why they really enjoy their work, which will hopefully have positive connotations.

One great thing you can do with this information is to put it into a statement which represents what the team is all about...for example: -

"Our team love coming to work everyday to provide the best service we can. We all know what is expected of us, we work hard and take real pride in what we do. We truly believe in honesty and have great respect for each other...and that is what being part of this team is all about."

You could print it out and display it in the work area so people can relate to it, it could be their value statement.

You could also reword the statement slightly and use it to attract new employees through a job advert or at another point in the selection process; prospective employees will then be able to really understand how the team operate and be able to decide whether or not they have the same values and can fit in with the team.

The key part of the process is that the team agreed on the points they made together and therefore it is unique to them. It is now clear what it means to be part of the team and everyone knows why they do what they do.

I really hope that you find this useful.

Thanks for reading,

Chris.

SMART Objectives

I mentioned in my previous post, my bucket list, that I think it is important to think SMART when setting objectives. Constructing SMART objectives will allow you to have very clear objectives and goals. It also allows you to take time to think about what you want. You may work through this and at the end decide that what you want to do is not relevant, or you cannot manage it and decide to take another course of action.

The SMART tool also allows you to take big ideas and break them down to bite-sized and more manageable goals. A SMART objective will be very clear and provide you and your team with a good understanding of what, where, when, why and how this goal is to be achieved. The result is an individual or team who can start off with the correct intentions and have a really good understanding of what is expected. It also minimises confusion and questions, allowing your empowered team members to get on with achieving.

I have used this tool for various types of things: -

1. Setting basic business objectives
2. Setting KPI's (Key Performance Indicators)
3. Delegating tasks and projects to subordinates
4. Setting personal goals (for example, new year resolutions)

SMART objectives can be defined as: -

S - Specific

A specific but brief description of the objective - i.e. what is the desired outcome?

M - Measurable

What are you going to use to measure performance? How will you know you have achieved anything?

A - Agreeable

Do all parties agree to the objective and understand why this is to be achieved?

R - Relevant

Is this goal relevant to higher level organisational objectives? Does this fit in with our business?

T - Time-bound

At this point you can agree a deadline, or milestones depending on the size of the project/goal/objective.

There are other versions of this out there including the 'SMART +' tool which can be defined as: -

S - Specific

M -

Measurable - The Parent Ego State - "How can I measure this, how will I know I have achieved the desired outcome?"

Manageable - The Adult Ego State - "How will I be able to manage this, can I manage this?"

Motivation - The Child Ego State - "Do I want to do this, does it interest me, am I motivated to achieve this goal?"

A - Agreeable

R - Relevant

T - Time-bound

As you can see this tool expands on the 'M' and includes three criteria allowing you to satisfy three ego states.

A Worked Example of the SMART + tool: -

Specific -

To respond effectively and listen to my customers.

Measurable

To respond to ALL customer responses.

Manageable

I will have to schedule time in my diary to concentrate on this, but it is manageable because it is a vital part of our business.

Motivational

To build a better relationship with my customers, to encourage more customer feedback, to learn from my customers.

Agreeable

Agreeable based upon the above - a vital part of business survival and growth.

Relevant

We are a customer service organisation, so completely relevant to what we do, and fits in directly with all organisational objectives.

Time-bound

The customer should receive a response from me within 5 working days of receiving the response.

Now you have something very clear - this basically details that you are going set time aside to respond to ALL customer responses within 5 days because you agree that it is vital for your business to be successful, and that you want to. Most people start and finish with the first point.

As you work though the SMART + tool you will probably start thinking of all the possibilities and have lots of relevant ideas, make sure you write them all down.

What's next?

You can then go on to break down each statement above, for example: -

• You will have to think about where you customer responses come from, i.e. Email, letter, verbal, etc.


• You will than have to decide how you are going to respond, i.e. by Email, letter, telephone, in person. This will depend upon the feedback you get, if it is severe you may want to personalise and have direct contact with the customer, you may decide that you want to do this for all responses. Also, you need to make sure that the language you use in response to your customer is delivering the message set out by your organisation.


• Based on how much feedback you receive, you will have to decide how much time it is going to take you to respond.


• You may think about using Trip Advisor, Facebook or Twitter (or other social media tools) to keep in touch with your customers.


• A 5 day response may be unrealistic and you may have to delegate the task to someone else or work as a team.


• You may also have some blue sky thinking about how you can encourage more feedback from your customers, which may kick start more mini-projects (just go back to the start of the SMART + tool and start with your fresh objective)


• You may now decide that you want to design an effective customer response (ECR) for your department or organisation.

I am happy for you to get in touch with me either by email or by commenting on this post. Let me know if you use the tool or if you need help delivering an objective, I am happy to help!

Feel free to download and use my SMART + Delegation Tool which I use to delegate tasks to those in my team.

I hope that you find this useful!

Thanks for reading,

Chris.