Increasing Managerial Success

Managing Underperformance & Appraising Your Staff

shonagarner — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:00:22 +0000

Here are some useful tips to help you appraise your staff and manage any under performance! Follow these simple tips and find out just how easy it is to effectively manage your staff! Praise and positive reinforcement go a long way when it comes to motivating an under performing staff.

Can You Develop Anyone?

shonagarner — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:00:10 +0000

Ever heard the saying "hire for attitude: you can teach the rest?"

The rest, of course, is "skills and knowledge" which CAN indeed be acquired and developed.

Those who know me know I'm a huge fan of the Gallup research and their fascinating book "Now discover your strengths" would suggest you might hire for something else other than attitude: talent.

Gallup suggests that where you already have latent talent, learning that knowledge and practising those skills will be enjoyable and relatively easy for you. You will get better, faster – and your performance is more likely to become a “strength” – ie near-perfect performance.

Gallup argues talent CANNOT be acquired. You either have it or you don’t and that forcing people to develop a “non-talent” is doomed to failure, de-motivation, frustration and mediocre performance.

As someone who has spent years in eduation and management, I'd wholeheartedly agree! And yet our performance management systems often focus on people's weaknesses when it comes to offering them development, and we also expect people to be "well-rounded".

Well, research is showing, that if you want excellence, developing "all rounders" is NOT the way forward. Here's what Gallup found outstanding managers do.

5 Steps to effectively develop your people!

shonagarner — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 06:00:44 +0000

Those of you who know me know I'm the sad person who takes management and psychology books on holiday! For those of you who are interested to learn how to more effectively inspire and coach your teams , and build a great team spirit, I'd highly recommend “Inspirational Manager” by Judith Leary-Joyce. This great read outlines 5 steps the greatest managers employ to effectively develop (and consequently motivate) their people and achieve outstanding performance. Those steps are:

The 2 last management styles you seriously want to avoid

shonagarner — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 06:00:58 +0000

If you’ve been following this series of 4 blog posts – you’ll know I’ve been sharing the research by Robert Kaplan, who studied the effects of damaging behaviours by managers in senior positions. In an intensive study of 40 senior executives whose drive to excel was actually damaging their performance and prospects, Robert Kaplan identified 8 behaviour styles which were threatening to derail their teams.

When the need for power or recognition can cause problems for a manager

shonagarner — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:00:10 +0000

In this the third of my series of 4 blogs about the dangers of “blind spots” in managers, we look at two further potentially problematic styles of management: managers who are power hungry, or whose need for recognition is insatiable.

In an intensive study of 40 senior executives whose drive to excel was actually damaging their performance and prospects, Robert Kaplan identified behaviours which were threatening to derail teams. In his book “Beyond Ambition”, he describes these behaviours, and sets out to show how personality traits can be changed so people can achieve more effective performance as leaders.

2 more management styles you want to discourage in your business or organisation

shonagarner — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:00:17 +0000

Ever heard of “blind spots” in human beings? Ever wondered why some individuals who have previously been incredibly successful performers, shown infallible performance and been real “go-getters”, get promoted and then increasingly “derail”, flounder and fail to live up to their potential?

The phrase “blind spot” is used to describe a situation where an individual behaves in a certain way, but is unaware of the impact of that behaviour on others.

What style of management is your organisation cultivating? – Eight management “types” you might want to avoid

shonagarner — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:00:33 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows I’m passionate about the importance of managers to the success of an organisation.

If you have any doubts that the quality of management can make a significant difference to your bottom line, just take a moment consider the devastating effects of poor management:

demoralised staff;
high staff turnover;
high incidences of tension, conflict, absenteeism and stress related problems;
difficulty recruiting into the team and
low productivity.

They just made me the boss….now what?

shonagarner — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 06:00:18 +0000

Effectively Managing Former Peers
Becoming a boss can change almost everything – and it can change nothing. Sure, you have more power. And you can influence your former peers in ways that you've never imagined before.

But you're still the same person, just with a bit more authority. Suddenly, though, the things you say have more importance, and your former teammates look to you for answers, not just ideas.

What do you do with this newly found power?

How do you get the balance right between retaining those friendships you had with those former peers and getting things done?

Are you a leader that people want to follow?

shonagarner — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:26:22 +0000

Most of us have heard of "authentic leadership." Books, leadership courses, and even entire businesses have been built around this idea. But it's often easier to identify authentic leaders than define what makes them that way.
What do the words "authentic leader" actually mean? What truly makes one, and why is it worth the effort to become one?

Encouraging Employee Attendance – would this work for you?

shonagarner — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:09:04 +0000

With some sources suggesting that as many as 50% of all employee absences are not taken because of genuine illness or other bona fide reasons, and with literally hundreds of millions of work days being lost each year in the US and the UK, it's essential that organizations establish absenteeism policies which let their workers know precisely what's acceptable and what's not. However, there is perhaps an even more basic decision that companies need to make, and that concerns whether they wish to adopt a policy which punishes poor attendance or rewards good attendance.