BrainCram

Catch this new article on Developing Self Esteem

Dare to Aspire

No matter the scale of the problem, a simple problem solving method can help you find a solution. The Seven Step Method shown below. Although simple, is both methodical and effective.

Define the Problem – Sometimes the presenting symptom is not the real problem. Be vigilant to find the core problem.

Define Objectives and Performance Measures – You need an idea of the outcome you want. Knowing what a good job looks like helps you identify the performance measures you will need to decide when you have solved the problem.

Identify the Boundaries and Constraints – Bounding a problem ensures that you are not trying to solve too much. Constraints are those things that restrict your solutions.

Identify, Generate and Prioritise Options – Options are building blocks of solutions. Creating lots of options gives you more choice and more chance of creating a better solution.

Develop Options into a Plan – Develop the promising options further and discard options that offer little if any benefit.

Implement the Solution – Decide how to implement the solution to be most effective. Remember that some solutions can be quite simple but others can be comprehensive and require significant effort to deploy.

Evaluate the Outcome and Ensure the Problem is Solved – Evaluation a continuous process. As your solution takes effect, ensure the change is moving towards your desired outcome. Ask ‘What is working and what isn’t working?’

If the problem is well defined and a working solution well implemented, you should we well on the way to having solved the problem.

Remember that you don’t need a perfect solution first time. Indeed you will probably not create one. A more likely approach is to make consistently better decisions moving you towards a robust solution.

Dare to Aspire

A period of house moving and career change meant that I haven’t been able to maintian the blog like I aimed to when I started.

That being said, I have now started with a new company in a new profession and finding time to write some more articles, blog posts and book summaries.

The BrainCram website has had a refresh and has a few more book summaries.

Take a look and please leave feedback or business book review requests.

Take action and Dare to Aspire

In this time of economic uncertainty, the need to be secure in your job is generating a high level of anxiety for many people. One way to increase the chance that you will keep your job is to be recognised as someone who adds value above and beyond your peers. Here are 6 ways to be seen as adding value:

1. Increase revenue – Get more money into the business by selling more of your product of service. This isn’t easy in a struggling economy, but those that can ‘bring home the bacon’ in tough times will be seen as invaluable. It will also be a great discipline that will pay dividends when the economy recovers.

2. Increase profit – There are 2 ways to increase profit. The first is to increase revenue and the second is to reduce costs.

3. Communicate more – Being better informed is likely to increase your personal brand and make you a ‘go to’ person for information and guidance.

4. Provide creative ideas – When times are hard, innovation can often create break through opportunities. Hardship can also be a catalyst to creativity.

5. Assume more responsibility – Again this makes you the ‘go to’ person and increases the amount of information you have. Increasing your responsibility will also bring you into contact with your senior management, the very people who are likely to be assessing redundancy options. It is less easy for them to select someone who is clearly adding value and someone you know better than other nameless minions.

6. Spend more time with customers – They are going to be hurting in this climate too. By spending more time with your customers, you are likely to be able to continue to build your relationship and identify more sales opportunities.

Build value and you build your security and your future potential.

Dare to aspire

People have always been fascinated with the behaviour and characteristics of leaders. The body of knowledge that covers the subject is immense. My own experience leads me to believe that it is the impact that a leader has and the effect of that leadership that we most need to be concerned with. This impact is almost always the consequence of the style that the leader uses to move a team or individual forward toward a goal. As managers and leaders, there are many styles that you may wish to consider when leading teams.

Although not exhaustive, the following list represents a few practical leadership styles, condensed from the many, which are relatively easy to remember and apply.

Management by Objective
An approach where you set the objectives drawn from your vision and encourage the team or individual to use their own capabilities to reach those objectives. The outcomes should be challenging but not to the point of becoming overwhelming.

Management by Exception
This approach suggests that you have a light touch on the team, setting them an outcome and only intervening when you see that the outcome will not be reached.

Charismatic Influence
If your vision is one that generates passion and fulfils a motivating purpose that generates its own commitment. Many Not for Profit organisations use this style of leadership, but they are by no means alone.

Contingent Reward
Rewards are given based upon the people demonstrating the behaviours you want. Unfortunately compliance does not always reflect commitment and the reward may eventually no longer motivate.

Intellectual Challenge
Allow people to stretch themselves and feel a degree of self worth and achievement from using their own ideas.

Individual Consideration
This is an approach where you consider the needs of the individual rather than that of the team. Leadership here is often in the form of coaching and mentoring.

Deciding on the style to use is very much based upon your assessment of the individual or team and will require some emotional intelligence. It will reflect the way in which a person or team is motivated.

Often the style you choose will need to be tailored or a combination of styles may be needed in any given situation. Don’t be afraid to try different approaches.

Measure your success by the responses you get and any change in behaviour you see.

By reflecting on the style you choose and the impact you have you will be able to hone your leadership ability more easily.

Remember leadership is about moving people toward a goal and although the shortest distance is between 2 points is a straight line, the most interesting journeys tend to meander.

We all have opportunities to show some level of leadership. These leadership tools may give you are few options to perform that role more effectively.

Dare to Aspire

Organisations spend significant amounts of time and money recruiting the best people they can. But retaining quality people is often more difficult than recruiting talented people in the first place. Many companies do not have active staff retention procedures and often rely only on financial leverage to keep a top performer in the company.

There are, however, several simple techniques in addition to financial retention incentives ,that you can employ to help retain the quality, talented people that you need to keep your business thriving:

1. Create a challenging environment – There are not many talented people who want that talents to be wasted on projects that offer no challenge, responsibility or kudos. Not providing a challenge will most likely force a person to increase their own challenge by looking for a better employer. Find your talented people and give them the challenge they need to thrive and grow.

2. Favourable work environment – Poor working environments are one of the major reasons that people state for leaving their job. It could be the physical environment, the culture, the managers or even the restrictions of the policies and processes that are at fault. The working environment needs to be conducive to people enjoying their work.

3. Flexitime – Life is pretty complex, more so than it has ever been. The goodwill you engender in your staff just by allowing a degree of flexibility in their working time is worth the effort required to manage the different schedules people want to work.

4. Additional Holiday- No-one on their death bed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time in the office’. Allowing people more time off, allows them to relax, de stress and become more innovative, creative and productive when they return.

5. Stock Options – With the complexity of taxes that apply to financial rewards, there may be a strong incentive in giving stock options in some kind of tax free wrapper. It also has the added benefit that if a person sees the company performance directly affecting their wealth, then you have an ally in the work force helping you increase overall performance.

6. Family-friendly policies – Family life can be very demanding, so organisations that can help make family life more manageable are likely to generate a large amount of company loyalty.

7. Relaxed dress code – Some companies offer professional services that require more formal dress. However, the innovation, creativity and success of companies like Google is unlikely to be recreated in an office where everyone is wearing a suit! Allow people to wear whatever makes them comfortable and most productive within some sensible guidelines of decency and cleanliness.

8. High Quality Leadership – Have highly visible leaders with a strong clear vision, who communicate that vision well and ensure that the organisations strategy and resources are employed to support that vision. Leaders without vision and without people skills and who are only interested n the bottom line are unlikely to encourage people to stay. In fact they are likely to be leaving in droves!

9. Visionary technical leadership – A company that doesn’t innovate will not survive in the modern business environment. This requires some truly creative and technically adept people to lead the organisation’s teams.

10. Training and training reimbursement – Most people want to improve their knowledge and skills. They see their prowess improving as a way to climb the corporate ladder or to undertake the challenges to which they aspire. Make training a priority and you will see an increased loyalty. It is often thought that people train only to move on. I would suggest that those people are going to leave anyway, so offer them training and some of the other retention incentives and you may actually keep that person.

Margaret Mead once stated that.,‘A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’

If you apply these retention techniques, you are more likely to hold into your talents and resourceful staff so that they can indeed change the world.

Dare to Aspire