Leadership, competitiveness and best practices on business management
Workplace Survey, Findings 1.Workers are struggling to work effectively. When focus is compromised in pursuit of Collaboration, neither works well. 2. Effective workplaces balance focus and collaboration. Workplaces designed to enable collaboration without sacrificing employees’ ability to focus are more successful. 3. Choice drives performance and innovation. Employers who provide a spectrum of choices for when and where to work are seen as more innovative and have higher-performing employees.
Putting the right people on a team doesn't guarantee success. The most effective, high-performing teams are committed to continually learning.
Teams in the modern organizational world are awash in change and confronted by continually shifting opportunities and threats. Those that do not learn and adapt are bound to fail. According to Dennis Lindoerfer, there are four general practices teams can engage in to ensure they are learning as they work: establishing a climate for learning, continually assessing team members’ work together, working with a team coach, and managing knowledge effectively. In this scenario, the team leader plays an essential role to successfully accomplish the learning team’s objectives
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Smart companies are coming up with bold ideas to keep employees engaged, while offering them ways to facilitate career and lifestyle changes
“The 2009 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work”, published by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), reveals that even in the midst of a turbulent economy, best employers are creating imaginative workplace approaches for improving the work environment and for helping employees navigate the shifting demands of their work and personal lives. They are offering assistance, for example, on how to manage job stress and overwork, welcome a new baby, or cope when a spouse loses a job. What is key (and perhaps surprising) is that these strategies help these companies achieve business results and respond to fluctuations in the economy. They help companies create effective and flexible workplaces, where work "works" for both the employer and employees.
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One thing that makes organizations dysfunctional is that bosses so often lack self-awareness. They're out of touch with their effect on their people and not in tune with what it feels like to work for them.
No one is immune to blind spots, of course. But bosses are particularly vulnerable. It's enough that they must often navigate massive change and cope with stressful situations every day. But add to this the overpowering belief that many bosses shoulder: "I should have all the answers, I should know what to do, and I should be able to handle challenges alone." For many, the need to be right becomes much stronger than the need to be effective. And only the most confident leaders are willing to surround themselves with people who will point out what they're doing wrong—and be rewarded for their honesty. More often, everyone is forced to endure the boss' weaknesses in silence. Here are three of the biggest, and most deeply human, forces conspiring to make people in charge so clueless.
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Managers have many opportunities to affect the motivation of those who work with and for them but they need to understand and recognize the importance of some of the main principles involved in the motivational process
Although motivation in the work setting is sometimes overlooked, understanding motivation is crucial to recognize the powerful influence the situational context has on motivated behaviour. Authors agree that no motivation strategy can be complete without considering how people’s values and fundamental attitudes toward work. These values and attitudes are especially sensitive to cultural differences. Thus, to understand motivational issues in a culturally diverse workforce, manager need to pay attention to both their people’s cultural values and the fundamental attitudes toward work.
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Managers often default to cost cutting as the best way to begin to regain competitiveness. However, as a manager, you incur a cost for no other reason than to pursue a strategy; and it is the strategy, not the cost, that determines the competitiveness of your organization.
Both in theory and in practice, costs tend to be treated as a bad thing. They are seen as being too high; they need to be cut; they are symptomatic of waste, excess, profligacy and irresponsibility. Consultants are expected to reduce costs, not add to them. An incoming chief executive will normally want to rationalize costs, not justify them or grow them. Competitiveness is usually defined in terms of the cost base — and the lower the better. Predator companies will traditionally want to make economies in their newly acquired prey. It is rare acquirer who is looking to grow the cost base.
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