Research shows that ‘knowing what’s expected of them’ consistently ranks highly as a motivator in employee surveys. One of the biggest challenges for managers is defining their expectations of behaviours. In this series of articles I’m going to share with you a range of behavioural performance objectives that you can copy, edit, revise, correct and [...]

Research shows that ‘knowing what’s expected of them’ consistently ranks highly as a motivator in employee surveys. One of the biggest challenges for managers is defining their expectations of behaviours. In this series of articles I’m going to share with you a range of behavioural performance objectives that you can copy, edit, revise, correct and [...]

I’ve recently been working with a group of managers who are finding it difficult to encourage their staff to evaluate their working processes in order to generate ideas for improvement (asking the question ‘what improvements can you think of’ was getting them nowhere fast).
My view is that it’s useful for staff to have a more [...]

I’m often asked by managers how they can make their performance review or appraisal meetings more of a two-way discussion, how they can encourage their staff to be more fully part of the meeting.
A start point is to give your staff member time and support in preparing for the meeting. How?
Take a look at this [...]

When I work with delegates on my ‘Managing Upwards’ programme, I’m often asked ‘how can I get my boss to coach me more often (or at all)?’
My advice is to take control of the ‘coaching process’ – to make it easy for your manager to provide the coaching you need. Here’s some ideas on how [...]

A story
Some years ago I worked with the MD of a commercial publishing business. I had spent a day facilitating a business planning session with him and his senior management team. At the very end of the day, and apropos of nothing as far as I could see, he did the following:
1. Pushed back his [...]

I’ve written in the past about how to write behavioural, or ‘soft’, performance objectives. Of course, it’s also important to be able to write what I call ‘firm’ objectives. Firm because they relate to the tangible elements of the job that can be measured in terms of quantity, quality or time.
Here’s a quick and easy [...]

Many managers tell me they don’t delegate tasks as often as they’d like because they just don’t know where to start. Here’s a three step process that can help to identify what you could delegate, who you could delegate to and how much of a task you could delegate.
It’s all about making that start!

There comes a time in every manager’s life when they need to tell their staff that the way they are working isn’t, well, working. They may need to explain that they need their staff to be ‘more effective team players’ or ‘more receptive to change’. The challenge is in how to explain to those staff [...]

How often do we stand back and think about the value of applying effective people management practices – especially the value to the business? Take a look at this piece of research:
Proudfoot Consulting’s Productivity Survey for 2007 (PDF, 3.1MB) shows that in the UK 33.3% of the time spent in work is unproductive. Taking into [...]