Ladder Consulting | Practical people management » techniques http://www.ladderconsulting.com Step by step with Joan Henshaw Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:28:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=1149 HOW TO DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT FROM YOUR STAFF – ‘DEALING WITH REQUESTS’ http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/570/how-to-describe-what-you-want-from-your-staff-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98dealing-with-requests%e2%80%99 http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/570/how-to-describe-what-you-want-from-your-staff-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98dealing-with-requests%e2%80%99#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:53:32 +0000 Joan Henshaw http://www.ladderconsulting.com/?p=570 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 amend to fit your business, your staff and your needs

DEALING WITH REQUESTS

1. Asks questions to fully understand the request to ensure clarity about: 

  • The size and complexity of the task i.e. the level of detail / accuracy needed, how much research needs undertaking, what the ‘end product’ should look like e.g. a two page summary or a full report?
  • The deadline – when, specifically, the task needs to be completed 
  • The  importance of the task and deadline

 2. Uses relevant facts in order to make a decision on whether to accept or decline the request e.g.

  • The time needed to complete the work vs. the time available to meet the deadline
  • The time needed to complete work on hand of equal importance
  • The relative urgency / importance of other work on hand

 3. Assesses the consequence, or cost, of accepting the request as a way of deciding whether to accept or decline e.g.

  • The new task would take 2 hours (fact)
  • The task I am currently working on will take 4 hours and must be completed by 5pm (fact)
  • The task I am currently working on has the highest priority (fact)
  • To take on the new task now would mean I would miss the 5pm deadline on the current task (consequence)

 4. When refusing a request, explains that decision to the other party by

  • Explaining the difficulty in meeting the request and why – using the objective criteria.
  • Explaining what the (negative) consequences would be of accepting the request.
  • Explaining that they are unable to accept the request

 5. If appropriate, looks for some compromise solution e.g.

  • Offering to accept the work – but with a longer deadline
  • Offering to accept part of the work
  • Offering ideas on how the work could be completed by someone else

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

]]> http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/570/how-to-describe-what-you-want-from-your-staff-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98dealing-with-requests%e2%80%99/feed 0 HOW TO DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANT FROM YOUR STAFF – ‘CLIENT SERVICING’ http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/564/how-to-describe-what-you-want-from-your-staff-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98client-servicing%e2%80%99 http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/564/how-to-describe-what-you-want-from-your-staff-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98client-servicing%e2%80%99#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:51:54 +0000 Joan Henshaw http://www.ladderconsulting.com/?p=564 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 amend to fit your business, your staff and your needs

CLIENT SERVICING

1. Demonstrates a breadth and depth of knowledge of our services / products

2. Applies sound professional practices (as agreed / set down in …)

3. Provides advice which peers / manager would consider appropriate

4. Produces accurate advice / strategic plans that address the client’s needs

5. Gains the confidence of the client by demonstrating that the advice given has been accepted and applied

6. Applies a range of strategies which have contributed to developing long-term relationships with clients

7. Demonstrates a full understanding of the clients business

8. Effectively uses time and resources so that commitments made to the client are achieved and deadlines met

9. Client feedback reflects a high level of satisfaction     

 

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavioural Performance Objectives’ http://www.10mmt.com/e-books/ A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

]]> http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/564/how-to-describe-what-you-want-from-your-staff-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%98client-servicing%e2%80%99/feed 0 Effective people management – how to use S.W.O.T. questions http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/523/effective-people-management-%e2%80%93-how-to-use-s-w-o-t-questions http://www.ladderconsulting.com/blog/523/effective-people-management-%e2%80%93-how-to-use-s-w-o-t-questions#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:30:20 +0000 Joan Henshaw http://www.ladderconsulting.com/?p=523 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 structured approach for evaluating processes and that SWOT can help with that. Here is the outcome of the work I did with those managers (using the example of the evaluation of a new system).

Strengths

What do you think works well with the system?

What have been the benefits of using the system?

What does this system give the customers?

How does it help you reduce waste, increase efficiency, improve quality of service?

How has the system improved the way you work?

Weaknesses

Is there anything that doesn’t work well?

Are there any weaknesses in the system?

Have you encountered any problems or impediments?

Is there anything you don’t think adds value?

Are customers saying there’s a problem?

Opportunities

What needs to be improved?

How could we do that?

What are we missing that could work well?

How can we overcome the weaknesses?

Threats

Is there anything outside the team / unit that is having a negative impact on the effectiveness of the system – that’s threatening its effectiveness?

In what ways could we mitigate that threat?

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