As a manager you’ll find you’re regularly subjected to a plethora of valuable information on a regular basis. What’s important to your company, however, is how that information is handled. Information goes through three main phases:

1. Information is gathered and enters the work environment
2. Information is reviewed and used
3. Information leaves the organisation

Let’s say, for example, you are developing a marketing plan for a new product. The first thing you need to do is gather information about the market, but you need to ensure that the information you are gathering is relevant to the project.

This information will then need to be sent to others within your organisation as they work to actually develop the product. You’ll have to make sure each piece of data remains accurate, updating it as often as necessary and making sure that the appropriate staff members have access.

Finally, information will begin to leave the organisation. You may begin developing tests for your products, leaking press releases, and advertising the product itself. The timing of this release is essential to ensure your competitors don’t have enough time to react before you make your product launch.

The way you control the information that is used in your workplace is essential to your success. This is another reason why you need to carefully screen new job applicants, as you need to be sure they will respect the privacy of your company as you develop new products, services, and marketing plans.

Do you have control of the information in your organisation? If not, what changes do you need to make?

Thanks again,

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

There’s a trick to successfully growing any business. While mergers and acquisations are important, developing a proper business maturity model (BMM) is even more so. The reason? If you don’t have a good business maturity model, you won’t have the right systems and strategies in place to deal with the increased demands assocaited with your new merger or change.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? What I’m saying is that you can’t move blindly into a new business transaction without thinking about the impact it will have on the entire organisation - from the maintenance department up to the top CEO. In most cases, teams dealing with mergers and acquisitions tend to focus on only one or two parts of an organisation and forget about the others. This is a huge mistake that causes a lack of balance when your existing groups suddenly don’t know how or when to interact with the new ones. Implementing a strong BMM will give you the tools to ensure that there is proper balance between all of your workgroups.

Take a look at every aspect of your organisation. Be sure to review your organisational hierarchy, internal strategies, the way you respond to external pressure, and even your current employee and management training plans. Are each of these areas appropriately prepared to deal with a major business change - are they all part of the communication chain - or would one be left in the dark?

You should have clearly defined expectations and visions regarding how your business performs on a day to day basis - both individually and in comparison to competitors and peers. If you aren’t sure what your organisation’s business maturity model entials, it may be time to find out. Perhaps you’re the one that’s been left in the dark!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Building a development plan, whether for your personal use or to outline a training program, is no simple task. A considerable amount of thought must go into each aspect of the plan, but where most managers, trainers, and individuals go wrong is in believing that their development plans have to be perfect on the first try. This just isn’t so.

It’s important to remember that your development plan is a guide to help you jump start your personal growth, training seminar, or project. There’s no way to predict changes, roadblocks, or setbacks and there’s no reason to feel bad about abandoning parts of the plan if necessary later on down the line.

Another mistake people make when outlining their personal development plans is in choosing too many goals. It’s perfect acceptable to have a lengthy list of goals, but it’s impossible to focus on all of them at the same time. Choose two favorites (no more than four) and focus on them until you’ve achieved your goals; then move on to the next one on your list.

Finally, make sure the goals you’ve chosen are things you really care about and want to achieve. So many people get caught up in the “development plan” cycle and end up “borrowing” ideas from other sources. In the end, they certainly make progress but it doesn’t really mean anything - they’re simply crossing items off of their “to-do” lists instead of completing tasks that have personal meaning.  It’s OK to browse sample development plans or ask your mentors, supervisors, and peers for suggestions, but in the end you need to make sure the goals you include are personalized and mean something to you.

These reminders apply more to your personal develpment plan than anything else, but knowing what your goals are as a manager or trainer are just as important as your plans for your classes. In the near future we’ll talk a bit about how to tailor effective development plans for your employees and training sessions. Until then, take a look at your personal agendas and let me know what you think! Are you on track or do you need your goals a bit more?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

No matter what type of business you’re in, one fact remains true. You have customers and those customers expect to receive products or services from you in a timely and professional manner. So how do you ensure this happens? You put systems in place that allow you to monitor whether or not your employees or workgroups are properly managing service delivery.

Managing service delivery involves a number of different factors. Good service begins from day one, when your employees begin their training process, and continues daily as they learn to interact with their clients, customers, and even other internal workgroups. Good customer service involves not only making a client happy by promising results, but delivering on those promises as well. If you tell a client you’ll return a phone call in 2 hours, then 2 1/2 or 3 hours is not acceptable. Someone expecting a shipment to be delivered on Thursday may not be thrilled if it doesn’t show up until Saturday.

The process of managing service delivery involves creating workflows in which the products and services you are promising your clients are delivered - on time and as expected. This high level of service should occur both after the initial sale and throughout the remainder of your relationship with the client.

The better your service delivery models, the higher your clients will perceive the value of your products and services to be. Make sure your employees are familiar with proper customer care methods. If you can provide an excellent level of customer service your clients will remain loyal to your organisation for as long as you can provide the services they need!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Here’s a little something to get you started this morning. We’ve talked about the different types of skills a manager should have, including conceptual (thinking in an abstract manner) and diagnostic (being able to respond to a situation). Apply these skills to the following situation:

Joe has been an employee for over 10 years. When you hired him he was enthusiastic about his work and jumped on any task you assigned him. He’d work overtime whenever necessary and always received excellent performance reviews.

Over the past 3-6 months Joe has changed. He complains when given extra assignments, refuses to work past regular office hours, and is generally always in a bad mood. He makes more mistakes than he used to, and his coworkers have complained about his attitude.

Think about the situation and decide:

• Assume you’ve done a little digging. Why might Joe’s attitude have suddenly changed? Did he suffer a personal loss? Did he miss out on a promotion at work? Maybe he even had a conflict with another employee that you are unaware of.
• Is there anything you can do to change Joe’s new perception of his job? Should you take action?
• How has stress impacted Joe’s behaviour? Is this something you can resolve by altering his workload, or is it something he needs to change on his own?

What do you think? How would you handle the situation? Sound off!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve your Management Skills”