One of the most important parts of the decision making process is proper planning and goal setting. Goals are incredibly important to the success of any organisation, and for good reason. They serve four main purposes:

1. Goals provide direction – whether for individuals, teams, or an entire organisation. Why does your company exist if not to meet some sort of goal? Do you want to make sales, increase revenues, or build your client list.
2. Setting goals leads to proper planning which leads to meeting goals and setting new ones. It sounds silly, but if you have a goal you should strive to meet it. If you meet your goals you should be prepared to move on to the next one.
3. Goals tend to motivate people to work harder. They’re even better at motivating people if they know they will be rewarded for meeting their goals.
4. Setting goals will allow you and your organisation to evaluate your processes. If you set a goal that you are unable to meet you’ll need to find out why it was unattainable. This process will give you the knowledge necessary to make changes to your processes and procedures.

We’re going to spend some time over the next week discussing decision making, planning, and goal setting. We’ll look at different aspects of each, how they relate to each other, and how you can use these skills to improve productivity in the workplace.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

What does it mean to be innovative? Ask any of your current employees and I guarantee you’ll get a host of different answers in response. Some view it as being creative while others believe innovation means coming up with new ideas or uncovering a new untapped market. What very few will focus on, however, is the element of risk. Without risk, very few innovative people would have succeeded.

So what’s the formula for innovation? It’s merely a combination of creativity and risk taking. Each has its own set of drivers. Creative people, for example, tend to be independent, unique, and ambiguous. Risk-takers have to be resilient and accpet themselves completely. Put these characteristics together and you’ve got the formula for a cracker-jack innovater.

The Creatrix model for innovation is a bit more complicated than I described. The folks at Creatrix developed an online questionnaire in which a series of questions determines what tyepe of orientation a person leans towards. They include challengers, innovators, practacalizers, modifiers, synthesizers, planners, sustainers, and dreamers. They believe that a person who scores highly on this test is a great innovator – or someone who can come up with a myriad of useful ideas.

You’re probably wondering why you would even bother to use this model? On an individual level, you can gain some insight about your own thought process and, as a manager, you can use the results to help guide your team, provide individiual coaching, and for making individual career plans. You can also use the results on both a team and organisational level – allowing you to clarify the roles of each team member, understanding how the team functions as a whole, and recognizing how the organisation’s overall thought process works. Perhaps you’ll identify things that need to be changed in order to promote future innovation.

How innovative is your workgroup? Do you struggle to find new ideas or do they flow freely on a regular basis?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

You may have your own methods for understanding and coping with diversity, but your organisation will have methods for dealing with these types of changes as well. Most often you’ll find that organisations deal with workplace diversity by setting policies and procedures that govern the entire workgroup. Here are a few examples.

Organisational practices are methods an organisation takes to monitor and control the way their employees are treated – both by management and by their fellow employees. For example, your employee manual will likely have pages discussing how to handle harassment (specifically sexual harassment) within the workplace. These policies apply to victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. I now see companies issuing separate mission statements outlining exactly how they feel about the way their diverse culture should grow.

Organisational policies are a little different than practices. These policies govern how individual can be treated on a professional level – including the way they are compensated. For example, single parents may find they need specific vacation holiday schedules while a woman who wants to help her ailing grandparents may want to flex her work-week schedule. Some people need less insurance than others and may be compensated accordingly as well.

Diversity training is also becoming more and more popular these days. Diversity training is an organisation’s method for making sure all employees are properly informed when it comes to understanding the differences between their cultures, beliefs, and work ethics. Employees who are educated often find it easier to cope with differing personalities.

Does your organisation have a diversity training program? If not, what methods does your organisation take to control or educate its employees about diversity?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

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

You’ll find that the way you deal with multiculturalism and diversity within your workplace as an individual may be different than your organisation handles it as a whole. You, however, will have the unique opportunity to work directly with each of your employees and your sensitivity to their individual needs is paramount. So what are some of the things you’ll need to do as an individual to show your support?

Start by understanding. It’s important to understand that “equal opportunity” does not mean that every single person is the same, wants to be treated the same, or should be treated the same. They should have the same opportunities, but there are fundamental differences between how people from different cultural groups live their lives and these need to be recognized as well. Think out of the box and be open to new experiences.

Be empathatic towards your new employees. You may feel uncomfortable working with a new person – whether he or she is of the opposite gender or comes from a different ethnic background than you’re used to dealing with. As awkward as you may feel, remember that he or she probably feels exactly the same way. You don’t know how to treat each other, so simply taking the time to help each other work through differences will make a huge difference.

Be as tolerant as possible. You may or may not agree with some of the things your employees do or believe in, but you do not have the right to judge them or hold them back. You don’t have to like their personal beliefs or systems, but you do need to learn how to work with them and not show your distaste. Your personal beliefs should not impact your professional performance.

As always, don’t forget to communicate. The more willing you are to communicate the better. Make sure your employees know they can come to you with their thoughts and concerns and make sure you professional express yours as well. You won’t be able to work with anyone you can’t learn to speak to. If you aren’t able to express that a person’s actions or words are inappropriate they’ll only continue until you begin to resent him or her or, in some cases, a more difficult situation develops.

These are some of the ways you can look at workplace diversity on an individual managerial level. Next time we’ll talk about some of the things organisations can do as a whole to show their support. Until then, have a great weekend!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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

Believe it or not, having a plan of action is essential to the success of any business. It takes time to put together a formal business plan, but it’s well worth the effort. Before you can make a firm plan, you need to be able to answer the following questions about your business:

• Where does our business stand right now?
• How did we bring our business to this point?
• Where would we like our business to be?
• What do we need to do to move to the next level?
• Are we moving towards our goals?

In order to answer these questions you’ll have to thoroughly analyse your organisation. You’ll need to consider both the internal and external environments, your business plan, mission statemetns, corporate objectives, and current strategies. Once you’ve done that you’ll be able to make new plans, but these new plans will also need to include strict methods for measuring, monitoring, and controlling your progress.

Formulating a strong business plan will allow you to properly analyse each situation as it arises. Yo’ull have the tools you need to determine which opportunities are appropriate for growth and which you should simply avoid. You’ll also learn how to avoid overanalysing your situation – a problem that may cause you to spend more time than is necessary on any given task.

I challenge you to think about your organisation right now. Can you answer all of the questions posed above without doing an extensive amount of research? How do you feel about your organisation right now?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Courses

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