As I’ve mentioned before, learning to practice delegation of authority is one of the most difficult tasks for new managers. Part of the problem is that they don’t understand the main principles of delegation. Today I’m going to outline what they are so that you can think about them and make an assessment about your personal situation.

1. How well do you know your team members, and how well do you know yourself? If you don’t know each other well enough, you may be hesitant to delegate your authority because you have a lack of trust or experience.

2. Have you assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each person on your team? Everyone has strong and weak points. Making a quick assessment will enable you to properly delegate work to the person most suited for each individual task.

3. Does your organisation have written job descriptions? If so, know what they are and determine if there are any legal limitations to whether or not you can go outside of those descriptions when assigning tasks.

4. Understand the requirements of each and every job. If you don’t understand the instructions you shouldn’t expect that anyone else will either.

5. Evaluate your communication skills. Are you constantly working with your employees to make sure they understand the task and to ensure they are making progress?

6. After the project is complete, look back on the process you used and determine if you should make any changes the next time you delegate a task.

You’re almost guaranteed success if you can learn to incorporate the above principles into your day to day delegation interactions. As always, there’s no reason for you to try to do everything on your own. Start the delegation process as soon as you can!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

Often times we’ll spend time reviewing our salesmen and customer service representatives, but we forget that the services of those performing strictly internal work must be measured for effectiveness as well.

The IT Services Management assessment, otherwise known as ITSM, was developed to ensure that IT personnel are following a set of best practices just like everyone else. Even the IT systems used within your business need to grow and, as such, the employees in these departments must follow.

The ITSM measures a number of different criteria, including:

• IT availability
• The level of service received
• The capacity to offer service
• Department financial management
• The ability to support change
• Incident management
• Problem management
• Service desk support

This list isn’t all inclusive, but you can see how important the IT department within any organisation really is. Do you have a set of standard criteria for monitoring their effectiveness? If not, it may be time to make a few changes.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

By now you may have found a personal mentor but have you found the time to sit down with him, or even just yourself, to seriously discuss your own personal development plan?

You’re going to spend a ton of time helping your team mates and employees formulate personal development plans to enhance their own careers, and you shouldn’t let your own fall through the cracks. Here are a few things you need to consider when brainstorming your plan:

What are your ultimate goals? Where do you want your career path to take you?

How will you achieve your goals? Do you need to obtain additional training or start working on new projects in order to reach those goals?

How will you evaluate your progress? Will your own manager or mentor monitor you and hold you accountable for your level of success?

Remember, setting goals for the development of your management skills and career is a personal task. Take the project seriously. Come up with your own ideas as opposed to using a generic list of “goals” you’ve found on the internet or on another training website.

Your own supervisors, peers, and even your subordinates may have valuable suggestions for you to use in developing your personal development plan. Make sure you ask for their help or, better yet, make creating a personal development plan into a group project so that you can all help each other at the same time!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

You may have experienced something similar to the 16PF while you were in school. The 16PF is an assessment tool designed to review 16 key areas of your personality and are used for a variety of reasons.

Often times the 16PF assessment is used to help determine what vocation you are best suited for after high school. It may have been a guide that helped you determine which of two choices you preferred, or it may have helped you to start the job hunt from scratch. The 16PF is used in clinical and therapeutic settings as well – even to determine if two people are suitable for marriage!

As a manager, however, the 16PF can help you to choose qualified job applicants or to develop career paths for your current employees. From this perspective, the test focuses on five key management questions and should give you a great idea of how well your team mates or employees would perform in their job functions.

If you and your human resources department choose to use the 16PF, you will receive a Human Resource Development Report. It will outline the five critical management categories of the test taker, including his individual leadership style, his ability to interact with others, his decision-making abilities, his ability to take initiative, and his personal ability to adjust to change.

The 16PF is a valuable tool if used correctly. It’s one that you can use to determine whether or not the person you’ve just interviewed is a viable job candidate, or you can also use these tools to take a proactive approach to developing a career path map for your current employees during their reviews. The sky’s the limit – it’s all up to you.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

Anger creeps up on even the best of us. The real question is whether or not you have the tools to control your anger so that it doesn’t begin to negatively impact your work. Today I want to share a few techniques for you to implement in your daily life in the hopes that you will be better able to control your emotions in the workplace.

When you feel the rage boiling under your skin, try a few of these ideas:

• It may seem childish, but take a time-out. Close your office door, don’t answer the phone, breathe slowly, and count to 10 – count again if you need to. Always take a few minutes to regroup before returning to the scene of the crime.

• Get some exercise. Get up from your desk and go for a walk – take the stairs instead of the elevator or walk around the outside of your building. Physical exertion is a great way to relieve stress and tension; which is why being involved in an after-work sport or activity is great for your overall well being.

• Keep a journal. Writing out your feelings may help you to identify the sources of your anger and find ways to handle them better. Perhaps you’re getting angry over something silly – writing it out may help you to see things in a different light.

• Calmly and professionally express your anger. Let the person who offended or angered you know that he or she has done so, but do not lash out. Wait until you have calmed down and explain why you feel the way you do. If it’s not possible to speak to the person who upset you, seek out a friend or counselor and talk it out.

• Never speak in anger. You’ll say things you might regret and run the chance of ruining your career or team relationships. Always wait until you’ve calmed down to respond to any situation.

Being able to control your anger will contribute to your developing communication skills as well as ensure you keep your workplace under control. It only takes one or two angry slip-ups to completely disgruntle your employees or superiors – and those relationships will be very difficult to redevelop once they’re destroyed.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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