What exactly is body language? Body language is a culmination of a variety of factors that describe the way you carry, move, or hold your entire body. The way you choose to move your body says a lot about how you feel or what you are thinking at any given time.

Today I want to clarify exactly what body language entails:

• The physical position of your body (where you stand, how you stand)
• The proximity between you and the person you are speaking or working with
• The look or expression you display on your face
• The way you move your eyes or focus your eyes on objects or people
• Your gestures in touching yourself and/or the people you are talking to
• The way you fidget with inanimate objects (like pens, clothing, etc)
• The way you are breathing (shallow, heavy, fast, etc).

Some people, including body language researchers, tend to leave voice inflection out of the overall picture. This is a huge mistake as a person’s vocal volume, voice pitch, and pace of speech (amongst other factors) can also say quite a bit about how they feel. While a person’s voice isn’t exactly a visible, physical sign it shouldn’t be discounted. Neither should things like the rate of a person’s heartbeat. They’re less noticable but speak volumes.

As a manager it is important for you to gain a great understanding of body language and how to read it on others. Understanding the motions or postures a person makes will give you a huge advantage when it comes to communication, as you’ll be better able to anticipate people’s thoughts or needs. It will also make you more aware of yourself during conversations as well.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

We’ve spoken in the past about the wide variet of appraisal processes available for managers to choose from. One that I’ve always found interesting is the 360 Degree Appraisal process.

The 360 degree appraisal process is a process in which individuals who work closely with an employee are allowed to participate by providing feedback about the employee in question. They are often given questionnaires that they can either complete by naming themselves or anonymously. These employees are expected to honestly rate their experiences with their team members in terms of behaviour, attitude, job skills, and overall ability to complete tasks.

In some instances, only those working within the same team are asked to complete a 360 degree appraisal. In a company where one team may report to another, however, it is important to get feedback on an employee’s experiences with different types of people. Therefore it is important to include not only an employee’s peers but his up-line managers, subordinates, staff from other departments, and sometimes even outside customers or vendors.

You should include a wide variety in the 360 degree appraisal. Failure to do so will really limit the results you get and short changes the potential this type of process can really have on your ability to judge an individual’s overall performance.

Before implementing a 360 degree appraisal within your organisation you must train your employees as to the importance of fair and nondiscriminatory appraisals. If you receive surveys that make derogatory comments about a person’s age, gender, or ethnicity you find you are not learning much about the employee himself but instead about the dynamic of the workplace within which you all work. It’s valuable information to have but would be unfair to include these types of derogatory critiques in a person’s annual review.

Putting together a good 360 degree appraisal system will take quite a bit of time and effort but you’ll find it worth the effort in the end. Remember, you’re the manager and the ultimate decision regarding a person’s appraisal is up to you. In the end, though, it’s always nice to have additional feedback to consider.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

I don’t know whether we’re coming out of the “recession” but there has been a huge surge in management training business over the past month or so. Maybe it’s because companies are realising that they need quality trained managers to get them through the recession! How original!

Anyhow, here’s this week’s tip which is short and to the point but with a very valuable message:

Here it is…
“Tell your staff what you want, not how to do it”

When you do this you will find that your staff are more responsive and they’ll be less defensive.

So give them guidance and not direct instructions and you’ll get far more out of them.

You will also see more initiative, more innovation, and more of an ownership attitude from them develop over time.

Ok, that’s me done!

If you’re interested in improving your skills here are a few useful links for you.

You could attend one of our open courses throughout the UK:
http://www.m-t-d.co.uk/opencourses.htm

OR

We could come to you and delivery a course at your place!
http://www.m-t-d.co.uk/in-house.htm

Thanks again and take care

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Training

Telephone
0800 849 6732

Looking For Management Training?
Visit http://www.m-t-d.co.uk

Looking for Sales Training?
Visit http://www.mtdsalestraining.com

As you grow as a manager you’ll quickly discover that there are not only different levels of management but different levels of authority as well. Several individuals on the same level of management (middle management, for example) may have similar job duties but one may have a higher level of authority than the others.

The three main authority types are as follows:

• Line authority
• Staff authority
• Functional authority

Individuals with line authority are managers who have the ability to supervise employees or, in some cases, other managers. They give direct orders, evaluation performances, reprimand mistakes, and reward positive behaviours.

Those with staff authority are seen as advisors. They don’t necessarily have direct control over their subordinates but will help the managers beneath them to make decisions. They can and do have authority over their subordinates and can exercise that authority if the need arises. For the most part he will simply offer advice or assistance as it is needed in between taking care of his own day to day tasks.

Functional authority is often exercised by managers with staff authority as well. Functional authority gives individuals the ability to make decisions regarding the way a department will be run. They can create, manipulate, or change procedures in order to complete a project. Functional authority applies to the department the manager works in and no other. The marketing manager, for example, can not tell the accounting department that they must change their procedures.

What type of authority do you currently have in your own management position? Are you exercising your authority or are you depending on others because you are unsure of your own position?

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

One of the best decision making skills you can acquire is the ability to properly time your actions. The fact that you have a dozen different decisions to make shouldn’t cause you to rush them. Even the best decision can become an utter failure if timed incorrectly.

Imagine for a moment that you are the owner of a huge chain of coffee shoppes. As your chain grows in popularity, a myriad of small coffee shoppes are popping up, hoping to compete with you. You know that this will continue to happen but your chain has a very strong brand. In response to the competition, you decide to open 200 additional stores around the country and begin focusing on opening stores in other countries as well. Before you know it, you’ve beaten your competition to the punch and are now situated strongly in almost every area your competition might want to open a store.

Of course, you probably aren’t responsible for determining when to open a huge chain of stores but you’ll have similarly important situations. Making properly-timed decisions isn’t rocket science. As a matter of fact, if you put the decision making skills you already have to work you’ll find that determining when to release your best decisions isn’t as tough as you thought it might be.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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