How many people would wash a loan car before returning it? Very few if any I would suggest! It’s not your car. You don’t own it. Do you wash your own car? I’m sure you do. Why? Because it’s yours – you own it and therefore want to care for and look after it.
In the workplace, we can’t bark people into commitment. If we want people to care for and look after work decisions, they need to own them so they look after them and achieve good outcomes.
How do you do this? Contact Carnegie to discuss.
Serious about changing your organization’s culture? Here are three courageous actions that work!
1. Communicate the vision of change you want.
2. Identify, and communicate, at least two behavioural changes you plan to work on personally
3. Have senior executive do likewise
Do this and there will be much greater commitment to organizational change than if leadership makes out they are OK and the problems lie with everyone else.
How do you do this? Contact Carnegie to discuss.
What exactly does this mean? Probably the most commonly held view is that “hard” means tough, data based and “soft” stands for unreliable, easy subjective judgements.
I would suggest that when considering performance, the toughest, most accountable and responsible outcome is derived from clear expectations that are discussed, understood and agreed to. Once genuine agreement is reached there is response/ability – the ability to respond to what’s been agreed to.
It’s not a matter of “hard” or “soft” – It’s about placing the responsibility where it belongs – from directing to connecting.
What is mentoring? Several experts have published their definitions over the years.
Kathy Kram, well known author of multiple papers and books on mentoring and Professor in Management at the Boston University School of Management, defines a mentor as “someone who may provide a host of career development and psychosocial functions, which may include role modelling and sponsoring.” These insights were published in her book Mentoring at Work: Developmental Relationships in Organisational Life in 1984.
Fast forward some 26 years and today, in less academic terms we understand mentoring to be the offering of advice or guidance by a person typically with more experience, skills or expertise for the benefit of another individual’s personal and professional development.
Mentoring is often used in the same context as coaching yet they have very different applications. Read the rest of this entry »
We have often heard “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Very true, but do we then go on to improve it. Terms such as benchmarking, metrics, ROI, cost per hire, profit per employee, staff turnover, LTIs etc. etc. are not ends in themselves. While the need to know is important, they are indicators that point the way for improvement and changes to be made.
So what kind of changes are needed? Read the rest of this entry »
As a senior executive you know that your organization lives and dies on the success of your sales force. There are many facets - strategies, procedures, guidelines, staff training and tools you introduce so that your sales management and sales team can be monitored and managed to create the result your company requires to grow, remain competitive and be successful!
However in time you may identify:
All brought about by perhaps a lack of effort, reduced focus and activity by your sales staff.
So how does this happen? Read the rest of this entry »
I had just begun to work with a company where I was going to mentor a number of senior managers on increasing engagement in their organisation, and was walking through the plant with the Operations Manager, who was showing me around the site. I had met him a few times and we had developed a good relationship – good enough that I thought I would have some fun with him. I couldn’t help notice an employee lazing about, appearing to have nothing to do. As we passed this “work” station a number of times, our friend’s disposition had not changed so I put the question to the Operations Manager, “When did he quit?” With a puzzled expression, the answer came back that he hadn’t quit, in fact had been working here for over 20 years. My big grin eventually gave the game away and we both laughed. However, it really was not a laughing matter. Read the rest of this entry »
Surviving corporate politics is like swimming in a strong ocean current… If you try and swim against a rip, you’ll get nowhere and wear yourself out trying. If you do nothing, you’ll get swept out to sea by it before you even know what’s hits you. The only way is to swim strongly, confidently and proactively with the current.
The mission of a CEO/GM is to provide strong leadership to the company that will guide it in achieving its corporate objectives. These objectives will be a mix of financial goals as well as other elements that represent the core values and culture of the organization.
To be an effective leader for the company he/she should view this mission as an ongoing, living goal to work towards. It will require fundamental change to management style with the need to develop professionally to achieve this goal.
The major, initial challenge will be to sell and drive this message down the line, achieve company and personal objectives, and develop synergies and leverage to achieve this overall vision at all company interfaces.
Carnegie Management Group has recently expanded to include a Sydney Office. We are delighted with the open attitude that Sydney executives and business owners have towards improving their performance through coaching and mentoring.
All over the world, the buzzword on everyone’s lips is engagement. In Australia there seems to be a genuine belief that businesses need engaged people in order to be successful – from service delivery, to maximising revenue and returning good profits. However, senior leaders are quick to admit that they are still a bit lost about where they should focus their energy in order to bring this to life and make it a reality. Read the rest of this entry »
