6 Team Conflict Tips - to completely transform your Team By Brian V Moore

5 Team conflict resolution strategies for the workplace. Teams cannot and will not, perform to their best ability, unless they work in a safe, respectful and uplifting team environment.

And it does not matter how racked the team is by conflict shown by gossiping, backstabbing, personality conflicts, bullying and a lack of ownership, accountability and responsibility.

Here are 5 team conflict strategies to transform your team:-

1) Build Respect

Use a teambuilding group that builds a deep understanding how how your team adss to each other, through wisdom, experience, culture, tradition and personality. Make sure that it is FUN! Don't let them Lecture your team, ad nauseam!

2) Build Unity

Get them working together in diverse teams. Bring different levels, departments, genders, cultures and historical experience together. Let them experience the power of unity.

3) Create a Code of Conduct

When each member of the team has a say in how they will or won't behave... they are EASILY able to easily manage their own interpersonal interactions. So what you want to develop is a peer-created, peer-managed code of conduct.

4) Clear Interpersonal Conflict

This is the point where we have agreement, and one of the most important team conflict strategies is to get them to clear their challenges - directly - personally and on a private one-on-one basis.

5) Manage into the Future

Once set-up, with the correct commitments and focus, this process will need to be maintained into the future. NB - not by the team manager. Yes, you can step back - because your team will manage their interpersonal behavior - all by themselves!

6 Vital Leadership Characteristics By Duncan Brodie

Questions are often asked about whether leaders are born or whether they can be developed. My own view is that anyone who has the desire and is willing to do the work can become a great leader. At the same time there are certain characteristics or qualities that are vital in leaders.

Characteristic 1: Enthusiasm

Those that succeed as leaders are enthusiastic and upbeat. They know that they might not have everyone on board with all of their ideas, that they might not have all of the skills or the knowledge they need. They are however highly positive and know that there is a solution to obstacles that arise. They just need to find it. One of the real benefits of being enthusiastic and positive is that it is infectious. Who would you rather be around- a leader who is upbeat and positive or a leader who is negative and pessimistic?

Characteristic 2: Integrity

Personal integrity is the second vital leadership characteristic. Leaders with integrity set the tone in terms of expectations of how they will behave themselves and how others behave. Another way of looking at integrity is professionalism. The acid test in terms of integrity is whether what you are planning to do will stand the test of public scrutiny.

Characteristic 3: Warmth

Inclusion of warmth in a list of leadership characteristics might seem strange. People often confuse warmth with being soft. In truth leaders can be considerate of others, show empathy and at the same time be the person who makes the tough calls.

Characteristic 4: Courage

Read the autobiographies of successful people and a trend that you will continually identify is that they were people with courage. They are willing to go and try things and take risks. Where do you sit on the risk continuum?

Characteristic 5: Judgement

While leaders are courageous they are not reckless. They weigh up the pros and cons and take balanced risks. Judgement is all about make the best decision you can with the information you have available.

Characteristic 6: Tough but fair

Leaders recognise that they cannot be popular all of the time. They know that they need to make tough decisions from time to time. They take the tough decisions and at the same time will seek to act fairly.

Leadership characteristics take time to develop. So what leadership characteristic could you start working on to achieve greater success?

7 Ways to Demonstrate Your Leadership Credentials By Duncan Brodie

If you are a leader or an aspiring leader, how can you demonstrate you leadership credentials?

1. Focus on what matters

As a leader it is all too easy to focus on what is familiar or what you like rather than on what really matters. Make a list of the 5 things that really matter most in terms of achieving personal and organisational success and make sure that you focus your energies on these areas.

2. Set values and live by them

We all have certain values that determine how we operate and the choices we make. We may not have sat down and clearly defined and articulated those values, but as a leader it is important to be clear on your own and the organisations values. A simple way of doing this is to ask your self two simple questions:

• What can you be relied on for? • What do you stand for as an individual and organisation?

Once you have determined your values, make them explicit and make sure that you check from time to time that you are honouring those values.

3. Empower others

Those that you are leading probably share many of the desires that you have. Things like being motivated, feeling that their efforts are recognised, making a difference, taking on new challenges to name just a few. One of the easiest ways to demonstrate your leadership capabilities is by setting out the overall vision and then empowering others to make it happen.

4. Communicate regularly

When people are not kept informed about what is happening they start to speculate. Similarly if they think that what they are saying is been ignored, they will eventually give up and stop communicating. Look for ways of communicating with and getting feedback from people that you lead. With the advances in technology and the multitude of channels available, this has never been easier.

5. Be honest

People may not like everything that you do or decision that you take as a leader. What they will appreciate is honesty. For example, if the company is struggling, be honest with people and seek their contributions on how to get things back on track.

6. Be self aware

As a leader it is vital that you demonstrate a high degree of self awareness. This self awareness goes beyond knowing what you do well and what you don’t do so well. It also includes understanding the impact of your behaviours on others.

7. Be persistent

As a leader or aspiring leader you will encounter many obstacles and barriers along the way. Those that succeed are persistent and are willing to keep going even when the odds are against them.

Success as a leader is challenging. So what do you need to work on to demonstrate your leadership credentials and achieve real success?

How To Waste Your Money On Training By Orli Daluz

No doubt, your serious attention to the development of your people is, to say the least, essential for the success of your organization and, therefore, cannot be put on hold. However, have you ever wondered whether you are spending your money wisely in training your human capital? If you want to be certain, here are some practical tips to ponder:

1. The immediate goal of training is learning, but its ultimate aim is p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e. We train people, not only for them to acquire new knowledge and skills, but also for them to be able to do (or do better) what they are hired to do.

This is, and should be, the principal rule and consideration when training people in business organizations. Unfortunately, employee training is being conducted in many firms for the wrong reasons. There are a lot of nice-to-know courses out there, but they may not amount to better performance once learned. Hence, if you want to make training a fruitful investment rather than a wasteful expense, one of the first questions you should ask is, Will this training program or seminar help the target participant perform better? If the answer is "no" or "not sure," then you are about to lose your money.

2 Nevertheless, before you can respond to the question with a categorical "yes," your Human Resource Development (HRD) or training staff should have conducted a good Training Needs Analysis (TNA). This is a method of assessing what the target recipient of the program needs in terms of knowledge and skills.

Business System Failure - How a Poor System Caused a Performance Failure - A Case Study By Leon Noone

History

I used to work in a company where stationery was distributed from a central store each week on Wednesday afternoons. If you needed stationery urgently you could receive it almost immediately by making a phone call. But proper approval procedures were always followed. Then management decided that the stationery inventory should be reduced. Our informal but effective system had to be "improved".

The New System

The efficiency experts descended on the company. They decided that the central stationery store couldn't possibly be open every Wednesday afternoon to serve the clients - us. They decreed that stationery should be supplied on order not demand.

Of course, it immediately increased the time involved. You had to prepare and submit a formal requisition as you would for a purchase from an external supplier. Administration guaranteed to supply the stationery "within 14 days".

Impediments

To make sure that we clients co-operated, the experts demanded that all administrative requirements be fulfilled perfectly. For instance, a requisition would be returned - and delayed - if it was undated. It became difficult to get stationery when you needed it. The new system also demanded two weeks' notice for large or special orders. This enabled a keen purchasing clerk to go out and search competitive pricing - a euphemism for "cheapest."

That all sounds pretty good. In reality it was a disaster.

Consequences

The supply of stationery wasn't prompt or complete. The "within 14 days" was ignored. I once had to go out to buy a box of pencils because "the order was late". Special orders were supplied on price alone, with no regard for quality or service.

Bit by bit, other departments found the answer. They started building up their own stationery supplies.

The total company inventory for stationery tripled in 6 months. Under the new system every department, every section, and in some cases, even individual managers over-ordered and kept their own stationery supplies.

The system stopped people from doing the very thing it was initiated to encourage them to do: co-operate with administration to reduce inventory.

Conclusion

In this example the new system was harder to follow than the one it replaced. And it failed to provide the same service level. The consequences were that costs tripled and everyone played "beat the system". Sound familiar?

The Great Management Development Conundrum - Individual Development Vs Workplace Reality By Leon Noone

The Promise

The 20th Century promised success to the conscientious, dedicated, persistent and focussed individual. If you had a "vision" too, your success was just then a matter of time.

Any number of role models were proof positive that the promise was within your grasp. And many of the role models evolved from deprived or at least modest personal circumstances.

The Reality

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with The Promise. It's attractive and realistic. But in the corporate world where most of us dwell, it's incomplete. In the corporation it's simply not enough to be a brilliant individual. The greatest rewards go to the most effective team member.

The Social Manager

Corporations are made up of individuals. But they are all organized into teams. The more successful you are in the corporation, the more your success is dependent on your team effectiveness. A senior manager is a social manager. He or she is a member of a number of teams and the leader of at least one team.

In a large corporation, a senior manager may be a leader or member of teams outside his or her own department and represent their corporation in external terms.

Everyone's Involved

Teams exist for the lowest paid to the highest. Even in an organization of only one person, that person has relationships with customers, suppliers and similar businesses. While no formal team structure exists the person still needs some team membership skills.

The Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills will always be important in the workplace. But they are different to team membership skills. Good interpersonal skills will enhance the use of team membership skills. But they are not the same.

Team Membership Skills

The skills involve negotiating and gaining agreement between team members about

• Team goals


• Team roles and relationships


• Team systems and procedures


• Team participation


• Team changes


• Team rewards


• Team leadership

The organization structure will dictate how well developed the team skills need to be.

Conclusion

The world may be your oyster. You may be able to achieve difficult personal goals. But if you want to succeed in an organization you'll need team leadership and membership skills too. It's not enough to be visionary. You must be able to induce others to join you and allow them to share your vision and commit to it.

We should ensure that this reality is widely recognized.

Small Business Truths - 7 Things The Experts Don't Tell You About Starting & Running A Small Busines By Leon Noone

It's All About Marketing

Marketing is about what prospects and clients think, about their perceptions. You must find a way to have them think of your products or services before they think of those of your competitors. You must discover what's important to them.

Focus is Essential

To be successful in business you must have a crystal clear picture of who your prospect is, your target market. And you need to know exactly what it is you're trying to sell them. You cannot be all things to all people.

Good Systems Create Good Performance

A system is simply the way things happen in your business. Poor systems create major problems. Your people can succeed only with clear systems that they can follow easily. Forget procedures. Concentrate on systems.

Think Like A Manager

Most people who start businesses because they're good at something. That dominates their thinking. Small business management demands management thinking: about the "big picture" and how one thing affects another. Managers lead. They accept responsibility for what happens.

Perception Is Reality

The way people - staff, customers, suppliers, associates - see things is reality to them. Clients' opinions may be unreasonable, illogical, impractical, inaccurate or even stupid. But they're the reality you must deal with. Find out what your prospects and customers perceive they want. Then provide it.

Take Care Who You Listen To

It's easy to be misled by friends - and by experts. Follow what Bill Gates was doing when he employed two people: not what Microsoft does today. Ignore "best practice" unless it's in an extremely successful small business operating in a market similar to yours. Pick the brains of successful small business people not the 'Captains of Industry".

Learn To Observe

If you want to know what experts do and why and how they do it, don't ask. Observe, then ask. There's a mountain of research to show that experts are poor describers and explainers of what they do. This applies to managers and tennis players.

Conclusion

Running a small business is a great adventure. It can be frustrating, demanding, unrewarding and debilitating. When you're successful, it's extraordinarily satisfying. To help you reach that state remember these seven truths.