Demand the best

Somerset Maughan said
"It's a funny thing about life - if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it"

Remember Steven Spielberg who found a deserted trailer at Universal Studio and put his name on the outside! He put his dream into action, he believed in his talent.
Look around at the talent that exists in your team. What they need for you is to stretch them, to make their dream reality, to treat them as talented people......treat people as successful and watch the confidence flow...

Carnival of Leadership Development

Welcome to the April 24, 2007 edition of carnival of leadership development. I would like to thank everybody for supplying such great links. Development is important for growth both personally and financially - hope these help you.

The Engaging Brand presents Environmental Leadership posted at The Engaging Brand

PicktheBrain presents The 5 Types of Books that Increase Intelligence posted at Pick the Brain.

Erek Ostrowski presents Creating a Culture of Productivity and Success posted at Verve Coaching, saying, "When I work with organizations, I focus on helping them create a culture of productivity and success. Here are three areas I go to work on:"

SpiKe presents How To Delegate posted at Organize IT.

Andrew Michaels presents Chasing Arete posted at Lifecrafting, saying, "This article is about improving your life by making the pursuit of excellence an integral part of your life."

Christopher J. Brunner presents What Makes Women Entrepreneurs Different from Men? posted at GreatFX Business Cards, saying, "How women entrepreneurs are different from men in the way they handle and run their own businesses."

Joshua Dorkin presents Don’t Just Teach Your Friends to Make Money Online. Partner with Them! by TimeForBlogging posted at Time For Blogging.

Charles Feldman presents Afraid to Give a Speech? Don’t Be! Take Charge. posted at The Feldman Blog.

Shama Hyder presents From Generic to Best Seller- 5 Steps to Changing your Personal Brand Name posted at SHAMA HYDER. com.

Debra Moorhead presents Keep Moving to Succeed posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
carnival of leadership development
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

How do you at your team?

There is a Zen saying
"To her lover a beautiful woman is a delight,
To a monk a distraction
To a mosquito a good meal."

The learning is that your view is dependent on your beliefs. If you believe there is talent, there is....if you believe your team lacks talent...they will. Why because your team will grow from your confidence in them, they will flourish with your belief in them. Understand your power and use it to bring out the talent in your team.

How to be the greatest

Michael Jordan practiced 3 hours before each game - why? Because he wanted to be the greatest player of all time.

Question for the day - how much time do you spend on both yourself and your team each day on learning and honing the skills that are needed? Leadership and management are skills that need constant learning and practice to be at the top of your game!

It's about the team, teamwork wins

Who is really important in your organisation - EVERYONE!

A little story....

A sea captain and his chief engineer got into an argument about which one was more important to the ship. Finally they decided to swap jobs for a day.

The Chief went up to the bridge and the Captain went down to the engine room. After a few hours, the Captain suddenly appeared o deck, covered with oil and soot.

"Chief!" He yelled, wildly waving a monkey wrench. "You'll have to come down here! I can't make her go!"

"Of course not!" said the chief "We're aground"

Collaborating as a team is vital to any organisation and should be an important value to hold. Teamwork helps us all be the best of the best. We need each other to succeed, value diversity, value each other....

Blog Carnival of Management Tips

I love sharing information, development tips and great thinking so please find below a list of entries for managers to develop their skills. Enjoy!

Dennis presents 20 Questions to Change Your Life posted at A Pile of Coins, saying, "(Re-)evaluate your work-related goals and achievements"

Praveen presents Business Lessons From Goldman Sachs posted at My Simple Trading System.

Charles H. Green presents Seductive Statistics posted at Trust Matters, saying, "The risk of measuring humanness is that you destroy the thing you’re measuring."

David Maister presents A Case Study in Professional Ethics posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, "Real managers have the guts to "take it on the chin" in front of clients for a team mistake, even if a junior is at fault."

Walt presents No Plan B! posted at Walt Nation!.

Sagar Satapathy presents Silence Can Kill (Your Project) posted at Project Management Source.

Anna presents 10 Free Ideas to Develop Your People at The Engaging Brand

Debra Moorhead presents How to Set Clear, Definite Goals posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Podcast Freq presents 6 Podcasting tips for business

That concludes this edition. If you have an article to include then don't forget to submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of management tips using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Carnival of Management Tips

Welcome to the January 26, 2007 edition of carnival of management tips.

Murad Ali presents Companies that are Diverse Earn More Profits posted at The New Business World.

Krishna De presents Google alerts - probably the best free research tool in the world posted at Krishna De, saying, "Discover 10 tips to using Google Alerts to grow your business"

David Maister presents Non-Financial Currencies posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, "When you want to give a raise but you haven't got the budget, here's 15 other ways to reward and motivate people."

Charles H. Green presents Fear and Loathing at the Office posted at Trust Matters, saying, "Does your management style inspire fear and loathing?"

Christopher J. Brunner presents Relating to NBC’s “The Office” posted at The Small Business Buzz,

David presents The 7 Traits of Highly Effective Teams posted at Worldwide Success, saying, "As individuals, we can achieve many commendable goals. However, significant, large accomplishments that have a major impact in a company, a community, or the entire world, can only be achieved with a group of people.


Dragos Roua presents GTD for people living in transition countries posted at eDragonu - choice of a personal path.

Debra Moorhead presents 9 Business Etiquette Faux Pas and How to Avoid Them posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Erek Ostrowski presents Personality vs. Purpose posted at Verve Coaching.

Craig Harper presents 35 tips for creating and maintaining a successful startup posted at Renovate your life with Craig, saying, "At some stage, every successful business was simply an idea floating around in someone's head.

Will Chen presents "Paying Yourself First" Explained in Plain English posted at Wisebread, saying, "A powerful money management technique that will lead you to financial freedom."

Paul Gonzalez presents How to Stop Being Mediocre | The One Year Exit Plan posted at The One Year Exit Plan, saying, "If you want to stop being mediocre, you have to continue to act on the thing you're avoiding the most."

Kevin Henney presents When Business Blogging Goes Wrong posted at Quartz Mountain Weblog, saying, "Business blogging can be a great way to improve communication, but it can have a downside when used incorrectly.

Charles H. Green presents Leading Lawyers posted at Trust Matters, saying, "How can someone who bills 3,300 hours legitimately be described as managing, much less leading, a 550-lawyer firm"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
carnival of management tips
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

What is your success?

Too often we judge our success by others and this can make us feel miserable. Remember to define your own success, don't compare only to your own goals. The key is being true to yourself, true to your values.

Define your success before other's do, this will be much more satisfying.

Also, remember that we are all different and ensure you know how each person in your team defines their own success. Don't assume it is the same as yours....find out by asking, listening and then you can help them create a successful future.

Autonomy is good for employees health

Not sure that autonomy is a good thing?

Well, a John Hopkins study found that workers who have very little input into how they do work are 70% more likely to die from heart disease than workers who CAN input into how they do their work.

Scientific evidence that giving people a little control is a healthy thing to do!

How to support upset and create engagement

The best part of teams is that they are made up of human beings...the worst part of teams is that they are made up of human beings!

The motivation of a team will vary depending on the emotional state of each person, and often it is outside influences that affect people's mind fitness.

If you see someone upset or they come to you, give them some time. First, get away from your desk, show them that you value how they are feeling. Take them for a coffee, get them away from the telephone, e-mails, other people. Maybe even take them off site - I would go for a walk around the block, or go to a local coffee shop.

People say that they haven't got the time, well you haven't got the time for that person not to be productive, not to be in the right mindset, affecting the rest of the team. Imagine if the problem means that this person will leave - imagine the time you would have to invest in replacing that talent??

Your role is to lead people, and valuing their feelings pays huge dividends in the long term through commitment and loyalty.

Seek the Truth for Success

As managers we are often not rational but rationalising and we tend to spend our time proving our point, not finding the truth. The reason... truth sometimes hurts, can sometimes mean that we have to be big enough to see when something is not working, or needs changing. So to be successful,

Seek the truth, rather than prove the point.

Respect will soar for you as a manager.

The Difference between Management and Leadership

A question that I often get asked, and I do feel people do mix up the terms. For instance you often get Team Leaders being managed by a manager!

Here is what my old boss explained it to me about 20 years ago, and I think it still makes sense to me

"Manage today, lead tomorrow"

Or as I sometimes say.....Management is motivating people to get the work done today, leadership is about inspiring people to create the future.

Gifts at Xmas

This is the time of year you go through the agony of wondering what to get your direct reports for Xmas....and end up with the same standard gifts so that you don't offend anyone. Mmmm but does it engage them?

One thought why not get them a gift for their family...to thank the family for their support during the year.....a treat to say thank you for letting mum or dad share their precious time with you. Money is tight with most families at this time so a thank you theatre tickets, films, etc may well be appreciated.

The key thing on gifts is making sure they illustrate your thanks, that you have taken time to think about the relevance to them, and that they too deliver a value to the individual.

Do you REALLY understand your business?

I am a believer in understanding all aspects of the business to be a better manager. Here are some ideas on how I increase both my knowledge and that of the team.

1. Invite other managers to come to team briefings and explain their goals, successes and how they work.
2. Attend other team meetings to explain our goals.
3. Visit one department per month to work through their process, to understand the full supply chain.
4. Arrange at least yearly for senior managers and Executives to walk through the full supply chain so they can see for themselves issues, progress and success.
5. Go to lunch with someone from outside your normal peer or team group.

It is important that you work across the organisation, understanding how an idea becomes purchased by a consumer. It also helps you to contribute more fully at meetings.

Is arrogance affecting you?

A lesson from Napoleon. On the morning of the Battle of Waterloo he said to his generals
"I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunchtime." Mmmm I bet he regretted that one!

With hindsight a little humility would have been great. How often does this happen to you, often without you knowing. Is there something like pride that is clouding your judgement? What are you not seeing? Who are you undervaluing and not giving sufficient attention to?

Managing People - A sentence to remember

Each person has needs and concerns, to be successful in life and at work you need to.......

• You need to answer the first - their needs
• You need to allay the latter - their concerns

Simple but effective personal development.

Boiling Frog Sydrome in Management and Business

I think I heard this from Tom Peters...

If you drop a frog into boiling water it will jump out, drop it in cold water and gently heat, it will boil with it. Inertia kills!

As a manager or leader you must avoid mediocrity, avoid compromise creep which destroys the uniqueness of the product, process or service. Hold a boiling frog meeting each quarter and get people to write on a picture of a frog where they believe complacency is creeping into work, or mediocrity is preventing progress, or drains on motivation. A fun way to get concerns out in the open!

Educating the New Generation

We are aware that our values, behaviours etc are formed during our school years. That is why as a manager and as a company I have always linked with local schools and colleges. I see this as important for the following reasons

1. It builds links with the community which after all will be a key talent pool.
2. It is an investment in the future of business - helping children understand and become passionate about the commercial world.
3. The children act as a great sounding board - they ask you questions that maybe you should be asking yourself.
4. Children talk to their parents - people who are in the current talent pool, so free advertising of your employment brand.
5. The new generation care about society, and your role with the community. Your linkage helps both the Employment Brand and also your personal brand.
6. It is huge fun and very rewarding!

Brainstorming needs Structure to be Successful

To be successful in brainstorming session you need to structure the sessions. Often people think that in order for people to be creative, you need a clean piece of paper. No matter what creative activity you are doing, people need some structure. A totally clean piece of paper can bring fear to the group, a pressure to come up with that world shattering idea.

Unstructured thinking is rarely successful, so there is a fine balance of providing some structure without stifling ideas.

To be successful

1. Send a clear memo outlining the purpose of the session with a clear sentence which outlines the issue, problem or opportunity. This gives people some time to think and prepare for the meeting.
2. At the start of the meeting, read out the sentence. Set out any limitations that are givens, or areas that must be covered.
3. Within those limits, then make everything else available for discussion - write every idea down....don't allow any judgement on an idea, not at this point. Bring
4. Keep checking that you are staying on track to the initial problem or opportunity.
5. Once all ideas have been captured, stop the session.
6. Then set a new session for looking rationally at all the ideas.

Structure brings a sense of purpose, and also separates the creative from the logical thinking.

How Management is Changing

Rene Carayol in Corporate Voodoo says that "Speed will be the legacy of our age" and I think that this is true. Speed is a fact of life and business/life needs you to think on your feet.

We used to be told to Plan, Do, Review - I believe that is changing and is now Act, Review, Learn, Act, Review, Learn etc

That doesn't mean that risks should not be assessed but that you shouldn't be paralysed by the need for analysis. It is easy to amend, or tweak a product or service the key thing is doing something.......