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In a previous growth tip I wrote about why you should not have an “open door” management policy, and the phenomena known as “reverse delegation.” This is where a team member gets into the habit of coming directly to you with a problem or suggestion and asks, “What do you think we should do?”
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The best thing about my role is that I get to work with a variety of business leaders, many different companies, and a wide range of industries. Reflecting on patterns and trends is something I often do, as I work to develop effective ways of teaching and facilitating research-based best practice to a particular client situation.
It’s almost a cliché in business; Managers saying, “I have an open door policy.” But what does this really mean and what are the implications of this?
When setting business goals, whether they be numerical targets, or the achievement of key milestones in the execution of your chosen strategic projects, it is important to guard against the following common pitfalls:
What are the reasons that some teams reach their goals, while others never seem to fulfill their potential? Successful teams achieve their goals not only because of "who they are", but more often because of “what they do.”
Many of us have heard about the so called “secret” or "law of attraction", and many popular self-help books suggest that merely dreaming, thinking, and willing something to happen can make it so. That is, if we imagine ourselves achieving our goals, it makes them magically happen.
Companies who are highly effective at business execution follow a disciplined hiring methodology. This ensures you only hire “A-Players" for every role in your company, as described in our previous article “No more hiring mistakes". Hiring is too important to get wrong.
Many managers I've met think they're better at communicating than they really are. Communication is hard. It doesn't just happen. It has to be deliberately designed. Here's a couple of suggestions mistakes to avoid, and how to be a better communicator (and therefore a more effective leader):
Looking back over my management career, the worst experiences were without a doubt, having to deal with poorly performing or badly behaving staff members. I remember the stress, anguish, not to mention the loss of sleep thinking about the tough conversations I needed to have.
While there’s much about leadership that remains constant over time, there are profound strategic changes occurring in many industries, and the pace of change is only increasing. Leaders need to display certain attributes to deal with these changes. This growth tip was inspired by an article that featured in the Management Excellence blog.