The Value of a Great Conference

Every so often employers give their employees the chance to attend conferences as professional development options.  Now, not all conferences are created equal.  Conferences are what you make of them.  Some are brilliant while others can be pretty poor.  It all comes down to you.

1. Keynote speakers.  These are the people that conference organisers invite along to fill the role of superstar.  Look for speakers that are proven and have a track record. 
2. Network, network, network.  Be bold and talk to people.  Approach them before they approach you.  Look for common ground and similar interests.  Ask their opinion on matters.  You never know who you might be sitting next to.
3. Plan ahead.  Think in advance about what you want to get out of the conference.  Write down some objectives and goals for learning.  Then structure your time so that you achieve those goals and can take home something useful.  Read the overviews and biographies of presenters, think of questions beforehand that you can ask.  Just plan.

Conferences can be fun and exciting.  Couple that with the chance to learn and implement new ideas - there you have the perfect professional development opportunity.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/purrr/126597849/)

Amplification

Here is an interesting point that I have been musing on lately - when you are the boss, what you do is amplified in the eyes and ears of your workers.

So how does a manager work knowing this?  Knowing that everything you do is accentuated and overblown by all those under you every time you do something?  This can be quite a daunting thought.

As always here are my thoughts on this topic -

1. Be courageous.  Don't hold back - keep moving forwards.  Let your employees challenge your thinking, your business model and the way you work.  Then they will follow and begin to do the same..
2. Listen first, speak second.  When you listen to others and act upon their ideas and initiatives - everybody wins.  You feel good for having a success and they feel good because you listened to them and made progress.
3. Lead how you want others to follow.  Followers and employees will copy and mirror back to you the behaviors that you engage in.  What behaviors do you want from your employees?  Start acting those behaviors yourself first.

Above all else remember the golden rule- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maurymccown/582178380/)

Team Values Pt 5 - Honesty

“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.”  Spencer Johnson.

When one of the values that underpins and guides your team is honesty then that enables everyone to deal with the issues as they really are.  If someones work is exemplary they should be told so.  If someones work is crap then they need to be told that too.

Honesty as a value does not give free licence to pick on people or to be destructive.  What it does do is allow everyone to say their piece, deal with the issue and move on.

I recommend the Toastmasters method of giving feedback -

• Commend
• Recommend
• Commend

Honesty - it works.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunnyuk/2390099471/)

Team Values Pt 4 - The Creative Team

Want to achieve greater efficiencies and improved workplace performance?

Give your staff the power to -

• Dream about how it could be better,
• Influence their work design, workspace or workflow and ultimately -
• Own the workplace.

How?

• Make time to dream and allow your staff to both imagine and see the future. 
• Let them describe what the most effective workplace would look like.
• Then ask them what they can do as a part of their existing role and with the resources they have to make that dream into a reality.  If they need more resources - guess what?  You just might have to buy them.

Note - this is not just a once off exercise.  Like muscles creativity needs to be stretched and used in order for it to grow.  By creating regular sessions to imagine then creativity will become second nature to the team.  And then the results will ultimately flow.

Here is a link to a great article that will help you in your journey towards unleashing the creativity in your team.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nidriel/208695752/)

Team Values - Pt 1

Knowing why your team exists and why the team exists is important.  It is important because it creates a bond between the team members and it also provides both boundaries and a sense of grounding.

To give the team a sense of unity and working together it is a good idea to create some team values and a philosophy of approach.  Team values provide both the methodology and the core purpose for acting.

Here are a few thoughts on team values -

1. Position.  Values are not rules but a set of guidelines that help team members to understand what is required of them as both an individual and a team member.
2. Performance.  Values help team members know what their performance assessment criteria are.  Team members know the difference between individual performance and team performance.
3. Purpose.  Values help to bond the team toward a single focus and reason for being.  Team members understand why the team exists.
4. Management.  Team values can empower the manager to lead and guide the team.  The combined team sets the values and the manager guides and holds to account each team member to ensure they remain on track.

Tomorrow the when, how and who writes the values.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40383565@N06/4285112117/)

Quote of the Week

"The best asset during inflation is your own earning power.  Anything you do to improve your own talents and make yourself more valuable will get paid off in terms of apropriate real purchasing power.

If you do something well, whether you're a major league baseball player, or if you're a good assisstant, whatever it may be, you are your best asset".

Warren Buffett.

(Quote from: Warren Buffett's Management Secrets;
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samanthasteele/3983047059/in/photostream//)

Human Capital Management

PeopleStreme.com have made this awesome video and posted it onto You Tube.  I have put it here and will add my contribution further down the page.

What value do you place on your work?  What value is placed on you?  Do you rate yourself or not?

Conversely - What value do you place on others work?  What value do you place on others?  How do you measure that value and is that measure relevant or accurate?

Here are a few facts of life as far as organisation's go -

• Size matters.  The bigger the organisation the less they know about you.  What happens is the more layers in an organisation the more removed you will be from the central services.
• Front Line Managers matter! The relationship between you and your direct manager is always the most important relationship you will have.  This is true if you are the cleaner all the way through to if you are a Director of the Board.  You must work with your boss!
• The HR Department matters!  Admitted in most organisations the only time you most people will interact with HR is when they are hired or if they are fired.  But it doesn't have to be that way!  Go out of yur way to meet the staff and make sure they remember who you are (for the right reasons of course).  It pays to make friends and keep them for as long as you can.
• The skills and abilities of your staff matter!  Update them!  Watch your staff.  Learn from them.  Be open to having your staff tell you where they think what sklls they need to work on and develop.  If you disagree you can help steer them in a better direction.  Create an audit or questionaire to work through at appraisal time to help lead and guide your discussions about where peoples skills are at.
• Coaching matters!  The best time to coach someone is when they are reflecting and considering their performance.  If your manager doesn'tdo this for you - tell them or look for another manager.

PunkRockHR posted a great piece on employee engagement a few days ago which ties in nicely with this post.  Head over there and check it out - WARNING: it will provoke a response.

People who are paid to do work will do a better job when they feel valued, understood and have the freedom to do what they have to in a way that makes sense to them (while adding value to the organisation).

ROI = Return On Investment

In business accountants, shareholders and investors apply a range of different measures to assess how well a company or organisation are progressing. The simplest method for calculating a return = Return On Investment.

The basic formula works like this -

• what gains can I make from investing vs. what is it going to cost me to invest?

Most people apply this formula intuitively when spending monies. Some do not. My recommendation for the day is for you to start applying this formula to everything you do during your work day. Try assessing different situations such as -

• Meetings.
• Telephone calls.
• Professional Development.
• Engaging new clients.
• Hiring employees.

Is it worth the cost of your time to engage doing these things? Will you make any gains or investments by doing these or would you be better off delegating the task or contracting it out?

You are most valuable to your organisation completing tasks that create the highest ROI.

Customer Service Lesson

I need to buy a present for my wife for her birthday. I have a pretty good idea of what she likes, so I went to the local jeweller's store.

At the time I was there, I found something I liked but I wasn't prepared to buy it at the time I was there. So what happened?

The salesperson took my details and offered to invite me back to a VIP sale they are having.

I wasn't fobbed off or left to go somewhere else. I was looked after and given an opportunity to return to the store to get a way better deal than the original offer.

Okay the note is basic. But - it is personal, hand written and it means a lot that some one took the time to write to me and followed up on their word. Had they have sent me a flash looking, obvious database letter - I would have ignored it.

Businesses and people in general could learn a lot from this young lady.

Talent - what do you do with it?

Every employee you have and person you know has a particular talent and tons of potential. The key is to figure out - what is that talent and how do you make the most of it?

Talented people generally are on the move (either upwards or sideways) and think they know where they are going. What you need as a manager to do is to provide a balance between untried ambition and actual skill. Provide a balance between new challenges and the development of new skills as well as the refinement and strengthening of current skills. Getting the balance between the two is hard - but the results are also very rewarding both for your business and the person concerned.

The other idea is to make every employee a CEO of something. Make them completely responsible for an idea or project. Give them a budget, authority and the right amount of support to make it happen.

Talented employees also need feedback and reflection time. The reviewing of KPI's and goals is a powerful motivator. Keep the KPI's short and aggressive. By doing this you, the manager, keeps close to the talent and you can gauge their growth. Where growth is quick - you can set higher targets and more complex problems. Where growth is slower - this provides a good time for both you and the talent to catch a breather before proceeding.

Note - not all talent is under 30! Some of the most talented people you have are over 30, settled into their jobs and are quite possibly bored. the mission is to identify them, lure them out of their secure place and unleash their hidden skills on the world!

Time - Keeping Track Of It

What do you do with your time? Do you keep track of what you do and when?

"Track The Time" is a blog dedicated to helping people to place more value on and understand where their time goes. I have linked to them on the sidebar on my homepage if you are interested in looking them up for some ideas.

The NY Times has posted a graphic after surveying a wide number of persons in the US. This is a great graphic and reveals some interesting bits and pieces about human behavior.

For example - 8.50pm is the time when most people are watching TV; People are feeling most religious about 11am; 33% of people are working at 10.50am.

By knowing what we do and when we do it - we can alter our patterns and plan to achieve more with the time that we have available to us.