Swiss Army Knife - Management Lessons Intro.

What is old yet hasn't aged, has hardly changed since it's conception, is an essential item for Boy Scouts and was made popular in a TV program?

After posting a photo of a Swiss Army Knife it got me thinking. Could I use the army knife with it's many tools, facets and quirks as an analogy and an illustration for managers.

The answer? Yes. Yes I can. (LOL)

In order to appreciate the knife we must first understand it's history and where it has come from. Here are some facts about the knife -

• The knife is 125 years old. Great designs, functionality and usefulness make the knife an essential item.


• The knife was originally designed to provide soldiers with - a knife, a can opener, a reamer and a corkscrew. These tools enabled to the soldiers to complete a wide variety of tasks including the assembly of their weapons.


• There are five main variations on the original model.


• MacGyver made the knife glamorous by showing off it's usefulness while trying to get out of many a sticky situation.

So what can we learn/apply so far?

• Usefulness and adaptability lasts. If you are useful and can adapt to different situations - you will always be in hot demand. The ability to apply yourself in arrange of ways is the best trait to have!


• Train and gain competence and expertise in about four or five different areas. Those areas can be overlapping or poles apart. The main thing is to make sure you have a range of skills and not just one skill.


• There are basic skills and competencies that can be carried over across all managers and managerial positions. Find out what those are and work on them.


• Situations that allow you to apply your skills practically is a good thing. MacGyver was always getting himself into sticky situations. What did he do? Every time he went back to basics and used the tools he had to change his situation.

Keep reading the blog as I work my through the basic elements of design and functionality of the knife. Learn with me lessons on management and managing that you can apply now!

Dilbert funny - career's

Frontline Managers

McKinsey have released yet another great piece of research on front line managers and their staffs views on them.

Head over to McKinsey to check it out here.

Here's what they found -

• Most managers don't feel prepared for the role they are in.
• Many managers don't receive training in leadership.
• Most managers do receive training in technical work skills but not in people skills.
• Many managers feel senior management don't understand what they do.

Where there any good points? You need to read between the lines to get to the points about "here's how you could do better". I largely agree with the survey results but I would be interested in thinking about - what are the solutions?

That is a question I will seek to answer over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned as I attempt to develop strategies to help you build your own "everyday managers Swiss army knife".

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.

Time Management That Works

Not enough hours in the day to get everything done?

Try these tips -

• Do all the little jobs first and get them out of the way.
• After you have finished all the little jobs you will find you will have made progress on the medium sized jobs already.
• Put your telephone onto voicemail and wait until you have at least 5 messages before actioning any of them.
• Don't ignore the little box that pops up with new emails - get to any new emails straight away and deal to them!
• Cancel or don't attend meetings that will waste your time.
• Keep your email inbox down to a maximum of 20 emails at any one time.
• Work hard on filing emails that are information only or completely not urgent.

Time management is all about reducing and eliminating the time wasters and focusing on and putting your efforts into the valuable stuff.

The Education Business

How do you define success? Do you use quantitative or qualitative methods of measurement?

There are no definitive answers to this question. In the tertiary education sector this an area that we are constantly working towards understanding better.

In order to be successful education providers need to do the following -

1. Be profitable.
2. Have customers.
3. Have outcomes.

Sound easy enough? It may sound easy but achieving each of these in a balanced way is very, very hard. Lets break it down some more.

1. Be profitable. If we are not making more money than we spend then we will become unsustainable. Simple.


2. Have customers. Who are our customers? Students and people wanting to learn stuff. Stuff that will make them better people and more employable.


3. Have outcomes. When a person has finished learning stuff they want to either have a job or further learning opportunities available to them.

So what types of measure's can we apply to measure these? Quantitative or qualitative?

To be honest - there needs to be a solid mix of both. For those persons who are more sensical and logical they will likely err to the side of money. To the people who are more tuned in to the students then they will be looking for qualitative outcomes.

Neither is right and neither is wrong. It is all about balance. And if an educational organisation decides the qualitative is their priority they put at risk the quality of the experience of the customer. When customers can see quality outcomes - they will pay whatever it takes to be a part of your organisation.

Success - Defined

What is success and how can you measure it? This really short 3 and a half minute presentation will give you some fantastic ideas.

Watch the video - you'll experience the greatest impact within the shortest 3 and a half minutes of your life.

Micro Finance - making a real difference

There are plenty of people in the world who are searching for a breakthrough opportunity to change their lives. They need some funding, some support and some encouragement.

In most parts of the world you can - ask a bank for a loan or seek out an investor.

What about if you live in an under developed country? What then?

How about micro-loans and micro-finance. I personally am a member of Kiva. Kiva is a group of like minded people who lend small amounts of money to people across the globe to help them finance their businesses and to further their opportunities.

I highly recommend that you check it out - Kiva.org

Click here to see someone I have loaned to recently.

And here are some great reads that got me started -

• Hillary Clintons book "Living History"
• Paul Smith and Eric Thurmans book "A Billion Bootstraps".

Communication Lessons

Here is a fantastic post by Seth Godin on communication -

"No More Big Events. Here are some things you can now avoid:

• The annual report
• The annual sales conference
• The big product launch
• The grand opening of a new branch
• Drop dead one-shot negotiation events

The reasons why?"

Head over to Seth's Blog to find out!

Relationship Management

One area that I work on as much as I can when I meet people is trying to leave them with a memory or impression of me that will last.

While I would prefer that the impression would be positive that isn't always the case.

Here are a few things I do -

1. Ask questions about them. What do they like? Where do they live? What work do they do?


2. Find common ground or interests. It is always easier to speak to someone about a subject you know than a subject you don't.


3. Talk about the interest and how it relates to them. People love talking about themselves and more importantly knowing that someone else is taking an interest in them.


4. Treat everyone the same - whether boss or groundsman.

Now this may not appear on the surface to be a great business strategy. And maybe it isn't - but it is an excellent people strategy. Business comes and goes but good relationships last forever.