Management Information |
Take the Easy Route - Delegate
It was 2.30 am. It was cold and dark and I'd been in bed for just a half hour when the phone rang. "Alarm Centre here, are you the keyholder at Balham Store, in a lively(!) south London suburb. Grumpily, I replied in the affirmative. My wife didn't even stir. "The alarm has gone off and will need your attendance - when will you be there?" I told them that it would take me 40 minutes or so. The 45 miles through the empty streets would not take the 90 minutes typical during the morning and evening rush hour. I grudgingly got up and put my clothes on, vaguely aware that I had only been in from the neighbours Christmas party for a short time - and not entirely clear how much I had drunk at all, but it would be close. About 10 minutes into the drive, the car hit a patch of black ice and slid down a 12 foot bank into a field. It was bumpy, but amazingly, nothing was damaged, except for a few scratches. Even I was OK. Indeed, it sobered me up pretty darned quickly. As pure chance would have it, I was in a field where there was a gate about 200 yards away which would get me back onto the road. Quickly, I opened the gate and drove through, up to the Store and did my duty. Over the next three months, I made sure that my recruitment process brought in some key people who would be able to deputise for me. It was no way for me to be, driving in at all hours. That wasn't my role. My role was to manage the business, drive strategy and change and above all, grow profit. I couldn't do that unexpected driving in at all hours. And ending up in a field. And luckily surviving. In that moment I understood the value of delegation and getting a team in, to work right by me with everyone doing what each of us did best. With some of them living nearby. I knew my place. Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com ...helping you, to help your people, to help your business grow...
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
Your Company Without Training - Any Questions? Okay, be honest!Are you guilty of sticking in a few boring videos and calling it training?Do you send in your department heads to deliver a few, rushed, canned presentations and call it orientation?Are you then surprised when your new employees don't live up to your expectations, and your employee turnover numbers keep rising?What if you took the time and money that you spend on employee recruitment and put it into employee training? Would it make a difference? Would it be worth the effort?You Bet it Would!!Take, for instance, The Container Store, who has made the top of Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for the 6th year in a row! In an employee's first year they offer over 241 hours of training, far exceeding the training hours offered by other retail stores. In the next 18 months they are slated to open 5 more stores, creating over 6000 more jobs!More impressively, the retail industry averages 150% employee turnover, but The Container Store averages only 25%!!Learn also, from ACTS Retirement Life Communities, a Continuing Care Retirement Corporation, based in Pennsylvania with additional locations in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Why Management Kills Creativity Ten or so years ago, an international consultant, specializing in employee involvement and team development, published a story relating to workplace communication that is heartwarming and damning at the same time. In 1981, Peter Grazer was working as the project engineer on a construction project to modernize a silicon manufacturing facility in St. Creating Your Own Business Upturn - Powering Business Development We all see it . . Four Employee Behaviors That Can Kill Your Business I found it important to clarify for employees what "deal-breaker" behavior was at my company. These are the things I insisted would not be tolerated and would lead to immediate or ultimate termination, depending on the nature of the infraction of these hard and fast rules. Rules for Running a Meeting As an experienced manager, I can announce without a doubt that the primary reason for lack of effectiveness in the contemporary business world is that people don't follow the rules for running a meeting. Thousands meetings are conducted each day and most of the meeting chairmen have not even heard of the rules for running a meeting. Are You Using the Right Form of Energy? As we near the end of summer, here is a question I have for you, "Are you using the right form of energy to grow your business?" Are you having trouble growing your small business as fast as you want? Are you making all the right moves and still the business just inches forward? Read this article and see if you are using the right form of energy to grow your small business?Head EnergyMy consulting experiences have taught me there are two types of business energy. I call the first type "head energy". The Top 5 Signals That Your Business Is Running You Starting your own business is a great undertaking but running the day-to-day aspects of your business is the true challenge you will face as an entrepreneur. Do you find that the business you started to suit your lifestyle somehow taken over your life and home? If this sounds familiar, then your business is running you. Train Me -- But Follow Through My mechanic has me trained. When I take my car in for an oil change, he places a sticker in the upper left hand corner of my windshield to remind me what date and mileage I should have my next maintenance completed. Five Steps to Better Employee Management Hiring employees is a huge responsibility. Before hiring anyone, be sure to carefully analyze your needs in terms of extra assistance. Mantra for Managers What do organizations look for in a prospective employee with special reference to fresh MBA graduates? The two key assets that an organization looks for is the potential of the individual and ability to pursue his goals in all situations. Every organization expects its team of fresh recruitees to grow into top quality Managers and therefore it is very important to evaluate the potential of the fresh graduate. How Bad Communication Can Hold You Back and How to Break Free of It The reason jobs are often not done right and employees are fired is because of lack of skill. Right? Wrong! Poor communication and ineffective human relations are the major causes. Efficiency Around The Office Nearly every office, be it commercial or home-based, may have areas of inefficiency that can be improved upon. We are not talking sales figures or profit margins or budgets, but inefficient waste and resource management. Get Down With OCP: Evaluating DBA Job Applicants in an OCP World Not long ago, weeding through DBA applicants with a tech interview was a straightforward process. You'd ask candidates 200 or so technical questions. Pitching to Employees The senior flight attendant on the WestJet flight was starting the routine safety talk: the bit about flotation vests and emergency exits that we ignore at the beginning of every flight."If we could have your attention, please, we would appreciate it - in fact we'd be downright shocked," she said. Creativity and Innovation Management - Feasibility Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Organizational Capital in Politics, War, Sports and Business Intangible Corporate Assets such as Organizational Capital, Blue Sky and Brand Name Capital, actually they all have a common thread in my opinion. Here are some thoughts on these issues. Change and Performance - Training May Not Be The Answer Introducing new products or services, bringing new people on board, developing a new process or procedure, installing new equipment, change seems to be the one constant in business today and change always seems to drive a need for training.In conducting training needs analysis at any level, we need to understand that training may not be the solution, at least not the whole solution. Creativity and Innovation - Large Firms Versus Small Firms There is a pervasive assumption that small firms are more creative and innovative than larger firms. That is, they identify problems and generate ideas (creativity) and idea select, develop and commercialise (innovate) those ideas to a greater degree than larger firms. Motivating For Higher Performance Employee motivation is probably the most important single manageable factor for success and profitability of all the facets of specialty store retailing. It is too vital to be handled on a hit or miss basis, depending on the whim or spirit that stirs the store owner or manager from time to time. Top 10 Things NOT To Tell Angel and VC Investors I am not writing this to create a list of things not to say so people can hide the facts or in any way mislead potential investors. On the contrary I personally believe you must be 100% upfront with any potential investors, and even volunteer some weaknesses to be credible. |
home | site map | contact us |