Project Management (Creating new Products or Services) 3 страница

Advice for managers

1 You must motivate your staff by acting positively on their creative new ideas about change.

2 Use continuous change process, stimulate staff and avoid stale ideas and work patterns.

3 Understand that resistance to change is a common normal reaction to new situations.

4 Show staff how they will gain individually from changed work-patterns that are necessary.

5 Involve as many employees as possible in producing strategies and plans for change.

6 Tackle key-role-staff resistance as early as possible because change can block change

7 Identify “ change agents ” such as:

a) Employees capable thinking laterally; b) Employees driven to improve and transform the organisation; c) Employees who are strong and emotionally in control; e) Employees who can think forcefully and independently; f) and employees who can create new frames of reference.

Employ these “ change agents ” to assist you in lobbying for the introduction of change; they can also help you to use all other members of staff in implementing the change process.

Assessing and Rewarding Employees.

Staff are employed to deliver results for your company and their pay rates and success are intrinsically linked to how they are managed, reviewed, rewarded and trusted by management. When choosing methods for assessing your staffs’ performance, always make sure that the end results have positive effect on motivation and they increase employees’ sense of self-worth.

Keep in mind that staff assessment, appraisal and rewards are methods of communicating with your employees; they can raise or drop staff morale, motivation and enthusiasm to work for you.

International Cultural Different Attitudes to Staff Appraisals

The British have formal appraisal systems but they are often lax in administering them. The French and Germans set high standards and expect compliance. In Asia, group performance is rated above individual action, whereas Americans are motivated to achieve personal targets. You should be aware of these cultural differences because business is now a global activity.

Advice for managers

1 Targets for review must be set at realistic, measurable, time limited and achievable levels.

2 Begin staff appraisals by concentrating on what a person has done well.

3 An appraisal should leave staff feeling motivated and happy about their work.

4 If staff fail to meet targets then find out together what can be done to improve performance.

a) Understand what personal attributes work together with successful work behaviour.

b) If a member of staff fails to meet targets, ask yourself the following questions:

i) Were the targets understood clearly by the staff member but the objectives too difficult?

ii) Were the targets understood clearly but the objectives inappropriate?

iii) Was the failure to meet target objectives due to causes within the staff’s control?

Answers to these questions will help you and your staff member to devise appropriate future targets to enhance company performance and growth.

Staff Personal Positive and Negative Attributes during Appraisal. 61

Positive Staff AttributesNegative Staff Attributes.

Enjoys uncertainty Expects certainty

Asks questions Accepts what he/she is told

Tolerates ambiguity Dislikes ambiguity

Looks for alternatives Ignores conflicting evidence

Is self-critical Is impulsive

Seeks and weighs evidence Values “ gut ” feelings

Reflects on matters Uses either/or thinking (may be)

Communicates effectively Is unresponsive

Is willing Is reluctant to take new tasks

Gets on well with other staff Is unpopular with staff

Uses initiative Is not proactive

Can work without supervision Requires constant supervision

Is flexible Is not adaptable

Avoid using staff appraisal meeting to criticise and dwell on the faults; however you should not avoid giving constructive criticism where it is necessary.

Promoting Staff in your Organisation. 62.

Promoting Staff into new jobs communicates that you recognise their achievements and that you encouraging them to achieve further success. Rewarding exceptional performance also inspires their colleagues to improve their contribution in the work-place.

However, not all employees are capable in any organisation. Therefore, you need to find out what each member of staff is capable using the following format:

(Will do and Can do) Staff type: This is staff member who demonstrates the standard of work behaviour that you always expect, and is a perfect candidate for promotion.

(Will do but Can’t Do) Staff type: This is a willing staff member who experiences difficulties but will respond positively to training and encouragement.

(Won’t Do but Can Do) Staff type: This is an unmotivated staff member who is in danger of losing his or her job unless motivation can be raised.

(Won’t do and Can’t Do) Staff typr: This is an incompetent staff member who is unwilling to improve and should obviously not be retained in the company.

Promote the staff with Will Do and Can Do staff type attitude and ensure that all everyone knows the reasons why she/he has been promoted.

Tips for managers

1 Encourage your staff to set their own high targets for performance for specific limited times.

2 Prepare an accurate job description and job specification for the new and promotion jobs.

3 Let others know why you have chosen that particular person for the promotion.

4 Dismiss staff only as a last resort and never dismiss anyone just to set an example to others.

5 Be as generous as possible with severance payments to the dismissed person.

Turning Failure To Success

Whenever a business is a failure you must always first consider whether the failure can be turned into success, but be satisfied that the extra effort put in will not be a waste of time. Therefore, if there is a reasonable chance of saving your business, you should take it. This is an example of the Can Do and Will Do attitude of the manager.

In the same manner, if an employee fails on a particular project, you need to discuss and analyse the failure carefully to see if the failure can be turned into success. Your conclusion will determine how best to proceed with the situation and prevent future failures.

Table for Dealing with Failure or Poor Performance

FAILURE FACTORS	REMEDIAL ACTION
Demotivation:This staff member has no motivation to achieve in her/his work.	Tackle her/him immediately and find out the reasons and initiate planned improvement
Lack of Skills: This worker cannot cope with technical demands of the job.	Identify lacking skills, arrange training ASAP and assign someone with skills to the task
Procrastinating:This employee always finds reasons for not getting on with work.	Break down the job into manageable parts, do not let the worker stretch the time required, provide hands-on-help to get the job done
Absenteeism: This worker doesn’t come to work gives reasons and dodges responsibility.	Point out the effects absenteeism, ensure employee feels as an important team-member, consider flexible work schemme
Habitual lateness:This worker is always late and always has an excuse syndrome of (learned –helplessness).	Let the worker know you are not interested in excuses but solutions, counsel the worker and apply peer pressure from team members.
Personal Problems: This worker allows personal problems affect her/his work.	Concentrate on workers’ performance not problems, consider giving sick leave or reassigning duties, advise employee to seek professional help.

These remedies should always be sought before sacking an employee because recruitment and selection, interviewing, appointing, induction and training of new staff are more costly for an organisation than in-house remedial action.

Tips for the manager

1 Think before giving up a business project or an employee because giving up is irreversible.

2 On the other hand, you should consider cutting your losses rather carrying on in vague hope.

3 There is usually a good reason why a business project or employee is not performing well.

Remunerating (Paying Employees) Effectively

The simplest notion of remuneration is to pay employees agreed sums of money at the end of a week, month or fixes period. Another form of payment is called “ Payment by Results ” (PBR) or piece work where an employee gets a fixed sum for each unit of work competed. In theory, PBR gives the employee the best incentive to maximise output and earnings based on the principle of “ more pay for more production ”. A second principle is to “ constantly revise any kind of pay system to ensure that you are not overpaying or underpaying your staff ”.

Tips for managers

1 Always involve your employees in pay schemme revisions.

2 Always make it clear to your staff that extra pay is for special achievement.

3 If you have a bonus system, let team members decide how bonus payment is divided.

4 Regard bonus payments as the employees’ share in the company’s success.

5 Non-cash incentives, fringe benefits have powerful influence on attitudes to improve results.

5 Use share schemes to reward employees for contributing to the company success.

6 Surprise employees with gifts-trays that they do not expect.

7 Remember that giving employees incentives of any kind sends a very positive signal.

8 Make welfare provisions for employees are as generous as possible

9 Abolish status symbols that act in divisive messages of “ them and us ” manner.

To assess effective Remuneration of Employees ask Yourself the Following Questions;

a) Have I ensured that rewards I have given are what employees really want?

b) Am I acting to align the staff’s interests with the goals and needs of the organisation?

c) Do I always reward achievement and ability in preference to seniority?

d) Have I examined all the possible ways of rewarding my staff?

Creating Partnerships with your Workers

When workers feel that their own success and that of the company are linked, they will be motivated to give their personal best for the good of the company. You should value the opinions of staff as company partners and treat them with the care you give to customers.

Therefore you should:

i) Enable your staff to understand the business as a whole entity.

ii) Involve your staff in decision making as much as possible.

iii) Encourage your staff to find colleagues to closely work with.

iv) Don’t keep secrets that can safely be shared among staff.

v) Don’t leave staff in doubt about future organisational plans

vi) Don’t treat employees as cogs in a machine.

Individually Assess your Management Abilities. 72

Effective Leadership

The key to truly effective leadership lies in mastering a wide range of skills from implementing business strategies, administering the process and inspiring employees to achieve excellence.

Excellent leaders are born as well made, but to be the best you should also learn the essential skills of leadership through formal training courses as well as on-the job-experience. The aim of leadership is to help others to achieve their personal best. This involves setting high but realistic performance goals for yourself, your staff and finding ways to improve operations and procedures to strive for Total Quality Management in all areas of your organisation.

Improving Standards and Quality in your Organisation

TARGETED STANDARDS LEVELS	HOW TO ACHIEVE THEM
Leadership: Lead your team towards total quality management by constantly improving every process and project.	Ensure that all staff strive towards continuous improvement in all aspects of performance and recognise and appreciate individuals for the success of their efforts.
Strategy: Seek to develop business strategy and vision, uphold organisation vision mission statement and direction.	Determine business objectives; aim to reach the highest quality standards; communicate aims clearly to everyone; review and update your business strategy aims regularly.
People: Ensure effective staff management motivation and empower staff to continuously improve performance	Train all staff in the skills and capabilities they need to meet quality standards targets and practise two-way communication, top-down and bottom-up through available media.
Resources: Use financial and other resources efficiently to achieve the organisations’ objectives.	Ensure efficient financial control, ensure everyone understands what is happening, and consistently use the best up dated technology.
Processes: Ensure that all vital business processes including management systems are consistently highly effective.	Develop performance measures and feedback channels, maintain improvement momentum, and stimulate staff to formulate, innovate and create ideas to company operations.

Tips for managers

1 Always strive to preach top quality and to practise improvement to your staff.

2 Ensure that you involve all staff in quality promotion and maintenance schemmes.

3 Maintain a culture of exceeding standards as a going work philosophy of your company

Learning from Others

Do you know that every successful singer has a singing coach; it is the same for leaders, they must have leaders who coach them and then they develop those skills to coach others?

Tips for managers

1 Take advantage of colleagues’ expertise in specific areas to broaden your own skills.

2 Always be on the look-out for chances to learn valuable lessons from others.

3 Take a refresher course if you feel you need to brush up on rusty or out-dated skills.

4 Use coaching sessions to learn as well as to teach.

5 Set an example to your staff by attending training courses yourself.

6 Learn new skills and develop existing ones, use your knowledge for the benefit of others.

Gaining Experience

In the past promotion to leadership positions used to depend on rising up the company hierarchy. Now project work is the shortest and the surest way of gaining valuable experience and avoid the catch 22 situation of NO job no Experience, and No experience No job in which many young university leavers and aspiring young managers find themselves.

Tips for gaining Valuable Experience. 84

1 Use project-work as a way to learn more about other business management skills.

2 Make friends with people in different departments and get to know how they operate.

Skills that can be learned through project work are:

a) How to approach a project;

b) How to communicate objectives;

c) Where to acquire and get resources;

d) How to put resources to best use;

e) How to liaise with other departments;

f) How to negotiate deals successfully;

g) How to monitor performance;

h) How to trouble-shoot problems;

d) How to achieve project goals.

If you replace the word Business for the word Project on the above list you will see that you have learnt how to manage different business activities.

Mastering Different Business Roles

Leadership is a multi-dimensional task requiring wide knowledge and understanding of many organisational goals, roles and possession of efficient skills of handling people in different circumstances.

You should realise that a Leaders’ role differs significantly from that of Manager.

A manager focuses on implementing specific tasks and motivating staff to achieve short term goals.

A leader focuses on long-term strategies identifying and directing wider organisational goals which are then reduced to short term goals to be dealt with by manager.

Types of Leaders

First of all you must decide what type of leader you are. Are you the “ Man on Horseback ” which is a military model of leader, or are you the “ First among Equals ” “ Primus inter Pares ” type of a leader which is a collegiate model of leadership? The collegiate model is increasingly winning in modern business leadership styles because it promotes a sense of togetherness and unity and promotes motivation within an organisation. Working with genuine colleagues demands the same behaviour from everyone whether you are the leader or not, it encourages respect from expertise rather than seniority, rank or authority.

The First among Equals type of leadership is formalised in German business circles, where the chief executive is called the [(man) Spokesperson] of the management board.

This approach is spreading in the world because many minds are more powerful than a single mind. In this model of leadership a pool of shared talent is created and an environment of open total communication exists where all staff are consulted before important decisions are taken

As a collegiate leader you do not engage in internal politics, but you focus on what will achieve the organisations’ goals and objectives, because everyone benefits from a job well done. If colleagues seriously disagree about something, you as the leader, should intervene to discover and resolve the disagreement.

Tips for collegiate leadership

1 Always be ready to allow others to take lead when that is appropriate.

2 Remember, everyone in an organisation or team can think differently about the same idea.

3 Always seek to defuse emotions before tackling conflicts between staff.

4 Be fair, don’t treat everyone the same, but treat them the way they deserve to be treated.

5 Make decisions quickly if that is possible, and act on advice and follow the stages below:

a) Identify the objectives of any decision you make; c) analyse all relevant factors; d) consider alternatives; e) select and plan the best option; f) implement the decision and; g) evaluate the results.

LEADER’S TASKS MANAGER’S TASKS. 86

To administer the organisation.	To implement tasks.
To originate ideas for the organisation.	To copy ideas and implement them.
To develop strategies for the organisation.	To maintain momentum of production.
To inspire trust in the employees.	To control and manage the organisation.
To think long term about the organisation.	To think short term on company goals.
To ask what and why organisational questions.	To ask how and when company questions.
To watch the organisation business horizon.	To watch the bottom-line for the company.
To challenge the organisation status quo.	To accept the status quo of the organisation.
To be originalin thinking.	To become a good soldier and follow orders.
To do the right thing for the organisation	To do things right and correctly.

However, in real life both roles sometimes can merge and are common to both managers and leaders. The difference between them is on the emphasis of scope tasks which distinguish the roles.

As a leader you must:

1 Think carefully about the best way to behave in every situation.

2 Concentrate on getting things done and not showing that you the one in charge.

3 Be creative, devising processes, streamlining activities, increasing company efficiency.

4 Use more face to face communication than memos and circulars.

5 Keep open channels of communication with inter-dependent departments.

6 Keep a checklist of key leadership duties and ensure they are fulfilled.

7 Always look beyond the detail and consider the bigger picture. (Think outside the Box).

8 Always embrace the phenomenon of change as a leader.

9 The greater your expertise the more authority you will have. (Always widen your expertise).

Ask your self the following questions about your leadership qualities:

i) Do I communicate directly with my team and other departments?

ii) Am I sure that every member of my team understands their roles?

iii) Am I setting sufficiently ambitious goals for myself and my staff?

iv) Do I have in-place procedures that allow me to monitor my teams’ progress?

v) Am I constantly looking for new ways to improve efficiency and productivity?

EVALUATING KEY LEADERSHIP ROLES

KEY LEADERSHIP ROLES	HOW TO FULFIL THEM
Expert: For in-depth understanding of the industry in which the organisation operates.	Strive for the best possible image, increase your knowledge in your specific field, use your expertise to improve technological strengths in key areas of the organisation.
Administrator: Ensures the smooth running of organisation operations.	Cut down on paper work and devise systems of to increase efficiency, set rules, systems, boundaries, and values in order to ensure effective control.
People Person: Make sure that staff and their training are a top priority, that their needs are met, their ambitions fulfilled.	Believe and act on the principle that success flows from the effective management of others, Seek to develop a climate of openness, work equally for everybody.
Strategist:Think long term and look to the future of the organisation.	Always ensure that you plan ahead, devise strategies and goals for the future, Concentrate systematically on where the organisation needs to get to in future.
Change Agent: Uses your knowledge of the importance immanence of change as key to organisational progress and advancement.	Be adventurous, focus on endeavour, enterprise and initiative rather than control, Seek to lead the process of change, actively encourage the generation of new ideas.

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Developing Your Personal Strengths as a Leader

You cannot hope to achieve without the self confidence to take risks which you should carefully calculate and ensure that risks are acceptable. Facing up to your own mistakes and weaknesses is the first step towards eliminating them and raising your leadership ability. Remember that leadership success means GETTING OTHERS to work with you and for you productively.

Tips for Developing Leadership Strengths

1 Always work on your strengths and build them.

2 Put all your ambitions on a piece of paper to help you to remember and realise them.

3 Never accept that you cannot correct or cure your weakness.

DEVELOPING AND BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL STRENGHTS

PERSONAL STRENGHTS	HOW TO DEVELOP PERSINAL STRENGTHS
Drive or Energy is the ability to put maximum mental and physical effort in order to reach your objectives and to keep on going until the objectives are achieved	Keep physically fit, join a gym or take up competitive sport. Constantly work through lists of tasks and ensure their completion.
Self-confidence is your ability to carry out self-appointed and other tasks to your own satisfaction and that of your colleagues.	Learn to calculate and accept moderate risks. Review your work at frequent intervals comparing plans with outcomes.
Money Management is the ability how read balance sheets, draw up budgets and accounts and to track paths to higher profits	Get good training in basic finance if necessary Always work out in detail the financial consequences of plans and decisions.
Managing People refers to understanding how to get the best from your staff and encouraging them to use their initiative to achieve better results.	Ask for feedback regularly from your seniors, peers and subordinates. Learn to look at situations through the eyes of others
Goal-setting means knowing how to set achievable targets that are high enough to stimulate exceptional effort	Bench-mark organisations with your own organisation and other industries to see where and what improvements can be made.
Self-determination is the belief your destiny and that of the business is in your own hands	Form long and short range goals for yourself and the organisation. Put your goals down on paper with plans for implementation
Self-evaluation is the ability to recognise and learn from you own mistakes, failures and to correct them while analysing the lessons you have learnt from them	Conduct regular honest examinations of your recent decisions and actions. If you discover any weakness draw plans to rectify them
Competitiveness refers to your will to win and take defeat as a challenge not a disaster, and the pursuit of high personal standards.	Take every opportunity to study successful businesses and individuals; and adopt, adapt and apply the techniques or qualities that make them successful.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16