Anyone who conducted interviews for potential employees knows that after a while you develop your own priorities of what to ask, what to pay attention to and what to look for in the candidate. If I had to pick that ONE thing in the candidate that will put him at the top of the list, outshining everyone else, I would say I’ll choose a person Continue reading
The following situation is not uncommon in most organizations: two people can work on the same line, produce the same product, they went through the same training, and yet, their performance varies significantly. The obvious explanation for this difference in performance is that one person is more talented than the other. The problem with this explanation is Continue reading
Most companies have a clear vision of job-specific skills they need an employee to have in order to perform as expected, and usually put the new employees through dedicated trainings in order for them to acquire those skills: business conduct training, safety instructions, job orientations, job specific skills workshops and so on. But what happens after that? Continue reading
Isn’t it a dream of any company to get on board only those employees who will contribute straight from the first day without the need to invest time and money into teaching them on the job or any kind of dedicated training (that will be a sunk cost in any case, whether the person will stick with the company or not)?
I think this subject deserves its own series of posts, which I’ll tag “Competence training“.
Previously, we’ve talked about providing your team with nourishing energy. However, when not applied properly, energy can bring more harm than good, so it is imperative to understand the principles of its application.
Let’s say you already have a perfect team, the work is progressing to your complete satisfaction and any contingency you encountered was successfully overcome. Does this mean you can relax and leave your team members to their own devices?
No, if you want things to remain as shiny as they are now. Continue reading
Every manager knows that process of resourcing is a never-ending story. Constantly “fighting” for headcount, acquiring approvals, justifying the needs, not to mention recruiting, selection and interviewing are extremely time and effort consuming endeavors. But what if after all this the new team member is unable to find his or her place in the team, cannot “blend in” and deliver what’s expected? Did we somehow mess up the recruiting process? Or maybe it’s something else?Think about your team as a human body, and it all becomes clear. Continue reading
Every team member, in addition to straightforward job specific duties, has additional (and critical) responsibilities in the team, related to his or her personal predisposition. Successful manager has to know how to ensure that all these additional team functions are present by building a customized communication and incentives system for each team member (see more on that under Team Building tag). There are many different typologies for these functions, so feel free to use mine :-). Continue reading
The human body functions based on a very simple principle – every organ has its own job to do, but in case something goes wrong, there is a possibility to divide the lost function between other organs. You break your legs – you can crawl with your hands, someone loses his sight – other senses step up to the task. Because we have such an intricate regulator as our nervous system, we are never completely down even when we are. It creates a clear Responsibility Structure of body organs. Continue reading
There are different approaches to management, but all managers share one simple desire. We all want to succeed in what we do. To be successful, manager will require a strong team to rely on. But what is a Perfect team? I came with a simple concept that helps to define the parameters of such a team and to maximize these parameters. Continue reading
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