If you want to change others change yourself first.

When trying to make some other person to change the way he/she acts, it is always easier to change ourselves first to show them the way we want to see thing done, or to demonstrate the behavior we want to see. We attract others to change when we first change ourselves.

 The changing process can be stimulated by two ways, the first, by using a persuasive power, in which the use of external sanctions is used to force the individual to change; the second one would be to show that individual that this change will bring benefits for him, as well as for the team or community he is at.

 It is necessary to prove the individuals that a collaborative change process is a better way to go, in which they all try to reach a standard goal, leaving aside their own benefits, but looking for a more common benefit for the all group.

 These changes sometimes will mean to make personal sacrifices, the vision of a collective growth is required as well, and individuals should seek for higher porpoise that theirs. Learn from mistakes is necessary, as well as being able to do what is right, not only because somebody else says so, but because they know that is the best course of action, this will allow the individual to see things in a different way, open the door to new possibilities, and new visions for a common good.

 Doing the right thing and showing other individuals the changes oneself has done to improve itself, will take a hold in other, making the other change in a voluntary way, rather than forcing them to change. Also showing the best you have will encourage others to take action, and follow your steps.

 In short, if you want someone to change, try to do it so by showing that person what the right thing to do is, lead by example and encourage that person to do the same, this will bring personal growth and at the same time will make each person a better person.

Silence is worst than words

When an employee in any organization is not able to speak and express his ideas, the problems he notices will never be fixed, and might be ignored by the management team, having as consequence that these problems become a bigger threat to the employees in the organization.

 Managers need to let know their employees that there won’t be negative consequences when complaining about any problems, at the same time it is necessary to let them know that any feedback they put on the table will be considered and that it will be left forgotten by the management team, this way you will encourage your employees to tell you the problems they perceive and will be willing to give their proposed solutions. The more proposals you have the easier will be to get to a better solution.

 The more you keep your employees quiet the bigger the problems will be. Communication channels are fundamental in any organization, managers need to be willing to receive any type of feedback, negative or positive, and be able to process it in a constructive way, that will allow a grow in the trust among employees.

 Managers also need to let know their employees that they want to hear from them, that they want to hear their concerns and what solutions they propose; this will allow the employees feel in control, and at the same time will create a better work atmosphere.

It’s all about the system

In these difficult economic times, many companies are facing difficult decisions, decisions that include cutting budgets, letting people go and finding creative ways to save money or reduce expenses.

 When the personnel working in the company is well capacitated, and the system in which he works in allows him to develop himself to the point where loyalty to the company persist no matter what, these companies have a lot more easy perspective on how things are going, inclusive in these hard times, because having the support of the employees will generate a better image for the company and the costumers will notice it, and will develop the same loyalty.

 If the company treads his employees as if they were the most important factor in the company, because they are, the success of the company will be given by itself, no matter how big the company is they can always tread their employees in a way that would make them give that extra step to make the company be the best one in the market.

 Training, communication channels, empowerment, are some basic tools that need to be expressed to every employee, to make them feel a part of the purpose of the company will create a bigger commitment from them to make things better.

 Team work plays an important role in this, if you want a successful company, team spirit is a must, they must be able to support each other and be willing to make everybody grow, to make sure everybody is getting the same opportunities, and if not, find ways to solve any existing problem, taking into account the necessities of your employees would allow to make the system work better.

 In short, you employees are the most valuable capital you have in your books, so take care of them because they will take care of you.

No decision making but still have all the responsibility.

Companies can sometimes put so much pressure on an individual that will make them explode and leave, when you give your middle line managers all the responsibilities but at the same time you don’t empower them to make critical decisions when facing problems, it is more that obvious that you are going to have a problem.

 As a general manager sometimes it is easy to set up goals, for the different teams inside the company, but what happens when establishing these limits you go beyond what is a realistic limit? Or when you are not able to account for some technical problems beyond the control of the middle line managers and have as a result not reaching the estimated goals? Are you still going to punish that manager for not being able to reach the goals? What procedure should be taken?

 When you are asking your middle line managers to take care of the production lines, of meeting the established goals, of setting up the way the production line is going to work, in dealing with the problems the employees may have in the company; you need to provide these middle line managers with the right tools to have the job done, other way you are making their job so difficult that it is frustrating, instead of lower employees looking forward to take a similar position you are making them go away from that position.

 When you don’t empower your middle line management to take critical decisions and make them an integral part of the goal achievement, you are letting them know they are not really a part of the team, by ignoring them they never will be willing to take an extra step to make things better for the company.

 At the end this is going to have a cost for the company, any middle line manager leaving will mean that the company is going to have to spend money trying to find a replacement, and this means spending money, money that could be saved if you give the right tools to your middle line managers to do their job.

Layoff?

The present economic situation calls for difficult decisions, companies see the need to look for ways to survive in the current markets, markets that show no sign of getting better, uncertainty is the predominant word in the financial markets, this uncertainty makes some decision even harder, given the constrained financial market, the easiest solution for a lot of companies is lay off the people that has been working for them, and perhaps this is not the best solution.

 When laying off people sometimes you are letting go the best human capital that you have, the rule that the first ones to leave are the last ones that got hired, perhaps is the worst solution you could ever do, a lot of this new people comes with fresh ideas, and it’s not influenced by the bad attitudes that might be present in the company, and sometimes a lot of this new employees left other job offers with the idea that working for this specific company was the right choice, and in the end can turn out to be the worst one.

 There is also the psychological effect that layoffs have in the remaining staff; it can be difficult for some of the employees to see some of the people they considered friends, just to go away with no job and no idea what’s going to happen next, this can lower the morale of the employees and make them wonder who is going to be next. At the same time the public image of the company can be affected, since letting people without a job cannot be seen as a good thing to do from the company.

 There are always different choices, but no matter what, layoff comes as the first choice for everyone, perhaps because is a fast and somehow easy solution, also it doesn’t require to be really creative when implementing, perhaps that’s why a lot of people think about it, because it doesn’t require from them to use their imagination and look for more ways of succeed trough hard times, every leader in the organization has this job, and this job requires to be creative and always look for the best choices for the team.

Put the person before the system

When you are the head of the team, the leader, the person in charge of getting things done, there are basically two ways on how you can get things done, the first one you can use your authority as the head of the team and force everyone in that team or under your command to do things, whatever the activities is, or the second one is via a more friendly approach, as a servant leader, a leader that is there to guide and motivate, that empowers people to do things and be able to take their own decisions.

 The second approach will always bring better results, even in the case of mistaking, there is the capability to learn from mistakes, also when the leader perceives there are some troubles he has the capability to act and help solve the problems. This system also opens the door to trust, by empowering people the leader is trusting they can so the job, and he also has to make sure that he is for them when the questions a raise or when some guidance is necessary.

The right development of trust makes a feeling that everybody is equal in the team; this brings more comfort for the members and creates a better environment in the team. At this point the leader is capable of noticing what are the needs of the team and looks for ways to satisfy these needs, in order for them to perform their job better.

In some cases the operating system within the company may go against the better performance of the team, or in some point affect one or multiple members of the team, here is necessary to look for ways of solving this, perhaps looking for different ways to implement the current system, or if possible making a substantial change in the system, after all, if the system is affecting one team the probability that is affecting another is high.

The leader has to realize that the members of the team trust him, and also trusts that he knows what to do in certain circumstances, given the confidence they have in their leader they will certainly do what the leader says, but it is also very important for the leader to get feedback from the members of the team, a diversity and open dialogue must exist at all times, this would make better decisions, in which every member of the team feels he is a part of such decisions.

Customer Service Data

There are several ways of getting information about the customers that every company has, at the same time there are different variables to be considered when understanding analyzing the customers. The real challenge is what to do with this information and how to use it.

 Many companies develop massive marketing strategies for their customers, looking only at the big numbers and making a massive approach to the customers they have, but there are others that are making a much closer approach to their customers based on the personal information they have about them, trying to understand their specific needs and how to cover them.

 In making this specific approach is necessary the intervention of all personnel involved in the company, this approach means a more dedicated customer service that makes the customers feel special when they deal with the company, in this matter a reward program towards the employees is necessary, they are the face of the company and should be rewarded when they provide an excellent customer service that is going to have as a result that a customer returns more than once.

 Understanding the human nature of the customers is a key factor, they all enjoy better service, and if the company is willing to provide it, the customers will respond by showing loyalty to the company.

 It is not about the money you spend, is about the service you are willing to provide.

Power disease

When a person is in control, usually is able to exercise some kind of power, this power can have some psychological changes in how people behave, among this changes is the idea of a supreme tough, making the individual believe that he is always right, at the same time this individual is able to isolate him or herself from reality, and he achieves this by making his/her closest circle of people from that than will not contradict his ideas or wont disagree with any proposal.

 By closing themselves from an external reality they are able to create one of their own, one that exist only in their imagination, that later on is supported by an illusion of unanimity from the people around them.

 Balance of power is more than a necessity a demand in diverse organizations and work teams, even that there is only one boss, equilibrium is required, be open to hear ideas different or contraries to the ones that the boss has is necessary, this will enable a better discussion and open the door for new alternatives.

 To prevent this power person, it is necessary for the all organization to take action when they start recognizing the problem, this can be done by encouraging values within the organization and encouraging independent thought. Also communication plays an essential role, to provide with feedback, positive or negative, is going to help the group to create a healthy relationship among the members, and also this will minimize the power on only one person.

 This power disease must be avoided, or at the end the company, team members and all involved will have a unlikely end, openness and dialogue must rule in any organization, also good leaders must learn to listen and keep quiet, giving their comments only after everybody has spoken.

Get the evidence before managing

Decisions should be based on evidence, evidence that serves as a back up or reinforcement on the choices you are taking, and at the same time that tells you if this is the right choice, how fit would this choice be for your company, and what kind of results you should expect by taking this decision.

 There are so many managers looking for so many answers, and at the same time, there are a lot of consultants saying they have all the answers, but sometimes the answers provided by consultants are not the right ones, there are so many variables in each company that makes it impossible to set a unique solution for all companies, there is the necessity of research, of a back-up knowledge, of experience.

 In copying what other companies are doing the most you can reach is to be equal as the company you emulating, a perfect imitation, what you should be looking is to be best than the company you are trying to imitate, because when you are able to copy what they are doing they already move up to the next step. The continuous implementation if best practices will have as a result better practices that your competitors.

 The ability to learn while acting is the best tool you can have when trying to implement a new idea, “the attitude of wisdom”, being able to learn how to make a process better, easier to understand and apply, to get the idea of what really works and use it.

 It is important to consider the organization as an unfinished prototype, there is always room for improvement, and there are always new techniques to be applied. The company can and will provide new information and this will be the best evidence of what needs to be done to improve the company. In this trend it is necessary to note that the attitude of wisdom is required among the company employees, they need to feel the need to learn from their mistakes and wonder what else is there to learn, how they can improve.

Don’t believe everything they tell you!!!!

Some people claim to have the magic formula for leadership, they say their method is the best way to do things, or perhaps that they offer the newest innovation in managing employees and at the same time get the best performance from them. But the truth is that you have to be really skeptical to this formulas, you need to check the basis for this new methods, are they real?, Do they have real good basis? Or are they just saying something I want to hear?.

 Sometimes in trying to implement new ideas it is necessary to get external help, this with the idea to get a new perspective on how things are being done, and to find new ways to do things. Unfortunately in looking for an outside perspective we found just “advisors” that tell us things we already know but I a way that sounds better, but they never give us a real solution to the problem, they only give suggestions, suggestions one as manager already had in mind but wasn’t brave enough to implement them.

 There are also new “tendencies” for management, new ideas or concepts that claim to be the new trend, and sometimes they indeed represent new ways of doing things, but a lot of times the problem with this new ideas is the theoretical basis behind them, before applying all this new ideas it is very reasonable to take a look at the background and look for flaws, this is a very reasonable idea if you are to implement this new idea, especially if this is going to represent a cost to your company, the questions should be, is it going to help me improve my company?, Am I going to be able to see the right results?, Is there an empirical basis backing up this new idea?, Is it really fit for my company? Does it feel right to take this direction?

 Applying new management ideas is not easy, and you have to be careful when you do apply them and communicate the right idea to your employees, make them feel this is the right path to take and make them feel part of the decision, that way everybody wins, and I think that is the idea of the game.