9 Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself When Making Decisions At Work

Build great teamwork fast! I share 6 ways to create great teams quickly. This have been tried and tested with many teams, in top companies and when transforming the performance of the worst team in multiple companies. Most managers lead a group of individuals, not a team. Groups of individuals typically work alongside each other, doing their own work. There is chat but not a lot of in depth discussion, not much collaboration and little joint problem solving. Use these tips to build teamwork in any team, no matter where the level of teamwork is in your team today. ------ The leader or manager is the most effective person in building a great team culture. I share multiple ways to teach teamwork to your team. Each are ways to increase teamwork so you will see a noticeable improvement within weeks. The first of my tips to encourage great teamwork is to show you have the team’s back. Trust is one of the most important currencies managers have with their team. Everything you do in front of your team should be to demonstrate you are trustable and have the best interests of the team at heart (rather than you own). I share 6 actions you can take to build trust quickly – essential in building high performing teams. The next of my tips for great teamwork is to advertise responsibility and accountability.  To build a strong team, each team member needs to know what is expected of them AND what their team members will be covering. Make this clear to each team member and advertise responsibilities across the team. This is the first important step to holding team members accountable. The next of my tips for effective teamwork is to incentivise a lot of communication. Lead from the front. One of the ways to coach teamwork is to demonstrate communication and then help each team member build to build stronger relationships with each team mate. Create the expectation for a lot of talking, discussing and joint work together. Another of the really important activities to build teamwork is to find goals that scream success. Choose goals that have a story, that are relevant to team members and that the team can get behind. Don’t just talk about goals in terms of financial targets. Common shared goals are a key part of team building and essential to build a strong team.  I explain how to start finding valuable goals. How to build a great team at work is a process that any manager can follow. Chances are you have the skills. You just need to know what to do AND work hard in service of the team. If you have any questions on “Build Great Team work Fast – 6 Ways to Create Great Teams Quickly” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training  

Making decisions at work and having good decisions making skills are highly prized by all organisations. I have 9 questions to ask yourself when making decisions at work. These form a framework, a decision making process, that will keep you making GOOD decisions at work.--- --- The first question to ask when making decisions at work is “How much time do I have to make the decision?” With a day, there is lots that you can do and a lot of questions to ask yourself when making decisions. With 5 minutes, the questions you can ask are much more limited. You nearly always have more time to make a decision than you (or the other person) thinks. How to make decisions quickly, in my view, is about following a process, a framework. Following a framework will feel clunky and slow to start with as you learn the steps. After a few weeks, the process will feel very natural. After a few months, you won’t realise you are following it out of habit.  The next of the questions to ask yourself to make great decisions at work is “What specifically is the desired outcome?” Being really clear on what is needed is huge in terms of how to make decisions faster. You also get better decisions. Start asking questions to really understand what the decision you are making or being asked to make is really trying to achieve. Once you have this really clear, everything else in the decision making process will be a lot quicker and easier.  The third of the questions to ask when making decisions is “What is the context of the decision?” The context of the decision will literally change what you decide. Think about authorising a hiring request. In a growing business your decision would be yes. In a struggling company, your decision is very likely to be no.  The fourth question when making decisions is the last of the core questions that you should always ask yourself regardless of the type of decision you are making.  Then I share 5 very valuable questions to ask for the more complex decisions, the ones with larger impacts or those with only bad options to choose from.  The 9th of the questions to ask yourself when making decisions at work is the one missed by many decision makers. Missing this question nearly always causes a lot more problems later on and can be pretty embarrassing. Always ask this question whenever you need to make any significant decision.  If you have any questions on “9 Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself When Making Decisions At Work” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Colesenhance.training

Working with an insecure boss can be very bad news for your development, your happiness at work and your career progress IF you don’t know how to handle the situation. It is easy to find yourself on the end of put downs, criticism, and undermining when you don’t know how to work with an insecure boss.I share 5 actions of insecure managers and then 5 key actions to take to gain the support and trust of an insecure manager.------I take you through 5 actions of insecure leaders. Knowing the signs, you can quickly spot an insecure boss and take action that will improve rather than damage your relationship with your boss. For example, A person’s natural reactions to their boss trying to exert too much control is to push them away and communicate less. This type of reaction makes things worse not better. Another classic action of insecure managers is be overly concerned about what other people think of them. They take decisions and actions for popularity rather than what is best for the team and business. I share other signs your boss is worried by you. These are each signs your boss is intimidated by you in some way. Next, learn about 5 ways for how to work with an insecure manager. These work just as well for how to work with a jealous boss or a boss intimidated by you. When you are working with insecure leaders, the first action is to play to what they need from you. Understand what makes them feel insecure or what actions or language creates a negative reaction in them. With understanding you can then plan tactics to avoid their trigger points while giving them what they need to feel more in control and secure. I share practical tips for what to do and how to use language to keep them feeling safer. Another very important tactic when working with an insecure boss is to position yourself as a ally and not be a rival to them. Again, use all the practical tips I share to achieve this quickly and with confidence. If you have any questions on “5 Actions of Insecure Managers & How to Work with an Insecure Boss”, please email me on [email protected] and I will get back to you.Jess Colesenhance.training

Creating strong ownership in teams is a great step to significantly improve team performance. Team performance defines a manager’s performance and directly impacts a manager’s personal rewards. I share 3 approaches to create strong ownership in teams for great performance in any team.--- --- The first of the stages to create strong ownership in teams is all about responsibilities. If a team member doesn’t take responsibility, you have little chance of they taking ownership. The most important insight to remember – employees will only take ownership if the CHOOSE to. How to create strong ownership in teams starts with creating responsibility. I share my best tips for HOW to create responsibilities in teams - the first stage to create high ownership in teams.The second stage to create high ownership in teams is to build accountability. Creating accountability is undertaking 5 inter-dependant actions, that when put into practice well, will drive strong accountability in any team. I share very practical tips of how to start creating accountability. For example, you can’t hold team members accountable for performance unless they have clear goals and objectives, which they understand.To create more ownership in teams at work first allocate clear responsibilities and then create accountability for those responsibilities. Finally to get your team taking ownership, and creating ownership at work more generally, work on the creating the right environment for ownership to flourish. This absolutely in the control of nearly all leaders and managers in nearly any business. To create high levels of ownership in teams put into practice the 5 actions I discuss. Pretty much every manager is able to work on each of these actions to drive team ownership of work.If you have any questions on “3 Approaches to Create Strong Ownership in Teams for Great Performance”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Colesenhance.training 

Building great decision making skills in teams is brilliant for you personally as a leader or manager. Helping team members with how to build better decision making skills will free up your time to focus on the tougher more challenging decisions. More time on these usually means better results and more interesting work. I share 4 approaches to build great decision making skills in teams.--- ResourcesAccess all our prize winning management expertise for you to stand out from your peers, increase your confidence and credibility and move your management career forward faster! We share a ton of content, e-books, help sheets and more to save you a ton of time while unlocking more of your manager potential. Click the link to find out more about the Management Skills Hubhttps://enhance.training/management-skills-hub-ulp000/--- One of the most important ways to build great decision making skills quickly in a team is to encourage team members to take decisions. Just telling team members or verbally giving permission is rarely enough. Alignment of permission, actions, reactions, safety and skills is required from the manager. How to build great decision making skills starts with making team members feel safe. i.e. no repercussions for making poor decisions through inexperience. If team members don’t feel safe, they simply won’t make decisions. They will pass making decisions onto you. Safety is the first of the steps to build great decision making skills.The next step of how to work on decision making skills in teams is to give them the right decisions to make. No all decisions are the same and breaking down all the different decisions being faced by the whole team and intelligently allocating them is vital to building skills and confidence. How to work on decision making skills with team members depends on their current decision making skills and confidence. The impact of decisions is big psychological factor to consider. The bigger the impact, the harder the decision to make for most people. What help and support available is a big factor. Are the decisions going to be reviewed by more experienced colleagues before being actioned is another big factor. Another way to build great decision making skills in any team is to plan specific activities for individuals and groups to work together on different decisions. Deciding together is often a lot less daunting than deciding alone.Like all skills, how to improve your decision making skills is through practice. How are you going to get your team members practicing the right level of decision making skills for them. I share my best tips and practices for doing just this. Developing team members is a vital leadership skill for manager to be very successful. If you have any questions on “4 Approaches to Build Great Decision Making Skills Quickly in Teams”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Colesenhance.training 

Who likes micromanagement. Next to no-one. Yet nearly everyone has experienced some form of micromanagement. I am sharing 4 tried and tested ways to quickly win over your micromanaging boss. Stop micro management quickly! --- ResourcesAccess all our prize winning management expertise for you to stand out from your peers, increase your confidence and credibility and move your management career forward faster! We share a ton of content, e-books, help sheets and more to save you a ton of time while unlocking more of your manager potential. Click the link to find out more about the Management Skills Hubhttps://enhance.training/management-skills-hub-ulp000/---  Working for a boss that doesn't let you think for yourself is frustrating and career limiting. Turn the situation into one where your boss trusts you and lets you solve problems independently of them by building trust and demonstrating capability. This is great for how to win with micromanaging boss. I have 4 tried and tested ways for how to get a micro managing boss to trust you. Firstly, it is critical to understand exactly what your boss wants from you. Ask for specific and clear goals and expectations. If your boss doesn’t provide these, then create them yourself and get their approval. This is critical for how to survive a micromanager. I share additional vital tips for how to get really valuable goals to your boss.Second, start overcommunicating to your micromanaging boss. Tell them exactly what you are doing and what you plan to do. There are ton of ways that you can do this. The more you communicate, the more you alleviate their fears and insecurities (if relevant) and the more trust you build. Third, when manager that doesn't give you any autonomy and you are overcommunicating and meeting expectations, start educating your boss on how they can get more from you. This is a particularly good approach when your boss has recently become a manager for the first time. If you have a boss that treats you like a robot, the fourth approach is to consistently overdeliver. Doing a good job is only half the battle. To turn performance into trust I share a couple of vital steps too many team members miss out doing. This build trust quickly and reduces micromanagement just as quickly. You absolutely can reduce micromanagement. Take the proactive steps I share, and it will happen faster than you expect. If you have any questions on “4 Ways To Quickly Win Over Your Micromanaging Boss”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training 

I am sharing 6 ways managers should use numbers to get their best team results possible. Using numbers in your communication, your feedback and to analyse will help you boost your team’s performance – between 20% and multiples of current team value. Using numbers every day in your job will transform how well you can do you job as a manager. I share insights and practical tips on how to use numbers very effectively. ---- --- For each for these ways leaders should use numbers to deliver the most value, I touch on how to communicate with numbers to increase team performance and give examples for each. This is not theory but actual practical tips that I have been using for decades in top companies. I explain how to be a better manager and leader using numbers  6 of the ways managers need to use numbers starts with including them in goals and expectations. This may seem obvious yet so many goals I see (when coaching leaders) don’t have any numbers in them. Increasing accountability in teams and individuals in another reason why every manager needs to use numbers. If you have no scale and no way of measuring progress, creating accountability is very hard. Another management skill is using numbers in creating specific useful feedback. The better quality your feedback and the more often you provide it, the quicker your team members and the team overall will improve their performance. Feedback is one of the vital communication skills for managers.Another reason why every manager needs to understand numbers and I would argue – understand financial information – is so they can make better decisions and take better actions. There is not better way than using financial data to ensure your team creates the most profit for a business possible. Finally, using numbers and financial numbers is needed to prioritise the most valuable work for you and your team to do. Finance data is the most comprehensive and accurate way to assess the performance of just about anything.If you have any questions on “6 Ways Managers Should Use Numbers to Get Their Best Team Result”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.Jess Colesenhance.training

Being yourself and managing teams very successfully is not straight forward. I explore how to be authentic at work while still keeping your bosses happy and your team performing. Learn 3 secrets to being yourself and managing teams that will make you stand out from peer and move your career forward a lot faster.  ---- --- Firstly, authentic leaders are held up as great or successful leaders. Why is this the case? How does managing and being authentic impact team performance? Does being yourself and managing others create that big a difference to results? I explore these questions and explain the link between authenticity and team performance. Secondly, what does being yourself and leading or being an authentic leader really mean in today’s workplace. There are a ton of pressures from all directions that work to prevent leadership authenticity. For example, there are the group pressures to conform (present in every group, in every culture). There are the pressures to tow the company line regardless of what you think and value. How do you navigate these and remain authentic? How do you keep your bosses happy while still being yourself? Getting this balance right makes or breaks careers and reputations. Be too much yourself and you lose the trust of bosses. Conform too much and you lose the trust of your team. I explain how to find leadership identity and get the right balance to maintain trust, team performance and career momentum. Successful authentic leaders are brilliant at this.Lastly, to create an authentic leadership style through being yourself at work, you need to build a few things first. Creating leadership authority and leadership integrity takes a bit of time and undertaking the right actions to demonstrate you will improve the group and business. If you have any questions on “3 Secrets To Being Yourself And Managing Teams Very Successfully”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.Jess Colesenhance.training

Being engaging and clear when speaking and presenting to groups increases your influence and impact. Increasing your impact makes these speaking skills for managers a brilliant investment of your time. I share 4 speaking skills for managers, including 7 actions to deliver a clearer more engaging message to any group. ---- ResourcesAccess all our prize winning management expertise for you to stand out from your peers, increase your confidence and credibility and move your management career forward faster! We share a ton of content, e-books, help sheets and more to save you a ton of time while unlocking more of your manager potential. Click the link to find out more about the Management Skills Hubhttps://enhance.training/management-skills-hub-ulp000/----   The first of the speaking skills for leaders is to know your purpose. To build influence and impact you need something from your audience, even it is just understanding. When you know what you want you can structure your messages to get the outcome you are looking for. Essential communication skills for managers.When you articulate your thoughts clearly, you are much more likely to sound confident. Building confidence and conviction about what you are saying is a process which takes a little preparation. Anyone can go through these steps and feel and sound a lot more confident. When you believe, your audience is much more likely to believe. How to communicate clearly and concisely needs structure. Good communication skills for leaders includes knowing how to structure your message for best effect. I share three simple structures anyone can use – each for different types of communication. Message structure is also a big part of how to speak clearly and concisely. Finally, I share 7 actions for how to speak more clearly and concisely in any group setting. How to talk more concisely is a really important communication skills for managers and supervisors. The higher your position, be better at speaking concisely you need to be. If you have any questions on “4 Speaking Skills for Managers - Supercharge Your Influence and Impact”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Colesenhance.training 

If you are not valued by your boss, you want to know about it fast and have a clear plan to quickly change how you are perceived. I am sharing 11 signs you are not valued at work and what to do if any of these signs are what you are experiencing right now.There are plenty of actions you can proactively take that will quickly improve how others value you at work. Take action today! ---- ResourcesAccess all our prize winning management expertise for you to stand out from your peers, increase your confidence and credibility and move your management career forward faster! We share a ton of content, e-books, help sheets and more to save you a ton of time while unlocking more of your manager potential. Click the link to find out more about the Management Skills Hubhttps://enhance.training/management-skills-hub-ulp000/--- How we are valued at work is important for our happiness, our confidence and our wallet. When our bosses value what we do, when we are being valued in the workplace, we are much more likely to:1.      Get more interesting work and projects that are more likely to further develop our skills and experience2.      Be given more responsibility and autonomy3.      Get more development opportunities4.      Gain higher social and professional status at work5.      Be paid more and be promoted more often So when you are not valued by boss, unappreciated by boss or not valued at work, there is a very real personal cost to you. So you know when you might be under valued at work, I go through 11 signs you are unappreciated at work. When you feel undervalued at work, use these as a checklist to confirm if you really are being undervalued or if you are just having a bad day or week.[Also use these as signs you are being pushed out of your job if you are unfortunate enough to be in this position]The most important point to take away if you are feeling unappreciated at work is that there are plenty of actions you can take to CHANGE the situation FAST. Most of these actions very much within your control. Being unappreciated by your boss or unappreciated at work is horrible. We have all been there at least once. I share 5 common mistakes that lead to being undervalued at work. Make sure that you are not making any of these. If you are making one or more of them, you can quickly improve how you are valued by stopping making these mistakes. Finally, when your boss doesnt value you or your feel unappreciated at work – take 5 powerful actions to change perceptions of those around you quickly!If you have any questions on “11 Signs You Are Not Valued At Work Or Not Valued By Your Boss – Change That Now!”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get to you. Jess Colesenhance.training