Managing Effort or Outcomes. Improve Your Management Approach

Managing effort or managing outcomes – which is best? Get it right and you get a ton of benefits – better team performance, happier staff, more time plus more. Get this right more than you peers, and you will enjoy better team performance, better pay and bonuses, higher status and more.  Get it wrong and team performance suffers, you have unmotivated staff and you have a lot less time available personally.  I share 7 factor and approaches to maximise the benefits you get from getting a better balance between focusing on effort or outcomes. The best managers get it right by considering each of these 7 factors. --- ---  What to focus on - managing activity or results – is not always easy. It can even harder when it you struggle in measuring activity or results. You can’t manage what you can’t measure.  I start by explaining exactly what we mean when we talk about managing activity or managing effort. This is when a manager focuses on managing each step in a series of steps to get an end desired result. One extreme of this is micro-managing.  Then I explain the difference between managing effort and managing results. This will help you focus on activity or results, or get a better balance between the two for everything you and your team does at work.  Why results matter more than activity comes down to results are end result of a lot of activity. If the results are good, the activity to get those results is very likely to be good too. Good activity doesn’t always give you good results.  Finally, I take you through 7 factors you should consider every day in deciding about what balance you strike between managing effort or outcomes. There is rarely a right or wrong answer. There is certainly better or worse in terms of creating great team performance and impressive results.  If you have any questions on “Managing Effort or Outcomes. How The Best Managers Get It Right”, please email me at support:enhance.training and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

Having better work relationships makes being at work a lot nicer, more enjoyable and certainly a lot more rewarding. I share 5 tips to have better work relationships, to increase your likeability, confidence and influence. Take actions today to create better work relationships! --- ---  The first action to build better relationships at work is to think about other people and not yourself. We all have very busy lives and spend a lot of time focused on ourselves. You cannot think only about yourself for how to create positive relationships at work. To build great relationships at work, focus on those around for at least part of your day. I share tips on exactly how to build relationships at work when you don’t know the other person at all.  The next action for how to have great relationships at work is to make it easy for others to work alongside you. Some people you would work alongside all day, others 5 minutes is too much. What creates the difference. I share 10+ tips on how to build professional relationships at work.  Next, to build better work relationships, focus on making sure you are not dragging down your colleagues and making their life harder. This is really important in any group setting to create the best conditions for others to like you and want to work with you.  Fourth, doing this action is absolutely brilliant for how to have great relationships at work. I have used this action all my career and it builds great work relationships, a lot of respect, a lot of influence and a lot of appreciation. If you take no other actions, take this one.  Lastly, to build and maintain relationships at work, show your interest in and appreciation of coworkers, colleagues and bosses by taking this vital action. When you are a leader or manager, you must take this action every day to enable you to do a great job with you team.  If you have any questions or comments about “5 Tips To Have Better Relationships At Work For Likeability, Confidence & Influence”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

Deliver what you promise at work, and you will probably be happy and very successful in whatever career you choose. I share 4 vital stages to beating expectations, week after week. Beat expectations and you build a ton of trust, colleagues want to work with you, bosses appreciate you and you get the best tasks and projects to work on. ---- ---  Before you set expectations to beat, take time to mentally plan out how you will deliver what you are being asked. Don’t say yes until you have done this or you make setting expectations at work ten times harder. When you know what you can and can’t do, THEN you can start negotiating. If you do this stage after saying yes, you are going to look bad and have to go back to the other person. Be very careful what you agree to so you can set expectations you can meet. In my experience, bosses prefer to be sure a person can deliver what they agree when they agree it compared to a person than just says yes. Bosses expect some questions and some level of negotiation. This is the sign of a person good at managing expectations and who will action what you promise. Another key stage to set expectations you can beat is negotiating on resources alongside the goals or expectations. Don’t do this stage later. If you don’t have the right resources, the work will take longer and will be harder to do. Get the right resources or the best resources you can from the start. I share tips for how to do this. Finally, the best workers and managers ask for assistance and help. From co-workers. From managers. From people who are better than they are at x. Playing to strengths is what makes them so effective at their jobs. I share how they create the goodwill and trust to enable them to ask for help and assistance so effectively. Always do what you promise. If you have any questions on “Deliver What You Promise – 4 Vital Stages To Beating Expectations”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training 

Stop being nice at work. Managers cannot be nice and still increase performance personally and of their team. I explain what managers should do instead and take you through 7 actions to stop being nice at work will helping improve team performance.  --- --- Leaders and managers cant be nice and lead a team effectively. There are so many difficult decisions and situation where being nice is detrimental to you and your team. There are a ton of problems with being too nice at work for anyone:1.      You get swamped with work you can’t possibly deliver2.      You are seen as a walk over and people take advantage of you3.      Respect, appreciation and authority are drastically reduced4.      Your ability to your job is a lot lower (for pretty much any position)I share some of the classic signs of being too nice at work and explain why they cause you (and your team) such big problems. Stop being too nice at work. Being very nice to others does not actually win you more people who like you. In my experience, it creates the opposite effect because you are not being genuine and honest and people sense this. People don’t like those they don’t trust and know. This is also the problem with being too nice at work – being too nice is harmful. I then share 7 actions you should take (particularly as a leader or manager) at work to stop being too nice and position yourself to do a better job and/or increase team performance. Be fair not nice at work. Stop being too nice to people.If you have any questions on “Stop Being Nice At Work – Managers Cant Be Nice & Increase Performance” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Colesenhance.training

Losing your job is very traumatic and very stressful, not to mention painful for your bank balance. I share 14 signs you are losing your job to look out for. I also share 10 actions you should take especially if you see signs you may be fired. Taking these actions will improve your job security --- --- Firstly, I list out 10 signs you may be losing your job due to your personal approach or performance. Looking out for these signs enables you to take action to stop being pushed out of a job. Don’t ignore these signs you are being pushed out. These signs you are being pushed out of your job also give you indications if your bosses are not happy with you or thinking poorly of you. Being fired is a very unpleasant experience. Next are listed 4 signs you are going to lose your job due to issues within the company – for example cost cutting. It is harder to take effective proactive actions to avoid losing a job in these circumstances. If you are in the top 50% of employees in terms of performance and attitude, you are generally a lot less likely to lose your job. Finally, if you ever see signs you are going to lose your job, knowing what to do to prevent it, is really important. The 10 actions I suggest you take significantly improve job security at any point. I suggest you put each action into practice throughout your career. Each action has worked very well for me, both in terms of increasing my job security but also in terms of getting promotions and advancing my career. If you have any questions on “14 Signs You Are Losing Your Job + 10 Actions To Increase Job Security”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Colesenhance.training

Messing up at work or making mistakes at work happens to us all. We all want to avoid making big mistakes at work. What is really important is what we do after making errors at work. I share the 5 best actions after messing up at work or making mistakes at work. Create confidence and trust and get lot of help to rectify any mistakes. These are the best ways for recovering from making mistakes at work. --- ---  It is always a good idea to make less mistakes at work or the ensure the impact of your mistakes is small. Keeping your mistakes small will stop you screwing up at work. Is share 4 really good practical actions you can take to stop making mistakes at work.  When you can’t avoid making mistakes at work, it is really important to reduce the impact of the mistakes that you make. I have made a ton of mistakes at work and they have not hurt my career success. In fact, they have contributed to my success BECAUSE I have worked to keep the impacts small AND I have tried to learn.  Don’t have a fear of mistakes at work or be afraid of making mistakes at work. Take these 5 best actions after messing up at work.  When you make a mistake at work be responsible for that mistake. Work to fix the mistake or create a solution to fix the mistake. Also own up to the making the mistake. This means you are likely to make a lot less mistakes in the long run and build trust and willingness in others to help you fix any mistakes.  When you make a big mistake at work always communicate that mistake quickly to any others affected and potentially your boss. This enables others to help reduce the impact and it prevents the size of the impact of your mistake growing.  Finally, cultivate a growth mindset so that you learn as quickly as possible to avoid making the same or similar mistakes again.  If you have any questions on “The 5 Best Actions After Messing Up At Work Or Making Mistakes At Work”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

 Are you making one or more of the 4 worst mistakes managers make with difficult employees? I share the 4 worse mistakes managers make when handling challenging staff so you can avoid making them.  Learning how to manage difficult employees is one of the most critical skillsets to build to have a very successful career in management. ---  Our FREE webinar on “The Quickest & Best Approach to Remove People Problems from any Team” click here https://enhance.training/lm-lp/remove-people-problems-quickly-ulp043 ---  The first of the worst mistakes managers make with problem employees is putting up with the small problems. The small problems are the easiest to fix and fixing them stops them becoming bigger problems. When dealing with difficult employees always speak to them early about the small problems. The second of the mistakes managers make with difficult employees is responding with anger and frustration to the situation. This is super easy to do and it one of the most natural responses. This response makes the situation WORSE so needs to be avoided. I explain the psychology behind this natural response and why it is so problematic when resolving people problems. The third of the worst mistakes managers make with problem staff is failing to build support for sensible action. You asking them is not as powerful as you plus a group asking them when managing difficult employees. Incentives and group pressure increase reasons to change – use them. The fourth of the mistakes managers make when managing difficult staff is failing to incentivise improvement. Improving take effort and work. Few difficult employees will put this work in without meaningful incentives. Your incentives should be fair, progressive and provide rewards and consequences. I see these 4 worst mistakes managers make with difficult employees being made by senior staff with years of managing as well as new managers. Great new manager tips - learn exactly what to do as early as possible in your career. If you have any questions on “The 4 Worst Mistakes Managers Make With Difficult Employees”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. Jess Coles enhance.training 

 Why managers bully their team in such great number with more than 50% of bullying being carried out by bosses.  Surveys state that around 30-40% of employees have been bullied by bosses or those in authority.  I don’t believe that all these managers enjoy hurting others or putting others down or are that insecure to regularly bully. There must be more to why managers bully staff. I share three suggestions for companies to action to reduce performance crippling bully in their organisations. --- ---  Why managers bully their employees. Sometimes the bully boss is an unpleasant person who enjoys putting others down. I personally believe most (but not all) bosses resort to bullying because of the situation they are in and the pressure they are under.  Why managers bully when bullying is so damaging to team performance and therefore their own career progress. Why bosses resort to bullying must., in part, be due to pressure placed on them AND their lack of management skills giving them different and better options.  To reduce bullying by managers, I suggest companies do three things starting with training managers in management skills. 82% of UK managers are promoted into management positions without any formal training per the Chartered Management Institute. Not know how to get the results is one factor that drives why bosses bully.  A lack of visibility around HOW a manager is leading a team gives bad bosses and toxic bosses too many places to hide their behaviour and approach. Why bosses bully good employees is a sign of an insecure and threatened manager.  The reasons why managers bully their employees must be reduced by leadership teams and companies if they want successful performance and great results. Bullying is very damaging to team performance, especially if the manager is the bully.  If you have any questions on “Why Managers Bully Their Team - Why Regular Bosses Resort to Bullying”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Coles enhance.training 

Are you leading a team or group of individuals? How much does it really matter in performance terms? These are the questions being answered. Every ambition manager should be very interested in increasing team performance because this is how your personal performance is being measured. Find out about the performance of team vs group at work.--- --- Leading a team or a group of individuals can be the different between hitting targets or missing them. It is easy to say that working on build teamwork within your team is a must do. Actually, in some situations a group of individuals will perform as well or better than a team. I share the definitions of team vs group in the office so that you are clear on the differences in leading a team or group of individuals. This should make spotting a team vs group of individuals easier. In practice, you will be somewhere between the two.  I provide a scale with multiple indicators so you can answer “Do you lead a team or a group of individuals?”. The performance difference between a group and a team can be really significant, reaching hundreds of £’000s and more . Team or group which is better – in 80%+ of cases, I would say the team every time. There are several factors that go into how big this difference in performance gets.  I share some examples of the monetary difference of teams vs groups. Towards then end I take you through six of my favourite and very effective actions to increase teamwork in any team.  If you have any questions on “Are You Leading A Team Or Group Of Individuals? & Which is Better”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Colesenhance.training 

How many employees for each manager? Don’t apply a one-size-fits-all approach when considering staff numbers per manager. Do so is likely to be detrimental for your business and team & manager retention. I share 5 crucial drivers of team size for each manager. --- --- The first factors in employee numbers per manager is the pace of change within a business, function or team. The higher the pace of change, the lower the staff per manager ratio should be. Employees don’t like change, and it takes a lot more time and effort from the manager to successfully guide teams through change.The second factor for how many staff per manager is team capabilities versus business requirements. The more time a manager needs to spend on developing team capabilities, the lower the manager vs staff ratio. The third factor for employee numbers per manager is the complexity of work undertaken by both employee and manager. I share 7 different factors that increase complexity within the workplace. The fourth factor for number of employees for each manager is the tools and technology available and being used by the team. Technology tends to standardise employee roles and their tasks and activities. The more standardised the roles, the more people that a manager can effectively manage.   The fifth factor in the number of employees for each manager is what the specific role of the manager is. What goals and objectives are you asking the manager to achieve. For example, is the role maintaining performance or improving performance. Expectations for the manager impacts the number of employees per manager.If you have any questions on “How Many Employees For Each Manager – 5 Crucial Drivers Of Team Size”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.  Jess Colesenhance.training