 |
This is part three in our series, “11 Stupid Things That Managers Do to Mess Up Workplace Excellence.” So far we have gone over the first three Stupid Behaviors of Managers:
The next two Stupid Behaviors are: It’s All About Me, and If You Think Today is Bad, Just Wait!
Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 30th, 2009 No Comments »
This is part two in our series, “11 Stupid Things That Managers Do to Mess Up Workplace Excellence.” In the previous blog entry we introduced the 11 Stupid Things and jump started the series with Stupid Behavior # 1: Inability to Control Emotions. The next two Stupid Behaviors are Impulsive Decisions and Blaming Others:
Continue reading “Stupid Behaviors #2 & #3: Fire Drills and The Blame Game” »
Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 29th, 2009 No Comments »
Leadership is all about building professional relationships at work – relationships built on trust, respect and recognition. Great leaders build relationships where people willingly follow their lead. Great leaders create work environments where employees look forward to coming to work, are excited about their work and feel that the work they do makes a difference. Yet even great leaders occasionally slip up and say or do something that they wish they could “do over” or “take back.”
Continue reading “Eleven Stupid Things Managers Do to Mess up Workplace Excellence” »
Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 28th, 2009 No Comments »
In conducting interviews with executives, the feedback is split almost fifty-fifty between those executives who love Employee Satisfaction Surveys and utilize the results to build an even more successful organization, and those executives who have had a bad experience with surveys and hope to never participate in one again. When Employee Satisfaction Surveys are conducted correctly, they become a valuable resource for leaders and their organizations. In designing your Employee Satisfaction Survey, follow these four keys for best results:
Continue reading “Four Keys to Designing a Great Employee Satisfaction Survey” »
Filed under: Leadership, Leading Change, Peter's Blog on October 22nd, 2009 No Comments »
We are proud to announce that we have our very own YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/peterbstark. Currently, the theme of our videos is change, whether it be personal, economical, environmental or organizational, just to name a few. However, our video library will continue growing with a wide range of topics so stay tuned!
To get a glimpse into our channel, watch this video where Peter delves into the importance of an, “I can learn, and I can change” attitude. To watch the rest of the videos, visit our YouTube channel.
Continue reading “Connect with Us on YouTube” »
Filed under: Leading Change, Peter's Blog on October 20th, 2009 No Comments »
CEOs and Managers Discuss Survey Success
Throughout our twenty years of experience as management consultants we have been conducting Employee Opinion Surveys, also known as Employee Satisfaction Surveys, in hopes that the feedback would enable management teams to build organizations that are even more productive and profitable. Many times people ask the question, “Is the goal of an Employee Satisfaction Survey to make the organization more ‘warm and fuzzy’?” While we are certain that some CEOs or Human Resource professionals would say that is the goal, the majority do not.
Continue reading “Employee Satisfaction Surveys… Separating Gut Instinct from Reality” »
Filed under: Articles, Leadership, Leading Change, Peter's Blog on October 15th, 2009 No Comments »
10 Tips to Help Employees Increase Their Value
While it may be difficult right now, we all know the economy will improve. It always does. What we don’t know is if employers will hire the same people back into the same jobs, and at the same employment levels we experienced in the boom times.
Here are 10 tips to increase your chances of long-term success:
Continue reading “Increase Your Chances of Long-Term Success” »
Filed under: Peter's Blog on October 13th, 2009 No Comments »
How to successfully make collective decisions in meetings
Over the past few days we have discussed how to properly prepare for a meeting, how to handle challenging participants, and now we would like to help you wrap up those meetings.
What is the purpose of a meeting, anyway? Meetings are held to make decisions about the actions that will be taken. There are several ways we make decisions at meetings. One is we call people together to inform them of a decision that management has already made. Another is we get people involved in discussions that give them the facts they need to make a decision. Then, we vote.
Continue reading “Tips to Maximize Meeting Effectiveness Part III” »
Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 12th, 2009 No Comments »
Lead a Productive Meeting, Regardless of Who is Attending
In yesterday’s blog post, Tips to Maximize Meeting Effectiveness Part I, we discussed eight key factors that determine the effectiveness of any meeting. We admitted, however, that even if you carefully followed all the recommended essential steps, you still might experience challenges, unless you can figure out how to run an effective meeting without participants!
Meeting participants come in all varieties…from positive, focused, and willing to contribute their efforts towards productive outcomes, to participants who are against everything and looking for any opportunity to vociferously express their expert opinion! Unfortunately, we don’t always get to pick who will attend our meetings. The following tips will help you rise to the challenge and lead a productive meeting, regardless of who attends!
Continue reading “Tips to Maximize Meeting Effectiveness Part II” »
Filed under: Articles, Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 9th, 2009 No Comments »
Oh No! Not Another Meeting…
Whenever we ask a group of managers to list their three most time-consuming activities, “unproductive meetings” always makes the list. These same managers speculate that about half the time spent in meetings is wasted. The tragedy is, not knowing ahead of time which half of the meeting will be the productive half. If it were known, we could all plan accordingly and better manage our time!
We recently facilitated a meeting of senior level managers. One director began, “This is the third time we’ve met on this issue. We need to make a decision and finalize our plan of attack. Everyone is busy with other projects.” Another member of the management team responded, “This kind of decision takes time. We may not be able to reach agreement today.” We responded, “How much does it cost the organization each time that this team meets?” After some quick calculations, the team estimated it cost them approximately $1,200 each hour and that meeting usually lasted for a half day.
Continue reading “Tips to Maximize Meeting Effectiveness Part I” »
Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 8th, 2009 No Comments »
Survey Results Show Insight into Providing Extraordinary Customer Service
In today’s economy, customers are understandably apprehensive before spending their hard earned money on any goods or services. This is making the market place increasingly competitive – the days are gone when the product alone can keep us profitable and ahead of our competition. So, what will? Let’s turn to the experts and ask the customers.
Here at Peter Barron Stark Companies, we recently surveyed over three hundred people and asked them what constitutes great service. This is a summary of the top eight areas they identified:
Continue reading “Tips from Customers for Establishing a Loyal Customer Base” »
Filed under: Customer Service, Peter's Blog on October 7th, 2009 No Comments »
We are! If you would like to read daily inspirational quotes, interesting industry articles, and company updates, then be sure to follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peterbstark.
We look forward to connecting with you,
Peter Barron Stark Companies Team
Filed under: Peter's Blog on October 6th, 2009 No Comments »
From BizActions.com
Harry Truman’s definition of accountability is perhaps the best: “The Buck Stops Here.” It was the message on a sign the President had on his White House desk to remind himself and others who entered his office that he took responsibility for making decisions.
As Truman said in his farewell address in January, 1953: “The President – whoever he is – has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”
Continue reading “Developing a Culture of Accountability: What to Do” »
Filed under: Articles, In the News, Peter's Blog on October 5th, 2009 No Comments »
Eight Guiding Principles for Great Leadership
Over the last twenty years, we have had the opportunity to work with thousands of managers. Some of these talented people seem to have one success after another in their career. When we use the term success, we are talking about success in both the “hard” or profit side of the business as well as the “soft” side of the business. We have worked with other managers who never seem to accomplish the goals they set out to attain. Recently, we went through an exercise to isolate what it is that the successful managers and supervisors do differently, what makes them effective as leaders. Here’s what we found…eight guiding principles for great leadership.
Continue reading “Effective Managers Do Things Differently” »
Filed under: Articles, Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 5th, 2009 No Comments »
What Do You Do When a Manager’s Actions Become a Corporate Liability?
Many managers engage in behaviors that instill fear in the workplace, whether they know it or not. Fear-instilling behaviors deplete the employees’ pride and undermine high quality, productivity, motivation, and innovation. Fear also generates negativity, anger, and frustration. More importantly, productive manager-employee relationships are based on trust, respect, and mutual credibility. Unless managers understand the powerful hidden and unexplored aspects of fear in the workplace, they will not be fully prepared to provide effective leadership.
The following are twelve fear-instilling behaviors that managers knowingly or unknowingly use that cause people to be afraid of them.
Continue reading “Fear-Instilling Behavior in the Workplace” »
Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog on October 2nd, 2009 No Comments »
Ten Steps to Overcome Procrastination
What one task should you accomplish now, but for whatever reason, you keep putting it off for tomorrow or some other distant time in the future? All of us, from time to time, have procrastinated about doing something that we know should be accomplished. By definition, procrastination is the intentional and habitual postponement of a task, in order to do a task of less importance. If we have a legitimate reason for postponing a task then by this definition, it is not procrastination.
The following are some of the most common excuses that we have collected in seminars on why people procrastinate:
Continue reading “The Procrastinator’s Master List” »
Filed under: Articles, Peter's Blog on October 1st, 2009 No Comments »
