10minuteHR

Short time. Great inspirations.

Jun
2

By

A Leader’s 8-Step Guide to Giving Better Feedback

Category: Communication, Leadership Tags: ,

  1. Face the facts – your colleagues need more feedback from you.

Do you receive enough feedback at work?

Very few people answer this question with a confident “Yes”. We live in feedback-poor cultures. People at workplaces are eager to receive feedback on their performance, but they don’t get enough of it.

This is especially true for millennials – a generation who have grown up in the world of social media and is used to receiving instantaneous feedback. According to a Gallup study  only 19% of millennials report that they receive feedback at work routinely, and even fewer of them – a mere 17% – find the feedback they get meaningful.

In all likelihood, members of your own team are also thirsty for more feedback. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating this need. Go out there and give them some feedback now. You will be amazed how much it can boost motivation and engagement.

  1. Don’t wait for the big occasion – make feedback an ongoing activity

Managers often confuse feedback with performance appraisal. They might sit down with their direct reports once a year to discuss their progress, but for the rest of the year the amount of feedback they share tends to be shockingly low. Read More

May
20

By

5 lessons I have learned as a leader while managing my team from a 1000 miles

Category: Communication, Leadership Tags: , ,

I have always lived in Budapest. I love living there. I love working there. But being part of a Hungarian-English family, it has always been on the cards that we might move to England for at least for a little while.

In 2018 we finally decided to go for it. We – that is I, my husband, and our two daughters – relocated to the Isle of Wight for a year.

So here I am, 9 months after the move, looking back on the ways this experience has changed all of us, and has changed me personally. It has been an exciting journey for the whole family, one which has certainly tested our tolerance for ambiguity and our resilience in many ways.

But today I would like to reflect on one particular aspect: the discoveries and the changes I have made regarding my own leadership style. Read More

Apr
1

By

What Does Agile Culture Look Like & How Do You Get There? (Part 2)

Category: Communication, Leadership, Organisational Development & Change Management Tags: , , , , ,

 

10 Ways to Make Your Organisation More Agile

Do you know what your customers will need in two years’ time? In fact, can you even tell for sure who your customers will be two years from now? Can you predict what kinds of products and services will be in demand and which ones will have become ‘old news’?

If you have little or no idea, don’t worry you are not alone. In most industries, customer demands change so quickly – a phenomenon accelerated by relentless changes in technology – that it’s almost impossible to know what the future will bring.

The way for a company to excel in such a fast-paced environment is to build an organisation which is highly flexible and adapts readily to change, so that whatever the future holds, the organisation is ready to embrace new challenges. This is the essence of Agile.

In my previous post I outlined the most important characteristics of an Agile culture. But knowing what it looks like and getting there are two very different things.

In this article I will introduce 10 steps that will help you on your path towards an Agile transformation.

How to make your organisation more Agile Read More

Nov
5

By

What Does Agile Culture Look Like & How to Get There? (Part 1)

Category: Organisational Development & Change Management, Team, Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

Agile is being embraced by a wide range of industries

‘Going Agile’ appears to be a burgeoning trend among companies across Europe.

At the time of writing, on just one of the top international online recruitment sites, there are 772 job postings for Agile coaches in the UK, 779 in France, and 1327 in Germany. Organizations big and small are keen to adopt Agile principles. What’s more, these organizations are no longer limited to software companies. Browsing through the online job adverts, Royal Mail, Comic Relief, ING Bank, UK Cancer Research, and Lufthansa are among those companies looking for coaches to help introduce more agility into their ways of working.

So, Agile is spreading outside of the IT industry. But what does ‘Agile’ really mean? Read More

Oct
18

By

7 Essential Elements to Building an Innovative Team

Category: Leadership, Organisational Development & Change Management, Team Tags: ,

Let’s face it, you can’t get away with flogging the same old product or service over and over again.

One of your competitors has just come up with a new solution; more and more of your clients ask whether you have any “new innovative products”: These are some of the signs you can’t ignore anymore.

The company will soon start losing market share unless you place a lot more emphasis on innovation.

Until now, you have always been the main source of creative ideas in your team. But this is not sustainable anymore. You must build a team that is capable of coming up with new, exciting products.

But how can you build such a team? Here are 7 essential elements: Read More

Aug
20

By

Corporate Culture Change? No Thanks!

Category: Communication, HR, Organisational Development & Change Management Tags: ,

Top managers’ 5 most common objections to cultural change initiatives … and how to tackle them

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” declared management guru Peter Druckner.

Most managers know from their own experience that no matter how brilliant the strategy is, the ‘wrong kind of’ organisational culture can sabotage even the best of plans.

Let’s see two typical examples: Read More

Jun
29

By

Be a Better Influencer by Listening More: 9 Tips

Category: Communication, Leadership Tags: , ,

“I can’t get my team on board with the new company-wide change initiative. I keep telling them how it makes sense for us, but I just can’t convince them.. The resistance is huge.”

“My boss seems to rubbish all my suggestions. No matter how hard I try to explain my ideas, in the end they always get rejected.”

“At the yearly budgeting meeting, I get the impression that my department’s interest always comes last.”

If any of these issues sound familiar, the chances are that your influencing skills need some improvement.

Does it mean that you should use better arguments? Should you try to present your points more strongly in order convince others? The answer is, probably not.

Influencing by listening

In my experience, in 90% of cases like these it is not a lack of effective arguments that prevents managers from influencing others successfully, but – somewhat counterintuitively – it is a lack of listening skills. Read More

Apr
23

By

Organisation Development through Storytelling

Category: Communication, Leadership, Organisational Development & Change Management Tags: , , , , , ,

“Information not passed through the heart is dangerous.” (Anita Roddick)

data_science_storytellingStories can help you communicate a message that truly inspires and motivates people in your company. Read on to find out how it works.

A story that changed something about me

A few years ago I read a short story that changed my attitude towards forming new habits. Read More

Jan
11

By

Mindfulness is worth it. All you have to do is practise.

Category: Leadership, Skill Development Tags: ,

A guest article written by Dr. Ádám Márky

mind-full-or-mindful-ccWhy is it that in today’s society, a society reliant on and shaped by modern technology, more and more people are showing an interest in a several-thousand-year-old tradition for which you need no gadgets at all?

Mindfulness – or more specifically ‘conscious presence’ and the greatest way to practise it, meditation – has been proven to be an effective as both a preventative measure and remedy to a wide range of illnesses; it also nowadays constitutes an organic part of the organizational culture of many of the largest global enterprises. Western science has presumably reached the level where it can prove what people in the East have known through experience for thousands of years: A daily 10-minute attention practice actually brings measurable and observable positive changes to our bodies. Read More

Oct
4

By

From manager to leader: 4 key steps you need to make

Category: Leadership Tags: , , , , , ,

lack-of-empowerment“What does your job consist of exactly? What are your responsibilities as a leader?”

These are questions I have asked many managers at different levels – team leaders, heads of department, directors – at leadership training sessions over the last ten years.

Listening to their answers I find that there is still a huge focus on “budgeting”, “assigning tasks”, “organising”, “controlling”, and “evaluating” – in other words on the management of tasks. Usually the more senior a supervisor is, the more confidently he manages his tasks.

But when it comes to topics such as motivation, inspiration or empowerment this confidence usually evaporates. “I am the only one who comes with ideas. How can I make the others more proactive?” “How can I make them care more?” “How can I motivate them?” managers complain. Read More

Oct
20

By

The Power of Informal Networks behind the Orgchart – Part 2

Category: Communication, Leadership, Organisational Development & Change Management, Team Tags: ,

Social network analysis – the management tool that helps you harness the power of social networks

Moreno_Sociogram_7th_GradeIn my previous post I wrote about the significance of managers understanding your own organisation’s informal network in order to make the right decisions.

But how can we draw the accurate map of the company’s social network?

Social network analysis is the method of collecting, visualising and analysing data about informal connections between employees of an organisation.

Managers can conduct a social network analysis by following these five steps. Read More

Sep
29

By

The Power of Informal Networks behind the Orgchart – Part 1

Category: Communication, HR, Leadership, Organisational Development & Change Management, Team Tags: , , ,

informal networksEverybody who has ever worked in an organisation knows that behind the formal orgchart and the official roles and responsibilities there is an informal network of personal connections.

Who chats with whom during coffee break? Who does someone shares their personal concerns with? Who do people turn to with their professional dilemmas?

These are questions you can’t answer by looking at the orgchart. And yet these informal social links strongly influence how a company operates, how information flows, and how quickly and flexibly an organisation reacts to any changes in the business environment.

Do managers really understand what is going on in the informal network? Read More

Sep
9

By

5 Useful Tips before you Launch your New Mentoring Programme

Category: HR, Leadership, Skill Development Tags:

mentoringImagine an organisation…

…where best-practice sharing is part of everyday life.

…where senior professionals freely and openly share their knowledge with junior colleagues.

…where young talents are highly motivated because their skills develop quickly thanks to the guidance of their more experienced colleagues.

Okay, this might the idealistic picture of an organisation with a highly successful mentoring programme, but would it not be great for it to be the case in your own company? Read More

Jul
7

By

Seven Inspiring Quotes on Customer Service

Category: Communication, Leadership, Skill Development Tags: ,

customer focusGreat customer service starts with the right attitude. And from time to time somebody says something that perfectly encapsulates the mindset needed to deliver “excellent customer service”.

During the preparation for a large corporate bank’s “client-focus” training I collected some great quotes that, for me, hit the nail right on the head when it comes to finding the right attitude. These quotes inspired me a great deal. I hope they will have the same effect on you.

  1. “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they do wrong.” – Donald Porter
  1. “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” – Walt Disney

Read More

Jun
10

By

4 key lessons to learn from recruiting Mary Poppins

Category: HR Tags: , ,

Mary PoppinsAfter six consecutive nannies had tried and failed to cope with their wayward children, the Banks family finally found the right person for the job: Mary Poppins. What lessons can we learn from their rather unusual recruitment process?

1. Create an accurate profile

Do you know exactly what kind of character you are looking for? What skills are critical for success in the given position?

You should pinpoint those critical skills before you start your search.

In the case of the nanny for the Banks’ children those unique skills included “cheery disposition, rosy cheeks, no warts, play games of all sorts.” Read More

Apr
1

By

4 simple ideas to bring family and work closer together

Category: Best of HR Project, HR, Leadership Tags: ,

worklife balanceWork-life balance.

It’s is a strange expression, isn’t it? It sounds as if your work and your life were two completely separate arenas. The moment you start working, you also stop living your life.

I know, I know… of course what we really mean by this expression is the balance between somebody’s work and private life, where balance traditionally means that you should be able to have enough time for your non-work-related things (such as your family, friends, hobbies, etc.).

Sure enough, more and more companies have embraced the notions of flexible working hours, job sharing and other “unorthodox” practices, so that their employees have enough time for their private life.

This approach, however, still fails to acknowledge the fact that all of us have got ONE LIFE that can’t be artificially split into two distinct areas: work and life. Read More

Jan
29

By

How to recruit top professionals – 6 top tips from HR managers

Category: Best of HR Project, HR Tags: ,

6 tips to recruit top professionalsLet’s face it, there is always fierce competition for the best talent on the job market. It is increasingly difficult to find senior professionals who are established experts in their field, professionals that don’t require several months if not years of training and on-the-job experience before they start creating value for your company. This scarcity of top talent is especially true for certain professions such as IT and engineering. But no matter which industry you are in, there are always positions which are difficult to fill because there may be anything from only a handful to, at best, a few hundred suitable candidates on the job market.

What approaches should you take for the successful recruitment of these top professionals?

In our Best of HR project we interviewed over fifty HR managers. Many of them have faced this challenge in the past – and continue to face this challenge today – and they were happy to share their experiences. Read More

Jan
14

By

Why you shouldn’t ever start an organisational development process without conducting a proper diagnosis

Category: HR, Leadership, Organisational Development & Change Management Tags: ,

 

Brain surgery or aspirin? Treating a patient without a diagnosis

Medical scenario 1:

Diagnosis first, treatment second

Diagnosis first, treatment second

You have been suffering from severe headaches for the last two months. You are worried, so you go to see a doctor and tell him your symptoms.

The doctor listens carefully to your woes and then announces: “What you need is brain surgery.”

What do you think of this suggested course of treatment?

Apart from being rightfully shocked, you would probably be a bit sceptical. How can a doctor possibly know what the cure is without conducting a diagnosis first? How does he know what is causing the problem? What is the justification for this drastic action? Read More

Nov
13

By

When you should use hands-on management and when you should let go

Category: Leadership, Skill Development Tags: ,

Leadership - by novishari

Hands-on or hands-off? – by novishari

Every leader has their own unique leadership style

Some managers are very good at communicating clear expectations, specifying roles and responsibilities, and creating clarity in general.  Others’ strengths lie in the ability to motivate and energise their team by giving lots of feedback and encouragement.

Some leaders prefer a hands-on management approach. They are excellent at monitoring how tasks are being carried out and thus they can help out whenever a difficulty arises, giving their team the advice they need.  Others tend to let their staff solve problems on their own and try to get involved only when it is absolutely necessary, thus giving their team the freedom they need.

Which of these leadership styles is the best? Read More

Oct
14

By

The vicious circle of micromanagement

Category: Leadership, Skill Development Tags: ,

Micromanagement - by novishari

Micromanagement – by novishari

The manager buries his head in his hands. He complains: “I am exhausted. I have been working my backside off all year. My team has been hopeless recently. Whenever they write an internal report or a proposal for a client I have to spend another half a day working on it to get it done properly. My boss says that I should delegate more. But I haven’t got time to babysit my subordinates, to keep explaining why something is wrong and how to change it. By the time I’ve explained it all, I might as well have done it myself.”

Have you ever had a similar experience as a manager? Has it ever occurred to you that your team’s perceived incompetence might have something to do with your management style?

“Hands-on” managers who are deeply involved in the operative execution of tasks often complain about their team’s incompetence. They feel that their subordinates’ lack of skills and knowledge makes it necessary for them to get deeply involved in all operations.

On the other hand, when we talk to these very same subordinates they tell us that they feel micromanaged. They say they are capable of taking on more responsibilities. They complain that they are suffocating from the high level of control and a lack of freedom to make their own decisions.

Three reasons why a micromanager’s team gets more and more incompetent

If you are a manager who keeps a very tight reign by maintaining a high level of control, three things are likely to happen in your team: Read More

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