Archive for October, 2008

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P.E.S.T Analysis Overview

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Those who have undertaken a management training course will have been educated with a variety of tools and techniques they can use to improve the flexibility of their organisation. One such analytical tool is referred to as The P.E.S.T analysis.

The acronym stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological. It is used to describe a framework of external macro-environmental challenges that any organisation may face. It is used when undertaking strategic analysis or market research, and gives management a framework for understanding macro-environmental factors that an organisation may need to take into consideration.

Political
Political issues that need to be taken into account may include a wide variety of factors. Some of these may include; employment law, tax policy, political stability, trade regulations and wage legislation.

Economic
Key factors may include exchange rates, inflation rates, interest rates, economic growth and general economic systems in place with may affect your company.

Social
Some of the things to consider here are cultural shifts and challenges, relevant population growth and development, health issues, age issues, demographics, leisure pursuits and education.

Technological
Consider key technological advancements and their impact, research and development issues, technological incentives and automation.

These issues represent just a few examples of macro-environmental factors that may affect your business. They tend to be issues out of your firm’s control, but knowledge of them and their implication may better equip the firm to face future challenges.

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Belbin Team Roles Explained – Part 3 of 3

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

In this final article of the series on Belbin’s ‘Team Role Analysis’ we will be looking at the final two of the nine roles the management theorist identified, and discussing the implications of his analysis.

The Completer Finisher
The Completer Finisher tends to be the individual who is concerned with detail. Their specialism is spotting weakness and gaps, and making sure that the team is on track and on schedule to meeting their objectives. As such, they tend to be conscientious, and painstaking in their approach. They tend to want control, are less likely to delegate and can be prone to worrying. The Completer Finisher is concerned with getting the result and on time.

The Specialist
Belbin added on this final role to his analysis to reflect the need for a specialist individual. This is the person who brings specialist knowledge to the team, which otherwise they may not have the time or ability to gain. The specialist tends to be a dedicated and single minded person who is likely to be confident in their area of specialism. As such, their contribution will be limited to their field of expertise, and will likely to be keen to focus on technicalities and fine detail of that field.

Belbin’s Team Role Analysis will invariably come up on a management training course. If a manager can either cherry pick individuals that fit these characteristics, or work on the personal development of individuals within teams to adopt particular roles, the team is likely to perform well.

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Belbin Team Roles Explained – Part 2 of 3

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

As preciously discussed (see article Belbin Team Roles Explained – Part 1), management theorist Dr Meredith Belbin identified nine key roles that make up an effective team. It’s a long held theory that is given much respect and attention in the realm of management training and theory.

Let us look at three more of the nine roles:

The Monitor Evaluator
The Monitor Evaluator’s characteristics tend to be strategic, discerning and sober. They will use accurate judgement to see all options clearly. They are not the type geared to inspire others, and can be dispassionate, and therefore have the potential weakness of lacking drive.

The Team Worker
This individual will be all about co-operation. They are the diplomat, who will focus on listening and building a team ethic. They will avoid tension and friction, in favour of the team working well together. As such, they will be indecisive when facing difficult decisions.

The Implementer
This person will tend to be reliable, efficient, conservative and disciplined. More of a pragmatist, they will take ideas and convert them to practical actions. They will focus on systems and procedures to produce what the team wants. The flip side is they may come across as being less enthusiastic about blue skies thinking and wild new ideas. They want to be rooted in how to make ideas into real methods of working.

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Belbin Team Roles Explained – Part 1 of 3

Friday, October 17th, 2008

In a previous article, it was discussed how managers who have been on a management training course, and are responsible for team productivity, are likely to have come across the theory created by Dr Meredith Belbin; the ‘Team Role Analysis’.

The following is a brief overview of the first four roles Belbin identified in a well performing team:

The Plant
This contributor is likely to be imaginative, unorthodox and creative. They tend to solve difficult problems. They are about ‘ideas’ and less likely to concerned with incidental detail.

The Resource Investigator
This is individual is typically an enthusiastic extrovert who specialises in communication. They will tend to focus on the development of contacts and opportunities. Their weakness will be ‘over optimism’ and may lose momentum and interest.

The Co-ordinator
The Co-ordinator is also known as The Chairperson. They tend to be confident and skilled at ensure good communication flow between team members, clarifying goals and effective at delegation. They are less likely to take on heavy workloads themselves, and are likely to have a manipulative characteristic.

The Shaper
The Shaper will thrive on pressure and will characteristically be a dynamic and challenging individual. They will use these characteristics to blast through obstacles. They won’t be the wall flower type, and will not worry too much about offending other’s sensibilities.

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Building a team using Belbin’s guidelines

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Anecdotal evidence suggests that organisational structures have in the last few decades become flatter, or more horizontal. It is generally agreed that strict vertical or hierarchical structures have become less effective to the changing needs of the modern company.

The natural result of this structural shift is that a typical organisation is more reliant of the team based work ethic. As such, managers have had to become more proficient in managing sets of individuals, and encourage their productivity as a group. This then begs the question; what elements make up an effective team?

When a manager is considering putting together a team, whether for a short term project, or for long term collaboration, consideration should be given to individuals roles within the team. Any manager who has been on a substantial management training course will have come across the ‘Belbin Team Role Analysis’ theory.

Team Role Analysis is a management tool created by Dr Meredith Belbin; a British management theorist and researcher. He identified nine different roles that individuals potentially adopt when working as a team, if these roles are covered, the team is likely to be more effective. If a manager takes on board this model, he or she can ensure that individuals are picked or engineered to adopt the most useful role within their team.

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Team / Peer Appraisal

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Management training courses can equip the manager with a variety of tools and techniques to conduct staff appraisal and performance evaluation. However, there is an increasing school of thought that suggests that peer review is a good method of appraisal and evaluation.

Often a manager can have certain perceptions of an individual which may be different to that held by their colleagues. By getting a team to appraise each other, it gives a manager an opportunity to look at an individual afresh, potentially learning new values, and reinforcing others.

It can be considered a risky exercise however, as some individuals may not take kindly to being criticized or evaluated by their colleagues. Whether a team appraises each other should be dependent on their dynamic. There are a few suggestions which may make the process more smoothly.

- Consider whether the comments should be anonymous
- The results ought to be for the manager’s eyes only
- Each person should try and make a ratio of positive to negative comments in regard to their colleague, at a ratio of 2:1, or preferably 3:1
- The manager should collate and analyse the data carefully
- A one to one appraisal should take place between the manager and the individual, to discuss strengths and opportunities for personal development.

Peer appraisal should be used as a tool for the manager to improve the productivity of the individual, not as a stick to beat them with.

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More listening skills

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

What we understand informs what we do. The better we understand the world and other’s view of it, the more effectively we can either adapt to it, or shape it. In a previous article three basic listening skills (Mental Attitude, Withhold Judgement and Body Language) were discussed. A manager seeking continuous personal development will work on their listening skills to take them to the next level:

Focused time
Avoid distractions when you are engaged in listening. If you are susceptible to answering phone calls, or accepting interruptions or even fidgeting with your filofax, you will not be able to absorb vital information.

Feed the speaker
Encourage the person communication to you. Give them physical approval to continue, for example by nodding and hand gestures. Give them verbal equivalents; a ‘yes’, ‘I see’ or ‘uh-huh’ now again helps them hear your listening.

Reflecting
Identify key words they are using in their language, when responding to them, use them. By using their language, you show common understanding. For example if they use the word ‘rehearsal’, don’t call it ‘practice’.

Enjoy the breaks
A good listener will not be afraid of silence. Don’t jump on a pause in your speakers flow to interject. The silence could be a break for them to collect their thoughts and continue on a deeper level.

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3 Tips for Better Listening Skills

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

A good manager makes decisions that lead to action. Their decisions are guided by their values and belief structure and their action is dictated by their skills and experience. A manager may have augmented the latter through management training courses, but values and belief structures are more internal and subconscious processes.

To merge all their abilities, a manager’s most valuable resource is information and communication. Successful communicators are good listening. The following three basic principles are a good starting block to improve your listening skills:

Mental Attitude
Be open, and prepare to listen, have your senses ready to absorb information. If you come to the conversation with pre-conceived ideas, you will project your perceptions and block both your speaker and yourself.

Withhold Judgement
Keep an open mind, reserve your judgement for later. If you spend time making your own assumptions while listening, you will miss vital information. Don’t be put off if their belief and value systems appear different from your own. What you need to seek is a common goal, not to prove yourself ‘right’.

Body Language
Maintain eye contact to engage with the speaker, do not be perturbed if they don’t reciprocate; they make have a different neurological mapping system. Focus on them and keep your body open – get out from behind the barrier of the desk.

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Conservation of the middle manager

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

It’s a given that for a company to succeed, its employees need to function consistently well. An organisation or team is only as strong as its weakest link, and in a gloomy economic climate such as it is today, to have everybody pulling together in the same direction is vital.

This leaves the modern middle manager under a lot of pressure from many directions. In redundancies and staff cutbacks, it’s often the middle managers who are at risk, yet these are the very people who are responsible for the productivity and drive of large chunks of the workforce.

This explains the uptake in management training courses for middle managers. No longer can they ‘wing it’. They need tried and tested methods that are practical proven, so they can go back into the office and really take control. Middle managers may have coped admirably until now on gut instinct and perseverance, but the stakes have just got higher.

Every penny invested in a management training programme give great added value. Not only will your confidence improve, but if you can apply your new skills well, respect from your subordinates and superiors will come back to you. The organisation is likely to perform better, and in any round of staff cut backs, you’ll less likely to be on the ‘endangered species’ list.

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Motivation- wants and needs

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

With the business world in a financial crisis, and the headlines bombarding us with reports of the latest credit crunch catastrophe, it’s sometimes difficult to be upbeat. Yet we only need to take a lot at the stock market system and see how a state of mind affects reality.

It’s the same with staff motivational issues, if members of your team start feeling de-motivated, there is the danger of a negative spiral emerging. At a time like this, managers need to put into action some of their soft skills training to get the best out of their team.

Some feel that team motivational systems work well; others claim that you cannot motivate a team, only the individuals within it. Every individual you are responsible for has a set of personal and professional needs. Sometimes these are not immediately apparent; the individual may express certain ‘wants’; “I want a pay rise”, “I want to be recognised for my contribution”, “I want to work on the other project”.

It’s the skilled manager’s job to see needs and wants as related, but separate. Through a process of coaching, mentoring and personal development programmes, the manager should question, observe and analyse what lies beneath these spoken ‘wants’. Only then can they begin the process of getting the best out of their employee.

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