Managers need to be aware of the personal development of their employees. They also need to consider their own. Ideally they should invest some time in the necessary management courses such as team building, motivational techniques and time management. It is ironic that the response, when it is suggested that someone go on a time management course is “I don’t have the time”!

However, there are a number of points that are worth considering even if full training is not an option.

There are of course many ideas and rules that are furnished to trainees. Many of them seem to be a statement of the obvious or an attempt by a trainer to make a name for them self by naming some theory in their own honour. One useful rule however is known as the Pareto Principle. To be fair, it is also known as the 80/20 rule. It has a number of applications. One of these is that the best 80% of your output comes from just 20% of your effort. The task then is to work out which 20% of your effort is yielding the best results and see if you can focus your work accordingly. This principle also applies to sales incidentally. In other words 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Focus on the most profitable parts of your business.