When in need, ask for help. Most people are inherently good people and will offer help when asked. Chances are that someone in your circle of family, friends or co-workers has a solution or knows someone else who can help you. Ask for help and be amazed at what happens next.
Diplomacy matters
Political “savviness” is a necessity in today’s business world and it is an integral part of one’s advancement, recognition and achievement. While it may be cumbersome and challenging to some it is necessary to be able to recognize how to use proper tone and inflection in certain situations in order to win people over, influence them and demonstrate that your …
Telecommuting: be flexible on work locations
As long as people are accountable, productive and valuable to your organization in most instances it shouldn’t matter where they work from. Don’t dismiss telecommuting as soon as you hear it mentioned, but rather do your diligence and consider it within your environment. It can go a long way in boosting morale, productivity and contributions (not to mention less people …
Foster collaboration and share information
Foster collaboration and share ideas, information and knowledge. Mentality where each department thinks and acts as if they were in their own little world or a silo doesn’t work and will get them nowhere. No matter what team, group, department or a division you belong to the overall value for the entire organization needs to be kept in mind and …
Under promise, over deliver
Be honest and set realistic expectations considering the scope, resources, budget and time frame of the project. It’s is always better to exceed your clients’ expectations than to not have met them at all.
Simplify and automate everything
Whenever possible (and at a minimum annually) think of ways to make you operations more efficient and by doing so you will free up people to focus on what they care about and are good at. Employees should waste minimal time on bureaucracy, paperwork and old (somewhat archaic) way of doing things. Simplify and automate everything that can be done …
Open door policy is not optional
Managers and leaders must be available to their teams in any way their staff needs them to be (assuming professionalism and appropriateness of course). Your office door must be open to them, and you need to be accessible and approachable whenever they might need to speak with you. Staff needs to know that you are there to hear them out …
Hire better than you
Whenever possible, hire people who are better than you. Hire those who are the best you have ever seen within the domain of services or products that your team is responsible for. You want quality over quantity and you’ll want it every single time. Additionally, you don’t want the rest of your team to be doing someone else’s job in …
Organizational policies must be communicated
Whether it is a new policy or an update to an existing one, all changes must be clearly communicated across the organization and an official start date needs to be set. Furthermore, enterprise policies needs to be written with your organization, people, culture in mind – don’t simply copy them from other organizations as they won’t make sense in your …
Trust, but verify (quietly)
As you introduce new staff to your team it is essential to verify their skills, quality and performance and ensure that they are a valuable addition to your team. However, when you do this, make sure you do it quietly as you don’t want any “bruised” egos or notions of distrust among employees. This can be done in a variety …