Archive for the ‘Management’ Category
By Joyce G N
Now that we are in the 21st century, we start experiencing the effects of global warming, climate change and the increasing problems which concerns our environment. These environmental problems can’t be put to a stop completely. What we could do is to lessen them and delay their ill effects to the best of our abilities. Unless we act today, environmental issues would eventually start piling up until such time that we could no longer figure out which one to address first. This is not just on the interest of a few, not just on our leaders but this is a dilemma that every person in the world should be concerned about. Since we couldn’t alter the situation altogether, we could start with small, meaningful steps to save the environment inside our home and our workplace.
Nearly everyone spend most of their time inside the work area. As such, this is the best place to begin with our endeavors about “going green”. However, before we could actually exert all our efforts for a greener working environment, we need to fully grasp the idea as to why we have to do it. If it is still unclear to you up to now or for any member of the team, it s suggested that a “talk” or at least a short discussion for that matter be carried out. We could get the expertise of an environmentalist or any authority regarding that issue to educate us further. Thus, we come up with the first idea!
COMMIT TO “GOING GREEN” Turning your office green involves having the commitment to create an eco friendly workplace. It is not on a per project basis. It is not simply a series of tasks that needs to be completed. It is a permanent and continuous adherence to doing environment friendly practices in the office. You could go further by developing programs which aims to promote a green office surrounding.
CONSIDER CARPOOLING AND OTHER OPTIONS One of the best ways to literally “go” green is to consider carpooling. It has numerous benefits. You and an office worker or a friend will be able to save fuel and help lessen the harmful gases released in the environment even before reaching the office. Having the right mindset in going green plus actually kicking off to an ideal start through carpooling is simply a brilliant idea. You could also opt to commute. Take a train or a bus whichever you think would be best. Another great alternative would be to ride a bicycle or better yet, walk. Not only would you save a decent amount of cash but this will also enable you to exercise and keep your body healthy.
THINK BRIGHT, SAVE ON LIGHTS If you have the liberty to do so, purchase lights for the office bearing the Energy Star label. Electrical fixtures and light bulbs with Energy Star utilize less energy and brighten the room with the same kind of radiance as that of a regular fluorescent. Make it a habit to turn off your lights when leaving the room or when you are not using a particular area of the work place. Little, modest acts like turning your lights off whenever possible could go a long way if done repeatedly.
Another smart idea regarding lights is to use natural lighting if it is viable. Take advantage of the brightness of a spring day. Tie your curtains neatly so that sunshine can get through. Pull up those blinds for a clear view of your desk near the window. It is a lovely way to commence the day by taking a glimpse at your windowpane and marvel at nature for a moment or two.
TO PRINT OR NOT TO PRINT That is the question! Remember those memorable lines from the soliloquy of Shakespeare? Alter the verb and you come up with a variation such as this. It still holds true, we make decisions every single day. Meaningful yet seemingly trivial decisions such as printing a file’s hard copy or not gradually become important. We all know that papers are made by cutting trees down. If we are concerned with the environment, we would think twice on whether or not to use the printer. The same is true with using a copier. Let us all find ways to lessen our paper usage. It has a domino effect on Mother Nature much like any other environmental issues that we all have to face.
Furthermore, recycle used paper by printing on the opposite side. It could be used for note taking, for drafts or scratch. The list could extend to various ways on saving up on paper and reusing them. Other forms such as glossy magazines, old catalogues, used brown envelopes, folders and more could all be recycled. So, keep in mind that going paperless is being part of going green. Don’t lose sight of our goal!
TAKE CARE OF OFFICE EQUIPMENTS Computers, copiers, fax machines, printers and other electronic office equipments are not just the company’s responsibility. Each employee must be concerned enough to maximize its use. These equipments will work for us on a longer duration of time if we know how to use them properly. When you are not using them, turn them off. After a day’s work, do not just leave these equipments on a sleep mode because energy is still being used up. It will cost the company even more. Reduce bills and lengthen the life of your equipments by turning them off when you are not using them.
UPHOLD THE 3R’S OF GOING GREEN: REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE There are countless ways that we could do in our workplace to reduce waste, reuse office supplies and recycle them. As mentioned in the preceding chapter, we need to commit ourselves to do everything we could towards an environment that is clean and truly green by supporting programs with this objective.
MAINTAIN A “GOING GREEN” CHECKLIST Come up with a list of activities that needs to be done continually so that you will all be reminded from time to time about the objective of maintaining a green environment. It will also help to have someone to take the lead role. Assign people and work as a team to achieve an eco friendly workplace.
We all want to become rich, but most of us pass our whole life dreaming to become rich one day. Have you ever wondered why some people are able to accumulate so much money while others suffer financially their whole life?
There must be some rules that rich people are following to accumulate money that poor people do not know. According to a research on lottery winners they found that people who won big money in the lottery became much poorer and even in debt after 5 years of winning lottery due to bad money habits. The reason is that poor people don’t know how to manage their money.
Do You Want To Know Which Are The Money Rules That Rich People Are Following?
1. Rich believe they create their lives. They take control of their life. They invest their time to learn financial education. They make good financial decisions. They take full responsibility of their lives.
Poor People believe government, politicians and rich people are responsible for their poverty. Poor people don’t try to improve their skills and accumulate money by increasing their earning abilities.
2. Rich focus on opportunities. They focus on finding the solutions of their problems. They find new and creative products to solve the problems. By solving problems of other people they get opportunities to start their own business and thus they accumulate a lot of money.
Poor People focus on problems. They blame others for their problems and don’t try to solve them. They don’t invest their money and time to start their own business due to the fear of failure. They block their creativity.
3. Rich dream big, they think big. They think how could I earn one million dollars per year or how could I have a chain of 20 restaurants or shopping centers.
Poor people think small, they are happy by finding a steady job where they can earn enough to pay all their monthly expenses.
4. Rich associate with other rich and successful people. They try to get to know what the other rich people are doing. You can do the same. The more you mix with rich people, the more you will think like them.
And if you think like Rich people you will find new creative ways to accumulate money.
Poor People associate with poor people, if most of your friends salary is less than $30000 annually, you will also have the same range of salary most of the time.
by Joseph Paul
If we talk about Enterprise decision management or in short, EDM, then it is nothing but one computerized decision making process, useful for any enterprise. This kind of application entails different aspects related to automated management of decision design and deployment. And this kind of decision management is highly required during the time of interactions with employees, customers and suppliers. This kind of decision making system is completely information-based decisions. And these decisions are taken on the basis of behavioral data, prior decisions and their reactions.
Due to its automated feature, this kind of decision making system has become emerging trend in the industry. Thus, any enterprise has become more prompt in decision making. And so, imparting decision to any customer, supplier or employee has become more consistent.
This kind of decision management is being implemented with the help of rule-based systems. Different enterprises are adopting this kind of decision making technology; as they are seeking more return from investment on previous infrastructure. It is also helpful, while under any competitive environment, any enterprise is facing complexity in critical decision making.
We know that all the processes of any organization are being implemented with the help of information technology. And to give solution for business rules in any organization, we can get the help of rule engine. This rule engine system helps to implement several rules in the organization in an automated way. Thus, manual effort of imparting rules have replaced with the help of this kind of advancement. And these rules can come from any legal regulation, company policies or any other resource. In order to clarify the company policies, this kind of rule system is found to be inevitable. So these days, companies define, execute, test and maintain different operational decisions with the help of this kind of software. Thus, this is found to be one of the major components of a business rule management system.
by RobertSteele
One of the most debilitating problems in project management is when people are bogged down dysfunctional, time-wasting requirements. This can include bad processes and policies, complicated tools, super-hierarchical company politics, or whatever else takes away from one’s overall productivity. While governance, support, and equipment is necessary in the long run, project management becomes a problem when it turns into project obsession. In every project, mistakes are going to be made, and project managers must make room for them. The worst thing to do is let something minor turn into a project in and of itself.
At the beginning of a project, some mistakes have no consequence to the end result. Obsessing over them just keeps people from their work. Below, I’d like to explain a family story of how one of today’s most significant mistakes, a misprinted birth certificate, was hardly of any importance to an Eskimo in Alaska’s early statehood – and he still survived.
When Alaska first became a state, my father was born in an Inuit village hundreds of miles from anything. It was so distant that I’m sure some people weren’t even aware of being a part of the United States. So new to government documentation, the villagers were not sure how to fill out my father’s birth certificate. They left the address and zip code blank (because neither existed), and they even put a check in the box marked “female.” The issue number for the certificate was something like “000000004″.
In an Alaskan January, when survival depends on staying warm and hunting for food, a birth certificate was the last thing anyone was going to dedicate time to.
In terms of project management, I think it’s safe to say that most people neglect certain parts of their work. It happens all the time. As important jobs get prioritized, the little jobs sometimes need to be eliminated. Instead of looking at an unfinished task as a problem, a project manager should see it in light of what tasks in a project are successful. Only then can there be an accurate understanding of what is actually being accomplished in a project. Even if a mistake will be a problem in the future, sometimes nothing can be done until later.
This is not to say that people are free to neglect whatever they don’t feel is applicable; but they ought not grow obsessed over irrelevant inadequacies.
New projects are sometimes like this city in Alaska, distant and without the structure or amenities that the project manager is accustomed to. For one such project to be successful, the project manager must know how to survive in a different environment, putting the trivial things aside. Where my father lived, there were no roads out of town. Survival was all about the local geography. To travel to other places, the villagers had to take a kayak, dogsled or snowshoes. Knowing how to navigate across the land was not as simple as staying on the right side of the road, maintaining speed limit, and stopping for red lights. The Eskimos there knew how to survive, and when things came up that seemed a waste of time, they didn’t bother with them. In project management, resources, funding, and software might not always be available, and the team has to ignore certain things in order to successfully complete a project. I’m not in any way suggesting that laws and policies should be broken, and I’m not saying that important measures in accountability should be set aside. I’m only providing a metaphor for how some work must be prioritized over other work in project management. If project obsession takes over, nothing gets done.
by Jim Anderson
One of the biggest challenges that all IT managers face is the simple fact that often their teams expect them to know everything. In the era of massive data sets, this means that when your IT team runs into a problem that just can’t fit into a standard off-the-shelf database they’re going to show up on your doorstep with a problem that they can’t solve. When this happen, you had better know about MapReduce and Hadoop…
Welcome To The World Of NoSQL
When most IT managers think about databases, SQL comes to mind. This 40-year old standard defines databases as collections of rows and columns which can be joined using different logical criteria in order to help users find the data that they need to answer a particular question. However, as more and more firms move into the world of very, very large datasets, the limitations of SQL databases are starting to become more and more apparent.
Where companies first start to see issues is when the queries that they are trying to execute start to take longer and longer to complete. When this occurs, firms will switch and start to use massively parallel processing. However, even with this approach the complexities of the queries that will start to be done with these massive databases will eventually not work well with traditional SQL databases.
When this happens, IT managers will be asked to look for alternative database solutions. This is when MapReduce and Hadoop will start to show up in your vocabulary.
MapReduce is a programming model that was invented by Google in order to process very large data sets. Hadoop was based on MapReduce and was created by engineers at Yahoo. Hadoop has gone on and has become an open source project that is managed by the Apache organization.
Using MapReduce or Hadoop allows a firm to scale and potentially perform better. It may also allow them to see things that might not be possible if they were using a traditional SQL database. Examples of this come from McAfee who uses Hadoop to do text analysis across large collections of malware in their databases in order to find commonalities that might go unnoticed otherwise.
What Are The Downsides To Using The New Big Databases?
Although these new types of databases are very powerful, they do come with their own set of drawbacks. The first of these is the simple fact that they are brand new. SQL has been around for a long time and everyone knows just about everything that there is to know about it. The newer databases are more cutting-edge and may have drawback that nobody knows about.
Another drawback is that the way that IT developers interact with these new databases is via modern programming languages such as Java, Python, and Perl. Many of your current database programmers may only know SQL and will face a steep learning curve in order to become proficient with the new types of databases.
What All Of This Means For You
IT managers are often expected to have the answer when an IT development team runs into a problem. More and more often these days those problems have to do with traditional databases running out of steam.
The good news is that a new breed of databases has become available that has been expressly designed to work with very large datasets. The Map Reduce and Hadoop databases allow queries to be performed that are either not practical to do for time reasons or just not possible to.
A key point that all IT managers need to keep in mind is that in your management position, you are no longer required to do the investigation that will be required in order to determine if either the MapReduce or Hadoop databases are the right solution for your project. Instead it’s your job to manage your team as they do the investigation. Good luck and be happy that this time out you were able to answer your team’s technical questions!
by Alice
Boeing is one of the lading aerospace companies in the world. It is the largest player in manufacture of jetliners and military planes in the world. The company also specializes in designing and manufacturing of defense systems, launch vehicles, communication systems, and many others (Lind 2006, p. 169). Boeing also operates space shuttle and the International Space Station in conjunction with NASA. Boeing has a number of military and commercial airplanes with customers in about 90 countries in the world. With more than 158,000 employees in more than 70 countries, good management has been an important factor in success of the company (Boeing Corporation, 2007). This paper will look at the management function in Boeing and different factors that impact on management planning.
Management planning is central to success of the company. Careful management and planning has enabled the company to produce popular 7-series commercial airlines and conquer the space (Boeing Corporation, 2007). The company has many departments and therefore lack of planning would confine the company in a vulnerable position of failure in meeting deadlines and having unmotivated workers. In planning, the corporation has developed an unusual organization structure assuming two business solutions that are further tied to nine levels defining corporate functions. The two business solutions under which planning revolve include commercial airlines and the integrated defense systems. The planning function of management include business development, engineering, operations and technology, finances, human resources management, international operations, legal department, Internal governance, and public relations/environmental management. Coordinating functions of all these departments is a real daunting task but the company employs simple and effective management actions for planning, acting, analyzing and emphasizing on methods that have positive results. Management planning in Boeing follows five close steps (Spindler 2008, p. 11). The first step is defining objectives which lead to production of high innovative products. The second step is initiative toolkit which balances and aligns customer satisfaction and growth. This includes customer satisfaction, productive growth through adoption of advanced technology, and others. The third factor is improvement in financial performance where there is evaluation of how profits are affected by steps taken to foster customer satisfaction and productivity growth (Spindler 2008, p. 10). The fourth factor is delivered results which are evaluated on stock prices and benchmarking performance to the laid down plan. The last step is the way in which the plan is executed and how this affects all stakeholders including customers, employees, shareholders, and the communities. However, there are different factors that impact on management planning in the company including legal issues, ethics, corporate social responsibility, and others.
What are legal, issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility issues affecting management planning in the company? Legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility have an impact on management functions in Boeing. Planning in the company is somehow complicated by legal issues which can sometimes confine the company into an awkward position (Spindler 2008, p. 9). For example in 2000, the company was sued by its employees in regard to differences in gender payment. A review of the payment records showed that there was differential in gender payment. However the hired attorney successfully defended the company from the liability and evidence presented was rejected by the court. The company settled the legal battle out of court saving it from a lot of public humiliation and saved millions of dollars. On issues of corporate social responsibility, the company is well respected for a number of activities that it has been undertaking in the community (Boeing, 2009). For example the company has joined Foundation for Corporate Responsibility which is one of the organizations fighting for philanthropic efforts and business ethics in business world. The company has participated in different activities including Chicago Air and Water Show and many others. Ethics is important for any business organization and Boeing has not be left behind in ensuring adherence to ethical policies. The company has developed an ethical policy which is aimed at protecting the company and its employees (Spindler 2008, p. 17). For example the company has a code of conduct which is supposed to be obeyed by all employees. The company has also set up a hotline which helps employees to report any violation of ethical policy. The company has been devoted to demonstrate leadership, integrity and customer satisfaction through adherence to ethical policies.
The above mentioned factors have a lot of influence on management planning in the company. These factors are sometimes an impediment to successful operation of the company. However, overcoming these factors is a tricky affair for management and hence the company has developed other factors which influence its strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning.
There are a number of factors that influence the company’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning. With a huge size of operation, there are different factors that influence management planning. Three main factors which influence management include innovation, profitability, and environment (Lind 2006, p. 175). There are many other factors influencing strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning but the mentioned three factors have a lot of influence. Innovation is the bedrock of success for the company. Operating in such a competitive industry, Boeing has strived to cut an edge in adoption of competitive technology which has enabled the company to put in line 7 popular commercial airlines. This is mainly factored through staff development and investment in technology. The product chosen by the company affects its profitability. Commercial airlines and integrated defense systems comprise 97% of the earnings from the company (Spindler 2008, p. 14). The company has also strived to balance between developments in technology in different divisions to ensure constant profitability. Environment has been a major focus of the company’s growth. One of the strengths in the growth of the company has been is commitment to engage customers in planning and exaction phase of its operation. As stakeholders, the company has invested in designing products that are friendly to the environment.
by Forest
Performance management is defined as a process that contributes to effective management of teams and individuals aimed at achieving high levels of performance in an organization. Hence it creates a shared understanding the objectives and the means to lead and develop people to ensure the achievement of the same. Generally, this is a strategy that relates to every organizational activity set in the context of human resource culture, policies, communications systems and style (Armstrong & Baron, 2004). The strategic nature is dependent on the organizational context and may vary from one organization to another. Performance management has in recent times come in handy to replace performance appraisals.
Performance Management
Appraisals forms or performance appraisals and reviews can be said to be diminishing in effect. They always come as an annual assault that stands alone, making performance appraisal being avoided and disliked universally. It is because most people in organizations dread the idea of that they were less perfect the previous year. Managers are also not willing to face such arguments, which would essentially lead to diminished morale because of the process of performance appraisal. Supervisors perceive that their time is not utilized well professionally in documenting and providing proof that supports year long feedback (Cunneen, 2006). Additionally, most vital outputs for performance appraisal from each individual’s job may not be measurable or defined in the current system of work. The appraisal system is often harder to manage if taken a step higher by tying the salary increase of employees to their rating numerically.
Performance management is about creating a culture where individuals and teams assume responsibility for the sustained improvement of their own skills, behavior, contributions and the business process. The concern lies in sharing expectations wherein mangers clarify what they expect to be done by groups and individuals. Teams and individuals likewise can transmit their expectations on the way they should be managed and their needs in performing duties assigned to them. Hence performance management is about interrelationships and how to improve the quality of the same between managers and individuals or teams, and is thus a joint process. It also defines expectations that are usually expressed in business plans as objectives, and in measuring what is managed (Armstrong & Baron, 2004). Performance management is not a one-off event but rather a continuous process, which is holistic and ought to pervade all aspects of organizational running.
Citing organizational improvement and employee development as the true goal of performance appraisal leads to a consideration of the performance management system. Performance management therefore narrows its focus in the establishment of what is really needed in an organization and development. Successful organizations realize that to effectively compete and win in the present market place demands attraction, development, and retention of productive and talented employees. A performance management system gives organizations this competitive edge by assisting them to hire talented people. These people are situated in right positions and their individual performance aligned with the vision and strategic objective 0of the organization. Essentially, their abilities are developed and reward performance commensurate with contributions to the success of the organization (Cunneen, 2006).
Conclusion
Unlike the limitation and frustrations associated with annual performance appraisal, effective performance management can be very beneficial. It leads to improved productivity by enhancing the way people work and determining the outcome of their production. Employee morale is also improved due to on-time performance appraisals and rewards commensurate with the contribution of employees. Performance management also ensures that top performers are retained in the organization, as workers who feel that their work is accomplished turn out to be loyal employees. Ultimately performance management ands the facets therein result increased profitability, because loyal employees are capable of delivering higher service levels that establish customer loyalty.
PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT BY JITENDRA CHITNIS (B.E., Ph.D)
INTRODUCTION
“Management is the art and science of preparing, organizing and directing human efforts to control the forces and utilize the material of nature for benefit of men”
-American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Business
Meaning
“Business is an economic activity directed towards producing or acquiring wealth through buying or selling goods.”
Five survival functions of Business are-
- Business is a human organisation designed for joint performance and cpapable of perpetuating itself.
- Business is a creature of the economy which comprises of
a) Population b) income c) expenditure d) social expectations e) social, economic and ethical value
- The business exist in the society and the economy merely because it has a specific purpose – to supply economic goods and services.
- Business organisation is the institution that is designed to create a change in the economy, technology and the society. Business also involves innovation.
- The business has an absolute necessity of survival, that is, it has to earn profit and make every efforts to increase its profitability.
Characteristic of Business
i) Buy and sell
ii) Transactions in goods and services, that is, business entails the activity of purchasing and selling of goods and services;
iii) Profit is the main aim of business;
iv) Risk, that is, the uncertainty of return on investment despite best effort of creating goodwill.
v) Perpetual existence, that is, business is to serve the society.
Functions of management
i) To determine the purpose of a business;
ii) To formulate policies on order to attain the purpose;
iii) To guide, direct and unify the activities of personnel;
iv) TO assign and control the work of personnels asked to attain the purpose of the business.
Business Management
Business and Management together will constitute Business Management.
A specific process of planning, co-ordinating, motivating, directing and controlling the efforts of people meaning the different business activities with an aim to attain the predetermined objectives of the business is meaning of Business Management.
Elements of Management
i) To determine objects and planning;
ii) To set up an organisation and assign responsibility;
iii) To direct and co-ordinate;
iv) To set standards and control;
v) To motivate and give co-operation;
Functions of Management
- Planning
- Organising
- Directing
- Controlling
- Co-ordinating
- Motivating
Conclusion
Management is a social science. Its subject matter is human beings. The human aspect of the management science has put certain limitations.
Theory and practice of philosophy of management goes under change. The management has to follow the dictates of the society.
Time tested principles and generalizations do not remain state. They are neither final nor they can be taken as final one.
References
Principles of Management – By Peter Drucker
Management by Satyasaran Chatterjee
by Steve Carry
Managerial positions are necessarily different from their lower level counterparts. Part of the point of being a manager is to be able to think sideways if necessary – to develop unique and effective responses to unforeseen circumstances; to control and alleviate problems; and to take advantage of changes in the market or the business environment. Management training, then, is best when it is as unexpected or as challenging as the managerial environment.
Basic management coaching is ideal for new management recruits, who need to develop skills that can’t be taught anywhere else: the ability to inspire staff loyalty; the ability to lead by example; and the ability to structure time efficiently. In terms of management, none of these skills are imparted better than when they are imparted on a basic training course.
Once a manager has cut his or her teeth, he or she can move to learning skills that apply specifically to a developed managerial role. Management training of this sort gets managers acquainted with project management; meetings; finances; presentation skills; coaching; discipline and grievance procedures; and hiring new staff.
All of these things are valuable strings to put in a managerial bow. The piece de resistance, though, is the ability to learn how to be genuinely instinctive – to be a reactive and successful manager under any set of circumstances. That’s where bespoke training comes in – training sessions and exercises developed by highly experienced third party companies, which take briefs from CEOs and MDs and turn them into exciting “real world” training events.
Training of this nature can take any suitable format. In normal circumstances the management training provider will respond to a brief from a company’s upper management structure by delivering a series of training programme proposals. Once a training programme has been approved, it is developed and put into practice either over a series of modules or as dynamic one or two day events.
Modern training trends are moving towards the use of delegate’s own experiences and personalities to bring out their managerial talent. A modern training programme will often include fast paced “reactive” sessions, in which the delegates are asked to solve live problems. It can also use the delegates themselves as leaders. In a programme such as this the goal of the training programme is clearly defined but the trainers use the experiences and characteristics of the delegates to inform the learning process that achieves that goal.
Every manager is a person, and every person is different – so high level management training is as much about bringing out those differences, and using them as strengths, as it is about teaching set behaviours. Rather than trying to get your managers to approach problems in a methodical way, modern training recognises that many problems simply don’t have a “by the book” or paint by numbers type solution. Instead the programmes are designed to develop the right kind of confidence and reactivity, by which every one of your managers can devise their own solutions to the unforeseen events of business life.
Do people feel that you talk “down” to them whenever you open your mouth? Do you make people feel inferior or cause animosity just by answering a simple question? All you did was try to help, and they took it the wrong way, right?
Maybe it is time to upgrade your business communication skills.
The old adage, “It is not what you say, but how you say it,” is as true in today’s business environment as ever before. The wrong word or tone of a word can cause misunderstandings, ill feelings and resentment, producing communication barriers that cost your organization more money than server downtime. As a leader and manager of information technology, it is essential that you approach and communicate effectively with your clients and people on the “Front Line.”
When discussing issues in which your knowledge of the subject matter greatly exceeds the level of understanding of those to whom you are speaking, you can easily (inadvertently) make people feel belittled or even stupid. This causes associates, team members and even mentors to fear talking to you or asking you questions. No one wants to feel as if he or she has asked a dumb question. Now, those small problems that you could solve quickly fester and grow to become major obstacles before they reach your desk.
So, how do you communicate with people without being offensive? How do you communicate with people whose knowledge of technology dwarfs in comparison to yours, yet not make them feel like idiots?
Developing effective communication skills requires significant training and practice. However, here are a few quick tips for avoiding making people feel inferior.
Listen To the Whole Story. Do not be a Wizard.
Someone comes to you with that question you have heard and answered what seems like 10,000 times before. You know what they are going to say even before they say it. In this situation, you may have a tendency to cut them off and jump in with the answer to their question. When this happens, although you did not use the actually words, you tell them, “I am the all powerful, all seeing OZ! I know what you are going to say. It is a stupid question and I don’t have time to hear it! Take this answer, get out, and stop wasting my time!” This is a mistake. You may already know what they are going to say, but you must let them talk. Let the person get it out, and look them in the eye as they explain. This question is important to him or her—you MUST hear it!
Wait Before You Respond. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi…
When the situation, problem or question is a significant (at least to the person seeking your advice), then you do not want to have the answer or the solution too readily available; it cannot be too easy for you to solve. You may have the solution on the tip of your tongue, but do not let it abruptly pop out. You can build significant value in your advice while simultaneously lending credibility to the question simply by delaying the response a few seconds. Just count to four or five while giving that, “That’s a good question,” pondering look into the air. Then respond with an attitude and tone of voice that projects, “Ok, I think I’ve got it now…”
Can I get back to you?
Let’s face it; sometimes you are simply too busy to talk to anyone. However, you do not have to say, “I don’t have time for you now, get out!” You can still give credibility and build value and camaraderie by the way you “put-off” people. You need to help people feel that it is in their best interest that you do not talk to them at that moment. As an example, cutting him off, you might say, “Listen, Bill; that is a very good question and it’s going to take me some time to really look at this. In fact, I think it’s too important for me to try to figure it out right now when I only have a few minutes. Look, let me get back to you first thing Friday, when I have more time and that way we can give this the attention it deserves.”
Can you help me?
You can give commands and orders all day long. However, often it is better to “ask for help instead.” When you have to delegate tasks, especially those that may be tedious or labor intensive, it is easy for people to feel like you “dumped it on them.” In this case, instead of “assigning the task,” you want to “ask for help with the project.”
Instead of, “Bill, I need you to go down to Accounting and install Mr. Johnson’s new printer.”
Try, “Listen, Bill, I wonder if you can help me. Mr. Johnson in accounting needs a new printer set up and of course, he only trusts certain people to handle it. But I am really tied up here right now with another project….Could you handle that for me? He trusts you and I’d appreciate it.”
You, the big boss; the technical genius, actually needs their help. You will find that people are more inclined to want to help you, rather than run errands for you.
It is difficult to quantify the cost of poor communication skills. Yet, that fact is that ineffective communication acts like a cancer throughout your organization, directly and indirectly costing your company precious time and money. Communication however, is a process and an effective communication process will increase productivity and decrease costs, thereby enhancing the bottom line. And remember, your front line is the Bottom Line.