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A happy workplace is a productive workplace, but in every business, large and small, but especially small, there will be the inevitable conflicts caused by a team of individuals working in close proximity to one another. The source of the conflicts might be petty arguments that are either professional or personal in nature, but petty arguments can quickly escalate into full blown feuds.
Feuds, which if left unresolved will damage the productivity of your business and cause it to haemorrhage money at an alarming rate.
As Spiderman knows, with power comes responsibility. As a manager it is your job to handle conflicts in your business and not just let them fester. However, with the right Management Training, you’ll be confident when handling arguments. Conflict Management Training is a specialised private course that gives you the right tools, techniques and theories to handle conflict and shows you how to use them in practical situations.
The following five tips are an essential guide in reaching an amicable resolution to any conflict which might rear its ugly head in the workplace:
What’s The Problem?
First things first, in this day and age you can’t just solve the problem by banging your employees’ heads together and ignoring the root problem which caused the conflict in the first place. It is essential that all parties involved know exactly what the issue causing the conflict is. Allow everyone to express their opinions, perspectives and thoughts and make sure everyone agrees that there’s a problem. Once the nature of the problem is established you can best identify how the problem can be resolved. Read the rest of "5 Tips to Overcome Work Place Conflicts in a Small Business"
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Posted by Guest Author in Leadership Training, Management Skills Training on January 27th, 2012 | No Comments »
This week the government unveiled details of a number of proposals to shake up employment laws.
The changes are in response to the Beecroft report, released in October, which claimed that unfair dismissal rules are having a major impact on British businesses and sought to remove employee rights.
David Cameron backed the report but it met strong opposition from Lib Dems, Labour and Unions. However, Vince Cable has now announced that from April 2012 the period within which employees are not entitled to claim unfair dismissal will extend from 1 to 2 years.
He also revealed a set of proposals and reforms for consideration that will further reduce the number of unfair dismissals.
Why Are Employment Law Changes Necessary?
The number of employment tribunals has risen by 40% in the past three years, and are costing businesses a vast amount of money. By introducing these reforms, the government believes businesses will save £40 million a year.
These reforms are backed by businesses who claim that they have no power to fire employees who are under performing or ‘coasting’ as the report puts it. Small businesses are especially in fear of tribunals as they can be very costly. This has led to a reluctance to take on new staff as SMEs (small and medium enterprises) can’t then justify sacking them if they don’t work out.
However, there is opposition from Labour and Unions who believe this amounts to stripping away employee rights, will not decrease the number of tribunals and will lead to a ‘hire and fire‘ culture.
Giving more power to SMEs could lead to more managers taking the autocratic business approach made famous by Steve Jobs and Alan Sugar, and they’ve done pretty well in business.
So what is the government proposing to do to employment law and how will it affect businesses and employees? Read the rest of "How Employment Law Changes Will Affect Businesses"
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Posted by Craig Charley in Human Resources Training, Management Skills Training on November 25th, 2011 | No Comments »
Management Training: Performance Management
One of the most daunting tasks for any manager, and especially a newly appointed manager (who often manage people who were formerly at the same level), is dealing with poor performance. However – not dealing with poor performance will, in the long run, give a manager much bigger problems to overcome.
We cover Performance Management in detail on our Management Training and Leadership Training programmes, as well as on our Appraisals Training Course. All of these courses run on a public basis in Brighton, Sussex.
This article provides some practical advice for managers on how to prepare for, conduct, and follow up a meeting to tackle poor performance
Preparing to raise the issue
1. Define and clarify the problem
- What is the basis of your concern, and is this justified? Is the problem serious enough to warrant action? Can you, and should you, live with it or is the behaviour or performance unacceptable?
- What, precisely, is the gap between the person’s behaviour/performance and what is required?
- ‘Attitude problems’ must be redefined clearly and specifically in terms of the observable behaviour manifested by the person concerned and its effects. Performance problems need to be quantified or described with reference to agreed and clearly defined standards and guidelines.
- What change do you want to result from the discussion? You cannot raise an issue without having a clear picture of the new behaviour or revised level of performance you expect from the member of staff.
- What facts/evidence do you have? Are you happy about the information you have, and about its source? If you need more information, from where can you get it? What records or other sources of data exist? Is there anyone else to whom you need to speak?
Read the rest of "Management Training Tips: How to Address Poor Performance"
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Posted by Andy Trainer in Management Skills Training on April 21st, 2011 | 2 Comments »
performance appraisals training
Regular staff appraisals are important even if you only have one employee.
They should not be intimidating or need to be formal, but they should be clear and well planned. You should aim to schedule performance appraisals at lease every six months.
Silicon Beach Training provide regular Performance Appraisals Training courses in Brighton, Sussex. Other HR Training courses include Train the Trainer courses, PRINCE2 Training, ITIL Training and MSP Training.
Performance appraisals should make your employees aware of how well you think they are doing. It is an opportunity to tell them if you are pleased with their performance and use the opportunity to encourage and reward. It is also an opportunity to raise issues if you are not satisfied with their performance. The aim is to to help them understand where there is room for improvement and it is important to suggest how they might accomplish this improvement.
Be Specific
Don’t make sweeping statements like “You need to get your act together.” Chances are that they don’t know they are under performing or what they should be doing differently.
Allow your employees to air their own opinions.
A appraisal should provide an opportunity for your employee to discuss their future within your business or organisation, and they should be made comfortable to raise any issues that might concern them. This allows them to vent any frustrations they might be feeling. This may be the only opportunity for them to have you listen sincerely and objectively to what they say.
Remember it is a two way process.
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Human Resources Training, Management Skills Training on December 21st, 2010 | 2 Comments »
For in-depth instructor led Management Skills tuition, we offer a comprehensive Management training and Leadership training in Brighton, Sussex. We can also arrange bespoke Staff Motivation training courses tailored to your requirements.
In difficult economic times it is really important to keep your teams motivated especially when budgets for giving bonuses and large staff parties are not as large as they used to be. So here are some simple and effective tips to keep your staff motivated…
- Get to know your staff. Take the time to really understand what motivates and interests them, what concerns they may have and what ideas they have to make the department and company more effective. If people feel that their managers are really interested in them they will return the interest in the work they are doing and the company as a whole.
- Praise your people. When your team members do good work, put the extra hours in, come up with a brilliant idea or help a colleague – make sure that you give them praise and a thank you. Praising your people will encourage them to do more of the same in the future.
- Enhance your people’s creativity. Allow your team members to express their ideas and be sure to listen to them and explore those ideas with them – they could come up with the next best thing for your business. Also in brainstorming sessions use a variety of ways i.e. mind mapping/Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats to stimulate creativity and use coloured pens, toys and music to enhance the creative atmosphere.
- Empower your people. Your role as a manager/leader is to get things done through your people and you can do this by effectively empowering your team. Where appropriate involve them in the decision making process, communicate key company information with them and ask for their feedback. Coach them to do some areas of your job that they would find stimulating and motivating and this will give you more time to do strategic thinking and planning.
- Be consistent with your management and leadership style. Ensure that you are consistent with your style, if you are empowering and motivating one day but secretive and moody the next your team will get confused, paranoid and you will lose their trust. Remember every single second you are with your team you are having an impact on them, so make sure it is a positive one.
- Be motivated yourself. The more positive and motivated you are the more likely it is that your team will be as they will follow your example. Take time to understand what it is that motivates you personally and assertively communicate that to your manager. As a leader and manager it is vitally important that you take time for your own learning and development to learn new skills but also to take the time to reflect on what you need to do differently and how you are going to do it. So see learning and development as vital part of your role and an investment.
- Reward your staff. You may not have the budget for staff bonuses or large Xmas parties but you can still do small things to reward your staff when they have met targets, demonstrated excellent customer service etc. Chocolates, cakes and wine always go down well as a thank-you. Or you can be creative and look at other ways in which you can reward staff, for example, introduce flexi hours or write them a handwritten personal note of thanks and praise. In some cases you could get the MD/Chairperson of the company to do this.
- Have a social get-together. Organising the occasional social get together is a great way to boost morale and enable your team to get to know one another better. You can organize a social committee that takes responsibility for organizing such events.
- Celebrate your successes. It is important of celebrate and communicate your successes as a company. Have a success board that is visually appealing and accessible for all staff to see. You could also have a ‘company hour’ once a week in which all members of the company are invited to have some wine/nibbles or tea/cake and learn about what successes the company has had and what the current priorities are. This is an excellent way to communicate directly to your staff.
- Put your people first. Your people are your greatest asset so make sure that every single member of your organization is made to feel valued, talk to them, listen to them, invest in their learning and always put them at the top of your agenda.
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Posted by Aaron Charlie in Management Skills Training on August 13th, 2010 | 5 Comments »
The Top iPhone Business Apps
When it comes to business users, there’s an Apple iPhone app for just about everything, including many great free apps. There are actually thousands of the things, so it’s no easy task picking the best. However, some clear favourites have emerged from our own research and survey of our Twitter followers.
Of course these apps are nothing if you lack to business skills to use them effectively! If you need Business Skills Training, Leadership and Management Training or Project Management Training in Brighton, Sussex, check out our many courses including PRINCE2 Practitioner training courses and Time Management training.
Tricky as it may be, we’ve had a go at picking the ten best iPhone apps for professionals. Best of all, some of them are free! There are so many that we’ve broken our list down into “best iPhone apps for project managers”, “best iPhone apps for networking” etc. Whether you fancy an app to find a restaurant, write a blog, work out a font or change a PowerPoint slide there’s an app for all! Read on for our best iPhone app lists…
Image: Self Portrait by Heather Buckley (Director of Silicon Beach Training)
Read the rest of "Best iPhone Apps for Business"
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Posted by Natasha Stone in Management Skills Training, Social Media Training on March 31st, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Leadership Traits
Rather than having to actually sell, produce or deliver, a good Leader must enable and inspire other people do these things, and do them well. Our public Management Skills for New Managers Training and Leadership Training courses run regularly in Brighton.
Companies and organisations are constantly looking for new leaders, but how do you set yourself out from the pack and establish yourself as a candidate and potential leader? Here are some of the skills that you will need if you are looking for the answer to this question.
Be dependable.
Leaders are people who are able to handle responsibility, so a company or firm will be looking for people who they can rely on to get the job done and handed in on time.
Initiative.
If you encounter a problem or an opportunity that is easily solved or something that you can handle then try to do it yourself without having to bother your bosses, they don’t want to be told of problems they want the project to go smoothly, so if you can show that you have the ability to think on your feet and have the self belief to follow through with it you will instantly grow in their expectations.
Respect.
Your employer will want to see that you are not only respected by your superiors but that you are also respected by your peers. They will be looking for a person who others will be happy taking orders from, so if you are not respected or liked well enough this will severely dent your chances of becoming a leader in the near future.
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Posted by Aaron Charlie in Leadership Training, Management Skills Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
This free management resource provides advice and tips useful for managers who are new to their position, and will also provide a useful recap for existing managers.
These free resources are designed to complement our range of Management and Leadership Training courses in Brighton, Sussex.
Introduction to Management Awareness
Managers who know themselves well and who are aware of their emotions are in a better position to understand and empathise when managing others.
So an important step to being an effective manager is self-awareness. This means, amongst other things, knowing:
- Your strengths
- Your areas for development
- Your positive and negative qualities
- Your prejudices
- Your feelings
- What effect you have on others
Emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence, or EI as it is known, can be helpful in this area of interpersonal understanding as it involves thinking about yourself and others.
EI is said to be categorised into five aspects:
1. SELF-AWARENESS
If you’re aware of yourself and what makes you tick, you’ll be a more effective communicator and a better manager. Once you understand yourself and are open to self-development, you are in a better position to lead and guide others.
2. MANAGING EMOTIONS
Do you always know how you feel? For many of us our feelings are unclear and hidden as we have been taught to suppress emotions. Reversing this isn’t easy, but research shows that unless we’re first aware of our emotions we can’t gain control of them. You can increase your awareness of feelings simply by spending time thinking about them. The more you practice, the more conscious you will become.
3. MOTIVATING YOURSELF
Once you’re more aware of your emotions you can put them to good use to motivate yourself and keep yourself motivated regardless of the situation. You no longer have to react in an automatic way to outside stimuli; you can choose.
4. EMPATHY
Without empathy it is difficult to gain people’s trust, create rapport, influence people and develop their abilities.
Empathy is having a sensitivity to the feelings and concerns of others and seeing things from their point of view, rather than selfishly seeing things from your own perspective.
5. HANDLING RELATIONSHIPS
Once you have empathy with someone and can recognise their feelings of stress, anger, sadness, rejection and so on, you can manage emotions in others. Handling relationships means having a degree of social competence and using social skills.
How can we use this to be more effective managers?
Having the basic building blocks of EI means it is possible to control your emotions, create and maintain successful relationships and motivate yourself and others to achieve goals, all key aspects of management!
How can I find out what effect I have on people?
Feedback should be a two-way process. Now is your chance to ask for some for yourself! This takes courage but is worth it.
The more specific the feedback the more valuable it will be – this applies equally to praise as to criticism. You can help people be specific with their feedback by being specific with your questions:
Choose two or three people you trust in your organisation. They may be your staff, peers or manager. Identify two aspects of your management style that you want to receive feedback on. Be specific about what you ask for.
- Record what each of them says
- Analyse your emotional reaction to what they said
- Make notes on what you can do and are prepared to do to change your behaviour
You need to be sure that if they are critical, you don’t get defensive. You will have to handle your feelings about the interchange if some of the comments are negative!
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on April 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »
