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Business ethical policy Do managers feel pressure to put profit first? Most manager’s income is tied to their performance, and the key performance indicators (KPI’s) by which they are judged are invariably financial rather than altruistic. A UK report Management Agenda 2015 asked 1600 managers and workers whether they felt pressure to compromise their companies’ ethical standards to meet business objectives. One third of respondents reported that they had. They said that the most common pressure was a need to follow their manager’s objectives, followed by overly aggressive financial or business objectives. The report’s authors Roffey Park Institute, believe leaders may not realise their instructions can be interpreted in this way. They suggest that the most ethical managers in practice are the ones who consciously take the time to think their decisions through, while others may simply not have time to do that, and are not aware their decisions may have undes...

Problem solving skills Effective problem solving is a key leadership skill. Problems can sometimes be seen as opportunities, and should always be seen as a learning experience. Problem solving basically involves similar steps to decision making;- Evaluate the problem or situation, or the potential problem Break it down into key components Collect facts, analyse potential solutions and their likely outcomes. Consider different ways to resolve the problem Decide on the most appropriate solution The skills needed here are slightly different, usually involving both analytical and creative skills .Critical thinking skills help evaluate the problem and to make decisions. Sometimes a logical and methodical approach works best and sometimes technical knowledge or subject knowledge is also needed. Practical tip – coaching problem solving In my experience problem solving presents one of the greatest opportunities to train staff on the job. Usually when an employee i...

What is customer service? Customer service is dedicated to taking care of the customer’s wants and needs by providing a professional, high quality service before, during, and after the customer’s interaction with the company. It aims to ensure customer satisfaction with a product or service, and their continuing relationship with the company. Customer service is also about creating a positive experience for clients whenever they interact with a company and so is vital to a company’s reputation. It’s not just about reacting to your customers, but is also about anticipating, understanding and defining what they really want – even when they’re not sure themselves- and then delivering it seamlessly. It’s about anticipating and meeting their needs and desires. Excellence in Customer Service is measured against the customers’ expectations, and to some extent defining your service standard is an exercise in managing those expectations .If a company ensures that enquiries are responded to...

Business proposal A business proposal is a written document sent to a prospective client in order to obtain a contract to perform a specific piece of work A business proposal offers a specific product or service to a potential client. There are two types of business proposals; – Solicited business proposals are submitted in response to an advertisement or request by the client. Unsolicited proposals are submitted to potential clients although they have not requested a proposal. Sometimes a request for proposal (RFP) is used if a large company is looking for sub-contractors, or a government or state department has decided to undertake a project and is seeking a company to fulfil its requirements. In this case the body making the RFP will usually specify the information they require and the format in which it is to be delivered. They will usually be precise about specifications and timelines, and perhaps price. Sometimes a business proposal is less formal and is effectively an o...

Creative Thinking in Business Part 4 The 6 Thinking Hats Game This is a technique developed by Edward De Bono, a designer of constructive and conceptual thinking methods. Six coloured hats are used to symbolise different thinking emotions or direction. White hat- Information, data Red hat –intuition, emotion Black hat -Negative, cautious Yellow hat –benefits and advantages Green hat –creativity, alternatives Blue hat -process review In ordinary, unstructured thinking, people move from critical thinking to optimistic in response to what is happening, without structure. This technique introduces parallel thinking, everyone has the same agenda at a given point. So a meeting may begin with everyone metaphorically wearing the Blue hat to consider how the meeting will be conducted, and to decide objectives. The group then moves to Red hat mode, to collect opinions and reactions. Then everyone adopts the Yellow hat to consider the benefits, then the Green hat to generate ideas an...

Creative Thinking in Business Part 3 Creative Thinking Business Tools Even if you don’t consider yourself creative, you can learn some useful skills and techniques to help you tap into creative ‘right brain’ thinking and bring a new perspective to problems in business or indeed in your private life. Let’s have a look in detail at some popular business tools for creative thinking. Lateral thinking Lateral thinking is a term for a problem solving approach that uses an indirect and creative approach, applying reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not flow naturally using traditional thinking and step-by-step logic. It involves looking at the problem or situation from unexpected angles, challenging, thinking “outside the box “. The term was coined in 1967 by Edward de Bono. Brainstorming We have discussed brainstorming in detail in our earlier lesson on decision making, so will just summarise it here. For more information go to Decision Making Bra...

Creative Thinking in Business Part 2 What characterises creative people? Some of the characteristics that creative people will display are a willingness to challenge assumptions, keep searching after they have their first idea, take risks, are not afraid to make mistakes, are naturally inquisitive, have a strong imagination, think visually, take the initiative, are adaptable, see patterns of events. The Game Changers A survey by the UK consultancy eg.1, identifies a group of business people as game changers. They display qualities such as strategic thinking, ambition and risk taking and can change organisations. They say it doesn’t matter where in the business game changers work, it is their ability to “envision a different game” and “imagine a totally different future “. They say these people are important not only for the differences they make directly in the business, but because their attitude will attract other talented people to work at the company, a benefit in the “war f...

Creative Thinking in Business Humans automatically relate new things that happen with something within our experience. We are biologically primed to learn from past events .This is usually helpful to us as it lets us draw on our background and experience, and build on what we have previously learned. We are naturally lazy thinkers and so we tend to think in clichés or established patterns. But this restricts our ability to think creatively and we have to actually force ourselves to think “outside the box“ Creative thinking then, is looking at things from a different perspective from the obvious one, developing new ideas, asking different questions, restating the question, broadening the issues. It is truly a state of mind. What is creative thinking? Creative thinking is the ability to come up with a new and different perspective –breaking down the topic and restructuring it to gain new insights, by organising our thoughts differently. There are many definitions of creativity, ra...

Organisation Skills For me this is related to time management, which we have already discussed on this site and will summarise shortly. The difference is that in organisational skills, you are one step back in the process, in that you are yet to define what needs to be done. This involves being aware of what is going on around you in every aspect of your life and your business, and knowing what needs to be done to reach targets . You must take charge of events that are your responsibility, prevent problems arising by defusing situations, and “steer the ship. You need to allocate time to being organised, it doesn’t just happen, and it needs to be planned. Once you have defined the tasks, you need to prioritise, delegate and manage the tasks. Practical tip-organising a department In practical terms, in my experience of managing a department, a great way to do this is to talk to everyone in the department regularly on an informal basis. You can do this by walking around the departm...