Editor in chief

Strange question, but what's your ratio?

That's the ratio of how, as a manager you spend your time.

How much of your time is spent managing your people and direct reports (coaching, advising, giving direction, leadership, performance managing and equiping them with the ability to do 'the work'). 

How much of your time is spent actually hands on doing 'the work' your team is required to do.

Commonly held view of most modern managers is that it should be 80:20 - That's to say 80% of your time managing your people to enable them to do the work!

How does your current ratio compare?!!

Be interested to hear

Regards

Ed

It's true...your customer really is your best salesman...or woman!

Nothing speaks louder in marketing terms than a satisfied customer who then activily promotes you and your company.

This is not a new concept but the principle of the Net Promoter Score is often unheard of by many in business.

What is this?

Net Promoter Score is a research tool that can be used to gauge how likely people are to recommend you to their colleagues and friends. It was introduced by Reichheld in the 2003 Harvard Business Review. 1% = lowest, 100% = highest. It is used as an indicator for word-of-mouth marketing, repeat business and organic growth at a corporate level. At a personal level, it is used as an indicator for career advancement prospects. The higher your number, the more likely others are to help you advance your career by speaking of you positively, recommending you to their friends and otherwise being conducive to your growth.

Scale:

Red (0 to 50%): BAD.

Others are not likely to help advance your career. You are viewed mostly negatively by your network. You should attempt to connect better with others, foster deeper relationships and be positive. Treat them as you would like to be treated yourself. Being more visible or prominent at the workplace will also help.

Yellow (51% to 80%): OK

You are viewed as average by your network. Some people may help advance your career, while others will not. This is where 60% of the population falls. You should focus on identifying those individuals within your network that think very highly of you and forging deeper ties with them. Work more closely with those that think highly of you. Continue to be more useful to others, and more prominent at work. Ensure your efforts are noticed.

Green (81% to 100%): GREAT

You are viewed very positively by most of your network. Most people see you so favorably that they will help advance your career with glowing recommendations, introductions and connections. They speak of you well even when you are not there. Companies that achieve this score get new customers simply through word-of-mouth buzz. You will similarly get job offers, partnership requests or other new opportunities from your network from time to time. Keep doing what you are doing - your work network loves you and values you highly!

What's our score? 

Well we're delighted to say that following a survey of 90 of our customers our NPS is 80%

What's your's? And how do you look to leverage and increase it? 

For more information on this and to learn how to utilise it to your advantage speak to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We came across this great infographic.....so very true!

Useful for new start up's and entrepreneurs everywhere!! As well as exisitng leaders and management!!

ROLE PLAY!!! There we said it...!!

The phrase that can send shivers down so many trainees backs as the over enthusiastic trainer smiles smuggly knowing that they are about to inflict a pain worse than death on the audience...!!

(Well maybe not all trainers think and act that way...- Ed) 

Role play doesn't work

Lets face it as the picture shows theres a right way and wrong way to embed the learning.

Role play often comes with the tag of doing something that's not real, relevant or going to add benefit.

It's also often embarrassing for those asked to participate...from standing in front of the group massively outside of one's comfortzone...to running around in plane costumes - Learning SHOULD be fun, not embarrassing or isolating the learner.

Our tips for effectively embedding the learning...

1. Assessment - Check whether there is a need for practice or demonstration in the first place. Is there another way of assessing understanding? Plan to have a number of assessment processes - and use the one the fits with the group profile, atmosphere and desired outcome best.

2. Fact not fiction - Make sure any task or exercise is REAL and RELEVANT to the learning. You're not assessing the acting ability or imagination of individuals!

3. Challenge by Choice - Never force people to do anything they are not comfortable with. Explain the exercise, the reasons, the outcomes and the value to be gained. Then its a choice if individuals participate.

4. Respond to feedback - Capture and use feedback on the activities. Did it work? Why? What could be done differently? Amend process and exercises in the future

Our team of facilitators have found using these 4 points effective in ensuring the learning is embedded and groups don't feel embarrassed in anyway...making for an enjoyable value adding experience.

Yes it's here...!!!

As most people are recovering from the New Year Celebrations we let the party continue as we celebrate our 10th Anniversay!!!

In January 2003 owner and MD Lee Martin established TOOJAYS....from our humble beginings we have established ourselves as an award winning, reliable and regular supplier of innovative L&D solutions.

Working with Blue chip global organisations, public sector, SME's and Micro-businesses alike we continue to add value to all our customers.

Our latest video celebrates our 10 years  10th Anniversary

As Toojays steams towards its next  10 years in business, we ask Lee Martin, Managing Director of Toojays to reflect on the key business lessons that every business owner should consider.

"I've often wondered how to summarise the time I've spent establishing Toojays" comments Lee. "Without sounding to cliched it's about finding your passion. If you're passionate about it...you'll make it happen. In doing so its also about who you partner with, work with and how you engage with them. The beauty of my particular business is that I have additional awareness and insight from some of the models and theores we use! It's simply a case of applying the knowledge!"

As we celebrate our 10 successful years, we plan to share the success with a number of special offers, prizes and giveaways over the next 12 months. Watch out for details on our Facebook, Twitter @TTHRC and Linkedin pages.

Conflict Fear

We recently had an interesting conversation with a client regarding their new performance management process. 

Asked why they let their managers go through the process of recording performance evidence and end of year appraisal discussion, but not to allocate a rating, they replied "basically we don't trust them to be honest and accurate! They tend to avoid confrontation and as a result the ratings are often not correct"

Surprisingly this fear of addressing poor performance is something that we have come across in other organisations. 

So why does it occur? Human nature? Not understanding due process? Confused by discipline policy? 

Well it could be argued that all of the above come into play. However, this interesting article from Personnel today indicates that breaching code of practice is common place and could be a factor.

10 common reasons for breach of ACAS code

How do you...

How do you or your organisation avoid the Fear of Conflict? 

Knowing the policy and procedures is one thing, but its more about having the confidence to apply it. 

Interested to know how? 

Then these might be of help!  Appraisal Skills  or even Discipline & Grievance Procedure

Probably the worst thing a manager can do to their own credibility and reputation is to allow poor performance to continue unchecked.

Ed

Presenter Fillers

When running our Presentation skills workshop we touch on best practice in terms of format, content, environment and delivery. In a recent group conversation switched to the 'fillers' or comfort words we tend to use when our brain is seaching for the next interaction and our mouth feels a need to fill the gap!

These comfort words, or noises, are fine as long as they don't get over used and become a focus!

We listed these as the most detracting

1. Ermmm
2. You guys
3. Okay
4. Second to none
5. At the end of the day
6. Also
7. And
8. Very, very unique
9. Truth be told
10. Moving on

It can be difficult to avoid these 'fillers' and the only way to prepare oneself is through practice and more practice in order to reduce the nervousness and to ensure you know your content and speak with confidence, therefore reducing the need for 'fillers'.

Whats your Ratio?

In order to understand how much time and preparation you need for your presentation you need to know your 'ratio'. That's to say how long do you need in relation to the length of your preseentation. 

E.g For an experienced presenter a one hour presentation might need 5 hours of prep. Therefore there's a 5:1 ratio. For a less experienced presenter the ration would be different. 

The key is to allow yourself enough time...and you can only do this if you work out your own personal ratio. So what's yours?

Ed

Knee Jerk response

We recently ran a Conflict Management workshop and a debate on the use of email and text message replies came up. 

It's so easy these days to respond quickly to a conflict trigger...and as a result potentially regret it!

So what's the best way to avoid those knee jerk reaction emails? Well heres four tips we discussed as a group.

1. Sleep on it. Before you send that reactionary email sleep on it, or at the very least give yourself a couple of hours to reflect, take stock and calm down. This is often easy said than done! For so many of us the first instinct is to attack; to fight or at the least defend our position. Instead though we suggest you walk away. Remove yourself from the situation. It is amazing how your perspective changes when you have some time to think about it.

2. Share the frustration. If possible find someone you trust and respect and 'vent' your feelings and thoughts with them! This allows you to "sense check" your feelings and actions.

After talking to another you often can find your self realising that maybe your words were a little too toxic or you weren't being fair or realistic.

3. Verbalise it. The problem with email and text is the lack of tone. Tonality is  left to the interpretation of the person receiving the email or text. So ensure you give the right tone..call or better still meet with the person you are frustrated, hurt or angry with. 

Let's be honest meeting with someone when there's conflict, is difficult. For the majority of us we would probably prefer to avoid this. However there's no substitue for using the right tone of voice, body language and facial expressions to get your message across effectively...and to remove any mis-interpretation from the other party.

4. Let IT help you. If you have the ability and software...let IT help you out. Put a delay send set up on your email server so that even if you do decide to press the send button you've got the ability to re call the message before it reaches the intended party!

Be interested to hear any other thoughts and experiences!

Pavlovs dogs and washing baskets!

Some of you may be familiar with the process of classical conditioning by Pavlov...some not. As a training professional I thought I was fully aware....accept when I fell foul of it. 

At home my wife recently ordered a re-decorating of our house, including our bedroom. Part of this decorating involved a change around of items. Our wash basket had been in the same place, in the corner of our bedroom for nearly ten years. I like one of Pavlovs dogs knew that if the clothes hit the basket I wouldn't get shouted at!

For ten years I hit the basket (well maybe not all the time over the ten years, but 99% of the time!)

After ten years of that routine the process was pretty well embedded. With the decorating though the basket had moved.

Now I consider myself a fairly intelligent chap...but was surprised to find myself still reaching to place my clothes in the place where the basket USED to be!!

Why? The pattern had been engraved and I was struggling to amend my pattern of behaviour. 

This got me to thinking how much of this engraved behaviour is all around us and what do we do to make it easier to break the mold?

I was reminded of the saying we use in our behavioural training..."If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get the same result!"

So change!! change the routine, change the pattern, change the process...change the approach!

Sounds easy...but think on. How easy do we make it for our staff, our colleagues our learners to change? IS there conditioned behaviours preventing change?

What's the point of attending a development course....if when you get back you're going to throw the washing in the same old way...when the basket or goal posts have moved!

Check you're doing all you can to help the change stick!

Good luck! (off to pick up the laundry on the floor now!)

Lessons from School

I recently visited my eldest daughter's school for an open evening as her younger sister prepared for the move up to Senior School next year. 

Through crowed corridors of fellow parents and excited children we wandered from 'block' to 'block' of classrooms with the eldest daughter giving nonchalant commentary as we peered periodically into classrooms where 'demonstrations' of typical activity on the said subject matter were being played out. 

"yeah this is ICT" ..."this is History...".."This is French.."...yeah and this is Maths" the eldest reported inbetween lifting her head from her Blackberry and BBM'ing her friends, further along in the same corridor! Her boredom with the ordeal was only outweighed by my fascination as we saw in everyclass room the level of interactive learning being applied.

From quizzes and model building to interactive whiteboards with touch screen technology I was amazed. Reflecting on my own schooling some 30 years ago (OK possibly a bit more!) where there was group dictation from the teacher and copying text from text books I failed to see how my daughter could be bored!.

I guess it is a generation thing, but it got me to thinking, how is workplace learning currently and in the future going to ensure that learning is as interactive as possible?

70:20:10

Alot of organisations are now getting to grips with the 70:20:10 strategy of development. That's to say 70% is gained from experiential tasks, 20% from relationships and 10% from formal courses. It's nicely explained here 70:20:20 by Charles Jennings. 

In order to ensure the Generation Z is engaged and performing to their maximum potential as well as making the learning 'stick' don't we all have to embrace 'learning by doing' more?

Before we all rush of to introduce icebreakers and exercises to every possible course...we need to remember the different learning styles of individuals. Whilst the activists will no doubt welcome the emphasis on 'doing' more..how will the reflectors cope? 

As always it has to be about the bigger picture and blended approaches in order to ensure all are engaged...or so I was always taught!

HR as a revenue generating stream?

Reading the above I can imaging the Finance Directors and Business owner's sitting up and paying attention, where as the HR personnel would be cringing at the thought of meeting sales targets and losing the focus on nuturing and developing people.

Historically HR, Personnel and L&D have always been viewed as a 'cost' on any organisations balance sheet. A worthwhile and necessary cost....but none the less a cost. They don't practically 'produce' anything that can be re-sold or passed on to customers to generate an income.

As more and more businesses look at reducing costs as the global economy struggles to recover...HR & L&D become an even bigger target on the shooting range. 

But does it have to be this way?

Change the way you think

Some organisations charge 'internally'. So if Marketing Department want to send three staff on a course they are 'billed' by HR. Or if a meeting room or organisational venue wants to be used then there is a cost to be paid by the relevant meeting holder. 

All these processes do is to internalise the costs and in our experience don't win any friends or favours.

What we're talking about with HR becoming a revenue stream is actually aquiring new wealth,new money into the business - or at the very least reducing costs incurred by offsetting.

How does this work?

Well if you are an organisation that is running for example generic management development courses....why not seek to invite key suppliers, associates, even select customers to attend. Charging them a fee - a special offer that reflects your relationship, which may be considerably reduced to what they may pay externally....but still a fee for attendance.

If the courses are provided by external training organisations, you can reduce or offest your own outlay. If they are courses you run internal yourself you are potentially making 'pure' profit - hence becoming a revenue generating stream.

Training course are an obvious example. However there maybe other areas of your HR department that can attract value from associates, suppliers etc.. HR consultative services, generic templates and forms, access to legal services, room hire...the list goes on.

This is really about preventing HR becoming a cost cutting target...and proactivley looking at ways to retain the services cost effectively.

Leading provider of management training & HR consultancy services, Toojays, today announced that Scott Young has been named as their new Business Development Manager. In his new role, Scott will be responsible for developing new business opportunities, and promoting company growth through existing account management and new lead generation.

Lee Martin, Managing Director, says, “We are delighted to bring Scott on board with us and to welcome him to our team. Scott has over 15 years’ experience of sales and business development, and brings a wealth of knowledge gained from working in a variety of industries. We have no doubt he will be a great asset to the organisation and look forward to working with him.”

Scott’s expertise has been gained from the fields of telecoms, distributions, business services, and online publishing and advertising. He has held positions at well-known organisations such as Parcelforce, BT, and Infotel Solutions. Scott has already made contact with a number of clients and plans to introduce himself to Toojays’ existing clients over the coming weeks.

Speaking about his appointment, Scott said: “I am very excited to have the opportunity to use my skills and experience to contribute to the future growth of the company. I am looking forward to being a part of a well-respected company, with a solid reputation for delivering engaging L&D solutions with true ROI.” 

A very common situation encountered in business is people who don't have the skill or confidence to generate more business though use of the phone. It's quick, cost effective and allows the salesperson to gain far more information on a prospect than a conversation over email. 

Email makes life easy, who could argue with that? However it's worrying that so many sales teams have become comfortable with emailing and not recognising the value of a courteous, good old-fashioned telephone call. Believe it or not, this trend is soaring and companies who get the telephone sales right will no doubt have a competitive edge over the competition.

What is actually more interesting is that when clients are shown the solution through training and consultancy, they struggle to justify the training. This is because they fail to do a simple calculation, which is "How many sales orders do I need to make in a month to break even on the training spend?" More often than not, the answer is less than one, before they see the value and return on their spend. Most of the time people think of the spend/activity rather than the outcome. 
 

Here are some points to consider...

ROI:
Work out your average order value and then how many sales orders you would need to break even on the training spend.

Trainer's credibility: 
Does the trainer have a track record in the subject they are training? Ask for a biography of the trainer's background as this provides you with an opportunity to see if your instructor is a good fit for your business.

References:
Do they have genuine testimonials? Ask if you can contact one or two for feedback. It's a good idea to contact other companies who have used the training provider's services. Ask what the company liked and what they didn't like about the service they received. Doing this will help you make a well informed decision.

Training companies credibility:
Are they doing what they train? For instance, if they are training your staff on telephone techniques, are they using the phone correctly in their business? Call them and find out before you engage in their services.

Training style:
Some companies are happy to sit your team in front of a PowerPoint presentation and bore them to tears. In our experience, participents get more out of the training when it is interactive, fun and can be used in their job roles. Decide what style will best suit your company.

Continuous Development:
One-off training sessions are fine for refreshing knowledge and to motivate your staff. However if you really want to get the full benefit of your investment, consider a monthly or quarterly training programme so that your clients get real value as they can see the continuous improvement their staff are making.

Quality of materials:
Ask for a sample of materials they will use in the training so that you can see what your staff will see and learn from.  

Follow these steps to get the most from those networking events you attend. Ensure that you make these sessions work for YOU!

1. Volunteer and get inolved in running and participating the event. It raises your profile - and it does get noticed! Be consistent.

2. Book it as you would a sales or prospects meeting. Turn up on time, or even better, be early. Leave yourself time after the event too - that's when you can talk to the contacts you have made. Take your diary!

3. Listen more and talk less, so that you get to know the person.

4. Keep an open mind and assume nothing. Talk to as many people as possible - you never know who they might know. 

5. You're informing and building relationships, rather than selling to the room or to the person you're speaking to. 

6. At many network meetings you'll have the opportunity of a short pitch, so make it interesting, inspiring and memorable. Ask a fellow member to give you constructive feedback. 

7. Keep an eye out for people you can build a rapport with. They will remember you, recommend you and work with you...

8. Act on the raft of business cards you're sure to collect. Put all the details onto a CRM system and follow up, at least with an email and preferably a telephone call, within 24 hours. Contact the people you "hit it off with" first. 

9. This is a long term project, so give it the time and effort it deserves. When working out the cost of the event, including your travel time, your hourly rate, fuel and the event cost. Then evaluate your monetary return, whilst remembering the relationship return too. 

The European Court of Justice has ruled that workers who become ill when on annual paid leave will now be allowed to take off at a later date - "A worker is entitled to take paid annual leave which coincides with a period of sick leave at a later point in time, irrespective of the point at which the incapacity for work arose."

Here's a variety of responses from the business world:

"Does this mean that an employee who is ill with a "tummy bug" during a foreign holiday has to be counted as sick and not on holiday? If so, be prepared for lots of claims for extra days' holidays."

"Some lazy guys out there will abuse this ruling, which is intended to give workers the right to a full vacation rest instead of having it at the informary."

"This doesn't answer the case of an employee whose sick pay entitlement has expired and asks to be treated as being on paid annual leave during a period of sickness. If allowed, this would be contrary to the purpose of the leave as expressed by the ECJ."

"An example of where this ruling makes perfect sense occured some years ago in my organisation. A salesperson had booked a two-week holiday overseas; he suffered a strain injury the week before and realised that he would not be able to engage in the activities planned, so he cancelled the trip. He asked to reschedule the holiday; we agreed that he was in fact off sick so we agreed. It was just common sense."

"If someone is inclined to take the odd sick day here and there they will do so regardless of this ruling and should be dealt with via the company's absence procedure. For the majority who have a good attendance record, they are unlikely to claim they have been ill on holiday."

"I am going to reinforce the absence policy wording and remind staff that they have to advise all absences as stated in the policy. With technology the way it is, people can ring, text, email or send a message via someone in the country they work in."

"If it is treated as ordinary sick leave then the employee can just call and say: "I'm sick and I do not want this to be charged to my holiday leave." That would definitely be susceptible to gross manipulation. Hence the period must be determined as well as presentation of medical support."

The generation born after the year 1994 until 2004 is referred to as Generation Z. There is interest in this generation as in another few years the members will be joining the workforce and contributing to the economy of the country and the society. Knowing the characteristics of Generation Z will give people a better understanding of what these kids are all about and what motivates them.

This is the first generation to be born with complete technology. They were born with PCs, mobile phones, gaming devices, MP3 players and the internet.They do not know life without technology. They can email, text and use computers without any problems.

Generation Zs want to immediately contribute their creative prowess from day one to help to grow the company they're now affiliated. And they have gained the confidence during their college experiences to believe they can immediately contribute. Contributions from these 'young whippersnappers' are appreciated by some, but they often go unacknowledged or even diminished because baby-boomer managers aren't prepared to leverage the forward thinking introduced by their new, entrepreneurial Gen Z employee.

Consider Generation Z in terms of social collaboration. Many have grown up with MySpace or Facebook. It's likely they stayed up too late on too many occasions communicating with friends via social networks and sending or receiving text messages. Their professional and social worlds are likely to be converged because of the span of their social interactions, which overflow into all facets of their life.

While for previous generations, on line social interactions were able to be partitioned from the workplace, social for Generation Z automatically includes the companies they're launching or working for. And social collaboration is inherent in their thinking — professional practices cannot be separated from their day-to-day life.

How will companies need to adjust to Generation Z employees, with their overlap of professional life and social life? Will companies be required to change in order to leverage the creative and entrepreneurial talents of Generation Zs? It would be great to hear your thoughts and experiences.

It's not the code..its the enforcement

Listening to the latest banking scandal on the news this morning...and for the various calls for resignations and changes in culture, I was surprised to hear a call for a review and re-issue of the code of conduct at Barclays.

Surely the issue is not the actual code of conduct, which if they have one...(and having working in financial services for a number of years at the outset of my career, I'd be very suprised if they didn't have one) it is presumably a capable one already, its more to do with how it's applied and enforced.

The real issue has to be around the capability of Managers to over see, monitor and performance manage individuals against the framework of the code of conduct.

Ask yourself a question. In your organisation do you have a code of conduct? Do you have behavioural competencies? Are there positive and negative indicators clearly defining what is acceptable behaviour and what is not? Do managers adhere to these and apply consistently and fairly through out the organisation?

If the answer is yes to all of these...then congratulations. However, I fear you and your organisation may be in the minority.

Not for having the policy or the clear indicators....but for the consistent application of them by managers.

Management Training

So how do you ensure consistency? It has to be through robust, comprehensive management training. Training that is engaging, experiential and draws on real examples and practical explanations. 

Failure to equip manager's with the skills, knowledge, competence and confidence to enforce the code or values or behavioural competencies will lead to an ostrich like strategy and even worse behaviour that questions the integrity of the organisation. 

Want to avoid that? Invest in skilling your managers and managers of the future with the right mind set and skill set. If you don't, well you can 'Bank' on trouble ahead!

Sales are not everything

As any business will tell you sales are critcal. But repeat sales are often down to the quality of the customer experience.

An article from the BBC shows that two thirds of us will not use a company again once we have experienced bad service.

Customer Service report

So while many organisation hope to survive the recession and emerge intact the key to ensuring their survival is great customer service.

Adding or Detracting?

It should also be remembered that Customer Service is as much about how you handle the customer experience when things go wrong as it is when things are going well.

So how confident are you that your staff are adding to the customer experience or detracting from it?

If you're not sure, what price the loss of sales or repeat business? more than training and skilling your staff?

Time to invest in your lifeblood? 

If you're interested in tailored Customer Service training the contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Game of two halfs

There has often been a link to sport and business leadership for many years. Sport has provided an easy to relate framework for individuals to understand leadership and performance concepts.

With the start of the European Championships this week football provides yet another analysis opportunity.

Using  a few well know football managers a recent article by Personnel Today What can we learn from football managers?  highlights the different leadership approaches.

So what's your style? or preference?

Truth be told effective leadership is situational. Knowing how to adapt and change in order to get the best out of the situation or individuals.

Status Updates

With the increased focus on social media and networking sites the lure for independant, freelancers, one man bands and small businesses to utilise them as a marketing opportunity seems to be in freefall.

However, ill advised or inapropriate status updates can often do more harm than good for attracting business and future clients.

There seems to be a trend of status updates that seem to 'boast' of current activity even though the actual activity is quite mundane and of no apparent interest to others. This is sometimes followed up by a very loosley linked sales pitch. As recently seen...

"currently planning my trip abroad. v excited about going back to africa"

Followed by...

"If you're struggling with YOUR planning why not contact us for project mangement training?"

!!!..Mind the shoe horn!

Too my mind this can't be the best way to advertise your serivces and does nothing to inspire potential clients.

This style of approach reminds me of the MBTi extroversion preference....as 'tongue in cheek' demonstrated below.

Consider

So before you post consider are you engaging the interest of your reader? or dis-engaging them?

Some key things to consider:

1. WIIFT - That's 'Whats In It For Them"? What topic will capture the interest of your intended audience? 

2. Call to Action - What are you trying to achieve? What do you want your audience to do? What's your call to action?

3. Tone - What image are you trying to create? Credible professional or jovial friend? This is often forgotten about.

If unsure what to include in your status update, then maybe you don't have anything to say? Does 'No news is good news' still apply...or "better to keep quite and be assumed a fool...then to speak and to have it confirmed!"

Certainly the lesson would appear to be more considered about what you post.