Toojays Blog

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

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.

Having run my own businesses now for 10 years I feel qualified to comment on this post!

Over my time I've heard and experienced the following sayings so many times...just wondered if other business owners feel the same or have any more to add to the list?

"You'll never....

1. Work as hard or as long as you do as your own boss

2. Find any employee as passionate about the business as you

3. Really switch off!

4. Get as much job satisfaction than from being your own boss

5. Be able to work for anyone else again"

Are these true?

Keen to hear your thoughts and comments!

Lee

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

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!

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.  

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.

A True Story

No this isn't a ghost story or management theory on conflict management...although both can be pretty scary!

This is infact a true story.

Yesterday I took my 9 year old daughter for an eye operation. The procedure, of being sedated, operated on and her eye ball stitched, would be daunting to most let alone a 9 year old little girl.

Whilst waiting with her I asked how she was feeling. She said scared. I asked if she'd been this scared before...hoping to help her relate to an experience and how she came out of it OK.

She replied with "Yes...the first time I went to school...the first time I went into the classroom. I wish I knew how things were going to be."

I smiled and agreed with her. Then to my surprise she pulled out a piece of crumpled paper and said "That's why Daddy,  I've got these".

"What have you got there?" I asked.

"These" She said proudly "are my questions to ask the Doctor!"

Excellent set of Questions

She unfolded the piece of paper and I could see she had written in her best handwriting the following question's.

1. What will happen?

2. Will it hurt?

3. What if it goes wrong?

4. Are you a good surgeon? (OK she'd actually written 'sturgeon' but we knew he wasn't a fish!)

"An excellent set of questions" I told her...and the attentive Surgeon dutifully answered all of them as he sat with her pre-Op.

His calm reassuring manner and answers put her mind at rest and reduced her fear.

Her actions and particularly the reference to her previous classroom experience got me thinking about how do we as Trainers handle the fears of our delegates?

Lessons for all trainers

Do we take the time to explain:

• The process? "What will happen?"
• The engagement needed "Will it hurt?" 
• The benefits or consequences "What happens if it goes wrong?"
• Our Credibility as the trainer "Are you a good Surgeon?"

So check your introductions...are you addressing these fears?

A case of The Emperor's new clothes....or the future for business?

Mention the term Social Media for businesses and you're sure to get a discussion started as we recently found at one of our training courses. 

Love it or loath it views are polorised. 

But what's the truth? Are businesses seeing the benefits from Social Media integration?

Indeed what are the benefits? Increased traffic? Brand awareness? Customer engagement?

How do the measurements and ROI stack up?

One thing that does appear consistent is that there is a view that most businesses don't know if they're doing the right thing or as much as they should....and are often doing it becuase its the thing to do!

A recent report from Social Media Benchmarking - part of The Chartered Institute of Marketing throws up some interesting results

Social Media Benchmarking Report

So is it suitable for all?

One things clear if you do decide to engage then you need to have a clear strategy...and resources! It takes dedication, time and thought to ensure that you regularly contribute and keep your Facebook, Twitter, linkedin and blog up todate with the right level of interesting content.

As a result of this is a Social Media marketing strategy suitable for SME's? 

There does seem to be a gap in knowledge of how to fly this thing call Social Media, with many of a certain generation looking like startled rabbits at the mention of it.

Plenty of innovative media and marketing companies will offer to 'train' you in the dark arts of effective blogging..or essential tweeting....claiming that they're not marketees but fresh approach to customer engagement.....however most techniques are availalbe for free on the internet with a well aimed google search. 

So is there a culture of Emperor's new clothes..? A "We must have it becuase everyone else has it" attitude? Or is it still too early to measure the benefits?

I wonder how we will be looking back in 10 years time and measuring the impact of Social Media for businesses.

(and whilst you're pondering that...check out www.facebook/ToojaysTraining or @TTHRC on twitter!! - Ed )

The knives are out....for Team Building.

Recently came across this vodaphone billboard advertisement frowning on outdoor team development activites. 

Is this a reflection of peoples perception of such events? 

There seems to be an increasing trend of putting down 'Team building'. Is this because its an easy target? Or is it the reality that people in the teams don't value or see the value in outdoor experiential activities?

Well maybe it's both.

As a provider of outdoor activities and team development we often come across clients historic experiences where people have been forced to endur all kinds of 'extreme' activities in the name of 'fun' or 'development'.

These frequently do nothing more than polorize teams rather than bring them together - unless you class hatred toward the event organisor as a common denominator!

Whilst stretching people, taking them comfortably outside of their comfort-zone and involving them in outdoor activities are often used, there has to be consideration and a proven tangible benefit.

When we design our interventions we're careful to highlight the 'challenge by choice' principle.

We never force people to do anything they don't want to do.

The level of engagement they are asked to participate with is entirely down to them.

The other aspect of these activities are that they have to address relevant issues within the team. Otherwise what's the point?

Discussing and debriefing the activity is key. Reviewing the learning and how that can be applied back in to the work environment is crucial for the success of the activitiy and event. Without this it does become a worthless task.

Perhaps that's the problem historically and what's driving this perception of Team Building.

There hasn't been the 'link' back to business issues and behaviours. Maybe the focus has been on mis-guided perception of fun and motivational events, without substance.

Anyone for paintball? bowling...? drumming?...no?!...oh well.

What? I hear you cry...surely the learning we do at the moment, be it 70:20:10 based or otherwise is always collaborative.

We collaborate with the tutor, the author, the fellow delegates, our coach, our work place colleagues. 

I grant you this may well be the case, but I'm specifically talking about how are we learning from other businesses, other organisations and industries.

I know from my experience the more enlightened professional may look to complete a bench marking exercise to rank their current status or situation against a comparible team or unit. 

But how often do we take the oppotunity to actually engage with that other organisation to discuss, debate, learn from and seek inspiration and creativity?

Not that often I'd wager.

In working with a variety of senior teams across organisations and continents it strikes me that I'm in a very unique position of seeing the familiar process of 'team development' work. One thing I note is that there are common issues and problems within these teams.

I understand the sensativity of corporate IP, and trading information so I'm not necessarily suggesting the collaboration is with your industry rival. However, there are a vast amount of companies and senior teams that are set up and deal with similiar operational, logisitical and strategic issues to perhaps your own.

So why not learn from others experience? Learn from their successes and mistakes..speed up your own teams development as a result.

One thing to consider though before you rush to the nearest comparible organisation asking for them to divulge their key to success....is what's in it for them?! The WIFFM factor.

Consider what can you trade with. What could they benefit from. What would they value in exchange for sharing their learning.

Worth a thought...to speed up the learning process at the very least!

So you're thinking of leaving...?

In 2009 a Right Management survey of over 900 north american empoyees found that over 60% were planning to leave their current role.

More recent surveys have indicated that with the continuation of the recession and uncertain economic outlook that this figure is now much higher with employees just waiting for an up turn before they depart.

This is an alarming stat if true and the impact on businesses through this potential talent drain is enough to make the most hard nosed CEO sit up and pay attention.

So what's the solution? and....more importantly who's job is it to stop this loss of employees!

Employee engagement is the key. 

There are numerous postings and articles for EE on the web and the practice is well populated with suggestions for strategic plans and cultural changes to address the problem.

With most of these though the suggestion is that the initiatives and policies should come from HR, Personnel or the Executive Board.

But look at the root causes of why people leave their role and most exit interview data would  suggest it stems from the lack of psychological contract or engagement with their line manager.

Why not then make the line manager accountable?

That's right...set an objective a KPI for the line manager that relates to staff retention rates.

Following the adict that "What get's measured...gets done" - why not ensure that staff retention is focused upon and reduced? 

If the line manager knows their own performance and possibly their performance related bonus will be impacted upon by how engaged they are with their staff then it becomes a higher priority for them.

Metrics can varied but numbers of or percentage of days training given, absenteesism, promotions as well as leavers within a team could monitored as suitable gauges.

Engaging and empowering Line Managers to increase retention and reduce talent loss has to be addressing the issue at the front line.

Time to revisit the objectives you've set??

Do you know who your Star's are? or who are your Icebergs?

Continuing the thread of Performance Management the need to catergorise performance of individuals to either address poor performance or develop succession plans for high flyers is a key requirement for managers.

As a straightforward approach the People Performance Potential Model is a free resource from Toojays that gives a structured approach to the catergorisation.

Using the model and the results from Performance Appraisal's and regular 121's you can effectively 'plot' your team and identify the key individuals and roles you need to focus upon.

Do you know where your team would sit? How many Star's or Superstar's do you have?

Click on the link to download the model template and start analysing your team.

Following on from the thread on Perofrmance Management I thought I'd talk about the issue of consistency within Performance Appraisals.

A Consistent Approach

Supervisors and Managers who deliver inflated performance reviews to their employees are doing more harm than good. A solid performance review should identify areas for employee improvement, but giving employees inflated reviews can mkae improvement an uphill challenge. While delivering honest performance evaluation can be an uncomfortable task, it is one that must be done in order to help an employee improve.

The Problem with Inflated Performance Reviews

When a leader delivers an inflated perforamce review, the employee does not receive the correct message. This type of performance review takes all of the potential conflict out of discussion for the manager or supervisor when deliverying the feedback, but there is a price to be paid. While this solution may in fact, make the manager or supervisor feel good in the short run, the long term problems are only begining.

Employees move toward positive outcomes when they review their ratings and the comments made about their performance. If there is no criticism, the constructive criticism is written in a way that is complimentary, or the rating is inflated; employees will believe they no longer need to develop in that area. They will look upon that skill as successfully and completely developed, while the manager may require further effort for improvement. The manager or supervisor also runs the risk of conflict with his or her boss when the evaluation is reviewed. If the final signatory disagrees with the assessment, the manager or supervisor will be forced to defend his or her rating. The boss may require higher levels of productivity based on the review, or he or she may be asked to have the review rewritten.

Correcting the Problem

There are many ways to avoid or correct inflated performance reviews. When managers write performance reviews, they should not write them hastily. Taking several days to complete an evaluation allows managers to write, revise, reconsider, and review it from fresh perspectives. Each time the assessment is reviewed, the ratings can be moved up or down and the comments adjusted accordingly.

Even after an inflated performance review is delivered, there are steps that can be taken to correct the message. Correcting the problem can be more uncomfortable than giving the honest feedback initially; but, it is better to correct the message and the rating, if possible, than to allow the employee to believe they are doing better than they are. Managers should schedule additional coaching and mentoring sessions to discuss the employee's performance and create some short term expectations. Setting additional short-term goals can help turn the situation around.

Managers must ensure that every performance review they deliver is accurate and genuinely reflects the over all performance of their employees for the defined period. Constructive feedback can be difficult to give and receive, but it is better in the long run for everyone to deal with the truth up front. What employees choose to do after that will be up to them.

With more and more companies and individuals utilising The Cloud and working remotely it's an increasing requirement for Managers to be skilled in leading decentralised teams.

But is managing within The Cloud a foggy issue for Leaders?

The Following article outlines the Four common pitfalls of remote team management that managers should be aware of.

Managing within The Cloud

How are you ensuring you avoid them?

Just a thought...but wondering what training is being given to recruiters and recruitment agency staff? 

Appreciate that a lot of these individuals work on commission and the pressure of placments and the market is great, however are they aware of the impact they have on the motivation of their candidates and applicants?

Recent horror stories include the recruitment consultant who rang back an applicant and left a voice message, at speed, that said "Sorry but you didn't get it (the job) - do contact us at XXXX (name deleted!) as we must have something for you!"

Could this message be anymore cold and disheatening?! What's next a simple text message saying "Declined!"

Training is unfortunately viewed by many as an expense. The reality is that it is an essential for any service industry. 

Particularly in these times when client relationship should be key as its a factor for ongoing business. If the candidate goes on to be a future HR director requiring the services of a Recruitment agency...are they likely to use the same company they experienced that service from? 

Unlikely.

Perhaps the recruitment industry needs to look at the level of empathy it demonstrates...or run the risk of becoming the next Estate agency or Bankers on the public radar.