Two weeks ago, I did a podcast on priority management as part of the Leap Programme which, in particular, is aimed at helping companies move from being small and good to big and great.  It is also relevant for anyone who works in any type of company, with the setting priorities at work.

That podcast regarded what priorities were, then confronting your priority list with actually what you do and finding that actually you do a lot of things during the day which do not relate at all to your priorities. This caused quite a few discussions with my clients.  One of the discussions was what actually was a priority compared to an objective or indeed compared to a task.

In this podcast I will go a little bit deeper into what actually is a priority.  And it leads, very nicely, on to further discussions of why priorities are important and the whole structure around why arriving at your priority for your company or your department is important and it links in very nicely with the idea of reporting and then, of course, delegating which is the second part of the Leap Programme.

Today I have four points to make; the first one is the confusion between priorities, objectives and tasks. I’ll look into the different definitions of those three things.  The second one is why is knowing the priority important.  The third I will look at the construction and the use of objectives and how we can actually arrive at the objectives, who arrives at the objectives and how we use them.  Finally I’ll talk about reporting and the link with delegating, as I’ve just mentioned.

Confusion between Priorities, Objectives and Tasks

* Does it really Matter?

* Remember from The Leap Program:

* Only One Priority is Great but difficult, so let’s say Five

* Concentric Circles

 

Why is Knowing the Priority Important?

* It Avoids Misdirection

* Non so Insular

* It helps build strong teams:

* Contribution in terms of department, other departments and the company

* Reduces the need to hire more people:

* Effective use of current resources

* Everyone moving in the same direction

* And, which direction?

* The Requirement of Energy and Thought

 

The Construction and Use of Objectives

* Where people have set roles: Spare Parts/Service Manager

* They set their objectives

* As the priority comes from a higher level:

* Participation in the decision

* This is creation of a team !

* What does this mean:

* Set the objectives

* The Measurement

* What he needs to do to reach these measurements

* What his boss and company do that helps and hinders him

* The programme for the next 12 months

* Measurement:

* Priorities and Objectives need to be measurable?

* Rigid and Exact – No

* Clear, Simple and Rational – Yes

* Measuring Performance drives effort in the right direction

* Timely

* Accurate

* Who sees it, leads into Reporting and Self Control

 

Reporting and the Link with Delegating

* Technological Development – Lots of data

* It must go to the Manager not His Boss !

 

This Podcast Answers These Questions

What is the connection between bottom line first and conditional statements?

What is the BPiE solution to the complexity of conditional statements?

How to avoid conditional statements all together?

 

Description

As you all know, learning a language is not an easy thing to do.  Most of the people who I meet and speak to are learning English without actually living in an English-speaking country.  This makes the learning of the language even more difficult.  In my mind then, the professionals who use English need to be selective as to what they learn, and the reason for that is, as is often stated, if you’re not living in a country, you are not having an awful lot of practice in using English structures, vocabulary, idioms, and therefore, without the practice, it is very easy to forget the correct manner to use the various statements and the various phrases. So as to make that whole process easier in a sense, or more effective, I developed Being Professional in English, and it’s not trying to dumb down the study of the language, it just starts as I mentioned in the introduction, it starts from the idea that English is simply another instrument to further your career, to reach your objectives, that is it. Whether you are an artist, a chemical engineer, a project manager, a musician, it doesn’t matter, if you are operating on the world stage, you have to use English. I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing, that’s just the way it is, and it’s probably going to be like that for the next 50 or so years.

 

 

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If you found the content of this podcast might fit with reaching your objectives then click the button to talk to BPiE and Mark will contact you with 24 hours.

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Last week, I spoke about two of the most important aspects facing smaller companies as they look to take that leap into larger markets, global markets, and to expand into a much bigger entity.

One of these issues was related to taking the longer view.  But of course, before you can take the longer view, you have to find the time to do it.  Last week’s podcast talked about ideas, theory. Now I want to start talking about how to do it.  Something which is unfortunately often lacking in a lot of the consultancy work you may hear.

The first in this series of the Leap Program is on Priority Management.  Not time management but priority management.

Priority Management  is one of the very first things that, when I meet with executives, we talk about.  But first, let me say two things, the first of which is, none of what I’m going to talk about is my work.  It is all taken from Peter Drucker’s book, The Effective Executive, which was first issued in 1967, and remains probably the best book you could possibly purchase on anything to do with executive training or management training.  Every time I read this book, and I must have read it 25 times, there is always something in there that I’ve missed.  It’s just jam-packed with information.  All I’ve done is maybe update some of the techniques he’s used, but more or less, I’m going to tell you what he suggests.

The second thing I want to tell you is that this is a podcast on priority management, which some people talk about time management, and I’m actually recording this at 10 minutes past 10 at night.  So I coach people on this, I use this system myself regularly, every six months the whole process of actually managing your priorities which I’ll talk about.  And yet, even I, sometimes, have to work at this time of night, that’s just the way it is.

 

Definitions and Objectives

* Why Priority Management and Not Time Management

* Time is a Unique Resource and is irreplaceable

* The Supply is Totally Inelastic – Demand Up, Supply Unchanged

* Humans Are Bad at Managing Time – Dark Room

* Objectives of Priority Management

* Ensure What We do is In Line With Our Priorities

* First Job With Executives

* Bad Memories

* Best Customer Calls

* Provide Large Continuous Chunks of Time

* Managing People

* 7 Hour Report Split into 15 min Slots Results in Little

 

Where Does the Time Go?

* No One Remembers Well

* Historic Analysis

* Computer Agendas Make it Easier, IF USED

* Data Sample = 3 Weeks

* Place in categories What You Did

* For Blank Periods, Mark Nothing

* Work Out the Percentages for the Categories

* Real Time Analysis

* The True Drucker Method

* Write Down What You Are Doing Every 15 mins

* Use your assistant or Your PDA

 

Finding Priorities

* Do Not Invent Your Priorities !

* Job Description – is it Upto Date ?

* Ask Your Boss – Be Careful However

* Look At Recent Engagements/Meetings/Presentations

* Write Everything Down Like Brainstorming – Then Organise

* There Might be 50 But These Are Tasks, Not Priorities

* Drucker Says Only One Priority

* Let’s Try to Have Only 5

 

Eliminating Excess

* How Do These Priorities Compare to Your Time Record?

* What Can Be Completely Eliminated?

* What Would Happen if it Was Not Done?

* What Can Be Done By Others?

The first in a series of podcasts that tackle the issues raised when an organisation begins to grow and communication starts to suffer. The larger the company grows the greater are the opportunities and equally the easier it is to lose that which made it good in the first place, rapid, flexible, consumer orientated.

Yet of course it is to a certain extent a “good” issue to tackle, at least there is growth you might say. But at the time it can feel as if the entire fabric of what made the company is falling apart. This podcast will, with some true stories followed by concrete guidance, help those that have worked so hard over many years and now find themselves on the threshold.

 

Two Characteristics of an Old Friend – Being Paranoid

* Conversation with an Old Family Friend

* Engaging Character

* To Make a Difference You have to Make a Profit

* “Just Because you are Paranoid does not Mean that They are not Out to Get You”

* The 5% of Times When it Goes Wrong

* Bill Gates and Steve Bulmer – “the 17th person”

* Fear should guide you but it should be latent

* High Levels of Cash

* 40% of yearly costs

* Very Short Term Risks Surrounded by Paranoia

* When Times are Good and Bad

 

Two Characteristics of an Old Friend – The Long View

* Why Have the Long View?

* Allows to Prepare for a Changed Future

* The Present is not a replica of the Past

* Allows you to not make Decisions that are good Short Term but are Damaging in the Long Term.

* The Process is Not about Predicting the Future.

* It Is About Liberating People’s Insights

* Quote from Tim Saunders P.112

* But How?

* When all You Seem to Be Doing is Putting Out Fires!

* Particularly The Case For Companies About to “Make the Jump”

 

How to Find the Time

* The How?

* Individual Level

* Priority Management

* Delegate

* Company Level

* Decide If you Want to Make the Jump

* Introduce Structure

* Weekly Staff Meetings – Effective

* Weekly Individual Meetings – Effective

Some people when they walk through the doors of work change from being kind and well-mannered to terrible grotesque abusers of the role power that they have in the workplace. Yet there is an impressive list of commentors from business and military walks of life, who have all accepted the fact that to achieve the most from both your life and your career, nothing goes as far as a little good old-fashioned politeness.

Simple activities such as “good morning” to all at work, to verbally showing your appreciation for someone’s work go a long way to creating the correct impression in the minds of those that you must influence so that you may reach your objectives.

The greatest human desire is to be appreciated but only if that appreciation is sincere.

So today I will look at this subject in greater detail, offering examples of when and how a “spoonful of sugar” will oil the cogs of society.

 

Daily Examples

* The Opportunity to Visit Many Companies

* The First Point of Contact

* The Receptionist

* The Corridor

* Example A

* Example B

* If You Were Her Manager:

* What Would You Ask Yourself?

* What Would You Say To Her?

 

Ian Dury, “Reasons to be Cheerful”

* The Joy of Giving

* No exaggeration

* Remember The World Has Changed

* Firm And Fair

* What Many physiologists Have Confirmed:

* The Deepest Principle in Human Nature is the Craving to be Appreciated

* Remember Our Receptionist

* Nothing New – No Surprise

* “Are You Nervous?”

* An Impressive List of The People Who Thought This Way

 

What You Can Say and Do

* First Point:

* No Need to Wait Till You Are The CEO

* Dale Carnegie – Book Sold 16 million Copies!

* The Little Courtesies that Oil the Cogs of the Monotonous Grind of Everyday Life

* Please, Thank You, Could You Please……. etc

* At Dinner, Be Courteous to the Waiter – Interview!

* The Most Important Part:

* Sincerity

* Luckily, Sincerity is a Choice Just Like Being Effective

* Manager Giving Feedback

 

Late Examples

* Doing This Will Enhance Your Professional and Private Life

* The Visual:

* Englishman’s Formal Politeness with An Italian’s Passion and Sincerity

* You Can Change Your Life And Those Around You:

* Tim Sanders – Saving the World at Work

* Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends and Influence People

 

 

 

[custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h5″ accent=”true”] This Podcast Answers These Questions [/custom_headline]

Why the passive voice must never be used?

How does it convey responsibility or the lack of it?

Why do english schools continue to teach it?

[custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h5″ accent=”true”] Description [/custom_headline]

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If you love the study of the English language, you are probably not going to like this podcast. If, however, you are someone who does not live in an English-speaking country and wishes to use English just like any other instrument such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, your paintbrush, your violin, no matter, to further your professional career then this podcast is for you. Today I will look at the passive voice in English: when to use it, how to use it and if to use it. I hope you enjoy this podcast and find it useful.

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[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][prompt type=”left” button_icon=”arrow-right” target=”blank” title=”Fits Your Objectives?” message=”If you found the content of this podcast might fit with reaching your objectives then click the button to talk to BPiE and Mark will contact you with 24 hours.” button_text=”Start Reaching Your Goals” href=”http://www.being-professional-in-english.com/contact-us-page-2/”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

 

This Podcast Answers These Questions

What is the correct balance between remaining on time and encouraging creativity?

What do you need to remain on time?

What are the language functions you need to use?

 

Description

Meetings have a terrible reputation both for the lack of relevance and for the lack of time adherence, but it is difficult to manage a meeting successfully as running meetings effectively requires a great deal of concentration on the part of the manager. This is especially true if the meeting is taking place in your second language. We have already dealt with how to deal with negative participants in meetings in a previous podcast and today I will provide guidance on how to remain on time, which in the process, will gain you a highly professional reputation. Running effective meetings is an enormous subject. It’s one of the subjects that I have written down almost 50 different possible podcasts to talk about, and the reason being is that it’s a very difficult activity to accomplish. You have time constraints, hopefully, and we’ll talk about that in a little while. You have to manage people. If it’s a type of meeting where there are debates and discussion which of course, I hope, you have to manage people’s sometimes emotional state as well. You have to do an awful lot if you are managing a meeting and I think one of the reasons why, and actually, no, the main reason why meetings are considered by the vast majority of people as a waste of time is because of the lack of expertise, the lack of competence of the person who is managing it. It takes time to learn how to manage effective meetings and it’s difficult at first, and it has nothing at all to do with cultural differences. I have met just as many managers who are not capable of running an effective meeting in Germany as I have done in Italy. It’s not a cultural thing. It’s simply down to not knowing the techniques and maybe not appreciating the techniques.

 

 

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Fits Your Objectives?

If you found the content of this podcast might fit with reaching your objectives then click the button to talk to BPiE and Mark will contact you with 24 hours.

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Have you ever found yourself in the position where, after disagreeing with someone in a meeting they have become rather hostile to you in the subsequent weeks?

Did you wonder whether it may have been your linguistic skills that had caused the negative reaction of your colleague, or did you simply want to make your view public with little concern to anything else?

This podcast takes these two language functions of agreeing and disagreeing and changes them into two powerful techniques that will both increase your effectiveness, and dramatically improve your relationships with your colleagues.

As many of you know I think that meetings are a fantastic opportunity.  I hope you’re not laughing, but people who are listening to this podcast who have been at work for quite some time will probably be thinking… “yeah I know that Mark, but I don’t really agree.  The meetings I go to are a waste of time“. In fact that’s what the research says,  it is common knowledge that people say 70% of the meetings they go to are a waste of time.

That’s really unfortunate.  The crucial reason as to why they are a waste of time is because the people who are running the meetings do not know how to run effective meetings. It’s not that difficult. There’s just a few techniques they need to learn.  Today however I’m not going to concentrate on how to run an effective meeting.  I will do a podcast on that.  But today I want to look at a couple of language functions of agreeing and disagreeing in meetings, language functions which are used an awful lot, or at least, should be used an awful lot in the meeting.  That is if you want to have debate and discussion of course, and really show that these two language functions combined with a couple of behavioural techniques can become very, very powerful and very crucial for your career development.

 

What Are Meetings Best Suited For?

* Types of Meetings

* Staff, Project, Brainstorming, 1 to 1’s, no.1’s, Commercial…etc

* My Focus: Regular Meetings with Colleagues

* The Clock of Money Not Time

* Information Sharing is Not Effective Use of Time – Usually

* The 3 D’s: Debate, Discussion and Decision

* How to Make Decisions Effective

* How to Run Effective Meetings

* Feel Secure

* Take Risks

* Collective Decisions

* HOW ?

 

The Linguistic Issues – What Phrases are Best

* Bad News: For Meetings You Need Many Language Functions

* Good News: You Need Only to Have One Phrase per Function

* Function: To Agree with Someone

* I agree. (a Verb not an Adjective)

* Function: To Partially Agree with Someone = Agreement With Flexibility

* I agree up to a point, and………

* The use of BUT

* When to Interupt?

* Disagreeing in English

* Always a Good Idea to Soften Any Disagreement

* Function: To Disagree

* I’m afraid I cannot agree with you on that

* I cannot agree with you on that

* The Difference of I’m afraid?

 

The Path to High Performance Meetings

* What is the Best Relationship in Your Life?

* Wife, Husband, Partner etc

* Why Is It The Best?

* Many Items But Respect is High Up On the List.

* How Did You Get There?

* Dressing Well, Arriving on Time, Booking Tickets in Advance…..

* Listening Attentively, Intensity of Feeling, Caring

* Effective Behaviour + Solid Relationship Building

* This Is The Goal. This is a High Performance Meeting / Team

* HOW Do We Reach That Level?

 

More people worry about receiving a telephone call more than making one, and it is obvious why they feel this way.  Little time to prepare, a sudden demand upon their English skills, other demands upon their time at that moment etc.

This Podcast follows on from ‘Staying in Control’ podcast on making telephone calls and will give guidance on how to approach a received call whilst remaining professional and effective. Telephone survival phrases are commonly taught, but unfortunately what is not taught, is how to remain effective and professional even while using them. This podcast addresses this terrible defect.

I am often surprised when I speak to clients about which particular professional skill they find most nerve racking.  Usually I think they are going to say presenting or negotiating, and often they do.  However, the vast majority of people who work in companies are not often asked to negotiate or to do a presentation for the company, but almost everyone is asked to make telephone calls.  And like I said with the ‘Staying in Control’ podcast of a few months back, where I looked at how to make a telephone call, I am surprised at the lack of training that is given on this particular business skill.

One of the reasons why there is a lack of training is because employers believe that you can make a telephone call.  And of course you can, because in your private life you are able to make a telephone call.  But like many private life skills telephoning, e-mailing, bringing those skills into the professional world causes some difficulties.  So when my clients say to me Mark, receiving a telephone call is something which I really don’t like, they hear their telephone ring, they see the number coming up and it’s a foreign number, they know they are going to be asked to speak in English and they have a great deal of fear about this.

So that’s why I want to address this particular issue today and I have three points.

 

Why Receiving Calls is Thought to be more Difficult

* Not in Control

* Partly a Mindset because the Structure is similar.

* The Same Person You Spoke to Yesterday

* Survival Expressions

* What Are The survival Expressions

* “Sorry John, but may I call you back in 30 mins”

* “Could You Send me an Email and I Will Reply This Afternoon?”

* Respect Your Commitment or next time the Caller will Refuse !

* ‘Please could you speak a little slower, thank you’

 

The Five Stages ‘You are in Control’

* Greet and then Identifying Yourself

* Good morning. This is Mark Olding

* Caller asks to Speak to you or to Someone Else

* Yes, hello.

* I am afraid he is not here at the moment, could I help?

* Start with Small Talk

* How are you?

* KNOW THY PEOPLE = know what to ask.

* Caller Explains the Purpose of the Call

* I am calling about the presentation

* Could you tell me what you thought of it?

* End the Call hopefully with Action Points

* So I will organise the meeting for tomorrow

* Thanks. Goodbye

 

The Transition from Small Talk to Business

* Start with Small Talk

* How are you?

* KNOW THY PEOPLE = know what to ask.

So, how may I help you?

* Caller explains the Purpose of the Call

* I am calling about the presentation

* Could you tell me what you thought of it?

 

 

Both my present role and my past roles in companies have given me a great deal of experience in reading resumes and deciding which candidate to contact for an interview. Currently I receive one résumé a day and I am absolutely amazed at the poor quality of them. Almost all of them miss the point of what a résumé is meant to function as and as a result, rarely do I read them.

The problem is as usual, the people giving advice to those who are writing the resumes have never been in the situation of a recruiting manager or a manager looking to hire someone. The advice given is wrong because they have no experience of what is right. This podcast aims to address this lack of guidance and provide you with clear ideas on how to stand out from the crowd.

This is a very serious subject and it is serious, not only because as I mentioned in the introduction the number of resumes that I see every day of which I find have a very poor quality with them. But it is important because I also am asked by friends as to whether I can help them with the construction of their cv’s or their resumes as they try to apply for different jobs. You do not mess around with people’s future!

With these friends I think they are rather shocked by my reaction because often I say to them, ‘Look, I would love to send this off to people but I can’t send this off to people – it is terrible.’

I am based in Italy and a lot of people here unfortunately use the European passport template and I have never seen anything as bad in my life as this template. I promise you that when I receive these resumes written in this fashion, I never read them:

Being Part of the Crowd Will Not Get You What You Want !!

So this is why I wanted to do this podcast today. I wanted to give my ideas as to what I have in the past looked for when I have received resumes and also what I look for now. So the advice I am going to give is the advice from someone who is a reader of resumes, not someone who is a writer of resumes and there is a very different mindset between the two. I am going to give you guidance on what I look for. Hear me out, go through the different considerations that I want to point out to you and you can choose whether you want to go ahead with this or not. But I think the difference in this particular guidance and in this particular podcast is it coming from someone who reads resumes. You may not agree with my point of view, but at least you are getting a different idea than what you normally hear from your friends and your colleagues, and people who are trying to help you in writing your cv but maybe don’t have the experience of having to read them.

 

What to Consider Before Writing

* What is the Difference between Resume and CV

* What is the Purpose of Writing a Resume?

* Share Information? Introduce Yourself? NO

* To Obtain an Interview…YES

* How Are Positions Found?

* 75% of Executive Positions are Filled via Contacts

* Where Should Your Energy Be Then?

* A Marketing Document Has?

* Marketing Focus

* Items Bolded

* Personal Branding – You are not writing an Essay !

* The Questions You Do Need to Answer

* Accomplishments – Update Every 3 Months

* Are You Positioned Correctly?

* How Do You Specifically Add Value to Companies?

* What Did You Do and How Well Did You Do It

* How Do You Add Value….

* What Are Your Unique Skills?

* It Might Be Personality and That is Fine

* increasingly Important in the Future