Enhance.training

Successfully managing employees in their first few months is crucial for their success, and have an impact on the success of the team. New joiners first few months are critical to creating a good impression, building positive relationships, getting to grips with their role – all of which set them up for success over the coming years.

When new employees are successful, the team is more successful, with reflects very positively on you as the manager.

I share 5 tactics that every manager should employ to get the very best from their new employees. 

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Managing your new staff successfully has to start with helping them build relationships with team members and then colleagues across the business. Nearly every job relies on teammates and colleagues. With better relationships, you get better teamwork, trust, and interdependency. These in turn produce better results at a team level. 

During the probation period of a new joiner there is lots you can do to help your new staff member build positive relationships which don’t take much time to organise. It is in your interest to help your new employees be successful.

Next when managing employees first few months, it is really important to give them very clear direction and set clear expectations and personal goals. This is vital at any point but none more so when managing new employees.  When managing an employee during probation you both need goals to assess performance and progress in a fair and collaborative way. 

Helping the new joiner be as productive as possible as quickly as possible is in everyone’s interests. There is a lot a new employee needs to learn, regardless of how much experience they have prior to joining. Help them get through this learning process as quickly as possible plus remove problems and provide the resources then need to be successful. 

A good manager plays chess, not checkers. To know what your new employee is capable of and what their real character is like, you need to get to know them. Spend time with them. Work alongside them for a bit. Get to know their strengths, weaknesses, ambitions and interests. I share 7 areas that I want to learn about with any employee

Finally, holding your new joiner accountable for performance and their attitude is also very important. A new employee should be on their best behaviour and working hard to impress. If they don’t demonstrate the right level of ability, work ethic and attitude, take action quickly.

IF you have any questions on “Successfully Managing Employees In Their First Few Months – 5 Tactics”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

Working out what your most valuable work is and do that work! Everyone has the same amount of time. What you do with the time you have is the most important thing to move from okay performance to amazing performance. Work out you most important priorities at work.

I share 4 crucial prioritisation tips for managers. 

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How to focus on your most valuable work starts with understanding that increasing team performance is the most important goal for a manager. This is easily the best way any manager can add significant value to the business in which they work. There are a lot of options for how to increase team productivity. The most important will be specific to you and your team. Common routes include removing problems, training and teaching, creating a positive work culture and supporting and helping your team.

Prioritisation actions for managers must start with what can I do to increase my team’s performance and output. The bigger your team, the more time and effort you should spend directing and supporting your team.

The next best time management strategies and for setting priorities at work is to solve problems your team faces that stop them doing their work or slows them down. These might be outdated processes, low value work, problem employees, lack of resources etc.

Find and solve your team’s biggest problems – a key for how to organize plan and prioritize your work as a manager. This is also a useful approach for how to prioritize tasks at work.

Next for how do you prioritize your work – think about alignment. What tasks, activities and projects are directly supporting the business reach its goals and which ones aren’t helping as much. Focus as much of your and your team’s time and effort on the work that supports the business reaching its goals. When every team in the business aligns their work well, the business performs much better.

Finally, one of the best time management strategies for managers is to teach, mentor and coach team members to develop management and leadership skills. Doing this takes the pressure off you, gives you personally more time and increases team performance.

If you have any questions on “How To Focus On Your Most Valuable Work - Prioritisation Tips For Managers”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

Managers need to improve team results. The main reason a company employs a manager in the first place is to improve team results by more than the cost of employing them. You, as a manager, are in a great position to help your team get the best results.

I share 4 practical and very effective ways to help your team to their best results.

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There are lots of ways to help your team to get great results. As a manager, you time is precious and working out what actions and initiatives you take to maximise improving team performance from your actions is really important

You are in a brilliant position, as manager, to improve team productivity because you have more influence and power to make changes to what the team works on and the problems team members encounter.

How you serve your team – that is how you help each individual and the team overall – improve skills, remove problems, guide, direct … is critical to your success as a manager. A manager works through their team, not directly, to create value. It is all about your team and not you. I have found adopting this mindset and the actions and behaviours to support your team, is the quickest and surest way help your team to get great results,

Next help your team to improve team results by living your expectations. A well co-ordinated team that is working in a common direction is a lot more effective and produces much higher value than individuals doing what they think is best. Setting and maintaining expectations, standards and goals are essential to help your team to improve team results. Living your own expectations, rule and standards are essential to setting and maintaining expectations. If you don’t live them, why should any of your team?

The third way for improving team results is to leverage your time intelligently. The work you do should be focused on making each individual more capable, effective and productive. Increasing each team member’s performance by 10% creates a lot more value than increasing your own productivity by 20%.

Lastly, to help your team get the best results, help your team be a team. I have worked in many amazing companies and most teams I see are not really teams but groups of individuals working alongside each other. Teamwork includes high levels of communication and co-ordination, high levels of mutual support and help, a lot of trust, clear direction and goals and more. Great managers build teams rather than just co-ordinating individuals.

If you have any questions on “Improve Team Results – 4 Ways To Help Your Team To Their Best Results, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

How to keep your career moving upwards is a question most of us think about. We all want some progress, so we don’t get stuck doing the same job for ages. There are a lot of factors in how to keep your career moving. Climbing the corporate ladder starts with working hard and doing a good job. More is needed so you don’t lose momentum in your career. 

I share 4 key approaches that will massively help you in how to keep getting promoted.

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FREE Advanced CV Writing Techniques Webinar. This is ideal for those up against significant competition – for example when going for professional and managerial roles. Learn over 40 actionable techniques that far to few candidates put into practice.  https://enhance.training/lm-lp/write-your-best-cv-webinar-ulp034/
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Climbing the career ladder is a lot easier when you choose a career goal and then stick to this goal. Having a consistent goal means you put a lot more effort and energy into everything that helps you reach your goal and less into other activities which don’t help you reach your goal. Being more focused means you get to your career goal faster. 

This advice is simple to give yet hard to keep putting into practice every month and year through your career. Those that stay focused get a lot further ahead and gain a lot more career advancement.

It is hard to make sure you don’t lose momentum in your career. There are ever changing hurdles to overcome and developing a learning mindset is a really important way to keep overcoming hurdles and challenges as quickly as possible.

Another really important aspect for how to move ahead in career is to ensure you keep a positive attitude at work to as much as you can. Positivity is energising for those around you, great to improve teamwork and looked on very favourably by bosses. Look for the positives in all the situations you can. 

Very important in career advancement strategies is to be ready to move company when the opportunities at your current company don’t materialise. Moving is very important to keep climbing up the corporate ladder, so your career doesn’t suffer delays or get stalled. The key to being able to move easily is to invest in learning how to write a knockout CV and be good at passing interviews. Both are skills that can be learnt fairly quickly. See the links above.

If you have any questions about “How to Keep Your Career Moving Upwards – Career Advancement Strategies”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

How to influence people who don’t report to you is a really important skill to make you more effective at work. As you rise through the ranks, you are increasingly expected to influence without authority to deliver results and desired outcomes. 

The ability to influence employees who don’t report to you and influence people in other teams enables you to be a lot more effective in your job. You can get more help exactly when you need it from colleagues in different teams. 

Learn 5 important actions to build influence without authority. 

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When you manage people who don’t report to you, using social influencers is much more effective that trying to rely on the limited power of your position. People like to work with people that are nice, pleasant and easy to get along with. It makes the workday more enjoyable and go quicker. When you manage employees who don't report to you, be nice, be respectful and be useful to them. 

Another very important action when you lead people who don't report to you is to be interested in them and their world. As a manager you want to get to know them so you can understand their strengths and weaker areas, which enables you to get more from them. Being interested in them also create the bonds and obligations of relationships. The more they like and trust you, the more influence you will have with them. You can influence without authority.

Another incredibly important action is the use reciprocity. That is offering them value first. Look for ways to help the other person and help them. Then you can ask for help in return and be much more likely to get that help. A brilliant way to influence at work.

People are much more likely to do what you ask when they are sure you are working to help the wider group, which indirectly helps them, rather than if they suspect you are trying to help yourself. Create and communicate clear common goals. Even better is to link those goals back to how achieving them helps the other person. 

Finally, becoming an influential person builds more influence by itself. Other people know that you are in a better position to help them than less influential people. This gives you more opportunity to influence.

If you have any questions on “How To Influence People Who Don’t Report To You – Influence Without Authority”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

Being confident and self-confident at work is a very big deal – it helps you enjoy your job more, be more effective, be more influential and move your career forward faster. 

I share 10 actions for you to take to boost your self confidence at work. Some are short term, giving you improvements in days, others are longer term and very effective to build self confidence. 

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If you are manager, there is nothing better to boost your self-confidence than investing in your skills and learning how to give better feedback, delegate more effectively, be good at setting expectations and saying no, managing difficult employees etc. Visit us at enhance.training and take a look at all the courses we have to boost your self-confidence.
https://enhance.training/courses/

To explore coaching options, please visit us at https://enhance.coach/

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The first action to improve your self confidence is to focus on what you can control and influence. Try hard not to worry about what you can’t control. Measure your progress so you can see your own improvements. 

Next for how to deal with low confidence at work, always focus on the positives. Think about what you did well. What was successful and what worked. Our brains are brilliant filters and when we look for the positives our brains filter out more of the negatives.

Third, use mental visualisation exercises to prepare yourself well for actual events. These are brilliant for how to improve your confidence at work. Athletes, speakers and all those who need to perform under pressure use this technique a lot. It works brilliantly.

Boost your confidence by comparing where you are now to where you were a week, month or year ago. Don’t compare yourself to people around you how you feel are more confident than you. They were in exactly the same position you are now.

Fifth, for how to boost self confidence at work – dress well, hold yourself tall and look confident. This will help you feel confident and other people will treat you are more confident. A good self-fulfilling cycle. 

These are all very good actions to how to build confidence fairly quickly.

The best way I know for how to build confidence in yourself is to work to be successful at a number of different things. They can be small through to significant. Success breeds confidence. I share 5 actions to take to help you become more successful quicker, so you can build your self confidence.

If you have any questions on “How To Boost Your Self Confidence At Work – 10 Actions To Improve Confidence”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

Going from manager to director level is a big step and a difficult step. Firstly, there are few board director positions relative to senior manager positions. To secure one of the few director positions available you need to stand out and operate in a different way from your peers in senior manager roles.

I share 7 actions to take to get your first director role, going from manager to board director. 

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Additional Resources and Videos you will find useful:

 For coaching options to position yourself for promotion and prepare yourself to be successful when you get your promotion visit us at https://enhance.coach/

 Here is a free booklet explaining exactly how to market yourself internally professionally and skilfully to get the recognition, appreciation and promotion you deserve. https://enhance.training/lm-lp/market-internally-booklet/

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Moving from manager to director is a big jump in responsibility. The impact of decision making goes up plus you now don’t have anyone to check your functional decision with before making it. 

Going from manager to board director also means moving from one job into two jobs – you are joining the team running the company. All of these changes need several mindset shifts to be successful, which are a key part of leadership development. When you are a manager, creating a professional development plan and taking professional development training is very sensible. Being absolutely ready to take on a director role is super important so you will do a good job when you move into that role.

How to go from manager to director is a lot easier when you take specific actions to build your skills and demonstrate you are ready. Showing you are good at decision making is a vital starting point. I explain some of key factors to consider.

Next, for going from manager to director, show you are good at working cross functionally in your business and able to deliver results while working with anyone. This is a key skill to climb the corporate ladder and one of the key leadership skills for managers. 

Another very important skill is showing you are good at developing managers in the business. Another part of leadership development skills is showing you think strategically with the questions you ask and the suggestions you make. 

There are a lot of actions to take and skills to develop to be ready for a director position and then to show you are ready and a good choice to promote. Starting an executive coaching and leadership development programme is a great way to develop the right areas for you, build your confidence and take the right actions at the right time. Do get in touch to discuss how working with me will get you to promotion for director roles.

 Good luck in getting your first director role.

Jess Coles

Enhance.training

How to control your nerves when presenting is a big deal when you have to stand up in front of an audience and speak. You might be presenting to a small group, in a team meeting, or giving a presentation on a stage. You worry your nerves during a presentation will make you freeze, make mistakes causing you to look silly. 

I share 4 brilliant actions for how to control your nerves during a presentation. Make giving a presentation fun not an ordeal. 
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How to control nerves when presenting starts with are really powerful mental shift. Your physiological reactions to fear and nerves is exactly the same as your reactions to excitement. Your body doesn’t know the difference; therefore you can train your mind to think excitement rather than nerves. This is a brilliant mental shift that makes a huge difference to public speaking anxiety. 

Next when thinking about how to control nervousness when presenting focus on your audience and your message. You are communicating messages and ideas that will help your audience. This is serving your audience in the best way. When you are thinking about what might go wrong and the consequences of things going wrong, you are thinking about yourself. Keep yourself focused on your message and your audience and you lessen the pressure you put on yourself. Another great way for how to calm your nerves during a presentation.

Next, for how to overcome nerves when presenting practice visualisation exercises. Picture yourself speaking to your audience, them looking at your and your presentation going brilliantly. Keep visualising success and presenting in the way you want to present. Do this again and again. When you come to the actual presentation, it is just one more visual experience. No big deal. 

Finally, for anyone that has a fear of public speaking, nearly all your performance is from your practice. Put in a lot of good quality practice and your presentation will go really well. Practice at least 8-10 times over a number of days. Keep practicing until you feel happy and confident. I share public speaking tips for how to practice really well. 

If you have any questions on “How to Control Your Nerves When Presenting”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

There are 4 key reasons that stop staff performing at work. Most of the time, the manager of a team can influence or remove the reasons that stop staff performing.

Learn different ways to reduce or remove the blockers to employee performance to reduce underperforming employees in your team. 
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The 4 main reasons why employees under perform are:

1.     A lack of direction and expectations

2.     Too few resources to do a good enough job

3.     Lack of skills

4.     The will is missing

 A lack of direction or far more common – confusion about direction is a classic example of what stops employees performing. When everyone is working in different directions, there will be conflicts and actions helping one employee but detrimental to others. Employees working in slightly different directions reduces co-ordination and with it, team performance. 

Every employee has to deal with less resources than ideal. Business resources are always going to be constrained. Real problems occur when individuals and teams start hoarding resources which definitely stops staff performing at work.

Another key to managing underperformance is to ensure that the staff have the skills they need to do a good enough job. A lack of skills, knowledge and help is among the top factors that stop employees performing. Employees might get the work done but miss deadlines, work slowly or produce lower quality than is needed. All contribute to poor performance. 

How to manage underperforming employees must address expectations, resources and skills. Cover all these areas and you have removed a ton of excuses that poor performers hide behind. 

Lastly, a lack of will also stop employees performing. There can be so many reasons for a lack of motivation. They might have character flaws, have difficulties at home, or feel they have been unfairly treated at work. Find out what the issues are and you have a reasonable chance of resolving them. 

If you care about improving team performance, you must address all the reasons that stop staff performing. Getting improvement is the quickest, cheapest and best way to improve individual and team performance. 

If you have any questions on “4 Key Reasons That Stops Staff Performing at Work & What To Do About It”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles
Enhance.training

Developing a learning mindset and mastering self-learning at work are critical to developing a management career. Very few managers get formal training which means if you want to get good, a growth mindset is a massive help. 

I explain what a learning mindset is, why it is so important to develop for managers and give you 5 tips to help you building a growth mindset at work. The will to learn as quickly as possible is key in how to be a better manager.

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Additional Resources and Videos you will find useful:

Michael Jordan on failure leading to success https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_EyPX3CD-g


Team Management Course

Managing teams well is hard work, even when you know exactly what to do. When you have been left to figure things out by yourself, getting good at your job is ten times harder and slower. 

Learning great management approaches, knowledge and skills make a huge difference to your effectiveness, your enjoyment and your career progress. Invest in becoming a great manager through our Management Skills Accelerator courses – learn more here: https://enhance.training/msa-usp006

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I think developing a growth mindset for success is a must in leadership and management. There is so much competition, getter better quickly is a key way to stand out. Plus the quicker you learn and improve the more enjoyable managing will become for you and your team. 

In my experience, the power of a learning mindset is massive. Few managers get taught, even by their own bosses. Most have to rely on self-learning and get their growth mindset motivation into gear.

Developing a mindset for successful learning starts with your attitude and your mental approach. A growth mindset vs fixed mindset is one that is open to learning, that looks for opportunities to learn and improve from failures and successes. People with a learning mindset believe - at the core of their being - that when they work to learn and improve, they will keep getting better.

Developing a growth mindset does take work. Learning and improving does take work. An incredibly important question – “Do you view the goals you are trying to reach as worth putting in that work?” Is yes, work to build a growth mindset. If no, stop reading. 

How to develop learning mindset starts with changing the way you think and react to situations. You can absolutely do this. Look for opportunities to learn: from failures and successes; from all feedback no matter how negative or unrealistic; from others around you – their successes and mistakes; from any opportunity you have. 

Take this mindset and you will build resilience, determination and commitment. All very good qualities to have to be successful in whatever you do at work and outside. 

I share 5 tips that have been incredibly useful for me to firstly develop a learning mindset and to work at self learning at work; and then to keep putting in the work and effort to find ways to learn from as much as I can. 

To be successful, a learning mindset and the will to work are both vital attributes.

If you have any questions on “How The Best Managers Master Self-Learning At Work”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

enhance.training