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How to improve team communication remains a top challenge for pretty much every business, and with it a challenge for all managers.

 Being able to communicate is super important to ensure:

1.      Everyone understands the direction of travel expected

2.      Activities are better co-ordinate within the business

3.      Each person is better able to do their job 

 To help you do this effectively , I am sharing 7 methods to Improve Team Communication.

 The first method to improve team communication is to encourage engagement from all team members. You can help by organising problem solving workshops, planning meetings or brainstorming sessions. Facilitate these meetings and ask questions to get attendees communicating.

 The second of seven team communication strategies is to be open and honest. If you are open and honest with the team , then they are likely to be so in return. These are great behaviours to improve team communication.

 The third way to build effective team communication is to over communicate. This means passing on relevant information you learn to your team and team members so they can do their jobs more effectively. Hold information sharing meetings or sent out a weekly team newsletter – whatever works best for you and your team.

 The fourth method to improve team communication is to resolve conflict quickly. Even in the best teams, conflicts arise, and they can be big blockers to team communication. Resolving conflict one of several key steps to improve team communication.

 Fifth, when improving team communication skills is to use one-on-one meetings to cascade important information. Having a chance to discuss and ask questions means the information is taken in a lot more easily. Use one-on-one meetings as one method to improve team communication. 

 Sixth, create clear agenda for meeting held within your team. This communicate what exactly the meeting is for and reduces wasted time going to non-relevant meetings.

 Seventh, provide useful and consistent feedback to team members. This is super useful in building improved team communication. Feedback also builds trust (when given in the right way) and improve performance. 

 As a manger, there is loads that you can do to improve team communication. Use these 7 methods with your team and enjoy better communication within your team!

All managers aiming to build great team performance are helping their team, themselves, and the business. If your team is performing well and appears happy and motivated, then chances are you will be asked to manage more people. This is a great way to increase your influence and impact on the business and win promotions.

 How do you build great team performance is the key question. We go through 5 methods to build great team performance no matter where your team is today. These methods work year in year out and with all teams.

 The first method to build great team performance is to set clear expectations with the team. Two options to do this is to tell the team your expectations or to ask the team to define the expectations with you. Both are useful at different times as ways to build team performance.

 The second of five steps to build team performance is create visibility and measurement. Ideally get visibility down to individual level where possible or to sub-team. Track progress against goals agreed and share this regularly with the team. This is a great way to engage peer pressure and drive accountability. 

 The third way to build team performance is to provide support and development for each team member. Create a team development plan, work out the gaps and work to fill those gaps through training and mentoring. 

 The fourth method to build great team performance is to tack action with those underperforming or being difficult. Reducing the distractions and blockers for the rest of the team is critical. Plus if you don’t take action, the expectations set and your credibility as a manager will both be blown.  

 The fifth method to develop team performance is use recruitment to raise the skill level of the team overall. When individuals leave, recruit those with more energy, a better level of skills and the personality to help you drive improvements in the team performance. 

There is a huge amount you can do to build great team performance through the actions you take as a manager. Consistency of your actions and decisions will reinforce the expectations that you have set with the team.

 Use these methods to build team performance and your team will be happier, you will get promotions quicker and achieve more.

Knowing how to help an unhappy employee recover their motivation and positive outlook is a great skill for a manager to have.

 Unhappy employees:

1.      Tend to be less motivated and produce less

2.      They can become disgruntled employees causing all sorts of issues.

3.      Unhappy employees make your job of managing the team much harder

4.      They are much more likely to leave, with all the disruption and costs this brings

 None of these outcomes is good for you, the team, or the business. The good news is many unhappy employees can be moved to a much more positive place with a little work from you. 

 Before we dive into the 5 actions to help an unhappy employee, it is really useful to know typical signs of an unhappy employee so you can spot an unhappy employee as quickly as possible. I cover 9 key signs of an unhappy employee. 

 Once you have spotted the signs of an unmotivated employee, then know what actions to take to improve the situation is very helpful. 

 The first action to help an unhappy employee is to find out the reasons for the unhappiness. It is very hard if not impossible to find a resolution for the employee’s unhappiness unless you know what the issues are. Ask the unhappy employee and listen to what they say. 

 The second action in how to deal with an unhappy employee is to listen and be empathetic. Your most important job is to actively listen to what the employee is telling you. Don’t rush to provide a solution or get defensive about decisions or actions made. Just listen. 

 The third action to help an unhappy employee is address the issue you can quickly. Managers are often in the best place to help an unhappy employee. Once you understand what the issues are, address the issues you can as quickly as possible. A number of events and decisions are outside of your control. In this case explain clearly why those decisions or actions were taken and see what you can do to compensate with the employee. 

 The fourth action to deal with unhappy employees is to be persistent in finding a resolution. It is really easy to give up at a partial resolution or after the employee has vented their anger and frustration. Keep exploring options until you find a good resolution that the employee is happy with. 

 The fifth action to help an unhappy employee is to keep records. Note down the main points of the conversation and when and where the meeting took place. Most of the time, these notes are not needed. If the employee become disgruntled or problematic, then your notes will be invaluable if you need to run a performance improvement plan or take more formal action. 

 There is a lot you can do to help and unhappy employee as a manager. Putting in a little time and effort will massive help the unhappy individual AND show the rest of the team you care and will be supportive when needed. 

Dealing with negative employees quickly is important to stop negativity spreading. Managing a negative team member can be difficult, managing a negative team is disastrous.

 As a manager, taking action to reduce or removing the negativity is a must. There is a lot you can do quickly.

 I’m taking your through 6 tried and tested steps for dealing with negative employees quickly and fairly.

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 The first critical step in managing negative employees is not to ignore the problem. It may seem scary or the idea of having potentially confrontational conversations a big stumbling block. Dealing with negative team members is okay when you follow a fair and supportive process while not letting them off the hook. Don’t ignore the problem.

 Second, when taking negative employees in the workplace is to gather examples and evidence (if possible) of their actions and behaviour. Write does in as much detail as possible what they said and did. This moves the conversation away from your opinion of them and actions that have happened are much harder to dismiss.

  Third, when you are managing a negative staff member, find out why they are being negative. Don’t make assumption. First outline what the issue is, the impact of their actions or behaviour and then ask them to explain what is causing them to be negative. There could be a whole range of reasons from actions or decisions made at work or events in their personal life. Ask to find out what the nitty gritty details are.

 Fourth, when managing negative team members, set out your expectations. You are the manager and you set the rules. Be clear what you are asking of them, explain why it is important and ask them to meet your expectations. 

 Fifth, with dealing with negative employees, is to give them a chance to change. No-one finds change easy. Emphasise the impact of not changing on them and the team. Coach, mentor and support them to change. 

 Finally, when dealing with negative employees and after you have gone through the above five steps and they are not willing to make a change, take formal action. 

 Formal action is the last resort. If the negative employee is still not meeting your expectations, and their actions are being detrimental to the team and you, then you need to decide if it is worth keeping them in the team or asking them to leave. Start with a Performance Improvement Plan and then move into a formal disciplinary process if needed. Don’t let negative employees cause you or the team problems.

How to develop key performance indicators is very important process to learn as a manager as you are creating a tool to help you effectively manage more people, bigger projects, and more complexity without being overwhelmed. 

 How you use KPIs will help you drive the right behaviours and activities which in turns drives better results.

 Many managers have not been taught how to develop relevant, targeted KPIs which support your efforts to encourage and drive results with the team. I am sharing the six steps that I use in how to develop KPIs to help manage and work out what actions to take to improve performance of a project, department or business.

 Firstly, when developing key performance indicators, start with the goals of the business (Strategy), or the goals of the function or team you work in. The key performance indicators must align with and support these goals.

 Using KPIs creates focus the team’s effort of the actions and activity that drives the KPIs you develop. It is really important that their behaviour and focus work towards the goals rather than create confusion and wasted effort. 

 Secondly, when planning how to develop key performance indicators, try to define the questions that you need answering. Once you have your goal agreed, written down and circulated, plan how you are going to reach that goal(s). What is going to make the most difference to the success and failure of the project? Identifying these activities helps hugely in selecting the best key performance indicators (kpis). 

 Third, working out what data you need to capture and collate to track the KPIs you have selected is very important. Ideally the data needs to be quick and easy to put together and preferably automated. Data remains a very practical consideration in how to develop KPIs for a business or how to develop kpis for a project. 

 Fourth, Create ownership of the KPIs. Unless you want to be putting all the KPIs together (not recommended) you will need to ask team members to own each KPI and report on them. Plus you want those people to be championing the actions to improve those KPIs. Create ownership to do this. 

 Fifth, build lots of visibility around the key performance indicators. Team performance tracking, measuring employee performance and similar measures need visibility of the KPIs to drive accountability in individuals and teams. Make the time to discuss KPIs in the team. Plan the steps to take to improve the results the KPIs are showing. 

 Sixth, when using KPIs interpreting the results those KPIs are telling you and taking the right action to improve those results is critical to make having the KPIs valuable. 

 Work through each of these steps and you will have very useful relevant KPIs that drive into the heart of the activity you need to undertake for success.

Learn 8 actions to take for employees not hitting targets and you will reduce your frustration and problems. 

 Doing nothing and hoping that employees start hitting targets at work is the worst plan – doing the same thing very rarely gives you a different result.

Take action for employees missing targets.

 The first action to take for employees not hitting targets is to understand what the problems are. If you don’t understand the cause of team members not hitting targets, then you are not going to being to choose the best solution to fix the issue(s).

 The second action to take for an employee missing goals is to assess if the targets are unrealistic. Targets are set with the best of intentions, using a set of assumptions about what will happen in the future. In reality, a number of the assumptions made will be wrong. Check if these differences mean the targets are now unrealistic.

 The third action to take for employees not meeting expectations is check they have the right tools and resources.  If there are problems in this area, what can you do to fix them quickly?

 The fourth action to take for employees not hitting targets is to review if the employee has the right training. Training is the classic excuse to knock this on the head quickly.

 Fifth, make sure the individual or team has enough support. They may not always tell you they are struggling so keep asking and keep checking what you are told against actual progress. Provide the support they need, and you are much more likely to hit team targets.

 The sixth action to take for employees not hitting targets is to check if they are being pulled off the task or project by urgent tasks, or if they are helping team members. If this is the case, protect them more and make clear your expectations.

 The seventh action, after checking the first six areas, is to start a performance improvement plan. This is a structure process to provide extra support to the individual and keep close track of their progress.

 Finally, the eighth action, when all else fails, is to Formal Action. If the individual cannot or will not improve their performance for whatever reasons, then they are better off in another role. Taking formal action will help everyone.

 When you have employees not hitting targets, you must take action to change the outcomes. Doing nothing is not an option. Make sure the action you do take is supportive and fair without letting the individual (or team) off the hook. 

When to say No at work is a critical as how you say no at work. 

 You don’t want to offend others, or appear to be unreasonable or difficult. Even more important, you don’t want to let others down, be a walk over or overload yourself.

 Getting good at how to say no is a key skill to develop as early as possible. If you go into the management ranks without being good at saying no, your problems will only multiply. 

 So when should we say no in the workplace?

 We go through 5 reasons you should say no at work. Then we go through how to say no professionally at work.

 Firstly, learn to say no at work when you are maxed out. If you have little or no spare capacity, then you must say no. Letting people down is much worse than saying no up front.

 Secondly, say no at work when you are not the right person. Explain you don’t have the right skills, the right experience or enough time or the key reason why you are not the right person. This is key in how to say no without feeling guilty. 

 Thirdly, Say no at work when doing the work will prevent you from delivering your own goals or objectives. Your formal objectives should be the most important goals to achieve. Say no when additional work conflicts with these or prevents you achieving them. 

 Fourth, say no at work when you can deliver what is required. This might be due to workload, capability, or any number of reasons. If you are not sure you can deliver, say no and suggest someone who can. 

 The fifth reason for when to say no at work is when the task or project creates a big conflict with your values. These situations do occur, and you have to balance your personal comfort and happiness with potential negative impacts to your reputation.

 How to say no at work is super important. Always provide a reason why you are saying no. Ideally this reason should be one of the five reasons we have covered. 

 How to say no to boss at work is exactly the same. Explain why you are saying no and say no. If you can explain that doing this extra task/project with endanger the completion of another task/project your boss has asked you to do – even better.

 When planning how to say no, be considerate of the other persons situation and feelings. Be diplomatic and be firm. 

Active listening skills for managers can make a massive different to how well you do job as a manager. To manage a team effectively and well, learning about each individual and what is going on in the team is essential and active listening skills are a key part of your management skills to achieve this. 

 We spend around 45% of our day listening to others, yet only 2% of professionals have received formal training on understanding and improving their listening skills. 

 Using actively listening gives you lots of benefits as a manager. Some include:

1.      Showing you care

2.      Conveying empathy and understanding

3.      Encouraging the other to reveal more

4.      Builds trust in your

5.      Gives you many insights into the other person emotional state and thought process.

The importance of active listening in the workplace , particularly if you are a manager, is very high in my opinion. 

 I take you through 7 active listening techniques which give you a list of how to improve listening skills. Anyone can learn and improve their active listening skills. 

 The first skill for active listening in the office is to keep your mind in the present – to concentrate and stay focused on what the other person is communicating to you. 

 The second skill of active listening skills for managers is to maintain eye contact to demonstrate your attention and interest in the other person. 

 The third skill of active listening skills in the workplace is to manage your own body language to show your interest.

 The fourth skill of active listening and communication skills is to use paraphrasing and summaries to prove to the other person that you are taking in what they are saying. 

 The fifth active listening techniques in the workplace is to keep an open mind. You will not take in what is being communicated to you if you have already made up your mind.

 The sixth active listening skill is not to interrupt the other person. Make sure they have truly finished speaking before saying anything in return. 

 The seventh skill of active listening is to ask open ended questions to probe for more depth or a better understanding of the points being made. 

 I then take you through 10 signs to look out for what you are putting these active listening skills into practice. These will help you in your role of manager to support and help your team members.

 Finally, I take you through how to use these active listening skills to build awareness of the group dynamics and what is happening around at work. This awareness will make your job as a manager a lot easier.

 Enjoy learning a lot more with your active listening skills!

How to create a project plan that you manager will sign off is not as hard as you might think. 

 It doesn’t matter if the project is big or small, include 8 these eight project plan components, and you will be set up to successfully deliver your project and have everything to needed to convince your manager and other stakeholders to sign off your project plan. 

 When thinking about how to write a project plan THE critical starting point is to decide on the project goals and scope. The scope and deliverables need to be written down, shared and agreed before you do anything else. So many projects come unstuck because of vague goals or changing goals. 

 When creating a project plan, explain why the project is going to help the business, the department, and the team. Explain why the project supports at least one of the company objectives. Detail the benefits of completing the project from the company’s point of view. This helps sell the project and overcome vested interests and the status quo.

 Within how to make a project plan, you must outline the timeframes. Most projects are time critical within companies, so clear deadlines and milestones are important to in in the project plan and important to achieve. 

 The next step that I always find useful in how to plan a project is to map out all the people involved in the project and who will be affected by the project. How will support your project and who will oppose it and why? What can you do reduce any opposition?

 Once you have these steps completed, the next step in how to create a project plan is planning and securing the resources. Key is getting the right people and skills at the right time to ensure your project is successful. You will also need to think about funding, management support and other experts that will need to input into the project.

 Once you have your project team – get them involved in planning the steps, activities and tasks needed to reach the project goals. Your team are the experts and you want them engaged and owning the project alongside you. Ask them to work through the project planning steps to create a clear roadmap of how the project team is going to deliver the results. 

 When you know the goals, the timing, the resources and the steps you want to follow, you are able to create a project budget and check it is withing your overall total spend allocated to the project. Change the activities, resources and timings until you are within your project spend total. 

 You have everything in place and a strong project plan to get final project signoff. A strong project plan creates confidence in the team’s ability to deliver the results promised.

 Finally, after creating a project management plan you can start implementing your plan – the project execution phase. Work your plan!

 Enjoy the less stress and more successful projects!

There are lots of reasons why employees leave their jobs. I am sharing the top reasons employees quit their jobs backed up by multiple employee surveys. The first three of these reasons are always in the top 5, no matter when the survey was carried out.

 Why good employees leave is useful to know from the managers point of view because they you can work to delay the person leaving as long as possible. This gives you the benefit of there work for longer. 

 One of the top reasons why good employees quit is lack of career development or lack of development. For good employees, skills and career development is usually a very important factor in retaining them. Reduce your employee turnover by ensuring you are developing all your staff. 

 Another very common reason for why employees leave is that they have a bad boss. This doesn’t mean their manager is a bad person. They may not set direction clearly, they may not provide feedback, then may not support their team much – there are lots of factors that can make a manager bad for their team members and lead to reasons why good employees quit. Management skills training, mentoring, and coaching are all effective at improving management skills and approaches. 

 Another common reason for why employees quit is that they don’t get any appreciation. This is so easy for managers to fix and makes a massive difference to why employees quit their jobs. Look for opportunities to praise your team members for good work, for good behaviour and for good choices. Expect what you praise to continue and improve.  A win for both sides and a great way to reduce staff turnover. 

 Another reason why employees leave companies is low pay. Currently low pay is a key reason why great employees quit – everyone is under increasing financial pressure. In better times, pay falls down the rankings as other factors become more important. 

 One of the 6 top reasons why employees leave their jobs is overwork or burnout. We all have a lot of pressure on us to delivery more with less. Cost pressures grow a lot stronger in tougher times. A staff member leaving can easily cost their annual salary to replace – in recruitment cost and time and in training cost and time. Therefore paying a little more and removing a reason why employees leave their jobs is a sensible investment. 

 Finally, in our 6 top reasons why employees leave their jobs is lack of job flexibility. Job flexibility following lock downs and a lot more working from home has become a key requirement to attract and keep staff. I suspect this will reduce in the future to some extent – but it is a key reason why good employees quit their jobs.

 Understand why employees leave their jobs and take action to reduce the impact of each of these 6 top reasons. You will have a happier team and you will save a lot of cost. 

A win for everyone!