Enhance.training

Giving direction to team members and then seeing them take action and deliver the results you want takes skill. It is not easy which is why I am share 7 steps for giving direction to team members that will make your job easier and the team more successful. 

 The first step is to know your team –which members, after agreeing the goals to achieve, will just get it done compared to those who need a lot more support and help to reach those same goals. Work out who is best for which goal and give direction accordingly

 When giving direction to employees it is important to be specific. Having a clear goal helps everyone understand what the goal is, and when it has been reached. Specific goals and direction also help plan how to achieve the goal.

 Providing the why to when giving direction to team members helps them make decisions when working towards the goal, reducing their reliance on you, and increasing their motivation and chances of success.

 When giving direction to employees, ask the team to plan the route. There are so many benefits to doing this rather than you take this step and tell the team what they are going to do. 

 Business environments are always changing so when giving direction build in allowances for change and uncertainty. 

 Trust your team. This is so important to getting good results and keeping everyone happy. I share how to build that trust quickly and easily with your team members and how learn if you can trust their judgement quickly. 

 And finally, praise really does drive the behaviours you want in your team. Take the time to think about what when well and how it went well and praise team members who deliver and behave in the right way. 

 Give clear direction to team members and they will be able to deliver better results for you. 

Having to deal with employees who don’t listen is so frustrating. Being ignored at work is never nice at the best of times and if you have to deal with employees who don’t listen it can knock your confidence, impact the team overall and can certainly create negative feelings that help no-one.

 I share 7 ways to tackle employees who don’t listen, and each is effective. Don’t allow team members who don’t listen to remain an annoyance, a hindrance and a source of disruption for the team any longer. 

 Matching your communication style to their learning style is a sensible step which will help them take in what you are saying. Make it as easy for the employee who doesn’t listen as possible.

 Next take a look at your own behaviour. Are you listening to them? Are you acting on what they are telling you? Are you asking them to undertake activities which help the team and them. Treat them as you would like to be treated and you have a much higher chance of being listened to. 

 Explain the why. Why are you asking the employee to do the task you are? Have you explained this to them? And when you are being ignored at work, explain the impact of the other person not listen and not doing.  

 If you are still not being listened to at work, then ask the employee to give you a summary of what you have asked and also ask for their input. This is a great way to get them involved and forces them to take in and think about what you have asked. 

 A further step is providing the employee who doesn’t listen with a set of options and ask them to decide which one should be pursued. 

 Whatever you mutually agree, put the actions and activities which the goals in writing. This provides a clear reference point for both parties.

 And lastly, create consequences if the team member doesn’t listen and doesn’t take action. 

 Don’t allow an employee to not listen to you, particularly if the team output will suffer. Take any of the 7 ways outlined to deal with employees who don’t listen. 

When you have team members who don’t want to work on your team it is painful, frustrating and problematic for the whole team. 

 And worse, team members and your boss are looking at you to deal with the employee who is not pulling their weight. 

 There can be lots of reasons why your team member doesn’t want to work:

1.      Personal Problems outside of work

2.      Problems within work

3.      Unrealistic expectations

4.      Actions or comments that have impacted their outlook and motivation

5.      They are lazy and want to do as little as possible

 The first step is to work out exactly what situation you are dealing with. There may be an easy solution that will fix the poor work attitude quickly. Ask the team member what the issues are and listen.

 Setting out your expectations clearly is a vital step. After all, how can a person meet or beat your expectations if they are not sure what they are. If the employee’s performance is an issue, then by setting expectations, you are laying the groundwork for performance management actions. 

 Give them the confidence – through your actions and support – to share their problems with you. When you know what they are and understand how they came about you are in a much better place to fix them.

 Other Employees need to be told what is in it for them. Spell this out to help motivate them. There are lots of different motivators and we all respond to  a different combination. 

 Assess if your team members have the right skills and the right skill level to do what is asked of them. If they don’t, then help them increase their skills or move them into a role better suited to them. 

 And finally, for employees who are just plain lazy, disruptive, difficult or toxic, consider moving them out of the business. These team members don’t help the team and can do a lot of damage to the team. 

 Take action, and don’t procrastinate. Good luck!

Being around negative people at work is energy sapping, demoralising and frankly makes life at work a lot more difficult. The obvious step is to spend as little time around them as possible. 

 If you have to work with them – because they are a colleague, you manage them or need to work on a project with them, then learning how to manage negative people at work becomes really useful and makes your life at work better.

 I take you through 9 ways to manage negative people at work.

 The first way to handle negative people at work is to control how you react to them. You can’t control them and you can control yourself. By controlling your reaction you will reduce the impact of the negative behaviour.

 Then when dealing with negative people at work, a good technique I have found works is to force them to talk positive by asking questions framed to get a positive response. 

 When managing negative people at work, it is very important not to be sucked in by their negative behaviour. When they ask you to participate in their complaining, sidestep the request.

 Positive reinforcement is very powerful so when handling negative people at work, look out for any positive behaviour and praise it.

 Another way to manage negative people at work is look out for the positives in the negativity. Glass half empty people can be a treasure trove of risks and issues. Use these to start the solutioning process.

 If you are a manage, when dealing with negative people at work, set behaviour expectations. This can be done in a positive way that improves the team morale. 

 A great approach when handling negative people at work is to ask them for the solution to what they are complaining about. This forces them to think positively, and the team gets more improved. 

 And lastly, if a really negative person at work is unwilling or unable to improve how they behaviour at work, remove them from the team. 

Preparing for a retailer buyer meeting is always daunting. Product buyers or retailer buyers are trained and experienced to get the best deal for the retailer, which can often mean a poor deal for you. 

 You want to grow your product business and getting retailer listings is a really great way of growing so there is a lot riding on the meeting with the buyer. I go through the key areas you need to focus on prior to going into the meeting. 

 Do these well and you have a much better chance of walking out of the retail buyer meeting with a profitable listing. Getting a loss making listing is much easier, and a mistake that many entrepreneurs make. 

 The pricing negotiation nearly always goes to the party that is best prepared, knows the most about the other party and is confident in their proposition. Doing your research is an obvious step to most, yet how many really do what is needed?

 Working out exactly what your products value is to both the consumer and the retailer is critical to proposing and negotiating good retailer pricing. Learn new tips and tricks for this. 

 Knowing exactly what you want from the meeting other than a “yes” is another very valuable step. Be specific. For instance, do you want listings in all the stores they have or only certain ones. What about shelf position? Gondola ends? Marketing? There are a lot of factors other than price to consider. 

 Next, you really do need to know your own pricing back to front. Work out all your costs. Create pricing propositions hitting several price points so you have the ability and flexibility to negotiate during the meeting with confidence that you are not going to walk away with a loss making deal.

 And finally, practice before you go into the retailer buyer meeting. Obvious I know, yet many don’t do enough. The words you use and how you come across matter. Don’t sell yourself, your product and your business short. 

 Good luck with preparing for your retailer buyer meetings

How to you spot a difficult manager vs a toxic manager is pretty useful to know, particularly if you are changing managers or moving to a new team. 

 Difficult managers may not be easy to work with, yet they can be very good for your career and skill set. Everyone wants to avoid toxic managers because they don’t help anyone. 

 How to spot a difficult manager and what makes them difficult quickly is super useful as you can then start working out how you are going to manage what makes them difficult or how you are going to flex your approach, so you get the best out of working with a difficult boss. Take a look at our video on working with a difficult manager.

 Learn some new ideas on how to handle some of the behaviours that make managers difficult to work with.

 How to spot a toxic manager as early as possible is important for your happiness, career and health. The are two main courses of action and three outcomes from these actions – challenge your toxic manager or move jobs into a different team or company. Neither are easy, and both are better than putting up with toxic behaviour. 

 Don’t be passive or put up with the toxic behaviour. Neither will help you or your career.

 Please leave any questions in the comment section, particularly if you would like advice specific to your situation.

How to handle a difficult manager at work are vital skills to learn as we will all have a difficult boss at some point in our careers.

 I take you through 7 ways to handing a difficult manager at work. Firstly, working with a difficult boss is not like the same as working with a toxic manager. A difficult boss still has our interests at heart - they are just not easy to deal with for any number of reasons. 

 When thinking about bout to deal with a difficult manager at work start by being super professional. Do the best job that you can. Don’t talk negatively about your difficult boss. Try to keep your negative emotions in check. 

 Next, to handle a difficult boss at work, be proactive and take charge of managing the relationship. Keep your mindset positive and flex your style to best suit your manager’s approach. 

 Find out what your Boss’ preferences are and play to these preferences. When dealing with a difficult manager, make your life easier by fitting in with that they like, in terms of communication, working practices etc.

 Another great step to take when planning how to deal with difficult managers at work is to help them to success. What can you do that will help your manager reach their goals outside of your basic job. Every manager appreciates team members that support them and help make them successful. 

 Another option to handle a difficult boss at work is to speak up about concerns in a professional and calm way. Offer solutions that should work for them and make your situation better.

 When dealing with a difficult manager, don’t allow yourself to be intimidated. I know this is not easy for many. Make sure you get enough support, interaction and attention from your manager – don’t shy away because this is difficult. I include more tips of how to do this in the video.

 And finally, when dealing with any manager and particularly a difficult one, always be a problem solver. All manager love problem solvers in their team as it takes away some of the burden on their shoulders. 

 Watch the video for more tips on how to do each of these. Good luck in turning your difficult manager into a strong supporter!

How to Build Professional Relationships at Work is a challenge for us all. 

 I share 8 ways tried and tested ways to build professional relationships at work so you can create better relationships faster with your colleagues. 

 Better relationships allow you to be more effective at work, increase your enjoyment at work and increase the likelihood of being promoted. 

 The first step when relationship building at work is to be a likeable person. This may seem obvious – being nice, pleasant, and considerate all go a long way to helping colleagues think positively towards you. 

 Meet face to face wherever possible when building good relationships at work. Nothing beats it. With so many ways to contact people, many of them electronic, it is easy not to make the effort. 

 When building professional relationships, it is always useful to do your homework before meeting. This gives you a list of question you could ask to get the other person talking about their favourite subjects and gets the relationship off to a great start. 

 It can be hard to actually start building professional relationships at work, so look for any excuse to be able to meet with those you are looking to get to know. I run through my favourite tactics.

 When building professional relationships it can be easy to forget the personal side of the relationship. Do find about what your colleagues do outside of work, what gets them excited and what they spend their time on. This adds a lot more depth and fun to the relationship.

 As you build relationships at work, aim to help first and ask second. This is a much quicker and surer way of building positive and productive relationships. 

 In my view, the most important action to consistently do is deliver what you say. You must deliver and avoid letting people down. Delivering cements your relationship. You will end up with a higher standing in the team, your opinion carries more weight plus a host of other benefits. 

 And lastly, be consistent with your behaviour, effort and action. Consistency builds trust. Trust builds strong relationships. You must be consistent. 

 Make the effort to build good relationships, and that investment will be paid back to you many times over at work. 

 Enjoy building all those new relationships at work.

How to resign from a job professionally so that you keep your manager onside, get a good reference and keep open future job opportunities through your manager and colleagues is what I cover.

 When you have decided to resign from a job, you want to leave as quickly as possible and start your new role. Running out the door is even more appealing when you don’t get on with your manager or some of your team.  

 As hard as it can be, leaving well is much more important than leaving quickly. The better and quicker you hand over your work, then the quicker you leave in practice. When thinking about how to resign from a job, think about how you can help your manager easily reassign the work you do. This is very much in your interests.

 When planning how to quit your job professionally, make sure you use one of the 5 generally accepted reasons for resigning from a job. This will avoid anger or resentment towards you which will make your life easier now and going forward.
 
 The next step in how to resign is to check your contract to make sure you understand the notice period you need to give and anything else required of you.

 Next in how to resign from a job gracefully, start preparing for how you are going to leave. Go through the projects you are working on and plan out what needs to be handed over and to who.

 Next when preparing how to resign from a job, write your resignation letter. I have included an example letter which should be short, concise, and positive.

 How to resign from a job in person – the best way to resign – requires you to book in a meeting in private with your manager. Don’t tell others before speaking to your manager. Help your manager as much as possible so they have confidence that you leaving won’t be a problem.

 Maintain your work standards and output during your notice period. Doing this will make it a lot more likely you will be released early.

 And finally, stay in touch with work colleagues and your manager.  The majority of roles are not advertised and networking is a good way to access these hidden job opportunities. 

How to manage difficult conversations at work is a challenge for every manager. No-one enjoys having difficult conversations and they are one of the most feared aspects of being a manager.   

 To be an effective manager, being able to manage the things that don’t go well, the bad attitudes of team members, underperformance issues and all the other negative aspects of managing people is pretty essential  -  certainly if you want to get a lot done, if you want to keep the team motivated and if you want to get that next promotion.

 I share 8 steps of how to have difficult conversations at work without putting yourself or the other person through an emotional rollercoaster, or risk not getting the outcome you need. The help you during the difficult conversation I also share 7 tips on how to control emotions when having difficult conversations. 

 The first step when thinking about how to have a difficult conversation is not put the off the difficult conversation. Getting started is often the hardest part and the easiest to put off. 

 Next, put yourself in a positive mindset when planning how to handle the difficult conversation with employees – your confidence and calmness directly impact the other person and the outcome.

 Third, be very clear what you want to get out of the difficult conversation. If you can write this down, chances are you can articulate it to the other person.

 Fourth, when thinking about how to manage a difficult conversation is to hold the meeting in private. You don’t want others overhearing what is being said. Go into a private meeting room.

 Fifth, provide evidence or examples. Talking about examples is easier and more powerful that providing your opinion to the other person. A conversation about examples is also a lot easier to take. 

 Plan out your difficult conversation but don’t script it. Write down the bullet points you want to cover and the questions that you plan to ask the other person. 

 Spend more time actively listening during the difficult conversation rather than talking. This will help you manage the other person’s emotions. 

 Finally, manage your own emotions when having a difficult conversation. Remaining professional, calm and confident is so important for both you and the other person. 

 If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below and I will get back to you. 

 Good luck.