“A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot.” “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.” “If a goal is worth having, it’s worth blocking out the time in your day-to-day life necessary to achieve it.” “Set a goal that makes you want to jump out of bed every morning.” “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” “Goals are like an address we punch into our navigation system that tells us which direction to go.” “Seeing your goal written in ink, on paper will have a powerful effect on your mind.” “Decide what you want. Decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your goals and go to work.”  Share one GREAT goal you’re looking to achieve this year with the rest of the community in the comment section below! Take print-outs using the print friendly icon in the share buttons. The Five Golden Rules Set Goals that Motivate You Set SMART Goals Set Goals in Writing Make an Action Plan Stick With...

Evaluating the Importance of Decision Making Successful decision making is one that is devoid of any ambiguity or tentativeness. Although there is a wide range of choice and alternative techniques to arrive at a decision, timely decision making is what adds value to the decision. The objective is to execute the action plan immediately to avoid delays that might prove costly in terms of productivity. Defensive behavior of managers: Managers who are the key figures to make decisions sometimes play defense to avoid action, blame or change. They exhibit a variety of defensive behaviors which is a wasted effort; this also makes the workers lethargic in their attitude. Avoiding action is considered to be the best political strategy. Some managers always talk about the rules and regulations that have been followed for ages in that company and want every action to be rigidly adhered to the precedence and neither allows nor admits the need to consider the nuances of a particular case. Policies and Procedures: Policies and procedures are of course the prerogative of the top level management, but it is the duty of the manager to suggest reforms in those policies that are obsolete by bringing it to the perusal of the ultimate authorities. How long will you sing the same song “The rules clearly state that”! Also don’t try to pass the buck or play duals, that clearly showcases your inability to handle things and nobody nowadays is prepared to believe false pretense. Expectation of Sub-Ordinates from the Superiors: Subordinates look up to their superiors for support as well as quick solutions for problems of any kind that comes their way; only a person who is quick in reacting to situations with presence of mind and consideration is well liked by and approved of. If you distance yourself from problems or try to prolong a task in lieu of your inability to make a decision, in the short run it might prove helpful in covering up making you look busy and productive. But what happens in the long run? It leads to organizational rigidity and stagnation in terms of productivity and a sag in the morale of the employees. Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking  Playing it Safe is not Always Safe: Playing safe is not always safe. Some managers always like to lead a team that has taken up viable projects with a high probability of success. There is no pain but lots of gain. This tactics makes you devoid of risk taking -which according to me is the prime and supreme quality that a manager or a team leader must possess or at least try to develop. Also taking a neutral position in #conflict situations makes you a dull leader and not a person to be much sought after. What is the result of Poor Decision Making? The first and foremost thing that managers have to understand and admit is that, poor decision making is the root cause of failed course of action. They should have the guts to admit and take up the responsibility for the negative outcome and not to seek some strategically helpless defense mechanisms. Making others a scapegoat for your helplessness doesn’t shield you for long but puts you in the defending territory forever. Ddefensiveness delays decisions, affects organizational success, sets a bad precedence, increased group conflicts, interpersonal tensions and leads to unreliable evaluations. The long and short of the discussion clearly highlights the importance of recruiting not only a qualified manager but a committed and reliable person who has the ability to take risks and tackle crisis situations with ease and steer the organization smoothly without any hitches by greasing it...

Coaching and Mentoring are the two strategic pillars of a business organisation without which the employees would be mere robots working without job satisfaction. The Definition. A coach is someone who provides guidance to a client on their goals and helps them reach their full potential. A mentor is someone who shares their knowledge, skills and/or experience, to help another to develop and grow. Objectives of Coaching The main purpose of coaching is to develop the employee as an effective perfomer. It involves the following: 1) Helping him to realise his potential as a manager. 2) Helping him to understand himself – his strengths and his weaknesses. 3) Providing him an opportunity to acquire more insight into his behaviour, and analyse the dynamics of such behaviour. 4) Helping him to have better understanding of the environment. 5) Increasing his personal and inter-personal effectiveness through effective feedback. 6) Encouraging him to set goals for further improvement. 7) Encouraging him to generate alternatives for dealing with his problems and prepare an action plan. 8) Helping him to review in a non-threatening way his progress in achieving various objectives. 9) Providing empathetic atmosphere for sharing and discussing his tensions, conflicts, concerns and problems.  Download this Coaching Goals planner that will help you in measuring the outcome effctively. 👇 Coaching-Goals-PlannerDownload Objectives of Mentoring The main purpose of mentoring is to provide opportunity to young people to share their concerns and get both moral support and guidance for their development. It involves the following : 1) Establishing a relationship of trust 2) Modeling beahviorual norms for the young person 3) Listening to the person’s concerns and problems 4) Helping him to search alternative solutions for the problems 5) Sharing own relevant experiences 6) Responding to his emotional needs, without making him depend on the mentor 7) Developing long-lasting, personal, and informal relationship. Who is your most trusted advisor when it comes to important issues affecting your business? A small stats in percentage. Fellow business owner – 31Business coach – 24Family member – 18Accountant – 8Employee – 6Consultant – 4Friend – 3Lawyer – 2Other – 4 In which areas would a business coach have the most impact for your business? Strategic planning – 31PR / Marketing / Social media – 14Leadership – 11Succession planning – 9Managing change – 8Profitability – 8Productivity – 7Employee relations – 5Other – 7 Five Tips for Coaching Employees Define your role as a coach Create a safe environmentHelp them define and verbalize their answers, directions and actions. 2. Listen to what is said Be curious, Seek to understand“Tell me more….” “What’s happening….” 3. Observe what is heard and seen Focus on just the factsShare what you observe providing a judgement-less summary.“Here is what I heard you say….”“So it sounds like you are or want to….” 4. Validate what is felt -share the emotion and acknowledge it 5. Empower what is possible – Forward the thinking, explore, options showing faith and optimism. If you are like most of us, you are constantly striving for more engaged employees. Engagement not only leads to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover but also increases productivity and revenue. But how do we boost engagement among our teams? The answer is through coaching. 80% of those who have received coaching report positive impact  in areas such as work performance, communication skills, well-being and business management strategies. Download this Achieving Goals Planner to form an idea about effective habits. 👇 Achieving-Goals-PlannerDownload 65% of employees in a strong coaching culture are highly engaged. Organisations with strong coaching cultures report revenues above those of their industry peer group and report higher employee engagement. While more and more organisations are using coaches as a key strategy...

Functions of Management MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS  The objective of this topic is to make students understand the functions of management and the role of managers in an organization. The five  basic management functions are listed below: ·  PLANNING ·  ORGANISING ·  STAFFING ·  LEADING ·  CONTROLLING PLANNING: The managerial activities aid in selecting the objectives, examine and forecast changes, develop policies, procedures and choose future course of action from among alternatives.  Planning proceeds from “Where we are” to “Where we want to go.”     Planning activities are 1.       Analysing the current situation (also called the SWOT Analysis) 2.       Anticipating or predicting the future based on the analysis 3.       Determination of organizational objectives to be achieved 4.       Deciding on the action plan 5.       Evolving proper strategies 6.       Pooling the resources (physical, financial and monetary)  to accomplish enterprise objective    ORGANISING: It is a process which integrates people and tasks; In order to achieve their tasks people are given sufficient authority, tools and information.     Organising activities include 1.       Specification of job responsibilities 2.       Grouping of jobs into respective work units 3.       Allocation of resources   STAFFING: Human resource management is one of the key areas that decides the success of a firm’s activity. Staffing involves the selection of “Right person for the right job.”   The activities are 1.       Recruitment 2.       Selection 3.       Training and Development 4.       Compensation 5.       Promotion 6.       Evaluation and 7.       Rewarding people to achieve enterprise goals.   LEADING: Leadership is the set of interpersonal behaviors that influence people to contribute to the organization and group goals.     The activities under this category are 1. Providing proper direction 2. Guidance and Motivation 3. Clarity in communication  to the work force   CONTROLLING: This is a process that is necessary to keep track of the performace of individuals by setting some standards for direction.     The activities include 1. Establishing performance standards enabling the work force to achieve the goals (both short term and long term) 2. Enhancing the employee performance through performance appraisal or rating of work 3. Comparison of performance against the standards to  identify deviation  or work problems and take corrective measures 4. Bench marking is one of the management techniques that facilitates an organization to uplift its performance levels to the best of industry standards and also catch hold of the strengths of the competitors and rectify the weaknesses prevailing in one’s own firm.   CO-ORDINATION: It is regarded as a key function of a manager to bring in harmony among individuals and an effort towards accomplishment of goals. 1. Marginal decision making and 2. Sub Optimisation are some of the new approaches developed in the field of decision making.   MANAGERIAL SKILLS: Skill is the resultant effect of knowledge, experience and expertise. It is the ability of an individual to perform a task which is obvious from the results he/ she shows.     There are 3 kinds of skills that a manager should possess in order to excel.   1. The Conceptual Skill: Assessing a situation and acting accordingly depicts the manager’s perceiving ability of the abstract elements in  force. A manager has to improve this kind of skill as he moves up the ladder in the management level or let us say that he can move up the ladder only if he possesses this kind of skill. · Management Consultants · Managing Director of a firm · President of a company · Economists · Startegists are conceptual analytic experts   2. The Technical Skill: This skill is purely based on one’s knowledge and  on the job experience. This is needed at  a lower level of management · Computer Operators · Engineers · Accountants · Machine Operators possess this kind of skill   3. The Human Relations Skill: This...