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COACHING

COACHING -- A TEAM EFFORT: It is easy to spot the difference between a work team that is “motivated” and one that just goes through the motions. The motivated team produces at or above the level expected by top management, has only occasional absences or tardiness, and low employee turnover. The second group has trouble meeting its goals, greater absenteeism, and higher turnover. In addition, members of the latter work team may be more apt to argue with one another or to band together against their supervisor. Can a supervisor who is also a good coach really make a difference? The answer is a definite “yes” with a few qualifiers. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

TOWARD EFFECTIVE COACHING: There are three things you can do to have a solid, productive work force. 1) Hire only fully competent people who already know the job and who do things right all the time. There aren’t many such people but you could look around and keep on searching. -- 2) Wish for a miracle. -- 3) Take the employees you have and train them to be highly competent. Of these three choices, doing a good job of training and coaching is the most practical way to have successful and productive employees. Training is teaching employees the necessary skills before they are given the job to do on their own. Coaching is helping employees day-by-day to do a better job. It’s making them more able to do their present job on their own and to enjoy doing it well. It’s also preparing them for bigger future responsibilities. Good coaching is motivating people to want to do the best they can and more. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

ABOUT COACHING: What’s exciting about the possibility coaching presents is that it continually demands from you the commitment to perform beyond the levels you’ve reached in the past. It demands the willingness to treat each situation as a brand new and to treat people with compassion. Above all, being a great coach demands you to be coachable yourself. Your coach could be anyone, and to the extent that you allow people coach you, your own coaching will be empowered. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

BEING A GREAT COACH: -- Coaching is the art/skill of putting yourself in the other person’s shoes; imagining yourself in the situation and asking yourself what your interpretation would be. -- Coaching means being straightforward with people and accepting people as they are. -- A good coach relates to people as the people they can be, not as the mistakes they made in the past. -- Good coaching practices will provide an example for others and set the tone for better communication in the workplace. Keep your mind open to new suggestions and encourage your employees to participate more fully and productivity and well as morale will be changed. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

LEADERSHIP

Leadership Checklist: --Do you make effective decisions? --Do you act quickly and responsibly? --Can you gather information and present reports based on the information? --Do you use your time and resources effectively? --Do you devise efficient and effective plans, procedures or methods to carry out work? www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

MANAGING TO BE A LEADER: What combination of personality traits, professional training, and mentoring makes the “best leader?” There is a dearth of information on this topic in both management and social science literature, and no one has formulated a recipe for concocting all that leadership implies: authority, administrative skill, effectiveness, initiative, foresight, energy, influence, and more. The complexity and mystery of leadership do not permit a simplistic approach. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

JUGGLING DEMANDS: All leaders constantly juggle a multifarious array of demands from those of their organization, employees, and themselves. Good leaders, never drop one demand at the expense of another equally important requirement. They give each demand its fair share, while balancing the organizational goals with their employees’ needs, while still fulfilling their own personal/professional purposes. Successful leaders meet both these business and personal needs through their employees. They learn about their employee’s aspirations, their strengths and potential contributions to the organization. From this knowledge, they mesh together a successful working team. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? For starters, it becomes much easier if you know your organization. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

COMMUNICATION

THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF COMMUNICATION: This knowledge is the basis for the use of practically any training device or medium you can name. For example, knowledge of the existence of and need for rational content is the elemental basis for outlining that attempt and understanding the various ways of doing so. Similarly, knowledge of the existence of and need for physical content is the basis and reason for the use of any form of audio-visual aid, graphics, illustrations, or other sensory communicative device. Finally, an underlying grasp of the existence of and need for emotional content is the basis for the use of what is commonly known as emotion appeal in communicating an idea. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

ENHANCING YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Effective communication is not a one-way street. It involves an interaction between the sender and the receiver. The responsibility for this interaction is assumed by both parties. The speaker can solicit feedback and adjust the message accordingly. The listener can summarize what was said for the speaker and continually practice the empathetic process. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

COMMUNICATION DEFINED: Webster’s Dictionary defines communication as “a giving or exchanging of information, signals, or messages by talk, gestures, writing, etc.” The primary goal of communication in a training setting is to transfer information to participants in such a way that a maximum amount of the message is understood and retained. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Always Three Dimensions: Human communication is always three-dimensional. No spoken or written message is ever just words or rational thoughts. Every interchange between you and another person has and takes place at the following three intimately related levels, or dimensions, of being: emotional, physical, and rational. Any attempt to communicate will succeed if all of these dimensions are adhered to. Knowledge of this three-dimensional nature is the foundation of training. You can’t get much closer to real understanding without these realizations. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH LISTENING? There are many reasons why we do not listen well enough to communicate properly and egocentrism is the most debilitating, especially within an organization. Often two heads will clash. Instead of brainstorming for a solution, a sparring match will ignite, eventually dwindling down with no solutions or progress made. Studies show that when listening, most people think about their own concerns rather than the speaker’s message. Our minds wander to more comfortable and amusing or troubling thoughts, instead of focusing on vital facts. Thus we become preoccupied, wasting company time and money. For example, we automatically tune out communication that does not personally appeal to us. By doing this we not only miss out on important information, but we also damage our credentials by showing unfound bias. Employees must learn to leave their personal biases at home and view each coworker as an equal and important contributor to the organization. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

ENHANCING YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Communication is a complex and often difficult process for both the receiver and sender. Barriers on both sides of the process often deflect the real meaning of the message and inhibit clear, open, and rewarding communication. Research shows that a major portion of an organization’s problems are caused by poor communication, while an even greater part of an organization’s progress stems from good communication. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Qualities of a “Good” Communicator: It has been said that communication is sincerity plus affability. Sincerity is the primary basis upon which the audience judges the integrity of the trainer. To quote Mr. Webster, sincerity means “without deceit, pretense, or hypocrisy; truthful and straight-forward.” However, your sincerity as a trainer and someone else’s belief in that sincerity may be two different things. You may believe in your subject, and be genuinely interested in the communication of that subject to your audience. But if they do not perceive you to be sincere, YOU ARE NOT SINCERE! Regardless of your own convictions, you may be projecting quite a different image to your group. Most people feel they can accurately judge sincerity, although research indicates that people’s perceptions are often incorrect. Thus, as a trainer, you must PROJECT sincerity. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

GOAL SETTING

SETTING GOALS: The goal-setting process enables an organization to check on the attainment of both its short-term and long-term objectives. When properly done, this process provides an array of valuable benefits and is a link to coaching, motivation, and performance management. Working without goals is much like trying to bowl without pins at the end of the alley. There is nothing to aim for, no way to determine how many pins you have knocked down. Human beings, by their very nature, are scorekeepers; we love to know how close we come to the target. If there is no way for us to tell how well we are doing, we will probably drop out of the game. Goals provide the necessary measuring sticks to tailor work into actual productivity. And contrary to what many people believe, goal setting is not an elusive or complicated process. It merely requires communication between management and employees and a desire to clearly state where you want to go, how you will get there, and how you will know you have arrived. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

DEFINE SPECIFIC GOALS AND BEHAVIORS: It is important to stress here that it is very difficult to change what people want, but fairly easy to find out what they want. Thus, the skillful supervisor emphasizes diagnosis of needs, not changing the individuals themselves. Determine what kinds of behavior you desire. What are management’s goals? Supervisors frequently talk about “good performance” without really defining good performance. An important step in motivating is determining what performances are required and defining them in specific, observable, and measurable behaviors so that employees can understand what is desired of them. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Are management’s goals attainable? Make sure desired levels of performance are reachable when determining employee goals. The point at which levels of performance are rewarded must be attainable by each employee. If employees feel that the level of performance required to get a reward is higher than they can reasonably achieve, their motivation to perform well will be relatively low. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

WHY SET GOALS? The process of goal setting raises questions and issues related to planning, specificity, and negotiation. Can an organization and its employees have compatible goals? Can both sides develop goals together to be more effective? Goal setting is a process for deciding where you want to go as an organization, as an employee and as an individual. Goals for management support the vision and strategic plan that an organization must have in order to stay alive and be successful. Goals for individuals support job success and individual development. When an organization and its (individual) members pull together to link their goals, overall success is the result. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Goal Setting: It is not uncommon for a supervisor to begin a project with his or her department with the best of intentions, only to see its execution deteriorate, become sloppy, late or even incomplete. A project’s results sometimes suggest to the manager that the assignment was never understood, and in a worst scenario, the project may never see completion. Despite the frequent occurrence of failed assignments, some managers see the repetition of them again and again, never comprehending the force behind such failures. Often the key to turning such disappointments into successes is the widely-misunderstood and woefully under-utilized managerial tool of goal setting. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

So what does goal setting offer? It closes the manager—employee gap. Often there are misunderstandings, miscommunication, or even no communication at all between upper management and lower level employees regarding company goals and plans. By setting reasonable goals with each employee, a supervisor can truly bridge this communication gap. After all, the employees actually perform the required work and such a lack of communication can leave employees feeling frustrated, not understanding their roles within the organization. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Combining department and personal goals: This leads to high effort levels, even if only partial success is achieved and rewarded. People do not perform well when they are unsure of their job responsibilities. A tremendous amount of time and energy is wasted each work day because people are performing tasks that have little or nothing to do with their jobs. Unfortunately, these people often aren’t aware that their efforts are misguided, for no one ever bothered to define their roles. Usually, the only time an employee finds out what they should be doing is during a performance review — and then it’s too late. The person can be “criticized” for not doing a task that they didn’t even realize was their responsibility. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

MOTIVATION

FULFILLING NEEDS EFFECTS MOTIVATION: According to Abraham Maslow, once the physiological needs have been satisfied, they decrease in motivational importance, and the security needs emerge as the primary sources of motivation. This escalation up the hierarchy continues until the self-actualization needs become the primary motivators. But whenever a previously satisfied lower-level set of needs becomes deficient again, the individual returns to that level. For example, a person who loses his or her job is likely to stop worrying about self-actualization and to concentrate on finding another job to satisfy the now-deficient security needs. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

WHAT PEOPLE GET DONE: People try to accomplish what they want to accomplish. They make a genuine effort to do what they consider personally important and meaningful. When someone makes such an effort — puts his heart and soul into it — we say they are “motivated." Motivation, then, is internal. It’s a drive, an impetus, an incitement within a person who makes the effort. You cannot bestow motivation upon anyone, you can give an employee a raise, or a promotion, or even a kick in the rear, but you cannot “give” him the urge, the desire, the strong wish to achieve a goal. That must come from within. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

HOW TO FUEL MOTIVATION IN THE WORKPLACE: You can help an employee recognize that a particular goal is personally important and meaningful to him or her. You cannot create the ends for which the employee works, but you can help him or her find the means to those ends. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

THEORY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SUPERVISORS: Implications about motivation amongst workers are directed toward the individual manager who is concerned with how to motivate good performance. Since behavior is a result of forces both in the person and in the environment, you as manager need to look at and diagnose both the person and the environment. Specifically, you need to do figure out what outcomes each employee values and identify individual goals. For each employee you need to determine “what turns him or her on.” The various ways of finding this out include finding out employees’ desires through some structured method of data collection, such as a questionnaire, observing employees reactions to different situations or rewards, or simply asking “What kinds of rewards do you want, what kind of career goals do you, or what’s in it for you?” www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Motivation — A Final Perspective: Employees are their own best source of motivation. If an employee’s work is properly structured, he or she will be motivated by the results of their own labors rather than by external rewards and punishments. The manager’s prime concern should therefore be to help employees achieve control over and receive feedback from their work. This is not to say, however, that the manager need not be concerned with environmental factors such as wages, personnel policies, and physical environment. Highly motivated employees will be tolerant of unavoidable inadequacies in these areas. But if conditions deteriorate markedly, especially if this appears to be due to the indifference of management, employees’ motivation will be canceled out by their growing frustration. Thus, in motivating employees by concentrating attention on job content, the manager should not ignore the employees’ basic needs. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

GET ORGANIZED/STOP PROCRASTINATING

TACKLING PROCRASTINATION: 1) Recognition. Be aware of the costs of procrastination and the benefits of reform. 2) Insight. Discover procrastination patterns in our work. 3) Enlightenment. Learn the ways other people have successfully changed their habits. 4) Action. Begin to use those methods to change our own habits. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

NIPPING INDECISION IN THE BUD: -- Recognize that indecision is often a form of procrastination. There is a time for deliberation and a time for action. When it is time to act, act with boldness. -- If you’re not making any mistakes, you’re not doing anything significant. -- The best time of the day to make important decisions is during your “prime time"— the hours when you’re in top form, have the clearest perspective, can think faster and better. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Procrastination: You’ve known about it since high school or college, when everybody boasted about it. Everyone put off papers for a basketball game or a night on the town. It was OK — you only go through college once, right? You left college, but did you leave procrastination? You are now accountable for procedures and personnel responsibilities more complicated and more consequential than any you shouldered in college. Have your habits and attitudes evolved to handle them? www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

How to Plan and Organize? 1) Calendar to do list: Update in the morning or the evening, not throughout the day. 2) To Do list: a) Make a list of what calls have to be made and what should be written. Do legibly so that can be understood. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

LET’S GET ORGANIZED! When you are at home, do you have trouble remembering where you put your keys? How about at work? Is your desk so cluttered you have no idea what is lurking beneath the mess? Well, the key to becoming organized is really very simple. It is always amazing that so many lose or misplace the keys that make so much noise when they are in bunches; but, everyone does. To prevent this, be sure to place them in the same spot everyday; the best bet would be a hook next to the door. This way you always know where they are. But on the chance that you still misplace them, attach a sound detector to the key ring and a whistle will trigger a beeper to go off and you will locate your lost keys. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

TIME SAVERS AND ORGANIZING TRICKS: Once you are in the car, prioritize your day's tasks. This will save a lot of time when you get to work because you will be able to get right down to business. One should also keep a little tape recorder in the car. This is very handy for recording thoughts and dictating memos that just pop into your head as you are heading down the highway. And speaking into a recorder is much easier than trying to write while driving; even when stuck in traffic. It is also helpful to keep a book containing client’s information, such as address, telephone number, directions to their office. This way the information is always readily available, you only have to get it one time, and your clients will be impressed at how organized you are. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

TIME MANAGEMENT

MANAGING YOUR TIME: 1) Be available at specific hours. If you are reserving your prime time, let your employees know that you will be available only during specific times. Schedule short meetings with key people on a regular basis, or when needed. 2) Limit Routine Tasks. Decide which tasks you must accomplish and set aside a small block of time each week for them. 3) Utilize Lunch Time. If you are feeling pressure, take lunch to relax, or take this time to concentrate on your A and B tasks away from the office. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

TIPS TO TIME MANAGEMENT: 1) Anticipate crunch time so it does not become CRISIS. Leave 30 minutes each day unscheduled. The best laid plans can often get disrupted by someone else’s overwhelming A priority, or the car breaking down. Allow flexibility in scheduling, so all will not be lost. 2) Protect your private time. Having and holding onto time for yourself is as important as being work oriented, if not more so. If people fail to take time out for friends, family and play, their health, mental effectiveness and alertness will inevitably suffer. 3) Ask for cooperation. Schedule large tasks that involve others. Never expect to be able to accomplish multifaceted or multi-person tasks on time without the cooperation of all parties involved. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

SETTING PRIORITIES: -- Remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of the value is accounted for by 20% of the items, while only 20% of the value is accounted for by 80% of the items. Learn to concentrate on your high value 20% activities. -- Set at least one major objective each day and form the habit of achieving it — every day. -- When conditions change be sure to change your objectives if necessary. As objectives are achieved, don’t forget to set new objectives. -- You are never finished clarifying your objectives until you have determined the relative priority of each one. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

TABBED FILE FOLDERS: Convert the major subject divisions of your outline to a series of tabbed file folders. This is one of the best organizational devices you can have, because it actually makes your outline a physical method for sorting and dividing your material. Start your folders as soon as you get your first item of information. From the start, you’ll have it sorted. Even if you have to change folder titles as you go, you’ll be better off. Not only this, but you’ll be able to work on any section of your presentation at any time without disturbing or searching through other material. You can also include a folder for notes on your audience or any other subject such as your objective, the location of your presentation, people involved, and so forth. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

PEAK WORK HOURS: Just as we recognize that time spent training an employee pays off in greater productivity, we must recognize the need to train ourselves. Everyone has a favorite time of day, the time when you feel most alert and energized. Recognize that time, and earmark it for your most important or difficult tasks. If you hit your stride after lunch, don’t waste the morning hours while you inhale coffee trying to write that sensitive report. Do tasks that need to be done, but require less concentration. And make sure that your secretary or assistant knows that you are not to be disturbed during your chosen time — you lose not only the time the interruption takes, but the additional time necessary to get back on track, stop being irritated over the interruption, and refocus on the task at hand. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

GAINING TWO YEARS OF YOUR LIFE: Providing structured tools that you can personalize for your own situation, a time management training program can help managers take control of their time, increase productive output in fewer hours, decrease stress and, therefore, live longer. By allowing yourself to waste two hours out of every day for the next twenty-five years, you will waste two years of your life. Making good use of those two hours is like living two years longer — two years that you gain to spend time the way you want to. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

TIME MANAGEMENT: Time is a personal thing. What might seem like a waste of time for you may be highly productive for someone else. Think about day-dreaming, for instance. One person may be doing crucial planning as he stares off into space, while another may have absolutely nothing on his mind. To become more effective and productive, managers must thoroughly examine and consider their lack of time. If training or personal change is based on the results of such examination, productivity within an organization or department will increase significantly, and stress will decrease. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

MANAGING TIME: 1) Engage in creative waste basketry. Live by the maxim -- “When in doubt, throw it out.” 2) Don’t become a paperwork junkie. Stop creating forms for the sake of creation. Ask yourself, “What is the worst that could happen if this activity went unrecorded?” If the consequences are not crucial, save the time and paper. 3) Handle each piece of paper only once. Take appropriate action on each piece of paper as you sort through the mail. Label for filing or throw out as much as is possible. 4) Put together a daily “To Do” list. Use one piece of paper and list all the tasks you need and wish to do each day. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

DELEGATION

BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE DELEGATION: 1) Freeing management from routine and repetitive functions. Managers are most cost effective when directing their energies to those top-level duties for which they were hired and are being paid — setting objectives, developing policies, and measuring results. 2) Increasing motivation, confidence, and personal as well as professional growth in others. On-the-job-training challenges employees to evaluate risks, make decisions, and handle conflicts and prepare them for promotion, facilitating company growth. Effective delegation also heightens interest in the company and instills pride by demonstrating the manager’s faith in their abilities. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

BEING A GOOD DELEGATOR: Effective delegation is the strongest productivity improvement tool management can utilize. Since, delegation can be mismanaged, however, it is important for a manager to clearly understand why, what, and to whom he or she should delegate before attempting to do so. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

WHY DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITY? Delegating responsibility insures that the work is done by the right person. No manager, regardless of his or her competence, can adequately perform each departmental function as well as the person who does it on a daily basis. Many have not worked their way up through the company and are highly unlikely to have handled all aspects of a process while doing so. Additionally, they would hardly have been promoted to a managerial position without a belief that their talents could be put to use elsewhere. Effective delegation ensures that each task is performed at the lowest appropriate level. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

PROBLEM SOLVING

THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM: When problem solving, you may recognize that you were working on a symptom instead of the problem. An analysis of the more clearly defined problem may require an alteration to the objectives or the ideal solution. These reviews and changes are costly in terms of time and effort which emphasizes the need for rigid scrutiny during the initial problem definition to avoid wasted time and effort. Once implementation begins, it is even more difficult to learn that the entire action plan and subsequent efforts were based on symptoms in lieu of authentic problems. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

Group Decision-Making: Many managers feel they are well-versed in areas of group effort, such as problem-solving, goal-setting, and action planning. Frequently, however, the implementation of such techniques never seems to get beyond the initial stage. Often, this is because managers can not quite seem to understand that brainstorming or group decision-making requires comprehensive utilization of various processes. Managers may unknowingly find themselves perpetuating problems instead of solving them. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

PROBLEM SOLVING: When entering into problem-solving to remember that it is unlikely that the best solution will be found on the first attempt. Good problem-solving can be viewed as working like a guidance system: The awareness of the problem is an indication of being “off course", requiring a correction in direction. The exact form the correction is to take is what problem-solving is aimed at deciding. But once the correction (the implemented solution) is made, it is possible that, after evaluation, it will prove to be erroneous—perhaps even throwing you even more off course than in the beginning. If this happens, the task then becomes to immediately compute what new course will be effective. Several course corrections may be necessary before getting back on track to where you want to go. Still, once the desired course is attained, careful monitoring is required to avoid drifting off course again unknowingly. Viewing problem-solving in this realistic manner can save a lot of frustration that comes from expecting it to always produce the right answers. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

CONSIDER ANY IDEAS: Continue as long as the ideas keep coming. In a brainstorming session which I once attended, the topic was gun control. Given the many problems of collecting existing guns, and the long shelf life of ammunition, no one could come up with a law or enforcement technique which would pull in all the available guns. Finally, one person voiced her own admittedly ridiculous thought: Promise every neighborhood their own policeman if the residents turn in all their guns. The initial response was critical — how could every neighborhood be given their own 24-hour-a-day policeman? Yet this idea ended up the best one generated. With only a little modification, it became the proposal given to the mayor. Brainstorming ideas are not supposed to be logical, coherent or practical. The most far-fetched ideas give birth to previously elusive solutions. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

PROBLEMS WITH BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS: A group of people has organized to find creative solutions to the pressing problems of their organization. Everyone knows that these are the top “brains” in their departments, and everyone has heard them come up with brilliant ideas around the coffee machine and in the lunch room. Yet there they sit, unable to think of a single thing, no one volunteering, no one even pretending enthusiasm about the challenge ahead. This is all too often the response to a “brainstorming” session. Calling the best and the brightest together very rarely supplies the answers to managerial or training needs. This is too bad, because brainstorming at its best can achieve incredible results by training people to think creatively, to define and solve real problems, and to identify alternative courses of action. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS: Once the session begins, the group leader should state the problem that has been the impetus of the session. Don’t dwell on the prohibitive factors involved in possible solutions, as this too may tend to be discouraging. Advise group participants of the “guidelines” of the session that there will be no judgment of ideas, that everyone is welcome to speak, etc. Throw in an idea of your own, even a preposterous one if you must, to break the ice. Encourage those who first voice their ideas, and try to get everyone involved in the discussion. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

GROUNDRULES OF A BRAINSTORMING SESSION: The following ground rules for the brainstorming session itself should be followed to encourage the most thought in the short and intense amount of time allotted for these sessions. Ideas must flow freely — the silly and irrelevant as well as the weighty and grand plans. There must be no evaluation, no criticism. In short, no judgment at all can be advanced at this stage. Encourage freewheeling thinking. Encourage everyone to say exactly what they are thinking at the time it occurs. Nothing is too strange or funny to be voiced. This is really the only way to draw out the really creative ideas. www.school4managers.com. Copyright A.E. Schwartz & Associates, all rights reserved. For more information, reprint permission, contact: reprints@aeschwartz.com.

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