Mdina blog

Fewer sickies in recession? Well-managed staff don’t go sick anytime

UK managers who are enjoying record low levels of "sickies" from workers terrified of losing their jobs, could easily keep good attendance records when the economy picks up again.

 

Employees who are well motivated and have a clear goal to work towards are less likely to pull a sickie.

 

I have helped to train thousands of managers, and has analysed data from 11,000 staff managed using the DART web-based management software.

 

The latest absence management survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reveals that private sector workers took an average of 6.4 days off because of illness last year, down from 7.2 days in 2007.

 

All the data we have consistently shows that managers who delegate a lot and spend their time managing their team rather than “getting things done” have lower levels of absenteeism and tend to achieve more overall.

 

High absenteeism is a sign of a struggling manager. When an employee doesn’t know what they are working towards they are less motivated to go into work every day. A nice summery Monday morning after a heavy weekend is just too tempting to miss.

 

The number of sickies might be low right now, but it is only the effective managers who will see them stay low when the recession is over.

 

 Mark

Management Development

I have just finished running a 1 day per month for 8 months Management Development programme and it is really refreshing to see how potential Can develop when given the opportunity

I really think there are a lot of people particularly Managers who do not have help to capitalise on their potential.

We as trainers see this everyday.

Here are some pictures of my delegates, they should all feel proud

Why do I need training?

This is the question I often get asked along with what can you teach me about what I do?  I have one answer to this question.

 

Tiger Woods is probably the best golfer ever and undoubtedly one of the most successful sportsmen ever. He’s won everything and earnt millions in prize money, not to mention all his sponsorship and endorsement money. A few years ago he decided to split from his long time trainer Butch Harmon and go it alone. Following the split Woods failed to win a Major golf tournament. It was only after he recruited a new coach that he started winning majors again. Was it coincidence or was it that however good a player Woods is, he still needed someone watching him and giving him tips and ideas.

 

Gideon Bard

What's the problem with sales people?

If I said the word salesman, what words now fill your mind?

Pushy?    Gift of the gab?    Says anthing to get a sale?   Dishonest?

These kind of perceptions are very common and are held also by sales people (I know as I have checked with hundreds of them).  This is a crying shame because actually selling is truly an art form when done correctly and professionally.

Many sales people I have encountered can't wait to tell the client about what they have - hell I spent years doing just that when I was a junior sales person many years ago.

We all know that sales people should spend more time finding out about the clients needs but often people believe that clients need their products.

The question we should all ask is why is someone buying our product or service? What does it give them?

Let's consider a house which is for sale and we will call it plot 23. There are three potential buyers:-

1.    Ted who is an investor who wants to buy to rent it out. He aims to make money from the rental and future equity gains.

2.    Mr & Mrs Brown who have another baby on the way and need more space.

3.    Mr & Mrs Jones who want to move to a nice area because they have been frequently broken into with their current location.

The house potentially solves three different scenarios here:-

1.    More money that investing money in a high interest account.

2.    Somewhere to live that feels comfortable

3.    Security (or at least perceived security).

Once the need is understood, the house can be presented appropriately - but regardless of who buys it, the house does not change.

Consider one of your products or services - just one. You will be able to state many reasons for why different buyers could be motivated to purchase, and some of these will be radically different.

So the more we understand about the motivations behind a purchase the better our chances of a sale and these will include good business reasons but also personal reasons such as ease, time, personal likes and dislikes.

So my message is that your products and services work. If they didn't then it is unlikely that you would remain in business. It is also likely that your clients could find other competitive products at roughly the same price to solve their problems. I am not a great beleiver in product differentiation as a deal closer (I do beleive that is gererates interest and then the selling starts).

Often, the things that differentiates one company from another is the approach that client facing personnel have with their customers. So when we are helping to develop our sales delegates we are trying to produce business to business professionals not stereo typical sales people who do product pitches.

Sales people often ask "what will it take for you to buy this product". A better question is "What makes you interested in buying the product?"

When sales poeple understand this, then the real art ounderstanding how clients tick really begins. And when that is done well it truly is an art form.

Mark Jacobs

BBC's - The Apprentice - Planning

It's back!  - The Apprentice on BBC at 9pm on Wednesdays.

Yes, I know it is a TV series and the objective is to gain more viewers but for training and development people this programme must be like an addiction. If you didn't watch the programme then the following blog may not make sense.

The Apprentice is great for examples of what can go wrong in a business when you have lack of direction, accountablitity etc. The resulting pressure reveals the often poor communication skills that the participants have in positioning themselves in the baord room battle.

The first episode of the new series was entertaining and I was pleased to hear that (unusually) one of the male group started their planning session with something like  "it may be obvious but let's state the objective".

It is not always obvious what our objectives are and it can be very easy to forget these as we get caught up in the task at hand. This was demonstrated by the other team that did not seem to have a good grasp of their objective (ie to make profit). Althought they generated more revenue had not really considered their costs and therfore lost the task.

Over the years that I have watched this programme, the main failure for most of the teams is their lack of ability to plan. Maybe this is harsh because the clips end up on the editors floor.

Plan: I hardly ever hear about clear accountability or a time plan. Ie time to plan, test, implement, review etc. This would allow plan B to be implmented in a planned way not the normal panic that we see.

Test : For example, the teams could have tried two methods simaltaneously, timing the washing of one car by half the team and having a production line idea with the other half.

Measure: The average time to wash a car would allow them to choose a method.

Impelment: As they got more experience, they would find efficiencies.

Review: At the planning phase, they could have built in the times to review each critical stage that gave them time to consider if they needed to change anything.

I realise that the theory is easy and I do feel a lot of sympathy for the apprentices because the planning issue is especially difficult because in the first few episodes when the team is also trying to form. No one knows what anyone can do, how they communicate and what are their natural roles. This is all forming as they also have to complete the task, so no real surpirse that it fairly chaotic. It is when things are chaotic that we tend to make poorer decisions.

Watch on and enjoy.

Sales development with Steve Tarr

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Sales development with Steve Tarr

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Sales Development with Steve Tarr

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Key Account Management

In this ever changing business world we are living in the importance of managing key accounts is becoming more and more important.

Most of our clients are realising that with limited sales resource they have to decide which customers are going to get the focus of that sales resource.

The successful sales teams are being caused to re focus by their sales managers, being called to account more and more for how they are investing their expensive sales resource.

Let me know your thoughts on this subject and on how Mdina are dealing with this challenge

Steve Tarr

Making Notes

I find it increasingly frustrating how sales people sit in front of their customers for some times over 1 hour and do not make any notes.

During our sales development sessions we emphasise the importance of making notes.

On the assumption that the sales person is asking good effective questions then at least the sales person should be making appropriate notes, if for no other reason as to show interest.

I would love to hear from other people as to whether they have noticed this poor behaviour

Steve Tarr