| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
Downsizing in Organisations - The Real Truth
I've met and worked with many people in all sectors of the business world and found that the majority of managers and team leaders are spending too much of their time on basic administrative tasks. Tasks for which they have had no training in. In many instances people are stressed out with too many responsibilities due to ongoing restructuring and downsizing in their organisation. Get Real When you have people with the knowledge and expertise to handle specific roles and they spend their precious time on basic administration, organisations are wasting huge amounts of money paying people to do tasks which would best be handled by a fully trained administrative assistant. These tasks can be delegated if there was someone there to delegate to. This would free them up to do what they do best. They may not require full-time support. Perhaps one assistant could assist two managers? Make sure you don't have managers who will take it on themselves to help their assistant out as the assistant is overloaded! That doesn't make sense. I've seen this happen many times where the manager feels guilty delegating tasks to his assistant because they know that person is already stretched to the maximum. "Everyone Knows ..." To be effective in any role we need to be organised. Too often it is taken for granted that "everyone knows" how to organise themselves, their time, their paperwork. That's a myth! If they did then there wouldn't be so many stressed out people in the workplace working long hours and being unable to cope with their workloads?and I wouldn't be in business! Cut Costs Without Cutting Your Own Throat If your organisation is or has already cut resources to the bone, whatever you do make sure that those people remaining continually keep improving their skills so that they can perform to the best of their ability. Be careful the cost cutting strategies don't burn your people out so they end up leaving.t can cost an organisation thousands of dollars to replace a valuable employee. The Final Word Learning how to be better organised will help you and your team be more productive. If you're more productive you feel better about yourself, you're less stressed, you get more done and therefore have more time. And in this fast-paced society isn't that what many people want? More time for themselves, and their families. Can You Really Improve Your Organisation Skills? I'm sure most of you have heard of Zig Ziglar International Sales Guru. Well in one of Zig's weekly newsletters, there were a number of comments about the habits of well-organised people which I couldn't resist sharing with you. What are the habits of well-organised people? Can a person be 'taught' skills that will make them organised, or is that a quality you either possess or lack? We asked those questions of our readers and here are some of their responses: "I think that natural abililty has to be coupled with good training to fully develop skills such as being organised." "Thankfully, organisation skills are learned. The first requirement is DESIRE. The second is WORK! By consistently using such tools as a well thought out set of goals, a planner and a PRIORITISED daily "to do" list, I have made a positive difference in my personal and professional life." "A well-organised person reviews their actions each day. They assess where mistakes were made, identifying ways to eliminate those mistakes in the future. They assess areas for improvement. They also plan out their day ahead of time. These habits can be learned by anyone." "Improving your organisation skills is teachable and there are hundreds of tools to help you achieve that end. But first I have to "want" to learn that skill. I have to see the need and the resultant advantage to me and my business and then I will be willing to learn a new skill." "Orderliness is a character trait. Organisation is an outcome of that trait. Character qualities are learned behaviours that develop throughout our whole lives - not just while we are children." "Yes, everybody can be taught organising one's life. It's only a question of changing habits, however, everything is connected. You cannot be a complete mess in your personal life and expect to be perfectly organised in your business life." So you see it doesn't matter who or what you are, anybody can learn the basic fundamental skills and experience the daily benefits of being organised. It's just a case of recognising that you need to improve in that area and as mentioned in one of the comments, you have to have the desire to change. Of course the next thing you have to do is take action! Then you too can experience the benefits of being organised such as having more time to do what you want to, improved confidence, having more control over your life, reducing your stress and feeling good! It's all up to you. About The Author To subscribe to her free ezine visit www.office-organiser.com.au This article may be reproduced providing it is published in it's entirety, including the author's bio and all links. For further information please contact Lorraine Pirihi, lorraine@office-organiser.com.au
MORE RESOURCES:
Management - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Communication: Managements Responsibility I've just watched, again, an episode in the Back to the Floor television series, which aired on the BBC (United Kingdom) and PBS (United States). Once more, communication turned out to be a key issue, as it often does in business stories. Ten Problem Solving Techniques Do you ever need to find some good ideas, or come up with a solution for a persistent problem? Learn some simple problem solving techniques, and start applying them. Choose a few of the methods below, and get in the habit of using them in your personal life and your business. Performance Management - Getting The Most Out of Your Employees Managing for Best PerformanceIn it's simplest form, performance management is a common sense set of discussions that make sure people are clear about what they need to do, have the support to do it and get open and honest feedback on their performance.Any performance management process should answer 4 important questions for your employees:· Direction: What do I need to do and how well? · Feedback: How am I doing? · Rewards: What happens when I do well? · Support/Development: What happens when I need/want help?Lets look more closely at each of these:DirectionEmployees are not mind readers. What Every HR Manager Should Know About Hiring Productive Employees The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on whether or not they get hired. Their characteristics also indicate the level of their productivity. How to Help Your Company Become a World Class Company Most people think real change in an organization occurs as a result of top-level leadership. This isn't always the case. Setting Direction Within an Organization FINDING DIRECTION: An organization can't succeed without direction. Direction means having clear goals and guidelines; set goals and guidelines for staff to follow. Humor in Business With the advancement of computer simulators, anybody can repeat all the business routines before he goes to the field, and have the opportunity of relaxing from the tedious work with numbers. The businessman can concentrate more on the human factors: The Customer Service, the relationships among fellow workers, and self care. Top Ten Things About Creating a Business Vision To visualise where you are going, is deeper and more sensory than anything you have ever done before. And these are the skills of those who are able to create a vision you can really live and breathe. Joint Accountability: Another Key for Your Effectiveness I once was part of a group of management professors who often taught in executive development seminars. Other non-management professors in the school ran these. Ringing Doorbells Without Howitzers Many operations leaders have been there, done that with re-engineering. And they report, in effect, that the process is like ringing a doorbell with a howitzer shell. When Politics Prevent Innovation - Or? Still Fighting Battles and Losing Wars The objective is to beat the competition and make money. Everything a business organization does should be focused on that simple objective, with interpretation through various Vision and Mission Statements. Giving a Good Appraisal Interview Although this performance discussion is an opportunity for you to discuss your employee's work during a given period of time, it is also, and importantly, a time for you and your employee to check perceptions and reach mutual understandings and agreements about the purposes and priorities of their jobs. This discussion can positively influence your mutual working relationship. Basic Management Skills Recent studies have shown that industrial supervisors are working at less than 60 % of their potential. Basic management skills training is guaranteed to change all this and at such little costManager in contextMost of my adult life has been spent working as a supervisor or manager on industrial projects throughout the world. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: The Responsibility for Job Security This article relates to the Job Security competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. This competency evaluates how your employees view their job security within your organization. Knowledge Management - Leadership Behaviours Which Encourage Knowledge-Sharing The concept of knowledge management or knowledge sharing makes intellectual sense to the leadership teams in most organisations. Why wouldn't we want to learn from our successes and failures, and translate that learning into value?However, there is often a gap between the conceptual understanding, and their own behaviours as leaders - and that can be a problem? How do you engage leaders both intellectually and emotionally, in a way which will make a difference to their day-to-day behaviours? It requires more than a set of competency frameworks!The examples below are taken from the bestselling fieldbook "Learning to Fly ? Practical knowledge management from leading and learning organisations", written by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell. Are You Cascading Your Strategy, or Fragmenting It? INTRODUCTIONThe typical approach executive teams use to cascade, or roll out, their strategic direction is to produce a clear set of goals, objectives, critical success factors or a scorecard and then get each departmental or functional manager to take this on board and customize it for their part of the organisation. The trouble then begins?A TYPICAL APPROACH: EACH DEPARTMENT ADOPTS OR ADAPTS A VERSION OF THE CORPORATE STRATEGYThe first phase of most organisational planning processes is that the organisation's executives design and express a strategic direction using a framework of some kind. Leaders Versus Cheerleaders Everyone wants to describe themselves as a leader. Everyday, new books on leadership come out on the market. Behavioral Extensions and Its Implications at Workplaces The study of Behavioral extension involves investigating the source of an actual demonstrated behavioral action. According to Behavioral Extension belief, no action can be seen as a disconnected expression. The Idol-Makers The end of the television season in May included the usual array of cliffhangers on shows like "Alias," the departure of Noah Wylie from "ER" and the finale of the highly-rated "Everybody Loves Raymond" after 210 episodes. On the last day of "Sweeps," more than 29 million people tuned in to see the crowning of the fourth "American Idol. Get Out Of The Stone Age: Give Leadership Talks 160 years ago, the newly invented electric telegraph carried the first news message. The message zipped 40 miles in a flash over wires from Baltimore to Washington, D.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |