Mohit Tater's Blog, page 685

Effective Techniques: How to Motivate Staff

Before selecting suitable techniques, managers should be aware of the impact staff motivation has on the company. Employees who are highly motivated, work hard and participate towards high productivity rates in the company. Employees who lack motivation are more liable to make mistakes and can affect the quality of the company’s output. This is why it is important for managers to maintain high levels of motivation among staff by using a suitable technique. But not all employees respond positively for the same technique. Thus, a range of techniques should be used to make this effort more productive. Listed below are some of the answers to the age old question of how to motivate staff.

Build satisfaction

Employee motivation and satisfaction correlate with each other. In other words, a person who is motivated will be satisfied with his/her work and the company’s standards. In the same way, a person who is satisfied will be motivated to perform better. So ideally, greater levels of job satisfaction will result in high levels of motivation. There are several ways in which you can satisfy your employees. These include providing better working conditions and appreciating performance.

Recognize efforts

Any remarkable achievement of an employee must be rewarded. This will show that the company values and appreciates the individual’s efforts. There are two main types of organizational rewards, monetary and non-monetary rewards. Monetary rewards are incentives, bonuses, rise in salary, etc; On the other hand, non-monetary rewards include recognizing the hard work, public appreciation of efforts, praise and respect from colleagues, etc. Offering ‘employee of the month’ reward is a commonly used technique in many organizations.

Set challenges

Once an employee is given a goal to achieve, his/her work becomes target-oriented. Organizational psychologists state that target-oriented behavior produces greater results than other methods. You must ensure that these goals are challenging yet achievable. Giving a long-term goal will sustain the employee’s motivation levels for the long-term. For example, a salesperson who is asked to reach a target of $1000 per month will only show good results in that particular month. If you wish to see satisfactory performance throughout, you must offer a different target level each month depending on the company’s sales.

Provide training

This particular technique offers multiple benefits. Firstly, staff training improves the standards and efficiency of the employees. This in turn will affect the company’s output and sales positively. When organizations conduct training programs for their employees, the latter believe that the company is genuinely interested in their well-being since it is making quite an investment in them through the program. This will increase the employee’s loyalty towards the company and will eventually motivate him/her to perform better.

There are several other ways in which you can increase employee motivation. Creating a positive working environment, providing modern technological equipment, offering vacations and profit-sharing programs are some of the commonly used techniques across many organizations. Whatever the technique is, it must be implemented over a long course of time since job motivation should never be used as a temporary solution to increase job performance.

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5 ways To Get The Most From Your Business

It can be extremely difficult to deliver generic business advice, especially when you consider the vast and occasionally subtle differences that distinguish alternative markets and sectors. While your precise strategy and plan with depend largely on the service that you deliver and the nature of the market; however there are several underlying rules of business that should be adhered to at all times.

5 ways to get the most from your business venture

With these rules in mind, here are five fundamental steps that can enable you to make the most of your business and achieve long-term success:

Maintain a secure store of wealth

Throughout the course of your business’ life, it is likely to experience multiple peaks and troughs in terms of growth. This is a facet of business that cannot be denied (especially if you want to enjoy long-term success) and it is therefore crucial that you have a readily available reserve of financial capital at hand during times of austerity. Although this is easier said than done, it can be achieved by adopting a frugal and consistent approach to expenditure when business is booming.

Aim to reduce expenditure at all times

On a similar note, a long-term commitment to reducing costs and expenditure is at the heart of every successful business. This is the key to achieving sustainable profitability, even as turnover and sales volumes are reduced. One of the best ways to achieve this is to partner with a viable business energy firm such as UGP to review and reduce annual costs, as this cuts expenditure without impacting on business output.

Maintain strategic control of your business

As a business owner, it is imperative that you retain strategic control of your business venture. This will require you to delegate the responsibility for day-to-day operational management to trusted associates, while you focus solely on building a consistent brand and striving towards a clear vision. If you become distracted by micro-managing others, you will struggle to achieve long-term success.

Be patient and aim for organic business growth

Business success should be considered as a marathon rather than a sprint, which means that growth should never be forced. This usually requires financial investment, for example, and spending outside of your means in the quest for growth will ultimately cause your business to retract. By remaining focused and patient while adhering to a long-term plan, you can achieve far greater longevity.

Maintain a positive work-life balance

If you are a successful business owner who approaches commercialism in the right way, you will probably find that your time outside of work is limited. You must adopt a proactive approach to maintaining an effective work-life balance, however, as this will help you to sustain meaningful personal relationships while also creating a more positive outlook in the workplace.

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Cybersecurity Tips to Protect Your Start-up Business

Cyberthieves are increasingly targeting small businesses the U.S. Small Business Administration warned this month during its National Cyber Security Awareness Month campaign. In 2013, 44 percent of small businesses reported experiencing a cyberattack, at an average cost of $9,000 per incident, an SBA survey found. Last year, 34 percent of phishing emails impersonating a familiar person or business targeted small companies with one to 250 employees, up from 18 percent in 2011, according to security provider Symantec. SBA senior area manager Eric Giltner says small businesses are vulnerable because they often don’t see themselves as a target. But thieves do, so even if your small business is still in the start-up phase, it’s important to start taking steps to secure your company now.

Use Antivirus Protection

To help small businesses protect themselves, the SBA has launched a new web page with links to cybersecurity tips. The first step the SBA recommends is making sure your company computers are equipped with antivirus software configured to update automatically and download the latest security patches. No matter what preventive measures you take, breaches will inevitably occur, so keeping your antivirus software updated will give you the best chance of detecting a breach when it happens and before it can spread damage.

About half of all malware attacks involve generic data-stealing software, according to an Anti-Phishing Working Group cited by LifeLock’s security tips blog. To block this common attack, LifeLock recommends keeping your operating systems and browsers updated along with your antivirus software.

Secure Your Network

Securing your company network is another fundamental safeguard. Installing a firewall and using encryption will help protect your network from outside intrusions. For Wi-Fi networks, configure your router or access point so that it does not broadcast your network’s name (Service Set Identifier or SSID). Activate password protection for company routers.

Educate Your Employees

Ninety-five percent of successful cyberattacks involve human error, according to IBM and the Cyber Security Intelligence Index. This makes training your personnel to follow good security policies crucial. The FCC provides an online planner tool to help your company generate a customized security plan. Create a plan and make sure your security team and other staff members know their responsibilities for implementing it.

Educate employees about how to handle sensitive data such as passwords, customer data, and company trade secrets. Employees should know how to choose a strong password that includes letters, numbers, and symbols. Using password managers can help your staff generate more secure passwords automatically. Training should also cover issues such as how to use company devices and networks safely and what to avoid posting on social media.

Restrict Access to Authorized Personnel

Restricting access to company accounts and devices will help prevent unauthorized personnel from using them to steal sensitive data. Create unique accounts and assign unique devices to each employee. Restrict administrative access to key personnel only. Have employees lock up their laptops when not in use. Smartphones should have lock screen options activated.

Create an Action Plan

No matter what preventive steps you take, there always remains a risk of security breach. Make sure your security team has a plan to respond to an emergency by taking steps such as locking down and wiping compromised devices and notifying employees and customers. Train your employees how to respond in the event their device is lost or stolen.

Use Secure Payment Processing

With new EMV chip compliance policies placing additional liability on companies for stolen customer data, it’s imperative for your business to use secure payment processing technology. Work with your financial institutions and payment processing provider to make sure you’re using the best current tools and practices. Get equipped with chip-card processing equipment to reduce your potential liability for customer identity theft. Have your payment processing provider isolate customer financial data in a secure location away from the rest of your company data, where it will be less vulnerable to theft.

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5 Ways to Turbo Charge Your Customer Service

In this day and age customer service is marketing. It’s PR. In the era of social media, screenshots and smartphones, a bad experience won’t lose you one customer; it could lose you hundreds. For example, Amy’s Baking Co, who had a famous meltdown after negative feedback about their appearance on TV show Kitchen Nightmares – and have now closed.

Even slow or lacklustre service can be a disaster – so here are some tips on how to turbo charge your customer service and become a cut above the rest.

1) Hire the Right People

This depends on the position. If you are looking for an entry-level customer support rep, hire for personality. You can train that professional, friendly candidate to be an excellent advisor. It’s much harder to alter the behaviour and attitude of a bitter and misanthropic (but more experienced) employee.

More senior or technical roles require both. Don’t be fooled by the myth that genius balances a bad attitude. A bullying supervisor or obnoxious colleague can reduce productivity, increase staff turnover and lead to a rise in absenteeism.

2) Support Your Staff

When you’ve hired your team of all-stars, support them. Provide the right training, and ensure they have all the information they need to resolve customer issues. Giving your team nothing but a rigid script is a surefire way to generate stress and frustration for both parties.

Cheerful, caring people who genuinely empathise with customers make for excellent support reps. They’re also more likely to burn out if they live or die with the problem. Check in with them regularly and don’t assume all your staff will be motivated by the same incentives and team building initiatives.

3) Rapid Response

It is essential to avoid long wait times; customers have reported feeling frustrated after waiting for as little as 6 minutes. If there are delays, monitor and spot check how long it takes for team members to answer a call. This could highlight a need for training or an understaffed office. Skip premium numbers; they decrease customer satisfaction and can exacerbate any response issues.

Use the right software, equipment and staff to ensure a rapid response. Provide fast computers, a solid internet connection and compatible software. Avoid reps having to repeat themselves with wireless call centre headsets and noise cancelling microphones.

4) Be Straightforward

Customers are so frustrated with customer support lines that they have created online forums dedicated to ‘getting around’ customer service red tape. Consumer groups are producing complex step-by-step guides to help people get information as mundane as an accurate bill.

(While we don’t advocate script based support (see above) a set of simple, useful procedures will help your staff resolve issues quickly and effectively, to the standards you expect).

Be straightforward, helpful and accessible. Don’t put your customers in a position where they need a cheat sheet just to talk to you.

5) Feedback

Get it and give it.

Solicit reviews and send out surveys to enable you to analyse the customer experience at every stage.

Respond to positive feedback and take negative responses on board. In all cases, be gracious and go above and beyond to fix the problem. Respond to all reviews and queries quickly and compassionately (however ludicrous they may seem).

Make life easy for everyone by diversifying your customer service options. Offer instant messaging, email, phone numbers, and monitor your social media accounts.

Above all; always look for a win win solution.

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Know the Importance of Re-Evaluating Your Goals as an Entrepreneur

People who write down their goals, share them with a friend and send weekly updates to them are 33 percent more successful in accomplishing their goals than those who just conceptualize them, according to Gail Matthews, a professor at Dominican University of California. Her takeaway from the study shows the effectiveness of accountability, commitment and writing when setting goals.

As an entrepreneur, you probably already have a long list of goals. Maybe you have even shared them with a colleague and created systems of accountability. Now what? How do you propel yourself forward and make progress when your business changes at breakneck speed? The answer lies in re-evaluating your goals to provide a framework for success and keep your momentum high. Here’s how to get started:

Choose Pillar Goals

Setting goals doesn’t necessarily mean jotting down notes on finding more clients or creating more revenue streams. Instead, write out pillar goals that encompass your long-term vision. For example, write down your goal of finding more clients at the top of your list. Then, underneath it start brainstorming sub-goals on how to achieve the top goal. Those sub-goals might be attending at least one networking event a month, following up with past clients and offering free consulting sessions to your target market.

Track Your Goals Consistently

An article on American Express Open Forum illustrates a common thread among successful people. Instead of drifting into a sea of jumbled thoughts and daily stresses, successful people anchor themselves to their goals by writing them down.

When there’s coveted down time, instead of using pen and paper that can be easily lost or forgotten, keep track of your goals on a smartphone like the iPhone 6s Plus. The 5.5-inch display provides more room to jot down notes and ideas on an app like Evernote. Take the idea of achievement a step further by using photos and videos to keep your goals visually front and center. The iPhone 6s features Live Photos, which captures a still shot with extra frames on the front and back to create short, spontaneous videos when you need inspiration. The 3D Touch senses how deeply you press your display, and opens different apps so you can intuitively access what you need to document and track your goals.

Take Accountability

It’s not enough to simply chart and track your goals. Re-evaluate your goals on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to see where you’re making progress and where you’re lagging behind. Take accountability for your failures and successes, and make adjustments accordingly. Regardless of how a colleague or outside influence may affect your day-to-day, it’s still ultimately up to you to realize your goals. Without that accountability in place, it’s easy to point the finger at everyone and everything else around you and shrug off taking new action.

Re-evaluate Success

You have already re-evaluated your goals by this point, but what about the end result? The success you’re after should also be re-evaluated. Ask yourself what success means to you and how it impacts your personal and professional life. After concentrated time documenting, tracking, tweaking and evaluating your goals, look at the big picture. Is your idea of success still the same? What are you trying to achieve and what will it mean once you get there? Remember that as your goals change, so will your ideas of success.

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Learn How To Prepare For Retirement

As an entrepreneur, the way that you plan for retirement will be a little different than for others. Since you may not have an employer retirement plan that you can contribute to, this will mean that you need to save up the money all on your own. Below is some quick advice that will hopefully set you on the right path towards a stable retirement.

Set Some Goals

The first thing that you will have to do is set some goals. Think about what your current cost of living is, and at what age you would like to retire. While there is no way of knowing how long you are going to need to live off of this money, it is best to play it conservative and over-estimate. It would be better to have too much money, rather than not enough. To help calculate your costs, you can use this retirement calculator.

Pay Back Your Debts

One thing you will want to get started on as soon as you can is paying back your debts. The sooner you can get rid of these, the smaller amount you will owe, and the more you will be able to add to your retirement fund. If you are struggling with paying back debts that you owe, try using these 10 easy methods.

Start A Savings Plan

The next thing that you will want to do is open up a separate savings plan. It is also a good idea to set a weekly, automatically withdrawal from your checking account, and have it directly deposited into this savings account. This way, you don’t have to remember each week, and over time the amount of money in the account will grow. Even just a few dollars per week will add up in the long run.

When considering a savings plan, be sure to check what the interest rate is, and if there are penalties for  withdrawing the money early. You will want to know these things in advance so that you can choose the best savings account for your situation.

Explore Investment Options

Lastly, you should look into investment opportunities. There are a lot of ways to invest your money – some of them will be safer with a smaller profit, while others will potentially give you a larger amount at the end, but are riskier.

One common method of investing is on the stock market. Here you will buy and sell stocks in a company, and the value of these stocks will change based on the value of the company. There is a lot to learn to get started, but it is relatively straightforward once you get the hang of it.

Another common method is to invest in currencies. Currencies are traded on the Forex Market, and by trading for a currency when the value is low, then selling it when the value is high, you can stand to make a profit. Currencies are very volatile however, so you need to learn as much as you can before you begin. We recommend following Alvexo on Twitter for more information and tips.

Lastly, you can invest in something like gems or real estate. If you can buy something when the value is low, you can then sell it when the value goes back up. For example, many people will buy homes, fix them up, and then sell them for a profit in the future. If this sounds interesting to you, here is a resource that can explain more.

Start Preparing Today

The key to a successful retirement is planning and starting early. The sooner you can begin preparing for your retirement, the better off you will be when the time comes. It is especially important for entrepreneurs to think about their retirement early, so we highly recommend thinking about the list of things mentioned above. When the time comes to retire, you’ll be happy you did.

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How to Avoid Executive Burnout

Executives are people, too. And that means they suffer from all the same problems and challenges as other people. They are not immune to any of the normal human failings, and have no special protection against mental and emotional problems. It might even be argued that because of the added pressure under which they operate, executives are even more at risk than most people.

Hotel California describes executive burnout this way:

Executive burnout is a specific type of job-related stress, defined as a state of physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work. With the instability of the economy in recent years, executives are finding themselves struggling to meet the overwhelming demands placed on them in their careers.

They also list the following as symptoms of work related burnout:

Becoming cynical or critical at work
Difficulty getting motivated to be at work and functioning at your best
Irritability with clients
Change in sleep habits or appetite
Unexplained headaches and backaches
Using food, drugs, or alcohol to feel better about work, or to avoid feeling altogether

At some point, everyone experiences work-related burnout. It is inevitable. That is why we have vacations and sabbaticals. Companies can ill-afford to lose high-ranking executives to burnout that could have easily been avoided. Here are a few things that can be done to lesson the instances and impact of executive burnout:

Treat Executives Like Employees

There are protections in place to keep employees from being worked like slaves. U.S. labor laws mandate a maximum number of work-week hours, overtime, sick days, etc… But these protections seem to only apply to the rank and file. For executives, there seems to be no concept of a start and stop time for work. It is 24/7/365. Anything less is considered less than a full commitment.

With no discernible beginning and ending to the work day, it is impossible for executives to develop anything that resembles a healthy, work/live balance. Without this balance, burnout is all but assured.

Delegate

Burnout begins with too much responsibility. One of the burnout symptoms is the feeling of having more responsibility than can possibly be fulfilled. The reason so many people feel this way is because they really do have more responsibility than any one person can fulfill.

If your job actually requires 16 hr. days, then it is too much job. Two things stand in the way of appropriate task delegation: The first is the old adage, “If you want a job done right, do it yourself.” This is arrogance to the point of narcissism. You are not the only one in the world, or likely, in the company, that can do the job correctly. You are simply not that special. The second barrier is fear. Many are afraid to let an underling do any part of an important job lest they be outshined, and viewed as less necessary.

Both of these motivations can be seen in professional football. Quarterbacks routinely play injured because they feel like they are the only ones who can win the game, and they fear being outshined by the backup. If quarterbacks had their way, backups would never play in big games. Quarterbacks retire prier to age 40. Executives have to be smarter.

Stop Ignoring the Symptoms

As shown above, the symptoms of work-related stress are obvious. We know when we are suffering from stress. For some, the amount of stress they can bear is a point of pride, and a badge of courage. This kind of unhealthy machoism is something evolution frowns upon.

Work-related stress leads to stress-related illness. According to WebMD, some of those illnesses include:

Heart disease
Asthma
Obesity
Diabetes

Ignoring the symptoms of work-related stress have consequences that are far worse than being outshined by an underling at work.

The good news is that work-related burnout can be treated proactively so that it never becomes a problem. Even after it becomes a problem, effective treatment is still available. Executives are people too. It is past time they act like it. Get help before burnout gets the best of you.

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Avoiding Vendor Lock-In When Choosing Hyper-converged Solutions

Vendor lock-in is a situation where the user of a product or service cannot transition to a competitor’s product or service either in whole or in part. The primary cause of lock-in is usually incompatibility of technologies, although in certain cases there can be contractual constraints.

Lock-in can reduce an organisation’s efficiency and its ability to grow in the most cost-effective way possible.

Let’s say an IT department has equipped itself with hardware from vendor A but further along when they wish to add capacity or upgrade they decide that hardware from vendor B is the best solution. The problem is they find that vendor A’s hardware is incompatible with vendor B’s, so they have to either go with vendor A or ‘rip and replace’ their whole IT infrastructure at great expense.

Virtual computing not always immune to lock-in

The idea that the trend to move away from purely hardware-based IT to cloud computing and virtualisation might eliminate vendor lock-in is unfortunately not always the case.

Some cloud users have found it very disruptive when trying to move from one cloud provider to the other. The complex nature of some cloud migrations has caused some users to stay with their current provider even though they may no longer be meeting their requirements.

In certain cases, data has to be converted back from the original provider’s format then re-converted to the new one. This can entail a complicated move of data back to the original customer to be reformatted before being moved to the new provider’s servers.

Hyper-converged lock-in

The general move to hyper-convergence – a software-defined IT environment where storage, networking and virtualisation are software controlled – isn’t immune from vendor lock-in even though the technology seemed to promise full flexibility originally.

This is unfortunate as flexibility and autonomy are two basic reasons why hyper-convergence is a consideration for more and more organisations. A fast-growing entrepreneurial start-up doesn’t want to be hamstrung by inflexibility caused by vendor lock-in.

In some cases, vendor’s hyper-convergence solutions lock customers in at both the hardware and software level. There have been examples of providers developing their own hypervisor software that is only compatible with theirs or their preferred partner’s software or hardware.

This clearly prevents flexibility of choice – and indeed raises the question of why an organisation should be restricted to using a restricted use hypervisor rather than the industry-leading VMware vSphere or maybe Microsoft’s Hyper-V.

How to avoid lock-in

The simple answer is to choose your vendors carefully. Hypervisors such as vSphere and Hyper-V are market leaders and vendors of certain other software such as virtual storage SANs (Storage Area Networks) such as StorMagic with their SvSAN solution provide full compatibility with both vSphere and Hyper-V.

Also, look for hardware compatibility with commodity X86 servers or a ‘hardware agnostic’ or ‘hardware independent’ virtual storage SAN.

It’s important to choose wisely as flexibility is a key benefit of software-defined IT and hyper-convergence in particular.

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Using an SEO Tool to Ensure That Your Business Makes it Online

There are many routes to success as a business owner. If it is an online organization, one of the most important is that the company is easy to find. With the millions of search results out there and the variety of tools available that are used to make a business more popular, such as the widely popular XOVI keyword tool, it can be hard to keep up. There are many other tools that can be used for online marketing, such as SEMrush. These are usually tools that give you the information you need to give you an edge in ensuring that your business listing is one of the first to show up on a search. This can be very useful indeed!

Normal tools aren’t that diverse

However, there is a major problem with using most of these tools. They are usually centered towards a certain niche of online marketing. You can’t always get keyword optimization and other forms of internet marketing in the same tool. That is, until you get one of the top online marketing tools out there like the new, better alternatives to tools like SpyFu and Moz. One particular tool making waves in the online space is XOVI, a suite of 11 different online marketing tools, tactics and strategies that have been brought together to make one of the easiest to use, comprehensive and powerful marketing tools out there.

The Online Value Index for a Test Project on XOVI

Easy to use interface

If you are in the marketing business and you are looking for a keyword tool that will blow your mind, this is definitely one that you need to start using. Unlike most others, it combines 11 different tools in one interface (an interface that is surprisingly user-friendly). The suite itself could actually be used by some of the more amateur keyword analysis “specialists” anywhere.

XOVI is currently one of the top all-in-one online marketing tools in the whole of Germany (where it was created). It has now expanded into the international market as well, and is probably experiencing a lot of conversions from other, obsolete SEO tool engines. It integrates the specialized functions of Google Analytics so that you can always check what searches are trending right now and whether yours will pop up anywhere near the top.

Wide range of monitoring

In addition to this, it monitors the search engine and internet activity of users in 196 countries from its minimalistic, easy to use interface. You can check out a live feed of the analysis that the suite performs in real time, and get notified when a major change occurs.

Keyword and Ranking Analysis of Test Project

It offers a Social Monitoring tool that is totally unique in its function, as it monitors the activity of billions of users on social media platforms like Facebook in order to provide far more comprehensive analytics results. In addition to this, the suite also generates on-page reports, among others, as a separate tool.

The Disavow tool that can be seen in the screenshots is one that is extremely useful. You can use it to find out if any other websites are using the same content as you, and then even punish them accordingly for copyright infringement if it is happening.

If you are looking for a backlink tool, an SEO tool and a general all-in-one marketing tool that will intrigue you and allow your business to skyrocket in terms of popularity, as well as being able to put out some of the best results anywhere, you need to get started using XOVI.

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Leadership Versus Management Debate

There are absolutely hundreds of thousands of articles on this subject matter, there are just as many answers as there are debates! In my view, the difference between a manager and a leader is the way the two styles motivate people and teams to achieve the overall aims, goals and objectives of the company.

Leaders are the ones who envision and spearhead the team’s, motivating, challenging and directing them all to reach the ultimate goal.

Managers on the other hand tend to maintain the running of the company and are quite happy plodding along and never really setting any challenges, as long as they reach the objective, they don’t want to break any boundaries and aim higher. Managers specialise on conformance to the standards that are set, they manage the teams and individuals.

The Paradox

It is quite easy to distinguish between the two, though it is complex in some ways as many people are both! Some managers have the task of controlling systems, resources along with standards set by the company CEO, whilst keeping all of that together they must also be expected to look after individuals and run teams to achieve uncharted boundaries.

If we think about it based on theories of Leadership, dictating through a style of which seems autocratic, won’t win the minds of individuals. This will create more damage than good during the long term, this is why leadership does play a very important role within the workplace environment, every company must have specialists to motivate and lead teams to reach new limits. Equally, systems and protocol must be monitored and controlled to ensure tasks and roadmaps are created to achieve goals, this is achieved through the management!

Management

Management normally focuses on work and tasks. These activities fit within the subject of resource: Human, time, Money, equipment and anything else that involves achieving that task. The distinction therefore from Management versus Leadership is on managing resource within the constraints of the systems and enforcing the desired standards of work, including:

Planning – Planning resource and tasks to achieve the objectives
Budgeting – Managing the constraints of budgets in the department / project
Organising – Organising support functions and resource
Controlling – Controlling the standards required to deliver the objectives
Coordinating – Coordinating and directing project tasks for achievement of goals
Resource use – Ensuring effective resource is used for the task at hand
Time management – Ensuring tasks and activities are conducted within the correct time frame
Decision Making – Making the right decisions in the heat of the moment
Problem Solving – Ensure problems are contained and eliminated

Leadership

Leadership focuses on achieving tasks, keeping the team motivated and empowered to achieve that task. Thirdly, it involves getting the best out of each and every individual for the benefit of the team’s successful achievement of those goals. It is about leading by example, inspiring, empowerment, creating the most conducive environment for team success:

Vision – focusing on the long term vision or goal
Motivation – Motivation and empowerment to challenge the norm
Inspiration – Inspiring others through merely leading and injecting enthusiasm
Persuasion – Using excellent leadership skills to bring people willingly along the correct path
Teamwork – Encouraging effort and commitment, and teamwork
Building Relationships – Building strong relationships and ensuring the team is well balanced
Listening – Being able to listen and get the root causes quickly and effectively
Counselling – Ensuring that every member of the team is motivated and effectively empowered
Coaching – Encouraging and giving freedom for individuals to learn and grow
Teaching – Leading the correct performance and expectations
Mentoring – Being the leader in a successful team and parting knowledge and wisdom onto the team and its individuals

It is clear then that there are differences in the debate between Leadership versus management……

Managers are at times, Leaders, so the paradox never ends! Your task is to adopt the correct style when either leading or managing.

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