Ten Things Your Employees Want

As managers we get so busy with our own work we can overlook the needs of our employees. Do you know what makes your employees happy? The best employee performance management program will fall short of your goals if you fail to meet the basic needs of your employees.
Why should you care? Employees who [...]

Communications Skills – How to Be Specific

To be a successful manager you must be able to communicate effectively with others. One way to become a better communicator is by being more specific with your message.
Do you talk with a team member about an issue but the behavior or problem continues? Do you assign tasks that are not done they way [...]

Management By Walking Around MBWA

Management by walking around, sometimes called management by wandering around is the western version of the Japanese Gemba walk. It is Genchi Genbutsu which means “go and see for yourself”. The place you go to is the Gemba, the place where it happens. In this case where the work happens.
Read the article The Gemba [...]

20 Leadership Principles Every Manager Needs

IT Managers need to be a good leader to be successful and manage successful teams. Whether you are a project manager, a department manager or a team manager learning the some basic principles of leadership is essential to becoming a better manager
It is what you do that makes you successful. That is why these 20 [...]

How To Deal With Low Morale in The Workplace

Office Workers

Problems with morale in the workplace are more evident now. Employees are worried about the economy and possibly their jobs. Let us assume for this article that economic worries are not the reason for low morale in your workplace. I wrote an article a few months ago called “Tough Times Call For Strong Leadership” that [...]

Coach Your Employees – Their Success is Your Success

Leaders are only as successful as the people who report to them. This is why it is important to develop your reports to be the best that they can be. Not only does their success directly reflect well on you but you strengthen your team to meet new challenges.
Coaching is not just a tool for [...]

Three Team Rules To Live By

Positive Impact

Building positive relationships between teams and individuals is an important part of building a world-class IT organization. You need to have a positive work environment. One where you are surrounded by other team members who share in a common goal of excellence and the greater good of the department and the company.
There are three rules [...]

What Makes Employees Happy?

A happy employee is a more productive and content employee. So what makes an employee happy with their job? A good salary, with good benefits and a good work environment only go so far. Employees want job satisfaction, they want to feel like they are a part of something and that their contributions are [...]

Four Essential Skills For Managers to Master

All managers can agree that many skills are needed to be an effective manager. But what skills are the most important skills that a manager needs to master? To be a more effective manager you should master four skills.
Communications, motivation, building trust and leadership are critical skills for every manager. These four skills are [...]

What to Do With Under Performing Employees

Every organization has some “ducks.” Ducks are employees who have a detrimental effect on productivity. Their work is consistently substandard, they rarely meet deadlines, and their skills are out of date.
They hate change, resist taking responsibility, and blame their failures on co-workers. They constantly complain about their projects, their teammates, their workloads and their managers. [...]