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Don’t Just Sit There, Take Initiative and Ask Questions

I learned early in my management career about the value of asking questions instead of just sitting there and accepting the status quo. As it turns out, it’s good management.

Don’t Keep Them In The Dark – Tell Your Staff Why

As a manager, I’ve always found it more useful to sit down and talk to my staff about why they’re being asked to do something and what the goals or objectives are and how they fit within the overall corporate objectives. For me, this was especially important when we are implementing initiatives that were top-down.

Unfortunately, some managers treat their management responsibility like they’re in the military – barking out orders and expecting them to be followed blindly.

Chasing Best Practices – How to Find Them

While it’s fashionable to seek out best practices, the problem is finding them in the first place and then deciding what to do with them when you find them.

Do you implement them? Do you adapt them? Do you assess whether they will work for you? Do you learn why they are best practices? The notion of best practices is a good one, but you have to attack the concept with a good understanding of your purpose and what you will do when you find them.

The first thing to consider is what a ‘Best Practice’ really is. Best for who? Best in what situation? Best when?

Procuring Services – Are You Asking The Right Questions?

There is a simple mistake many Managers (or their procurement departments) make when writing the Request For Proposal (RFP) questions for services. I’ve seen it time and time again, having written my share of proposal responses both for past employers and for clients. I’ve also seen it when assessing procurement practices, procuring services and helped clients with their evaluation process for their own procurement initiatives.

What’s the simple mistake? Not asking the right questions.

Strategic Planning Guide – A 3 Step Process

Strategic planning doesn’t have to be difficult, long or complex. And anyone can develop strategy and related plans, you don’t have to be in senior management.

Strategy and related plans can be used for an initiative you want to implement next year or a meeting tomorrow with a customer, staff, colleague or even your boss. Here is a simple method you can use today.

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