About

Are You Leading Or Just Managing?

2012-02-13T03:27:45Z

Okay, fine. You're managing the department. Work is getting done on time. Nobody is complaining. But are you really leading? Are you motivating and encouraging your employees. Or are you just keeping a lid on all the little distractions?

Your job, as a manager, is to actually be a leader. Here are some resources to help you do that:

What Is A Leader - Here are the basics. It's tough to be a good leader if you don't know what a leader is.
Talking Out Loud - It's not enough to have great ideas. If you are going to be a leader, you are going to have to open your mouth and stand up for your principles.
How To Be A Better Manager - Here are ten things that will make you a better manager and a leader.

Are You Leading Or Just Managing? originally appeared on About.com Management on Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 03:27:45.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

Quality Monitoring In Call Centers

2012-01-29T15:49:28Z

Call centers are expensive to set up and operate. It's important that they operate efficiently. It's also important that they serve their purpose of making sure the customers are satisfied with the service they receive from the call center. The article Quality Monitoring details how call center managers use Key Performance Indicators and a Quality Monitoring program to achieve those goals.

Quality Monitoring In Call Centers originally appeared on About.com Management on Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 15:49:28.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

KPI for Call Centers

2012-01-27T13:43:23Z

We've added additional detail to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) section. The article Call Center KPI lists KPI commonly used in call centers and explains each of them. If you operate a call center, or if you deal with one, you'll want to know this.

KPI for Call Centers originally appeared on About.com Management on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 13:43:23.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

Is Passion For Your Work Necessary?

2012-01-23T03:52:57Z

In the HBR Blog entry To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion author Oliver Segovia suggests that following your passion is not the path to career happiness and success. He argues, "Forget about finding your passion. Instead, focus on finding big problems". He goes on to suggest the place to look for "big problems" is in something that excites or interests you or, as he says it, "Look into problems that affect you in a very personal way".

Several people have criticized Segovia for what they consider just renaming passion. That overlooks what I consider the most important section of his blog post where he says, "Putting problems at the center of our decision-making changes everything. It's not about the self anymore. It's about what you can do and how you can be a valuable contributor. People working on the biggest problems are compensated in the biggest ways."

As managers, we're always looking for people who can tackle the biggest headaches. We assign our best people to the biggest problems. And we reward their successes. Wouldn't it be great if our employees came to us with the attitude of wanting to tackle the biggest problems they could handle? Shouldn't that be our approach to our boss and our work too?

For more on this topic, read Passion Pays. And for what happens when passion dies, read Larry Doesn't Work Here Anymore.

Is Passion For Your Work Necessary? originally appeared on About.com Management on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 03:52:57.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

Job Title Inflation

2012-01-16T14:44:35Z

Several years ago, people started calling garbage men sanitation engineers. Then every worker became an "associate", like sales associate and customer service associate. More and more individual workers were given manager titles, even if all they managed was themselves. Not surprisingly, this trend spread to the top corporate jobs and every Vice President who could became a Chief ___ Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, etc.

This article from MSNBC highlights the silly extremes to which this trend has been pushed. Do you know what a Chief Sustainability Officer does? What about a Chief Digital Officer? It's time to stop using titles to make people feel important and go back to using them to describe what a functional, contributing employee actually does.

How Much Vacation Should Workers Get?

2012-01-12T23:17:22Z

Most workers get two weeks vacation a year. Some get more. Some get less. Red Frog is a company that gives its employees unlimited vacation. As long as your work is done and someone covers for you while you're away you can take as much vacation as you feel you need. You can read more about this in the Inc.com article Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days. The author, Joe Reynolds, believes his company is more productive by giving unlimited vacation days and lists four reasons. I believe the most important is the first one.

Some companies try to skirt the vacation issue by combining vacation with sick leave. That's a bad idea. Read Sick Leave vs. Paid Time Off (PTO) to find out why.

Companies that value their employees know that they can use Employee Benefits as a Management Tool.

Entrepreneurs see vacation differently than managers. I see vacation as a time workers need to get away and recharge. I spell out why in Vacation or non-cation?, but be sure to note the comment at the bottom from a friend of mine who is a serial entrepreneur.

How Much Vacation Should Workers Get? originally appeared on About.com Management on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 23:17:22.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

National Clean Off Your Desk Day

2012-01-09T01:41:25Z

National Clean Off Your Desk Day for 2012 is Monday, January 9. Is your desk top clean as a whistle or do you have piles on every flat space? Do you file everything as soon as it comes in or toss it with similar things? It doesn't matter. What matters only is what works for you.

In my article What's Wrong With A Messy Desk? I explain the pros and cons of both work styles - clean desks and messy desks. On the second page of the article I'll give you six simple steps to Tame The Monster and get your desktop under control. Finally the article Tame the Desktop Monster teaches you the two fundamental rules to keeping the desktop monster under control.

And for those of you who like numbers, John Campanelli, a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, provides these interesting statistics on clean and messy desks.

National Clean Off Your Desk Day originally appeared on About.com Management on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 01:41:25.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

Why Big Companies Lose Their Top Employees

2012-01-05T20:10:55Z

Whether you are a big company worried about your turnover rate, a smaller company trying to steal top talent from the big guys, or simply a smart manager who knows the value of retaining top employees, read the Forbes article Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent by Eric Jackson.

Here's more on the subject:

Why Big Companies Lose Their Top Employees originally appeared on About.com Management on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 20:10:55.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

If Your Strategy Doesn't Work Take A Step Back

2012-01-04T12:09:19Z

We would all like to be right all the time, but that isn't going to happen. Sometimes you will make a wrong decision. It's usually pretty obvious when something isn't working, but it's a lot harder to admit it and make the changes needed. Read As A Business Strategy Stepping Backward is Okay for some great advice on what to do and what not to do in these cases.

If Your Strategy Doesn't Work Take A Step Back originally appeared on About.com Management on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 12:09:19.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

Why Santa Is A Great Manager

2012-01-03T12:53:10Z

Yes, we are a little past the Christmas season, but I want to share this with you anyway. You can apply these learnings to your work in 2012. Brian Zimmerman wrote 3 Striking Similarities Between Santa and Great Managers and it is well worth your time to read it. Personally, I would reverse the order, but his points are right on.

Why Santa Is A Great Manager originally appeared on About.com Management on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 12:53:10.

Permalink | Comment | Email this