Management Blog

Motivational Video with Famous Quotes

This is a  motivational video with famous quotes. Enjoy.

For more information on management training and persoanl development visit Call of the Wild's website

Britain still in Recession - What Does This Mean for Management Training?

Figures released that last week show that the British economy is still in recession having shrunk by a further 0.4% in the last quarter. This was contrary to what commentators were expecting with predictions that the UK economy would show positive growth for the first time in 2009. Even though this isn't good news the stock market still showed some of its biggest increases for some months. This illustrates there is an underlying confidence in the economy going into 2010 being driven by the growth in the European economies such as France and Germany.

What are the implications for management training in the UK over the next 6 months? Well in our experience clients are still being cautious but the last quarter for us showed an up turn not just in the number of enquiries but also the actual number of bookings. This has to be positive going into 2010 given the extremely nervous start many companies had to 2009.

For more information on management training programmes for your staff visit the Call of the Wild website.

Brainstorming - What is it and Does it Work?

"Let's brainstorm a few ideas on this," - a proposition that can mean many things. The problem with the word "brainstorm" is that it sounds fast, trendy, action oriented and effective. The problem with the technique of brainstorming is that it is slow, process oriented and - some research suggests - not very effective.

What is brainstorming?

It is a technique - or rather a collection of techniques - which aim to enable a group of people to come up with new ideas on a question and to reach agreement on which are the best. It is practised in many ways - from the complex to the simple. The most complex use that I have seen was in Hamburg, in Germany, where a group of highly trained facilitators used a number of moveable boards, covered in brown paper that could be removed, stored and re-posted and on which an array of sticky cards in different shapes and colours could be mounted. It was extremely impressive to watch the way that the facilitators worked the flow of ideas, categorising, prompting and drawing our conclusions from a fairly large group of people.

In its more simple form, brainstorming is a process involving a group of people with one other person acting as facilitator/scribe. Members of the group call out ideas and the 'scribe' writes them down on flip charts. The rules are set such that no one is allowed to make a negative comment about an idea. "That won't work," is not allowed. Building on an idea is encouraged. "That's a good idea and it makes me think that (a related idea) might work as well."

The group works at producing new ideas until they run out of steam. At this point, the group is faced with an array of ideas written on probably several sheets of flip chart paper. A simple way of handling this array is to ask the members of the group each to list what they consider to be the best ten ideas. The facilitator then puts a mark against each idea that is in someone's 'top ten' and the ideas that receive the most 'votes' are chosen for action.

Leadership

Leading a team is more than barking orders at people. Team leading is about motivating a group of people to work supportively and effectively together. Each member of a team is an individual. Team leading is also about maximising the contribution that each different individual can make to the team as a whole.

Leadership is usually taken to mean change. The leader is not content with what appears satisfactory today. The leader is constantly seeking better and better results. Tom Peters has said that the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" no longer applies. Everything can be improved so "Fix it anyway!" Leaders have visions of what is possible - and they achieve these visions in different ways. Some inspire followers. Others invest in teaching people. Still others see and create a system that people can live within.

Professor Robin Stuart-Kotze, in his recent research, distinguishes leadership from stewardship. Leadership, he says, is about change, about seeking to create the conditions in which people will perform to ever higher standards, to change the company constantly, to compete in an ever-changing world. Stewardship, which we might think of as ordinary management, is about control, maintaining the status quo, keeping things going, and doing the best one can with what one has got.

Thus, leadership is generally taken as having a creative aspect while management (or stewardship) as having a controlling aspect.

In history, great leaders have achieved things that ordinary mortals would have felt were not even worth trying - Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Bismark, Churchill, Martin Luther King, Simon Bolivar, Lincoln, Mao Tse Tung. Each of these leaders had different approaches. For example, Napoleon is usually thought of as a military leader, inspiring his men. However, his monument to the world is really the system of laws and civil management that he installed in France, and which has been exported to many parts of the world.

Taken from our online Development Academy.

For more information on our leadership programmes visit Call of the Wild's website.

Personal Team Management Style

Your own management style should depend upon the nature of your team.  Ronald Lippitt researched three group leadership models

• democratic
• autocratic
• laissez-faire

and concluded that there was more originality, group-mindedness and friendliness in democratic groups. In contrast, there was more aggression, hostility, scapegoating and discontent in laissez-faire and autocratic groups.

As we say in the Delegation Profile exercise:

The best management style depends upon the situation that the manager is in. The nature of the staff forms a major part of the situation. For example, the more experienced the staff are, the less the manager has to tell them what to do and the more he or she can delegate.

Delegation is not the ideal style in all circumstances. It depends upon the situation. However, the more you can approach delegation, the more effective your team will be.

Start by reviewing  Theory X and Y and on Participation This will give you some background thinking on management style. Try to overcome any naive beliefs that the manager has to be a tough boss and make all the decisions. Don't let your ego get in the way of your effectiveness.

Think about your team. Are your staff experienced, confident, learning, apprehensive or what?  It is probable that each member of the team will differ – and so will the most appropriate style to use with each team member. Make notes of your conclusions and discuss them with each member of the team in turn. Agree with each team member which style of management will most help them.

Remember also that people develop and that it is your job to help them develop. Reading the short book The One Minute Manager will help. You might consider buying a copy for each member of the team so that they can fully appreciate what you are trying to do with your management style.

Extract taken from our Online Development Academy

For more information on our Management Development Programmes visit Call of the Wild's website.

 

Behaviour & Personality

There is a key distinction is between personality and behaviour. The word "personality" has many uses (many of which are wrong!) and many definitions. Essentially, personality is taken to mean a mix of values, world-views, set responses and characteristics which are relatively enduring aspects of the person. Personality is taken to be what we are while behaviour is what we do. We cannot change what we are but we can change what we do - for short periods of time at least. The ability to change behaviour is at the root of the concept of management style.

As Robin Stuart-Kotze says,

"... it has been maintained ... that personality becomes virtually fixed at about age five. Current research indicates that we are more flexible than that but that changing one's attitudes, values, beliefs and aspirations - the substance of personality - is difficult"

Behaviour, on the other hand, is what we do. While much of our behaviour (see Theory X and Theory Y) is of course the result of our values and beliefs, it is much easier to behave differently (if only for a short while) than to change beliefs. Moreover, if we try out different behaviours - different ways of doing things - and find that they are a success, this in itself may cause us to change even deeply held views and values.

For more information on our programmes looking at behaviour, leadership and team development  then visit Call of the Wild's website

Action Learning

I hear … and I forget
I see … and I remember
I do … and I understand

Ancient Chinese Proverb

Naturally this maxim predates findings about sense-based learning styles and multiple intelligences. Still, it is largely true that the surest way to know you’ve learned is to try your hand.  One must learn by doing, Sophocles wrote; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try. Actually we are action learners by disposition. For evidence, watch any child who is not warned off exploring. We naturally ask questions, structure investigations in pursuit of answers, and work with system, method and order.

Active Listening is a skill associated with Action Learning. Defined simply – that is, ignoring qualifying conditions such as emotional or technical complexity – you are listening actively if you can restate in your own words what someone else said and the speaker agrees you understood. It does not mean you agree or that the speaker was articulate; it means simply that you were paying attention. Active Listening helps improve communication during Action Learning projects.

Positive Thinking - Board Breaking

This is a training exercise we have completed with some of our team. This involves board breaking.

Positive Thinking - Board Breaking

This is a video showing some of our team during a metal toughness and positive thinking workshop. In this video you can see some of the team trying board breaking. An excellent session and one our clients derive alot of benefit from. Following this session we went to do a firewalk and  with a client. Glass walking is also another of the metntal toughness exercises available.

Office Christmas Party Ideas

Call of the Wild offer a range of corporate events and given we are approaching the Christmas party season we thought we'd give you some unusual office Christmas party ideas. So if you haven't booked your Christmas event yet then take a look at what we can offer across the UK by visiting our website