Just over a week to go in 2016!

2016

Just over a week to go in 2016!

What are you celebrating as your big accomplishments this year?
Personally, my 2016 exceeded my expectations. I have such a deep sense of satisfaction when I review this year.

So, as 2017 comes into focus, what’s on your mind?

Taking a little time near the end of the old year can be a terrific way to ramp up your new year. That’s what I am doing today, in preparation for my next year. Care to join me?

Here’s a recommended format, which takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. You’ll need three pieces of paper….

Click the link here to continue reading…

 

Happy Christmas.

LOVE ‘EM OR LOSE ‘EM – Getting good people to stay— from A to Z

What’s the Cost of Loss?

Countless research studies suggest that the cost of replacing key people runs between 70 percent and 200 percent of their annual salary. Hard costs can include advertising, search firms, interviewing and relocation expenses, and sign-on bonuses. And the softer, harder-to-measure costs can include time spent on interviewing, orienting, and training (and the work put on hold to do it), lost customers (due to their loyalty to the former employees), and declining morale and productivity on the part of remaining coworkers.

You can read the rest here…

http://www.facebook.com/notes/andrew-staggs-consulting-and-coaching/love-em-or-lose-em-getting-good-people-to-stay-from-a-to-z/719396931538524

2015-09-19 20.15.27

The McKinsey 7S Framework – Very Useful

The model is based on the theory that, for an organization to perform well, these seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. The model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment (and performance) during other types of change.

The 7S are structure, strategy, systems, skills, style, staff and shared values & vision.

7s McKinsey

 

The model is most often used as a tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization.

Whatever the type of change – restructuring, new processes, organisational merger, new systems, change of leadership, and so on – the model can be used to understand how the organisational elements are interrelated, and so ensure that the wider impact of changes made in one area is taken into consideration.

Usage

  1. To analyse how well an organization is positioned to achieve its intended objective
  2. Improve the performance of a company
  3. Examine the likely effects of future changes within a company
  4. Align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition
  5. Determine how best to implement a proposed strategy

The Seven Interdependent Elements

The basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned if it is to be successful

Hard Elements – Strategy, Structure, Systems

Soft Elements – Shared Values, Skills, Staff, Style

The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model developed by well-known business consultants Robert H. Waterman, Jr. and Tom Peters (who also developed the MBWA– “Management By Walking Around” motif, and authored In Search of Excellence) in the 1980s. This was a strategic vision for groups, to include businesses, business units, and teams.

Competition Policy Review Threatens NFP Mission

The Not for Profit sector has been warned that a review of competition policy in Australia could have a significant effect on the future uniqueness of the social economy – but few organisations are engaging in the review process.

Sector leader and Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Tony Nicholson, said the implications of the current Harper Review into Competition Policy was drawing little attention from the Not for Profit sector despite its implications being far reaching.

You can read the article here.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan From Scratch

I really enjoyed this recent article from Buffer boy Kevan Lee.

And then they had this neat section about “When should you be posting?” as follows”

 

There are many neat tools to show you the best time of day to post to Facebook, Twitter, and more. These tools look at your followers and your history of posts to see when your audience is online and when historically have been your best times to share.

So what’s someone to do who’s just starting out on these social networks, with no audience and no history?

Again, this is where best practices come in. Perhaps the most helpful (and adorable) infographic I’ve seen about timing comes from SumAll, whichcompiled timing research from sites like Visual.ly, Search Engine Watch, and Social Media Today to create its awesome visual. Here’s an overview of what they found in terms of timing (all times are Eastern Time).

  • Twitter – 1-3pm weekdays
  • Facebook – 1-4pm and 2-5pm weekdays
  • LinkedIn – 7-8:30am and 5-6pm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
  • Tumblr – 7-10pm weekdays and 4pm on Fridays
  • Instagram – 5-6pm weekdays and 8pm on Mondays with a sweetspot at 6pm
  • Pinterest – 2-4pm and 8-11pm weekdays with weekends being the best
  • Google+ – 9-11am weekdays

Read the full article here.

 

Agility – A “Must Have” for All Leaders

I was travelling in the USA in March this year and visited a large educational institution. They have recently revamped a range of courses to improve the “agility” of leaders that they are training.   They see agility as a “must-have” for leaders in the coming decades.  

I was also reading some thoughts from Lee Colan in relation to “agility.”  He says “your agility is a primary competitive advantage.” 

Being agile means being quick–responding to things quickly and acting quickly. Agility is a trait of successful leader. Not surprisingly, it’s also a trait of a successful team. It becomes particularly valuable in times of change and uncertainty.

The growing, urban sport of Parkour places a premium on the agility.

Even though your job might not require you to jump over cars or scale walls, the professional leader needs all the agility of a professional athlete. Here are the key characteristics of agility: flexibility, strength, and speed.

1.  Flexibility

Stretch your mind to learn new skills and explore new knowledge and approaches. Your life is your own workout gym, where you can build leadership flexibility. Just watch the people around you. Look for nuggets of excellence from a family member, a minister, a speaker at a professional meeting, a fellow leader, your child’s school principal, or a particularly helpful salesperson at a local department store. Observe, read, ask, listen and learn.

There are also lessons to be learned in everything your team does. Look for opportunities in post-project reviews, customer meetings, conflicts with other departments, changes in priorities, miscommunications, and mistakes. Seize all these experiences to build flexibility into future approaches.

2.  Strength

Hone existing skills and deepen existing knowledge. This might be core training for the professional athlete, but for the professional leader it’s building your core competence. Regardless of the whirlwind of changing circumstances around you, continue strengthening what you and your team are the very best at. Don’t paint stripes on your back if you are not a zebra. Strengthening your core competence builds confidence. Confidence is critical if you expect your team to blow through barriers or leap unforeseen obstacles.

3.  Speed

The quickest way to improve your leadership speed is to quit analyzing and follow your intuition. The business management guru Tom Peters called intuition our greatest gift. It’s the feeling we get when what we are seeing doesn’t match up with the facts we think we know; it’s the sudden move we make without thinking that saves us from disaster; it’s the voice that tells us the truth rather than what we would like to hear.

 Intuition is the ability to make quick and sound decisions based on available information.

The agile leader builds an agile team. A team for whom no obstacle is too big. A team who identifies creative solutions to leap over tall obstacles. A team that is hard to beat.