In it’s simplest form, performance management is a common sense set of discussions that make sure people are clear about what they need to do, have the support to do it and get open and honest feedback on their performance.
Any performance management process should answer 4 important questions for your employees:

What do I need to [...]

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The Old Way - Command and Control
Although workplaces and management styles have come a long way in the last decade, the command and control style of management behaviour remains common practice in many companies. This management approach basically means that employees are told exactly what to do, when to do it and even how it [...]

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Found this great opinion of the difference between Leadership and Managment from a recent interview of Karen Matthews - CEO of Ella Bache.
Management is doing, leadership is creating. Both are critical in a business, but a manager is someone who makes everything happen and they may work more in a 3 month or a 12 [...]

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Here’s a news flash we didn’t need a survey to tell us - the way we set up our systems and processes results in lots of time wasted at work in non-value added work like administration. No surprises there for anyone who has spent time in a company of any kind.
But how much time [...]

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Apparently the 40 hour working week is dead.
A recent survey by Talent2 found that 67% of Australians admit to working more than 40 hours on a regular basis, and 45% said they were working harder than they did 2 years ago.
Construction and engineering are the hardest industries hit, followed by property, legal and HR.
Combine this [...]

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I attended a breakfast this morning where leadership guru - Avril Henry - was speaking.
After interviewing 110 of Australia’s finest leaders (from non-profit, SME, corporate and government) she identified 9 characteristics that these leaders believed “made” effective leaders:
Great leaders……

have an appetite for learning and development - they see it as a core focus, not [...]

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Have you ever wondered why the people in your team don’t seem as motivated as you do? Or why some people do their jobs with enthusiasm and vigor, and others barely get through the day without taking the frown off their faces?
You are not alone. The topic of human motivation has been studied for hundreds [...]

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So here we are and welcome to 2008. I can confess to having felt very ambivalent to getting back to work until this week. But the readiness is creeping back in - helped somewhat by the 2-day business planning session I am facilitating for a client on Thursday and Friday.
More on planning in a [...]

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Our friends at Hudson have just released their latest quarterly report, having interviewed over 7000 people around Australia on the topics of Engagement and Retention. Here’s a quick summary of the key findings. To read the full report, click here .
Most commonly utilised initiatives aimed at retention:

flexible work options - [...]

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You’ve all heard the legend. You know - those studies that suggest that women out talk men by almost 3 words to 1. Well it looks like these differences may be a myth. Someone actually decided to test it by using Electronically Activated Recorders (EARs….) that track conversations.
396 people had their conversations recorded for up [...]

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