This might sound obvious, but if you want to build a more engaged workforce you need to, well, engage. That means, whether you are a CEO or a frontline manager, you need to be working hard to connect, face-to-face, with your people. That can mean anything from walking around and making pit stops in offices and cubicles to holding town hall discussions with your teams and staying to answer questions afterward. But most leaders simply can’t make time to sit down with every person in the company, in every office around the world, on a regular basis. It’s mathematically impossible. So what should leaders do instead?
Developing Employees Who Think for Themselves – Harvard Business Review
When we talk to managers about what their workers are lacking, we hear a common refrain: “We need employees who can think, not just follow orders.” The complaint is usually followed by an observation about how the world is changing too quickly to predict customers’ demands, or that competitors are at their throats. The only way to thrive, or even survive, these managers conclude, is to find workers who can co-create value with customers and constantly improve operations.
https://hbr.org/2015/06/developing-employees-who-think-for-themselves
Sector Insights: Skills And Performance Challenges In Health And Social Care – UK Commission for Employment and Skills
This research highlights the vital need for more to be done to improve progression routes in health and social care, as demand for those working in the sector is set to soar. The research findings show a poor prognosis for skills in health and social care, with employees finding limited opportunities to progress to higher level roles, and many younger workers leaving the sector as a result. It also shows a larger than average proportion of those working in the sector are aged between 50 to 64, further stressing the need for new talent as a large cohort of the existing workforce is set to retire in the years ahead.
The simple rules of disciplined innovation – McKinsey Quarterly
Constraints aren’t the enemy of creativity—they make it more effective.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/innovation/the_simple_rules_of_disciplined_innovation
4 Reasons Managers Should Spend More Time on Coaching – Harvard Business Review
There are managers who coach and managers who don’t. Leaders in the latter category are not necessarily bad managers, but they are neglecting an effective tool to develop talent. We’ve been researching managers who coach and what distinguishes them. What has stood out in our interviews with hundreds of managers who do coach their direct reports is their mindset: They believe in the value of coaching, and they think about their role as a manager in a way that makes coaching a natural part of their managerial toolkit. These are not professional coaches. They are line and staff leaders who manage a group of individuals, and they are busy, hard-working people. So why do they so readily give coaching an important place in their schedule?
https://hbr.org/2015/05/4-reasons-managers-should-spend-more-time-on-coaching
Timeboxing: Maximizing Your Productivity – MindTools
Many people approach their work one task at a time, and concentrate on each until they complete it, however long this takes. Timeboxing is different because it encourages you to focus on time instead of tasks. To use this time-management tool, you allocate a certain number of hours or days, called a “timebox,” to each activity. You then use this time – and only this time – to complete the task.
Timeboxing is a simple and effective way to manage your own, and your team members’, daily workload.
Increasing Your Visibility: Raising Your Profile at Work – Mind Tools
A promotion opportunity recently came up in Patrick’s department. The job matched his skills perfectly, so he was shocked when he didn’t get an interview, especially when he learned that the successful candidate was less experienced than him.
When Patrick asked his boss why he hadn’t been considered for the role, she said the selection panel didn’t know anything about him, so she couldn’t convince them that he was the right person for the job.
Conversely, the successful applicant was well known to the panel – she had built strong connections with influential people and had represented the department at company-wide gatherings. As a result, they knew what she could do.
Unfortunately, this is a common scenario. People who get noticed get the best assignments, while those who keep their heads down miss out, despite their hard work.
So how can you increase your visibility at work, without bragging or stealing the spotlight from your colleagues? We’ll look at some useful strategies in this article.
Performance Of The Foundation Trust Sector: Year Ended 31 March 2015 – Monitor
This report summarises the performance of the NHS foundation trust sector for the final quarter of the year ending 31 March 2015. It found that foundation trusts treated 10.7 million emergency inpatients between April 2014 and March 2015, a 574,000 increase on the previous year. However, this increase in demand for care, combined with an over-reliance on expensive agency staff and the need to make cost savings, is putting trusts under sustained and exceptional pressure. The sector ended 2014/15 in deficit (-£349 million) for the first time, a sign of the increased pressures upon services.
Action Programs: Becoming Exceptionally Well Organized – MindTools
Action Programs are “industrial strength” versions of To-Do Lists, which incorporate short-, medium- and long-term goals. They help you to plan your time, without forgotten commitments coming in to blow your schedule apart. And, because they encourage you to think about your priorities properly, you can focus on the things that matter, and avoid frittering your time away on low value activities.
Actions Programs also help you get into the habit of delegating jobs. All of this lets you save time – and get away on time – whilst also increasing your effectiveness and productivity. As such, they help you bring intelligent prioritization and control back to your life, at times where you would otherwise feel overwhelmed by work.
An Organization-Wide Approach to Good Decision Making – Harvard Business Review
Behavioral economists and psychologists have uncovered scores of biases that undermine good decision-making. And, along with management experts, they have provided helpful tips that decision-makers can use to try to correct for those biases. But a comprehensive framework for achieving quality decision-making throughout an organization is still rare — almost three-quarters of companies have no formal corporate-wide approach to making major, complex decisions.
Without a proven, organization-wide approach, there may be, at best, isolated pockets of high-quality decision-making where individual leaders have elected to take a rigorous, transparent approach. Otherwise, the organization is at the mercy of the biggest bias of all: the perception that it is good at making decisions.
https://hbr.org/2015/05/an-organization-wide-approach-to-good-decision-making