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Posts Tagged ‘Performance’

Product Description
Time is precious in our hectic schedules and the pressure to achieve is high for any manager. So how do you meet your deadlines every day? First Things First sets out guidelines to help maximise your productivity and your effectiveness. It is packed with proven techniques, tips and “tricks of the trade” to help you with every aspect of your work. It provides the basis for reducing timewasting and interruptions, and to increase your focus on the priority tasks tha… More >>

First Things First: Time Management, How to Manage Your Time for Maximum Performance

Ethernet Alliance Members Showcase the Latest in High Performance Ethernet Technologies at SC10
NEW ORLEANS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nineteen members of the Ethernet Alliance have joined together in a comprehensive and cutting-edge technology demonstration at SC10.

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Is your organization about to experience a growth period, layoff, reorganization, merger or acquisition, or change in direction, leadership or personnel? What direction should you expect the change to take and how should you respond? How can you minimize problems and confusion? How can you take advantage of new opportunities to “re-create” your team? This guidebook unfolds a proven and practical map to help you and your team navigate through a smooth transition. No… More >>

Re-Creating Terms During Transitions: A Practical Guide to Optimizing Team Performance During Changing Times

ISMI Offers Web-Based Software for Equipment Reliability Performance Tracking
AUSTIN, Texas—-International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative has released its reliability, availability, and maintainability calculator , a web-based application that captures and calculates RAM metrics, at the equipment, module, and wafer levels, for SEMI E10-conformant reporting.

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Puppet Festival presents performance and workshop this weekend
The Virginia Festival of Puppet Ministry and Creative Arts returns to the Peninsula this weekend.

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Brooklyn Law School Makes the Switch to Optimum Lightpath for Better Value and Network Performance Capabilities
Optimum Lightpath®, a market leader in Ethernet-based communication solutions for New York metropolitan area businesses, today announced that it has been selected by Brooklyn Law School to provide improved Internet and voice services to meet the 24/7 bandwidth demands of its student population.

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Palladium Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy Inducts Five Performance Leaders at the 2010 …
MADRID & BOSTON—-Palladium Group, Inc., the global leader in helping organizations execute their strategies, today named five top-performing organizations to the Palladium Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy®: Abu Dhabi Government, AKSA Acrylic Chemical Inc., Barcelona City Council, Folkhälsan, and TNT Express Services UK and Ireland.

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Saba to Transform Performance Management with Real-Time Feedback
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.—-Saba , the premier people management software and services provider, today announced the upcoming general availability of Saba Impressions. Following closely on the delivery of Saba Compensation in February, Saba Impressions is another proof point that Saba is reinventing performance and compensation management to help customers drive real-time employee engagement in …

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Communication entails the conveying of a message from one person to another. It is an everyday occurrence, an on-going process, so much so that we overlook its strategic role in driving corporate performance and increasing profit margins.

Nicholas Goh, Managing Director of Verztec Consulting Pte Ltd, a Leading ISO 9001:2000 Certified Multilingual Communications Service Provider, is tuned in to the dynamic potential of strategic communications. Verztec offers Translation and Localization services, which have helped companies improve their bottom lines and foster strong employee involvement. He is pleased to share the following tip sheet on implementing strategic communications tools in the workplace.

The goal of corporate communications is influence. By bringing across certain messages, one can affect employee opinion about work -related issues. Opinions drive performance. Without conviction, employees might work without enthusiasm, performing only the work they must to stay employed. When a better offer comes along, they will not hesitate to leave. In the meantime, they certainly are not innovating or excelling on behalf of a company whose values and actions are inconsistent with their own beliefs. Getting employees to behave in a manner consistent with company goals is a driving force behind nearly all strategic communications efforts. This can be achieved via a number of ways.

Know Your Audience

Communication is a two-way process. It does not comprise writing or speaking alone. Until the writing is read, the speaking heard and the message understood, there is no communication. To ensure that your message is understood, it is essential that you know your audience and their likely level of understanding. If you are addressing your colleague from the same specialty or discipline, you can usually assume the same understanding equal to your own. When addressing members from other departments or specialty, it is seldom wise to assume any specialist knowledge at all–technical terms should be explained and the usage of obfuscating jargon reduced. When presenting some detailed aspects of your work to a varied audience comprising specialist colleagues and management executives from the upper echelons, identify the lowest common element of your audience–whether by ability or qualification–and pitch your work accordingly.

Involve Your Audience

Audience involvement results in commitment. If the talk is sensible, sincere and not stereotyped, your audience will be more perceptive to the message that you are trying to deliver. One way to do this would be to delineate the relevance and immediacy of effect that your message has on your audience. People are not likely to be interested in remote issues. When conveying certain changes that have been implemented, illustrate, with examples, how these relate to the environment in which your staff and colleagues work and how it will impact them. Good speakers can empathize with the hopes and struggles of the average member of the audience, appreciate their prudence and ruminate on details that concern them. Suggestions and recommendations should be characterized by an intelligent engagement in the welfare of the people they are addressing. Greater involvement leads to better dialogue, which leads to better understanding and greater acceptance of what you are proposing.

Persuade Your Audience

One of the most effective persuasion tools is passion. If you are passionate about your vision, it is easy for others to be swayed by your enthusiasm. Building excitement with an audience must begin with your own enthusiasm. You may have all the facts and details at your fingertips, but if you cannot package and present them with passion and conviction, you are not going to get the job done. Moreover, if you have anything short of total commitment and belief in what you are saying, people can see right through it. One of the best ways is to tell your audience why you are so excited; you can start off by completing the following sentence: I am excited to be sharing this with you because… If you can craft a single sentence that articulates your state of mind, it can go a long way toward rallying your supporters as well as convincing the skeptics.

Keep It Simple

The fundamental principle applicable to all active communication modes is to communicate simply and clearly in such a manner that the message can readily be understood. Refrain from dazzling graphics or lengthy ruminations. Extraneous communications is onerous and take time away from work. The challenge is to present your basic ideas in terms that are so simple that a ten-year-old can understand what you are saying. Use short sentences, one statement per sentence. When you are on the verge of using a long word, stop and think. There is almost always a simpler way of saying the same thing. Remember that audience interest wanes after ten minutes. It is thus essential to keep your message short and simple so that it can be registered. Furthermore, employees may not have the luxury of time to sift through verbal or written largesse to get at the underlying meaning.

Reiterate Your Points

The spoken word is ephemeral. Repetition of the major points is therefore essential to ensure that they are understood. Ideas can be abstract until they are implemented. Sometimes, after you leave the room, ideas can get scrambled to denote things about which you never dreamed. If you don’t think your audience had assimilated your message, walk them through some implementation scenarios before you leave the room.

In the workplace, communicating effectively with employees can help them improve their job performance. Whether you need employees to complete tasks on time or ensure that they’re meeting their client’s needs, letting them know what you expect and working with them to reach their job goals is the reason why some managers are more successful than others.

Meet with Your Staff

Meet with the members of your staff on a quarterly or monthly basis to discuss recent projects they’ve worked on. Review goals they may have made last quarter to see if they’ve met them. Set new goals for productivity and determine the best ways for the employee to meet their goals. You can create individual goal sheets or ask staff members to create a list of accomplishments and work-related goals. If employees are having difficulty meeting these goals, re-evaluating these goals or adjusting them may be necessary. Common reasons why employees fall behind on work related goals include:

* Inadequate training

* Lack of time

* Self-confidence issues

By talking to employees and addressing issues that are standing in their way, you can increase their performance level by providing additional training, freeing up their schedule, and boosting their self-confidence by acknowledging recent accomplishments. In addition to helping staff members create and complete goals, you should give advice and counsel to those who want to earn promotions or take on additional responsibilities.

Review the Tasks of Each Staff Member

Reviewing the number of tasks each member of your staff has to complete during the day can give you a good view of what to expect from them. If you want to increase staff performance, limiting the number of daily tasks, finding ways to make the office more efficient or hiring additional employees may help. Communicating your concern and asking for employee input is a good way to involve everyone in the process. Only when employees take ownership of their jobs will they want to improve their job performance and help others at the same time. Show that you are doing everything you can to ensure each staff member is successful during the workday.

Recognize the Achievements of Staff Members

Showing recognition by including staff members names in the company newsletter, hosting an employee party or sending a note of congratulations are all ways that you can communicate your appreciation and share in your employee’s success. While you shouldn’t overindulge your staff, it’s important to make sure they feel appreciated. Many companies host an annual party or picnic where employees can bring their families. These are fun events that celebrate each person’s contributions to the company.

Consider Your Role as Manager

Are you unrealistic in your expectations of your staff? Do you offer support when needed? Do people enjoy working with you? If you’re unsure about the answers to these questions, you should examine how you manage others and how you communicate your expectations. If you need to make improvements, consider taking a management course or meet with other managers to discuss their management styles.