Tag Archives: Performance

Lindsay’s In Business: PART 70: We have lift off

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What happens when you realise your path is entrepreneurship rather than employment? Lindsay takes up the challenge and shares an account of her journey as it unfolds…

What a high – I feel as if we’re lifting off!  A big part of the boost is working as an associate of this consultancy in London with my mate Mr. P.  He’s just GREAT.

Meeting in London last Tuesday.  Insurance company.  Our contact there is a personal friend of Mr. P.  Within an hour, the guy is sold and wants to send our pitch up to his HR Director. Apparently, the timing is perfect, the company motto is ‘People First’, and they’re going through lots of changes that need some kind of support. It fits.  I’m heartened.

We walk down the road to a café.  Mr. P gets a sandwich. I grab some soup.

Next up is a well-established training company.  Again, our guy there is a personal contact of Mr. P.  Within an hour, him and the Director of Learning he brought along to the meeting with him are sold.  Apparently, the timing is perfect because they recently launched a ‘team productivity’ training programme and it flopped. They need something in its place right now.  Mirror Mirror slots straight in.  I never thought of it as a training programme before, but people going through Mirror Mirror learn how to be more effective together.  Wow.  Next steps, I write the training materials, Mr. P organizes the contract.  It fits. Again. I’m ecstatic.

Mr. P goes back to his office.

And to finish the afternoon, is an appointment I’d set up for myself. They’re a huge start-up out of San Francisco who basically run an app that delivers targeted content to employees and gathers employee feedback data.  I’m thinking they could do with something extra that adds 5 levels of sophistication to this transactional feedback loop, right?

The European Manager took an interest.  Could lead somewhere…  somewhere big.

I did get a bit neurotic about that appointment a few days in advance, to be honest.  It is the kind of situation where they could buy a ditty-bitty like Mirror Mirror up, if they liked it.

What scared me is that I could feel in my heart of hearts that I’d have to accept if the offer was half-decent.  Why? Because as much as I love Mirror Mirror, I’ve had three years of scrabbling around trying to sell it with NO funding, NO organized marketing, NO pre-established brand or credibility, and NO big product all figured out, like the guy from the San Francisco app had when he started selling his app in Europe.

But it’s amazing how two good sales meetings can turn one’s confidence.  Now I’m all cool.  I’m just fine as I am. I’d have to think about an offer.

Now, if this training company and their endless contact list gets going, I need to prepare myself:

  • To turn my little one-man-band into an established, incorporated company
  • Completion of our Tableau-based reporting tool
  • Some trained delivery agents
  • A pretty good administration system to make sure all the contracts and invoices are properly processed.

And that’s what I’m going to spend the summer on. People are starting to buy. WOW!!!!!!!!

Mirror MirrorWe identify and close alignment gaps between people in organizations to improve engagement and performance.

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Having a manager but still unmanaged

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By: Angie Falls

In my view, managers are facilitators of their team members’ success. They ensure that their team members have everything they need to be productive and successful; that they’re well trained, happy and have minimal roadblocks in their path; that they’re being groomed for the next level; that they are recognized for great performance and coached through their challenges.

It has been now 6 years that I am at an organization where I have performed in a team with 2 different managers.

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Situation 42: Unpopular tasks

A special project team, under supervision of Boss, is working on a business critical project. One of the project members is not pulling his weight and Betsy is gradually picking up more of his tasks. Boss praises Betsy for her flexibility and dedication to the project. Boss decides to take the project member concerned out of the project team. He discusses with Betsy how to best approach this sensitive situation since, according to him, she has very well developed interpersonal skills. Before Betsy knows she is the one who has to break the bad news to the project team member.

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A great leader:

  • Provides support and guidance to build other’s capabilities without taking away responsibility;
  • Is assertive and expresses her needs in a calm, clear and professional manager;
  • Is courageous and willing to challenge authority to ‘do the right thing’.

How to best handle the situation:

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What’s Next?

by Carmen Peeren

During my studies in Business Administration, I started an internship in Human Resources at the head office of a large international company. Once graduated, I was offered my first job at this same company whereby I entered the field of Compensation & Benefits. To be honest, during my studies I was never aware of this type of job but as I never had a very specific job choice in mind and therefore chose a more generic type of studies, I was more than happy to take on this opportunity.  Continue reading

Situation 29: ROMANCE

Betsy gets romantically involved with someone at work. Billy advises her to handle the situation in a highly professional manner.

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Situation 27: CHANGING PRIORITIES

Femsy is struggling with the fact that since she is working in “Co-Colours” her friends are complaining about her more hectic working schedule. Femsy realizes that not only her job has changed, but as a result her life has changed as well.

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Multi-Tasking

by Anja Uitdehaag

Doing several things simultaneously makes you feel like you’re getting lots of things done. However, multitasking is a myth; it doesn’t exist. When you attempt to do several things your brains actually switch their focus from one task to another instead of effectively doing two things simultaneously. So, what you’re really doing is task-switching – switching your attention from task to task extremely quickly.

Researchers and neuroscientists around the world, including those at Harvard, Stanford, and the University of London, agree that multitasking is a problem. It makes you less efficient, less effective and over time, it stresses and even damages the brain. Continue reading

You Are Really One-Of-A-Kind

by Anja Uitdehaag

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life and don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

There are over seven billion people on this earth. No two people are truly alike. No two people can ever have the same experience of life, the same perspective, the same mind. Even identical twins are different. Continue reading

Situation 26: OTHERS TAKING CREDIT FOR WORK DONE

Mansy is taking the credit for Femsy’s hard work in a special project assignment. She decides to address the issue with Mansy in a face-to-face meeting.

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Situation 25: HARD WORK VERSUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Work is tough. Femsy did not get her latest proposal approved in the MT, and she is making long hours.

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