Performance Management

• No. of salespeople under-performing in the company I am working with (year to date); 6 (out of 46)

• No. of these salespeople who need help rather than a kick up the bum: 5

When something like the snow gets in the way, it’s easy to use this as an excuse to fall behind with targets. In Financial Services, for example, successful salesmen and women will use such situations to their advantage. They might not be able to get out to see prospective clients but they can phone them. They can even use the snow as a conversational ice breaker (see what I did there?) to build an instant rapport.

Not everyone has the same level of drive, initiative or know-how though. It’s not that they deliberately come to work, hoping to fail. Usually people fail to deliver when they don’t know what to do or they lack confidence. This is where good team performance management comes in.

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Team Morale

• No. of centimetres of snow the weather men promised for Bournemouth:     21

• No. of centimetres of snow that actually arrived:      2

The Big Freeze is upon us. It fascinates me how different people react to situations like this. Some, like my brother in Kent, seized the opportunity to build a pink igloo (as you do) and convert various pieces of furniture into sledges. Others chose to add this turn of events to their list of post Christmas grumbles. more…

If you run a business you can probably put your people into one of 3 categories according to how they work and their team skills:

• Luke SkyWalkers
• Followers
• Dark Side

First, the ‘Luke Skywalkers’ of this world. These are the people who will never let you down and strive to achieve great things, whatever is thrown at them (You probably have a few of these in your organisation).

At the other end of the scale, you have those people who primarily like to moan a lot and drag everyone around them down in the process. We’ll call these people ‘The Dark Side’ (You probably have more of these). more…

Self Motivation

• No. of friends merrily wishing me Happy New Year on 31 December:   14

• No. of formerly merry friends now deeply depressed at having to return to work today: 14

Why is it that people are generally so much happier as Christmas approaches? Supermarket cashiers smile and stop making you feel like an evil planet destroyer for forgetting to bring your own carrier bags. Motorists give way on roads with a friendly wave. more…