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FEATURED ARTICLES
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How to Learn to Love and Exploit Paradox
Managers are constantly faced with decisions that seem to have no clear and unambiguous solution. Based on years of research and experience consulting to organisations, John Storey and Graeme Salaman suggest that the key to responding to these perennial dilemmas is to recognise the potential in the idea of paradox. They explore how we can learn to love and exploit paradox within our organisations, eschewing the conventional indicators of leadership behaviour.
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Leveraging Human Potential: Getting Work-Life Balance Right
Getting work-life balance right and the flexibility to make short-term changes are critical if we are to have sustainable performance over time. Wellbeing is essential to sustained productivity and to the dynamics of healthy, efficient teams. In this article, Angus McLeod provides us with strategies for revisiting and reflecting upon what is important and for taking action to change habits of both thinking and behaviour.
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Would I Work For Me? Exploring the Essence of Transformational Leadership
Debbie Craig and John Gatherer maintain that most leaders’ perception of their own leadership qualities is much higher than what it is in reality. In this article, they take a closer look at leadership effectiveness, the competencies and behavioural descriptors of great leaders and provide us with practical tools to assess leadership qualities. This is the first article in a series of articles on leadership.
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Winnovation – Matching What is Possible With What is Needed
Is your company already adept at matching what is possible with what is needed, and vice versa? Rowan Gibson highlights the need to strike the right balance between technical R&D and customer-centric marketing so that the two sides work symbiotically to create new value, resulting in significant commercial opportunities.
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Cultivating Engagement and Building Opportunities
The economic recession is placing increased pressure upon employees, both in the workplace and in their personal lives. Marion Stone points out that now, more than ever before, do we need to invest into developing the levels of engagement within our organisations. She provides practical suggestions on establishing ‘high commitment’ people practices and shows us how we can build on opportunities presented by the downturn.
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Talent, virtues and corporate responsibility
Arnold Smit raises the question: How does talent management relate to corporate responsibility and sustainable development? He argues that if we are to become responsible corporate citizens, we need to anchor our talent paradigm in virtues, as much as we anchor it in knowledge, skills and values. He shares six universal core virtues, their impact on our perspective and shows us how we can source virtuous talent.
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Seven tactics to engage young SA employees
Engaged employees perform better and are more likely to grow and develop with your organisation. Ruwayne Kock and Dr. Kent McNamara conducted research to determine the current levels of employee engagement within South African organisations. The findings form part of a pilot employee engagement survey conducted by The Human Resource Practice. In this article, they share seven practical ways of helping you to engage young graduates within your organisation. |
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| HR GOES GREEN |
Green initiatives – why you cannot afford not to go green
When the economy turns tough, many companies sideline their green business initiatives. That is a big mistake. In Green Recovery, Andrew S. Winston shows why no company can afford to wait for the downturn to ease before going green. Green initiatives ratchet up your company's resource efficiency, creativity and employee motivation. Green initiatives also save energy and waste, preserving precious capital, and give precise focus to your innovation efforts and strategic priorities. |
| HEALTH MANAGEMENT AT WORK |
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Health Issues Impacting the Workplace
In this first article in a series of articles on health issues impacting the workplace, Avril Stroh from Medi-Clinic highlights health-related issues that may be impacting on our employees. She shows us how we can best provide assistance to these employees and ensure a better working environment for all. |
| CRITICAL COACHING CONVERSATIONS |
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Moving Targets are Harder to Hit
In this series, Lauron Buys shares examples of coaching as conversations taking place in productive, results-oriented environments. This month’s Critical Coaching Conversation focuses on sales managers, providing us with an example of an external coach coaching a sales manager to be more effective. |
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| ALSO IN THIS ISSUE |
| Tools and Checklists |
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Team Member Selection Guide, First Team Meeting Agenda and diagnosing the work climate in the team
The two tools below are straightforward and easy to apply. They consist of a team selection guide and a possible agenda for the first meeting of the team. Their purpose is chiefly to remind managers of the key steps in selecting and preparing teams properly for the front-end of the project. Readers should take these as simple templates, which they may need to adapt or expand to their own circumstances. The third tool provides diagnosis for checking the work climate in the team. This allows the team leader to assess and intervene if necessary to make sure the team remains productive and creative throughout the early stages of the project. Here only a short introduction is given, readers need to get the questionare instrument and the accompanying manual from the original authors. The benefit of this tool is that it is designed for innovation teams.
Translate Organizational Values into Behavioral Team Norms
Without a doubt, the process of identifying and clarifying values is most successful when team leaders are able to depend on the organizational values that uphold a respectful atmosphere. Assuming that the organization has identified concrete and behaviorally specific values, the leader then engages the team in how these apply to their work environments.
Seven Practical Steps to Develop Teamwork
If a team of people with different perspectives and talents is to move beyond exisiting business and create something new, then it must work together effectively. If it cannot, the pressures of dealing with an innovation that is important to the firm will aggravate common team failings.
Assessing Yourself and Setting Some Goals for Self-Development
We offer a self-development questionaire aimed at helping you improve your managerial performance, advance your career and realize your full potential. |
| Useful Publications |
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Guide to Business Law 4e
S. Kopel
Psychology in the Work Context 4e
Zeil C. Bergh; Antoinette L. Theron
Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete
Byron Reeves, J. Leighton Read | |
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