The Blogworld of Poppyfish People Development

We know that if we are to make 1-to-1 meetings a habitual part of our management style then we have to get practising. But how do you get started with 1-to-1’s ? Well, try this.  Next time you are in a meeting with your team tell them that you want to give 1-to-1 meetings a six month trial. Ask each of them to take responsibility to arrange their own 1-to-1 sessions with you. Ideally these will be face to face, once a week, at a regular time if you can. Giving the responsibility for arranging the meetings to the subordinates is a great way to empower them, just make sure that you are honest with them with the booking arrangements and make sure that you honour the meetings. If you don't turn up you are letting them down and they will certainly think less of you for it. How long should each meeting be? Half an hour is fine. A general rule is 10 minutes for them, ten minutes for you and ten minutes for everything else.  Do the meetings need to be in private? Not necessa...

Example Job map: Building Site Manager A Job Map is a diagram, created by you, that shows the interconnections between your job and the people who have an expectation of you in your job. It can be a very helpful tool for understanding and clarifying your role and priorities at work and as a tool for problem solving. It is especially helpful when used as a tool to aid recruitment, or to assist someone starting a new job. A good job map can be used to:   Give a clear indication of key responsibilities. Make it clear to others exactly what it is that you do. Identify and tackle problem areas. Help produce a job description and be useful when setting objectives. When you combine your own map with the job maps of other people in your teams you may also be able to: Identify common problems. Highlight areas where efforts are duplicated or confused. Spot important new areas of work or gaps in existing responsibilities.   Sharing your Job Map ...

The Art of Delegation I don't often blog about management tips, but when I talk to experienced managers and leaders about what challenges them in their working lives one of the consistent responses I get (and one that is often reinforced when speaking to their teams) is that they have trouble delegating work. This always surprises me. Not only that, but everyone involved seems to accept this weakness with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders as if to say, 'oh well, it is just the way they are'.     When I question them about this attitude. A common response by those self-confessed bad delegators is to justify the lack of concern by stating that they avoid delegation because they believe that passing the job to somebody else takes too long. How many times have you heard people around you say “ It’s quicker to do it myself ”? Often, this is offered as a justification for them choosing to perform a piece of work that they know could have been per...