Book - Successful meetings

At last! A book that breaks through and shows us in an easy-to-read manner how to put on successful meetings attendees will truly value. Watch out corporate America your meetings will never be the same again!

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Managing in a Downturn: A comprehensive survey of the impact of the economic downturn on not-for-profit organisations

A survey which focuses on the perceptions of not-for-profit organisations of the impact of the economic downturn on their income and expenditure. Sixty per cent of Australian charities report falling revenues in the past six months and two thirds are predicting a further loss of income during the next twelve months as the global financial crisis impacts the not-for-profit (NFP) sector. The survey was conducted in April and May 2009 and questions focus on the impact in the last six months, as well as the anticipated future impact over the next year.

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Six important managerial skills for successful leadership

A mark of a good leader is to be able to provide consistent motivation to his team encouraging them to attain excellence and quality in their performance. A good leader is always looking for ways to improve production and standards. Here are six management skills you can develop as a leader in working to create a quality effective team.

1. Observation

This is an important aspect that often gets neglected due the demands on a leader’s time and schedule. Observation and regular visits to the work environment are a priority and should be scheduled into the calendar. Observing employees at work, the procedures, interaction and work flow is foundational to implementing adjustments to improve results. To have credibility, a leader needs to be seen and be known to be up to date with what is happening in the work place.

2. Monitor Employee Performance

Employee performance needs to be monitored in mutually accepted ways. Policies and procedures need to be clear. Conferencing should be on a regular basis and not just when there is a problem. Assessments and evaluations should not be merely all formality or viewed a necessary paperwork to be done and filed away. Individual and group conferencing should be undertaken not only to monitor performance, but with the expectation of on going professional development and support. There should be frequent encouragement and clear criteria for on going goals both for the group and individual.

3. Implementation of Professional Development Programs

A good leader evaluates weaknesses and provides training and development strategies to strengthen the weaker skills in the team.

4. Demonstrates Working Knowledge and Expertise

Good leadership comes from a place of strong knowledge and experience of the production and process leading to results. If a leader does not possess all the expertise and knowledge personally, then regular consultations with experts involved in the departments should be held. This is important in order to maintain an accurate and informed overall picture.

5. Good Decision Making

Good leadership is characterized by the ability to make good decisions. A leader considers all the different factors before making a decision. Clear firm decisions, combined with the willingness and flexibility to adapt and adjust decisions when necessary, create confidence in the leadership.

6. Ability to Conduct and Evaluate Research

On going review and research is vital in order to keep on the cutting edge in business. While managing the present to ensure on going excellence in product and performance, a good leader is also able to look towards the future. Conducting and evaluating research is an important way of planning and being prepared for the future.

Excellent leadership is always pro active rather than reactive. By developing these six managerial skills builds a solid foundation for success.

This post was written by Barbara White. Barbara is a speaker and trainer in Leadership Skills. For more Leadership articles

What are your meetings really costing?

We spend hours in meetings and sometimes we wonder if the time is spent wisely. This calculator helps to understand how much money you spend while meeting.

Sum up your leadership in six words

[Thanks to Bert Decker for pointing out this post by John Baldoni]

The million dollar question for any leader is this: did you leave the organization in a better place than when you found it? Sadly we have discovered that the great recession we are enduring was in part due to senior executives who did not leave their companies better off, even though they themselves exited with pockets full of cash.

For leaders, this six-word exercise works well as a form of aspiration, that is, how do I want to be remembered? So if you are early or mid career, you have time to make changes so that you can become the leader you are capable of becoming. Consider the following three questions to help you consider how you would sum up your work life in six words or less

.read more ...

Leadership

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day on July 4th we often reflect on the thoughts and sacrifices made by the leaders that have preceded us. Take a few minutes to enjoy the movie, “Great Quotes from Great Leaders,” which is filled with timeless wisdom from great leaders who have inspired, encouraged and led us to do the right thing.

The Great Quotes Movie

In his book, “Sandbox Wisdom,” Tom Asacker has rewritten the rules on leadership and service. It is fun, refreshing and a terrific theme for any organization to encourage creativity and great service. It is quite possibly a life altering read. Click on the link below to read an excerpt from the book.
Sandbox wisdom

How To Be A Masterful Manager

Being a successful manager requires many skills. It is not enough to be technically proficient at doing your job. This e-book by Australia's NO. 1 Productivity coach, Lorraine Pirihi has heaps of practical, easy-to-implement ideas to accelerate your leadership abilities and to help you be the best manager you can be.

How To Be A Masterful Manager

Meetings and Road Trips

Managing a meeting is like setting off on a long car trip with friends or family. You need to plan your route, pay attention to the rules of the road, consider what will keep your passengers engaged and occupied, and always remember you have to get back home at the end.

Just as adults and children consider car trips to be tolerable as the only way to get to certain places, so too do business people view meetings as necessary evils.

Here are three ways to make an enormous difference in your meetings.

1. KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING

Most of us wouldn't start a trip through unfamiliar territory without looking at a map beforehand so we don't get lost. Preparation may be just ten minutes, but a little preparation goes a long way toward making a meeting successful. You want your time to be productive and efficient. Whether your meeting is with a five-person project team, 100 worldwide sales people, or an online multi-location group, you need to consider a few key items ahead of time.

• What is your desired outcome? If the meeting were over, and you were delighted with it, what would you have as a result? Do you want consensus on a course of action or new ideas on a recurring problem? Do you simply want updates on what everyone is doing? Once you're clear on what you want, you can state a clear Meeting Objective and share it with everyone at the meeting.

• Decide on the type of meeting. Most meetings have four possible activities: sharing information, collecting information, problem solving, and decision making. Many meetings are a mixture of these. For every agenda item, think ahead of time about what you want as an outcome. That will help you, and everyone else, know when you're on-topic and when you're not.

2. HONOR THE RULES OF THE ROAD AND MANAGE YOUR PASSENGERS

When you're in a car on a trip, the easy ways to ruin the experience are to get stopped by the police when you disobey the rules of the road or to have the passengers fighting and complaining. The same is true of meetings. Let people know what the guidelines are. Do your best to keep the dialogue moving forward. Listen to all viewpoints, but don't let one view dominate the others. Manage the time and discussion so that speakers change and participants are engaged. If you're bored, so are others. If you're tired of a particular voice, you're not alone. Use the following guidelines to keep the meeting lively.

• Be an effective chairperson. Be even-handed. Make and maintain good personal connection with your group. If you want active participation, avoid evaluating what people say until it's time to make a decision. Keep the information and dialogue flowing. And when you get to a decision point, say so publicly. State the decision (whether it's consensus or a decision to get more info or a selected course of action), then go on to the next steps on that decision or to the next topic.

• Manage airtime. Manage the meeting like a good traffic cop - give everyone his or her turn. Enforce brevity. If someone rambles on and on, paraphrase his or her point and then turn to someone else in the meeting. Draw out the quiet individuals.

• Handle conflict. The majority of conflict in meetings arises from misunderstanding between two or more people. Be sure each position is clearly articulated (without value judgments about opposing viewpoints) and understood.

3. END OF THE TRIP

There's something anti-climactic about getting home from a long car trip. The ride home seems endless when the anticipation is gone. This happens in meetings also. So end your meetings with a bang, not a whimper. Here's how:

• Finish on time. Honor the time commitment you made to participants. If you consistently end meetings later than promised, people will either make excuses not to attend your next one or find a reason to leave early.

• Identify next steps. A very frustrating aspect of meetings is the perception that nothing changes as a result of them. A way to ensure something indeed will happen is to identify and write down next steps - the agreed-upon actions to be taken after the meeting. Include what has to be done, by whom, and when. Do this on a flipchart or in some other visible way. And make sure attendees get the notes of the meeting.

• Finally, follow up on the next steps after the meeting. Let people know it matters that they were in the meeting. Check in. See how it's going. Ask if additional resources are needed. If appropriate, see if a follow-up meeting makes sense as a way to chart progress. Keep people informed.

Again, a little planning goes a long way in making meetings productive and even enjoyable. You probably already spend a lot of time now, clarifying decisions after the meeting or even trying to remember what decisions were made! Consider the cost of meetings when everyone leaves and remembers the tangents and not what actions will be taken. In this case, the meeting itself was ineffective and no one's behavior or subsequent action was changed. That's wasted time - a real dead end.

Peg Kelley, MBA, has been a professional facilitator for over 30 years. She has authored a booklet - 39 Secrets for Effective and Enjoyable Meetings - and publishes a newsletter of meeting management tips. Both are available at her website: http://www.meetingtoolsandjewels.com Kelley@facplus.com if you want to receive it.

How Organizations create social value

A recent study on the factors that contribute to successful high-performance social enterprises finds a connection between enterprises that link economic value with social value. ... more

What are the secrets of good leadership?

Find out from the people at the top. At this year's exclusive silicon.com CIO 50 event, the UK's leading CIOs revealed their top tips for leadership success.

Project Management Training - A Key To Profitable Organization

from George Purdy

It is safe to say that for an organization, there is no important task than to develop their important asset of all: it's workforce. Training workforce is very important to help each employee to understand and reach his potential; educate the workforce and connect them emotionally to achieve organizational objectives. Project management training is a training framework which helps organizations to achieve these important goals.

We can broadly classify project management into project planning and managing the project as per the plan. Fine project management training should include sessions on resource planning, risk assessment methodologies, estimation techniques, schedule preparation and tracking, resource management. Training should take into account a proper balance between management and planning aspects of project management.

There are a lot of choices available to an organisation on providing project management training to it's workforce. One way is to develop internal trainers and training framework within the company. This type of in house training has the advantage of saving costs, giving flexibility on the training content. However it may take long time to reach a matured stage for the training framework.

One more alternative way is to use the services offered by professional training institutions, whose main objective is to provide professional training to business organizations. An organisation that doesn't have the needed resources to train the workforce in house, can take advantage of the services offered by these training institutions. This could save lot of time and energy. But these services may be very dear.

One of the useful ways is to have a good collection of management books in a company library.One such book which one can get hold of in management lierature is Training for profit: a guide to the integration of training in an organizations success.It explains the opportunities and the advantages that a person gets from workforce training and corelates them to the financial performance of the organization's.It also acts as a helpful guide to the internal trainers by helping them to know the innovative methods by which a workforce can be trained.

In order to successfully build a team and carry out a project, a number of soft skills are essential. These include communication skills, cross-cultural competence, interpersonal skills, the ability to negotiate and effective customer interaction. Project management training needs to incorporate these skills into its curriculum. Having a well-trained workforce is very important, and no organization should underestimate the impact it can have on profitability.

Training employees in project management helps organizations to achieve their predetermined objectives in executing projects. Areas of project management training include project planning, resource planning, risk assessment and estimation techniques and preparation and monitoring of schedules The training can be internal in order to save on costs and have flexibility in training content; or it can be given by external institutions, if the organization does not have in-house resources for training. Providing access to management books such as Training for Profit: A Guide to the Integration of Training in an Organizations Success is also a good alternative.

Conducting effective meetings

An organization of any size requires meetings. Meetings help different people with different job responsibilities cooperate to complete projects and achieve objectives.

But as Peter Drucker noted, an abundance of meetings is a sign of a diseased organization. If you conduct effective meetings, they will become shorter and less frequent.

Here are a few guidelines for conducting effective meetings:

Silos, Politics and Turf Wars

A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors

by Patrick M. Lencioni

Lencioni addresses a serious problem facing most organizational leaders. A recent study by the American Management Association found 97% of executives believed `silos' have negative effects on organizations, 31% believed they have extensive destructive consequences, and 83% believed they existed in their companies.

Read more at http://www.pivotalpersonalbest.com/silos.htm

Leadership and change

The RapidBi blog has created a list of Nine Ways Leaders transform organisations .... Worth a look. Does "remove obstacles" really apply?

Hiring for Executive Intelligence

Hiring managers have all but ignored standard IQ, but they remain the best predictor of managerial success. Here is how to design an interview that uncovers executive intelligence. A Harvard Business Review excerpt. >>>

How to be a masterful manager

Is managing people a real headache for you? Do you wish they would use their initiative and just get the work done? Are you finding that ‘people problems’ are consuming your time?

Well it may not be their fault. It could well be that you need to learn how to be a masterful manager!

According to a recent survey by SEEK, the online job search company, 60% of employees said ‘the quality of management’ was what they hated most about their jobs.

Being a successful manager requires many skills. It is not enough to be good at what you do.

If you also happen to be the owner of the business, you’ll soon discover how important it is to ‘get it right’, otherwise you will lose a lot of time and money ensuring your employees are happy and productive.

Happy people are likely to be much more productive and profitable for your business, so it’s critical you get your act together.

As a manager, your key role is to manage people. This is a skill that needs to be learned and continually developed…and if you are prepared to invest time and money into being an effective manager you will enjoy the benefits of your efforts.

You’ll be happier, confident and in control. You’ll earn the respect of your people. They will also be happier and more effective due to your leadership abilities. Good leaders will be able to maintain a high performing team... and a great leader will attract great people.

“How to Be a Masterful Manager “ has heaps of practical, easy-to-implement ideas to accelerate your leadership abilities and to help you be the best manager you can be.

In this powerful e-book you will discover:

How To Organise Yourself So You Have Time To Do Your Own Work As Well As Effectively Manage Your Team

Why The Way You Dress Impacts On Your Success As A Leader And How You Can Dress For Success.

The Benefits Of Having A Personal Assistant And How To Work Effectively Together

How To Look After Your People So They Look After Your Business

How To Have Productive Meetings And Achieve Results

How To Save Time, Money And Your Sanity By Learning To Communicate With The Opposite Sex

How To Avoid Procrastination And Just Get On With It

Your No. 1 Asset Is You And By Continuing To Develop Yourself, Your Results in Both Your Business And Work Life Will Go Through The Roof Invest now!

A Top Executive Job Never Comes with a Roadmap

Most people are promoted to positions of leadership based on their accomplishments as an individual contributor. As they continue to move up the ranks through the years that follow, absent any significant focus on developing themselves as leaders, their outmoded tactics and strategies for “leading” become liabilities—or at least fail to act as the assets they could be—and their performance is less than stellar. Call it the law of self-inflicted diminishing returns.
http://leadershipunleashed.typepad.com/leadership/2009/02/a-top-executive-job-never-comes-with-a-roadmap.html

The Six C's of leadership

Unsurprisingly, the need for leadership today is more important than ever before. Rafael Pastor, the ex-President of USA Networks and current CEO of Vistage International, and Barry Sternlicht, the ex-CEO of Starwood Hotels and current head of Starwood Capital Group, both had some astute comments on the subject. Coincidentally, and surprisingly, both of them summarized their perspectives with concepts beginning with a “C”, so it’s really easy to combine their viewpoints and come up with a "C" list of leadership attributes necessary for success in the 21st century. I wish I had enough poetry to come up with this list, but at least I can use my own words in describing the six elements:

... more

Video - Managing organisation change

Michael delivers a 3-step method for managing organizational change that he has used effectively in organizations to lead change and build strong teams.

Getting serious about your meeting problem

Getting serious about your meeting problem

Do you have one? Some folks are going to eight hours of meeting a day. At Ford, they used to have meetings to prepare for meetings, just to be sure everyone had their story straight.

If you're serious about solving your meeting problem, getting things done and saving time, try this for one week. If it doesn't work, I'll be happy to give you a full refund.

...more

Why your Employees are Losing Motivation

Business literature is packed with advice about worker motivation—but sometimes managers are the problem, not the inspiration. Here are seven practices to fire up the troops.

... more

Book The Manager's Guide to Effective Meetings

by Barbara J. Streibel

In our increasingly collaborative work environment, the ability to manage results-driven meetings has become a critical career asset. Let The Manager's Guide to Effective Meetings provide you with a step-by-step template for energizing your next meeting, and transforming it from a roomful of clock-watching individuals into a collaboration of involved and enthusiastic partners.

(more ...)

Operating With 20/20 Vision in Areas That Matter Most

A father and son were traveling home from a college football game late one night in the 1970s when the dad pulled the car onto the shoulder of the rural, desolate highway and asked his son to take over the driving. As hard as it was for him to admit, the father said his eyesight was failing him and he didn't think it safe for him to stay behind the wheel. So the son took over, and it didn't take him long to realize that his dad's eyesight wasn't the problem - it was the station wagon's headlights that were fading.

In life, we have to stay focused on the things that matter most. As Mark Twain put it, "Plain clarity is better than ornate obscurity." For the father and son with the fading headlights, the most important thing became obvious: The road in front of them for that last 15 miles! For most leaders, however, finding clarity starts with establishing priorities from a long list of things that all seem important.

more ...

Cutting back - smart advice on managing business debt

Even successful businesses have debt, but how much is too much? Learning how to manage debt is what can put you ahead.

... more>>

Three kinds of meetings

Meetings are marketing in real time with real people. (A conference is not a meeting. A conference is a chance for a circle of people to interact).

There are only three kinds of classic meetings:

more...

Lead Excellently. Start Here!

Lead Excellently. Start Here!

Learn the Insider Secrets of Becoming a Top Leader In
Your Industry. Win the Respect and Success You Deserve!

Become an exceptional leader, with "How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You."

Do you want to be a highly effective leader? Do you want to develop the self-confidence, vision, wisdom, motivational impact and delivery skills that the most effective leaders have? And do you want to be the person to whom, quite naturally, other people turn for direction?

And do you want to learn the leadership "magic" of building a team whose members work together effectively and positively, bringing the exceptional performance improvements that good leadership and successful teamwork can bring? And what about the rewards, respect and personal growth that come with effective leadership?

This Course Helps Good Managers Become Exceptional Leaders

Looking at where you are right now, do you feel that you're not getting the rewards and recognition you deserve?

You may be very competent as a manager. However, leadership is a different thing from management (they complement one another). If you rely only on being a good manager, you'll never inspire people to give their very best. Because of this, people who are only good managers are passed over for promotion - time and again...

The good news is that with just 24 hours of study, you can learn to be an exceptional leader! With just a little application, you can learn the 48 simple skills that will make you the wise, self-confident, inspiring and successful leader you want to be. You'll say goodbye to the mundane struggle of everyday management existence, becoming the natural center of a positive, enthusiastic, well-motivated and highly successful team.

Read on. It's all explained below!

Business Leadership – Made Clear

With Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” leadership system, you'll learn the essential, tried-and-tested leadership skills and techniques you need to become a well respected and highly effective leader in business.

You'll see the the mysteries surrounding leadership (for example, the myth that good leaders are born, not trained) fall away as we reveal the clear, simple, up-to-date principles that lie behind good leadership.

And with "How to Lead"'s sharp focus on leadership in the corporate world, you'll learn the skills you need to lead effectively and positively in today's workplace, including the often tricky skills needed to persuade, influence and lead people over whom you sometimes have little direct authority.

(These skills should work well for people in the military, healthcare, nursing, education and public service generally - it's just that our focus and experience lies in the corporate world...)

Among many other things, with "How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You", you learn how to:

• Create a reliable, robust and attractive vision of the future that people will respect and believe in (meaning that they'll enthusiastically follow your lead);

• Communicate your vision, and see the benefits as people work to the best of their abilities to complete the projects you initiate successfully;

• Grow your self-confidence, becoming a calm and self-confident leader, and one who inspires confidence in others;

• Build a reputation for expertise and a track record of achievement that teams members and your peers will come to respect, value and trust;

• Make good decisions under pressure, with the confidence that you’ve done the homework needed for these decisions to be right;

• Build a strong, flexible and highly effective team, expanding your ability to deliver many times over;

• Develop the sureness of touch shown by the best leaders, and learn to build the empathic, mutually trusting relationships needed for maximum team performance;

• Enjoy mutually rewarding, co-operative working relationships with team members and peers. And enjoy the happy, energizing atmosphere that comes with this;

• Keep people on target and performing well together in a “firm but fair way” that gets the job done while respecting the rights of team members;

• Learn to inspire and motivate team members so that they'll "go to the ends of the Earth" to give their very best;

• Become a truly inspirational leader, and enjoy the perks that come with this.

As you learn and start using these skills, you'll become the natural choice for advancement and promotion. Your career will take off, and you'll quickly gather the financial and emotional rewards that come with success. You can join the ranks of the high flyers.

"How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You’ provides, in one volume, a concise presentation of many of the best ideas about leadership. Some of these concepts will reinforce what you know about leadership; some will expand your knowledge.

“By using assessment tools that are included as part of the course, you make visible areas of your leadership strength and areas that can use some exercise. With assessments complete, you can focus on the course content to take actions in your daily work to improve your skills.

“This course is thought provoking. It will require you to view yourself honestly. If you truly want to develop the leader within, take the course. You’re worth the effort."

Harold Strawbridge, Philadelphia, USA

In the past, you'd have spent years of painful trial and error learning the techniques taught in this course. And, not knowing these skills, you would not have been performing at your best during this time (even worse, you could easily have made mistakes which were, if only you'd known, all too avoidable.)

But now, with Mind Tools' "How to Lead" leadership system, you'll quickly learn the essential skills you need to be a truly effective leader.

What Does the Course Contain?

Within the “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” workbook, you'll find the following eight modules:

	The Meaning of Leadership - learn how to tell good leadership from bad, and how good leaders behave;
	Get to Know Yourself - take five insightful self-tests that give you the self-knowledge you need to be a successful leader;
	Get the Right Stuff - learn to counter weaknesses identified in the previous module, build your self-confidence, project a dynamic attitude and capitalize on your leadership strengths;

	Creating Winning Ideas - find out how to build a clear and compelling vision of how the future should be, which other people will be inspired to adopt;
	The Power to Rouse - discover how to inspire people with this vision, and motivate them to give their very best;
	Getting Things Done - learn the rare skills needed to transform vision into reality;
	Develop Your Team - find out how to develop your people so that they become highly-motivated and exceptionally-effective team players;
	Get the Extra Edge - learn about things like risk taking, networking and cross-cultural leadership, helps you move from being a good leader to being a great one.

Click here for fuller details about the contents of these modules.

To Be A Leader You Can’t Stand On The Sidelines

If you want a starting position, you need to act like a starter. There is a world of difference between expecting to be a starter and actually being a starter. ... more

Successful Marketing Strategies- The Easiest Strategy For Getting Referrals

I want to talk to you about what is perhaps the most effective, yet underused referral strategy that I know which is to......simply ask for them.Many business owners and executives, professionals and even sales people have all sorts of mental hang-ups about asking for referrals. However, most of those hang-ups are invalid and I find that those who ask, get!

Read on ...

Video - Team building and more

"It's all about the game"

Financial reporting in tough economic times: meeting your legal obligations

Understanding your financial reporting obligations is important at any time but never more so than when times are tough. What does your organisation need to know about its legal obligations, and how can you best ensure compliance? What are the roles and responsibilities of Committee of Management/Board members in relation to financial reporting and what should you look out for when money is tight?

This seminar will cover financial reporting, and in particular:
the responsibilities of Committee of Management/Board members; and
compliance.

http://www.pilch.org.au/Page.aspx?ID=260

E-Mail Marketing Trends: E-Mail Gets Bigger by Going Smaller

As people scan e-mails with preview panes, disabled images and tiny-screened handheld devices, savvy e-mail marketers craft campaigns that aim small--but think big.

... more

Book: Meetings excellence

: 33 Tools to Lead Meetings That Get Results

by Glenn M. Parker and Robert Hoffman

From the reviews:

Meeting Excellence is a comprehensive resource that provides a wide range of ready-to-use tools that have been developed and tested by a meeting initiative within Novartis Pharmaceuticals. It is based on years of research observing team meetings, examining existing meeting documents, and conducting a number of intensive individual interviews in the U.S. and Europe. This important book offers the information and tools needed to prepare, facilitate, and follow up on all your meetings.

... more

Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6108.html

As companies batten down the hatches, we need leaders who do not compromise on standards and values that are essential in flush times. Fortunately, such leaders do exist. Their insights can help other organizations weather the current crisis, says HBS professor Michael Beer.

Foundations Funding – If The Slipper Fits

The money can be found if the fit is right! That's the message that came out of a session called 'Meet the Grantmakers' at the International Philanthropy Australia Conference.

Read on ...

Make your meetings work

Do you cringe at the memories of the meetings you have sat through?

So many meetings are unproductive, boring, and inefficient, that comedians thrive on jokes about them.

Classic ...

How many managers does it take to change a light bulb?
1) A roomful - they have to hold a meeting to discuss all the ramifications of the change.
2) None, they like to keep employees in the dark.
3) "This topic was resumed from last week's discussion, but is incomplete pending resolution of some action items. It will be continued next week. Meanwhile ..."
4) "We've formed a task-force to study the problem of why light bulbs burn out, and to figure out what, exactly, we as supervisors can do to make the bulbs work smarter, not harder."

Nevertheless it's not a joke when you are sitting through the frustration ...,
when you know that you are wasting time and money in meetings that aren't productive
when you cannot achieve anything because of the undisciplined "waffle" and going around and around in circles discussing.
.......
This eBook will show you how to save both time and money

"Make your Meetings work" the eBook ... gives you the secrets of organising your meetings so that they are more efficient and more effective.

This eBook gives you strategies that can make your meetings productive, saving you time and money - yours and the company's.

More information on Make your meetings work

Staying focused when tough times are ahead

While it is easy to inspire people when the business is going well, the best leaders inspire people when times are tough. Following are three suggestions, based upon what I have learned from my coaching clients:

- The first person that you need to keep focused is YOU ...

http://adjix.com/3dsm

Leadership and Change

Carol Bartz's Challenge at Yahoo: Choose a Path, Build a Team and Do It Fast

New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has a long to-do list -- chart the company's strategy, weigh a potential search partnership with Microsoft, boost morale and round out her management team -- and not much time to deliver amid a weak economy that is hurting online advertising, say experts at Wharton.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/2142.cfm

A Case for Inspirational Leadership

There are hardly any leadership or management books out there that do not talk about inspirational leadership. So why another post on the topic of inspiration? Around 2 million jobs were eliminated in 2008. In October, a CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe another 1930s-style depression is very or somewhat likely. A separate poll for Condé Nast Portfolio shows that people working in the finance business are even gloomier: 77 percent of them say their industry is in a state of crisis, and 50 percent say the economy is the worst it has been in their careers.



Thus given the circumstances it is even more important that leaders at every level keep their teams inspired, motivated and focused.

http://adjix.com/a97y

10 Suggestions for Self-aware Leadership in 2009

1) Government leaders get back to the best, most ethical, positive spark of what drove them to want to lead in the first place.

more ...