The gesture of showing appreciation seems to be a lost art. A simple “thank you” may go some way to add warmth to any relationship, but in reality just represents common courtesy. Authentically-demonstrated appreciation, however, develops the emotional connection in relationships and solidifies the customer’s patronage. Smart businesses know that showing customers how much they…
Much has been documented with respect to team success or failure. High-performance teams, upon evaluation of performance characteristics, seem to have that “special something” that drives their achievements. Their reputation grows and every success seems to inspire further greatness. They “win” nine times out of ten and use any failure as a springboard to learn,…
One of the key roles of leadership is to assist your employees with their growth and development. Jim Rohn noted: “A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better”. This involves the mind-set, skills and knowledge…
I have met many “nice” managers in my travels and frequently at workshops – good people, pleasant demeanours, humorous, caring and loyal. These managers easily fit into the leadership team and are generally liked by all. They go about their tasks faithfully and encourage colleagues and employees, especially when the workload is putting everyone under…
I am surprised at how many people hate feedback, whether it centres on performance, personality, character or behaviour issues. There seems to be a fear that the one giving the feedback does not have your best interests at heart and that the feedback will be detrimental, rather than uplifting, in terms of your growth and…
Periodically, as managers, we are faced with employee non-conformance operationally (for example: not observing safety rules, missing deadlines, negligence, inaccuracies, etc.) or in terms of behaviour (for example: arriving late repetitively, not behaving according to the company values, gossiping, treating a client with indifference, etc.). These performance issues need to be addressed, even if difficult…
In my travels to a variety of organisations, both locally and abroad, I have been amazed at how much training actually takes root amongst management and staff in spite of mitigating circumstances – almost as if people in general actually do want to grow and develop themselves to take on new tasks and become more…
One of the most frustrating problems we face in Africa is the lack of tangible investment or re-investment in infrastructure, particularly felt in the sub-standard network of roads and tracks that link its countries. In some countries, it is not uncommon to come across potholes the size of which could quite comfortably accommodate a fully-grown…
Charles (Chippy) Brand (civil engineer) bought a defunct little road-building business from his dad and moved back to a rented house in Carltonville, South Africa, to manage the company, C & J Reid. The company had few assets – antiquated steam-driven rollers, two motor graders which ran off power paraffin, a couple of ancient bulldozers…
I enjoyed playing golf in earlier years and attempted to swing the irons at least twice a month. On one such occasion, I played at a club in a mining area of South Africa, a picturesque layout with long fairways, surrounded by tall trees and occasionally bordered by large lakes. After completing about a third…
