Organisational Coaching

How well do your staff understand the priorities of the work you give them?

The need to prioritize is often associated with junior managers. Especially those who are first learning to delegate.

Sports stars are encouraged to play to their strengths. Companies are similarly encouraged to "stick to their knitting" and focus on their "core competencies". We can mistakenly carry that advice over to managers and tell them as well to play to their strengths. Except with managers and business owners there is a trap - Our strengths become our weaknesses.

This story is an amalgam of three actual companies.

Joseph was a pretty good programmer. OK, let's be honest, he was brilliant. One of the best in the world. He loved getting behind the keyboard and cranking out code for clients or just his own enjoyment. Over time he built a reputation with corporates throughout Asia as the best for logistics and supply chain. His algorithms were innovative and gave corporations large savings in transportation and logistics costs.

I started my career in a small company. One of the many benefits of a small company is that there are only simple budgets to manage. When the company grew and later when I moved to an MNC the honeymoon was over and I had the painful comprehensive budget process to endure.

It was an exercise in futility as we tried to achieve simultaneously "you can't do that" and "you must do more". Most managers in large corporations share similar views. So you may be surprised when I advocate that all businesses should embrace the budget and the budget process.

Effective managers read. They read broadly and regularly. Here are some tips to guide your own reading.

1. Join a library

   If you are in Singapore, then you have no excuse. Singapore's public libraries are excellent, well stocked and easily accessible. You can go online to reserve items, you will be notified when they are ready for collection, and then collect from the closest library.

2. Read the books you want to read, not the ones you should read.

   The books you should read are still sitting on your shelf collecting dust.

What portion of your company's leave allocation is unused each year?

I'd be very surprised if you knew this figure. This is not a metric most executives carry in their heads. It leads to 2 other questions.

You inbox is a barometer of your decision making ability

Everytime someone sends you an email, you are being asked for a decision. Usually a small trivial decision. Occasionally a large and significant decision.

We have six, and only six options of how to handle an email.

Body Language: Your Reception Area

I enjoy company receptions. They reveal so much about a company. It's body language for companies. When you learn how to read a company's body language, and whole range of insights are available.

Company receptions in particular are now very revealing. In the good ole days, companies used to employ a receptionist to sit at the front desk, welcome visitors and answer the phones. No longer. That is a tough change for customers who now have to battle with voicemail, door bells and automated attendants.

A couple of weeks ago I was in court as a witness during a civil case. A friend and business associate became involved in an business arrangement that went sour. It ended up in court so you can guess that they didn't manage to find any easy resolution. As a business associate, I was able to give a valuable point of view.

The first lesson is a reminder to avoid court if at all possible. It is expensive and time consuming and a massive distraction from business.

This was my first experience in a Singapore Court.

What data can not tell you.

I don't have a GPS. Well strictly my phone has one and I did play with it for a while however I never got around to subscribing for the map updates and it remains one of my phone's many unused features. Instead Google maps is my friend. So when I'm meeting a new client, Google is open, the destination is found and the route is planned. I don't always estimate the travel time correctly however I rarely get lost.

So it's always been a source of wonder to me how someone can get lost with a GPS.

We often use 360 Assessments during our organisational coaching engagements. While organisations are considering these tools we often receive numerous questions about the 360 assessments and how they should be applied. To make life easier I pulled a number of the answers together into this article.