Management, Teamwork No comments yet

Tips for Building Teamwork in Your Organization

By on May 18th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

Building teamwork is one of the many responsibilities of any leader. From the CEO to the department manager, every employee in an organization plays an important role in its success or failure. Great leaders possess the ability to hire and develop the best talent, but their vision for the business can go unrealized if they are unable to assemble a group of people who can successfully work together.

Creating a congenial work environment where all employees feel valued and heard is a key aspect of building teamwork. Employees need to understand how their skills and roles fit into the bigger picture of the team as a whole, how their individual productivity affects team performance, and how the group’s collaborative team effort can achieve departmental and organizational goals.

Let’s take a closer look at what building teamwork means in the context of one-on-one interaction and group dynamics:

  • Understand goals: The mission, vision, purpose, and objectives must be crystal clear and the team must be committed to achieving them. Team clarity depends on adhering to goals, outcomes, and accountability.
  • Take risks: Taking risks is an important part of building teamwork and developing innovative solutions. Each member needs to feel comfortable within the team environment to communicate, advocate, and take action on positions that may be outside the status quo but can move the team closer to achieving its goals.
  • Honestly communicate: Communication must be authentic, open, and respectful where team members can freely and confidently express their opinions and potential solutions to problems, without feeling as if professional disagreements are personal attacks. Team members ask sincere questions and are invested in each other’s thoughts and actions because they will ultimately reflect on their own performance.
  • Promote inclusion: A strong sense of belonging to something larger than themselves is another key aspect of building teamwork. As they work closely together, employees are passionately committed to the group’s decisions and actions. Belonging is reinforced by team members taking the time to develop team norms together.
  • Recognize value: Team members are seen as unique people with important ideas, experiences, points of view, opinions, and knowledge to contribute to the success of the team. Differences are embraced as team members realize that performance improves when diverse points of view can be openly presented, supported, and acted upon.
  • Constantly examine: The team must continually examine itself to ensure the steady improvement of its practices, processes, and the interaction between team members. This focus enables team norms to be discussed and molded, and explores the best ways to move forward.
  • Resolve conflicts: Building teamwork also involves the team agreeing upon processes and procedures for diagnosing, analyzing, and resolving conflicts as they arise. Team cohesiveness does not support personality conflicts or petty disagreements that divert from the team’s purpose and goals.
  • Make smart decisions: A highly functioning team is able to quickly make intelligent, impactful decisions that benefit the team, the department, and the entire organization. Each member of the team has the support and commitment of the group to effectively act on the decisions that are made.

Whether you’re leading a small group or a large organization, successfully building teamwork requires the vision to set team members on the right path and then trusting in their abilities to work together to accomplish your goals. If you want to learn more about leadership and building teamwork, visit www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or call 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Leadership, Management No comments yet

How Leaders Impact Each Stage of Team Development

By on May 12th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

If you own a company or have a position that requires you to manage employees, you have undoubtedly pondered the ways in which a group of employees can be developed into a cohesive and productive team.

The dynamics of team building have been formally studied since the 1960s when Bruce Tuckman began researching the stages of development every team goes through along the way to effectively working together and producing high-quality results. Let’s take a closer look at each stage of team development and how you, as a manager, must lead if you expect to achieve success.

Stage 1:

Known as the “forming” stage, this stage of team development begins when the members of a team first meet. They share information about their backgrounds and interests and form their first impressions of each other. They learn about the project and begin to think about what their role may be to accomplish the project’s objectives.

  • The leader’s role in the first stage of team development: During this initial stage you need to establish yourself as the team leader and clearly communicate the goals of the project. Enable all employees to have input on their roles and responsibilities, and work closely with them to determine the easiest and most effective ways to work together.

Stage 2:

This is the “storming” stage of team development where team members compete for status and acceptance of their differing opinions regarding what needs to be done and how it should be done, which inevitably causes conflict.

  • The leader’s role in the second stage of team development: During this stage your guidance is critical in showing how the team can solve problems together, function both independently and as a cohesive group, and how their actions affect team unity. Some team members will require coaching to be more assertive or better listeners at this stage. You should start transitioning some decision-making to the team to promote independence while also being closely involved to quickly resolve disputes.

Stage 3:

Known as the “norming” stage of team development, the team begins to work more effectively together and is no longer focused on individual goals. Employees respect each other’s opinions and see that their differences actually benefit the team and its goals. They are able to begin to resolve conflicts on their own as they build trust, actively engage others for their opinions, work towards a common goal, and start to see significant progress in achieving that goal.

  • The leader’s role in the third stage of team development: During this stage you are less involved in problem-solving and decision-making as the team has better self-direction and can resolve conflicts on its own, but you are still available to ensure all team members are working collaboratively.

Stage 4:

In this “performing” stage of team development, the team is performing at a high level and members know each other well and rely on one another. The team is very motivated to achieve the project’s objectives, and is able to quickly and effectively make decisions and solve problems.

  • The leader’s role in the fourth stage of team development: You continue to monitor the progress of the team during this stage, celebrate milestones to promote camaraderie, and serve as the gateway when decisions need to be made between the team and higher levels of the organization.

Stage 5:

This is known as the “adjourning” stage of team development where the project is coming to an end, team members reflect on the project from both an individual and team perspective, and begin to focus on their next roles and responsibilities.

  • The leader’s role in the fifth stage of team development: During this stage you celebrate the success of the project or, if it was unsuccessful, evaluate the challenges and discuss lessons learned for future projects.

Every team will ultimately follow these stages of team development and, as team leader, it is your job to successfully guide each employee and the team as a whole to work together to achieve the common goal. Learn more about each stage of team development and get coaching to become a better leader by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Leadership, Management No comments yet

10 Leadership Styles in Management That Build Better Teams

By on May 12th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

Leadership doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all definition. There are many different leadership styles in management and each play an important role when it comes to building productive work teams. We can all identify leaders in our lives that stand out as visionaries, others as strategists, and still others as motivators or peacemakers. The list goes on and on. As is often the case in individual departments or in organizations as a whole, no single leader embodies all leadership styles in management and thus will always be more successful at building teams when surrounded by managers with different but just as effective leadership styles.

Let’s take a closer look at ten different styles of leadership within the framework of a single project to see what each leader brings to the table. The ten most common leadership styles in management that help build better teams and impact the success of a project are:

  • Visionaries: Visionary leaders see the big picture. They chart the path ahead and inspire others to follow their lead. But many visionaries don’t have the skill set to create the specific plan that will be required to achieve their vision.
  • Entrepreneurs: Individuals with entrepreneur leadership styles in management have the determination to give the project momentum and turn the visionary’s big idea into a reality. Entrepreneurs give the project focus and communicate how realizing that idea will benefit everyone involved.
  • Strategists: These types of leaders have the ability to break down the big picture into manageable tasks that can be divided amongst the different areas of expertise that exist throughout the organization.
  • Directional leaders: As critical decisions need to be made along the way, the directional leader determines with certainty whether and how best to grow or consolidate resources, and whether to keep going down the same path.
  • Team-makers: Employees with team-maker leadership styles in management understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team and have the ability to gather together a group of employees who, when their talents and skills are combined, move the project forward.
  • Monitors: These types of leaders keep the project on track by setting key milestones and ensuring everyone on the team is moving in the same direction and at the same pace.
  • Motivators: The motivator is skilled at energizing people. This type of leader has the complete trust of the team and sets goals, provides incentives, and rewards achievements along the way.
  • Shepherds: Shepherds have leadership styles in management that are concerned with the welfare of individual team members. They are keenly aware of morale and excel at one-on-one meetings with employees who may be disillusioned with the project or other leaders.
  • Re-engineering leaders: These types of leaders emerge when the project has veered off-track. They are adept at seeing exactly what has gone right, what has gone wrong, how teams can be rearranged, and how strategies can be revived to realize the vision and achieve the goals.
  • Bridge-builders: When re-engineers may have helped set forth a new vision, bridge-builders are quick and skilled at listening, negotiating, compromising, and generally understanding the disparate needs of different employees.

Each of these ten different leadership styles in management is integral in building a cohesive team to achieve the project’s goals and ultimately propel the organization forward. One of the keys to effective management is recognizing the strengths of employees and empowering them to implement their own leadership styles.

If your organization could benefit from executive leadership coaching or wants to learn more about leveraging different leadership styles in management, call 619.550.8052 or visit www.ThinkBlueThinking.com.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Communication, Leadership, Management No comments yet

The Importance of Effective Communication Skills for Managers

By on May 2nd, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

Effective communication skills are important for every employee in an organization, but they are especially critical for managers who want to improve employee productivity, performance, teamwork, and morale. To truly be effective, managers must master verbal, nonverbal, and written communication skills. Every interaction with an employee is an opportunity to make a positive impact on both a personal and professional level.

Effective communication skills are important for managers to be successful at:

  • Providing employee feedback: Managers are responsible for providing their employees with constructive feedback regarding their performance and behaviors. Good communications skills are so vital because the way a manager interacts with employees affects how well they receive feedback. The way managers say something is often just as important as what they say. Whether in a group or one-on-on situation, managers have the capability to either motive or alienate employees.
  • Resolving conflicts: It’s important to remember that listening is a key aspect of effective communication skills. Managers who listen give employees confidence in their leadership abilities, let them know their opinions are valuable, and enable them to freely discuss problems that are affecting both personal and team performance. Good communication skills help managers keep a pulse on the morale of their team so they can spot conflicts before they get out of hand and resolve them quickly and fairly as they arise.
  • Interdepartmental relationships: In addition to communicating with their subordinates, managers must also demonstrate finesse when exchanging information and ideas with other departments. Effective interdepartmental communication helps build trust and alliances so all areas of the organization can work together towards a common goal.
  • Team-building: Managers who build cohesive work teams leverage their communication skills to define employee roles, set rules and expectations, obtain team commitment to goals, empower employees to make their own decisions, encourage employee feedback, and ultimate enhance team unity, productivity, and morale.
  • Performance management: Effective communication skills are an essential component of a manager’s ability to improve employee performance. Managers who maintain candid and open communication lines with employees can establish the two-way dialogue that is crucial for performance appraisals to be meaningful and effective.

Managers must also remember that they are role models and that their employees will often seek to emulate their behavior. Employees observe their managers’ communications with other others and, ultimately, learn to use the same techniques in their professional relationships.

As managers seek to improve their employees’ communication skills, as well as their own, they must pay close attention to their verbal, nonverbal, and written interactions if they expect to build successful work teams.

Coaching can play a key role in helping managers develop these effective communication skills. If you or your company wants to learn more about executive coaching to improve communication throughout your organization, visit www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or call 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Communication, Leadership, Management No comments yet

Developing Leadership Competencies and Improving Communication

By on April 29th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

At the heart of leadership is the ability to influence, motivate, and inspire others through direct or indirect ways to achieve organizational goals. Leadership competencies for managers seeking to develop their teams include ensuring that the lines of communication stay open between themselves and their employees.

As companies face complex challenges in an ever-evolving marketplace, clear and effective communication has become more essential than ever. It’s not enough to have the latest product innovation. Organizations must first ensure that their greatest assets, their employees, are happy and driven to accomplish their goals. One of the worst fears is losing talented employees to competitors for any reason, but especially when it’s a basic internal issue of poor communication.

An extensive study of nearly 25,000 managers in 100 organizations spanning over thirty different industries revealed the top ten leadership competencies (in order of importance):

  1. Leading employees: Defined as delegating to employees effectively, broadening employee opportunities, acting with fairness toward direct reports, and hiring talented people for the team.
  2. Building relationships: Defined as knowing how to build and maintain working relationships with coworkers and being able to handle problems without alienating people.
  3. Risk-taking: Defined as seizing new opportunities, generating new ideas, and introducing and creating change in the face of opposition.
  4. Change management: A leadership competency defined as using effective strategies to facilitate organizational change initiatives and overcoming resistance to change.
  5. Influence: Defined as being good at inspiring and promoting a vision, and being able to persuade and motivate others.
  6. Communicating information: Defined as effectively communicating organization goals and being able to inspire through presentation of information (being articulate, being a good speaker, and having good writing skills).
  7. Brings out the best in people: Defined as displaying a talent with employees that is evident in his or her ability to pull people together into highly effective teams.
  8. Making decisions: A leadership competency defined as being action-oriented, decisive, and following through.
  9. Listening: Defined as being a willing and patient listener and being open to feedback.
  10. Flexibility: Defined as seriously evaluating other ideas, sharing responsibility, collaborating with others, accepting criticism well, and not assuming a single best way.

All of these leadership competencies can be summarized by the effective use of one constant characteristic: communication. To ensure good communication, managers need to not only encourage their employees to speak freely; they must insist it! The best managers clarify and verify. They make sure what they say is truly heard, what they hear is truly said, and how both individual and team concerns can be used to achieve the greater goal.

Managers must be as progressive and proactive as the organizations they serve by:

  • Paying close attention to both verbal and non-verbal communication. They must be willing to hear honest feedback and be in tune with the not-so-subtle, non-verbal communication of expressions, distance, and body language.
  • Sharing their knowledge and empowering employees to tackle challenges and resolve their own conflicts.
  • Having group training sessions and one-on-one coaching sessions. These are highly effective leadership competencies for developing a more intelligent team, increasing team unity, and improving individual self-esteem.
  • Demanding responsibility and accountability. Confidence in employees breeds better productivity, and regular performance reviews always improve communication.

Talented employees perform for their companies when managers genuinely invest the time in their development. And with competition higher than ever, productivity and accountability are critical in every organization.

Companies who want to develop leadership competencies and improve communication can’t afford to waste time. They can start today by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Communication, Leadership, Management No comments yet

Improve Team Time Management Skills to Boost Productivity

By on April 20th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

Team time management is an often overlooked but critical aspect of creating highly productive departments. As a manager, one of your many responsibilities is to ensure that everyone’s time is used to the best advantage of the team. This includes the most effective use of your own time as well. How many hours each week do you allocate to strategic planning, one-on-one feedback sessions, and group meetings?

Meetings are a great place to start improving your team time management. In survey after survey, employees agree that having too many meetings is the number one biggest time waster in their departments. Poorly run meetings involving the wrong people and having little or no accountability are also common complaints.

You can help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your team meetings by making a few small and easy changes. Whether they express it directly or not, your employees will thank you for taking the time to consider the best way to spend their time. You can start improving team meetings by preparing and publishing an agenda, restricting agenda items to fit the time available for discussion, and ensuring your meetings follow the set agenda. Knowing the agenda ahead of time helps ensure only the right participants attend and that they are adequately prepared.

When trying to improve team time management, it’s also important to remember that good meetings don’t just have to happen in the conference room. You may be surprised by how much camaraderie, great ideas, and leadership emerge by scheduling a lunch meeting with the entire team offsite, or even meeting for coffee before or after work for a one-on-one performance evaluation. They may never mention its importance to you directly, but rest assured that these personalized meetings have a huge impact on the morale of your employees and their confidence in you and your leadership.

Above all, your employees want you to give them the freedom to do their jobs. Many managers make the mistake of hovering over their employees and getting involved with the ways in which they do their jobs. If you’ve hired the right employees, you should count on them to deliver on your objectives. Your team will reward you with improved productivity, creativity, and performance.

As you consider the most effective team time management strategies, make sure that your leadership encourages a free expression of ideas and the knowledge that all viewpoints are valuable. You may never know how much the shyest employee has to offer unless you regularly seek honest and open feedback. And don’t forget to eliminate those wasteful meetings!

As a leader, you know effective team time management doesn’t happen overnight. Training is available from the San Diego business coaching experts at www.ThinkBlueThinking.com.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Communication, Leadership, Management No comments yet

Understand Different Communication Styles to Manage Teams More Effectively

By on April 7th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

Managers who understand the different communication styles of their employees and learn to adapt to their own communications accordingly are more effective leaders. This is called versatility, and it is one of the most important skills managers must have to get the most out of their employees.

Studies have shown that people are divided equally across four primary communication styles:

  • Driver: This communication style is characterized by being action and goal-oriented, independent, decisive, practical, disciplined, and efficient, and needing to see results quickly.
  • Expressive: People with an expressive communication style enjoy excitement and interpersonal action, and are typically very sociable, enthusiastic, stimulating, and good at motivating others. They are idea-oriented, avoid routines, and react quickly in most situations.
  • Amiable: The amiable communication style is characterized by valuing cooperation, acceptance, and personal security. Amiable people try to avoid conflict at all costs, desire approval from other team members, and prefer to work with others in a team effort instead of individually.
  • Analytical: Employees with this communication style are concerned with being organized and having all the facts before taking careful action. They are orderly, precise, and methodical, and generally conform to an organization’s standard operating procedures.

Since each of these different communication styles represents about 25 percent of all people, managers only share a communication style with about one-fourth of their employees. This presents an obvious management challenge because successful manager must effectively communicate with the other three-fourths of their team. They must be versatile and truly understand the personalities and motivations of their employees.

Considering the differences in communication styles, it’s no surprise that employees with different social styles describe the characteristics of an ideal manager in very different ways. Drivers want managers to be sincere and direct; Expressives desire a manager that is open in communication, friendly, empathetic, and trusting; Amiables function best when a manager shows confidence in employees and is honest and trustworthy; and Analyticals want managers to be knowledgeable and openly share information.

Managers need to be acutely aware of their own behavioral tendencies, their approach to employee interaction, and the expectations of different employees. Being versatile and understanding the needs and communication style of each employee is critical in three primary situations:

  • Conflict: Knowledge of different communication styles is very useful in addressing conflict situations because it helps people focus less on emotions and more on the resolution of the conflict, as well as identify the key differences at the root of the conflict.
  • Performance reviews: Understanding communication styles is also important for ensuring productive one-on-one employee performance reviews. Approaching the appraisal with knowledge of a specific employees’ communication style can help put them at ease and make them more receptive to feedback on their performance.
  • Goal-setting: Gaining employee buy-in when setting the direction for a company or department is critical to achieving goals. Knowledge of different communication styles can help managers focus on the interests that are important to different employees, showing how each of them will benefit from the course of action.

Many studies have shown that the most common reason employees leave a company is a poor relationship with their manager. Turnover, performance, productivity, and employee satisfaction can all be improved when managers take the time to learn their employees’ different communication styles. They can build better, happier teams that work closely together to achieve a common goal.

Learn more about communication styles and how understanding them can improve relationships with employees by visiting the business coaching experts at www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Leadership, Management No comments yet

10 Tips for Building Work Teams

By on April 7th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

As a manager, you face a multitude of challenges every day. As important as your own talents and responsibilities are to a company, the ability to build a cohesive team is critical to its ongoing success. Unfortunately, great teams do not magically appear out of thin air. Building work teams takes a special kind of leader and a daily dedication to the process.

Here are ten factors that differentiate bosses from effective leaders and team-builders:

  1. Defining roles: One of the first tasks when building work teams is to meet with every employee to discuss how his or her role specifically affects the ability of the department to achieve its immediate goals and the organization to realize its long-term objectives.
  1. Setting rules: In addition to defining employee roles, some common ground rules must be set as well. These fall into two main categories: task-oriented rules (how the workload is shared and how goals are measured) and relational rules (personal behavior, communication, collaboration, compromising, etc.).
  1. Setting expectations: Your team also looks to you to communicate expectations for their individual and team performance. Make sure they understand why the team was created and how specific goals are connected to timeframes.
  1. Obtaining organizational commitment: Building work teams requires the organization’s recognition that team-based, collaborative, empowered departments are catalysts for real change. The hierarchical, top-down management approach should be a thing of the past that is replaced with innovative management that rewards creative thinking and unique solutions.
  1. Obtaining team commitment: The company’s commitment should be followed by your team committing to accomplishing the mission and expected outcomes. Your attitude is critical to employee buy-in which, in turn, affects morale. Employees need to be challenged and excited by the team’s opportunity to achieve an objective.
  1. Empowering employees: When you’re building work teams it’s important to show confidence in your employees by empowering them to make their own decisions, while also communicating the limitations of your monetary and time resources.
  1. Improving communication: Team members should understand the priority of their tasks, and must let other members of the team know the status of these tasks. Hold regular meetings to assess progress, but only when they are necessary to avoid wasting critical time.
  1. Encouraging feedback: You may be surprised by how well your team performs and works together by having both a casual and formal evaluation process. Keeping an open-door policy prevents conflicts before they get out of hand, and formal evaluations let team members know how well they are fulfilling their roles, how their actions are affecting the team’s goals, and how they are being compensated for their performance.
  1. Resolving conflicts: Conflicts are natural, even with clearly defined ground rules and goals. Building work teams and being an effective leader requires you to keep a pulse on the morale of the department, paying attention to emerging problems in team meetings, and proactively addressing conflicts as they arise. Remember that resolving conflicts starts with careful planning and mutual respect.
  1. Maintaining a leadership role: While you need to let employees know you are part of the team, you must also make your “ownership” of the team clear as well. Every team needs a leader to make the tough decisions on the best way to move forward.

Building work teams takes time but when it finally gels you may be surprised by how much cohesive teams can accomplish. Learn more about building better teams and strategies for effective management by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Management No comments yet

10 Qualities of Successful General Managers

By on March 25th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

General managers play an important role within an organization. Whereas a manager is typically responsible for one department, the general manager typically leads the strategic planning and direction of a company. It’s a critical role and one that requires a person with exceptional qualities. Here are ten of the qualities that all successful general managers share:

  1. Optimism: A positive attitude is infectious in the same way that negativity can be contagious. Approaching each day, each employee, each challenge, and each project with optimism communicates a sense of confidence and dependability. Genuine optimism boosts morale and naturally leads to happier employees, increased productivity, lower turnover rates, a better product, and more satisfied customers.
  2. Creativity: It is the indefinable quality of successful general managers and the spark that ignites their employees to do great things. Approaching business challenges in new and creative ways can lead to unimagined results that propel the company forward.
  3. Conflict-resolution skills: As important as it is for general managers to be seen as part of the team, employees also look to them to resolve disputes quickly and fairly. An effective general manager can spot conflicts before they get out of hand and have the ability to resolve unforeseen conflicts as they arise.
  4. Curiosity: Having a natural curiosity is another important quality of successful general managers. In addition to acquiring as much knowledge as possible about their industry and products/services, they ask their employees a lot of questions to see what makes them tick and how they can be better managers.
  5. Action-oriented: Successful general managers think and react quickly to situations in the workplace. Being flexible and inclusive in decision-making demonstrates a respect for all opinions and decisive action inspires employees to get behind the desired goal.
  6. Ability to remain calm: General managers face many different challenges and decisions on a daily basis. One of the fastest ways to lose the confidence and respect of employees is to have a quick temper and to make rash decisions without having all of the facts. Subordinates need to believe their leader has a plan—even in the direst of circumstances.
  7. Ability to coach: The most successful general managers are also good coaches. They recognize and reinforce the talents of employees and, at the same time, observe areas of improvement which can be addressed in both informal and formal coaching sessions.
  8. Listening skills:  The importance of truly listening to employees is often overlooked. Being a good listener means taking the time to give employees their full attention, communicating their understanding of the situation and/or their needs, offering a possible solution, and encouraging continuous feedback.
  9. Communication skills: Successful general managers have to wear many hats and effectively communicate with people in all areas of the organization, from their direct subordinates and bosses to front-line employees and clients.
  10. Sense of humor: You can’t underestimate the importance of levity in the workplace. A good boss who is able to joke around with employees and generally create a fun atmosphere will help reduce stress, improve morale, and boost productivity.

While some qualities of successful general managers come naturally, many are learned and perfected through executive coaching. See what a professional business consulting firm can do for you and your business by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Conflict Management No comments yet

Conflict Resolution Management Companies Mediate Disputes to Achieve Business Goals

By on March 25th, 2012

By Bruno Raynal, Blue Thinking

One of the key roles of a conflict resolution management company is to act as a mediator in business disputes. Mediation helps businesses face challenges that threaten everything from jobs to revenues to the sustainability of businesses themselves, with objectives of improving performance and minimizing conflict.

Becoming an effective mediator takes time and requires specific skills. A mediator must be trusted as an objective third-party who commands respectability and credibility, and oversees a mediation process that enables both sides to feel that they are victorious while also accepting compromises.

The goals of the conflict resolution management company are to provide a neutral, objective, and safe place where both sides can constructively participate in resolutions; to open the free flow of communication and encourage creative problem solving ideas; to be the trusted liaison for both parties in settling the problem; and to provide strategic guidance and honest feedback that leads to an amicable solution.

It’s important to keep in mind that the mediator’s goals are only attainable if the members within each team share a common vision, are committed to the same objectives, and understand their roles in achieving those objectives. After all, how can mediation work between two groups if each group is already divided from within? So before even beginning a mediation session, the conflict resolution management company must meet with each group separately to ensure each is focused on cooperation and teamwork. Every team member must express a willingness to:

  • Share information to keep everyone in the loop and up-to-date with current, evolving issues
  • Communicate expectations about one another
  • Empower each other by publicly recognizing that every member’s ideas contribute to the success of the team
  • Promote positive morale and protect the team’s reputation with outsiders
  • Quickly and effectively resolve conflicts by openly sharing differences of opinion to arrive at a consensus that results in a united front

Once the teams are united from within, it’s time for the conflict resolution management company to begin the mediation process, which can be defined in three phases:

  • Phase One: Establishing credibility. The conflict resolution management company plays a passive role in this first phase, establishing the primary and secondary points of contention. Its main goal is to gain the trust of the conflicting groups. Each must be confident that the mediator is looking out for their best interests, does not have a stake in the outcome, and is only present to assist with a fair resolution. The mediator should focus on listening in this phase, leaving most of the talking to the disputing groups. When appropriate, the mediator should interject probing questions to identify the root causes of the dispute, the obstacles that exist, and a prioritized checklist of all of the issues that need to be addressed. At this point, it should be possible to begin genuine negotiations.
  • Phase Two: Guiding the negotiation process. The conflict resolution management company is still impartial in this phase, but begins to take a more active role by directing the negotiations. It delves deeper into the source of the contention, offers advice to both sides, and discovers areas in which compromises can be reached. The mediator encourages each group to develop and communicate proposals and counter-proposals, and may begin to exert pressure for both sides to agree to a settlement.
  • Phase Three: Producing a final, mutually agreed-upon settlement. In the last phase the conflict resolution management company may have bilateral discussions with individuals to help draft proposals for consideration by both groups. The mediator may then assist with crafting the terms and conditions of the final agreement.

When a company arrives at an impasse, whether within its own walls or with another business, hiring an experienced conflict resolution management company can turn a seemingly untenable situation into a resolution that gives both sides more of what they desire.

Learn more about mediation and resolving business conflicts by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.

Bruno Raynal is the president and CEO of Blue Thinking, a business consulting firm based in San Diego, California. Bruno works with top level senior management to enhance their awareness of modern business practices and patterns so they can make informed choices, take the right action, and achieve their vision and goals. Learn more about Blue Thinking by visiting www.ThinkBlueThinking.com or calling 619.550.8052.