Frontline Managers form the Leadership periphery of the organization and are always called upon to lead teams to success. Their designations vary and may include area managers, store managers, site supervisors, line-leaders, departmental heads, etc. Whatever the title or designation may be, Frontline Managers direct almost two-thirds of the workforce responsible for production, sales and […]
Category: LEADERSHIP
Talent Management in the GCC
Having lived through the era when HR was still personnel, a minor division of the accounts department, and seen the huge changes in technology and attitudes in HR since the 70’s, I find myself struggling with the realities of Talent Management in the Middle East. Let me say that I am huge fan of personal […]
The Process of Change
Changing a person is a long process, but it pays off well if you are patient enough, or you are working as a trainer. Today, I was conducting an interview for a new trainer to join the training team, which is a normal part of my job. The young man had a modest experience in […]
Managing the ‘Unmanageable’
If you were under the impression that managing people is one of the easy parts of your job, you are totally mistaken. In real life, not everyone is dedicated, hard working, consistent in development, and not everyone exhibits immense talent. Surveys have revealed that these type of people are found in abundance in offices across […]
Effective Stakeholder Management
One of the key areas of management for any manager, be it functional or project manager, is stakeholder management. The rationale for mentioning only functional and project manager is the fact that all that a business or an organization does could be classified into operations (or business-as-usual) and projects (agents for incorporating change or transformation). […]
Culture – Reality or Excuse?
If Culture (with a capital C, to differentiate it from the culture – lower-case c – of any organization) is the framework that describes a person’s fundamental beliefs, then it must be real. However, if Culture is variable, can it be anything other than an excuse for a person’s actions? We know that an organization […]
Management Consultants and Change Management
Working as a management consultant is not only about applying standards and implementing frameworks, it is mainly about change management. I will tell you why. When a consultant applies standards for whatever the reason was, he/she changes the status quo of this specific organization, hence changing the current situation. That means going through a challenge, […]
Reward and Recognition Go Together Most Of The Time. But What Are The Differences?
“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” – Ronald Reagan Employees want to be recognized for their hard work and rewarded for it. In some ways it seems elementary to need a medal, but the truth is, we never outgrow wanting and needing […]
Critical Skills for Managers
A key element of business strategy is the recognition that managers frequently represent the most critical component to successful business operations. In my “Contemporary People Management” MBA course, I frequently emphasize the fact that managers today have much greater responsibilities and expectations than their counterparts of years ago. Their jobs are no longer limited to […]
Recognizing Trust Traps at the Workplace
As leaders and managers, all of us have dealt with issues of trust at work at some point in our careers – be it with our teams, our peers, the management, customers etc. Anybody who has worked in the corporate world will vouch for the fact that organizations that have a high ‘trust quotient’ in […]