Managing Teams

There are many environments (work and school) where you have to work on teams and with teams. What is the most frustration part of this? Getting people to agree and ensuring that they all are contributing to the final outcome is what people would say most. How do you best do this, get everyone on board and participating?

Let's see:

• The team leader tells people what they need to do
• Making everyone speak one at a time (making them speak? hhmm. can that really be done?)
• Leaving the one's who don't want to speak alone and move on without them (but do they still receive credit?)
• Letting everyone have the opportunity to make decisions, not just the team leader (delegation!! compromise!!)
• Brainstorming!!!!!

What else? There are so many ways to handle teams but depending on the team members the approach may be different. Also, you must focus on the approach to ensure the final product is accomplished properly.

Your thoughts?

Managing Your Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence? What is that? And why do I need to manage it?

Per Wikipedia, Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Why does this matter to you? In the workplace, if you don't know how to control your emotions, you can plainly, be fired! If you are offensive in tone, language, and expression concerning negative emotions, you could be creating a hostile work environment and definitely be seen as rude and unprofessional. Now do things anger us at work? Yes! Do you have the right to express how we feel? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the organization's take on emotional intelligence.

Bosses, coworkers, clients, partners, suppliers etc. all can put us in a bad space but if you know how to be in tune with your emotions and channel them properly, you will save your self a lot of heartache and keep your job. It is about being smart and not a hot head. It is about understanding yourself well enough to act accordingly to the unwritten rules of the workplace, any and every workplace. If you are great at this,  you can assist others who are not and save them the embarrassment and/or permanent dismal they will face from lashing out to others at work because their feelings are hurt or if they are being ignored or treated poorly. Yes, it is natural for us to want to express how we feel and put people in their place so they no longer treats us inappropriately but at what cost? How do you explain you were fired because you couldn't keep your cool?

Being more emotionally intelligent and you will prosper at work. So managing your emotional intelligence is paramount to your consistent financial survival or it can force you to quickly start your own business even if you never thought you wanted to do this. :-)

Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity is an essential thing to learning and growth for all organizations. However, depending on the diverse, or lack there of, structure of top leadership of organizations, diversity may not be seen as a big issue. As we look at employee frameworks of companies, especially those catering to diverse markets, some are great at ensuring proper representation while others are not. Those of the top echelon of firms tend to want to continue with the tradition of the similar-to-me perspective when hiring and will hire those that look like them (especially when their skills are the same to other diverse candidates; they will get that extra push due to racial and gender similarities).

In Caucasian top heavy companies, you will see more Caucasians employed. The same goes for African-American top heavy firms. Most of the employees will also be African-American. Sometimes companies look at the customers in which they serve and will determine who will be employed to make sure that there is proper understanding and engagement between employees and customers.

What is your opinion on diversity with employee structures and how should diversity be determined? Based on the similar-to-me affect or customer orientation? Or should diversity not be a concern and people only be hired base on qualifications (even when this will make an organization diverse in one racial or gender group than other)?

Manager vs Leader

Many ponder if there is a difference between a manager and a leader. Of course there is! But how does one truly know the difference? In the purpose of both individuals. Managers are focused on daily operations and functions and performance. Leaders look at using all tools, especially people, to move a company from point A to point B and elevating the people in the process. Managers are those working more closely with employees and clients to produce an immediate desired outcome. Leaders are those who look towards a vision and future intent and discover what needs to happen now so that that this vision can occur.

The best leaders are those who chose not to remove themselves from the understanding of daily operations but hold authority and power (these two are different too!) to make certain decisions to change the course of an organization. But again they look at not only transforming the company but transforming the employees along the way. After all, all leaders will soon retire and need someone to fill their shoes. Why not let that be someone they have groom to be an awesome leader too? So while these two terms are often times used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two. Understanding this difference will separate one from a person of just action to a person of continual success and heightened achievement on various levels.

Which type of business professional are you, a manager or a leader?

Managing Your Brand

Managing Your Brand...what does this really mean? Are you a product? Yes! Can you make yourself valuable to others? Yes! How do you go about doing this? Simple...making sure you understand what you have to offer, understand what a company or professional is looking for, and know how to give them exactly that!

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers." This same definition can be allocated to a person in relation to how they manage themselves. Managing yourself or your brand will govern opportunities that will present themselves to you. It all begins with your business knowledge and application of it, work experience, networking skills, professional document creation, and your overall appeal.

Remember hearing the term, you only get one chance to make a first impression? Let your brand make such a good impression on others. First, understand what it means to manage yourself as it relates to the career field your interested in and know exactly what you need to do to get what you want. It is that easy! Now start branding yourself!

Can you do this?