Archives 2022

I always make sure that in discussing the individual I find out specifics about how he or she does not best represent the corporate brand in terms of a professional presence. It’s important to understand specifics, not broad generalizations, and I’ve heard them all. Inappropriate dress and grooming essentials, poor table manners, ineffective email communication skills, a lack of rapport, deficient inter-office communications and platform skills, a lack of office etiquette – the list goes on and on.

Typically during the course of the conversation I find out that the employee in question is a highly valued employee and company asset. Of course they are! Otherwise why would a large organization seek out a consultant and coach for professional advice on how to deal with that employee’s personal image?

It’s never easy, of course. I often revert back to the many conversations I had with different levels of employees during my days as a senior executive with Macy’s. After each of those conversations I always felt relieved that the discussion was behind us so that I could begin to see how the employee was going to respond and work to solve the issue at hand. Now that I work as a consultant with organizations I am able to offer tips, advice, and my executive coaching skills -before, during, and after these conversations.

It’s always an eye-opener for the employee to hear this type of constructive feedback. But after our first session they realize how wonderful the organization was that it was willing to seek an image coach to give them the specific skills and tools they needed to enhance their image. I’ve never yet worked with a company that did not feel that a positive shift or change happened, once the individual understood how their image represented the organization and I had an opportunity to coach them to bring out their ultimate potential.

We have also found that these valued employees Jobs remain with the organization for a longer duration of employment and feel very positive about the organization and their workplace experience. They appreciate that their company enlisted an experienced outside consultant to help them polish their professional development skills.

Whenever society thinks of new technology, the first thing which comes to mind is usually a man; rarely do people ever think of a woman. This is no surprise because we live in a very male dominated society: people would not think women and technology would go as commonly together. The reality of this is that this is far from the truth. There happens to be many tech savvy women in the world today. When people think of women in the workforce, often they associate them with financial and medical fields, but there are many women in the technology fields as well. Not only that, but many people believe women do not understand technology; to support such a notion is ridiculous. Women and technology have been a combination for many years. So while women may still be a minority in the technology fields, it does not mean that we are not there.

Often in society, women and technology are usually only seen in terms of telecommunications: this in reality is far from the truth; while it is nice to be associated with medical and financial professions, it should be accepted that we have more technology based operations as well. There may be many women who are professional dancers, but there are also many women who work in technological fields as well. There are many female graphic designers, web developers and web programmers in the world. Slowly, as more and more women are becoming educated throughout the world, we gradual are seeing more and more female workers in the technological fields: perhaps someday there will be even more women than men in these fields.

Often I hear mean telling me that women and technology just don’t mix. They tell me how women are technologically inferior. In some cases this may be true: some women who were not raised around computers may not know all too much about them. The same however goes for men who were not raised around computers: they won’t know their ways around computers as well. Women who are exposed to technology at the same time, it is actually noticeable that women will learn and grasp the technology much quicker than the men will. Unfortunately, the society which we live in is like this today, women and technology together is not always seems as a good thing; in reality, this is must be changed to benefit everyone.

If you really think of it, women and technology go together like a vase and flowers. The way educational standards are going throughout the world, perhaps someday soon women will not only be seen as tech savvy, but they will be considered even more so than their male counterparts in the workforce and in everyday life. A lady can be sophisticated and tech savvy at the same time.

Living in a Garbage Dump

“It was during a sponsored rugby union visit to Cambodia that I saw children living in squalor on the Stung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Despite the terrible conditions these children were living in, they still had hope and happiness in their eyes,” says Greening.

Greening was inspired to get involved when he saw the difference sports could make to them. Two boys who had grown up on the dump, and had then been given assistance from a volunteer, were now representing Cambodia on the national rugby team. He quickly realised his expertise could go a long way towards helping these children.

Greening says, “In most cases, sport is last on the list in terms of a charity’s funding and objectives. Knowing that sports have excellent therapeutic value, I also believe that the ethics learnt on a sports field – responsibility, leadership, and teamwork – are transferable to any environment. We established this charity to provide an opportunity for children to gain some therapy through various sports, and gain self-confidence.”

Kick a Ball

Thus came about the Sporting Chance Foundation to improve the lives of underprivileged children – whether they’re inner city kids from London, or child prostitutes in Vietnam. As long as they want to kick a ball, the charity aims to always be there to kick it back. “Sporting Chance Foundation established itself by providing the necessities to make this transformation – food, shelter and clothing,” Greening explains, “and we have endeavoured to provide each child with a set of characteristics that will last them a lifetime.”

Jonny Wilkinson Steps Up

Calling upon high-profile friends, Greening gained support from sport and media personalities, including England rugby World Cup heroes Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Leonard, Joel Stransky, leading musician Heidi Range from the Sugababes, TV and radio presenter Dave Berry, and ESPN STAR Sports presenter Charlie Webster. Each has pledged to dedicate their time and expertise to ensure the charity reaches as many children as possible.

To maximise the impact of the Sporting Chance Foundation, Greening ensures that the charity works alongside existing non-government organisations (NGOs). The charity will help supply funding and sporting equipment to orphanages, and work directly with specific NGOs to improve the lives of the children in their programmes.

Greening says, “The charity presently works with three NGOs. Two are based in Phnom Penh and the third is an international charity, Touraid, based out of the UK. Touraid funds children from less developed countries to travel and play sport abroad. The alliance with Touraid gives children from Sporting Chance Foundation the opportunity to experience new regions of the world and learn about different cultures.”

Down in the Dumps

Funding from Sporting Chance not only supports their own projects; if they see an NGO with a suitable cause, they will also help. On a recent trip to Phnom Penh, Sporting Chance Foundation met up with two other NGOs: Friends and the Sunrise orphanage. Both had shelters set up to help the city’s street children. Friends, an inner city shelter, has been incredibly successful at taking boys and girls off the streets; however, the children had nowhere safe to run around. Sporting Chance Foundation proposed a sports hall and playground within the shelter’s walls.

Sunrise, based just outside the city, has a small soccer field, but the girls at the shelter have no sporting outlet. Sporting Chance Foundation drew up plans to build a multi-purpose playing surface for the children to enjoy tennis, badminton, volleyball and netball. This is just the start of their work in Phnom Penh; they will continue to look for more worthwhile projects in the city.

Developing Coaches

Presently, the foundation uses outside help with its construction projects and coaching, but its aim is to make the charity 100 percent self-sufficient. Greening’s goal is that children coached in his programmes will go on to be coaches for the next generation of young sportsmen and women.

Currently, Sporting Chance Foundation helps 2,000 children a day, ranging from infants with HIV to children orphaned by landmines, dysfunctional families or drug abuse. As funds increase, the charity hopes to sponsor children through the local public school. Ultimately it aims to establish its own centre in Phnom Penh near the school with dorms, a canteen, a sports field and sporting facilities.

Crisis in management education

There is no consistency today in the way we educate managers. Larger organizations tend to have more comprehensive programs. If we look at the business results of the past year it will show that these programs have not been very successful. In the US over 99.9% of all organizations have less than 500 workers. Many of these organizations have little to non-existent management education. There is a great opportunity now to improve. Most of the big companies use the traditional approach. Their managers are given a combination of classroom education, role plays, and outside experts with their theories. In many cases there is little follow up and measurement around the results of the education.

What does the BEST management education look like?

The BEST management education consists of a combination of classroom discussions and real life practice. While some background theory is important, it is better to have discussions around management practices and different approaches. The problem with traditional management education is that it is standardized and designed to fit all employees at once. For example, a new manager is having attendance issues with an employee. The traditional advice is to warn the employee that his behavior will lead to punishment if not corrected. Then managers are given exercises in class to try their skills at giving tough messages to make believe employees. Managers learn the right way and the wrong way and the training is complete. Unfortunately correcting human behavior is more complex.

Management is both an art and a science

Socrates had it right when he said asking questions was the best strategy to lead people to where you wanted them to go. Management education should be focused around discussing many possible solutions and strategies that might be different for each situation. Most HR policies tend to use the same rules for all people but people are different and have many different issues and managers must learn how to approach each person in a unique way. I had an employee once who was always late.

My peer manager suggested this person was lazy and I should punish him. I took a different approach. I sat down with this person and showed empathy. After asking many questions, I discovered this person was caring for ailing parents at home and his life was just overwhelming. We worked out a new schedule which allowed this person to come to work a little later in the morning. This gave him time to take care of his parents until a nurse arrived. As a result, his productivity soared and he was never absent again. Under a strict set of policies this person would never have been given a second chance.

Invest the time to educate mission, values AND behaviors

Did you ever notice families with well behaved children who just seemed to know what to do at all time? They were very independent and almost seemed too mature for their age? This was a result of good parenting which I suspect was a combination of paying a lot of attention to the goals of the family, values, and what was expected. At work adults are just like children but with bigger bodies. All adults require care, opportunities to thrive, and strong and open communications.

Empty organizational mission

Many organizations invest the time to place charts around the building describing what the organization stands for. Missing are the charts reflecting organizational values and expected behaviors. Best manager education invests time getting people to do more than just memorize the organizational mission. Best manager educational programs discuss why the organizational mission is important and what the organizations’ values are. For example, if the organization says serving the customer is the most important value, there are countless definitions and examples of what this means. Finally, people are clearly given examples of what behaviors are expected to support the mission and values. In the above example, people are told that they are expected to make decisions at the lowest possible level using creativity when solving customer problems. This BEST manager education makes work come alive for people.

Measure for development not for rewards and silly contests

The best way to destroy management education is to surround the activities with rewards and silly games. For example, I can remember one program which gave tests and the managers who scored the highest were given dinner coupons. I can remember another program which gave out candy and movie tickets in class for participation. The BEST management education activities are open to all employees and have follow up opportunities after class to manage!

Everyone can benefit from management education

Many organizations only offer their management education activities to their star performers, emerging leaders, and other equally silly and useless categories. First, the BEST system gives opportunities to all people to go through management education. The BEST management education figures out a way and then process to enable all people to manage right after the education. In some cases, people will directly lead others. In other cases, people will lead projects. For the majority of people they will be allowed to manage their own work free from micro-management, limited decision making ability, and free from the threat of punishment AND the promise of reward.

The BEST management education is a creative and inspiring process not an event. Just one look at the collapse of the US economy in 2009 is alarming enough to know that the past management practices at a global level have led us down a path of destruction and reduced quality of life. Now is the time for new management models and practices. It starts with new ways of education and what it means to be a BEST manager!

Blogging is known worldwide as the online version of diary writing. Currently, people are all over blogs either creating their own content or reading what others have to share. It has become a lengthier counterpart of social networking sites with bloggers sharing to their readers more of their thoughts and experiences in entire pages rather than sentence-long quips. For the most part since it is introduced into the online world, blogging is a personal and social activity.

Over the years, though, because of the popularity and good reputation that blogging has, the business industry has also began to acknowledge it as a great marketing tool. Aside from that, blogging has also created a way for aspiring entrepreneurs to get started with their own earning ventures. Now, people are beginning to learn how to make money off a blog and the entire online business industry has been nothing but supportive. Such developments therefore prompt the need for people to understand the basics of owning and maintaining a blog.

True, there are now several free blogging platforms that aspiring writers or business owners can just sign up for. But if the basics will be taken for granted, there may be inconsistencies with the business strategies that would be utilized. One of the basics that should be among the firsts to be learned is the definition of blog posts.

Blog posts refer to the content of a blogging site. They often come in the form of pure-text entries, mainly consisting of worded paragraphs discussing a particular topic. These texts are informal in nature, usually written in first- and second-person perspectives to better relate with the readers. Blog posts are also known to have a personal approach or touch to it. Meaning, the topics can be discussed based on first-hand experiences and even opinions.

As the Internet develops to be a more interactive field, several blogs have also evolved to match the need of readers for more visual and engaging content. Now, blog posts also come in multimedia forms. There are posts called “photo-essays” where no words are used to share a certain experience. Instead, photos after photos are posted-usually in chronological order-to tell a story. Or, videos can be made wherein the bloggers are considered to be speaking to their readers in general. There are even podcasts (recorded discussions that blog visitors can listen to) and music recordings that are posted to suit the needs of the target audience.

Basically, anything that bloggers create for publication in their site is considered a blog post. Aside from the content though, there are other parts or sections of blog posts that are just as important. One of these is the title, which is tagged as optional in most blogging platforms but is considered a must among bloggers and readers alike. The title practically has everything going for a blog. Readers are known to base their decision on whether to continue going through the content or not through the title.

The more engaging and interesting a title is, the higher the chances are of the entire post to be read. This is actually a great consideration for those who are learning how to make money off a blog. Posting dates are also important features of blog posts. Bloggers who are seen to be able to create content in a regular and frequent manner are considered of great value. The information they share are deemed timely and therefore relevant. The date of the blog post publication as opposed to the day when the actual event being discussed happened is just as essential. Definitely, readers would not appreciate being given information about a specific event months after it has occurred. Thus, being upto-date is very crucial.

Blog posts account for most of what is in a blog. As Internet users all know that content is essential in a blog, this is what they initially look for when they visit a particular blogging site. Therefore, capitalizing on blog posts is important. Bloggers cannot possibly just post whatever they want if they want their blog to earn a reputable stance in the online business industry. Ultimately, knowing how to make money off a blog will work only if things as basic as a blog post are understood well.