I have sat through and given a few presentations in my time so based on my experience of sitting through a conference or two I have put together a few tips:

Preparing For The Event

• Read the proposed conference flyer and match your points to the theme.
• The flyers can help on the direction of the content – it is always a good idea to discuss the content further with the Conference Producer before you prepare ‘it’.
• Cicero over two thousand years ago said a good speaker learns fast and is knowledgeable and expert about the subject – know your subject in depth and provide evidence during your speech that you know what you are talking about.

Content

If you are speaking at a conference attracting senior-level decision-makers from across your sector ask yourself:

• What do they want to hear?
• What do you want to say?
• Where does the crossover lie?

Watch out! – Presentations from speakers who dwell too long on their basic company information are always seen as crude sales pitches – and people switch off.

Be aware of the format of your session

If you doing a presentation and you are using PowerPoint:

• Use a minimum font size of 18 – better 24+
• Allow around three minutes per slide (remember no death by PowerPoint!).
• The Rule of Five – ideally PowerPoint presentations should contain no more than 5 words per sentence and 5 lines per slide.
• Visuals are often a great way of illustrating your presentation but ‘Keep It Simple’ – too many charts overwhelm a presentation and cannot be read at the back of the conference room.
• Likewise, avoid over-use of PowerPoint special effects – or flash effects like zooming they distract from the presentation

If you are taking part in a panel discussion prepare:

• The Chair should contact you approximately 2 weeks in advance of the panel to set the agenda – schedule time to talk to her!
• You are likely to be asked to spend five minutes setting out your thoughts on the proposed topic.
• Prepare and memorise this five minute piece and think carefully about what you are going to say (Cicero also recommended memorising your speech).

Practice makes perfect

Rehearse your speech several times preferably in front of an audience who will not fall asleep and who are honest.

And on the day…

…start strong

It is often helpful to memorise the first minute or two of your speech to ease you into it – once you’ve started you’ll find it easier to keep going. Never apologise or spend too much time on inane pleasantries – get down to business. The first minute or two is about establishing the rapport with the audience and setting the degree to which they give you authority to speak.

Think about your body language

• Style and tone of voice account for 90 per cent of communication so adopt a relaxed, confident pose.
• Maintain eye contact with the audience – select one or two people from the audience to maintain contact but do not stare!
• If there are label mics available use them – no Al Jolson impressions and shout at them!

Timings

Watch your timing, never overun and finish a few minutes to ask for any questions

A core competency is a specific resource that an organisation sees as being central to the way it works.

A core competence fulfils three criteria:

1. It provides direct customer benefit
2. It is not easy for competitors to replicate
3. It can be leveraged widely to many products and markets (has scope).

A core competency can take various forms, including technical/subject matter know-how or a particular business process. It can also be the possession of a key resource such as close relationships with customers and other suppliers in the value chain. An important aspect of a core competence is its embedded nature in the organisation’s activities – true core competences are difficult to extract from an organisation in a simplistic way.

Core competencies are strengths relative to other organizations in the competitive environment that provides the fundamental basis of the added value the organisation provides. Core competences are usually to be found in the value added parts and processes of organisations and in the supporting infrastructure. Core competencies can be likened to the collective learning in organizations that takes place and involves how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies. Core competence in technology terms also accumulates over time and becomes embedded in the ways of working and practices of the everyday. In general few organisations are likely to build leadership in more than five or six fundamental competencies at any one time.

Clarify types of remote working:

• Home-based
• Satellite offices
• Mobile
• Client based
• Part or full-time remote.
• Professional or clerical staff

Are different issues.

Myth 1– employees can take care of themselves
Myth 2– trust and control are easy
Myth 3 – unless I can see them they are not working

Successful virtual/remote working requires radical new approaches to evaluating, educating, organizing and informing workers.

Staff worry – that they will be forgotten, that they will lose promotion prospects, that they will not be trusted, that people will think they are not working when they are. Evidence is, may be benefits to both organization and individual but there really can be isolation, reduction in promotion, tendency to overwork and reduction of intra-organization communication, identification and (potentially) commitment.

Remoteness does have implications, don’t assume you know how to manage. As employees move away from office managers need to change their managerial style. There is a risk that managers can slip into communication patterns that are totally task oriented and miss verbal cues that let them know that these patterns are demotivating the staff.

Three different styles may be appropriate in different circumstances:

• At hands reach
• Collaboration
• Relationship and trust

Issues include: trust, identification, socialization, control

Remote/virtual staff must clearly understand why they exist and be able to translate their purpose into actions. Research suggests greatest problem for staff and managers is still communication. Managers must become results oriented, shift from being a controller to a leader or coach. Need to develop specialised communication and planning skills, including the ability to communicate well electronically.

Managers and supervisors should:

• Establish a relationship based on mutual confidence and trust.
• Ensure well structured, relevant and regular communications.
• Be available for consultation and advice – set expectations for response times (same day preferable). 
• Ensure technology and support easily available
• Enable and encourage good communication with other workers
• Jointly establish precise goals and objectives (and ensure resources available)
• Evaluate and feedback on a regular basis
• Ensure staff participate in organizational activities and are kept informed – don’t assume they have seen the intranet notices.
• Make sure managers and employees are clear on performance objectives and measurement.
• Pay close attention to peer relationships, set up buddy systems and agreed forms and frequencies of communication.
• Plan to communicate by f2f as well as telephone.
• Set up socialization events and/or drop in facilities, ensure these are genuinely encouraged.
• Certain areas demand f2f – particularly appraisals, salary reviews.
• Don’t just e-mail – think before you send. Relevance and impact in particular – how will the other party respond to this? Do they need to know?
• Re- educate managers and employees for a virtual culture, when and how often to communicate, when to talk vs. type, what to say etc.
• Ensure staff are trained in time management and how to establish effective off-site/client-site office.
• Set up a knowledge management/repository so staff can find out who can help on different issues.
• Set up mentoring and coaching programmes for new or inexperienced personnel.

Practical guidelines on monitoring

• Communicate goals clearly
• Set priorities
• Assess on results (set project milestones, hold periodic reviews, establish check-in periods and frequent updates)
• Agree on results indicators and how to track these
• Make sure/check that communications are clear and understood
• Get regular feedback from employees co-workers and customers
• Collect specific examples of performance related actions and results to facilitate objective performance discussions.

And do this all with an air of trust and confidence its a  balancing act for sure!

Need to focus on key areas such as communication, trust and control and expand on these.
Perhaps need to assess current mindsets and explode the myths etc.
Start by asking what problems they have in managing remote staff (if they think they don’t have any, ways to explore?)

So communication…

Consider aspects of office that technology not (yet) replaced:

• Corporate culture and socialization opportunities
• Creation of loyalty and identification
• Unplanned and f2f communications – can give additional information and assess attitudes or concerns.
• Control by observation
• Access to additional materials
• Symbols of corporate structure and political workings

Topics that may need addressing include team leadership, work-life balance, orienting new employees to culture and managing performance.

The nature of the information needs to be changed, as well as the medium.

It is recommended that companies:

• Institute new information flows to replace current ways of communication.
• Ensure all understand the strengths and weaknesses of various technologies for communicating in specific circumstances – aim to make communication more rational and considered.
• Educate all employees on how to be more effective providers and consumers of information.

The business case for being positive about diversity at work is not just legal and financial; it is also closely linked to looking after your customers and your staff. Although many organisations are becoming more aware of the legal aspects of discrimination, a focus on the legislation will not change hearts and minds.

This article discusses what is meant by diversity, outlines the business case for taking a positive approach to diversity at work, and discusses the psychological underpinnings of related concepts such as stereotyping, prejudice and group membership. Most importantly it will highlight best practice for training and diversity awareness sessions, as recent research highlights that if not done correctly diversity training can actually make things worse.

What is diversity?

People vary in multiple ways, by age, personality, gender, ethnicity, religion, education, sexual orientation, morals, beliefs, hair colour, and shoe size, to name but a few! Sometimes these differences mean that some people are treated less favourably, or find things more difficult to do because of the way we create our environment to fit the ‘average’ person. Sometimes this makes people upset or angry, or they just ‘give-up’. Generally it can lead to misunderstandings and/or poor working relationships. Even if no harm was intended, in the wrong environment people can feel threatened and stressed if they perceive inequalities. It often means the organisation and the people in it are not working as effectively as they could.

The business case
Organisations in many parts of the world are beginning to take note of the benefits of a diverse and equal workforce. These include:

• Enhanced creativity
• Reduced employee stress
• Increased customer satisfaction (particularly where the customer profiles are matched with staff profiles)
• Reduced incidence of bullying or harassment
• Improved team-working

For many this has led to increased organisational performance and a reduction in problem behaviours, (some of which may result in legal claims).

Psychological underpinnings
A wide range of psychological processes underpin both the problems and the solutions to diversity in organisations.

These include:

• Group memberships – People have a strong need to feel part of the in-group. They like to identify with people who are similar to them and there is a strong drive to wish to differentiate from out-groups. This can lead to:
• Categorisation – lumping people together into groups because they seem to share characteristics. This process is very beneficial to us normally as it speeds up recognition, allowing us to see that a Poodle and a Great Dane are still examples of dogs for example (and therefore potentially dangerous if they bite). However as people are so complex this generalisation process is often misleading. It is linked to our need to use:
• Stereotyping – ideas are held about other people based solely on their membership of particular groups or their physical characteristics. Although useful when there is a need to make quick judgements (in evolutionary terms stereotyping has been helpful for our survival) they can be used unthinkingly to create prejudice and to justify discriminatory behaviour. Stereotyping can lead to prejudice – pre-judging people solely on the basis of some perceived difference.

Many of these processes are automatic, although in the right circumstances people can learn to reduce or control them. Understanding these processes, and why they are both useful and problematic, can also help us to understand which types of diversity training can be of most benefit.

Best practice for diversity training
Many organisations have started to include diversity awareness training as a standard; some are moving further forward into diversity management (which implies a step-change in systems and processes). However, some types of awareness training actually increase the processes of group membership and stereotyping, actually making the atmosphere at work worse! Groups can become defensive if made to feel responsible for inequalities and may increase their group cohesion by denigrating the out-group. Other activities have been known to increase anger, confusion, or to lead staff to deny that such situations exist in the workplace today.

The most successful interventions apply the concepts of social identity and enable re-categorisation (welcoming a broader membership into your in-group) and make salient the complexity of social identities. Such exercises have been shown to minimise bias and increase tolerance and positivity towards ‘out-groups’. Other successful interventions include simple stereotype activation sessions, where employees are then allowed to discuss why they were unable to consider non-stereotypical answers to scenarios. Examples of these include situations which can only be resolved by non-stereotypical gender roles, such as a female surgeon. Increasing awareness of our own cognitive biases and how the processes ‘work’ has been shown to increase participants’ motivation and willingness to change.

One important factor must be taken into account. Prejudice and discrimination are supported, or rejected, by organizational norms and values. Research indicates that people often become more prejudiced in public, because of the support they gain from others. Any diversity training must therefore start at the top and include everyone in the organisation, and systems and policies must be effective in demonstrating that the organisation is equal, open and fair.

Increasingly, HR Professionals are increasing their own knowledge of the psychological aspects of work, by studying advanced courses in occupational psychology or organizational behaviour. They wish to ensure that they fully understand the processes involved in their practice, and can ensure that any training and development, even if outsourced, is based on both theory and the latest evidence. Diversity is one of many areas in HR that can be more fully informed by considering psychological processes.

Benefits planning aims to deliver the benefits promised in the business case and ensures they are actually realised. Many projects although they complete successfully in project management terms fail to deliver any of the initial benefits that launched the initiative. I have seen countless examples of project teams and managers congratulating themselves with the success of the project, ‘how well it went’, ‘all the deliverables done’ and so forth – but with not one penny piece of value delivered for the organisation.

I have sat on project boards to go through the business case and been confronted many times with promises of 25% cost reductions or increased production that if taken in the round with all the other things on the go would mean we get a product that costs nothing to make and sell for millions by the millions – forgive me if I am cynical. The failure of many projects to actually deliver any benefit in real terms in part explains the reluctance to give the go-ahead for new projects. Senior management are getting (more cynical) about the benefits and are getting fed up with being confronted with yet another initiative that promises hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings, increased revenue or more customers for example but actually delivers nothing. We have low expectations from any activity and even of the ability of projects to pay for the outlay and our expectations are being met.

Cynicism borne of the experience of hundreds of pleadings from staffers that have come to naught and project’s launched that have promised benefits that in the end have failed to come up with the goods. Evidence show’s that the majority of projects (well over 60%) in such diverse areas as IT, Outsourcing and BPR fail to deliver any discernable improvement. I have found no Outsourcing project that has delivered anything of value – the only exception being when they closed half the department and we got half the service.

In projects I supervise I always fall back on the six faithful servants:

• What benefits are being suggested and what is the scale and scope being promised and does it look reasonable?
• Why do we need these benefits – what is the driver at this point in time?
• Where will the benefits be realised in what department specifically?
• When will the benefits be achieved? Remember back to the discounted cash flow exercises we did at business school – a benefit ten years away of four pence halfpenny is worth nothing.
• Who is responsible for achieving the benefits? What department and the manager by name? I also ask if she knows that she will be responsible for achieving these benefits.
• How will these benefits be released – what has to happen? For example if we have to cut staff this can take a lot of time and be difficult to achieve.

It should not be forgotten that the whole purpose of a project or initiative is to deliver something of value and if this does not occur then the project has failed completely. So now’s the time for a realistic appraisal of where we are. In any assessment of a business activity the expected outcome in terms of cash benefit forms the core of the go no-go decision. Managers must be more critical and evaluate for sure but just as important is to make sure a process is in place that will deliver the outcomes expected. It is simply not good enough to sit back and hope that a new IT system can bring in the money – it has to be planned for and people have to take on their responsibilities starting at the top – they are the ones who are in the end responsible for the money being delivered. I have put together an e-book explaining how to put together a benefits planning process that’s available to download for free on my forum – take a look at least we get some way along the road to delivering value for our organisations.

Free ebook on BizFace: Business Benefits Planning

Dismissing an employee can be difficult and has to be done carefully with consideration and following the rules. One can be very cavalier and not worry about the consequences but how this task is done is important not just for the person who will be leaving but for those who remain working for you. A poorly managed dismissal can break the trust and loyalty employees have for the organisation so its not just the employee going you have to worry about. Just as any management task it needs to be done well and although an emotionally charged job a competent manager can carry out this onerous duty whilst maintaining integrity and being seen as fair. Often managers who do this do not understand their own emotional responses and respond by being abrupt and aggressive – this is to be avoided. The process must be clear and legitimate and this will ensure that procedural justice is seen to be carried out and keeps focus on the issue of poor performance not on the people concerned.

Firstly you can dismiss an employee on one of the following grounds:

Conduct – including poor work related conduct with clients as well as you and the other staff

Capability – Insufficient qualification to do the job although this must be carefully managed and you must set down clear guidelines in a draft policy how this should be done (if you are in a sales environment for example its often best to set out performance criteria right at the start and monitor against them and discuss improvement objectives for example early on)

Legality – for example losing a driving licence if driving was a substantial element in the performance of the job

Redundancy – the work for which the person was employed has dried up or has been outsourced

Other substantial reasons – which is the catch-all for anything not covered by the above but is also a minefield as it has to be grounded in some substantive issue related to the job.

You cannot dismiss and employee of whatever service duration on any grounds of discrimination real or implied. If you feel that a dismissal is necessary follow a clear procedure to avoid any possible implications of a discriminatory nature. You should be aware that if you do not follow the correct procedure then in some countries you may put yourself liable for unfair dismissal proceedings which can leave you open to large amounts of compensation which in the case of a small business can be disastrous.

First rule of a disciplinary case is document everything in writing – even if you think it is an open and shut case it is good management practice to set things down so that if necessary these notes can be referred to should the need arise.

If an employee has been with you more than 12 months the following procedure would normally apply

The Seven Step Process:

1.0 Inform the person who is underperforming that you would like to have a meeting to discuss their performance as things are not going well (for example).
2.0 Tell the person the grounds for concern up front so they have had time to prepare – no ambushes and tell them they can be accompanied by a friend or union rep – if they chose bring along a relative make sure you are also supported just in case things get heated. You must tell the employee they have the right of appeal at any stage – if possible to another senior partner or independent person.
3.0 Hold the review meeting at your offices – reserve an office and ensure that all calls are held and you are not disturbed. Go through and explain the reasons for taking the action – state clearly that this meeting is about unacceptable performance and list out the issues. Allow the person their say – there will be defence obviously listen politely but be firm in your resolve. If this is a final meeting inform the person in clear terms that they are dismissed – leave no room for misunderstanding use a form of words like ‘ I have decided to terminate your employment’.
4.0 If this is not the final meeting in most cases it is advisable to agree a review period to give the person the opportunity to improve performance. Agree this review period and state what must be achieved by that time.
5.0 Document this meeting with the grounds and issues of concern and the agreed actions and send this in a letter to the person concerned copied to the HR department.
6.0 Hold the agreed follow-up review meeting and go through what has been achieved (or not) – hold the meeting even if performance has improved to your satisfaction and set down a new period of review to show the performance improvement is maintained.
7.0 Document this meeting in detail and copy to the HR Department to place outcome on file.

Common mistakes to be avoided.

* You need the document trail just in case you do end up in an unfair dismissal process – copy the documents to your advisor.
* A clear policy covering expected conduct, rules, dismissal procedures and performance requirements are a must no matter how small the company.
* Not applying the procedures to employees with less than one year’s service – they can suggest you fired them on unlawful grounds and claim compensation (you may have to settle because the cost of fighting it could be exorbitant when lawyers are involved! ).
* Failure to invite employees to disciplinary hearings in writing or supply adequate evidence before the disciplinary hearing – they are entitled to notice of the nature of the grievance in advance and a right of appeal
* Not appreciating the statutory requirement to proceed with each stage of the procedure without undue delay under UK law.
* Failure to appreciate that an employee may have right to appeal even if it is requested verbally rather than in writing and is after a timescale set down by the employer – not hearing grievances raised after termination of employment has occurred for example (be careful of this one if a letter is received even quite some time after the employee has left)

Of course there are circumstances where the above procedure can be truncated, for example in cases of gross misconduct but overall make sure you have a transparent procedure in place and you cannot go wrong.

Dismissing an employee is a task a manager will have to do at some time in her career and although a difficult and emotional time can be managed as long as a clear process is in place. It is very tempting to be bullish and ‘fire people’ as a sign of macho management but as well as holding the organisation potentially liable is poor practice and an indication of low management competence. Besides letting people go in a nonthreatening and honorable way, enabling them to leave with dignity, and allowing them to rationalize the process is good management style and a sign of stewardship for the people who work for you.

Royston

see more of my posts on the: BizFace Forum

Objective setting is a vital part of appraising and managing employees. Both managers and subordinates should be aware of what the objectives are for the current period as well as be working on new draft objectives for the next period prior to discussing them during a future appraisal meeting – where objectives for the forthcoming period can be documented and agreed.

How to set objectives:

A Manager will have her own set of business objectives and it is the responsibilities of staff to support her in achieving these. Staff should make sure that their manager communicates the objectives to the team and from this they should then be able to define their own goals contributing towards the overall team’s success.

The first task is to identify the results that you as a staffer are responsible for achieving rather than the actual work activity leading to those results. Where possible attempt to quantify or include a definite assessment point like a sign-off when successful completion occurs.

The following are examples of possible required results:

* Project delivered on or under time and within budget
* The delivered signed of business case of the project
* Reduced operating costs of the department
* New sales at the required margin
* Reduced call stack on the service desk
* Improved service levels
* Positive feedback from customers
* Increased profit margin
* Reduced expenses

Then you will need to consider the key elements which show how the objectives will be achieved and what changes in behaviour or action is needed to deliver them. Try to ensure that the objectives represent clear business related targets that contribute to your organization’s success. Wherever possible the objectives should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. Qualitative measures are also good and achievement can be confirmed from interviewing customers for example or by discussing performance with peers. The important point is to come up with an approach that enables in a clear way to demonstrate that you have by your action achieved the set goals.

Sample Business Objectives at staff level:

Ten new customers at an average contract value of will be signed in the next quarter
Sales of $100,000 of extra service revenue in the financial year from additional requirements
To reduce in the number of calls on the call queue outstanding by more than 5 days by 50% in three months.
To respond to a request for change within 5 working days from receipt of documented change note.
Increase the hit rate on customer enquiries to closed deal to 25% of all leads in one year.
To score ‘satisfied’ to ‘very satisfied’ in all post project assessments in the year.
To complete all invoicing to customers by 5 days after the month end close.

Royston