Business Management Life

I suspect that many of you will join me in watching the BBC series The Apprentice in a mixture of astonishment, awe and horror. The basic premise of a group of would-be leaders competing each week on different task to demonstrate their skills seems a sound one. The fact that they have given up jobs to be there and that Alan Sugar makes the decision could be seen to be a combination of confidence and risk taking. What though does the programme say about effective leadership?

If you review the behaviours demonstrated each week you may conclude that a leader
- Is the dominant member of a team and uses directive behaviours to get their way
- Is astute at team ” politics ” and ensuring others get they blame
- Is talkative (beyond belief) and unaware of what ears are for!

Alan Sugars Boardroom behaviours - being positive - could be said to be decisive, clear and emotional. Or simply idiosyncratic.

Let’s compare this to other views of Leadership. According to Bolden and Gosling (2003) some of the key qualities of Leadership are
- Integrity and moral courage
- Self-awareness and humility
- Empathy and emotional engagement
- Transparency and openness
- Clarity of vision

I believe (based on over twenty years of experience) that leadership comes from within us and is concerned with releasing the energy of the team. High performance leadership involves engaging mentally, emotionally and spiritually with your team. Focussed high energy leads to action and results.

So does The Apprentice showcase exemplary leadership behaviour or is it a soap opera?
In my view
- let’s remember the context - it is a TV show ( involving entertainment and editing )
- it is highly competitive - in the end there will be only one !
And to quote Kellerman (2004) “Leaders are like the rest Read the rest of this post »

What is the most important aspect of quality system management?

Some might say that strategic implementations, or policies are the most important aspects of quality system management but they’re very likely wrong-notably wrong.

A Variety of Options
For most life science companies, maintaining a quality system has become a way of life. However, it probably isn’t these companies’ quality systems that keep their products and services afloat.

Yes, the manner in which a quality system is designed is duly important but the reality of the situation is that many quality system designs can work equally well in the same (or similar) environments. For example, one life science company may implement a well-known and highly recommended quality system design (ISO 9001 for example) and find great success while another very similar company may implement the same system and fail miserably.

What’s the difference?

It’s probably training.

Quality System Training
The ability to get company employees to “buy into” a quality system is likely to make a big difference in a “pass or fail” quality system trial even, when a well known quality system design has been implemented. Whether it is change control, CAPA management, internal audits, customer complaints management, document control or deviations management, every company employee needs to know the following regarding his or her company’s quality system:

1. What the quality system policies are (at least those that will directly or indirectly affect him or her);
2. What the company’s objectives are in relation to the quality system policies, especially those objectives which the employee may be contributing to directly or indirectly;
3. What the company’s plans are to achieve those objective Read the rest of this post »

Business Managers promoting good health?

Business managers already know that by preventing or reducing and managing stress they increase worker production as well as worker satisfaction. But did you know that is so doing you also head off the number one trigger for clinical depression?

Dr. Maletic, a researcher in the physiology of brain function recently reported on the significant study underway at Duke University. This research project has identified a number of genes in the brain that, when damaged, set the person up for depression. Of special interest to business managers is the additional finding that just because the genes in question are vulnerable that does not mean the person will become depressed. It appears that it is only with the right degree of environmental triggers that a person will become depressed. The number one environmental trigger? Stress!

What are the three top symptoms of depression? They are trouble sleeping, loss of appetite and low energy. So: by reducing stress in the workplace the manager heads off having depressed employees who are tired and low on energy. And if that isn’t enough good news, here is more. Persons who experience increased occurrences of depression are 50% more likely to have heart trouble and diabetes, so when you manage stress in the workplace you are helping to prevent two of the nation’s top health problems! Make that three of the nation’s top health problems: stress promotes cancer!

There are other ways of contributing to good health and preventing health problems in the workplace, and they, too, fall within the scope of good management. These include the everyday common sense management of environmental factors. Clean eating areas and clean bathrooms, clean floors and hygienic workplaces are important to good health. Clean air and no drafts are others. Encouraging everyone t Read the rest of this post »