Posted by Dragan Donkov on April 29, 2009
If you are a manager you need to keep your team in shape every day.Especially today ours were the uncertainty is higher and people are afraid for tomorrow. Few stress relief activities will help and the team members will receive small prize for their efforts.
How to keep them motivated with no cost and waste of time?
- Make a stand up meeting every morning were team embers will update each other on their progress and development, will share problems and will ask for solutions. This meeting should be short and people must stay stand for better mobilization and energizer. Keep everything simple; set a standard for the presentations – for example 2 min each. It gives a very good boost for the day.
- Introduce Office Olympics were funny competitions will relief the stress. Think about games that will suit every member of the team and try to make everyone involved. Few ideas here and here
- Office quizzes- include information about the team members, hobbies, funny situations.
- Build traditions in the team – Wednesday snack out or Friday burger in the office, or poker night once a month.
- Sometimes piece of paper and couple of markers can make miracles. Ask your team during meetings to draw their vision for the company and how to improve the working process.
- Be creative.
For more team building exercises see here
Posted in Management, Teambuilding | Tagged: easy, exercises, games, low cost, stress, team, teambuilding | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dragan Donkov on April 11, 2009
Today is the day! After one year of hard work your performance will be measured and appraised.
It is always better to go prepared for the interview and with a clear structure in your hands to make the most of it.
Here are few things to do before the meeting:
- Think about the past period- spend at least 20 min to go month by month, project by project and put some notes on paper (some performance appraisal systems provide a dedicated form for that ).
- Outline what went well, what was not good, what you’re proud with and what need to be improved.
- The team – think about the team work and spirit, what was your contribution to the team.
- Planning – plan the next period, set your goals and think about what you want to reach and if you have any targets.
- Training – usually this is coming form the respective manager but I suggest you to go prepared with your training needs. They should be in line with your job and career plans and perspectives.
The performance appraisal is a dialogue and you may change some things during the interview. Most of the managers prefer to meet active and participating employees instead of passive and not involved.
At the end of the day your progression is important and you have to take care of it and this is the day were you have to state your vision.
Good luck!
Posted in Business, Management | Tagged: Motivation, Performance interview, team, training | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Dragan Donkov on April 10, 2009
These are 10 of the most popular ways to motivate your team. I’ve seen a company adopting them as part of their management system and actually educating and “forcing” their managers to use this rules and the environment was very nice and creative.
There is no guarantee that they work on 100% but even 75% are enough but don’t’ forget – KISS (keep is simple stupid). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Business, Management | Tagged: employees, Management, Motivation, team | Leave a Comment »
