Monday, May 12, 2008

Dr. Chris Bart on Managing People

We are embarking on an anonymous survey of our staff. We do this to get feedback and see if we are improving and what areas need more focus etc. I always get valuable information - especially from the comments. Will be interesting this year in light of all the changes that have happened and the tighter economy.

I read a book yesterday by Dr. Chris Bart called The Tale of two Employees & the person who wanted to lead them. It is written in story format which in this case makes it slightly more interesting. The book is a very short read (took less than an hour).

Since I am taking a course (on how to be a good corporate director) from Dr. Bart, I found it even more interesting since I could "hear" his voice in it. His favourite expression is "this is not rocket science". And if you read the book, you will think it is totally simple.

The story definitely tells how to drive a mission statement through a company (Chris Bart is a Mission Statement Guru). It also provides common sense coaching hints for any manager.

Summarizing the book on why people fail to follow through on acting on their company's Mission Statement:

Don't know WHAT to do.
Don't know WHY they should do it.
Don't know HOW to do it.
Don't know that they should CARE.
Don't GET IT. (these people need to move on)

And of course the book uses simple examples on how to get past these stumbling blocks. This is not rocket science but it works.

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