'B' players - their role in the work place.

The obvious focus for your attention is on the top and bottom performers, but give some thought to those inbetween. USA Today reviews and discusses an article that appeared in last year's Harvard Business Review (June 2003), which seeks to demonstrate the value of the 'B' players . . . .
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What makes a great company? Get some inspiration from the Times 100 Best Companies to work for

Reading through the examples of why employees voted their company the best place to work, offers some inspiring and thought provoking ideas. Are you "inspiring" your workforce?
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Emotional Intelligence - latest buzzword or critical success factor?

To understand more about what Emotional Intelligence is really about we would suggest you get a copy of Daniel Goleman's Working with Emotional Intelligence. Alternatively, take a look at the paper attached below (a little heavy going in places, but still worth reading).

Problem Employees? So how do you motivate them?

I came across an interesting article by Nigel Nicholson with some good guidelines on how to deal with this topic. Attached is a review of the article including some of the pointers to how to deal with problem employees.

EU Consultation Directive, are you ready for it?

The Independent carried an article recently hi-lighting the benefits of employee consultation in light of the EU Consultation Directive, (use the attached link for more information http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/consultation/i_c_consdoc.pdf) which will come into force next March for those of you with 150 or more employees. Communication builds loyalty, morale, increases participation and gives employee a sense of value. All of which can improve productivity.

Now is the time to review how you communicate with your employees, to consider how the Consultation Directive is going to impact you and ensure you are in good shape well before March 2005.

Attached is a link to a US site which provides a some guidelines to consider when looking at your internal communication.
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Emotional Intelligence - how do you measure it?

Continuing the Emotional Intelligence theme, this month a link to an excellent archive Radio 4 programme discussing Emotional Intelligence and how you can measure it. The programme contains a couple of other interesting topics, but if you're limited for time skip through to the 15th minute where you will find the EI discussion.
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"Look dad, I am the boss. Do as you're told, please" (The Times, Nov 2004)

Changing demographics, extension of the retirement age, shortfall of pensions what does this mean to someone running a company?

Building a Company Vision - do you have one?

What is a company vision? Do your employees understand why your company has one and what it means to them?

A friend gave me a really useful HBR article by James Collins and Jerry Porras which gives great guidance in clarifying what a vision is, and more importantly isn't; what the difference is between a vision and a mission statement and how to get people to understand that there is something behind this corporate jargon.

I'd strongly recommend the paper to anyone who is wondering how to put together a vision/mission statement in a way to constructively add value and direction to their company. It provides a clear structure on how to formulate a mission statement and gives some good examples. At $7.00 for a pdf of the article, it's worth it. The link below takes you through to the HBR site where you can purchase the article.
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