Leadership, Communication & Change

Leadership has as its corner stone, the ability to communicate.  When we use the  word communicate, we are referring not only to the words one uses to transfer  factual information to others, but also to other "messages" that are sent and  received.

What might these other messages be?  Related to change the leader sends a good  number of messages.  These are listed below.    

Front and Center - Leadership Critical To Managing Change

When change is imposed (as in downsizing scenarios), clearly the most important determinant of "getting through the swamp", is the ability of leadership to...well, lead. The literature on the subject indicates that the nature of the change is secondary to the perceptions that employees have regarding the ability, competence, and credibility of senior and middle management.

If you are to manage change effectively, you need to be aware that there are three distinct times zones where leadership is important. We can call these Preparing For the Journey, Slogging Through The Swamp, and After Arrival. We will look more carefully at each of these.

Effective organizational communication: a competitive advantage

Effective organizational communication, from an HR viewpoint, focuses on openness in communication between senior management and employees, resulting in improved employee engagement and productivity. In a cross-cultural environment, building and maintaining rapport for business relationships depends on the effective use of language and understanding differing communication styles. These and other aspects are discussed to bring awareness to opportunities to foster better communication at all levels of the organization.

Communication Assessment: Promising Practice For Meeting Management

by John Helie
We may never attain a participatory democracy and it may not be desirable to eliminate our system of representative governance, but we are moving toward engaging many more people on important issues. Town hall meetings are increasing, expanding and addressing more issues. (See "Listening to the City" below.)

Operations Management

Assembled by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD
Operations management focuses on carefully managing the processes to produce and distribute products and services. Usually, small businesses don't talk about "operations management", but they carry out the activities that management schools typically associate with the phrase "operations management." Major, overall activities often include product creation, development, production and distribution. (These activities are also associated with Product and Service Management. However product management is usually in regard to one or more closely related product -- that is, a product line.

Operations management is in regard to all operations within the organization.) Related activities include managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage, logistics and evaluations. A great deal of focus is on efficiency and effectiveness of processes. Therefore, operations management often includes substantial measurement and analysis of internal processes. Ultimately, the nature of how operations management is carried out in an organization depends very much on the nature of products or services in the organization, for example, retail, manufacturing, wholesale, etc. (http://managementhelp.org)


Management
Project Management Software
Business process management
Contract Management
Financial Management

Vision, Strategy, and Tactics

    * Vision: What you want the organization to be; your dream.
    * Strategy: What you are going to do to achieve your vision.
    * Tactics: How you will achieve your strategy and when.

Your vision is your dream of what you want the organization to be. Your strategy is the large-scale plan you will follow to make the dream happen. Your tactics are the specific actions you will take to follow the plan. Start with the vision and work down to the tactics as you plan for your organization.