Greetings and welcome to Smart Report!
We take this opportunity to wish you and your team a happy and successful 2007 and trust that you will enjoy the articles selected for this edition of our newsletter.
Should you want to learn more about HRsmart South Africa and its on-line business solutions, please feel free to visit our web-site or email us on kgordon@hrsmartafrica.com
HRsmart South Africa |
- A complete talent management and technology solution - |
HRsmart Talent ACQUISITION Solutions are designed to energise and streamline the recruiting process and free up resources that can be better utilised on other initiatives.
At its heart is one of the globally leading applicant tracking solutions that has a proven track record of reducing time to hire by 66% and more. |
Leading from the middle
Major trends and challenges are requiring businesses to plan more strategically, react more expediently and focus on results.
Pressure is growing to change the rules for core administrative procedures, and perhaps the most challenging change is the struggle to create performance-oriented cultures.
Why are middle managers essential in successful, high performing organisations? Midlevel managers fulfill an essential role to meet the Human Resource challenge to have the right talent in the right place at the right time.
They provide the leadership to achieve these goals and grow the next generation of leaders by setting expectations and creating the environment and strategies for continuous learning through on-the-job experience.
Their knowledge of mission-critical occupations and competencies for both current and future work is also essential in developing strategies to identify, recruit and retain a high performing work force.
The effective manager establishes a performance culture, sets the standards that define high and low performance, and help individuals and teams stay focused on the critical goals and outcome measures.
Their constant feedback to both workers and senior management supports ongoing planning and measurement.
Leaders in performance-oriented organisations must continually seek feedback on company targets and strategies to assess progress and identify ways to improve performance.
Midlevel managers provide the links to solve problems, communicate ideas, set standards, build tools, develop talent, and form relationships with peers and stakeholders to make it happen.
Know your Netiquette
There are four ways, and only four ways in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.” (Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) American Educator)
You've got mail...
Bankers say “Dear Mr Jones.” Advertisers say “Hi there Sally.” Busy executives often say nothing at all, launching straight into the message.
It is here, in the message itself that things really start cooking.
The exclamation mark must be the most overused button on keyboards the world over. It is as if people just cannot stop themselves!
And once the first exclamation mark has entered the scene, a whole chorus line follows in hot pursuit!!
Soon it is like the measles!!! The tone of the message becomes frantic with excitement perpetuated by uncontrolled exclamation marks!!!!
Capitalisation! There are those among us who, either by design or by bad fortune, hit the caps lock button on their keyboards back in 1990 and still have not managed to undo the damage.
These messages, REGARDLESS OF THE WORDS USED, EXPRESS A TONE OF IMPOTENT NEAR-INCOHERENT RAGE!!!!!
The Abbreviators!! Not unlike The Terminator, ruthlessly mow down words in their prime, leaving behind only forlorn looking single characters. “How r u?” they enquire curtly.
To the uninitiated these messages are bewildering, to say the least.
Lastly, sign-off!!! “Sincerely” is often nothing of the sort and “Warm regards” sometimes deteriorate into a terse “Yours.”
This is when you know it is time to mend bridges with an expensive lunch. Really we do need to consider our closing statements, just to make sure that we say what we indeed mean to say.
In the politest possible way, of course.
Relationships, whether personal or business, are tricky enough to negotiate without the difficulties being compounded by gobbledygook in our email boxes. Let this be a collective New Year’s resolution:
We shall all take the time to think about what we want to say before going to the trouble of typing it out in full words and sentences. We shall not CC a soul who has not specifically asked for it.
We shall keep in mind that we are all grown-ups and that the earth will not fall off its axis if we do not “forward this email to 25 of our closest friends.”
We shall email with care and, who knows, the miracle of understanding might just occur.
“It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations,
promises are promises, but only performance is reality.” |