White Papers

The Importance of Managing Up

Management thinking has traditionally focused on the manager’s role in managing down. Far less time and attention have been given to how direct reports can (and should) “manage up.” Essentially, managing up means managing the relationship with your manager so that both of you can achieve your goals, as well as the organization’s. It is an active rather than passive process — you have to work at it. Being proactive epitomizes the concept.

Want to see the entire article? Download the PDF file here.

Coaching for Success

When coaching for success, here are some key points to remember:
  • Do the diagnostics – the homework!
  • Talk to the people – direct reports, peers, manager, and internal customers – and read the most recent 360.
  • What are the derailers? What actions, behaviors or attitudes are getting in the way of success?
  • read more…

Incentive Compensation in Unprecedented Times

Q: Is it possible that an incentive plan was good during robust economic times, but isn’t good when the economy is in serious recession, like now?

A: Yes. If the plan is inherently well designed, the big change that’s required is to reset performance objectives, particularly quantitative ones. These need to be realistic to avoid setting up employees for failure. Nothing is more demotivating than unattainable targets. The challenge is determining what’s realistic!

read more…

Strategic Planning, Starting with 360s

Following an eye-opening employee engagement survey and as part of an overall strategic planning exercise, the managing partner of a regional accounting firm engaged PSG to conduct a comprehensive series of integrated mini-projects. The first step was to conduct 360o reviews for all the partners. The goal – to identify the strengths and areas for improvement and then leverage the results into a stronger, more focused organization. This would reflect strengths, optimize the talents of both partners and staff and, at the same time, recognizing gaps and weakness.

Following the individual feedback and coaching to partners, we worked with the partners to develop the strategic plan, addressing the following key issues:

read more…

Asking the Hard Strategic Questions

In the last few months of 2009 an into early 2010, we worked with a giant in the entertainment and media world, grappling with the challenges brought on by the recession and a rapidly changing industry:

  • Advertising down across the board
  • Newspaper and magazine circulation in the doldrums
  • read more…

Conducting Effective 360 Reviews

The 360° Review, if managed properly, is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools for a manager’s professional development and for upgrading management practices in general. The question is how to establish credibility and trust in the process. Here are some tips based on our years of experience in successfully conducting 360s:

read more…

Integrating the Pieces – Starting with 360

The managing partner of a regional accounting firm has engaged us to conduct a comprehensive series of integrated mini-projects. The first step is to conduct 360o reviews for all the partners. The goal is to identify the strengths and areas for improvement of each individual and then leverage the results into a stronger, more focused organization that optimizes the talents of both partners and staff. Following the individual feedback and coaching to partners, we will:

read more…

Leveraging Employee Perceptions

We just completed our fifth annual employee survey for Toronto-based Spin Master Toys, an international toy manufacturer with offices in Hong Kong, China, Paris, London, Mexico City and Los Angeles. The multi-language survey was used to gather employee feedback on a wide range of topics, including job satisfaction, quality of the work environment, compensation and benefits and confidence in the leadership team. The survey breaks out responses by location, by function within location and by function across the entire organization. With input from PSG, Spin Master uses the results to shape its future HR plans and initiatives.

read more…

Managing Up and Employee Engagement

In our May newsletter, I mentioned that we were in the process of writing an article about the often neglected, yet important area of managing up. The article combines findings from our years of experience in coaching, training, 360s and employee engagement surveys, together with a survey recently conducted with a number of our clients. To view the shorter version titled “The Importance of Managing Up” and recently published by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), click here.

read more…