Category: Management Strategy

4 Ways to Revolutionize Risk Management

Management Strategy

In an uncertain climate where risk is rife, the call for a more holistic approach to risk management has never been greater.

Despite new risks having emerged amid the volatile global environment, existing risks such as cybercrime and climate change haven’t gone away. Compounding this are new regulations on the horizon, such as those recommended in the Brydon Review in the U.K., where it’s likely we’ll see increased scrutiny over risk management, compliance and internal controls in the coming months.

The rapid pace of change in the past year has undoubtedly created significant short-term challenges for organizations worldwide, but only now are the long-term consequences beginning to manifest themselves.

Arguably, Covid-19 has highlighted deficiencies in risk management that otherwise might never have been brought to light. What’s clear is that those who have taken a more dynamic and frequent approach to their risk practices have been better able to future-proof their business and tackle the ongoing turbulence initiated by the pandemic.

Here are some ways organizations can enhance their performance in four of today’s key risk areas, while maintaining rigorous compliance and agility:

Innovation risk,..

As innovation rises, so too do risks. Yet conversely, the risk of not innovating can be just as high. This places a considerable onus on risk managers to help their organizations strike the right balance between risk and reward.

Due to the nature of innovation, propositions are often in a constant state of development, rendering point-in-time engagement from risk executives impractical. For risk management to be effective, it must be embedded throughout the development process, with continuous interaction between risk and innovation teams. Furthermore, risk controls should be an integral part of product design, especially in the face of regulations such as GDPR, which maintains “privacy by design” as one of its leading principles.

Innovation risks undoubtedly alter the risk profile of an organization and potentially fuel other technology-related risks such as cybercrime and fraud—creating another strong case for implementing new risk controls and a wider discipline of digital conduct.

One prime example of innovation risk managed well is offered by e-commerce giant JD.com, whose radical advances in mitigation technology and robotics have increased the retailer’s stock price by 97% in the past year.

Cybersecurity risk

At the same time that organizations are expanding their digital footprints, cyber threats are growing exponentially in their sophistication. Although this has largely made traditional risk management frameworks unworkable, a data-driven approach can help businesses to better quantify cyber risk and sense check their cyber-response capabilities.

Data can be derived from multiple sources including audit findings, threat intelligence tools, asset life cycles and defect management to help build a real-time picture of risk, while providing key insights to the security team and senior leaders for more informed decision-making.

That said, a cyber-risk framework is only as good as an organization’s first line of defense: its valued employees. An all-hands-on-deck style is the surest way to instill a culture of cybersecurity accountability at all levels of the business, supported through training courses and robust policies to raise awareness of today’s ever-evolving cyber risks.

By identifying and addressing vulnerabilities before they become an issue, risk professionals can reduce the likelihood of their organization being a sitting target and thus protect their end clients as they continue their digitalization journey.

ESG risk

Rising expectations from stakeholders in recent years have indicated that high environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance can lead to improved profitability and business opportunities.

Microsoft is one such case in point, becoming the first company in its sector to target a “carbon negative” status by 2030. Since creating a $1 billion fund to reduce emissions and carbon usage, Microsoft received the highest ESG rating (AAA) from MSCI ESG Research in 2019.

A failure to incorporate ESG—covering a wide set of issues—into enterprise risk management practices could see businesses lagging behind their peers, particularly if they do not make the connection between ESG and materiality.

While laws and regulations mandating disclosure are a key driver for putting forth a robust ESG strategy, businesses should adopt an approach that transcends simply meeting compliance requirements. A critical starting point is to develop a purposeful culture around ESG that is exemplified at the top and instilled throughout the organization.

Board oversight is also crucial to the effective integration of ESG risk management and subsequent long-term sustainability. Senior leaders should work closely with risk teams to monitor ESG performance against the company’s goals, making activities such as megatrend analysis, media monitoring and regular ESG materiality assessments a core part of the wider ERM framework.

Continue Reading About risk management

Regulatory risk

With the regulatory landscape changing rapidly, businesses that rely on antiquated, reactive ways of managing compliance risks could open themselves up to a host of negative repercussions, from both a financial and reputational standpoint.

However, an integrated compliance framework facilitated by technology can not only enable companies to be more risk-intelligent, but can also help keep compliance standards in check, ensuring that policies are adhered to at all levels of the organization.

Coupled with a best-practice strategy for managing regulatory compliance risk, today’s advances in automation and regtech can provide a 360-degree view of compliance while delivering meaningful insights and highlighting gaps in processes or deviation from policy.

Moreover, as authorities place increased focus on the quality and completeness of regulatory data, businesses will need to show that they have systematic controls and tools in place to provide accurate regulatory and compliance reporting. By putting transparency at the heart of regulatory risk management through digital means, organizations can have the confidence that their regulatory obligations are being met, mitigating the chance of them falling afoul of noncompliance.

With a focus on high-level risks as well as the more granular impact of risk across the board, businesses will not only benefit from a competitive advantage in future, but also greater resilience and compliance in times of extreme disruption. Are you ready for a risk management revolution?

Discover Ideagen’s market-leading Pentana Compliance solution and how it can help to protect your financial services organization from regulatory risk.

Gordon McKeown

Gordon McKeown, Head of ARC Product, Ideagen

This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credits: Header image: iStock 1181145608. Headshot: Courtesy of Ideagen.

Source: 4 Ways to Revolutionize Risk Management

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Biden Sets U.S. Goal for Clean Cars to Be Half of 2030 Sales

Traffic Crashes Are Getting Worse. Car Ads Are Part Of the Problem.

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The Plexes of Montreal Make Room for Change

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Ex-Wife’s Property, Utah Ranch: How Wealthy Secure High Bails

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5 Time Management Myths That Affect Your Workplace Productivity

Management Strategy, Organization/Management, Skill Management/Business Skill, Time Management/Strategy

Any phenomenon that becomes “fashionable” instantly acquires its own mythology. This mythology forms a system of concepts that are accepted and not questioned. At the same time, the vast majority of people do not think about whether it corresponds to reality.

This paradox has existed as long as humanity. Some such misconceptions are harmless and cute. But misconceptions about any management, especially time management, lead to real mistakes in life and work, reduce motivation, and kill faith in oneself. Time management games and activities increase motivation, engagement, and problem-solving skills. They also improve resource management, speaks creativity, and enhances teamwork abilities.

So, what is the history of time management?

History of Time Management

The history of time management goes back to the distant past. As far back as 2000 years ago in ancient Rome, the famous thinker Seneca proposed to divide all time into time spent with benefit and useless.

Seneca also began to keep a permanent record of time in writing. The thinker said that when living a certain period of time, one should evaluate it in terms of occupancy. In the later history of time management, these ideas formed the basis of such a concept as “personal efficiency.

Leon Battista Alberti, a writer and Italian scholar who lived in the 15 century, said that those who know how to manage time usefully will always be successful. To do this, he suggested using 2 rules:

  1. Make a to-do list every day in the morning.
  2. Arrange things in decreasing order of importance.

For centuries, all of these principles existed only in theoretical form, and only since the 1980s, this topic has begun to move from theory to practice. For teens, it will be useful to read time management tips.

Time management is necessary not only for executives and business owners: each of us must be able to manage our own assets to enjoy the process of life in its entirety. Of course, not everyone needs time management. If a person has nothing to do in his or her life, and his or her main task is “to kill time”, then time management is an irrelevant and unnecessary discipline for such a person.

In other words, you should first decide whether you really lack time and where you would like to spend your free minutes, hours, and days when they appear.

Time management consists of several components:

  • Strict time management.
  • Optimization of time resources.
  • Planning a day (week, month, or another period of time).
  • Organization of motivation.

Time Management Myths That Affect Your Workplace Productivity

Time management is important not only for work: people who have mastered the art of time management are more cheerful, healthy, and successful in professional and personal life. Effective time management allows you to think about all your actions and decisions in terms of their appropriateness for your own development and improvement.

Myth Number 1: You can’t be a Successful Person Without Time Management

The main danger of this myth is that it equates being organized with being successful. This is not the same thing. It is the substitution of the essence with a tool.

At first glance, this myth seems very plausible. How can you be successful if you can’t consciously and systematically manage your time and activities? It seems like you can’t.

However, any success is first of all decision-making. And only in the second place is their execution. If you don’t make decisions or make the wrong ones, then no time management will help you at all. You will do a lot of things that lead you nowhere.

For example, Konstantin is a successful businessman. When I first met him and his style of doing business, I fell into a stupor. He was the epitome of anti-time management. Absolute unpredictability in his thoughts, actions, and decisions. Nevertheless, he has outstanding business accomplishments. Due to what? First of all – due to enormous experience, brilliant intuition, ability to make the most accurate decisions under conditions of lack of information, not to get lost in difficult situations, to be flexible and fearless.

And this is not an isolated example. Neither Konstantin nor others like him did not need the classic system of time management or rules for improving productivity. They succeeded without their help.

Myth Number 2: There are Universal Time Management Systems That Suit all People

Most books on time management inconspicuously carry the idea that time management systems are not personal. After all, this is management! And it is a universal thing. At best, the authors divide people into rationalistic and intuitive (orderly and chaotic).

A greater stupidity is hard to imagine. A time management system is built into a person’s way of life and changes it (and the image, and the person). If it does not do this, it is ineffective. And a person’s lifestyle depends on his or her values, beliefs, cognitive filters and strategies, life situation, type of nervous system, peculiarities of character, activity, etc.

Trying to change your lifestyle by copying techniques developed by someone else is like trying to transplant someone else’s organ. Your body will accept it only under conditions of suppressed immunity, i.e. partial destruction of your identity. The same happens when you copy someone else’s way of life. It disorganizes you. Basically, there are only three possible alternatives:

  1. It will destroy your identity if you follow it fanatically.
  2. You abandon it or modify it beyond recognition (but this is a rare option).
  3. By chance, it will coincide with your personality traits and you will be able to apply it permanently (this is even rarer).

Myth Number 3: Time Management Doesn’t Work

The number of people who have tried living by time management and given up on it is greater than those who have succeeded.

In order for you to manage your time really effectively and without violence to your nature, you must construct a time management system for yourself. This requires a prior analysis of the characteristics of your personality, activities, lifestyle, and situation. If you set up a time management system for yourself – it doesn’t mean that all your time will be spent on work, the development of yourself, and your skills. You should also make time in this system for primitive things like watching movies using VPN for Amazon Prime or playing video games on PS4 or PC as well as other activities that help you relax and reboot.

The same about Konstantin, or rather about his sad experience of implementing time management.

Konstantin liked to attend all kinds of training, seminars, and other developmental events. At one of them, some charismatic person managed to plant in Konstantin’s head the bacillus of time management.

Konstantin decided to give it a try and hired himself a guru of time management. This teacher was the exact opposite of Constantine in temperament and most of his personality traits. However, he possessed great persuasiveness. The experiment of introducing time management into Konstantin’s life lasted about seven months.

Konstantin began to trust his intuition less and began to base his decisions on more formal and rational methods. As a result, for the first time in the last 14 years of his business career, he incurred serious losses (several tens of millions) and found himself on the verge of bankruptcy.

Now, being with Konstantin, it is better not to talk about time management.

Myth Number 4: Time Management Guarantees Personal Development

Many time-management techniques include blocks devoted to goal-setting. This is very correct and appropriate. But here lies a dangerous trap.

It lies in the fact that having reached a certain stage of development, people find themselves in a crisis associated with the need to rethink themselves and their life. He or she must make a kind of quantum leap. Instead, within the framework of time management, he or she is presented with rather primitive technologies of goal-setting.

In the vast majority of cases, these technologies are good in themselves. However, they allow you to choose goals based on meanings and values that are already familiar to you. And they do not work at all when you are experiencing an existential crisis.

If you fall into this trap, then instead of doing inner work on yourself and making a kind of quantum leap, you will move toward goals that are no longer relevant to you. You will lose time and exacerbate your own crisis.

For example, Elena is a talented person who worked for a long time as a top manager of a large company and finally opened her own business.

At the same time, Elena was always aware that the area of her professional development was not really interesting to her either when she was working as a hired employee or when she opened her own business. She was successful and highly professional. But all these years she was plagued by the feeling that she was out of place.

A year and a half after opening her business, this feeling became very strong. And then Elena went to training on goal setting and time management. Being an emotional and enthusiastic person, Elena came out of the training elated and with a list of new goals in her hands.

For eight months, Elena worked on achieving her new goals and got her way. What was the result? Severe disappointment and depression. Loss of meaning and motivation to move forward.

When I asked Elena why she thought this was the case, she said that the goals she had set in the training were totally artificial and superficial. With the shortage of time and group work, she formed pacifier goals: superficially attractive and appealing to the approval of others, but completely unresponsive to her deepest needs.

Myth Number 5: Time Management Immediately Starts Saving Your Time

This myth has probably caused the most casualties among time management recruits. Here is what a typical story of a victim of this myth looks like.

Vasily is a mid-level manager. He is promoted and made head of a division. The volume of tasks and responsibilities increases dramatically. Vasily ceases to have time and cope. But he does not give up and buys a hyper-popular in managerial circles book on time management.

Why does Vasya do this? Stupid question. To have more time. However, with amazement and irritation, Vasya notes that in an attempt to apply the great wisdom in the book, he gets less time, his life becomes more difficult, and the free time does not increase. And, funnily enough, all these phenomena only worsen over time.

After a little floundering in this situation and having exhausted his willpower reserves, Vasya powerfully forgets about any kind of time management. And later, upon hearing this magic word, he reacts aggressively and profanely.

What Happened? A tragic conflict between myth and reality.

Mythological time management is a magic pill that quickly and forever gets rid of your time problems. Real-time management is a painful process of changing your lifestyle and developing completely new and unfamiliar skills.

As soon as you start implementing a little bit of sophisticated time management in your life, your efficiency goes down dramatically instead of going up! And it remains low until new skills and habits are developed. And developing them takes extra time, motivation, and energy.

Because human is a lazy and fairy tale-believing creature, few people make it all the way to the end. Nevertheless, everyone should know how to avoid burnout.

A Practical Task

If you have never tried to implement time management in your life, please write for yourself on the sheet of paper:

  • What goals would you like to achieve with it, what desires to realize?
  • What in your way of life now prevents you from achieving these goals?
  • What in you/your character prevents you from achieving these goals?

If you have tried any of the time management systems but were not successful in it, please answer the following questions:

  • What time management systems have you used?
  • How would you characterize the features of that system/s?
  • What goals did you want to achieve by using them?
  • What prevented you from achieving those goals?
  • What didn’t suit you about the time management system you were using?

If you have tried any of the time management systems, implemented them, and are still using them, please answer the following questions:

  • What are the main features of your time management system?
  • Is there anything in your time management system that you find inconvenient or not fully effective? If yes, describe it.
  • What would you like to improve in your time management?

P.S. When answering the questions, please do not limit yourself to such general and meaningless concepts as “laziness” or “procrastination”. They do not explain anything, but only close the road to possible positive change. These questions will help you to understand what you really want.

The post 5 Time Management Myths That Affect Your Workplace Productivity appeared first on Calendar.

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Source: 5 Time Management Myths That Affect Your Workplace Productivity

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Critics:

Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves a juggling act of various demands upon a person relating to work, social life, family, hobbies, personal interests, and commitments with the finiteness of time. Using time effectively gives the person “choice” on spending or managing activities at their own time and expediency.

Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects, and goals complying with a due date. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually, the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods.

Time management is usually a necessity in any project management as it determines the project completion time and scope. It is also important to understand that both technical and structural differences in time management exist due to variations in cultural concepts of time. The major themes arising from the literature on time management include the following:

 

How to Diversify Your Portfolio: Strategies and Benefits

Financial Growth, Management Strategy, Portfolios/Regulations, Revenue Management

There’s a reason manufacturers make different product lines, and stores carry a range of goods: It protects their profits. If one item suffers a seasonal decrease in demand or is an outright flop, they may still be ok if the majority of the other items do well.

It’s a business strategy called diversification. And just as diversification is important in industry, it’s important for your investment portfolio as well.

The primary goal of diversification isn’t to maximize returns; it’s to limit risk. When you diversify your portfolio, you reduce your risk of experiencing massive losses when a few of your investments underperform. Read on to learn more about the benefits of diversification and for a step-by-step guide to diversifying your own portfolio.

Understanding risk

At its most basic level, risk refers to the chances that a particular investment or portfolio could suffer financial loss. Beyond this definition, risk can be broken into multiple categories:

  • Company risk: What is the financial strength of the company or government entity that you’re looking to invest in (often through stocks) or loan money to (often through bonds)? Does it have a low, moderate, or high chance of bankruptcy?
  • Volatility risk: On average, how often does the particular asset that you’re looking to invest in have losing years? For example, large-company stocks lose money once every three years on average.
  • Liquidity risk: How easy would it be to get your cash back out of the investment if you needed the money to cover an emergency expense?
  • Interest rate risk: How would your investment be impacted by a rise or fall in interest rates? Bond values, for example, tend to go down as interest rates go up.
  • Inflation risk: Is your portfolio’s rate of return at risk of being outpaced by inflation? This could be a legitimate possibility for portfolios that are invested solely in cash equivalents.

All investments involve some level of risk.

If safety is your ultimate goal, however, look to bank or credit union deposit accounts (savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts, etc.). Since these accounts are insured up to $250,000 by the federal government, they offer the closest thing to an investment “guarantee.”

How diversification benefits you

Diversification involves owning a mix of investments to reduce risk and volatility. Here a few common ways to diversify:

  • Company diversification: Owning shares of multiple companies so that your portfolio won’t be significantly harmed if one stock declines or goes bankrupt.
  • Industry diversification: Owning stocks from a variety of industries (technology, healthcare, energy, consumer staples).
  • Size diversification: Investing in companies of different sizes, or market caps, such as small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap companies.
  • Global diversification: Investing in a mix of domestic and international stocks
  • Asset class diversification: Moving beyond stocks and bonds, the traditional financial assets, to invest in additional types: real estate, commodities, private equity, and cash.

The more diversified your portfolio becomes, the less of a chance you’ll have of experiencing a huge loss in any given year.

Downside to diversification

Unfortunately, with investments, the chance of big losses usually goes hand-in-hand with the possibility of big wins. Diversification’s benefits often come at a cost: diminished returns.

To illustrate: a recent study, using historical data from 1970-2016, which compared the performance of three hypothetical portfolios:

  • Conservative: 30% stocks, 50% bonds, 20% cash
  • Moderate: 60% stocks, 30% bonds, 10% cash
  • Aggressive: 80% stocks, 15% bonds, 5% cash

If avoiding declines was your only goal, the conservative portfolio would be the clear winner. The maximum one-year loss it suffered was 14%, vs. 32.3% for the moderate, and a whopping 44.4% for the aggressive.

But when it came to annualized returns for each portfolio, the conservative gained 8.1%, the moderate, 9.4%, and the aggressive,10%.

Those slight differences may not seem like a big deal. But over a 40-plus year investment horizon, they add up. For example, if each portfolio had begun with $10,000, their final account tallies would have been:

  • Conservative: $389,519
  • Moderate: $676,126
  • Aggressive: $892,028

Riskier investments tend to offer higher potential returns. So, smoothing out the risks, as diversifying does, means no sickening drops — but no exhilarating lifts, either. Most investors are willing to accept the tradeoff.

How to diversify your investment portfolio

Ready to start building a diversified portfolio? Here are four diversification tips to guide you along the way.

1. Determine your risk tolerance

Your risk tolerance is how much money you are willing to lose in the short-term in exchange for the potential for higher long-term growth. There are various factors that can affect your risk level. These include your:

  • Time horizon: How soon will you need to take your money out of your investments? Someone who won’t be retiring for another 30-40 years may be willing to take on more risk than someone with a retirement window of 5-10 years from now.
  • Income needs: If you’re still working, you may decide to invest in higher-risk, growth-oriented investments. But if you’ve already reached retirement, you may prefer to focus on lower-risk investments that can provide a stable income, such as bonds, dividend stocks, and CDs.
  • Portfolio size: As your portfolio grows, you may choose to raise your risk tolerance since you’ll have more capital available to sustain short-term losses.

The investments you select should be guided by your risk tolerance. Those with a high tolerance for risk may invest a large percentage of their portfolios in equities. Conversely, the percentage of bond and cash holdings will typically be higher for investors with lower risk tolerance levels.

How can you determine your risk tolerance? Many investing brokers and robo-advisor websites offer free risk- level questionnaires. Some will even offer asset allocation recommendations based on your answers. You can also work with a financial advisor or money manager to build a portfolio that’s customized to your individual risk level.

2. Take advantage of mutual funds and ETFs

Once you’ve determined your risk tolerance, it’s time to begin buying the investments that will comprise your portfolio. And it’s at this stage of the game that baskets of securities such as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can really come in handy.

Let’s say, for sake of illustration, that you want an asset allocation of 70% stocks, 25% bonds, and 5% cash. To truly build a diversified portfolio with that asset allocation, you’d need to buy dozens (at the very least) of stocks and bonds. And for the stock portion of your portfolio, you’d also want to make sure that you were investing in companies of different sizes, industries, and geography.

Even if you had enough capital at your disposal to invest in such a diverse set of stocks of bonds, how would you go about choosing your individual investments? Most non-professional investors simply don’t have the time that this kind of market research would require.

But by investing in mutual funds and ETFs, you can eliminate these problems. Funds make it easy to invest in hundreds or thousands of stocks, bonds, or alternative investments at once, even with limited capital (getting the variety of assets diversification requires can be expensive). And some mutual funds even offer a predetermined mix of stocks and bonds to serve as a “one-stop-shop” for all your asset allocation needs.

3. Consider moving beyond stocks and bonds

When financial professionals talk about asset allocation, they’re often referring to your ratio of stocks to bonds. But it’s worth noting that with both of these assets, your money is heavily invested in companies.

To increase your diversification, you may want to consider investing a portion of your portfolio in additional asset classes as well. For example, you may want to consider investing in raw materials by buying shares of a commodity mutual fund.

If you want to gain more exposure to real estate, you could invest in a real estate investment trust (REIT). Other alternative asset classes worth considering include private equity, collectibles (like stamps, art, or antiques), cryptocurrency, and hedge funds.

4. Regularly reevaluate your asset allocation

How do you know when you’re properly diversified? The reality is that diversification is an ever-evolving process that will change as your time horizon shrinks.

To estimate your ideal asset allocation for your age, some experts recommend subtracting your age from 110 to 120. The result is the percentage of your portfolio that should be in stocks.

Using this rule of thumb, a 30-year-old would look to invest 80% to 90% of his or her portfolio in stocks, with the rest invested in bonds and/or cash equivalents. But an 80-year old would reduce his or her stock holdings to 50% to 60%.

The estimates above are just that…estimates. To determine your own ideal ratio, you’ll need to take your specific financial situation and investment needs into consideration.

Even if your portfolio’s asset allocation is perfectly matched to your age and needs, it can become out of alignment as certain assets outperform others. That’s why it’s important to monitor your portfolio and rebalance your original asset mix when necessary.

The financial takeaway

Investing is a game of risk and returns. Take on too much risk and you could lose big, especially in the short-term. Take on too little risk (like, say, by only investing in cash equivalents) and you could really hurt your long-term returns.

Diversification is the best way for investors to find their own personal balance of risk and reward. To build a diversified portfolio that works for you, consider your risk tolerance, time horizon, and investing goals.

Related Coverage in Investing:

What is an index fund? A low-cost, low-risk way to invest in the stock market

ETFs and mutual funds can instantly diversify your portfolio, but they differ in how they’re traded, managed, and taxed. Here’s what you should know.

How to invest in mutual funds and grow your money for retirement, a bucket-list trip, or any other long-term goal

Investing for income: 7 money-generating assets for your portfolio and how to get started

The Rule of 72 is a quick, simple way to figure how long it’ll take for your savings and investments to double in value

By: Clint Proctor

Source: How to Diversify Your Portfolio: Strategies and Benefits

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Understanding Branch Managers: A Demanding and Highly Visible Job

Management Hacks, Management Strategy, Revenue Management, Skill Management/Business Skill, Workforce Management

https://i1.wp.com/onlinemarketingscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/lp030.jpg?resize=844%2C493&ssl=1

A branch manager is an executive who is in charge of a particular location, or branch office, of a bank or other financial services company. Branch managers are typically responsible for all of the functions of that branch office, including hiring employees, overseeing the approval of loans and lines of credit (LOC), marketing, building a rapport with the community to attract business, assisting with customer relations, and ensuring that the branch meets its goals and objectives in a timely manner.

Key Takeaways

  • A branch manager is an employee who oversees the operations of a branch of a bank or financial institution.
  • Branch manager’s responsibilities include managing resources and staff, developing and attaining sales goals, delivering exceptional customer service, and growing the location’s revenues.
  • In prospective branch managers, employers look for someone with experience, proven success, and leadership skills.
  • Academically, branch managers typically have undergraduate degrees in finance, accounting, or related fields of study.

Understanding Branch Managers

A financial institution’s executives place great confidence in the company’s branch managers, expecting them to run their locations as their own businesses. A branch manager’s job description includes assuming responsibility for virtually all functions of their branch—including growing that location’s customer base and elevating the community’s perception of the company’s brand.

Branch managers also have the responsibility of delegating tasks to skilled workers and are responsible for their successes and failures. In fact, the branch manager is responsible for the success or failure of the branch they manage. Excellent multitasking and organization skills are necessary to accomplish tasks in a timely and efficient manner, not only for the branch manager but also for the people they manage. The branch manager will also oversee the performance of subsidiaries, such as bank tellers, loan officers, and back-office workers.

Requirements for Branch Managers

Because branch managers’ responsibilities include developing and maintaining good relationships with customers and employees, they should possess strong sales, people-management, and customer-service skills. Other attributes required of a branch manager are diligence, strong analytical skills, and the ability to prioritize, multitask, and focus on detail.

Branch managers are expected to be proactive about networking to bring in new business and increase revenue. A new branch manager might join the local chamber of commerce and attend business and networking events, where one often can meet influential community members. For example, a branch manager might meet a local hospital administrator and work out a deal to provide the branch’s services to the hospital’s employees.

Branch Manager Qualifications

Branch managers usually have undergraduate degrees in finance, accounting, or related fields. Some financial institutions will look at a branch manager job candidate with a non-finance-related bachelor’s degree as long as they have a master’s degree in a finance-related field.

Financial institutions hiring for branch manager positions look for candidates with both prior financial experience and proven leadership experience. They also seek candidates with a track record of increasing the number of a bank’s accounts, and hiring banks expect branch managers to be deeply knowledgeable about banking-industry regulations. Once hired, branch managers have the freedom to choose their teams, but they also must be able to ensure their teams’ success.

By: Adam Hayes

Source: Branch Manager Definition

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Related Terms

Paraplanning

Paraplanning is defined as the administrative duties of a financial planner.

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Technical Job Skills

Technical job skills refer to the talent and expertise a person possesses to perform a certain job or task.

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Why Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) Matter

A chief technology officer (CTO) is an executive responsible for the management of an organization’s technological needs.

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General Manager (GM)

A general manager is a person in charge of a department within a company.

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Chief Investment Officer (CIO)

A chief investment officer (CIO) is an executive position mandated to supervise and guide the strategy for an organization’s portfolio of investments.

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Master of Business Administration (MBA)

A master of business administration (MBA) is a graduate degree that provides theoretical and practical training for business management.

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14 Best Online Team Management Tools For Productive Teams

Management Strategy, Plans/Projects, Portfolio Projects, Workflows/Team/Project, Workforce Management

Boosting team morale and productivity could be considered as the number 1 goal for every project manager. The term team management isn’t just about allocating tasks to be checked off by your team before the end of the day. Key factors that contribute to the concept of effective team management are teamwork, collaboration, and recognition.

Without them, a company’s overall performance is at risk. This is where team management tools come into play. Unfortunately, no matter how hard a project manager tries or how many expensive tools she/he invests in, something or someone is often left behind. And here in-lies our problem…and where there is a business-related problem, there is a Process Street solution.

You see, not all team management tools are meant for you. Without the right approach and the right tool, your chances of keeping each team member productive and satisfied, are next to impossible.

You need to find a tool that works best for you and your team and you need to find it soon. In this article, we will explain the importance of effective team management. We will then present you with our 14 top team management tools so that you can find the right one for you.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to find the information you need to evaluate the best team management tool for you.

We’ll start with the basics of team management. What it is and why it is important? Team management is the coordination of a group of individuals to perform a specific task. Team management is a subset of the broader discipline: project management.

Project management versus team management

Project management explains how the resources of a project are organized and implemented for successful project completion. With successful project management comes the delivery of expectations: what can be delivered, when this can be delivered, and the cost of delivery. Resources are maximized, the project cost is controlled, change is managed, and teamwork and collaboration are enforced.

Drawing on the latter point – teamwork and collaboration are enforced – it is clear that team management is a management skill vital for project success.

Team Management: An essential management skill

Management skills are certain attributes or abilities a manager should possess to be effectual in their duties and to deliver the needed project results. A team that goes through the motions, will not care for the success of your project or even your company. Effective team management is essential in maintaining a positive company culture, an environment that promotes project completion and to retain employee engagement.

What is a team management tool?

A team management tool is an application that assists the user in managing their team and project. There are hundreds of handy team management tools in the market boasting their effectiveness by:

  1. Boosting collaboration
  2. Promoting recognition
  3. Ensuring employee satisfaction

With this in mind, it can be difficult to select the right tool for you. However, with our list of 14 top team management tools, choosing just got a lot easier.Team management tools: Our top 14 picks.In this article, we present our top 14 team management software picks. We summarize the pros and cons of each tool so that choosing the right tool is easier for you.

Best team management tool for process management: Process Street

Process Street is a robust and straightforward business process management solution. It’s designed to help you manage repeating business procedures, minimize mistakes, save money, and collaborate easily within your team. With Process Street, you can create recurring checklists, collaborate around them, track their progress, and complete projects as planned.

What the users like:
With Process Street, project and team management become a breeze. Simply:

  • Document every step of your project.
  • Transfer your documented project into a Process Street template.
  • Add features such as task due dates, stop tasks and role assignments to adapt and refine the management of your project and team.
  • Activate the template once the project commences. Once activated the template is termed as a checklist. You can have more than one checklist running from the same template at a time.
  • Track the progress of your team members in terms of their assigned tasks.
  • Receive regular email updates for each project, keeping you in the loop.
  • Collaborate with project members in one space.

At Process Street, we have a wealth of free template resources stored in our template library.

You can access our template library here

To help you get started with your projects, check out Process Street’s Project Management Process Template.

This template is free and ready for you to use right away. In this template, you will find features such as:

  • Stop tasks to ensure task order.
  • Dynamic due dates, so no deadline is missed.
  • Conditional logic, creating a dynamic template that caters to your needs.
  • Role assignments, to ease task delegation within your team.
  • Approvals, to sign tasks off within your team. Tasks can be assessed by the relevant team member/s. The assigned approver can easily open the checklist. Information from the tasks is then used to either approve or reject, or reject with a comment.

It is with these features that Process Street checklists are deemed to be superpowered, and can superpower the management of your team.

What the users dislike:
Process Street is a great tool, but there’s no mobile app yet.

Pricing:

  • Process Street Business – $12 .50 per user per month
  • Process Street Business Pro – $25 per user per month
  • Process Street Enterprise – Available by quote

Sign up to Process Street here. All plans start with a 14-day FREE trial..

Best team management tool for scalable remote collaboration: Proofhub

ProofHub is an online project management and team management software that helps businesses organize projects, people and get work done. The software delivers basic and advanced features for refined project or team management under one roof. This includes:

  • Task management software
  • One-on-one group chats
  • Discussion topics
  • Gantt chart tool
  • Kanban boards
  • File management systems
  • Online proofing tool
  • Time tracking tool

Read more…

 

By: Jane Courtnell

 

Source: 14 Best Online Team Management Tools for Productive Teams | Process Street | Checklist, Workflow and SOP Software

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If you want to grow your business you will need to start bringing on staff to help you get there. But how do you manage them? In this video, I will go over 6 apps that I have found to manage teams and projects. Here is the list: Trello https://trello.com​ GitScrum https://site.gitscrum.com/​ Plutio https://plutio.com​ Clubhouse https://clubhouse.io​ Notion https://www.wpcrafter.com/notion​ ClickUp https://clickup.com

What Is Management 3.0 & Why You Should Pay Attention To Energize Your Teams

Business Leadership/Strategies, Management Hacks, Management Strategy, Revenue Management, Skill Management/Business Skill

What Is Management 3.0 and Why You Should Pay Attention to Energize Your Teams

Jurgen Appelo is a software engineer, trainer, entrepreneur, author, speaker and traveler, who has been driving agility in companies. One of his works, “ Management 3.0 ” , condenses a team management methodology so that they can survive amid chaos and fragility.

This model, based on Edgar Morin’s so-called complexity theory, is based on the notion that a system – a company, a government, a project – is not feasible to analyze as a mere sum of its component parts; rather, it is the relationships and interactions that give it meaning and momentum. To graph this, imagine a network, with interlocking threads connecting each component. These threads are the facts, actions, decisions, and interactions that make up the world.

That is why management has been seen for several years as a system of networks and people, of dynamic relationships, and not only about areas or departments, profits and processes. It is a living system, not machines that systematically replicate the same result.

Principles for energizing and developing talent

In its 3.0 model, Appelo shares several principles that serve to support the work of leaders and teams in today’s changing world. Here are some of them:

1. Energize people

To achieve this, it is necessary to know what it is that motivates them and that is part of their life purpose: the more consistent it is with the purpose of the organization, there will be a greater individual commitment and team cooperation. For the psychologist and professor Edward Deci, there are two types of motivations:

  • Extrinsic: stimuli that are provided from outside the person (for example, a performance bonus, constant congratulations from the leader, etc.).
  • Intrinsic: those stimuli that are internal and relevant to the person, even when it is not their primary goal (for example, a project in charge). However, if you find a meaning, a why in what you do, you connect better and there is your own reward.

Author Daniel Pink offers a similar look at intrinsic motivation in his book “Drive”, where he affirms that most people are moved more by this type of impulse than by extrinsic. In other words, in the end and in essence, people care more about satisfaction than external rewards, although they should not be lacking, and he explains that there are three factors that new management leaders need to take into account to boost talent: mastery -the desire of each one to be better in what is important to him-, autonomy -the impulse to guide his own life-; let me mention self-leadership-; and purpose – intention to serve something greater than ourselves.

2. Empower teams

To achieve this, the author of Management 3.0 points out that it is entirely possible for each team to organize itself, if it has the confidence of the leaders.

At this point, it is essential that those who lead people focus on doing their job and not on micro-management and that teams participate in collective decisions on relevant issues. In addition, it is necessary for everyone to understand that they are part of a joint system, and not the mere sum of individualities, and that the knowledge of market needs is not in the hands of a single person, but that there is a broader perspective of their needs.

To empower, there are four lines of action that are strategic to generate relationships of trust:

  • Let the leader trust his team.
  • Let the team trust their leader.
  • Let team members trust each other.
  • Let the leader trust himself.

3. Development of skills

We already know that it is difficult for any company to achieve results if its members are not trained; and the leaders are responsible for enabling the conditions for this process to take place. Some ways are:

  • Leading by example: living what is preached.
  • Promote self-learning: appreciate personal maturing time.
  • Coaching and mentoring: as transversal support and support tools throughout the organization.
  • Training and certification: to raise standards against the competition.
  • Collaborative learning: internal development, where everyone learns from each other.
  • Learning from error: doing retrospectives and tests in controlled environments.
  • Measure the results: feedback in the shortest possible cycles; use of keeping metrics on information radiators; indicators agreed between those who participate.
  • Smaller teams: the author recommends no more than 10 to 12 people.

4. Improve everything and observe the team environment

It is key in the management 3.0 model to focus on real continuous improvement, for which it is necessary to facilitate change processes and model the natural resistance that may appear.

Some suggestions for leaders are to observe the team environment, what they need, and let it be known that you are available; find cracks or faults and go to their roots to promote solutions that the team implements; define clear and specific goals and have great communication skills, a key factor of every good manager.

Also, incentivize defining small victories or milestones that energize people; review achievements and not just failures; and it is also essential to recognize people.

The implementation of this leadership style implies a cultural change in companies that is not necessarily rapid, although it can be agile, if you have the conviction and vision to carry it out.

Ultimately, it depends on each company how far they want to go and on each leader, how much they want their teams to develop. Two questions that only they can answer.

By:

Source: What Is Management 3.0 and Why You Should Pay Attention to Energize Your Teams

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Many teams use Mind Maps to explore certain topics. Similarly you can use Personal Maps to explore your team itself. Personal Maps facilitate team collaboration and bonding in a rather distant world. With this video, you will learn how to use Personal Maps to break down the barriers of cubicles and longer distances, and then you may even learn how silly you were when you thought you had nothing in common! Here you can learn more about this Management 3.0 Workout: https://management30.com/product/work…​ Here’s a trick, instead of presenting your own, spark conversations by presenting each other! What are you waiting for? Try this 7-minute exercise out and tell us below how it went!
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To Recognize Risks Earlier, Invest in Analytics

Analytics, Business Management PLR, Management Strategy, Organization/Management, Revenue Management, Skill Management/Business Skill, Workforce Management

You’ve probably heard business leaders justify their flat-footedness in a crisis by claiming that every organization is flying blind in times of deep uncertainty. But in fact some leaders know precisely where they’re going. They understand what’s required to chart a course through market turbulence, and they’ve built organizations with keen situational awareness.

When it comes to developing the ability to figure out where things are heading and respond nimbly to a changing environment, nothing is more important than analytics. Unfortunately, in recent years analytics (also known as data mining or business intelligence) has become the unloved stepchild of data sciences, overshadowed by machine learning and statistics. Those two disciplines layer mathematical sophistication on top of a foundation of human intuition, creating an appealing illusion of objectivity and deft steering. Ironically, of the three, analytics is the most essential competency for navigating crises.

Solutions based on AI and machine learning hum along well during stable times but fall apart when disaster strikes. These technologies automate tasks by extracting patterns from data and turning them into instructions. Such models can quickly become obsolete when the inputs to the system change. Analytics, in contrast, alerts you when the rules of the game are changing. Without that kind of a warning, automation solutions can quickly go off the rails, leaving you exposed to exogenous shocks.

Statistics has a similar shortcoming during a crisis. Statisticians help decision-makers get rigorous answers. But what if they’re asking the wrong questions? While statistical skills are required to test hypotheses, analysts have the acumen to come up with the right hypotheses in the first place. To attempt statistics without analytics, you’d need great confidence in your assumptions—the kind of confidence that’s foolhardy when a crisis pulls the rug out from under you.

Analysts thrive in ambiguity. Their talent is exploration, which makes them particularly good at foreseeing and responding to crises. By searching internal and external data sources for critical information, analysts keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on. They scan the horizon for trends and formulate questions about what’s behind them. Their job is to inspire executives with thought-provoking yet qualified possibilities. Once the highest-priority hypotheses have been short-listed by leaders, then it’s time to call in a statistician to pressure-test them and separate true insights from red herrings.

During good times, leading organizations build analytics capabilities to strengthen their ability to innovate. Analysts’ ability to find clues to such things as shifting consumer tastes can help firms take advantage of opportunities before less-savvy competitors do. When the going gets tough, however, what looked like a nice-to-have innovation booster turns into a must-have safety net. To be sure, some events are impossible to see in advance—the true black swans—but addressing their fallout is a game best played with open eyes.

Unfortunately, it’s very hard to cobble together a mature analytics department on short notice. The technical skills that allow analysts to guzzle data with lightning speed merely increase the mass of information they encounter. Spotting a gem in it takes something more. Without domain knowledge, business acumen, and strong intuition about the practical value of discoveries—as well as the communication skills to convey them to decision-makers effectively—analysts will struggle to be useful. It takes time for them to learn to judge what’s important in addition to what’s interesting. You can’t expect them to be an instant solution to charting a course through your latest crisis. Instead, see them as an investment in your future nimbleness.

It also takes time to secure access to the promising data sources analysts need. Ideally, business leaders won’t wait for a big disruption to begin building relationships with data vendors, industry partners, and data collection specialists. Bear in mind that in the face of an extreme shock, your historical data sources may become obsolete. If your understanding of the past fails to give you a useful window on tomorrow’s world—perhaps because a pandemic has changed everything—it doesn’t matter how good your information was yesterday. You need new information. After the 2008 financial crash, for example, banks around the world recognized that there might be an advantage to analyzing nontraditional signals of creditworthiness, such as data from supermarket loyalty cards, but not all players were equally positioned to get access to them.

Additionally, your internal data stores may require special processing before analysts can mine them, so it’s worth thinking about hiring supporting data engineers. If analytics is the discipline of making data useful, then data engineering is the discipline of making data usable; it provides behind-the-scenes infrastructure that makes machine logs and colossal data stores compatible with analytics tool kits.

When I began speaking at conferences about the importance of analytics, I found that convincing an audience of its value was the easy part. The mood changed when I explained the catch: Analytics is a time investment. You can’t count on getting something useful out of every foray into a data set. To succeed at exploration, your organization needs a culture of no-strings-attached analytics. As the leader, you are responsible for setting the scope (which data sources should be looked at) and the time frame (“You have two weeks to explore this database”). Then you must ensure that analysts aren’t punished for coming back empty-handed.

During an extreme shock, your historical data sources may become obsolete. Then it doesn’t matter how good your information was yesterday. You need new information.

Once business leaders accept that analytics represents an investment that may not immediately pay off, I hit the next stumbling block: the perception that only a large and technologically sophisticated company such as Alphabet can afford it. This is nonsense. In my experience you’re more likely to find analytics thriving in start-ups than at well-established behemoths.

Start-ups naturally invest in analytics as they try to navigate a new market, with several generalists taking on a share of the exploratory work. Then as the venture grows, the culture changes. Workers are trusted less and made more accountable for return on their efforts, and overzealous management stifles opportunities for analytics to thrive. Analysts hired into this culture rarely get to enjoy the most interesting part of their work—exploration—and instead serve as human search engines and dashboard janitors. Many quit out of frustration as their potential is squandered.

Creating a culture where analytics flourishes takes thoughtful leadership. As organizations grow toward incumbency, only the most visionary will have the courage to nurture a true analytics department and make sure that business leaders have access to it and are influenced by it. Industries that have been burned by a previous crisis — banking is a good example — are especially likely to invest in analytics and apply it to risk management.

Becoming a leader in analytics takes a commitment to trust your analysts and give them space to do their work. Their job, after all, will be to reveal threats that you never even imagined should be on your radar. That sort of work can’t be managed with a stopwatch and a checklist.

Crises such as a pandemic—when no one has the answers, and uncertainty is high—remind us of the importance of asking the right questions. Analytics gives firms an edge in learning and adapting. When the world is suddenly upended, those who can learn the fastest are best positioned to succeed. Smart companies will invest in analytics today to get ahead of whatever is coming tomorrow.

By: Cassie Kozyrkov

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RedRisks

👀 OVERVIEW: On the 3rd June 2020, I presented a live event on Risk Management Fundamentals. This video is an extract of the “Risk Identification” presentation. Due to demand, a future live event rerun is planned and if this appeals to you, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter on the website and I can keep you posted. 🖥 WEBSITE / POST: https://www.redrisks.com/risk-managem… 📧 SUBSCRIBE to my free WEEKLY newsletter: https://www.redrisks.com 🙏 ABOUT THIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL (“RedRisks”): https://youtu.be/AsXUaIACQrA 🔔 PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND SUPPORT THIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL: If you liked this video, please give me a thumbs up (or a thumbs down – they’re all important). 👪 CONNECT WITH ME: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnigopal/

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5 Ways To Be an Excellent Project Manager During COVID-19

Management Strategy, Plans/Projects, Skill Management/Business Skill, Workforce Management

There’s no question that the way we did things last year cannot be the status quo way we do things this year. Or maybe even next year. Who knows how long this will go on and what long lasting effects the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our behaviors and business practices for the long term. That doesn’t mean we still can’t practice excellence and lead very successful projects either from the home or office or somewhere else… like the beach… as long as the person on the next towel over is 6 feet or more away from us.

I’ve compiled a list of 5 ways we can use best practices even better to successfully manage our projects and teams to excellence in project performance and deliver well for our now somewhat more uneasy and anxious clients in this climate of uncertainty. Let’s examine these five ways…

Communicate well and often. Communication is Job One for the project manager. And as many of us are working remotely and virtually we need to be better than ever at communicating effectively and efficiently. We need to be better listeners than ever before. That goes for everyone on both sides of the project and up and down the list of project team members and stakeholders. It’s “all in” when we are battling this type of bump in the road on projects as we are all going through unprecedented times. Remote work and remote project management is not for everyone and there are going to be project managers and project team members out there “learning as they go” on communication and how to work on remote projects. Communication will be the key to success.

Delegate tasks properly. When the landscape of a normal project has to change like this in times like this, it is extremely critical that the project manager be a very effective delegator of project assignments. You can’t just “assign” and move on. Knowing what you’re assigning and understanding and playing on everyone’s greatest areas of strengths will be a critical success ingredient. You can’t just toss out assignments as this is uncharted territory for many of us. And you must always followup with team members after assigning tasks. Always followup before it’s too late and deadlines become affected.

Know scope will change. Your project customer is going through the same issues you are and that your organization is going through. Lack of access to physical resources, and uncertainty of the workforce, uncertainty of the organizations real needs today, tomorrow and next month. Needs are changing – no one expected the coronavirus to affect the workforce like this and organizations like this or for this long. The project you are leading was probably conceived before the virus was even an issue… many big projects are planned out before the end of the previous fiscal year so that budgeting can be in place at the right time. Given all of that, be prepared to manage a project where the scope may be changing and requirements – especially some of the specific details – are going to change.

Anticipate the risks. Along with scope likely changing to some degree during the project, there can undoubtedly be other risks in this crazy virus-plagued world. Vendors may not be available to meet supply demands for project or final solution needs on a moment’s notice. Or they might not be in business at all or have the workforce ready to produce for your project needs. You may not have access to your entire team for the whole project or even the customer’s full team or subject matter experts (SMEs). The risks we must plan for right now on projects may be far different than the risks we are used to planning for under more normal circumstances. Anticipate a broader range – think outside the box during risk planning… you are going to realize issues on your projects that you never saw coming.

Be prepared to fully take the project reins. You have senior management and you have your team and you have your stakeholders. Under normal conditions you have these individuals down the hall in their offices or you know how to get in touch with them 24/7. They may or may not be readily available. What does that mean for you as the project lead? You may be making tough project decisions with no one available to bounce ideas off of and no time to delay those decisions till they are available. This not for the faint of heart, but project management never has been.

Summary / call for input

The coronavirus has drastically changed lives, buying behaviors, safety precautions and life priorities. No doubt about it. So, it seems logical that it would change the way we operate our businesses, interact with clients and manage our projects. When we are affected this much, it’s unavoidable that the way we manage and interact and lead projects would also change.

How about our readers? Have you been working remotely? How have you managed to remain effective and lead teams professionally and productively during this pandemic? Please share your thoughts and strategies.

By: Brad Egeland

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Online PM Courses – Mike Clayton 20.6K subscribers One thing dominates world news. The spread of the Coronavirus infection COVID-19 is now global, and many countries are seeing massive disruption. So, how should you respond, as a Project Manager? In this video, I go through a 7-step response plan. Our full COVID-19 article, with business references and resources is at https://onlinepmcourses.com/covid-19-… Do also take a look at our article: Managing Remote Teams: How to Meet the Challenges https://onlinepmcourses.com/managing-…

As an educator, and with a community of Project Managers who come to me for answers, I feel a need to respond. So, here is an outline COVID-19 plan for you. Its purpose is to remind you of seven priorities, and to act as a starter in forming your own plan. 1. Protect your people Your team, stakeholders, community. Number 2 on this list may be the first thing to do, but this is your first priority. Reduce the need for travel. Encourage more home working. Put people’s health ahead of project deadlines. 2. Put it on your risk register Convene a project Working Group and discuss a series of scenarios.

Then use each of those to identify risks and work on mitigations. Look for base case common features across scenarios and build infrastructure to handle it. 3. Consider if your project should be halted or delayed Open a conversation with your project sponsor, board, client… You need to be the one that goes to them, rather than them coming to you – that shows you as leading the situation, rather than just managing outcomes. You’ll need their sign-off on some decisions. 4. Key into organizational responses Your wider organization will be responding too.

Your skills are valuable, so offer your help in formulating it. Bring organization-tier thinking into your project. And also link into responses among your wider business and social communities. 5. Consider procurement commitments This one cuts both ways. You may need to delay deliveries of materials or bringing in contracted staff, if your project will slow down. Liaise with your suppliers. But, equally, if you plan to continue work, you may choose to advance purchase decisions and delivery dates to de-risk availability of materials. 6. Keep talking In times of uncertainty, fear, and possible panic, make communication a top priority. Even if you don’t know anything new, communicate that fact.

Be open and candid with your team, stakeholders, and your client/boss/sponsor. Communicate your scenarios and plans, and then update with how events are affecting your project and changes to those plans. 7. Regular review cycle to reconsider plans and responses Set up a regular review process, to keep yourself and key people up-to-date on external facts, and allow time to consider responses.

The situation may change fast. Establishing a process to evaluate changes will give you the infrastructure to adapt quickly. For more great Project Management videos, please subscribe to this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZf… For all our great Project Management articles and resources, please check out the OnlinePMCourses website: https://onlinepmcourses.com/ For basic Management Courses – free training hosted on YouTube, with 2 new management lessons a week, check out our sister channel, Management Courses: http://youtube.com/c/managementcourses For more of our Project Management videos in themed collections, join our Free Academy of Project Management: https://onlinepmcourses.com/free-acad…#COVID-19

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Ten Reasons Why Big Firms Stick With Obsolete Management

Management Strategy, Organization/Management, Skill Management/Business Skill, Workforce Management

Following the first five of Ten Reasons Why Big Firms Stick With 20th Century Management, here are five more reasons:

1. The Transition To 21st Century Management Is Hard Work

Stopping the momentum of the giant flywheel of 20th Century management and turning it into something more agile can involve a lot of work. Everything in 21st Century management is the opposite of 20th Century management.

The goal of the firm is now to create a continuous stream of value for customers and users. Making money is the result, not the goal. This goal requires a different structure of work to enable the full talents of those doing the work, often through small self-organizing teams working in short cycles, focused tightly on delivering value for customers. Instead of a steep vertical hierarchy of authority, there is a flat network or hierarchy of competence, in which ideas can  come from anywhere. Recommended For You

These three principles in turn require radically different processes. Leadership has to be inspirational rather transactional, and, given the distributed nature of work, it is required throughout the organization. Strategy tends to include not only coping with competition but also creating new businesses that attract new customers. Innovation encompasses systematic efforts to find new needs and new ways of meeting them, including the creation of interactive ecosystems. Salesand marketing involve making a real difference in the lives of customers and users. Given the new role of talent, people management must attract and enable the talent required to deliver value to customers. Because the firm operates as a network of teams tightly focused on creating customer value, the budget typically reflects decisions already taken in strategy; there are often no organizational silos to fight over it.

Principles, processes and practices of 20th Century and 21st Century management
Principles, processes and practices of 20th Century and 21st Century management Steve Denning

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Is it any wonder that executives find it easier to accept the extravagant compensation that is lavished on them for maintaining the status quo, rather than undertaking the difficult multi-year slog to transform the corporation from top to bottom, with a significant risk that they will be cast aside, somewhere along the way?

2.    Small Change Experiments Don’t Last

The middle course is to maintain the status quo, while exploring alternatives on a small scale. Executives initially experimented doubling down on 20th Century management tools. Firms downsized, reorganized, delayered, and reengineered. They acquired new companies and shed struggling businesses. But these tended to be one-off experiments, not a coherent way to run the whole organization on a continuing basis. The assumptions of 20th Century management remained intact.

In some cases, they also explored 21st Century management approaches to solve particular problems, such as an increased customer orientation, deploying teams, greater delegation, inspirational leadership practices, bolder strategies, innovation initiatives, attracting better talent, improving diversity, and so on.

But they generally came back to the standard model of 20th Century management practices as the default norm, once the particular problem was solved. This after all was how most other big firm was being run, what business schools were teaching, and what major consulting firms were advising.

“The problem can persist even if a company is quick to adopt the latest managerial tools and techniques,” writes Professor Annika Steiber, “because usually these upgrades don’t go deep enough; they serve mainly as add-ons to an underlying system that is no longer right.”

3.    No Objective Measure Of Truth

As Thomas Kuhn noted in The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions (1962), even in science, there isn’t really any objective basis for choosing between two competing scientific theories. There is usually no way to conduct a simple experiment to show that one theory is right and the other wrong, at which point all scientists abruptly drop the old theory and espouse the new. Instead, there is generally evidence both for supporting and questioning the competing theories. Scientists have to weigh up different kinds of evidence and then decide to put their careers behind one theory or the other. This doesn’t happen overnight. This is even more true in paradigm shifts in management.

Thus revolutions in intellectual matters happen slowly. “When an individual or group first produces a synthesis able to attract most of the next generation’s practitioners,” Kuhn writes, “the older schools gradually disappear. In part their disappearance is caused by their members’ conversion to the new paradigm. But there are always some men who cling to one or another of the older views.”

All of these phenomena are observable in the ongoing transition from the 20th Century management to the 21st Century paradigm of managing. Managing in the new way is in some ways like being in a new world compared to 20th Century management. Familiar words like “manager”, “leader” and “strategy”  have different meanings. Decades-old ways of doing things are suddenly no longer appropriate. New ways have to be learned. Attitudes and behaviors have to change. To old hands, 21st Century management can come to be seen as very strange.

4. Lack Of Management Awareness of The 21st Century Management

The tendency in the financial press to dismiss Agile and Silicon Valley management as something to do with “big tech” “AI” and “network effects” encourages executives to continue to ignore these developments.

Managers practicing 20th Century management had never really “chosen” that way of managing in the first place. They had started studying at a business school and then began working in a firm, or series of firms, where everyone had the same basic assumptions, habits and attitudes towards principles and processes. Young managers had little choice but to accept those assumptions and attitudes if they wanted to go on working there and to advance. In many cases, working in that way had gone on for years or even decades.

These managers rarely had to consider the possibility that there might be an equally coherent way of running a large organization that could be a better fit with the current marketplace. In fact, this different way of running corporations had emerged in software development and small startups in and around Silicon Valley, as well as individual firms in Europe and China. It began appearing around 2000 and progress was initially piecemeal. But by 2020, a synthesis of the principles and processes was emerging of a system of management that was equally coherent and potentially providing providing more value to customers, better workplaces for employees, and more profit to the firm. Yet managers were often not aware of these developments.

5.       A Different Way Of Thinking

Perhaps the most significant hurdle to be overcome in making the transition to 21st management is that it requires not only doing things differently but also thinking differently.

Thus the principles and processes of 20th Century management reflect the idea of the firm as a machine. It is something that can be controlled and measured and analyzed separately. Each individual part of the firm’s behavior can be predicted. Its outputs will be proportional to inputs. It can be understood quite separately from its context. Every problem has a root cause and every problem can be solved.

21st Century management requires a different way of thinking. The firm is viewed, not as a machine, but rather as a complex adaptive system, like a garden. This means that the firm can’t be mechanically programmed or fixed. It can’t be analyzed separately from its context. Its behavior can’t be fully predicted. It can only be understood through its interactions with its environment. There needs to be a recognition that the environment may well push back.

This new way of thinking is often difficult for those who have spent decades in the old set of assumptions. But for those who make the transition, the benefits can be extraordinary.

And read also:

What 21st Century Management Looks Like Check out my website. 

Steve Denning

Steve Denning

My book, “The Age of Agile” was published by HarperCollins in 2018 and was selected by the Financial Times as one of the best business books of 2018. I consult with organizations around the world on leadership, innovation, management and business narrative. For many years I worked at the World Bank, where I held many management positions, including director of knowledge management (1996-2000). I am currently a director of the SD Learning Consortium. I am also the author of the Leader’s Guide to Radical Management, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling and The Secret Language of Leadership.

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Leadership Strategy and Tactics from Jocko Willink. Christian Charron, Cedrick Gauthier and Martin Clement discuss. In the military, a field manual provides instructions in simple, clear, step-by-step language to help soldiers complete their mission.

In the civilian sector, books offer information on everything from fixing a leaky faucet to developing an effective workout program to cooking a good steak. Made in JeemanStudio.com Social Media Links 【Instagram Martin】 https://www.instagram.com/mart.clement/ 【Instagram Chris】 https://www.instagram.com/chris.charron/ 【Instagram Rami】 https://www.instagram.com/ramimortgages/ ——– Business pages: [Martin] https://www.martinclement.ca [Christian] https://www.christiancharron.ca [Cedrick]. https://cedrickgauthier.com/ [Rami] https://ramimortgages.com

The Perseverance Of Resilient Leadership: Sustaining Impact On The Road To Thrive

Business Leadership/Strategies, Management Strategy, Skill Management/Business Skill, Stress Management

A few months ago, we imagined “thriving” as leading our organizations to a better normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet our responsibilities as leaders now are further compounded by concurrent challenges of racial injustices, climate change, and economic uncertainties. Getting to “Thrive” appears more arduous and lengthier than many of us imagined… or hoped for.

The first wave and recurrences of COVID-19 continue to plague many parts of the world. Seventy-six percent of companies and many geographies in our most recent analysis are still in the Respond and Recover phases of the crisis[i]. Even companies and geographies that have entered the Thrive phase realize that we are all in this long journey together, because our prospects are inextricably linked.

The future of each of our organizations, though, is not preordained. As resilient leaders, one of our most critical roles right now is to sustain: to sustain our people, many of whom are experiencing not only fatigue but more stresses than they ever have; to sustain our organizations in continuing to create value for all stakeholders; and to sustain society as it experiences multiple existential threats. But just as important, we must also sustain our own ability to lead so that we can continue to serve over the long journey ahead.

Sustaining our people

Our people are undergoing unprecedented levels of stress and uncertainty: workers who have suffered deep personal losses from COVID-19 and/or racial injustices; parents stretching to navigate childcare and major uncertainties over schooling responsibilities while still meeting work commitments; even the loss of basic grandchild-grandparent physical connections. It requires both empathy and courage on our part to lead them forward.

As leaders, we need to empathize with and acknowledge the myriad challenges our people are currently coping with, including feelings of ambiguous loss and toxic stress.

With both ambiguous loss and toxic stress, the better definition of an endpoint and a reduction in uncertainty are important ways we can support our teams. For example, Deloitte has hosted Zoom-based workshops where a cross-section of our people helped to inform return-to-the workplace programs—giving them a greater sense of control. Likewise, sponsoring projects that have a defined endpoint and outcome—where teams can declare that they are “done”—also helps to counter both ambiguous loss and toxic stress.

Additionally, having courageous conversations is at the heart of taking decisive, bold leadership actions, which are even more critical now to sustaining our people. Such conversations enable us to deliver truthful messages and real-time feedback amid the crisis, and require courage:

  • To address difficult situations such as business closures, layoffs, and furloughs rather than ignoring them and hoping they go away
  •  To decide and implement a course of action, even when unpopular
  • To speak the truth about the situation, why each decision was made, and acknowledge the implications

Sustaining our organizations

In the Respond phase of the crisis, most organizations’ leaders found they needed to play defense: keeping their values, their people, their customers, and their business at the forefront. But to thrive in the next normal, we will have to play both defense and offense, working to protect our people and our business, but also taking the longer view. We need to lean into the wind and make contrarian moves now so we can come out of the crisis with momentum and a competitive edge. Many companies will play defense, not offense. Winners will do both[ii].

Crises typically prompt major opportunities such as accelerating innovations, expanding ecosystem relationships, anticipating changing market structures, and creating new business models. Many of us watched silos crumble almost overnight in the rush to respond to COVID-19: Teams became more cross-functional, while ideas, experiences, resources, and expertise were quickly shared in ways that enabled organizations to take more informed, holistic actions. Leaders should consider which of those barriers can be permanently removed.

Sustaining society

Sustaining society requires us as resilient leaders to take an even more active role in influencing social systems and structures for the greater good. Leadership for the greater good requires followership, and followership is engendered by trust.

Within society more broadly, trust is needed now more urgently than ever, particularly amid the uncertainties of social disruption and the changing role of institutions. As we consider the organizational and institutional changes in systems and structures, building trust will be essential to successfully guiding society.

Additionally, influence is one of the most impactful and lasting contributions. Where there is racial or economic injustice, it is often ossified systems and entrenched institutions that perpetuate the unfair status quo. Given each of our organizations’ vast web of relationships—with customers, vendors, ecosystem partners, governments, communities—how do we connect and leverage the full potential of these networks to reform social systems and structures?

Sustaining our ability to lead

We owe it to our people, our organizations, and society to be personally fit in mind, body, and purpose to serve them over the long haul. Facing what may be the most extraordinary leadership challenge in our lifetimes, the risk is that we will cross the depletion point before we recognize it. We must not only sustain others—we must sustain ourselves.

None of us know how long the COVID-19 crisis will last or the path the virus will take. Likewise, the major disruptions stemming from racial injustices, social inequality, climate change, and economic stress may further lengthen the path to a “better” normal. As CEOs, we are called upon to sustain through the crisis.

These sustaining responsibilities are akin to a stone dropped in a pond: The stone drops deep into the water, sustaining our ability to lead by looking inward; the ripples reach out to sustain our employees by walking alongside them, our organizations by courageously refining the strategy and playing offense, and society by investing in trust to make positive social change in institutions and systems.

To learn more about what it takes to be a resilient leader on the road to Thrive, please click here.

[i] Based on survey of Deloitte client service leaders, July 16–20, 2020.

[ii] The tension between defense and offense is similar to the tension within “ambidexterity” between optimization and exploration in Benjamin Finzi, Vincent Firth, and Mark Lipton’s Ambidextrous leadership: Keystone of the undisruptable CEO, Deloitte Insights, October 18, 2018.

Punit Renjen

Punit Renjen

Punit is in his 33rd year with Deloitte and became CEO of Deloitte Global in June 2015. Deloitte operates in more than 150 countries, with approximately 300,000 professionals. Punit is also a member of the Deloitte Global Board of Directors.

As Deloitte Global CEO, Punit set in motion a global strategy to achieve undisputed leadership in professional services. In his first term, he led efforts that resulted in double-digit aggregate revenue growth globally, with Deloitte becoming the largest of the professional services organizations. Currently Deloitte is recognized as the strongest and most valuable commercial services brand. Also, during his tenure, Deloitte advanced audit quality through significant investments and focus.

As a tangible expression of Deloitte’s commitment to its purpose of making an impact that matters, Punit launched Deloitte’s signature corporate responsibility program, WorldClass, to empower 50 million people to succeed in a rapidly changing global economy. Punit is also committed to advancing diversity and inclusion at Deloitte, including through measurable actions toward gender balance across Deloitte and within its leadership ranks.

In June 2019, he started serving his second elected term.

Punit has held several leadership roles within Deloitte, including serving as the chairman of Deloitte LLP (US) from 2011-2015 and before that, as CEO of Deloitte Consulting LLP (US). During his tenure as CEO of Deloitte Consulting, the practice experienced tremendous growth despite an ongoing recession, helping it become one of the largest consulting organizations according to leading analysts’ rankings.

Outside of Deloitte, Punit is a member of The Business Roundtable, The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, and serves as the member of several not for profit boards including at the United Way Worldwide (chairman) and the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (vice chairman). He was named an honoree to the 2012, 2013 and 2014 National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) “Directorship 100.”

Punit was born and raised in India. He moved to the United States after receiving a Rotary Foundation Scholarship to Willamette University. He has served on the board of trustees of Willamette University and was named among the 100 most influential business leaders who have graduated from schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. In the spring of 2019, Willamette University conferred upon Punit an honorary doctorate. He is married and has a son.

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