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Showing posts with label management training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label management training. Show all posts
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Make social media work for your business
02:22 | 
Posted by
ATC
I went to a Business Link seminar a few months ago to learn about Twitter. There were lots of people at the event, and from the comments in the room, I believe that most people were new or newish to using social media. Whilst the speaker was very engaging and encouraged us all to go away and start using Twitter, which I did, I didn't really understand what I was doing. I signed up for Twitter and half-heartedly attempted to use it, but I can't say it really grabbed me as I didn't know what I was doing.
I continued hearing about the great benefits to be had from using social media but this didn't mirror my experiences, so I must admit I wasn't convinced by the whole social media 'thing'. This seems to be the case for a lot of SMEs according to a recent report carried out by a UK non-profit organisation for SMEs. Apparently, more than 50% of SMEs in the UK are unsure of the benefits they can get from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In, so are not committed to using them to promote their business.
I am convinced that this is down to not understanding how to use these social media sites and not understanding what benefits they can bring to your business. This is understandable - I was in the same position a few months ago. I then decided to invest in some training, which was money well spent.
I now understand how to use social media sites, what I need to be doing and how often. As with everything in life, there is always more to be learnt, but I least I no longer feel as though I'm stumbling around in the dark
My advice to anyone about to start using Twitter, Facebook, Linked In etc is don't waste time - find out how to use them properly from the start!
Labels:
engage,
facebook,
invest,
Linked In,
management training,
Marketing,
promote,
SME,
Social Media,
twitter
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Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Being a first time manager should be fun..(or not!?)
13:49 |
Posted by
ATC
Most people probably wouldn’t put having fun as a priority if they were asked to list what they wanted from their first management job. Of course it depends on what the word means to us individually and as we know interpreting other peoples meanings can be problematic and inaccurate.
So what would you expect from your first management job? Perhaps an increase in pay, the opportunity to influence change, endless meetings, less holidays... Some ideas will come from friends or colleagues in management, or from studying management theory and inevitably some ideas will be drawn from the experience of being managed. Whatever prior knowledge someone has, they will draw their own mental picture of what to expect.
Well whatever we imagine – there’s a chance that the reality will be very different - some things will be better, some different, some unexpected and some much worse. We however believe, that there is one thing that is almost impossible to imagine even closely is just how much first time managers are expected to be experts in areas (like finance, chairing meetings, dealing with bullying and harassment....) that they have no experience of or training for.
Now we’re not suggesting that this will be a problem for everyone, but research has shown that many staff have little respect for their managers and we believe in part this stems from the insufficient support or effective training the managers receive in their first post. At best some new mangers are being put under unnecessary stress and at worst are being set up to fail.
One of the reasons why the driving test has become more rigorous over the years is that it is recognised that once a driver picks up a bad habit then it is hard to lose it – especially after they have passed when there is no instructor beside them. Well the same applies to first time managers. If they pick up bad habits in their first job in the way they manage themselves and their teams, they will often carry these on through their management career. And we are speaking here from experience. The fact is that managers are developed – no one is born one.
So starting today we are launching a series of blogs and downloadable tip sheets to assist first time managers with ideas, advice, and tried and tested practical examples that could be used as suggested or adapted for your own context.
Click here for Ten Top Tips – Communicating effectively with your team
If you get it right – that first time management job should be fun ... or not!?
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