Team Leader Toolbox Webinar. Thriving in your first leadership role

If you are interested in leading a team effectively or just want to be prepared for future leadership positions, sign up for this FREE IEEE WEBINAR now!

Team Leader Toolbox Webinar

Team Leader Toolbox Webinar

I’ll be running this webinar organised by the IEEE Victorian Technology & Engineering Management chapter to support young professionals in their transition to leadership positions, with practical tips and resources to effectively lead a team.

Thursday 15 Dec 2016 6:30pm (Melbourne time). More information, time conversion and registration at HERE

Decision making: dealing with other’s criticism

Decision makingSome time ago, I was advising a person in his first steps on a leadership role, and it came up one of the most difficult issues in management, especially for young professionals: you can’t make everyone happy with your decisions.

Decision making is one of the main entrusted responsibilities companies place on managers, confident that they will do what is best for their departments and the company. Continue reading

9 Points for Effective Brainstorming (Part II)

BrainstormingIn the first post I described the main key points for planning a successful brainstorming session. They were basically the tips related to the preparation of the workshop. Now let’s focus on some useful points to lead the session itself. Continue reading

9 Points for Effective Brainstorming (Part I)

Brainstorming SessionBrainstorming is one of the most popular tools used by professional teams to find innovative solutions and ideas. It’s a quite popular technique and I’ve heard many times of people suggesting a brainstorming session to find innovative solutions for difficult problems. However, to be effective, this technique needs to be carefully led. I’ve seen many brainstorming meetings that derived in a disorganised discussion without achieving any concrete results.
After leading many brainstorming meetings I’d like to share with you 9 tips for running a successful brainstorming
session. Continue reading

Labelling Employees: Don’t Do It any more!

Don't put labels to your employeesMaintenance managers, supervisors and team leaders usually have a perception about their people and most of the time that perception is considered permanent. For example, ‘John’s lack of enthusiasm’, ‘Tom’s laziness’, ‘Kate’s intelligence’ and so on.
Sometimes a person that is shy and looked at as incompetent only needs an opportunity to stand out. I will tell you a story that changed my perspective about this matter. Continue reading

Six key points to delegate effectively (Part II)

Effdel

In my previous post I started talking about effective delegation. I described the first three aspects: politeness, present a reason, and describe the goal among the six point that, in my opinion, are key to successfully delegate tasks to our employees.

Let’s talk about the next three: setting deadlines, giving support and recognizing a good job. Continue reading

Six key points to delegate effectively (Part I)

posta

The number one skill of great leaders is communication, which the leader uses in many ways. It is one of the most important talents needed by the leader to effectively delegate work to his collaborators (employees).
In my 15 years of service in the military (the first four in the Air Force Officer’s Academy), I had the opportunity to learn something about both giving orders and delegating tasks. There is quite a difference between these two even though they seem rather similar. While both have the ultimate goal of getting something done, delegating tasks leaves more room for creativity and synergy than simply giving orders.
Continue reading