Octane Results: OPERATIONS

How Do Great Managers Create a Culture of Feedback?

30 September, 2019

The leadership experts at FranklinCovey have released the essential guide to transforming into the great manager your team deserves. From Scott Jeffrey Miller with Todd Davis and Victoria Roos Olsson, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager provides the support and strategies you need to be a better leader. With permission from Simon & Schuster, Inc., we share an excerpt from the chapter, “Creating a Culture of Feedback.”

How many of us can remember the exact moment we received some difficult feedback? I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that feedback is often traumatic, for both the giver and the receiver. And yet Dr. Stephen R. Covey wrote, “One of the greatest gifts you can give another human being is constructive feedback on a blind spot they never knew they had. It’s a great disservice not to say what needs to be said just because it isn’t comfortable. Care enough to give honest, accurate feedback.”

Now, I can appreciate that my restaurant manager had the courage to tell it to me straight. He had the right intention, but the skills in this chapter would have helped him deliver sensitive feedback without an index card.

Categories: LEADERSHIP OPERATIONS PEOPLE/STAFF

Tags: franklin covey Scott Jeffrey Miller Todd Davis Victoria Roos Olsson

Seven Ways Your Employees Could Unintentionally Compromise Your Business’s Cyber Security

2 September, 2019

Written for EO by Annie Button.

Humans are often cited by businesses as a weak link in the cybersecurity chain. And while some people tend to focus on the threat posed by malicious hackers or bitter insiders, it is actually unintentional mistakes and compromises that are a much bigger issue.

Check out these seven ways that your employees could unwittingly compromise your organization’s cybersecurity, as well as some of the measures you can put in place to mitigate the risk.

1. Using personal devices
The rise of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) means that more employees are using their own devices to read company emails and access sensitive business information. Unlike business-owned devices, which can be easily audited and controlled by your IT team, personal devices may not have antivirus software installed, and could have a huge range of other exploitable weaknesses.

Categories: OPERATIONS PEOPLE/STAFF

Tags: Annie button BYOD cybersecurity dark data employee it

Making Steps Toward Better Mental Health in Your Workplace

19 August, 2019

Written for EO by Angela White, an ed-tech consultant and contributor.

Despite options like remote work and virtual offices, adults will spend at least one-third of their lives working. And our workplace environment, culture and habits have a significant impact on our health—particularly our mental health—which, in turn, has a great effect on our productivity.

In fact, a study led by World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year in lost productivity. The organization further states that “Employers and managers who put in place workplace initiatives to promote mental health and to support employees who have mental disorders see gains not only in the health of their employees but also in their productivity at work.”

Categories: BUSINESS GROWTH HEALTH LEADERSHIP OPERATIONS

Tags: Angela White Employee net promoter score (NPS) software mental health Mental Wellbeing survey

Cybersecurity for Startups: How to Protect Your Business

1 August, 2019

Large-scale data breaches, such as the Equifax hack, are ubiquitous nowadays. But if you think that breaches only affect high-profile companies, then you are mistaken. In fact, three out of five small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have fallen victim to a cyber attack.

Many small businesses that suffer a cyber attack never recover. Can you imagine all of your hard work getting your startup off the ground going to waste like that? Thus, entrepreneurs must protect their startups with strong cybersecurity measures from the get-go.

Take these steps to ensure maximum protection for your startup:

Categories: OPERATIONS STARTUP

Tags: cyber attack cybersecurity equifax startups

How to Spot and Eliminate Nincompoopery at Your Business

30 July, 2019

John Brandt, CEO and founder of The MPI Group and author of Nincompoopery: Why Your Customers Hate You—and How to Fix It, recently answered questions on customer satisfaction, hiring, innovation and leading change.

What is Nincompoopery?

It’s the corporate stupidity that drives customers crazy, and keeps everyone—customers, employees, managers and business owners—from getting what they want. It’s what happens every time you expect a company’s service or product or process to work, but it doesn’t—and nobody can seem to fix it, even though everybody knows what’s wrong.

For example: Have you ever taken your car to get fixed, been inconvenienced for several hours as you waited, only to discover that the repair was done badly or not at all? Not only do you have to take the car back; you also have to wait again as the car is fixed a second time, or else drive an unsafe vehicle. You’re irritated, the shop loses money, the mechanic’s boss is frustrated, and the mechanic is told that he or she is a nincompoop, or at least feels like one.

Categories: BUSINESS GROWTH OPERATIONS PR/MARKETING

Tags: customers hiring innovation John Brandt MPI Group Nincompoopery

3 Ways to Apply an Agile Mindset

19 July, 2019

Written for EO by Sarah Fruy, director of online marketing at Pantheon Platform.

I admit it. I was a traditionalist. For a long time, I followed a one-step-at-a-time approach to project management.

All my efforts went to seeing the end product through—not knowing whether it would even be successful after launch. I would spend lengthy cycles working toward a goal. I found it difficult to say no when new projects came across my desk, and my timelines would get derailed. If the project succeeded, it made a tremendous impact. But if the big idea failed, my whole quarter was ruined. Clearly, something needed to change.

Shawn Livermon, director of product management at my company, had seen great success running his division using an iterative approach and felt that roles outside of his department could benefit as well. With his encouragement, our entire marketing team and several colleagues from other departments enrolled to become certified facilitators of the agile mindset.

Categories: OPERATIONS

Tags: agile agile mindset Pantheon Platform project management Sarah Fruy

Creating a Successful Future: An Interview with Skip Prichard

19 April, 2019

Skip Prichard is a growth-oriented business leader, turnaround specialist and keynote speaker. He has written a Wall Street Journal bestselling book called The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future.

Can you explain the significance of the concept, “Ask. Seek. Knock.”

It may be a simple concept, but it had a profound impact on me.

The late business philosopher Jim Rohn taught that success is not available to everyone. He shared the wisdom from the Bible that says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Success, Jim taught, is only available to those who ask, seek and knock. That means we must take an active role in seeking wisdom and bettering ourselves.

Learning and growing our business starts with learning and growing ourselves. It is this change that has a lasting impact. I have seen business results soar when a committed group of people embark on the path of personal development. It’s counterintuitive, and many resist it, but it is often the key to changing culture and improving outcomes.

Categories: Coaching OPERATIONS STRATEGY

Tags: Jim Rohn Skip Prichard The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future

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Octane Results: OPERATIONS

What is Nincompoopery?

Can you explain the significance of the concept, “Ask. Seek. Knock.”