Managing Efficiency--Leadership Lessons
Posted by Celia Couture on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 @ 08:18 AM
Many business owners have had to cut staff and expenses to ensure viabilty during these challenging financial times. Many employees are being asked to do more with less or to take on responsibilities previously held by other co-workers in order to meet financial challenges. It is more important than ever that business leaders position themselves to do a better job at helping employees work smarter and finding ways to hold employees accountable for results. Over the past several months, I have been working with a number of executives on creating mechanism and tools for them to play a more active role in monitoring progress while keeping an eye on the bottom line. Companies can't afford to be lax in their tenacity to hold people to deadlines, cost control and process efficiencies. Time management is one of the keys to success, but most leaders need assistance managing the huge volume of work delegated to members of the team.
Executives have a difficult time balancing both the strategic needs of the company and the actions they require of others to meet their overall goals. Facilitating this work can be onerous, but with some simple tools, executives can achieve great success while continuing to monitor the bottom line.
The following are successful tips that might be of use at your company:
- Wikis are a great way to facilitate the collection of ideas by a diverse or broad management team all working on the same product introduction or project. Wikis can also be used to manage a large account as everyone has the opportunity to add their information in ONE place so that key members of the team all have the same information. Wikis have become a great and cost effective project managment tool.
- Project/Process Management tools can be expensive and difficult to use. Simplifying the steps to help project or process leaders monitor action items and deadlines is key to success. A simple tool which highlight the action, the required next step, the due date and owner which can be placed on a simple excel spreadsheet is a quick way to review information and maintain momentum on key process or project issues.
By using Wikis with a customized project management tool you suddenly have a respository for great ideas as well as a mechanism to review action items, deadlines and progress. CC Consulting, LLC has been working with companies to introduce them to new technology and to facilitate teams wanting to gain efficiency.
businesses have suffered losses in staff and as a result more people are doing two or three jobs. I pride myself in helping companies gain efficiency by helping them put in place tools that assist with process efficiency and accountability. We have all been asked to do more with less. I have been successful in helping companies