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It has been said, there is no better way to hone your skills and improve your performance, than competition. Competing with others, or even with your self, fosters continued improvement, striving for even higher goals, and an ongoing sense of achievement. Competition in the world of business is natural and expected. Every business has competitors that are vying for the dollars in the marketplace. And over the years, some of these competitors have been classic. Coke versus Pepsi comes to mind, as does Avis versus Hertz in the rental car industry. Years ago Miller Lite had commercials where two factions of their fans competed over the reason to buy their product. As a crowd gathered half the group would shout out "Less Filling!!" while the other half would retort "Tastes Great!!!" They were humorous commercials with Miller Lite being the only real competitor. These classic competitions served to strengthen the product itself and made the competitors stronger. In effect, both Pepsi and Coke won, as did Avis and Hertz. Competition can be a very intense experience and a very rewarding one, or it can be enormously destructive. - Andrea Lawrence - Ski Champion But what about competition inside your workplace? Can you improve morale or increase motivation through a contest? Does internal competition make your department stronger, or does it divide the group into "winners" and "losers", with the real loser being the customer? That was the question that a client had for me this month. She runs a national organization that is divided up into 6 geographic regions, each producing basically the same product. Her desire was increase productivity by having the 6 regions compete for cash prizes and trips. "Morale has been a little low recently, and I figure a 6 month contest with the winner at the end getting a pretty substantial prize will be a big boost!!" she said. "Sounds interesting", I replied. "Personally, I've always enjoyed competitions and have frequently used them to create excitement in my groups. There is one thing to watch out for", I told her. "Be careful that the competition serves the customer and not just the leadership. Because sometimes 'winning' the competition becomes a goal unto itself and when winning the game becomes the goal, your customer can be the loser." Positive competitions are marked by strong, resilient groups looking to move their productivity to even higher levels. You tap the creativity of your people and ask them to find new and creative ways to accomplish their tasks. They know that the other groups will find creative ways to move forward and it taps into their creative and competitive juices. At the end of a positive competition, all of the groups have moved forward as the competitors find little things that they can do. At that point, all of the groups and the customers are winners. Ultimately, that is the goal of every competition in the workplace. But it doesn't always turn out that way. What would make it a "bad" competition? Bad competitions are marked by the following characteristics: 1. The groups are not well organized or well led. Productivity is bad and competition is viewed as a last resort to increase the numbers. 2. There are clear "winners" and "losers" of the competition. Instead of trying to move everyone forward, the winners are hyped and the others are castigated for not doing enough. 3. At some level in the management chain "winning the competition" is equated with earning a promotion or even keeping their jobs. 4. The competition is used as a motivation technique. Motivation and rewards are often confused, but distinctly different. 5. The people actually engaged in the competition don't view is as a test of their creativity, but as just one more way to try and pry more hours from them. The Law of Win/Win says, ''Let's not do it your way or my way; let's do it the best way. - Greg Anderson American Author The key to a positive competition lies in the win/win nature of the contest itself. When your contests have losers, you can rest assured that when you do your final accounting that morale will be one of the sure losers. Magic Secrets Revealed. - Find out how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear or how David Blaine levitated off the sidewalk! Make A Living Online Course. - David Vallieres Provides Detailed Instruction for Making a Living Online. Guest post written by Stuart Ngai, Director of Technology Solutions, VERAX
It’s an investment that pays off Sure, everyone is very busy these days. And most IT managers have long days in addition to the constant bombardment of mobile messages. However, if you neglect to put a good effort to nurture your IT staff, it will come back to bite you in the form of low employee morale, low productivity, high turnover, and lack of innovation to name a few. Thus, preventive steps on a consistent basis is essential to keep a healthy workforce working for you. So take the time to nurture your valuable IT staff. Upper management buy-in is a must Now that you’ve been reminded of the importance of nurturing your staff, is that enough? My experience tells me that unless you also get your boss to recognize and help drive this important aspect of being a manager, it might be an uphill battle you’ll be taking all on your own shoulders. So do spend time to keep the benefits of training front and center with your boss amongst many “must do’s”. Having well trained IT staff will not only benefit both you and your boss in achieving and exceeding your deliverable objectives while creating a great work environment for all. The 10% allocation rule So you and your boss are persuaded. But how much should be set aside for investing in people without affecting your capacity to deliver? Well, many IT businesses tend to be cyclical and you should definitely take advantage of the downtime for training. But by default, use the 10% time allocation rule over the course of the year to ensure reasonable time is dedicated for your IT staff to up keep their skills. Now, that doesn’t directly translate to a 10% reduction in productivity. There are a number of ways you can afford to keep with the 10% rule without breaking your bank. So read on. Know strategic directions for your company and industry Great, your boss is on board and you’ve set a budget aside. What’s next? Well, just like you don’t get on a highway before deciding where you are going, you need to know the strategic focus of your company and trends in your industry before you start planning with your staff. As an example, I recently purchased a state of the art, air-thin laptop for my son for his university study away from home even though I know it doesn’t run all the fancy shooting games that he loves on his desktop at home. As a result, he now has a sleek laptop that’s the envy of his friends while he’s getting top marks because he doesn’t waste hours shooting at colourful pixels. Mean dad you say; may be. But he ends up ahead with his leading edge gadget while happy getting top marks in university – just have to borrow his friends’ clunky desktops for the occasional thrills. Likewise, as an IT manager, you need to know what’s good for your company and where the industry is heading before entertaining any training requests. Listen to your staff Now you are aware of the direction of your company and industry. Time to sit down with your staff to listen. Knowing everyone’s different, you definitely need to spend time listening carefully to the areas that they feel they need to beef up while you let them know the direction that’s important for your company and what you see as the important trends in your industry. Help them focus on some concrete and measureable goals so as to keep a focus on the objectives. Do encourage creativity from your staff in terms of learning style so to maximize the benefits based on your budget. To be continued next Monday. Share Your Thoughts How do you go about planning and managing training for your staff? Do you have any pointers or advice for others? Join the conversation in the AlignIT for Infrastructure and Development Managers group on LinkedIn. Stuart Ngai
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Stuart Ngai, Director of Technology Solutions at