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Category: Expert Advice

Created: 08 February 2013

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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Five simple ways to save money in winter.

Some tips to lower your energy billsWith winter well and truly established blowing high winds, snow and the worst of all, cold, its time to look at some handy tips to lower your energy bills.

1. Switch to a new supplier who may have a better deal on the table. Also check out if your current provider has any special offers. In Ireland only two out of five households have switched, and those that have both gas and electricity can reduce annual bills by up to €20 per month simply by switching to the cheapest deals.
2. Beware of suppliers who offer special discounts! Typically these generally only last for one year after which time customers are then moved back to a more expensive standard rate. So it’s a good idea to check energy prices on an annual basis.
3. Be aware that some suppliers are now asking customers to sign up to contracts for two years with up to €100 in penalties if people leave before the full term is up. So it makes more sense to just sign up for one year at the most.
4. It’s amazing how we never check our own meters. We trust the utility company to do it for us. Your meter is read 4 times a year but you also receive estimated bills which can vary substantially from actual usage. Always submit your own reading when you receive a bill. This will ensure that you pay only for what you use.
5. Invest in an electricity monitor. These cost from around €30, are simple to set up and will tell you at any time how much electricity your home is using. They also can be programmed to let you know the cost.

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Written by Administrator

Parent Category: Business and Finance

Category: Expert Advice

Created: 25 January 2013

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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Get Rewarded Negatively for Doing the Right Thing.

Paisley_McGuinnessWe tend to think about parliamentary democracy as the high water mark of human political achievement. Some countries are so in awe of it, they even try to export it around the globe. But, is parliamentary democracy actually a recipe for mediocrity? One late night comedian quipped: “In a recent fire Enda Kenny’s library burned down. Both books were lost. And he hadn’t even finished colouring one of them.” But let’s circle above the question of individual capability and take a systems-view of how politics works.

Status Quo: At the heart of parliamentary democracy there is a fundamental dilemma. Politicians have to get re-elected every four or five years. To get elected they need to be ‘popular’ on local issues. And, as Tip O’Neill, the former speaker of the House of Representatives in the US reminded us, all politics are local. To state the obvious, being popular is the opposite of being unpopular. It follows that when politicians support unpopular issues (in Ireland, think septic tanks or water metering charges); they run the risk of losing their seat. So, this issue of maintaining popularity is central to being a successful politician. We say that we don’t value Parish Pump (in the USA, Pork Barrel) Politics. We claim that we want to elect intelligent statesmen and women. Then, at the polls, we continually re-elect politicians who get the lighting fixed on our street or secure a house for our half-mad Uncle. Historically, the most successful politicians, like Bertie Ahern, understood this fundamental point all too well. They took the tip from Tip, and tipped the balance! Try saying that sentence after 12 Bacardi’s and Cokes.

Non-Elected: Those of us who don’t have to get re-elected continually talk about the diamond opportunity to reform the public sector and make sweeping changes to the Irish taxation and social welfare systems. We decry the fact that the government has effectively ignored the quip from Rahm Emanuel to “Never waste a good crisis” and seem to have settled for minor modifications to the status quo. The political tree has been denuded of all the low hanging fruit (like the Croke Park Agreement). But would we be any different if faced with similar hard choices? Look at the most recent political race in America.

Coloured States: Most of us are familiar with the Red (Republican) and Blue (Democratic) states. To oversimplify, the red states want the government to lower taxes and for people to take care of themselves in a form of ‘winner takes all’. The blue states want the government to play a wealth redistribution role, more akin to our European model. So, what sort of big decisions fall out of this? It turns out that there are enormously important decisions in the space between blue and red. Example: In relation to health care, ‘end of life spending’ (the amount of money spent on a person in the final year of their life) typically equates to what has been spent on them in the previous 20 years. As a society, we are spending a huge amount of money keeping very old people alive. Should we? Or should people who particularly want to stay alive in this supported state, pay an additional insurance policy to cover this? Likewise, should people with obesity and smokers pay extra policy premiums? These are brutally tough questions without easy answers. And the political world is made up of similar choices. Cut public sector pay or the Home Carers allowance? Stop building schools or stall the new Children’s Hospital in Dublin? And so on.

Managerial Life: In the consulting game, we continually challenge organizations and sometimes have to confront individuals. Our core stance is to establish authentic relationships, to have real conversations, without fear of where the ‘next invoice’ is going to come from. Of course, I’d like to believe that if I was a politician this authentic style would be quite similar. But would it? During the current recession all executives are faced with making unpopular decisions. Unless you are a psychopath, you probably don’t relish announcing pay cuts or laying people off. But, then, you don’t have to get re-elected. So, the next time you are mouthing off against politicians in general, just think about how you might respond if your job was dependant on a popular vote from staff and how this might affect your decision-making.

Good News: Those of us, who are simply tasked with managing organizations, don’t have to be re-elected. It follows that we have zero excuse for not cracking on with making deep changes that will secure the future of our organizations. Lead or get out of the way. Isn’t that what we are paid to do?

By Paul Mooney (PHD)

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Written by Administrator

Parent Category: Business and Finance

Category: Expert Advice

Created: 11 January 2013

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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Become a Brilliant Delegator.

DelegationIf you could ‘fix’ one thing in 2013, this just might be it.
Core Idea: There’s no such thing as a single-handed success. We all need help now and again. If you’re really serious about becoming a powerful player, you need to learn to delegate. Now, buckle in for the science!

Richard Branson:

Here’s how Branson recently described the importance of delegation: Imagine you’re a professional juggler. As a novice, you start juggling and slowly increase the number of balls to help draw a larger crowd. As the crowd increases, so does their expectation. You start adding more difficult items like pins. It’s going well. Sometimes you drop a ball but you continue and your audience slowly grows. Then you decide to move to riskier stuff, adding flaming arrows and chainsaws. The crowd loves what you do and you want to keep all the elements going (balls, pins, flaming arrows and chainsaws). But the risk is getting very high now. If you drop a ball it’s fine. But drop a chainsaw and you’ll end up in a wheelchair. So what do you do? You delegate. You hire an assistant to take the easy stuff out of your hands (balls and pins) and leave you with the important stuff (flaming arrows and chainsaws). If they drop a ball now and then, it’s not that big a deal. Just teach them what they need to change. Before you know it, you’ll no longer have to worry about them dropping anything. Perhaps you don’t buy the juggling analogy? Here’s some more arguments in favour of building your skills in this area:

Time Poor:

Time is the most precious commodity for executives. No matter how hard you work, you can’t do everything by yourself. Leveraging time has always been the ‘X Factor’ in executive success. If you’re feeling overworked, stressed, or falling behind, chances are that you are holding onto more responsibilities or tasks than is reasonable. Key Question: Who else could do this?

Full Headlights:

As you move up the organization, senior executives watch to see whether you get the job done, but also how you get it done. They want leadership skills demonstrated with a focus on the future. Mid-ranking executives often spend too much time dealing with immediate problems, and not enough time working strategically on process improvements and building organizational capability. Delegation allows you the space to work ‘on’ the business (rather than being continually sucked ‘into’ it). Key Question: Can you switch from dipped onto full headlights and look further out the road?

Developing Managers:

Your job = getting the ‘next generation’ of managers ready for a bigger role. Adults learn by doing – not by hearing or seeing – but by getting involved in the action. Like that old line “You go to college to do your MBA, and then go to work to learn the rest of the alphabet”. Delegation allows senior people to leverage their time and offers developmental opportunities to junior managers. Key Question: Are you investing any real effort in this?

Great Idea: But here’s a killer question: “If delegation is such a great idea, how come it’s not used much?” There are a several reasons to explain why executives avoid delegation. Do any of these reasons apply to you?

(1) Some executives have never seen delegation in action and don’t really understand how it works
(2) Others have a negative experience of senior managers pushing the ‘crap’ parts of their job downwards, labeling laziness as delegation
(3) Those of a perfectionist bent often hold the view that “If you want something done right, do it yourself”. They never learn to let go and some actually compete with their managers to show them ‘how it should be done’ (the managerial equivalent of ‘mine is bigger than yours’). The result = junior managers become more and more dependent, and less able to act on their own
(4) Perhaps you enjoy doing particular tasks and don’t want to give them away; you just wish you had more time to do them all. Executives that don’t get satisfaction from watching their managers succeed might actually be happier in individual contributor roles. Career advice: Go back to being an engineer or an accountant – don’t clog up that senior role where the expectation is that you will manage differently than you did 10 or 15 years ago
(5) Sometimes executives feel that managers are already under pressure and are reluctant to assign more work, for fear of overloading them. If your managers think that you are dumping on them, this might well be the case. But where you communicate that delegation is part of your philosophy to help them grow, this is pretty unlikely
(6) Finally, there are a small number of executives who fear delegating on the basis of being outshone by their staff. There probably is no cure for this group; they should be rounded up at the back of the factory and shot!

3 Steps to Success:

To delegate effectively, you need to do three things
(1) choose the right tasks to delegate
(2) identify the right people to hand over to
(3) delegate in the right way. Complex? Not really, albeit it does take a bit of practice. Just remember that the potential prize is huge. Here’s how to make it work.

Step #1: Choose the right tasks to delegate: Check your diary (or ask your PA to do this) over the past month or so. Review what you are actually doing and how long you spend at individual tasks. When a job is scattered throughout the day or week or month, executives often seriously underestimate how much time they spend at it. Remember, when you’re doing, you’re not managing. Instead, you’re attending to tasks that could be handled by lower-cost people. The principle = division of labor i.e. work should be done by people best qualified to do it at the least expense to the organization. And there’s a second subtle point at play here. As an executive, you are not just another manager. You are a coach. Coaches understand the importance of teaching, motivating, and taking pride in the performance of others. It’s moving away from managing (focusing on what needs to be done today) towards leading (what you are trying to build tomorrow). Get those headlights onto a blue beam!

Ask Yourself: “How much of the work that I currently do myself would I hand off to my managers if I were comfortable that this would be completed within quality parameters?” When asked this question, many executives respond that they would hand off up to 50 per cent of their workload. Here are some examples of good tasks to delegate:

a. Eliminate It: All too often, work continues to be done because it has always been done. If you set aside time to review your work, you will probably find opportunities to streamline processes and procedures. Don’t delegate anything that can be eliminated.
b. Repeat Tasks: Delegate tasks you do over and over. You’ve probably mastered them, but managers could learn new skills by completing these for you.
c. Complete Jobs: Try to delegate complete jobs, rather than portions. It gives managers the chance to come up with creative solutions from start to finish and feel a sense of ownership and pride about their work.
d. Long Deadlines: Delegate tasks that don’t have immediate deadlines. These provide good opportunities for managers to learn without too much time pressure.
e. Mission Critical: Would a failure de-rail the business? If it’s a ‘bet the farm’ project, don’t hand it over to someone else.

Hold Back:

Of course, not everything can be delegated. Sometimes you’re in charge of a project because of your particular expertise and D.I.Y. is the best bet. If a project is confidential, it may not be possible to outsource this. And some jobs, by their very nature, need to be done by the person sitting in the executive seat (“Excuse me Theresa. After lunch, could you inform George that he’s fired? Thanks, I really appreciate it”). So, let’s assume that you have segmented your job into two columns – the bits that you can do and those elements that you can safely ask someone else to tackle. What happens next?

Step #2: Choose the right people to delegate to: Not all managers are created equally. Before you hive off a chunk of work, consider your managers’ skill level, motivation and dependability. Matching the person and the task is more art than science; start small and be patient. When you find the right manager for the work in question, everybody wins.

a. Showing Potential: Have particular people shown an appetite to move up a level? Encourage this by giving them ‘chunks’ of your current job to complete.
b. Skill Up: Delegate a task to a manager who needs to work on particular skills (awkwardness at running meetings, failure to meet deadlines etc). Use delegation to help the manager overcome the obstacle and advance their career.

Step #3: Delegate in the Right Way: How many times have you been given a job and the first thing you need to figure out is “what exactly am I supposed to do here?” When you are assigning unfamiliar tasks, be specific in explaining what you need, the expected quality standard and timelines. Detailing an assignment (in writing) leaves less room for error based on misunderstanding.

Pro-Forma: It’s really useful to use a standard format for this. This should include: Description (what you want done), Purpose (how it fits into the overall business goals), Timelines (milestones for checking in), Authority (the type of decisions that can be made) and Resources. A standard format will help to become adept at quickly delegating tasks to others and will become part of your managerial toolkit. It’s much easier than ‘re-inventing’ the ‘form’ each time you want to delegate a project. When you delegate a task, you retain accountability for the successful completion of the work. To hand over is to trade one kind of work for another. You still have to manage, coach, and appraise and there are key steps in this:

a. End Results: Remember that you are delegating responsibilities, not methods. It’s OK to talk about techniques you’ve found helpful, but not every person will do the job the same way (the manager may find a better way to do the job). Focus on results.
b. Project Control: Explain how performance will be measured and the level of accountability that comes with the task. We know we shouldn’t micro-manage. However, this doesn’t mean we abdicate control. In effective delegation, we have to find the (sometimes difficult) balance between providing space for people to use their abilities, while monitoring to ensure that the job is done correctly.
c. Bite Sized: Large projects may be easier to monitor if they are broken into smaller segments where staff report to you after each segment is completed. Doing this daily, weekly, or monthly will help you keep on track. If the Dublin to Cork train does not reach Portlaoise in an hour, Irish Rail know that something has gone amiss. A similar review mechanism will keep your projects on track. Staying informed limits the possibility of failure.
d. Staff Coaching: When you delegate an assignment, make it clear that managers can come to you with questions. New tasks are always confusing. Be patient and ‘catch people doing something right’ to build their confidence. Research clearly demonstrates that people live up (or down) to our expectations. It’s important to realize how your support and expressed confidence can help a manager succeed. Equally, hesitation, even if never stated verbally, can undermine a positive outcome.
e. Be Patient: When you first start to delegate, the manager will take longer than you do to complete tasks. Remember, you are the expert in the field and the person you have delegated to is learning. If you’ve chosen the right person and you are delegating correctly, he or she will quickly becomes competent. Be patient.
f. Full Acceptance: When delegated work is delivered to you, set aside enough time to review it thoroughly. Only accept high quality, fully-completed work. If you accept work where you’re not satisfied, the manager does not learn to do the job properly. Worse, you accept a new tranche of work that you will need to complete yourself. Of course, when good work is returned, make sure you recognise and reward the effort. Give managers the recognition they deserve and don’t (this is a huge No No) take credit for their work.
g. Post Mortems: Ask the manager to reflect on ‘lessons learned’. It’s important for managers to know that you will tolerate imperfection. Encourage them to be open when mistakes have been made and to learn from this. Ask: “What are the two most important insights you’ve gained from this experience?” & “What would you do differently next time out?”

Is it worth it?

At first glance, delegation might feel like more hassle than it’s worth. And that would be… a major mistake. Some years back, I saw an old cartoon. It depicted a medieval battle scene where the soldiers were fighting using longbows and swords. Just off the battlefield one of the soldiers was explaining a new technology (a machine-gun) to the King who said: “I don’t have time for this newfangled stuff, we have a battle to fight”.

If you want to put rocket fuel on your own career, learn how to delegate effectively. Become a productivity legend while getting most of your work done by others. Now, what’s not to like about that idea?

Paul MooneyBy Paul Mooney (PHD)

Mob: 00353 (0) 872439019

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Written by Administrator

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Created: 12 October 2012

Last Updated: 05 January 2016

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More than a third of Irish organisations
have no policy in place

Matthew McCann director Ricoh IrelandRicoh Ireland has just announced the results of a survey it commissioned of more than 200 Irish private and public sector organisations around managing business documents. The research reveals some interesting findings and was carried out with 227 IT decision makers throughout Ireland in August 2012.

More than a third (36 per cent) of those surveyed didn’t have policies in place to regulate the accessing or storage of documents for all employees in their workplace.

An additional 57 per cent of respondents admitted that their central IT departments do not have full visibility of all business documents created and held in their organisations. Ricoh says these results are particularly worrying, since many organisations could be in breach of Irish and international regulations designed to ensure that organizations take measured and proactive steps to protect all of their business data.

Another finding was that 77 per cent of those commissioned believe it's getting more difficult to effectively manage and secure all business documents. This they said was down to the growth of various document storage options which range from the company shared drive and local drives, to Google docs and mobile devices.

The results showed that the top three concerns regarding the effective management of business documents are security implications such as losing confidential company documents (79 per cent), compliance and governance issues (60 per cent), and inefficient processes (42 per cent).It’s surprising therefore that with security and compliance at the top of the agenda for Irish businesses, almost half (48 per cent) were honest enough to admit that they are not aware of all the personal devices being used by employees to create documents for work-related activities

Another revealing finding from the survey is that while almost all respondents feel that it's important to have an efficient and secure document management system for their organisations, only just over half (56%) actually have a working system in place which has the capability to manage and retrieve all business documents, including print and electronic.

The survey also showed that a significant amount of Irish organisations (62 per cent) now primarily use electronic invoices, rather than paper-based versions.

Since the European Commission is aiming for e-invoicing to be the predo

f staff turned to the IT department to help them find a business document that they could not access, the average time to retrieve it was 25 minutes, which is highly unproductive for both parties. Surprisingly only 3 per cent admitted that the document was never found.

Matthew McCann, director, Ricoh Ireland, commented on the results:

"With the on-going explosion in data, documents and devices, Irish organisations are finding it increasingly complex to manage and safeguard all of their information capital,” he said. “The results of the survey highlight the huge disparity which exists between the desire for better control and visibility of business documents and the actual lack of systems and policies that are currently in place.

"Irish businesses need to act now or they will suffer increased loss of productivity, poor customer service and are at increased risk of losing critical business information.  On top of this, they are open to fines or worse from local and international authorities if they are found to be non-compliant with legislation in this area.

"To improve business document processes, there needs to be joined-up thinking across organisations from now on.  An integrated system with clearly defined policies should ensure that every single person in the organisation understands how to quickly and safely store and access business documents.

"Despite some of the worrying stats in this research, there is still room for optimism.  With most of the world's leading multinationals having major operations in Ireland, they have very thorough processes in place to manage their business documents. This technology and know-how is now also being rolled-out by forward-thinking indigenous companies, giving them a real competitive advantage as they have instant access to information whenever and wherever they need it."

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Matthew McCann director Ricoh Ireland