Achieving Excellence - Articles

Newsletter 1

Excellence is never an accident.
It is achieved in an organisation or institution only as a result of an unending and vigorous insistence on the highest standards of performance. It requires an unswerving expectancy of quality from the staff and volunteers.

Excellence is contagious.
It infects and affects everyone in the organisation. It charts the direction of a program. It establishes the criteria for planning. It provides zest and vitality to the organisation. Once achieved, excellence has a talent for permeating every aspect of the life of the organisation.

In this issue, we'll take a look at the importance of talent to success.

Talents Are Key to Organisational and Personal Success

“The most important corporate resource in the
next twenty years will be talent”
McKinsey & Co.

The findings of the McKinsey & Co report have placed the spotlight on the absolute necessity to recognise the vital nature of talent in the overall success of organisations and individuals.

Square pegs in round holes do not provide a scenario where maximum potential is released, applied or achieved. The bottom line is the loser. However with more care taken in the selection of new team members and perhaps a thorough review of the “fit” of those already in your organisation
you will take the first vital steps towards maximising potential and increasing your bottom line results.

The most successful organisations are made up of people doing what they like to do and believe in doing rather than doing what “they are supposed to do”.

We are all being challenged to abandon the old ways of thinking and adopt more creative ways of managing retaining and releasing talent.

Business owners, senior managers and team members will only achieve maximum results when the fit between talent and task is perfect. No longer can we accept the age old belief that people will perform at their best provided they are well paid.

The 21st century has brought with it the reality of the results of a recent McKinsey & Co. research project where they confirmed that the most important corporate resource in the next twenty Years will be talent.

There are many opportunities which come to all businesses who truly understand the need to ensure that square pegs are not placed in round holes.

Achieving Excellence provides executive mentoring, coaching and consulting understands it is no longer good enough for companies to be solely focused on results. “There must be a balance between relationship focused management and results focused management if organisations are going to achieve excellence in all they do.

Achieving Excellence reflects the vast experience of the principal and those associates involved with the company. The emphasis is on applying practical solutions which reflect the "hands on" highly experiential nature of the Achieving Excellence team.

No theory here. Just effective practical measurable profit building results instead of lots of promises.

Achieving Excellence recognises the vital nature of talent.

The Power & Potential of Effective Mentoring

With it’s origins in Greek mythology (Homers Odyssey) mentoring represents a powerful and positive technique to maximise potential in individuals, organisations and families.

A mentor is a trusted and significant leader who works with a partner (a mentee) to help them learn things more quickly or earlier, or to learn things they otherwise might not have l earnt. The keys to effective mentoring are:

Relationship:
Superficial relationships achieve very little in mentoring. Effective mentoring involves a true sense of bonding and connection, rapport, affinity and a genuine concern and desire to help

Dynamic:
The relationship should grow to be stimulating, empowering, flexible and very much alive. If and when it becomes dull and stagnant it is time to end the agreement.

Intentional:
Meetings together will be purposeful and will have a clear sense of direction and expectation. Good preparation by the mentor, the setting of goals together, and completion of assignments by the mentee and prior thought and consideration of the help needed will ensure the meetings are effective and productive.

Trust:
Trust is a critical element in effective mentoring. This usually takes time to develop and growing confidence in each others openness and honesty are critical factors. The mentors confidentiality (essential), competence, credibility, wisdom, reliability and acceptance are vital.

So to the practise of basic skills such as effective listening, affirmation, encouragement helps consolidate and deepen the level of trust and so lead to a strong relationship.

The only man who makes no mistakes
is the man who never does anything.
Do not be afraid of mistakes providing
you do not make the same one twice..
- Roosevelt.

Management Competencies

The key management competencies are:

Communication
Getting results
Managing Change
Strategic Planning
Customer Service
Team development
Risk Taking
Decision Making

To access a Management Competencies Wheel evaluation FREE please contact Ian Lucas on (02) 9484 4000 Ian@achieving-excellence.org