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This cartoon shows a negative interaction with an employee. This manager is influencing by bullying, will this cause a chain reaction?

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This article describes power and influence in terms of business. Influence causes people to act; therefore, the way you influence your employees will be the way they react in the workplace.

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Importance of Power and Influence in Relationship Capital

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Related Vision. Methods and tools to measure and grow your business relationships (Relationship Capital) to generate business results

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This video is a breakdown of the lean six sigma. Helps me to know what I need to know about this model that is still utilized in many industries.

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Everything You Need to Know about Six Sigma Certification - Project Management Training

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This article helped me with the productivity formula a little better. Productivity= output/ input.

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Productivity simply refers to the measurement of how efficient a company's production process is. This measurement takes into consideration the input and the output involved in the production process.

Managers use these productivity measurements so they can determine which departments, plants or workers are most efficient and how to maximize usage of the company's resources to attain an optimum level of production and higher sales or revenue.

Although there is a basic formula for productivity, there are different ways to calculate productivity across different activities.

What is the Productivity Formula?

The basic formula for calculating productivity is a ratio of outputs produced to the inputs used in production. Productivity = Output / Input

There are so many different kinds of production processes and all these production processes have peculiar inputs which differ from one process to the other. For this reason, the productivity formula for various forms of production, though they conform to the basic formula, is not the same.

The most common inputs are labor hours, capital and materials whereas sales or the amount of goods produced are common output units. Some of the most common productivity measurements are total employee labor productivity, individual employee labor productivity and sales productivity.

How to apply the formula

Sometimes managers would want to measure a single employee's productivity. The formula would stay very much the same except that you should know what constitutes the output and the input of the process.

For instance, if we want to calculate the productivity of one sales personnel, his labor hours will replace input in the formula whereas the amount of sales would be his output.

Example: Andy works 40 hours per week and made sales worth $4000 in his first week. John works 25 hours a week and makes $3000 worth of sales. Though Andy has a higher sales figure, John appears to have a better productivity level.

Andy: $4000/40hrs = $100/hour

John: $3000/25hrs =$120/hour

With this formula, a manager can determine which of his employees are less productive and also find out why they are being less productive. He can then take the appropriate course of action.

The illustration above can be described as partial factor productivity. Partial factor productivity simply refers to the use of a single unit of input in computing productivity. These are simple to compute, data is easy to come by, and they are the best for individual assessment. However, managing a company and calculating the overall productivity of production or service departments requires more than a partial factor productivity measurement.

Multifactor productivity computations are what mangers use for measuring the productivity of the various departments in a company. With this, productivity is measured by relating output to a subset of inputs in the production process. An example of such productivity formula is the ratio of units produced to materials, labor and capital.

Meanwhile, it takes more than a multifactor productivity formula to calculate the overall productivity of a company. This is because multifactor productivity formulas incorporate only a subset of the inputs used in production. Managers use total factor productivity formulas for computing the overall productivity of companies.

Unlike multifactor productivity which uses a subset of the inputs, Total Factor Productivity computations incorporate all inputs used in the production process. They are most appropriate for use when assessing the overall performance of a firm.

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What is the Productivity Formula (how to calculate productivity)

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Productivity simply refers to the measurement of how efficient a company's production process is. This measurement takes into consideration the input and the output involved in the production process. Managers use these productivity measurements so they can determine which departments, plants or workers are most efficient and how to maximize usage of the company's resources to attain an optimum level of production and higher sales or revenue.

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Cute and invideo about management process in organizations and business.

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Important article that gives good tips on recognizing employees correctly. Equal opportunity is very important in recognition and rewards!

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Employee recognition reinforces and rewards the most important outcomes that people create for your business. Employees gain a better understanding of how you would like to see them contributing in the workplace.

Recognition programs can help to motivate employees in a way that encourages positive approaches to their jobs and their tasks at hand. When developing such a program, make sure to follow some simple standards to gain the most benefit for your firm.

You need to make all employees eligible for the recognition. You should never exclude any employee or group of employees. This is especially important to consider when different employees have entirely different responsibilities. Depending on the nature of your firm's business, you may need to create multiple recognition programs for different departments or different types of jobs.

The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized. The more clearly you design and communicate the criteria for eligibility for the award, the easier it is for employees to perform accordingly. Since this is the performance you most want to see from employees, it's a plus for the employer if many employees attain eligibility.

Anyone who performs at the level or standard stated in the criteria receives the reward. Or, in an occasionally used approach when the affordability of the reward by the employer is a concern, every employee who meets the criteria has his or her name added to a drawing. You must communicate on the front end the fact that one name or three or however many employees you plan to reward will be selected randomly from among the employees who met the eligibility criteria.

The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces the behavior the employer wants to encourage. Monthly recognition might be too infrequent and not reinforcing. Annual recognition, plaques, and gifts reinforce the performance you'd like to see even less effectively. Depending on the nature of your business, rewards can be as frequent as daily.

An element of surprise also is beneficial. If you frequently reward employees with a free lunch, gradually the lunch becomes a given or an entitlement and is no longer rewarding.

You don't want to design a process in which managers select the people to receive recognition based on subjective criteria. Employees will see this type of process forever as managerial favoritism, or they will talk about the recognition in words such as, "Oh, it's your turn to get recognized this month." This is why processes that single out an individual, such as Employee of the Month, are rarely effective. When recognition is based on objective figures-such as sales totals-it will be much more meaningful and effective.

Supervisors must also apply the criteria consistently, so you may find the need to provide some organizational oversight.

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5 Tips About How to Recognize an Employee's Accomplishments

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Employee recognition reinforces and rewards the most important outcomes that people create for your business. Employees gain a better understanding of how you would like to see them contributing in the workplace. Recognition programs can help to motivate employees in a way that encourages positive approaches to their jobs and their tasks at hand.

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Funny cartoon about managerial decision don'ts!

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This article describes managerial decision as a cognitive development. This process, if done incorrectly, could cause severe loss in the company's profits. The eight steps are purpose identification, gathering information, alternatives judgment principle, brainstorming and analyzing choices, alternative's evaluation, pick the best alternative, execute the decision, and results evaluation.

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Managerial decision making process is not as easy as people probably think so. Managers need to analyze each and every aspect of business before reaching any decision. All the operations and the body of the organization depend on effective and logical decisions made by the management authorities. Typically, every individual who is unaware of the concept of managerial decision making and its process would like to know from starting to its present uses in today's trends, i.e. globalization, entrepreneurship and e-business world, etc. There are a few basic questions such as what the decision and decision making is, that may clear the perception of the basic idea of decision making and eventually will lead to the concept of managerial decision making.

Mostly, a decision is known as a specific choice from a range of present alternatives to solve any particular issue or meet certain challenges.

Decision making is termed as the process of finding or identifying any certain problem/opportunity in order to resolve them professionally through legal and logical ways. Besides, it can be said that making a decision is the preparation for practical actions.

Concept of Managerial Decision Making in Management

In the field of management, decision-making is known as a cognitive process, which results in a collection of a set of actions from current multiple alternatives. At some point, decision -making is the process which is performed by every individual in daily life; nobody can deny it. Regarding businesses, decision-making is a regular process or simply a habit.

Managerial Decision Making is one of the most critical processes in every organization. Successful and effective decision making gives profitable outcomes, whereas unsuccessful decision making causes a great loss. The use of several tools and techniques is possible in the entire process, as the management team has to choose one beneficial decision from a range of many. Besides, several perceptions can also help to identify and solve any issue. Additionally, a few managers also like to make decisions on their own or give priority to a collective decision.

As decision-making is a hard process, so sometimes, it involves dissatisfaction of another party. For preventing all the major conflicts and hurdles in decision-making, managers should follow the professional process of making managerial decisions. The following is the entire process of managerial decision making.

Managerial Decision Making Process

The decision making process involves the following 8 main and important steps. Each step may cover different techniques and tools. The main steps are: purpose identification, gathering information, alternatives judgment principles, analyzing the choices and brainstorming, alternatives evaluation, pick the best alternative, decision executions and results evaluation.

In the problem purpose identification steps, the problem is analyzed entirely in order to find its basic symptoms and possible loss. When it comes to identifying the problem, the following questions can provide enough help.

What is the problem?

Why it should be solved?

What parties are affected by it?

Any specific period or deadline of the problem?

Asking theses questions to oneself will eventually find the problem, its impact, affected parties, and future possible losses.

The main target of the problem can either be one of the shareholders or all of them. While on the other hand, it may involve many factors that are affected by it. In order to have a complete look at the problem, the information should be gathered thoroughly, which relates to the involved shareholders or factors. Techniques and tools like "Check Sheets" can help a lot in the step of gathering information and it can be used effectively and efficiently.

The ultimate focus of this step is to set baseline criteria for the alternatives in order to judge them appropriately. Regarding criteria, the corporate culture and goals of the organization should be considered also. For example, the profit is the only one and the most needed factor of every organization and is also an important factor that should be considered while decision-making. Nothing should be done that may cause the decrement of the profit, unless there is an exceptional case that cannot be resolved without sacrificing a little profit. Aside from it, baseline criteria should comprise entire relation to the problem

Brainstorming refers to listing down all the ideas and ways to solve the problem. At very first, it is necessary to understand the possible causes of the problem and classifying them in the priority order such as from the most to the least effective cause. Cause-and-Effect diagrams & Pareto Chart tool can provide the needed help in this step. Cause-and-Effect diagram will help the management team to identify the certain causes of the problem, whereas Pareto Chart will perform its role in classifying them from the highest effect and identifying the level of the causes. After that now further steps can be taken for generating all the possible alternatives of the problem.

After performing logical and professional steps, the next is to use one's own judgment based on decision-making skills and experience along with judgment power. Find out the pros and cons of every alternate and eventually evaluate them on such basis to find out the one which seem to be more effective than the rest. Comparing different alternative can also give efficient output.

After following the above methodology from step 1 to 5, this step is very easy. Probably, one might have found the best alternative after comparing the pros and cons of different alternatives, yet the one should be 100% confident and sure to pick the best possible alternative.

The second last step in the process of Decision Making is to give a practical shape to the decision by converting it into a plan, which contains a sequence of actions to be performed. It can be done alone or with the help of the management team.

Now that every step is performed and the decision is converted into a plan, eventually there is need of evaluating the outcome of the decision which will help the team of managers to learn from the problem and prepare precautions for the future time. Besides, it is the best practice to improve managerial decision making.

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Managerial decision making process is not as easy as people probably think so. Managers need to analyze each and every aspect of business before reaching any decision. All the operations and the body of the organization depend on effective and logical decisions made by the management authorities.

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This article explains emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Emotional intelligence, IQ, and personality of a manager are all different. It is possible for a manager to increase their emotional intelligence.

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5 min read

A Note From The Editor

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
LinkedIn Influencer, Dr. Travis Bradberry, published this post originally on LinkedIn.
When emotional intelligence first appeared to the masses, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time. This anomaly threw a massive wrench into what many people had always assumed was the sole source of success-IQ. Decades of research now point to emotional intelligence as the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack.

Emotional intelligence is the "something" in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that pair up under two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence.

Personal competence comprises your self-awareness and self-management skills, which focus more on you individually than on your interactions with other people. Personal competence is your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behavior and tendencies.

Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen.

Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behavior.

Social competence is made up of your social awareness and relationship management skills; social competence is your ability to understand other people's moods, behavior, and motives in order to respond effectively and improve the quality of your relationships.

Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on.

Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the others' emotions to manage interactions successfully.

Related: Caffeine: The Silent Killer of Success (LinkedIn)
Emotional Intelligence, IQ, and Personality Are Different

Emotional intelligence taps into a fundamental element of human behavior that is distinct from your intellect. There is no known connection between IQ and emotional intelligence; you simply can't predict emotional intelligence based on how smart someone is. Intelligence is your ability to learn, and it's the same at age 15 as it is at age 50. Emotional intelligence, on the other hand, is a flexible set of skills that can be acquired and improved with practice. Although some people are naturally more emotionally intelligent than others, you can develop high emotional intelligence even if you aren't born with it.

Personality is the final piece of the puzzle. It's the stable "style" that defines each of us. Personality is the result of hard-wired preferences, such as the inclination toward introversion or extroversion. However, like IQ, personality can't be used to predict emotional intelligence. Also like IQ, personality is stable over a lifetime and doesn't change. IQ, emotional intelligence, and personality each cover unique ground and help to explain what makes a person tick.

Emotional Intelligence Predicts Performance

How much of an impact does emotional intelligence have on your professional success? The short answer is: a lot! It's a powerful way to focus your energy in one direction with a tremendous result. TalentSmart tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs.

Your emotional intelligence is the foundation for a host of critical skills-it impacts most everything you do and say each day.

Of all the people we've studied at work, we've found that 90% of top performers are also high in emotional intelligence. On the flip side, just 20% of bottom performers are high in emotional intelligence. You can be a top performer without emotional intelligence, but the chances are slim.

Naturally, people with a high degree of emotional intelligence make more money-an average of $29,000 more per year than people with a low degree of emotional intelligence. The link between emotional intelligence and earnings is so direct that every point increase in emotional intelligence adds $1,300 to an annual salary. These findings hold true for people in all industries, at all levels, in every region of the world. We haven't yet been able to find a job in which performance and pay aren't tied closely to emotional intelligence.
Related: The 6 Secrets of Self-Control (LinkedIn)
You Can Increase Your Emotional Intelligence

The communication between your emotional and rational "brains" is the physical source of emotional intelligence. The pathway for emotional intelligence starts in the brain, at the spinal cord. Your primary senses enter here and must travel to the front of your brain before you can think rationally about your experience. However, first they travel through the limbic system, the place where emotions are generated. So, we have an emotional reaction to events before our rational mind is able to engage. Emotional intelligence requires effective communication between the rational and emotional centers of the brain.

Plasticity is the term neurologists use to describe the brain's ability to change. As you discover and practice new emotional intelligence skills, the billions of microscopic neurons lining the road between the rational and emotional centers of your brain branch off small "arms" (much like a tree) to reach out to the other cells. A single cell can grow 15,000 connections with its neighbors. This chain reaction of growth ensures it's easier to kick a new behavior into action in the future.

As you train your brain by repeatedly practicing new emotionally intelligent behaviors, your brain builds the pathways needed to make them into habits. Before long, you begin responding to your surroundings with emotional intelligence without even having to think about it. And just as your brain reinforces the use of new behaviors, the connections supporting old, destructive behaviors will die off as you learn to limit your use of them.

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Why You Need Emotional Intelligence to Succeed in Business

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5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. LinkedIn Influencer, Dr. Travis Bradberry, published this post originally on LinkedIn. When emotional intelligence first appeared to the masses, it served as the missing link in a peculiar finding: people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time.

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Funny cartoon of 'bad' communication. Communication is needed for all managers to be effective in leading.

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Funny picture of a manager going over board with their communication. Yelling and screaming will most likely not get your point across. It is important as a manager to communicate in a way that reaches your employees.

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This article goes more in depth about how effective communication is important for a manager. The good outcomes include: increased productivity, better employee relations, globalization, and more.

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Why Is Effective Communication Important in Management?

To lead others, you must demonstrate effective communication skills. Otherwise, a manager will lack the credibility to implement his employer's objectives, and struggle to rally worker teams behind them. Managers who communicate well are also more likely to become good problem solvers, which is an essential skill to function well in an international workplace where diversity is increasingly the norm. Employees who show an aptitude for verbal and written communication are more likely to advance up the corporate ladder, as well. Effective communication between managers and employees is requisite for a well-functioning workplace.

Better Employee Relations

The best managers understand the need for building alliances and communicating throughout all levels of the organization. Effective communications skills are a must for breaking down barriers, which promotes the collaborative atmosphere that an organization needs to thrive. A typical employee's engagement and interest in work varies from day to day. Astute managers accept this reality but can tailor their own communication style to motivate an employee to achieve the desired result.

Gains in Productivity

Whether they realize it or not, managers are the linchpin of a company's productivity efforts. Managers must clearly articulate strategies and plans so that an employee team knows what to do, and how the company envisions them being carried out. At the same time, each team member should understand his role, and why his particular task is so important. If the manager can't make that case, employees grow complacent and less interested in their work.

Impact of Globalization

Cross-cultural and linguistic work teams are increasingly common features in today's globalized workplace. Managers must devise new communications strategies to interact with an increasingly multicultural, multinational workforce. Employees also may identify with several different national groups, which managers must consider when trying to communicate a company's goals and objectives.

Multigenerational Relations

Conflicts are likely when employees from different generations find themselves working together. Good communications skills are a must for managers wanting to succeed in this environment. For example, the competitive drive of Baby Boomer employees born between 1946 and 1964 may not sit well with Generation X and Y peers, born in 1965 or later, who desire a less intense work life. Managers must avoid blanket stereotypes when trying to encourage the various groups to interact with each productively.

Problem Solving Skills

Effective communication and problem-solving skills go hand in hand. Employees who struggle on the job naturally look to managers for guidance to solve their problems. A manager who lacks discretion, however, is unlikely to gain the trust he needs to address co-worker conflicts, declining performance or substance abuse issues. Failure to address these situations, in turn, jeopardizes the organization's productivity and ability to carry out its mission.

About the Author

Ralph Heibutzki's articles have appeared in the "All Music Guide," "Goldmine," "Guitar Player" and "Vintage Guitar." He is also the author of "Unfinished Business: The Life & Times Of Danny Gatton," and holds a journalism degree from Michigan State University.

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Why Is Effective Communication Important in Management?

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To lead others, you must demonstrate effective communication skills. Otherwise, a manager will lack the credibility to implement his employer's objectives, and struggle to rally worker teams behind them. Managers who communicate well are also more likely to become good problem solvers, which is an essential skill to function well in an international workplace where diversity is increasingly the norm.

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Funny cartoon of employer "changing" organizational culture to the extreme. This shows it is important to still uphold values and not go overboard in stimulating cultures.

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Great visual of organizational culture. Breaks down that organizational culture is what makes a group/ team. Shows the responsibility of the company and the team.

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Basics in managerial decision. Using pros and cons along with the cost benefit model can help in creating a plan and how to implement it. Creating a plan needs to be on fact and not opinion.

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What Are Two Important Managerial Decision-Making Techniques?

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Small business owners and managers make decisions that affect everyday operations and long-term profitability. These decisions typically involve making choices to achieve desired outcomes. For example, a franchiser may decide between two overseas locations for its first overseas expansion, or a company president may ...

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A simplified version of managerial decision making. Establish, define, identify, evaluate, and implement. Take one step at a time and weigh your alternatives.

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Decision making is crucial for running a business enterprise which faces a large number of problems requiring decisions.

Which product to be produced, what price to be charged, what quantity of the product to be produced, what and how much advertisement expenditure to be made to promote the sales, how much investment expenditure to be incurred are some of the problems which require decisions to be made by managers.
The five steps involved in managerial decision making process are explained below:
1. Establishing the Objective:

The first step in the decision making process is to establish the objective of the business enterprise. The important objective of a private business enterprise is to maximise profits. However, a business firm may have some other objectives such as maximisation of sales or growth of the firm.

But the objective of a public enterprise is normally not of maximisation of profits but to follow benefit-cost criterion. According to this criterion, a public enterprise should evaluate all social costs and benefits when making a decision whether to build an airport, a power plant, a steel plant, etc.

2. Defining the Problem:

The second step in decision making process is one of defining or identifying the problem. Defining the nature of the problem is important because decision making is after all meant for solution of the problem. For instance, a cotton textile firm may find that its profits are declining.

It needs to be investigated what are the causes of the problem of decreasing profits. Whether it is the wrong pricing policy, bad labour-management relations or the use of outdated technology which is causing the problem of declining profits. Once the source or reason for falling profits has been found, the problem has been identified and defined.

3. Identifying Possible Alternative Solutions (i.e. Alternative Courses of Action):

Once the problem has been identified, the next step is to find out alternative solutions to the problem. This will require considering the variables that have an impact on the problem. In this way, relationship among the variables and with the problems has to be established.

In regard to this, various hypotheses can be developed which will become alternative courses for the solution of the problem. For example, in case of the problem mentioned above, if it is identified that the problem of declining profits is due to be use of technologically inefficient and outdated machinery in production.
The two possible solutions of the problem are:
(1) Updating and replacing only the old machinery.

(2) Building entirely a new plant equipped with latest machinery.

The choice between these alternative courses of action depends on which will bring about larger increase in profits.

4. Evaluating Alternative Courses of Action:

The next step in business decision making is to evaluate the alternative courses of action. This requires, the collection and analysis of the relevant data. Some data will be available within the various departments of the firm itself, the other may be obtained from the industry and government.

The data and information so obtained can be used to evaluate the outcome or results expected from each possible course of action. Methods such as regression analysis, differential calculus, linear programming, cost- benefit analysis are used to arrive at the optimal course. The optimum solution will be one that helps to achieve the established objective of the firm. The course of action which is optimum will be actually chosen. It may be further noted that for the choice of an optimal solution to the problem, a manager works under certain constraints.

The constraints may be legal such as laws regarding pollution and disposal of harmful wastes; they way be financial (i.e. limited financial resources); they may relate to the availability of physical infrastructure and raw materials, and they may be technological in nature which set limits to the possible output to be produced per unit of time. The crucial role of a business manager is to determine optimal course of action and he has to make a decision under these constraints.

5. Implementing the Decision:

After the alternative courses of action have been evaluated and optimal course of action selected, the final step is to implement the decision. The implementation of the decision requires constant monitoring so that expected results from the optimal course of action are obtained. Thus, if it is found that expected results are not forthcoming due to the wrong implementation of the decision, then corrective measures should be taken.

However, it should be noted that once a course of action is implemented to achieve the established objective, changes in it may become necessary from time to time in response in changes in conditions or firm's operating environment on the basis of which decisions were taken.

The five steps in the decision making process are shown in Fig. 1.2
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Managerial Decision Making Process (5 Steps)

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ADVERTISEMENTS: Decision making is crucial for running a business enterprise which faces a large number of problems requiring decisions. Which product to be produced, what price to be charged, what quantity of the product to be produced, what and how much advertisement expenditure to be made to promote the sales, how much investment expenditure to ...

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Two employees talking about their "planning strategy". This is simply showing not to go overboard. Stick to a plan unless it really needs to be changed, but also remember a good plan takes time.

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planning in management cartoon - Google Search

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Cartoon that shows a not planned meeting. Everyone is confused and the topic goes around in circles.

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planning in management cartoon - Google Search

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Steps for managers to plan. Did you know you need to plan before planning? How stressful. How to know what to plan and how to weigh it out is important, this article helps with that. You must first know what you need to plan and weigh your alternatives before choosing.

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Strength & Weakness in Workplace Communication

Small business owners and managers make decisions on a daily basis, addressing everything from day-to-day operational issues to long-range strategic planning. The decision-making process of a manager can be broken down into six distinct steps. Although each step can be examined at length, managers often run through all of the steps quickly when making decisions. Understanding the process of managerial decision-making can improve your decision-making effectiveness.

Identify Problems

The first step in the process is to recognize that there is a decision to be made. Decisions are not made arbitrarily; they result from an attempt to address a specific problem, need or opportunity.

A supervisor in a retail shop may realize that he has too many employees on the floor compared with the day's current sales volume, for example, requiring him to make a decision to keep costs under control.

Seek Information

Managers seek out a range of information to clarify their options once they have identified an issue that requires a decision. Managers may seek to determine potential causes of a problem, the people and processes involved in the issue and any constraints placed on the decision-making process.

Brainstorm Solutions

Having a more complete understanding of the issue at hand, managers move on to make a list of potential solutions. This step can involve anything from a few seconds of though to a few months or more of formal collaborative planning, depending on the nature of the decision.

Choose an Alternative

Managers weigh the pros and cons of each potential solution, seek additional information if needed and select the option they feel has the best chance of success at the least cost. Consider seeking outside advice if you have gone through all the previous steps on your own; asking for a second opinion can provide a new perspective on the problem and your potential solutions.

Implement the Plan

There is no time to second guess yourself when you put your decision into action. Once you have committed to putting a specific solution in place, get all of your employees on board and put the decision into action with conviction. That is not to say that a managerial decision cannot change after it has been enacted; savvy managers put monitoring systems in place to evaluate the outcomes of their decisions.

Evaluate Outcomes

Even the most experienced business owners can learn from their mistakes. Always monitor the results of strategic decisions you make as a small business owner; be ready to adapt your plan as necessary, or to switch to another potential solution if your chosen solution does not work out the way you expected.

About the Author

David Ingram has written for multiple publications since 2009, including "The Houston Chronicle" and online at Business.com. As a small-business owner, Ingram regularly confronts modern issues in management, marketing, finance and business law. He has earned a Bachelor of Arts in management from Walsh University.

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What Are the Steps in the Decision-Making Process of a Manager?

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Small business owners and managers make decisions on a daily basis, addressing everything from day-to-day operational issues to long-range strategic planning. The decision-making process of a manager can be broken down into six distinct steps. Although each step can be examined at length, managers often run through all of the steps quickly when making decisions.

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Great article that gives tips on management and planning. It mentions using the cost/ benefit analysis as well. Also introduces probability of success, resource constraints, and time horizon analysis.

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By John Dillard

Crafting a strategic plan doesn't have to be a painful, expensive process for your business or government agency. Rather, think of it as a decision-making process that keeps you from making the same mistakes year after year.

Strategic planning is the high-level process of listing your priorities and aligning them with your long-term vision for your organization. A strategic plan becomes the "North Star" for your other decision-making tools, including project evaluation and budget analysis. Thus, the more robust your strategic planning, the better your decision analysis and execution.

So, whether you're a strategic planning veteran or you're crafting your very first strategic plan, act on these four steps in order to maximize the results for your decision analysis tools:
1. Harness Different Decision-Making Frameworks
Your strategic planning process - and decision analysis - is more effective when it provides the decision-making frameworks for day-to-day execution.

Just like a GPS might give you different route options for the same destination based on time, distance or fuel efficiency, your strategic plan defines the high-level destination, but your decision-making tools help you decide how to get there based on your decision-making framework.

Some common decision-making frameworks include:

Brainstorming (even when solutions seem "obvious")

Analysis of alternatives

Ranking

Weighting

2. Rank Multiple Priorities At Once
One common temptation in a strategic plan is to simplify your priorities too much. When it comes to prioritization of goals for your business or agency, it's not just an either/or decision-making process, but it's also a matter of ranking, apportioning and meeting multiple goals all at once.

Yet, achieving this multi-level prioritization is too complicated for the human mind to handle on its own. Without decision-making frameworks, hardwired shortcomings hold back your decision analysis, such as:

Being shortsighted

Continuing a project merely because you started it

Being afraid of the unknown

Resting on your laurels

Intuiting that the future follows a straight line from past patterns

Being distracted by new (but possibly irrelevant) technology

The only way to prevent these shortcomings from tainting your decision-making process is to enter your strategic planning and budgeting session with an open mind, clear communications, a collaborative outlook and robust decision-making tools.
3. Quantify Your Decision-Making Approach
"Gut-level" decision making is a practice of the past. In the modern day, you now have all the organizational data you would ever need to inform and guide your decision-making process, and intuition alone is more than likely to lead you in the wrong direction.

Instead, start your strategic planning initiatives with a quantified approach that's easier to translate into data-driven decision-making tools, such as:
4. Prune Projects That Aren't Productive
Just because you've started a project, program or initiative doesn't mean that it's worth continuing or finishing, and a strategic planning approach helps you prune out unnecessary or wasteful projects that consume too much of your time or budget.

Every year, review and assess your priorities and projects in the same manner as when you started them. Review budgets, costs, schedules and plans as carefully as you did before you initiated the program.

In your assessment, measure whether a current project or initiative lines up with the priorities and decision-making framework as laid out by your 1-year and 5-year strategic plans. If a project no longer measures up or no longer matches your priorities, it's time to prune it from your budget.

Following these strategic planning and decision-making steps keeps your agency or business from straying from its vision or strategic goals. And with the right focus on your goals, there's no limit to what your organization is able to achieve.
Need the tools to make better decisions for your business or agency? Start with your data and decision analysis tools. Click below to download a free tip sheet from Big Sky Associates and harness the power of data-driven decision-making tools for your organization today.

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4 Strategic Planning Steps For Better Overall Decision Making

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By John Dillard Crafting a strategic plan doesn't have to be a painful, expensive process for your business or government agency. Rather, think of it as a decision-making process that keeps you from making the same mistakes year after year. Strategic planning is the high-level process of listing your priorities and aligning them with your long-term vision for your organization.

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Global business with great strategies. It is good to look at the global businesses succeeding and why. Redbull, AirBnB, and Dunkin Donuts are a few listed in this article for global marketing.

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What is Global Marketing? See 13 Businesses with Brilliant Strategies

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A global presence is possible for any business with a creative strategy and an understanding of world markets. Here’s how.

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This funny cartoon shows the micromanaging of a global company. This large company is worried that someone doesn't look as occupied as they should based on surveillance, yikes.

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global business cartoons - Google Search

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Funny cartoon about global organizations that sometimes have to meet on phone calls for meetings. It is important for the company to integrate and pay attention so the company is all on one mission.

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This article explains a recent tragedy fir J.W. Marriott close to home. OSHA states there was failure in inspecting form work and could be big trouble for PCL Construction and Universal Engineering Services. Not a great pre-opening mishappen for J.W. Marriott.

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Two Orlando companies are facing more than $157,000 in fines after federal labor officials cited them for safety violations in the 2018 deaths of two workers who fell to the ground at the JW Marriott hotel construction site.

Lorenzo Zavala, 34, and Jerry Bell, 46, were pouring concrete Aug. 29 on the seventh floor of the new hotel on Chelonia Parkway when the scaffolding support structure collapsed, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA).

Zavala and Bell plunged about 80 feet to their immediate deaths. A third worker managed to hang on and climbed to safety with minor injures.

OSHA officials say the two Orlando contractors in charge, PCL Construction Services Inc. and Universal Engineering Sciences, failed to properly inspect formwork, shoring, working decks and scaffolds on the project prior to construction. PCL Construction Services, in particular, failed to "design, fabricate, erect, support, and brace the formwork so that it was capable of supporting vertical and lateral loads," according to OSHA.

"Using specified drawings and shoring plans may have prevented these fatalities," says Les Grove, OSHA's Tampa area office director, in a statement.

Orlando Weekly reached out to PCL Construction Services Inc. and Universal Engineering Sciences for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

PCL Construction Services, which was hit with three violations, was fined $144,532, while Universal Engineering Sciences is being ordered to pay $13,260 for two violations, for a total of $157,792 in proposed penalties.

OSHA officials also issued a hazard alert letter to the two deceased workers' employers, Puleo's Concrete Inc. and C&C Pumping Services Inc., to recommend they develop a workplace policy that makes sure contractors have installed shoring equipment according to the most recent drawings.

The companies have about two weeks to comply with the fines, request a conference with OSHA or contest the findings before the independent OSHA commission.

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Orlando companies face $157K fine for deaths of 2 workers who fell at JW Marriott hotel construction site

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click image Two Orlando companies are facing more than $157,000 in fines after federal labor officials cited them for safety violations in the 2018 deaths of two workers who fell to the ground at the JW Marriott hotel construction site. Lorenzo Zavala, 34, and Jerry Bell, 46, were pouring concrete Aug.

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This cartoon shows where the company takes diversity too far. Babies, clowns, and animals included. This ties into Google, your company still has to function, but it is important to remember that diversity can help, but also hurt if not properly distributed.

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This cartoon appeared in the fall 2017 issue of IR Magazine

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This cartoon shows the outcome of what a company is like without diversity. It brings nothing to the table if everyone agrees. It also shows that the managers in higher positions are predominantly men.

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Calling for more inclusive policies among the Metoo movement. There should be no penalty to have kids and that even older women are harder on younger women than men. We need to focus on empowering women in the workplace and giving same opportunities.

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In the wake of the #MeToo movement and calls to make workplaces more inclusive, employers are evaluating which opportunities are being offered to women, how to improve career development and how to help women succeed. To further that discussion, some women at the start of their careers told The New York Times what they thought companies could do to reform the workplace environment.
More stories from The New Rules Summit Special Report.

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Since taking a job in a public school system after months at a Washington consulting firm, Ms. Owolabi has experienced even more in-person mentorship from other women of color, something she said other companies should emulate.

"That way, women like me - just starting their careers - can see women to aspire toward," she said.

At her consulting firm, she said, women of color in leadership from across the globe came together virtually for an online session, giving tips and advice to younger women in the company.

"That was such an empowering day," Ms. Owolabi said. "It literally carried me for a month."

In the public school system, where she has worked since January, those women leaders are physically present to serve as mentors and to talk about daily challenges.

"There's been a juxtaposition," she said, "in terms of being my authentic self."

Ms. Chin went to Wellesley College, a women's college in Massachusetts, but now she is the only woman on her team at a start-up company roughly 20 miles away in Somerville.

At her company, Ms. Chin said she was encouraged by the understanding shown to the employed women who juggle child care on top of work.

"I see people at the company not being penalized for having kids," she said. "I think that's really cool."

An economics graduate and now a manufacturing app developer, she said she believed companies should reconsider their approach to parental leave and the hours dictated for parents - particularly mothers.

"I've been very vexed by it recently," she said, "seeing a lot of the hours that the men at my company work. I wonder about their wives."

But, she added afterward, she learned that those women were facing the same challenges in their own career paths - holding their own leadership positions at start-up companies, or working as scientists at a different organization.

"It's cool to know that they aren't just staying home," she said.

Ms. Locop, who works in a nonprofit network in Pittsburgh, said that she found that older women in the industry were tougher on their younger counterparts than older male mentors were on their mentees. It's a dynamic, she said, that presented a challenge for women like her who were seeking guidance from leaders with more experience.

"Older women can sometimes perpetuate the same types of structures that maybe held them back as young people in their careers," she said. "Sometimes it's in conversation or the way they direct things, sometimes it can sound more rough."

Ms. Locop, who identifies as Asian-American, said companies should take steps to create guided conversations about diversity in the workplace and to educate employees about how different backgrounds shape experiences.

"I'm trying to break two barriers, one that's based on race that sometimes people don't recognize, and one based on gender," Ms. Locop said. "Existing here, in a way, gives me a different lens."

A sales development associate in New York, Ms. White said she was lucky to be on a team on which every person is a woman. It provides an opportunity to learn from women in leadership, she said, who assert themselves without fear of retribution or of being labeled shrewish.

But her friends, she said, at companies with a more skewed gender dynamic in higher positions, find themselves pitted against other women in a detrimental way when seeking promotions.

"All of their bosses are men, and it's hard to picture themselves in leadership," she said. "They find themselves competing against every woman."

Companies should focus on allowing for competition that does not reduce women to that type of rivalry, she said.

"You want to be the best woman, not the best person, and I don't think that's helping equality in the workplace."

Ms. Tracy worked as an assistant in a Los Angeles talent agency for the last three months, and she said the mentorship programs and company-organized meet-and-greets were some of the most beneficial initiatives.

"With networking-based industries, there's a whole different layer of issues that are not necessarily going to be solved by companies taking initiatives because it's ingrained in the industry," she said.

People in the industry tend to gravitate toward people of the same gender or toward those with shared interests, which hindered professional development within the field, she said. The agency's efforts to pair people countered that instinct.

Ms. Tracy also pointed to diversity within hires of women as another place where companies could improve the workplace experience.

"I think that the next wave of people is going to be focusing on intersectionality, accepting all types of females in the workplace," she said. "I think that's really important and can be uplifted more."

Ms. Hinojos, who has worked at a Washington global consulting firm for two years, said she had noticed in company meetings that white men were often the first to speak up and offer suggestions - something that leadership could redirect.

"What would the dynamic be that those who were least represented had to speak first?" she said. "And what does that mean for our conversations and how we're represented?"

"It's barriers that prevent access," she added, "and that's what's disappointing to me."

Ms. Hinojos, who is Mexican-American, said she was searching for a female mentor as she figured out the direction of her career in her first job in an American industry. The search, she said, is a responsibility both for a company seeking diversity and strong retention and for her as an employee looking to grow and develop within the organization.

"Now that I see women," she said of the company leadership. "it's a profile I potentially fit."

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How to Help Guide Young Women in the Workplace

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In the wake of the #MeToo movement and calls to make workplaces more inclusive, employers are evaluating which opportunities are being offered to women, how to improve career development and how to help women succeed. To further that discussion, some women at the start of their careers told The New York Times what they thought companies could do to reform the workplace environment.

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Google is being sued by employees for going too far on diversity policies and not far enough, which is odd. Diversifying isn't working for google because they aren't sure what to do with diversity, even being the first to release their breakdown of employees by diversity.

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Google Is Trying Too Hard (or Not Hard Enough) to Diversify (Published 2018)

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The internet giant is being sued by former employees who say the company is going too far with diversity. Other lawsuits accuse it of the opposite.

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This is a great cartoon that shows the leadership of a manager pulling them into a cave with bears and snakes. This can demonstrate a leader pushing their workers in the wrong direction, or expecting them to continue on in something they wouldn''t do themselves. Either way you take this cartoon, it can be humbling in terms of management.

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Unfortunately, despite the fact that many books and journals are published on the subject every year, there seems to be no definitive model of what might constitute leadership excellence - that is, a widely supported model that only needs to be carefully followed to ensure success. Happily however, there are several common themes that run through the writing of many of the best thinkers on the subject. Some of these themes are that Leadership excellence:

Is driven from a strong set of values and 'intelligence' about peoples' feelings.

Sees possibilities and potential that is often invisible to others.

Describes a vision of the future and illuminates paths to get there.

Encourages creativity, innovation and lateral thinking.

Enables individuals and teams or groups of people to manage personal change and reach for higher goals.

Starts and ends with the guiding of people's relationships with one another.

Continually 'walks-the-talk' and listens and learns in the journey.

Often consists of extraordinary strength and persistence.

Even though this list is by no means exhaustive, it is the discovery of these leadership excellence themes that helps us most in working out specifically what we should all be doing to become better leaders. As such, the simple idea is that out of hundreds, if not thousands, of potential human behaviors, there are a handful that characterize good or effective leadership, especially when combined together.

Related Resources

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Unfortunately, despite the fact that many books and journals are published on the subject every year, there seems to be no definitive model of what might constitute leadership excellence - that is, a widely supported model that only needs to be carefully followed to ensure success.

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With the debate of Steve Jobs I think it is essential to look at some tips of being great, even if his human skills weren't up to par because of his success between Pixar and Apple.

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Steve Jobs Giving Tips On What Makes Greatness

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Looking at large businesses will help in looking at CEOs and the development throughout the company. With competition against Amazon it is sure to get interesting, Amazon and Google both change and reform well. Competition may be arising and then these two will have to retain customers.

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It's time to give some respect to Alphabet's cloud business, which for years has taken a backseat to the larger cloud platforms at Amazon and Microsoft.

Because unbeknownst to many folks other than the 5,000 global businesses that now use Google Cloud and the engineers and salespeople inside the tech giant working on the product, Alphabet is developing quite a surging business.

Alphabet said Monday that sales in its "other" business - which comprises Cloud, Hardware and Play - rose an impressive 31% to $6.5 billion in the fourth quarter. The sales growth rate marked an acceleration from the 29% seen in the third quarter.

Big wins in cloud

Alphabet doesn't disclose the precise sales of its cloud business. But the "other" segment is generally viewed as mostly comprised of cloud.

The wins in the quarter were plentiful, according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Alphabet more than doubled the number of Google Cloud platform deals over $1 million as well as the amount of multi-year contracts signed.

Alphabet Chief Financial Offer Ruth Porat told analysts on a conference call she is seeing a "nice uptick" in the number of cloud deals north of $100 million.

"Google Cloud closed out the year strong, with momentum across the business," Pichai added on the call. "We continue to see strong growth in all our major geographies and industries this quarter."

The company entered its 18th market for cloud services in the fourth quarter.

Alphabet is now staffing up in its cloud unit to spur even faster growth, part of the reason investors were let down by the company's profit margins in the quarter. Growth costs money, people. Google Cloud Chief Technology Officer Brian Stevens told Yahoo Finance in late January the cloud team is focused on adding a combination of engineers and salespeople.

Stevens said the business is also very focused on bringing machine learning capabilities to its cloud customers.

Google Cloud playing catch

Google Cloud is still dwarfed in size by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud business. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud businesses hauled in $7.4 billion and $9.4 billion in sales, respectively, in the most recent quarter.

But both competitors should keep a close eye on Alphabet's more aggressive posture in expanding its cloud solutions for businesses. It could lead to more competitive pricing and an all-out war for already scarce tech talent.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter Read Yahoo Finance's Exclusives: PayPal CEO: Government shutdown not hurting our business Minneapolis Federal Reserve President: Interest rate pause needed Hasbro CEO: We will return to growth in 2019 Macy's CEO: Mobile shopping is surging Procter & Gamble CEO: We aren't splitting up the company Coca-Cola CEO: Why we aren't getting into the alcohol business

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Google is quietly building this money-making business that could rival Amazon's

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It's time to give some respect to Alphabet's cloud business, which for years has taken a backseat to the larger cloud platforms at Amazon and Microsoft. Because unbeknownst to many folks other than the 5,000 global businesses that now use Google Cloud and the engineers and salespeople inside the tech giant working on the product, Alphabet is developing quite a surging business.

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I picked this article because of the discussion about Steve Jobs and apple. IPhone has reached a conclusion to pay back taxes to France. It is important to monitor Apple after Steve Jobs death to determine whether he was a top CEO and if it was him keeping Apple afloat.

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IPhone-maker Apple has reached a deal with French authorities to pay back taxes.

French magazine L'Express reported that the firm paid nearly €500m ($570m, £439m) in a confidential settlement reached late last year.

Apple's French business confirmed there was a deal in a statement to the Reuters news agency but refused to say how much was paid.

France is lobbying for an EU-wide tax on the biggest technology firms.

"As a multinational company, Apple is regularly audited by fiscal authorities around the world," Apple France said in the statement.

"The French tax administration recently concluded a multi-year audit on the company's French accounts, and those details will be published in our public accounts."

'Extensive audit'

L'Express reported that the investigation centred on the small amount of sales the firm booked in France despite the size of France as a market for Apple.

Most of its sales are booked in Ireland where the US firm has its European headquarters, and which has a low corporate tax rate.

Last year Apple paid an extra £136m in tax following an "extensive audit" by HM Revenue and Customs.

Apple Europe agreed to pay a "corporate income tax adjustment" covering years up to 26 September 2015.

In September, Ireland said it had recovered $13.1bn in disputed taxes from Apple plus interest of €1.2bn which it will hold in anticipation of its appeal against an EU tax ruling.

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Apple reportedly settles French tax bill

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IPhone-maker Apple has reached a deal with French authorities to pay back taxes. French magazine L'Express reported that the firm paid nearly €500m ($570m, £439m) in a confidential settlement reached late last year. Apple's French business confirmed there was a deal in a statement to the Reuters news agency but refused to say how much was paid.