Articles By Paul Phillips

Managing people can sometimes be very rewarding and sometimes frustrating. If we look back we may find the rewarding times were when people met, or exceeded, our expectations. Sometimes they did this without even knowing what they were! How can we make this happen more often?

For many managers, looking after their people is often seen as an extra chore that gets in the way of doing their functional job such as selling, accounting, marketing or manufacturing. This is the wrong approach. Read how to correct it.

Some of us thrive on a bit of pressure - it can improve our performance because that's the way we're designed. However, too much over an extended time can take its toll. Managers can reduce this - learn how.

We tend to think of succession planning as having a few plans in place for if a key person gets hit by a bus or someone retires. In practice it has to be more than this if you want to avoid continually trying to "catch up". Learn how to do it.

Bonuses and incentives are quite common but they don't always achieve what they are supposed to. Sometimes they even do harm. Learn how to get it right.

If your people are standing around talking about pay, you've probably got it wrong. Learn how to solve the problems and keep them focused on their jobs.

When George took on the top job at a prestigious high profile company he thought it would run like clockwork, such was the public perception of this quality business. What he didn't realise was that the reputation was founded on a just a few brilliant people and the product they had developed. The rest were merely trying to manage the chaos. Learn what he did to fix this.