Many employees intuitively will agree with their superiors in order to please and possibly feel they need to for protecting their jobs and career prospects. A manager should recognise this phenomenon and encourage his or her team to open up and voice their opinions. Open debate is healthy, it leads to better solutions by considering all options and even more so if lateral thinking is applied.

I draw a parallel with an air filter on an engine. A clean filter will allow oxygen to flow to the motor for better performance. A dirty filter will do the opposite, ultimately negatively impacting on performance and shutting the engine down.

So promote healthy debate, draw opinions out of colleagues (especially those who tend to be quiet) and appreciate the contributions. It will lead to better business results!

All of us have a tendency to make sure our staff perform their tasks in line with expectations, which in itself is not a bad thing. But then some of us would like to make sure that this exactly matches our own way of how we would deliver. Well, don't!

This is called micro-management, and is extremely discouraging for your staff. Having somebody looking over your shoulder all the time, or giving you plenty of re-work because the product delivered as slightly different from your standards is demoralising. If some deviation is important and therefore unacceptable, then explain this so the person understands why a change is required. If it's cosmetic but otherwise acceptable, don't intervene but show appreciation. And speak encouraging about the aspects of the delivered effort that you really like. That will set the person up to be motivated for constructive delivery in future.

Micro management turns employees into zombies. They stop thinking for themselves, will not show initiative and just do as they're told. They will not grow, you will not get the best out of them and over time you may end up with a less valuable employee or they might leave altogether. Better to set clear expectations, but leave room for the employee to use their initiative to deliver. Use coaching and KPIs to ensure a good end-result. And above all, be encouraging with positive and constructive feedback on a regular basis. This is the best motivator!

I have enjoyed by time at Refining NZ last year designing and implementing Power BI Insights. This involves creating the next generation business intelligence tools for my Refining NZ customers to gain additional insights into their business performance. From financial indicators to health & safety, 2018 for Refining NZ has marked a step change in exposing data, analysing some of the business indicators and hence supporting the quality of decision making. And the feedback from the Refining NZ business team has been exceptional! For 2019 I am looking forward to creating more of these Insights in other business areas, such as engineering & maintenance, project execution, procurement & inventory and more.

I have some simple tips which I believe get the most out of your business and your staff which I will share with you in the next little while. Here is the first one.

Focus on the long term, and set your Key Performance Indicators accordingly.

I once saw a video about a driver who struggled to navigate his way through narrow streets - always getting too close one way or another even though he seemed a capable driver. Once the instructor had identified his problem and applied a simple solution, he was away laughing. It seemed the driver was not looking into the distance, but only at what was ahead of his bonnet! As a result he was going very slow and adjusting his steering all the time. As all sailors (and mowers of nicely cut lawns) know, you need to focus on where you need to end up. Let your staff worry about the short term (ofcourse you can help them with that) while you focus on the long-term goals.

Your back-office staff might be working very hard, but perhaps not that smart. There are ways to not only increase efficiency but also to make their job more enjoyable, rewarding and value-adding. Here are some thoughts for improving your back-office operations:

Avoid duplication. If you have the same or similar data in different systems, spreadsheets and other repositories then effort is being wasted not only in increased data entry, but also when that data is referenced or even cross-checked. And then there is the risk of outdated copies which increase your risk profile.

Make sure your staff are adequately trained in using their tools. For example, much time can be wasted in “playing around” with spreadsheets if you have a low skill level. Also, smart use of your business systems can lead to unexpected benefits. A good practice would be to appoint & train a champion with good aptitude, who can spread knowledge within the team.

Standardise your reporting. This will bring clarity around expectations and the processes required to produce the information you require regularly.

I can help you achieve some of those efficiencies, so please contact me if you would like to have a chat on 021 1488814 or michel@bizintelligence.co.nz

Whether your company is big or small, you need to look after your data. It is the foundation of many aspects such as financial (bids, purchase orders, invoices), processes (maintenance schedules, inspections, deliveries) or compliance (health & safety, statutory recordings). If the data is wrong there could be serious implications.

Imagine the following simple scenario:

There is a buzz around the office as an important bid is prepared which could make a big difference to Supreme Contractors Ltd. The construction effort involves elements of labour, materials and hire of plant. The team getting the bid together goes to work. Henry has a copy of the labour rates (which he used previously) and sets to work based on the drawings provided. Similarly, Wendy deals to the materials and uses last year’s pricelist from the regular supplier which she keeps in her draw for reference. Meanwhile, Andy found a spreadsheet somewhere with some equipment hire pricings.

After the bid has been submitted and accepted as the winning bid, euphoria sets in. 12 months later however, Supreme Contractors Ltd is in big trouble as they have started to realise that their bid was severely under-priced. So what happened?

Henry’s labour rates were significantly out-of-date as recent pay increases had not been factored in. Also, a review of standard mark-up rates had not filtered through to Jim’s copied spreadsheetWendy did not rely on the companies’ procurement system to retrieve the latest pricing. As construction activity hit an all-time high the materials pricing had increased dramatically for some critical suppliesAnd you can guess what the story was with Andy’s pricing…. the spreadsheet was ofcourse out-of-date!

So here are a few simple rules you can follow to prevent similar scenarios happening within your company:

Maintain your source data in one place, and one place only. If you have business systems in place (e.g. a procurement & inventory system), that will be the place! Your staff need to be made aware where the sources of information are, and that they can trust the data they get from those sources (and those sources only!). It’s called “the single source of truth”.And always verify that your assumptions (e.g. pricings in this case) are correct!

I can help you with putting processes and disciplines in place to make sure the above doesn’t happen in your company. Contact me on 021 1488814 or e-mail me on michel@bizintelligence.co.nz.

At BizIntelligence I am (currently or have been) involved with many and versatile activities. Here is a sample of some of these activities:

Delivered Excel training resulting in more productive employeesUpdated corporate financial reportsImplemented bespoke Excel business solutions for corporate and smaller businessesPerformed data analytics for a large companyAssisted with a corporate system upgradeInvolvement with a corporate project management system implementationAssisted with small business setup and I created its websiteHelping with corporate intranet refresh

I have thoroughly enjoyed adding value for my customers and look forward to doing more of the same in the coming year! So contact me for a chat if you think I can help your business on 021 1488814 or michel@bizintelligence.co.nz. I look forward to hearing from you.