Creativity consultants: how do they help?


In this article by Paul and Sarah Edwards, Starting a Creativity Consultant Business, the subject of creativity consultants is being discussed. They say that only the organizations that center in innovation will be able to attract the interest of investors. Only innovative companies stay in the competition. The author Richard Florida points out in his book, the flight of the creative class, that they face tough, worldwide competition for creative talent. And that’s where creativity consultants started. Creative consultant help individuals develop creative thinking to compete, to be effective, and to stand out in the current economy. They also help organization discover a problem, analyze it, and find a creative solution through recognizing opportunity. Creativity consultants often provide a combination of project consulting and training to client organizations and companies. The first part (project consulting) involves facilitating task groups organized to points out a problem a company faces and help them recognize the opportunity to benefit from it. The training part involves presenting workshops to develop creativity in participating employees. Some companies are interested in creativity consultants to get help in their marketing tasks such as choosing a product, slogan, and logo. Sometimes creativity consultants doesn’t only help in a companies’ task, it also tracks the development of their tasks. Creativity consultants usually start their service with non-profit organizations or with smaller organizations.

Use Relationship Skills to Stand Out in The Workplace


The author Phyllis Davis suggests eight different ways for managers to charm their employees in his article “8 ways to charm your employees”. Davis starts his article by reminding us that everyone wants to be recognized in his/her field. He says that professional people should try to rise above their feeling and work by achieving the goals of their jobs. To do that, professionals or managers should master the leadership sills to become admired and trusted by their employees. As a result, employees will be loyal to their managers and they will all try to reach that manager’s position by increasing their productivity. However, Davis raises a question saying “Do you consider it manipulative to practice high levels of rapport skills related to verbal and nonverbal communication for effective leadership?” so basically he is wondering if it’s really important to have high level of relationship skills with employees to gain a certain position. He answers by saying that many businesses spend millions to equip employees with important skills to help them become productive.

Anyhow, Davis suggests some tips that help to create good relationships, and loyalty in the workplace.

1. Watch the way your standing: men usually stand side by side while talking while women usually face each others. Also, when a gentleman approaches another gentleman, he should face him with an angle. When approaching a lady, he should move his torso to stand face to face.
2. Put a spotlight on everyone you’re speaking to: instead of entertaining your employees with your ales and experiences, use active-listening skills to explore them and benefit form their comments.
3. Avoid touching yourself while talking to others: when touch yourself your indicating that you’re relaxed, so it tells others that you’re not really paying attention.
4. Smile while you are talking: it’s powerful to smile while you’re speaking to others.
5. Subtly mirror people's gestures when you're speaking to them: and while mirroring, be very graceful and move very slowly; show that you are making nature movement and not mirroring.
6. Talk 20 percent of the time and listen 80 percent of the time: while people are talking, ask them questions and nod positively as they speak, and don’t interrupt them until they finish talking. When listening most of the time, you’re in control of people’s conversations.
7. Avoid offering unsolicited advice in public or in private: try to avoid giving advices that people didn’t ask for. Giving advice sometimes tells the listeners that they wrong somehow. You can give advice indirectly by some for example “That’s another way of looking at it”
8. Thank people at the job they’ve done: some people like being thanked for stuff they’ve done, but avoid commenting them personally, some people might perceive it as harassment.

Downsizing is good or bad? If it's bad, how do we cope with its effects?


In the article, dealing with the effects of downsizing, in The Hindu newspaper the author discusses the issue of how to cope with the effect of downsizing. The author says that although downsizing has good effects on organization in some situations, it also has bad effects on organizations and its employees who remained there. Downsizing might help organizations cope with economic pressures, it might increase efficiency, but it could put employees down in different ways. It brings the shame of defeat, and it destroys the future of loyal employees. The remaining employees might also face psychological issues if downsizing occurs. Employees will lose self-esteem; they will lack initiative, and they might also feel guilty for remaining with the company laid their friends off. The book also mentions that those employees who retain their job might feel frustrated, anxious, and lost because of t

he stress, the increased workload, feeling guilty, and unfair (p216-217). However, to cope with the effects that downsizing brings, some tips were proposed. Firstly, employees must be aware of the reasons of the organization making such a decision about downsizing through an honest communication. Secondly, employees should question themselves honestly about issues concerning their feeling toward their job and how they’re going to satisfy themselves in the certain position and situation they occupy instead of thinking about the existing problem. Thirdly, employees should perceive the situation brought by downsizing as an opportunity that they should exploit for advancement for their career. Also, employees should be secure about their jobs because otherwise, downsizing will be perceived as threat if they were insecure. Furthermore employees should give themselves priority in doing their jobs. And finally, employees must not get discouraged; yes, it might be a-bad-depressing process, but it’s a fact and it happened thousands times before to millions of people. The book says that managers can help employees cope with such a problem by creating an open discussion about how the employees feel such as guilt, anger, and anxiety (p217).

But I have no money!!!
you can still reward..


In the article, how to reward employees when your budget is tight, Scott Miller gives tips about how to reward employees when an organization’s budget is low. Obviously, happy employees produce more. Statistics showed that when employees’ attitudes improved by 5 percent, customer satisfaction rose 1.3 percent and revenue grew 0.5 percent. However, in tighter companies, rewarding employees is harder; increasing salaries is almost impossible. Employees always accept competitive salaries, in other word, employees are satisfied if they’re paid the same as those in competitive fields, but money is not always a satisfying factor. Surveys showed that the highest factor that employees consider when choosing a job is an open communication factor, where salary ranked the 16th most important factor. Other studies showed that being recognized by managers is the most important factor of choosing a job. The book says “to maximize motivation in today’s diversified workforce, management needs to think in terms of flexibility” (p335)

Salaries are not the only incentive of being motivated in a job. Companies with tight budget can always reward their employees in different ways.

1. Managers can personally thank employees on specific work done showing personal appreciation about the quality of the outcome.
2. Managers could send thank- you note in a letter. An employee will feel recognized when he/she knows that his/her boss spent time in writing a special letter for that employee.
3. Sharing information about the company with employees even those who are not really involved in a certain issue.
4. Managers should make employees part of the decision making process.
5. Gives opportunity to learn skills while working. So many employees, especially those new ones, are concerned about learning and gaining experience, a manger should exploit this chance to gain employees’ satisfaction.
6. Mixing fun with work and celebrating success: managers must celebrate with employees after each project’s completion, or any other job done.
7. Provide free time and flexibility.

The book also gives three tips to reward employees and improve their motivation and morale and decrease their absenteeism. The first one is what’s called “flextime” which is a scheduling option allows employees to select what their work hours will be within some specified parameters. The second is “job sharing” which is a type of part-time work that allows two or more workers to split a traditional 40- hour-a-week job. The last tip is the “telecommunication” which is a system of working at home on a computer that is linked to the office (p340,341).

Management VS Leadership



In this article, The Difference Between Managing and Leading, the author Stever Robbins raises a question of the difference between leadership and management and he questions himself about his role as a leader in the business that he owns. Robbins differentiates leadership and management by giving them simple definitions. He defined leadership as the heart of a business; a leader's main job is to inspire groups to achieve a common good by motivating, consoling, and work with them. In other word, a leader sets directions for employees to follow. On the other hand, managers are defined as the brain of a business. Managers deal with business not with people; they create systems, rules, and operating procedures. However, Robbins says that business executives are not completely leaders nor managers, CEO's and owners mostly have a mixture of both leadership and management skills. Both skills are important because they work in harmony. Anyhow, the book differentiated leadership and management in different way. The book says that managers "have legitimate power that allows them to reward and punish". Managers' ability to influence is based on formal authority in the position they have in an organization. On the other hand, the books defines leaders as the "people that are able to influence others and who can possess managerial authority". Leaders can affect others' performance beyond the actions commanded by formal authority p (354).

Many people believed that management is essential, but leading is even more important for tangible results in a business. Setting goals in a business (managing) tend to achieve less if it lacked direction setting (leading); every company has goals, but they don't seem to achieve as much without directions which is mission and operating principles (directions are broader than goals). Talking about the role of leaders in a business, the book says that people don’t have to be leaders to direct people, manager can definitely do that. The book also said that leaders’ job is part of that of managers' p (354).

After Robbins has differentiated between leadership and management, he starts describing the leader's job in today's businesses. All executives must have the characteristics of leaders; they must be aware of their business's directions. Directions must not be neglected especially in the heat of new market development. A leaders' job firstly is to bring people back to the company's directions consistently and challenge them to share and evaluate ideas and decisions. secondly, a leader must know that employees lose sight of the big goal of an organization, so in that case as a leader you should bring people back to the big picture. Finally, a leader must track employees’ steps and check if they stray from the company's objectives and make sure to bring them back to the right track. However, the book gave general descriptions of leaders concerning their behaviors. Firstly, leaders have high desire to achieve and to lead others. Secondly, they build trusting relationship between themselves and followers by being truthful. Thirdly, leaders have self-confidence and they lack self-doubt. Fourthly, job leaders are intelligent and have high level of knowledge about companies, industries, and technical matters p (355).