Your Wealth Guide

A managed services provider is a company that manages services for another company. Basically, they are a company that takes care of outsourced services on a month-to-month basis, which is how they also receive their income. Many of these services are provided via the internet and cover such tasks as IT services, remote data backup, desktop and security monitoring, and technical assistance. It is also common for a managed services provider to also manage a company’s web hosting and maintenance of their websites.

However, managed hosting is perhaps the most common function of many managed services provider. The provider bills the business they are providing the services for a fixed amount on a monthly basis. They provide IT services that would otherwise be provided in-house by existing or additional staff. They backup any data that is on the website and any data offered by customers visiting the website to benefit the business in case the website crashes. The customer data also allows the business to stay in touch with their customers. The managed services provider also continuously monitors the website in order to prevent security breaches. That way if there is a security breach, the managed services provider can rectify the issue right then and there. The managed services provider is also there to provide any technical assistance to the business or the customer if any issues come about with the web hosting.

It is obvious that a managed services provider can do a wide range of things for the business that the business would need an entire IT staff to do. Additional tasks that they perform include managed remote access, network monitoring, network management, scanning for vulnerabilities, firewall management, securing the e-mail and messaging system, tracking incidents, and server management. These are a few amongst the many tasks that would be required by the company that the company is outsourcing when hiring a managed services provider.

Benefits to the business

A managed services provider takes many tasks off of the hands of the business. In fact, the different payment models that managed services providers make available to the businesses that they serve is usually cheaper than having to hire one or two full-time employees to take care of these tasks or having existing employees add these tasks to their work loads. There may be times in which issues come about and those employees must focus on the managed hosting while putting their other job responsibilities on the backburner. However, some managed hosting operations are so large that it takes a number of employees to manage the system and everything that comes with it. This avoids having to pay higher salaries, additional salaries, training costs, and prevents staff members from being overworked.

Another benefit is that a managed services provider focuses on the task at hand because their job is to manage services for the business so that the business can focus on customer satisfaction, monitor costs better, save money by not having to manage their managed hosting themselves, protect vital information, and focus on making the applications satisfactory for the customer. They have no additional tasks other than focusing on the success of their client’s managed hosting.

Overall benefits

So the overall benefits are quite obvious in terms of convenience and cost. What’s really important is that the managed services provider is not consumed with other tasks because their job is to ensure the business they provide services for remains running smoothly in terms of their managed hosting. Successful managed hosting means the business can be more profitable and the consumer’s view of their business will be one of trust and satisfaction.



Are You Looking For A Realistic $250K First Year Income Potential?

If you have an online store based on osCommerce with a lot of products in many categories, and you are spending more than few minutes everyday updating your products, then you may gain benefit from the Store Manager for osCommerce. It is cost-effective software to manage osCommerce-based online stores.

Store Manager for osCommerce is a multi-language software to manage your online store. You get:

- multiple osCommerce stores management

- products, categories, attributes, manufacturers and orders management

- quick and easy osCommerce products import/export including product attributes, manufacturers, taxes, categories, additional fields

- smart and easy pricing for many products at once

- easy product navigation, quick search, advanced filters

- quick product, order, customer search etc

- advanced reporting tools, including more then 20 reports out of the box

- and much more

You can manage osCommerce store much faster and more effectively - import / export products, change product quantities, availability, backup your store, automatically re-size your product images while uploading etc. Hundreds of additional features are included in Store Manager for osCommerce to simplify typical and more advanced tasks. For example, SmartPrice Feature makes price changes for multiple products very smart, quick and easy. Advanced Reporting Tools show most popular products, most profitable products, products viewed, products purchased, customer orders total etc. And you can even design your own reports by any criteria. All changes you made are applied to your store immediately, no synchronization, no delayed updates - it all live.

Store Manager for osCommerce also provides multiple stores management, you can manage many stores at once and quickly switch between your stores. And all this right from your desktop computer. To know more about the software, see the screenshots, check out online flash presentations, or if you are in a hurry, just download Store Manager for osCommerce and try.

oscommerce-manager.com

Maybe you’ve realized that the e-commerce system you’re using just doesn’t do things in the way you want them done. Without Store Manager for osCommerce adding and managing your products itself can be a chore. In fact, the default version of osCommerce really only offers a very rudimentary product template that many users feel the need to customize. And customisation is one of the most valuable aspects of osCommerce. That’s why the developer created the Store Manager for osCommerce that will help you to successfully manage your osCommerce-based online store.

Store Manager for osCommerce is very easy and intuitive software and can be effectively used by NON-IT professionals. Everything you need for your effective and easy work with products, customers, orders, pricing and other store data is there – is in the software.

Do you have a comment or question about this software or other osCommerce topics? Speak out in the Support Forum oscommerce-manager.com/forum



Serious Entrepreneurs ONLY Beyond This Point!

agement and effective leadership skills seminars, I often ask participants, based on their years of experience, to list their top do’s and don’ts for effectively managing people. After conducting workshops and keynotes all over the world for over 12 years, I’ve come up with ten timeless principles, or tips for managing people. Here are the top ten:

1. Set goals collaboratively with your employees. You’re more likely to have employees who are accepting of the solution because they were involved in the process.

2. Follow through. Always do what you say you’re going to do. Otherwise, your credibility is destroyed. As the saying goes, they remember your last act.

3. In managing people, be empathetic and compassionate when the situation calls for it. For example, when a good employee is experiencing personal problems. Remember, your employees are your most important asset. And, you are managing people.

4. Be honest, trustworthy, fair and respectful. In managing people, if you employees don’t perceive you as trustworthy, you’re less likely to have real influence over them.

5. Lead by example. Be a good role model. If you are honest, trustworthy, respectful, and hardworking, you’re training them to be the same.

“Effective leadership in managing people = getting along with others.”

6. Communicate clearly with your staff on a regular basis. The importance of good communication sounds so obvious, it’s as if it shouldn’t need to be mentioned! But over and over, I hear about managers who don’t communicate effectively.

7. Take care of important issues. Don’t procrastinate working on projects you don’t want to do. And promptly address performance issues with a difficult employee. Otherwise, these problems only get worse.

8. Have goals and objectives clearly defined in writing for accountability. Include dates, deadlines, and numbers so it’s very clear what’s expected. For example, if someone is in customer service they are to, “Respond to all customer inquiries and complaints within 12 hours of receiving them.This way, the employee clearly understands what’s expected of them and is less likely to say, “Well,that’s just your perception. You’re just picking on me.”

9. In managing people, be available. Be approachable.

10. Empower and motivate the team not just in terms of completing tasks, but also in terms of good communication and managing conflict.

Effective leadership when managing people correlates to successfully managing conflict. Learn to get along with others. It’s not just what you know, or who you know, but how well you get along with others.



Wealth Builders!

Nowadays, professionals are increasingly expected to have mastered the principles of project management in addition to their many other talents. Having basic project management skills, at least, is rapidly becoming a requirement for many professionals. In a fast paced working environment, it therefore seems logical to take advantage of available tools, such as Microsoft Project software, which can help to streamline project management activities.

Once a project has been initiated, the planning phase can begin. The next step is to execute the planned tasks and ensure that they are kept on schedule until the final completion date is reached. A successful Project Manager must successfully manage four basic aspects of a project: resources, time, money and scope. Let us briefly consider how Microsoft Project software is designed to assist in the management of these four elements.

Scope

The scope of a project refers to the fact that the project itself should be clearly defined from the very beginning. The project scope may need to be adjusted as variables change during the course of events. These changes will have a knock-on effect upon the resources, time scale and budget. Microsoft Project offers a project guide to assist in the setting up of a new project.

Resources

Project management involves the effective management of all resources needed for the project. These include personnel, equipment and all materials required for project completion. Microsoft Project allows the user to input all the necessary resources required for the project and assign resources to a particular task. It is also possible to review how efficiently resources are being used.

Time

Any project can be broken down into a list of tasks which need to be performed and approximation of how long each task will take. The principle difficulty is that many of these tasks will need to be performed simultaneously. Microsoft Project allows the user to design and manage Gantt charts, which are very useful for monitoring progress. A PERT analysis indicates the duration of particular tasks. Critical path analysis, which highlights those tasks that dictate the start date and finish date, can also be performed with Microsoft Office software.

Money

Completing projects within budget is a key aspect of project management. Expenses, contingency plans for unexpected costs and potential future profits all need to be considered. Microsoft Project allows you to create a budget for your project and subsequently calculate costs as the project progresses.

It is becoming increasingly important for individuals to have project management capabilities in their armamentarium of talents. Microsoft Project training courses can assist you and your employees or colleagues to fine tune your project management skills and potentially enhance your chances of success in the workplace.



Let us teach you how to be successful!

ROI Analysis for Full Cycle Web Based Practice Management Software Solution

Executive Summary

Within this document, you will see detailed financial analysis and real world scenarios that will demonstrate the exponential cost savings that can be achieved with a full cycle practice management software.

Full Cycle Practice Management Software will:

· More efficiently utilize your schedule by using Resource Scheduling

· Set-up scheduling rules based on your practice needs (by caregiver, room, equipment, procedure)

· Maintain Caregiver Profiles

· Maintain Payer Contract Fee Schedules

· Set-up billing rules specific to your claim forms and payer contract requirements

· Automatically track your collection efforts and all follow-up

· Complete revenue reporting for financial reporting to stakeholders

Traditional Practice Management Software

Managing a practice should not include adjusting your practice rules to fit your software. The software should adjust to fit your rules. We will look at various aspects of a practice management software.

Scheduling

With a typical manual appointment book system, your employees invest much time in maintaining the “book”. Appointment rules are not built in the appointment book. Instead, your appointments may be based on the person speaking with your patient. If you are no longer using the “book” but instead using an appointment book software system, your appointment scheduling software may not maintain all appointment rules. Both of these types of systems hinders your ability to successfully manage all employees time (appointment scheduler, caregiver, front desk personnel) and provide quality patient care.

Let’s take a look at a real world scenario. Patient A phones your office to schedule a follow-up to a wound care visit. Using “book scheduling” (either manual or software) your appointment scheduler must remember the rules for this type of visit. Unfortunately, Patient A is scheduled for a 15 minute appointment, but in reality the appointment includes time not only with the caregiver but also with a wound care personnel. Patient A’s appointment lasts 30 minutes. By the time Patient G is seen (assuming alphabetical patients) all appointments are 30-45 minutes behind schedule.

How much does this cost your practice? Let’s assume Patient G has time constraints and was assured at time of scheduling he would be out of the office within 45 minutes. Patient G is now 45 minutes past his schedule time, and hasn’t even seen the caregiver. Patient G may either leave your office (unseen) or complain loud enough in your waiting room for patients behind him to leave. If Patient G’s visit charge would have been $100, that revenue has just left your door. Let alone if other patients behind him leave as well.

If this is happens in your office, it does not happen only once. So, you must multiply that number by 3, 5, 10, times as often as this scenario happens within your practice.

Result – A single patient leaving your office due improper appointment scheduling 3 times a month can cost your practice $3600 ($300 x 12 = $3600) per year. This cost is in addition to the employee labor costs involved to maintain your book schedule.

If you feel these projections are not accurate, you are probably correct. The costs are probably higher. The average charge is probably higher than $100. And, the frequency can be realistically higher than 36 lost appointments per year.

Investing in Resource Scheduling Software

With Resource Scheduling, appointment, caregiver, equipment, modality rules will be set up for your practice. The system will manage the rules, and appointment slots will be provided based on these rules. Ongoing labor costs will be minimized, as your employees are not learning the rules for each appointment type. With PiMS you will receive unlimited rules capability, ability to define preferences, block scheduling, the ability to define multiple resources for an appointment, plus much more. With Resource Scheduling, your practice can efficiently schedule appointments based upon your practice rules, and reduce its financial loses while improving patient care.

A typical Resource Scheduling software costs, for single location practice, less than $1,000 to install. With the above scenario, you should experience a return on your investment within 3 months.

Lost Appointment Costs - $300 per month (3 patients @ $100 charge per patient)

Labor Costs – Let’s assume an average of 1 hour per patient @ $25 per hour (appointment scheduler, caregiver, front desk personnel)

Estimated Lost Appointment Cost Total - $375 per month

With this analysis, you can see how investing in a Resource Scheduling software will provide a quick return on investment for your practice.

Billing

Billing errors can cost your organization thousands of dollars. This section analyzes manual billing pitfalls, costs to your organization, and proven ways to recover lost revenue.

Most billing errors can be eliminated prior to the submission of your claim. Managing these errors with little labor (i.e. people) intervention increases your overall profit. Relying on simple billing/claims software and/or personnel to remember specific billing requirements will result in an increase of denials and delayed cash. Instead, invest in billing software that has the capability of building your specific billing rules into the system. The system should allow for multiple claim forms. Your users should be able to view claim forms online, and reformat the claim online if necessary. The system should have the ability to automatically submit clean claims to the Payer, without human intervention. And most importantly, the system should contain your Payer specific rules for billing.

For example, some Payers have different billing requirements for the same procedure code. Your system should have the ability to generate a claim specific to the applicable Payer.. If your system does not have the capability of managing these types of rules, you are relying on personnel to catch the requirement up front and edit the claim prior to submission. Or, the claim will be submitted to the Payer and then denied for missing information.

Let’s examine the cost of both processes (manual versus system built rules). If you are relying on a manual or simple billing/claims system, your process will typically be as follows. A claim is generated and reviewed by your office staff. The Payer requirement states the specific procedure code must be submitted with a letter of medical necessity. Your office staff must remember this requirement (in addition to the other multitudes of billing requirements Payers create). The charge is $500. The claim is mailed to the Payer without the LMN. Twenty days later a denial is received from the Payer, stating the claim is not eligible for payment due to missing information. At this point, your staff will either remember what the missing information is, or more than likely contact the Payer for explanation. Your staff will then retrieve the LMN and resubmit the claim to the Payer with the LMN attached.

How does this cost your organization? Let’s assume the initial charge is $500. Begin subtracting the personnel cost to review the claim up front, review the denial, contact the Payer, correct the claim, resubmit to the Payer, and then follow-up with the Payer regarding payment. On average, this would entail approximately 2 hours of personnel costs. Plus, the $500 receivable has been delayed at least thirty days, resulting in a lower margin to your organization.

Investing in billing software that allows you to build in Payer specific rules will increase your margin almost immediately.

Medical Billing Software

Investing in a Medical Billing software, will decrease your billing denials. Medical billing software should provide flexible billing cycles, the capability to build in rules for Payer specific billing requirements, flexible claim formatting, missing element tracking, online reformatting, and a multitude of other user friendly functions to assist your personnel in billing.

How will this benefit your organization? In the above example, your $500 profit is reduced by 8-10% for personnel costs. That is then reduced by another 5% due to the delay in collection of the receivable. Conservatively, your margin is reduced by 15%. Multiply that by the number of instances this is currently occurring in your practice. You can see how quickly your margin erodes, and cash flow is delayed.

The cost of a typical medical billing software is probably dependent on the size of your practice and number of concurrent users. For a small practice, the cost could be less than $2,500 to install. Taking the above example into our analysis, your return on investment would be seen very quickly.

In addition to the features mentioned above, the software should provide your organization with Revenue Management reporting, an on-line patient financial folder, automatic charge posting, and much more!

Collections

Healthcare practices that do not invest in efficient billing and collection processes may find themselves in a cash crisis without resources to meet financial obligations. Your collection practices must be communicated, and adhered to, by all individuals within your practice. From communicating the patient responsibility, collecting this responsibility at time of visit, and thorough follow through until the account is paid in full should be one of your organization goals throughout time.

Understanding where you are today, and deciding on your organization’s goal for the future should be the first step in developing your collection processes. So, first calculate your current days sales outstanding (the average time it takes to collect your receivables). To do this, divide your net sales by the number of days in the period (I recommend monthly to effectively manage your cash flow). For example, if your sales for month is $75,000, divide that by 30, which equals 2500.

Next, take the above number and divide it into your accounts receivable trade balance. For example, if you have $165,000 in total receivables, divide 2500 into that number, which equals 66 days. Therefore your days sales outstanding is 66 days. Once you calculate this number, you can effectively set reasonable goals and processes for your staff.

Payer collections will probably be the vast majority of your collection efforts. Therefore, it is imperative processes are in place that dictates your organization’s follow up procedures. Your practice management system is the key to successful and timely collections of your accounts receivable. Timely follow-up on outstanding claims, denied claims, claims paid incorrectly, and delayed claims is a must.

Review your Payer contracts. What are the terms of payment? Does your state have legislation that dictates payment guidelines? Build your collection processes around these guidelines. For example, if Payer A contract terms is 30 days, you should be following up with the payer on day 31. Then, you should follow-up every 10-14 days from that point, until the claim is paid in full. Let’s examine how not following these types of processes can cost your practice.

Assume your payer contracts all dictate 30 days payment of a clean claim. The first step you perform is to calculate your current days sales outstanding (i.e. DSO). Once you do the calculation, you find your average DSO is 66 days. In this example, you are financing your current expenses by services you performed 66 days ago. This is not an effective means for managing cash flow and becoming profitable. And, you are allowing your payer to delay payment for services you performed.

Ensure your Payers are abiding by the contract guidelines. You must be able to access their payment style and their ability to process your claims according to your contract. Once payer payment issues are discovered, they must be presented to Management, to assist in contract negotiations and improvements. How does this impact your practice?

If your payer contract stipulates 30 day payment upon receipt of a clean claim, and paid at 80% of billed charges, your staff must be able to determine if payment was made correctly. If the payer is paying your claims at 75% and you are writing off the remaining 5%, you are losing revenue.

Patient collections are an important part of your collection process as well. From the appointment each patient must understand his financial responsibility. That responsibility must be collected at time of service. If the amount is not collected, your collection processes must include how and when to collect any remaining patient responsibility.

Investing in a practice management system that will provide the tools to analyze your current state is crucial in the streamlining of your collection efforts. Your software should accommodate the multiple payer contract payment requirements, and the processes you have developed to collect any outstanding receivable. The more you can automate, the less likelihood of delayed collections. These processes must include both payer and patient collection efforts.

Collections Software

Your collection software should allow you to manage your collection process by user-defined guidelines. The software should provide user activities, worklists, and letters to guide your staff in the collection of your receivables.

Creating automatic collection letters is a must. The letters should be as specific or generic as you wish (from small balances to a more rapid letter sequence for higher balances). Your users should have access to unlimited worklists, with multiple assignments based on your criteria. Supervisors should be able to view employees worklist any time on-line. In addition, the software should provides productivity reports to help you analyze what your collectors are doing.

Another important aspect is the software should provide account financial responsibility by both third party and patient. This eliminates staff confusion and allows the staff to follow-up more efficiently with the third party and patient.

How can investing collection save you money? In the above example, if your payer contract stipulates a 30 day payment, and your average DSO is 66, your are financing your operations out by 2 months. Investing in a software that will provide you both tools and resources to define your current state and automate your collection process will decrease your DSO.

For a small practice, the cost could be less than $2,500 to install. Taking the above example into our analysis, your return on investment would be seen very quickly. Investing in PiMS Medical Collectoins will be paramount in increasing cash flow.

Revenue Reporting

In addition to scheduling, billing, and collections, your software must provide you the tools to accurately analyze your financial picture. These tools should be in the format of reports. These reports must have meaning to your organization. Understanding where your practice is today, and how you can improve will provide Management the necessary information to make important strategic decisions.

The software must provide a thorough selection of real time reports that will assist in you accurate financial analysis of your practice. With PiMS reporting, you will be able to view aging reports (by financial party), revenue reports, productivity reports, plus many more. These reports are real-time, online, and retrievable at your discretion.

Performing routine financial analysis will quickly provide to you not only the items mentioned above, but will also quickly provide you the return on investment you have seen.

In summary, investing in a full cycle practice management system will quickly provide effective processes, streamlining of the A/R process, decreasing labor costs, and most importantly increasing employee productivity and your organization’s profitability.



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As your business grows, you will likely find more ways to use technology to increase production (and hopefully, profits). Making the decision to enhance your technology environment in order to achieve your business objectives is a necessary milestone, but it is equally important to identify the scope and budget of your project before jumping into implementation.

This article explains a phased approach that will help you maximize your budget and provide the greatest results when considering a technology enhancement.

Phase I - Business Need

This initial phase is designed to help you determine if you have answered the “why” questions as it relates to your objectives. You should be able to clearly identify the business benefit (return on investment) for your potential project after completing this phase. Here are the steps that will guide you through this phase:

1. What is the problem/deficiency that needs your investment in time and money to be solved?

2. Does your business challenge absolutely require new or enhanced technology?

a.Do your employees require additional training with existing systems?

b.Can the challenge be solved by changing the workflow or business practices?

3. Once the problem is clearly defined and the solution points to technology improvements, a preliminary budget can be established.

Phase II - Budget & Scope

In Phase I we qualified our potential solution within the realm of technology and now we need to define the scope of the solution. Without defining scope, you will run the risk of your project growing out of control in both time and money. This is the phase where you should spend the time to clearly document the business requirements or “what” will be implemented.

1. Bring all the necessary players together to discuss the objectives of the project.

2. Determine how the problem that was identified in Phase I affects all key players.

3. Discuss how the problem can be solved with technology and be specific as it relates to your current business practices and workflows.

4. Document your findings and discussions.

5. Once the solution has been identified, you can present your documents to your preferred vendor(s) and obtain proposals or quotes.

Phase III - Pilot

Implementing any technology project can be challenging in that technology itself changes so quickly and your employees may have different expectations with the solution. A pilot phase is very effective to “test” the solution and confirm all expectations are met.

1. Once your vendor has been identified, you can request a pilot or trial solution be put into place for limited use to test results.

2. After the pilot solution is implemented, be sure to measure the effectiveness and verify that the problems in phase I are being solved.

Phase IV - Implementation

So now you have confirmed that the pilot is solving some or all the problems identified in phase I, now you are ready to rollout the full solution. It is very important to closely manage your vendor and be sure they are delivering what they promised within their proposal.

1. Create a project plan that consists of key milestones for the implementation of your solution.

A sample plan is shown below:

* Project Kick-off

* Budget review

* Set timelines for remainder of project

* Determine training requirements

* Technology install/enhancement

* Document the changes in your existing workflow

* Create a forum for employees to provide feedback during this process

* Develop a suite of tests that verifies the newly installed technology does not break any existing processes.

* Develop a suite of tests that verifies the newly installed technology meet the expectation of the proposed solution.

* Insure your timelines are being met and budget is not growing.

* Implementation complete

* Begin training

2. After the solution has been installed, consolidate all the documents and training materials in one repository for quick reference.

Phase V - Project Review & Closure

Now that the technology solution has been successfully implemented and everyone has been trained, you will need to setup measures to ensure that the solution is effective.

1. Create an anonymous survey for employees to provide feedback.

a. Survey questions should include: overall project success, training materials and responsibility impact.

2. Develop metrics that can measure the profit and/or efficiency that was achieved as a result of this project. This will help you identify the true return on investment.

3. Continue to refine training.

This phased approach for managing a technology project is meant to be a guide. There are many details within each phase that would be too lengthy to describe here. There are also many books that can assist with successfully managing any type of project, not only technology. Here is a website that is a great reference for project management:

http://www.pmi.org



Serious Entrepreneurs ONLY Beyond This Point!

Managing or administering a seminar, workshop, roadshow or other type of event, even the seemingly simple, can provide you with headaches that you never thought possible. Being crystal clear about what you and your company actually needs the event to deliver at the earliest possible stage is critical to so many issues.

Although holding an event like a seminar or a workshop often evolves out of discussions about sales, marketing and even technical issues like product failures, it is almost always critical to establish clearly in everyone’s mind what the true purpose of the event is. This can have a substantial effect on:

* how you go about organizing the event

* who you involve

* which venue you choose

* what you choose to include and exclude

* the dates and times of the various activities

* and significantly why you are holding an event at all

The event manager should get together with the prime-movers in the organization who effectively “own” the event and discuss the true objective or perhaps objectives to be achieved.

The word “objective” is used intentionally here because there may already be an objective-setting ethos in your organization. If there is, then use the same framework to arrive at consensus for the purpose of the event.

The minimum requirement is that the objective should be SMART;

* Specific

* Measurable

* Achievable

* Relevant

* Time-bounded

Specific

The word “specific” has been chosen as shorthand for the question:

“What, specifically, will have changed as a result of the success of this event?”

To illustrate this consider the example of a Financial Services organization that was having difficulty selling one of its new investment product (Product Y) because of its complexity. They were convinced that the product was a winner but needed Financial Advisers to spend more than a ten minute telephone call learning about how it was structured and how it would perform over time. They also needed to connect with more Financial Advisers than they already knew, so the idea of a conference to debate the new generation of financial products for the 21 st Century was born.

The Financial Services company defined their specific requirement from the conference as follows:

To present, along with other Financial Products, a detailed technical explanation of Product Y to an audience of 250 or more Financial Advisers who operate within our region in order that they can understand its benefits and sell it on to their customers.

Measurable

In almost every project there is a well understood relationship between cost, quality and time. You can achieve anything to a very high standard in a very short time if cost is no object. Similarly you can produce the best product to a tight budget as long as time is not an issue. The third option is probably the world you operate in; the budget is small and we need it yesterday. This, of course, means that quality is the issue most likely to suffer and is probably worth some debate about what level of quality is expected and how it should be measured.

Post-event questionnaires and follow-up telephone or Email communication should be asking the right questions to ensure that quality data is available.

Achievable

The event organizer needs to be set up for success and needs to feel that they have the support of the event “owners” on the route ahead. In short, they need to know how to get rapid decisions made if quality, cost or time are affected by issues that develop as the project proceeds.

Relevant

It is sensible to confirm with the overall aims of the organization that the event and the way it is being envisioned correspond. If a company mission or vision exists, then there should be a straight line of logic linking it with this seminar, roadshow or workshop.

Timebounded

Priorities can often be forgotten when an attractive project happens along. So, not only should the relevant dates, times and durations be spelled out in detail, the effect of this project on other work should be discussed and appropriate action taken to ensure that all timescales are properly managed.

Equipped with this seemingly simple step of devising a comprehensive objective, you, as the event manager, are better equipped to make informed decisions about almost any issue that crops up in the design, delivery and follow-up processes associated with your event. Even better, it will reduce your consumption of pain killers by minimizing headache inducing changes and problems down the line.



Are You Looking For A Realistic $250K First Year Income Potential?

Widespread research suggests that people do not leave organizations; they leave their managers. The implication of this finding is that managers who are respected and seen as supportive of the people who work with them are indispensable to successful organizations. Without them, competent people may leave their current organization in search of better treatment. The resultant costs of recruitment, engagement and subsequent retention can be enormous. Less tangible are the indirect costs associated with the loss of corporate intelligence and the impact on morale.

I ask participants in management workshops to isolate the characteristics of individuals with whom they have worked who they deem to have been exceptional managers. Their answers seldom focus on the educational background or technical capabilities of those people. Instead they emphasize that exceptional managers are passionate, have vision, are caring, treat people supportively, make work fun, challenge people to be their best, provide lots of feedback, listen intently and encourage teamwork. Traditionally, these skills have been labelled, somewhat pejoratively, as the “soft skills”. The insinuation is that they are “touchy feely”, too mushy for the real world of work and, in some instances, even inappropriate in a “professional” environment. My experience contradicts this and supports the thoughts of Roger Enrico, former CEO and Chair of PepsiCo, who says that “the soft stuff is always harder than the hard stuff”.

Successful organizations must invest in developing the skills that are critical for the managers of their people to function effectively. What are they? For many years we have taught managers that they need to provide clear direction, to communicate better, to vary their management style to fit individuals’ level of development and to attempt to engage people in the pursuit of the organization’s raison d’etre. These skills have certainly helped managers to become more productive. But there is more…

In the mid to late 1990s the topic of emotional intelligence gained prominence in management literature. Research at Harvard suggested that emotional intelligence was at least four times as critical as a predictor of success as either IQ or technical skills. Another study at the Centre for Creative Leadership indicated that for successful managers, emotional intelligence is nearly five times as important as their IQ or technical skills.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to effectively perceive, manage and use one’s emotions and to effectively manage emotional connections with other people. While there are eleven components of emotional intelligence, I will only mention a few.

To maximize the contribution of our people and their talents, research into emotional intelligence says that we must support managers as they develop skills in a variety of areas. These include helping managers learn to: assess their strengths and weaknesses; manage their strong impulses; remain optimistic in spite of severe challenges; listen more effectively; become more adaptable to rapidly changing conditions; become more emotionally self-aware; and demonstrate empathy. Managers who refine these skills will be seen as more authentic by those they lead. The outcome will be more people who feel that they are respected and valued by their managers. Under these conditions, people are more likely to be fully engaged in their workplace and to contribute their maximum effort for their manager. They are also less likely to shop the market for other opportunities.

Undoubtedly, effective managers are indispensable to successful organizations.

“the soft stuff is always harder than the hard stuff.”

“Emotional intelligence is nearly five times as important as IQ or technical skills.”



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As a manager, by definition you are in the middle. You’re the glue. A manager who doesn’t manage is worse than no manager at all. Your employees need you to lead and manage or get out of their way.

Did you know that exceptional managers are the main reason good employees stay where they are, and bad managers are the main reason good employees leave? Author Marcus Buckingham tells us people don’t quit their jobs – they quit bad managers. They quit managers who don’t recognize their contributions. They quit managers who ignore slacker coworkers. They quit managers who don’t provide clear direction. In other words, they quit managers who don’t manage and lead assertively.

That’s why your words are so important. As a manager your words matter more to your employees than anyone else’s. However, if you’re like most leaders (and like me), you’ve delayed hot button conversations because you didn’t know what to say or you didn’t want to rock the boat. And (like me) you’ve probably also initiated hot button conversations with reckless abandon and later regretted your words.

Here are some management skill training tips to help you be the assertive manager your employees want to produce results for.

1. Establish your role from the beginning

Don’t: be afraid to be the boss. When you take charge, don’t assume everyone will automatically fall into their roles.

Why not: In the beginning, employees aren’t sure about your authority, and neither are you. It’s easier to set the tone up front than to change the tone afterward.

Do: conduct a new supervisor interview and put your best foot forward. Take the initiative to set boundaries and define roles from the outset.

PowerPhrases: What to Say: “I need your help, support and feedback on my new role as your manager.” “Now that I’m your manager, our roles will change. Do you have concerns about that?”

Poison Phrases: What not to say: We’re all friends here. It will work out fine.

2. Hold people accountable for expected results

Don’t: indulge slackers.

Why not: It’s unfair to the good performers who are doing their jobs – and often picking up the slack. It encourages slacking from everyone.

Do: clarify expectations and document and address problems as they arise.

PowerPhrases: What to Say: “Your job requires that you… Instead you are… Here’s why I need you to meet expectations.”

Poison Phrases: What not to say: Oh well, it’ll get done. It always does.

3. Create a system to consistently acknowledge good employee performance

Don’t: leave acknowledgement to chance or dismiss good work as an expected part of the job.

Why not: Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. Behavior that is ignored drops off. If you don’t have a system to acknowledge employees, it probably won’t happen and you’ll lose a performance enhancement opportunity.

Do: set reminders or other systems to ensure you let employees know exactly what they do that you appreciate and how it affects you in a positive way.

PowerPhrases: What to Say: “I love your attention to detail in how you… That’s important because…” “…was a powerful initiative because…”

Poison Phrases: What not to say:that’s what they get paid for.

4. Be clear in delegation and providing directions

Don’t: assume understanding.

Why not: There are too many variables in every project to assume anything.

Do: specify deadlines, budget, specs, authority and follow-up.

PowerPhrases: What to Say: “I need …by (when) to the following specs. Make your own decisions about X but please forward questions to me about Y. “

Poison Phrases: What not to say: I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.

.5. Tie each employee responsibility into the bigger picture of company mission, vision and department goals

Don’t: treat individual tasks as mundane.

Why not: mundane tasks don’t motivate. Activities that are a part of a bigger mission do.

Do: remind employees continually about why you’re there and how their achievements help move the mission forward.

PowerPhrases: What to Say: “This list you completed is a good step forward toward our mission of…”

Poison Phrases: o you made a list. That’s what we pay you for.

6. Apply prepared assertive management phrases and leadership phrases for every step of the management process including:

The new supervisor interview

Building strong managers and leaders

How to coach employees

Meeting facilitation

Announcing change

Motivation

Providing positive feedback

Providing negative feedback

Performance review phrases

Termination

This article offers dos, don’ts, PowerPhrases and Poison Phrases for five management conversations. In the course of your management career you’ll need to initiate conversations for hundreds of employee conversations. Let the experience of others guide you.

The management process is a communication process. It’s not enough to be right. It’s not enough to know what you’re doing. It’s essential that to have to words to successfully manage your employees and to be the assertive manager your employees want you to be.



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