Reward & Recognition - Performance Management and the integral role of Managers in organisational and employee development.

Most companies have yet to arrive at the realisation of understanding the importance of appointing to management, capable employees who are talented in and committed to managing people well. Many fail to realise the accountability of poor performance at lower levels actually sits with managers, this means ensuring supervisors themselves are well-managed and engaged. Middle-management definitely needs more love. Achieveable by implementing a functional employee engagement strategy as opposed to tackling a range of problems caused by the lack of that overall strategy. Research shows that australians have been known to respond exceptionally well to great management, a 'cool culture', meaningful recognition and opportunities to take on new challenges. The overall employee output and the intensity of this output can be directly measured by the level of investment an employer makes in improving that overall experience at work. In other words, you get the engagement and performance you deserve. Nothing, absoloutely nothing is more important and more intstrumental than an awesome manager who has the ability to individualise the company's approach on behalf of that employee. And yet, only 9% of employees strongly agree their managers understand them, one in two employees think their manager is incompetent (hahaha). Yes, comical but this is derived from a 2013 Hewitt study of employee engagement. The relationship an employee holds with their direct manager is the most important. They serve as an intemediary between the employee and the wider organisation. Helping the employee understand and make sense of what changes are taking place in the wider business, and how this affects the employee. And when it comes to helping those who are interested to progress with their careers either within their roles or beyond, the immediate manager should act as a sponsor or a mentor, someone who connects people with opportunities and can secure the right resources and approval to make it possible. The concept CLEARLY DEFINING performance expectations is equally important. Making sure that general divisional teams and processes are aligned with objectives, managing cooperative relationships within cross-functional teams and providing people adequate resources and necessary support to kick goals necessary to do their job and push boundaries where possible. This all forms part of the BASICS of effectively managing people but what is equally important is the responsibility of middle management towards fostering an environment that enables high performance (ie HP>D not HP

Utterly confused head space, stagnant career - normal part of human development?

At a time when most teenagers (and, let’s face it, those of us in our mid-twenties aswel) are struggling just to get out of bed, the story of a courageous and adventurous nineteen year old is being aired on prime time television. A fearless individual with nothing to lose and only everything to gain, speaks of the importance of believing in your passion and the courage to pursue it. “You gotta take it as it is, and do it”. Thanks, ‘Flyin Ryan’. "All of our lives we spend listening to everybody else, we want to please them, we want them to approve whatever we’ve done its almost a caged feeling. LEARN TO SAY NO!" - Alicia Keys. Two remarkable and deeply inspiring stories aired on sixty Minutes tonight. Which have only built on the existing notion of wanting to break free from my own ‘caged feeling’ once again. Self-actualization is a continuous process of human development and a core component in human development, as proven by Abraham Maslow. "What a man can be, he must be”. This quotation forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need refers to what a person's full potential is and the realization of that potential. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be. Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. For example, one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions. According to Maslow, to achieve this level of need, the person must not only achieve the previous needs (morality, creativity, spontaneity and lack of prejudice) but master them.

Monogamy - Overrated?

Paternity tests given to birds, monkeys and foxes reveals that simply because these species had developed a relationship similar to marriage it did not necessarily mean that they had been faithful to each other.

In 70 per cent of cases, their offspring turn out to have been fathered by males other than their partners.

The only species in nature that doesn't commit adultery and in which there seemed to be 100% monogamy is a flatworm. The male and female worms meet as adolescents and their bodies literally fuse together.

So was Tiger Woods merely following his human instinct?

Is it fair to say that monogamy is a myth that has been rammed down people's throats for far too long?

Orbital Inn

Just when we thought we had seen the heights of Aviation technology when Airbus presented their prposed design for aircraft travel in their futuristic transparent planes, a bunch of Russian engineers and Russian-based company Orbital Technology go a tiny step further by presenting their proposal for a four-room zero-gravity 'Hotel in the Heavens' located at the cross roads of yes and no joke.
No seriously, it is. And you could very well be on it. That is ofcourse, provided you have a cool $984,000 lying around.
Located hundreds of miles above the planet's surface, the hotel will essentially be aimed at very* wealthy individuals and people working for private companies wanting to do research in space.
Guests will orbit planet Earth once every 90 minutes whilst enjoying 16 sunsets and 16 sunrises!

The Shane Warne/Ken/Wax transformation saga

We're just never going to escape these bogans, are we? The Shane Warne soap opera will just keep playing in a media outlet near you. Meanwhile, the world economy is going to hell in a hand basket, we have unprecedented political upheaval across the Middle East, the US is heading southwards as a superpower, millions are starving around the globe etc etc. But "our boy" Shane, newly slimmed down and rearing to go, is heading to the altar with a c-grade celebrity who must be as thick as him and equally desperate for some publicity. I'll give their marriage 12 months, or untill Warnie finds his phone again - whichever comes first hahaha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntSBKPkk4m4

One of my new favourites. Great lyrics!

Julia Gillard's solution to people smuggling.

Ok, so it seems to be the most pressing issue at the moment with valid arguments both for and against that I just had to write about it...

Australia’s so called ‘agreement’ to send the next 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in return for resettling 4000 refugees from Malaysia over the next four years, will occur regardless of whether or not Australia sends those asylum seekers or accepts them within Australia.  This coming as a result of the mistreatment of 90,000 refugees in Malaysia according to a recent assessment by the UN stating that refugees in Malaysia were vulnerable to prosecution, deportation, whipping and detention – so why would we be simultaneously sending refugees to the same country that openly engage in the further mistreatment of asylum seekers?  How can Australia promote such mistreatment being a country of migrants itself? Isn't that just as 'un-Australian'?

At a time when war is escelating globally, and considering the proportion of the developing world and developed countries that now face poverty, should Australia be protecting its own borders as opposed to increasing business for people smugglers?

Another interesting argument put forward was surrounding the legitimacy of the refugees themselves. are they genuine refugees or are they rich and elite people in the war torn countries or in the refugee camps, exploiting the sympathy of the world to the refugees to advance their immigration plan by flying to Indonesia for a boat trip to Australia? only the poor are the ones who suffer in a war and have no means to escape it. The rich, the elite and the educated are the ones who are able to use their advantage to get out of the countries, legally or illegally. This leads to the question about the "compassion" that the refugee advocates always pride themselves about. Ha, we have the ideologically driven activists who are using their resources, energy, intelligence to advocate the elite and rich at the expense of the poor and under-privileged and are boasting about their "compassion". To the lawyers who are the activists, any boat people that you have helped, if it turns out that they are immigration opportunists in reality but somehow succeed in deceiving the system with your help, means that you are taking away the precious limited places for the genuine poor refugees in the camps.

So I'm done with my usual socialist rant and I welcome any further views put forward by fellow readers.