Course Instructor: Dr. Syed M. Ahmed, Ph.D. College of Engineering & Computing

1. Employee Empowerment, Leadership & Change, Team building & Teamwork, Communication & Interpersonal Relations, Education & Training Course Instructor: Dr. Syed M. Ahmed, Ph.D. College of Engineering & Computing Florida International University, Miami, Florida

2. Major Topics • Employee Empowerment • Leadership and Change • Team Building & Team Work • Effective Communication • Education & Training

3. Employee Empowerment

4. Employee Empowerment Defined… • Employee Empowerment is Employee Involvement that matters. • It could also be defined as controlled transfer of authority to make decisions and take actions. • What is needed? • Successful implementation of empowerment requires change in corporate culture. • Does this mean Abdication? • NO. Empowerment involves actively soliciting input from those closest to the work and giving careful thought to that input.

5. Rationale • An aspect of Working Smart • Empowerment is the key to motivation & Productivity. • It enables a person to develop personally & professionally.

6. Inhibitors of Empowerment • Resistance from Employees & Unions • Resistance from Management • Insecurity • Personal Values • Ego • Management Training • Personality Characteristics of Managers • Exclusion of Managers • Workforce Readiness • Organizational Structure & Management Practices

7. Management’s Role in Empowerment & Implementing Empowerment • Management’s Role: • Commitment • Leadership • Facilitation • Implementing Empowerment: • Development of Suggestion Systems (Fig 8.3) • Considering the Employees Point of View • Putting Vehicles in Place • Brainstorming • Nominal Group Technique (fig 8.4) • Quality Circles • Suggestion Boxes • Walking & Talking

8. Suggestion Systems - 1 • Management’s Role: • Establishing Policy • Setting Up the System • Promoting the Suggestion System • Evaluating & Implementing suggestions • Rewarding employees • Improving the system.. • Improving Suggestion Processing • Improving Individual Suggestions • Problem Identification • Research • Idea Development

9. Suggestion Systems - 2 • Evaluating Suggestions • Though Employees make suggestions, final analysis is still to be made by manager. • Thus, Establish a formal rating system for evaluating suggestion systems. • Handling Poor Suggestions • Listen Carefully • Express Appreciation • Carefully explain your position • Encourage feedback • Look for Compromise

10. Achieving Full Participation • Removing Hidden Barriers • Negative Behavior • Poor Writing Skills • Fear of Rejection • Inconvenience • Encouraging new Employees • Coaching Reluctant Employees • Assess • Investigate • Match • Choose • Manage

11. How to Recognize Empowered Employees • Taking Initiative • Identifying Opportunities • Thinking Critically • Building Consensus

12. Empowerment • Avoiding Traps: • Defining Power as Discretion & Self- Reliance • Failing to Properly Define Empowerment for Managers & Supervisors • Assuming Employees Have the skills to be Empowered • Getting Impatient Making the Transition from Traditional Approach • Beyond Empowerment

13. Leadership & Change

14. Leadership Defined • Leadership is the ability to inspire people to make a total, willing and voluntary commitment to accomplish or exceeding organizational goals. • Leaders must • Overcome resistance to change • Broker the needs of Constituency groups • Establish an ethical framework • Characteristics • Balanced Commitment • Positive Role Model • Good Communication Skills • Persuasiveness

15. Leadership for Quality • Principles: • Customer Focus • Obsession with Quality • Freedom through Control • Looking for Faults in Systems • Teamwork • Continuing Education & Training • The Juran Trilogy: • Quality Planning • Quality Control • Quality Improvement

16. Leadership • Motivation & Inspiration: • Understanding Individual Needs • Understanding Individual Beliefs • Leadership Styles: • In a total Quality setting, the most appropriate style might be called participative leadership taken to a higher level

17. Building & Maintaining a Following • Popularity & the Leader • Not all good leaders are popular. Vice Versa applies. • Leadership Characteristics • Sense of Purpose, Self-Discipline, Honesty, Credibility, Commonsense, Stamina, Commitment, Steadfastness. • Pitfalls • Trying to be a buddy, Having an Intimate relationship with an employee, Trying to keep the same when supervising former peers. • Paradigms of Human Interaction • Win/Win, Win/Lose, Lose/Lose, Win

18. Leadership Vs Management • Leadership & Management are two distinctive and Complementary systems of action. • Management • Coping with Complexity • Planning & Budgeting for Complexity • Develops capacity to carry out plans through organizing & staffing • Ensures accomplishment of plans through controlling & Problem Solving • Leadership • Coping with Change • Setting the Direction for change • Aligns people to work toward the vision • Motivates & Inspires people to want to accomplish the plan

19. Leadership, Ethics, Change • Leadership & Ethics: • Setting high standards of ethical behavior is an essential task of leaders in a total quality setting. • Leadership & Change • Have a clear vision & corresponding goals • Exhibit a strong sense of responsibility • Be an effective communicator • Have a high energy level • Have the will to change

20. Change • Employees & Mangers on Change • Difficulty in Change  Different perceptions of employees & managers. • Hence, proper atmosphere should be created to accommodate change. • Restructuring & Change: • Be smart & Empathetic • Have a Clear Vision • Establish Incentives that Promote the Change • Continue to Train

21. How to Lead Change? • Change Facilitation Model: • A critical aspect of leadership in today’s globally oriented organization involves leading change.

22. Team Building & Team Work

23. Overview of Team Building & Teamwork - 1 • What is a Team? • A team is a group of people with a common, collective goal. • Rationale for Teams • Primary reasons for advocating teamwork are: • Two or more heads are better than one. • People in teams get to know each other better, build trust & as a result help each other. • Teamwork promotes better communication. • A group of people become a team when the following conditions exist: • Agreement exists as to the team’s mission • Members adhere to the team ground rules • Fair distribution of responsibility & authority exists.

24. Overview of Team Building & Teamwork - 2 • Types of Teams • Department Improvement Team • Process Improvement Team • Task Force • Learning to Work Together • Factors influencing teamwork: • Personal Identity of Team members • Relationships among Team members • Identity within the organization • How to be a Member? • Gain Entry, Be Clear on the Team’s mission, Be well prepared and participate, Stay in Touch.

25. Overview of Team Building & Teamwork - 3 • How to be a Leader? • Be clear on the team’s mission • Identify success criteria • Be action centered • Establish the ground rules • Share Information • Cultivate Team Unity • Team Excellence & Performance • Interdependence, Stretching tasks, Alignment, Common Language, Trust/Respect, Shared Leadership/ Followership, Problem-solving skills, Confrontation/ Conflict-handling skills, Assessment/Action, Celebration.

26. Building Teams & Making them Work • Following are the factors that influence team building & should be taken care of: • Makeup & Size of Teams • Choosing Team Members • Responsibilities of Team Leaders • Other Team Members • Creating Teams Mission Statement • Developing Collegial Relationships • Promoting Diversity in Teams

27. Four Step Approach to Team Building • Assessing Team Needs • Planning Team-Building Activities • Executing Team-Building Activities • Evaluating Team-Building Activities

28. Character Traits & Teamwork • Following are few character traits required for Teamwork: • Honesty • Selflessness • Dependability • Enthusiasm • Responsibility • Cooperativeness • Initiative • Patience • Resourcefulness • Punctuality • Perseverance

29. Teams are not Bossed – They are Coached • Bosses approach the job from • “I’m in charge – do as you are told perspective”. • Coaches are • facilitators of team development and continually improved performance. • Following are a few characteristics of a Coach: • Clearly Defined Character • Team Development/Team Building • Mentoring • Mutual respect • Human Diversity

30. Handling Conflict in Teams • Resolution Strategies for Team Conflicts: • Plan & Work to establish a balanced culture • Establish clear criteria • Don’t allow individuals to build personal empires • Encourage & Recognize risk-taking behavior • Value constructive dissent • Assign people of widely differing perspectives • Reward and recognize both dissent & teamwork

31. Structural Inhibitors of Teamwork • Commonly found structural inhibitors to teamwork in organizations are: • Unit Structure • Accountability • Unit Goals • Responsibility • Compensation & Recognition • Planning & Control

32. Rewarding Team & Individual Performance • An organization’s attempt to institutionalize teamwork will fail unless it includes implementation of an appropriate compensation system

33. Effective Communication

34. Defnition of Communication • Communication is the transfer of message ( information,idea,emotion,intent,feeling or something else) that is both received and understood.

35. Effective Communication • Effective Communication means that the message is received ,understood and acted on in the desired manner. It is higher order of communication.

36. Strategies to communicate the importance of quality • 1) Be optimistic and tie quality to the organization’s strategic direction • 2) Consider the points of view of all sides when formulating your message. • 3) Be positive ,honest and consistent-give every one the same message.

37. Defnition of Listening • Listening means receiving the message,corretly decoding it and accurately perceiving what it means.

38. Inhibitors of effective listening • Lack of concentration • Interruption • Preconceived ideas • Thinking ahead • Interference

39. Improving the listening skills • Upgrade your desire to listen • Ask the right question • Judge what is really being said • Eliminate listening errors

40. Communicating in Writing (Helpful Rules) • Plan before you write. • Be brief. • Be direct. • Be accurate. • Practice self – editing.

41. Strategies for improving communication • Keep up to date. • Prioritize and determine time constrains. • Decide whom to inform. • Determine how to communicate. • Communicate and follow up. • Check understanding and obtain feedback

42. Education & Training

43. Overview of Education, Training & Learning - 1 • Training is • An organized, systematic series of activities designed to enhance an individual’s work-related knowledge, skills, and understanding. • Corporate America invests more than $45 billion per year in training. • Sources of Training: • In house training • External Training or a combination of both. • Numerous Instructional methods like • video tapes, lecture, demonstration etc., are used to provide training to employees

44. Overview of Education, Training & Learning - 1 • Types of training by Industry: • Customer Education • Sales Skills • Employee relations etc., • Changing Role of Training • Mission of corporate Training is becoming the maximization of competitiveness through continual improvements. • Attitudes towards Training • Although interest levels don’t yet match those found in European and Pacific Rim countries, attitude towards training in North America are changing for better.

45. Rationale for Training • The rationale for training can be found in the need to compete. • Following are the important factors for “need for training” • Quality of the existing labor pool • Global Competition • Rapid & Continual Change • Technological Transfer Problems • Changing Demographics • Any kind of learning can benefit employees & employers alike in ways that cannot be predicted.

46. Training needs Assessment • It is most important to: • Train those who need it most • Ensure that the training provided is designed to promote the goals of the organization • Managers may become involved in assessing training needs at two levels: • Organizational Level • Individual Level • The most structured approach managers can use to assess training needs is the job task analysis survey.

47. Providing Training • Strategies for maximizing training resources: • Build in Quality from the start • Design Small • Think Creatively • Shop around • Preview & Customize • Internal Approaches • Computer Based training, Group instruction etc. • External Approaches • Enrolling employees in programs provided by public institutions. • Partnership Approaches • Training partnerships combine characteristics of the above two approaches.

48. Evaluating Training • Evaluating Training begins with a clear statement of purpose. • To know where training has improved performance, managers need to know three things: • Was the training provided valid? • Did the Employees learn? • Has the learning made a difference?

49. Managers as Trainers & Trainees - 1 • Principles of Learning: • People learn best when they are ready to learn • People learn more easily when what they are learning can be related to something they already know • People learn best in a step-by-step manner • People learn by doing • The more often people use what they are learning, the better they will remember and understand it • Success in learning tends to stimulate additional learning • People need immediate and continual feedback to know if they have learned.

50. Managers as Trainers & Trainees - 2 • Four Step Teaching Method: • Preparation • Presentation • Application • Evaluation • Managers as Trainees: • Quality basics • Strategic Quality management • Quality Planning • Quality Improvement • Quality Control