Meeting with the Boss went well. We are now off for a cuppa to talk about my next career move. should be fun
I have a meeting with my boss in 10 minutes. I don’t get much time with him so i have to ready to fire on all cylinders when I do. He could ask me anything. I have some expenses information to check with him, a few actions and some comms to clarify. Im really chuffed today as my MD is at the top of the MD league table for actions. woo hoo! I wonder how long that will last.
Part of my role is to line manage my MDs PA. We recruited an Indian based PA three months ago and once she had had her hand over with the existing PA it was then my job to oversee her performance in the role. Her role is to manage my boss’s diary, meetings and other things like team annual leave, team expenses, travel and much more. I have a vested interest in ensuring all this is done effectively as my responsibility is to ensure my MDs meets all his commitments and priorities.
Yesterday we reviewed her performance against her objectives, and in doing so we ran through all her tasks and how she felt about her performance so far. I had some comments and feedback for her also. It was really important that I balanced the positive things I had observed with constructive feedback, all the time acknowledging that she is new to the company and the role.
My aim is to ensure she delivers a top quality service to my boss and the team, so our performance conversations will continue into 2009. I really like to adopt a coaching style when I manage people and avoid any type of hierarchical approach. To get the best from team members you need to be approachable and kind, but also focused on continuous improvement. Tomorrow I am going to speak to my boss about how she is doing and get his perspective on what areas she needs to develop more. Hopefully they will match my suggestions.
My boss is in da house! yes he is back from India and its all kicked off. Well when i say its kicked off i mean its mega busy. i have requests for information coming at me from all angles and a million and one things to do. this is goining to have to be quick because i have a whole drain dump to make sense of before i go home tonight. think its going to be a late one.
Hi All, just a quick note because Im due in a meeting at 2pm. Im meeting a lady from BT Group to discuss my next placement. Im a bit nervous and don’t know how the conversation is going to go. i have my CV handy and Im taking one for her to read, even though she has seen it once. She was interested in my law background (that’s what my degree is in). I really hope she doesn’t ask me any law questions. Anyway I have been told she is really nice and Im used to being around senior people because of the job i do. Anyway better go now. i will let you know how it goes later…….
Hi All, Im working from home today because of my early calls. It’s great to work from home now and again. It just shows that with the right technology I can effectively do my job from anywhere. With my blackberry at its basic level and with an internet connection for my lap top I can work anywhere, but today it’s my lounge.
Today I have been on a call with my boss and our HR representative discussing the team’s performance ratings. Initially Sarah and I wrote the comments on each person’s performance which was strange for me as they are very senior managers in the company. I was able to contribute to this because I see a lot of information all the time, talking about what people have done well and where things can be improved. Crafting that information into a few balanced and honest paragraphs per person to be fed back to senior managers wasn’t easy.
This morning we checked all the comments with our boss and he made some changes, clearly outlining each individual’s challenges for the next half year.
At the end of the performance year, these comments will be examined to give each person an overall rating and this will inform their bonus and pay rise. Its a great way to get people to set stretching objectives and strive to meet them, therefore giving rise to continuous improvement in performance in the company.
In BT the graduates use the same system for performance, and reward so I’d better get back to work hey!
Every quarter BT carries out an employee satisfaction survey called Care. A selection of our employees are asked for their views on a number of different aspects of the company from their job, their team, their view of the company and so on. We recently got our teams feedback and it’s my role to help feed this back to the MD’s senior management team.
The results are a mixture of stats and verbatim comments. Some of the comments are quite funny really. To present the results back to the team, I will organise an audio call where the whole team can dial in from their locations and probably produce some slides showing the main themes. I will show the team the slides by using live meeting which allows me to share my desk top with the teams. That way they can both hear me speak and they can see my slides on their own laptop screen. I can even swich control of my desk top to a collague if they want to add some comment or go back to a key point.
I will have to know what Im talking about as this team is a very senior team and I don’t want to look unprepared. I will however have the support of our HR Business Partner Sarah.
The key part of the feedback is learning where we can improve. This links into another aspect of my role – Team Communications. With nearly team 10,000 strong, this is an important role. Over the last few months I have worked with our Communications Business Partner to develop a comms strategy for the intra team comms and comms to the business. Its gone well with many items delivered including ‘Team Talks’ good news stories, people changes, informative articles, calls to action and many more.
Part of improving the way we work will focus on how we communicate with our teams more effectively, so the Care results are particularly relevant to my role and how I shape the future of intra team comms.
Just back from a meeting. It went well. My colleague and I are designing a programme of events for my teams Talent Pool. The Talent Pool is made up of individuals that have a proven delivery record and high potential to rise to the ranks of senior management within the company. Once they are nominated and accepted into the Talent Pool, throughout the year they take part in a number of events that are designed to benefit both the individuals and the business. Developing a programme like this from scratch is great, I can really use my imagination to think of great events to plan and deliver. It’s going to be something I own with my colleague.
Pulling the plan together as I write this update, Im thinking that achieving all these events is going to be a challenge, but it will be fun. I just hope my boss agrees to it all. He should do, its really good.
Gosh that was hard going – reading 120 emails in one and half hours and that’s just today’s traffic. I need a cuppa. Part of my job is managing my MDs mail box, which sounds drab but its not. I get to read messages regarding so many topics and learn so much about the organisation. I also have to make quite a lot of decisions too. Some of the emails are for information and I just mark them as READ. Others are for action either for MD, can be delegated to the team or actioned by me.
I would say I can action about 80% of the emails without anyone else’s input. This may be obtaining or supplying information, tasking the team, authorising spend or communications. I can only do this because I have been doing this role for 9 months now and I have learned so much as I have had to deal with different situations – made a few mistakes too.
Due to the pace of work and need to keep up with demand, there is not always opportunity to check each and every decision. In that sense I am given quite a lot of responsibility. One thing I always do however, is ask myself why I make the decision I do, that way if later it turns out I made the wrong decision, I can justify my actions based on sound reason. For the other 20% I need to ask for help. I will tell you more about that later.
Mondays are not my favourite day of the week anyway but with a 7:30 am team call on a Monday morning, they are even worse! Yes 7:30 and that’s not the earliest call in my diary. As you know BT is a truly global company and we have a presence in most areas of the world. We have a large supplier base in India, where we have a number of key vendors that supply BT Design and especially my team Global Platforms.
My boss, the MD of Global Platforms, moved to India four months ago to be in site to build on existing relationships with our suppliers and to improve efficiency, quality and deliverables. India is five and half hours ahead of the UK – hence the early morning calls!
