While Google and Microsoft promote openness and strive to make their employees happy, Apple is incredibly secretive and most employees lived in fear of Jobs: but it worked. So how did Steve Jobs achieve such success while ignoring all traditional notions of business management?

Assertiveness is not something that comes particularly easily to some people and these people often convince themselves that it is not worth their time and energy to even try and be assertive. However whilst this is an easy excuse it is not correct. Learn the benefits of being assertive on our Assertiveness Training Course in Brighton, Sussex.

People who are more assertive than most are more likely to be fulfilled in their work and their lives as they are not afraid to ask for what they want or go after it. It is also the case that due to this attitude it is far more likely that they fulfil their potential, again both socially and at work. In turn this will lead to them being more satisfied with their lives and so happier and more at ease. They will not be as stressed as others since they have less to be stressed about and live healthier and happier lives.

The same cannot be said for those who are too passive or afraid to ever be assertive. Whilst those who are assertive are more likely to be successful and more fulfilled at work, for those who are too passive the opposite is all too often true. Due to not being able to be taken seriously or make themselves heard, they will not have achieved as much as they could have and are left less than their potential and ability dictated they could achieve. The same can be said outside of the workplace, i.e. their social lives.

On the other hand however those of us who are too aggressive will again only help to hinder their performance both in and out of work. They will often be too abrasive for many people to get along with, this means that people won't want to work with them, and they certainly won't want to strike up any relationship with them. Getting along with people is a big part of any working environment and is a necessity if you ever wish to progress through the ranks.

Being too aggressive will also harm those around you as they are may be too afraid of you to offer any opinions or ideas and so your very presence is stifling to any creative thought, it is also true that because of this you alienate you from your team members and you will be left out.

To be effective in your work means doing the right things (effectiveness) in the right way (efficiency); this involves being clear about the key result areas of your job and the precise outputs required. Planning is central to time management, but it is not the first step. You must first know what it is you are planning. What is your work or, more correctly, what should your work be? If you are to plan you must plan to do the right things. Learn how to achieve key results in time management on our 1-day Time Management Course.

What are Key Result Areas?

These are the major overall things your organisation expects you to achieve. In other words, your purpose or why I am here. They may be reflected in your job description; they may be given to you as objectives or targets. You may have your own professional/personal result areas too.

Once you are clear on your Key Result Areas, you can go to plan your work practices more efficiently as all of your objectives should relate back to them. This means that you will never again be involved in activities that are outside the scope of your job and, therefore, a waste of your time!

Make a list of your key result areas NOW!

When you have that list you can divide it into tasks as follows:

• Active Positive Tasks
• Reactive Maintenance Tasks

Active Positive Tasks

So-called because they bring you and your long-term objectives forward. They are neither urgent nor obvious - they require justification, creativity and special effort. Planning, developing new projects or devising new procedures are examples of these tasks; if they are not performed, effects are not immediately obvious BUT their achievement will be directly in line with the achievement of your Key Result Areas.

Reactive Maintenance Tasks

These are the tasks which are probably the most visible part of your job; the day to day routine aspects of your work. Such tasks are usually urgent and quantifiable - individual steps in the process are clear. Such tasks do not require justification - they are part of normally accepted procedure. If these tasks are not done properly or on time, the effects are obvious to others. Reading your emails, doing routine reports are examples of this type of task. These tasks are called maintenance tasks because they maintain things as they are.

Effective time management is about the ability to balance and prioritise.

Make a list of your Active Positive Tasks and your Reactive Maintenance Tasks. Then review your lists:

• What percentage of your time do you spend on each?
• How happy are you with this?
• How can you bring about change in these areas?

Whilst we cannot always change the things that adversely impact upon our working day – interruptions, time wasters - we can control our own behaviour. Bringing about improvements in time management is essentially about changing our behaviour and implementing new techniques and habits.

In this post, our Sales trainer Emmet guides you through the differences between sales and marketing.

A question I am often asked is which functions are sales functions and which are marketing functions; the reason being that there seems to be so much overlap.

It's not as simple as this sign makes out!

The answer to this question is not clear cut and it's not easy.

You can learn about about the role of sales with ourSales and Customer Service Training.

Big and Small Organisations

In larger organisations there is often a separate marketing department; (theoretically) they do the marketing bits and the sales department does the sales bits!

In smaller organisations there is often no separate marketing department, it's all just ‘sales' although in this case the sales team will perform many marketing functions.

Either way, there is a distinct difference between marketing and sales, whether or not there's a physical divide between the two.

There are many different ways to manage something and the methodologies of PRINCE2®, Agile, SCRUM and ITIL® help. In this post our expert John A G Smith explains how a system or 2 can keep our world spinning on the correct axis!

It’s all about systems. Whether you’re looking at something as small as an individual business task or as large as a whole company, they’re all systems. We’re surrounded by the things. We live on a planet within the solar system. Our shower is supplied by a hot water system. I’m writing this on a computer system. Indeed we are each our own individual system: the human body.

Image - Panel 6 Solar Systemm, Ralph Buckley

So what, I hear you say, is a system? And what qualifies each mentioned above as one of them?

It is generally accepted that a system has five components: Inputs, outputs, processes, stores and a boundary.

Tonight sees the return of BBC's Young Apprentice with twelve teenagers jostling to prove they can make it in the business world in spite of their youth and inexperience.

In the past we've explained how Agile works best on the Young Apprentice and also examined why Jane McEvoy got fired. This year we ask; which project management skills come naturally, and which need to be learnt through training and experience?

As Young Apprentice often focuses on the project managing abilities of each contestant, we thought it would be worth thinking about the project management skills that the young contestants on the show are likely to have, as well as what skills it would be useful for them to build up.

Every business needs to make changes but problems arise when there is no one in place to manage those changes......our writer John A G Smith helps explain how important Change Management is:

Harry studied the paperwork for a few minutes and then looked up.

“You’re absolutely right,” he said, “the change is essential and urgent. I’ll give you access to the Live Library. You and your team go ahead and build the change. When you you’ve tested it I’ll give you the password and you can put it into live.”

I was stunned. He was right about the urgency but this was way out of line. Here I was, just a subcontractor, being given the keys to the kingdom.

“What about Change Management?” I asked. “And doesn’t it have to go through the Change Advisory Board? Doesn’t anyone have to sign it off?”

“Nah.” He leaned back in his chair, legs straight and thrust his hands deep in his pockets. “The problem here is that our systems are too dynamic. We’ve got so many urgent changes going on that any sort of Change Management system will just get in the way. It would slow the whole thing up and be too much of a drag on everything.”

Congratulations! You got the promotion, but do you want to be a good leader or a good manager? Leadership skills and Management Skills for New Managers are 2 of our most popular business courses designed to help you on your way.

But what is the difference between a Leader and a Manager? I hear you ask..... using social history our expert John A G Smith explains.......