Providing constructive feedback:
Make it helpful: be clear about your purpose and try to make the feedback useful.
 Be specific: describe the behaviours and their impacts both negative and positive. Be descriptive: describe specific behaviours, ‘stick to the facts’ and avoid assumptions about ‘feelings, attitudes’, ‘motives, or traits’.
 Be timely: the best feedback is while the action and effects are still ‘hot’, i.e. as close as possible to the behaviour occurring.
 Be flexible: enable the recipient to deal with feelings first before progressing to add more information, give feedback in manageable amounts and ‘be attentive to the other person’s emotional response’.
 Give positive as well as negative feedback: it is more helpful to give ‘both positive and negative feedback’.
 Avoid blame or embarrassment: demeaning comments are not helpful, as the purpose of feedback is to help people develop (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 446–449).

Punishments:
myths surrounding the use of punishment
 punishment, satisfaction and performance
 advice on the administration of punishment (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 685–
691).

The principles of effective delegation are identified as:
 Decide what you want to delegate (based on an activity log analysis).
 ‘Decide whom to delegate to’ (use judgement to determine readiness and capacity
and to optimise the growth of all subordinates).
 ‘Make the assignment clear and specific’ (to avoid undue stress and ensure task
accomplishment).
 ‘Assign an objective, not a procedure’ (allow follower scope to decide how to achieve
the task). ‘Allow autonomy, but monitor performance’ (you are ultimately responsible for the outcome).
 ‘Give credit, not blame’ (provide ‘authority along with responsibility’ delegated and give public credit for work well done; accept responsibility for not achieving outcomes) (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 465–467).

Building high performance teams:
Following are the components of the rocket model:
 Mission: establish and ‘clarify the team’s purpose’ and goals, set performance expectations and align team member goals with the team.
 Talent: it is important to have the ‘right number of people ... with the right skills’.
 Norms: establish desired norms for behaviour, performance and decision-making.
 Buy-in: it is important to ensure that all team members are committed to the team, its
purpose and designed outcomes.
 Power: this ‘concerns the decision-making latitude and resources the team has to
accomplish goals’.
 Morale: high levels of morale assist with team cohesion and conflict resolution.
 Result: all of the previous components are the ‘how’, while results are the ‘what’
(Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, p. 455–460).

Coaching:
 ‘Forge a partnership’ between the coach and the person being coached.
 Undertake a GAPS analysis to inspire commitment.
 Create coaching and development plans to grow skills.
 Help followers stick to their plans by encouraging persistence.
Create a learning environment to facilitate transfer of skills (Peterson & Hicks 1996, cited in Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, p. 69).

A way of measuring the existence of these two elements on the empowerment continuum is to determine by survey whether followers have a real sense of:
 self-determination (make choices about what they do, how and when to do it)
 sense of meaning (believe what they do is important)
 high competence (demonstrated in confidence in the job)
 high influence (knows their impact and believes others listen to them) (Hughes,
Ginnett & Curphy 2015, p. 359).

Goal setting:
specific and observable
 attainable but challenging
 commitment oriented (which is why many people refuse to set goals)
 accompanied by feedback (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 442–444).

Conducting meetings:
determine necessity
 list objectives
 stick to the agenda
 provide pertinent materials in advance
 make it convenient
 encourage participation
 keep a record (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 297–299).

Managing conflict:
Competition: achieving ‘one’s own ends at the expense’ of other’s needs – a ‘win-lose’ position.
 Accommodation: the opposite of competition in that a leader gives into someone else’s interests without looking after their own interests and needs in the situation – an appeasement approach.
 Sharing: ‘both parties give up something’ but each also achieves something.
 Collaboration: ‘a problem-solving approach’ that attempts to ‘fully satisfy’ the needs
of both parties.
 Avoidance: indifference to the needs of the other and one’s own needs and represents a withdrawal from the situation (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, p. 673).

Negotiation:
Prepare for the negotiation: this is often the most neglected area and it involves anticipating each side’s attitudes, ‘concerns and issues’, ‘possible negotiating strategies and goals’, positions and offerings.Separate people from the problem: by keeping clear of personal attacks and avoiding giving in to one’s own fears or negative assumptions about the conflicted parties.
 Focus on interests, not positions: a position is a fixed demand which is more inflexible than an interest which may be satisfied by many different methods; ‘it is important to focus on your counterpart’s interests (not position) and your own interests (not position)’ (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 677–678).

Problem solving:
Identifying problems or opportunities for improvement: this requires identifying areas that can contribute most to improvement in operations and being rigorous about how we ‘frame’ the problem; poorly defined problems will lead to inadequate solutions.
 Analysing the causes: tools available for problem analysis include the ‘fishbone’ diagram and force field analysis (FFA). FFA helps us identify the factors helping or hindering achievement of the desired performance goal.
 Developing alternative solutions: brainstorming or the nominal group technique (NGT) can be used here. NGT is a group-based, idea-generating strategy, which commences with individual input and moves towards consensus through a shared voting system.
 Selecting and implementing the best solution: this may require additional information and is best done against pre-established criteria; a systemic perspective is important in weighing up the likely impact of the proposed solution.
 Assessing the impact of the solution: the impact of implementation must be subject to ongoing review against predetermined performance criteria; assessment should include a review of the adequacy of the decision criteria used in determining the solution (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 306–309).

Improving creativity:
 brainstorming thinking in terms of analogies or metaphors
 describing problems in drawings or word pictures (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, p.
310).

 Expectations: ‘it is the leader’s responsibility to ensure that followers understand their roles, goals, performance standards, and key metrics for determining success’.
 Capabilities: it is important to select the people who have the right abilities; leaders also need to develop the skills and knowledge of people in their organisation.
 Opportunities: leaders need to ensure that followers have the requisite resources to complete the task and are given the opportunity to demonstrate their capability.
 Motivation: this is a key factor that impacts heavily on other elements – leaders can choose people who are committed to the task, change the rewards systems, set clear goals and provide quality feedback (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, pp. 679–680).