By Geoff SmithInspiring and motivating Professional Service Teams can be a difficult challenge. Because of the nature of their work and personalities, many professionals prefer to do things on their own, in their own way. An organisation’s best talents may not take too kindly to being told what to do and when to do it. They may resist being managed, and be unenthusiastic about working in a team. Whatever category they fall into – highly qualified, creatives, knowledge workers, or conceptualists – they usually prefer to rely heavily on their own expertise to get a job done. The author looks at approaches to meeting this challenge.

Read more on LEADING THE PROFESSIONALS…

A survey by the Chartered Management Institute found that bullying is higher in the public sector than elsewhere and six out of ten managers questioned believe that it is on the increase. The survey, which questioned executives in public and private sector organisations, revealed that many senior managers are victims of bullying and identified psychological intimidation as the biggest problem.The research also shows an alarming lack of awareness about dealing with workplace bullies. Managers are observing incidents of bullying between peers, by external customers or clients and one-third have reported bullying of managers by junior staff, dispelling the myth that it only occurs in formal hierarchical relationships. Women appear to be more frequent victims of bullying than men with over half, 54 per cent compared to 35 per cent, having suffered from bullying in the past three years.

Read more on BULLYING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR INCREASING…

Phil Wollas, Minister for Local Government, wants councils to change the culture of their organisations to bring about a transformation in strategic planning and day-to-day management. To do this will mean a radical change from looking to improve the status quo to one of radically rethinking the whole approach. But to make progress along this route local government will need to be open-minded to change and to ‘think outside the box’, challenging long-held beliefs and questioning assumptions about the right way to do things.Greater efficiency can come through sharing services between authorities, and developing strategic partnerships, for example in procurement. This might call for putting aside party political differences in some cases or overcoming tensions between different tiers of local government in order to work more closely together.

Read more on MINISTER CALLS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMATION…