Books
Alan did the job of a middle manager over fifteen successful years in Sales and Customer Service. He managed sales people, sales managers, 
customer service telesales agents and administration staff. He knows the real challenges managers and team leaders face every day with their people; he knows how hard it is to motivate a team.
Alan has used the “3 Secrets of Team Motivation” featured in his book, they worked for him and they will work for managers and team leaders in all businesses.
He believes that many business owners and managers are making life hard for themselves mainly because they haven’t been shown, or know how to motivate their people. They’re also giving themselves a great deal of stress dealing with difficult team members and the consequences of absence from work.
In the UK research by the Confederation of British Industry suggests that workplace absence is on the rise for the first time in five years. Last year we were off sick on average for 7.2 days up from 6.8 the previous year. It costs UK businesses £11.75bn a year. The CBI also estimates that 15% of all illness is due to people taking days off when they are not really ill.
The Society for Human Resource Management in the United States reports that the cost of paid unscheduled absenteeism rose sharply in 2006 to $755 per employee. Employers have stated that they earmark 5.1 percent of a company’s budget to pay for unscheduled absenteeism.
A recent report in the Gallup Management Journal estimates that disengaged employees in Singapore are costing the country $4.9 billion annually; the root of disengagement being blamed on poor management.
Alan didn’t get any training in how to motivate his team when he started as a manager; he was just left to get on with it. So he studied motivation at the Open University in the UK, and read every book, report and research on staff motivation that he could get his hands on. He also studied how successful sports coaches motivate their teams.
After much trail and error he eventually discovered the “3″ secrets of team motivation and now wants to share what he’s learned and experienced over twenty-nine successful years as a Manager and Professional Speaker.
Let’s face it, motivating people at work is one of the hardest jobs you can do. And there’s no doubt about it; the performance of employees will ultimately be determined by the relationship they have with their manager.
That’s why Alan Fairweather has written this book; it’s a down-to-earth guide for Managers and Team Leaders. It reveals how to motivate your team, get results and do it in the easiest, least stressful way possible.
Managers will discover how to:
- Pick the right people and communicate what’s expected of them
- Reduce absence from work, reduce staff turnover and the time spent on resolving staff issues
- Deal with difficult team members
- Develop a highly motivated team who increase customer satisfaction, boost sales and make a positive contribution to the business
However, you don’t in fact motivate other people, you create the environment where they motivate themselves and this is what this book will show you how to do.
The book is primarily targeted at business owners, managers and team leaders who are responsible for a team of people.
They will buy this book to:
- Make their lives easier (get the job done, minimise staff problems and keep their boss off their back)
- Learn practical ‘real world’ actions they can take to motivate their people and raise morale
- Learn how to deal with difficult team members
- Learn how to communicate with their manager
- Reduce the amount of stress they face in doing their job
Lack of motivation cost businesses in terms of:
- Staff absence from work (one in three staff ‘sick days’ are not due to illness)
- Staff turnover (70 per cent of staff leave their managers not their job)
- Time spent on resolving staff issues
- Lost sales
- Reduced customer satisfaction
This book will deal with these problems by addressing inadequate management, poor morale and absenteeism issues. However it’s not about absence management, it’s about creating a work environment that makes employees happy to come to work and be more productive while they’re there. It will give managers the practical skills and techniques that will increase productivity and reduce costs.
Available from Amazon and other online and retail book stores
HOW TO MANAGE DIFFICULT PEOPLE
Proven strategies for dealing with challenging behaviour at work
People in business are under extreme pressure to make things happen, get more sales and turn a profit. This pressure may make staff, customers and your boss even more difficult to deal with.
- This book develops the skills of managers, and customer contact staff in dealing with difficult people.
- It shows how to increase team motivation, morale, productivity and reduce stress
- Readers will discover the 6 programs of behaviour and how they can use these to influence others
- It is written by an expert in staff motivation and customer service, who successfully did the job of manager over fifteen years in sales and customer service
- The author’s articles on this subject have been downloaded over 11,000 times
- The author is an international speaker and will continue to run seminars on this subject in the UK and Asia
- It will also be promoted through his website, blog, podcast, radio and TV interviews
After nearly thirty years as a manager and speaker, Alan Fairweather knows the challenges faced every day by managers and customer service people. He specialises in how to motivate people at work so that they deliver business results. He is the Author of ‘How to be a Motivational Manager,’ published in November 2007.
Contents
1. There is no such thing as a difficult person
2. If you don’t like the program – change it
3. Build a better frame of mind
4. Prevention is better than cure
5. Choose to be assertive
6. The power of persuasion
7. Strategies for success
Available early 2010
