Jerry is Head of Department in an educational institution. He was headhunted to this position one year ago. He was made many promises including having his own personal assistant as he would be responsible for 5 team members.

The Principal promised a salary review in six months and flexibility in his working hours. Jerry was informed there would be some after hour's activities involved but these would be minimal.

Ten months later Jerry had no personal assistant. He had to do every single administrative task himself. He spent more time addressing needs of his team at detriment of his other responsibilities.

Extra curricular activities ate up an extra 12 hours a week on top of 50 hours he spent at school just to stay on top of workload! He couldn't take time off in lieu for additional hours he worked as his department was already understaffed. Overtime wasn't part of his salary package.

Jerry had constantly spoken to Principal who agreed to lighten his load but hadn't taken necessary action to do so! Lack of action from one person often forces other to react and take control.

Jerry had enough! He tendered his resignation a few weeks ago and is now a free agent. The Principal from his old school promised Jerry that he would make changes he so desperately wanted. Unfortunately for Principal, staff and in turn students, it was too late. Jerry had enough. He had decided to take control of his situation and not be reliant on actions of others.

He is so much happier. His health and personal relationships have improved dramatically. Jerry has already been offered another position which will be less demanding.

The Final Word

Planning time with your team members on an individual level should occur on a weekly or fortnightly basis. Schedule this meeting into your diary and do not let anything else take precedence.

Listen to your people and where necessary take immediate action because price you ultimately pay for your inaction may not be worth it.

Expose them to new ideas and different ways of thinking. Take them to seminars and business breakfasts and have them mix with other people.

Organise speakers to come into your workplace and share with you how to communicate effectively, how to be best you can be, dress for success…anything that will stimulate, motivate and be useful. Yes, these are 'soft skills' not technical ones.

If you and your people are stimulated, motivated and provoked into action on a regular basis, then you'll find not only will morale lift, you will become more creative and perform more effectively…all of which has a direct impact on your profitability.

Lead from front! Take action today!

Lorraine Pirihi, principal of The Office Organiser is Australia's Personal Productivity Specialist. She is also a Business and Life Coach.

Take action today! Contact Lorraine to discuss how she can help you on (613) 9532 5497 or email lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

Effect on In-House Morale: Outsourcing anywhere will erode trust between you and your workforce. It will also be hard for you to let go of employees who have become good friends. I suggest training them to perform other functions; if not, provide them with comprehensive outplacement services.

Service Provider Reliability: Unlike factors mentioned above, this one does pose a significant risk. Occasionally an offshore service provider can completely disappear or fall silent; possible reasons are bankruptcy, mass departure of personnel or loss of confidence in completing task.

The good news is that risk can be reduced to insignificance by careful selection of service provider. Your Management Capability: Outsourcing offshore will not work if it is not carefully managed by client. Not getting this right is one of major reasons that a lesser portion of all offshore outsourcing programs fail. An expert opinion on this: "This may sound obvious, but probably biggest stumbling block to offshore outsourcing is that after all contracts have been signed, companies abdicate responsibility for projects to outsourcer...' --- Deepak Khandelwal, McKinsey, Worldwide (Minimizing each of last two risks entails a large volume of information and will be subject of future articles).

To conclude, there is manageable risk in outsourcing CAD offshore; you should go ahead and make outsourcing CAD one of your objectives. But don't do anything until you have carefully planned how to handle last two risk factors, for which I will provide comprehensive information... SOON!

You can freely reprint this article provided that you do not edit it and include following resource box: _______________________________________ Lakshman Balaraman, MS (University of Michigan), B Tech (IIT), runs an architectural and engineering design firm, The Magnum Group, India, that provides CAD drafting services to global marketplace. You can freely reprint his articles in your website, ezine, or ebook. ______________________________________