Mentor - definition

Mentor was a friend of Odysseus.  Mentor was put in charge of Odysseus's son and palace when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.  For 20 years Mentor successfully protected Odysseus's wife from the insistant noblemen that courted her.  Mentor also brought up Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, to an esteemed Greek hero.
Nowadays, mentor is used as synonymous of preceptor.  The mentor is supposed to reveal and develop the leadership potential of his disciple.
See also: coach, personal consulting


Mentoring - definition

Mentoring is a process of directing, instructing and training one or more individuals to develop specific skills and knowledge.  Mentoring is a synonym of coaching, but the mentoring focuses more on the ideological development of the trainee.
See also: coaching, personal consulting


Mission statement - definition

The mission statement should be an inspiring message answering the question: "How do we intend to win in this business?" (definition of Jack Welch, former   General Electric CEO 1981-2001).
Unlike vision, the mission is aimed more towards the external environment (clients, suppliers) than to internal ones (employees).
In our view, many authors are wrong to believe that the mission describes the business you are involved in, the organization, its customers or the purpose for which the company exists (the latter is the task of the vision).  As a result, most mission statements are hollow messages known only to their creators and do not fulfill their basic purpose to inspire and guide.
See also: Vision statement


Motivation - definition

Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Another short explanation - motivation is to do something willingly. Motivation consists of internal and external to the individual forces. These forces cause a certain behavior and determine the intensity, appearance, duration and direction of that behavior. By its nature the motivation is temporary and dynamic state that should not be confused with personality and emotions.


Outsourcing - definition

Essentially outsourcing is a division of labour.  Contractor assigns business activities to subcontractor.  The outsourcing leverages both companies' specializations and subsequent advantages.  The decision whether to outsource or to do inhouse is usually based upon reducing cost, focusing manpower energy on the core competencies of a particular business, making more efficient use of labor, capital, information technology or land resources.  Outsourcing became popular during the 1980s.  Example: Underware producer (with 50 items) outsources the production of baby T-shirts (1 item) to a foreign company.
See also: Outsourcing - Why, When and How


Pareto Principle

In the late 19th century Vilfredo Pareto formulated "80-20 rule", also called "Law of the vital few" or "Principle of factor sparsity":
In any society, 20% of people produce 80% of the benefits and profits.  At the other end of the curve, 20% of people create 80 percent of the problems and losses.
In economics, the following two interpretations apply: in any business project, 20% of the invested resources contribute 80% of the output, and 80% of the sales come from 20% of the customers.


Scale of manageability

Scale of manageability is the number of direct subordinates of a manager.  Each additional subordinate increases the number of possible intercommunications (direct, individual, group direct, crossed).  V. Greykunas’ formula , k (2k-1 + k-1), enables us calculate that 6 subordinates result in 222 intercommunications, 8 – in 1080.

 


Staff Assessment – definition

Staff assessment is a periodic process, executed by the respective manager through clear and public criteria.  The assessments must evaluate the performance of the individual. They have to disclose what he can do.
See article:  Leadership and Staff Appraisal


Vision statement - definition

The vision statement consists of two main ingredients.  The first one sets permanent organization qualities, values and beliefs that do not change for the next generations.  This component also describes the main company purpose for at least the next 70-100 years.  The key purpose is the main reason for the company existence (for instance, the purpose of Walt Disney: "To make people happy."). The second ingredient is definining the big bold goal for the next 10-25 years.  The success likelihood of such a big bold goal should be not more than 60-80%, but the company management and employees must believe that they can achieve it.  Very important moment for any quality vision statement is a description of a "live" concrete and inspiring painting of the achieved future results.  This drawing creates an image that employees carry in their mind.
Vision, unlike the mission is fully oriented towards company employees.
See also: Mission statement


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