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The Agile Manager Skills That You Need To Have!

The Agile Manager Skills That You Need To Have!

By Jim Anderson

Managing a team is not just a job, it’s a science. Nobody knows more about the science of managing teams than Dr. Jim Anderson.

“I don’t embrace excuses for why teams aren’t being successful, I embrace solutions.”

Over the last 25 years, Dr. Anderson has transformed failing teams worldwide. Dr. Anderson will turn these lost teams into department champions.

Dr. Jim Anderson understands what it is like to both work in a department as an employee as well as a manager.

Welcome to the premier podcast for learning how to attract, motivate, and retain top staff.
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What Can Google Teach Managers About Teams?

The Agile Manager Skills That You Need To Have!Feb 21, 2019

00:00
07:11
Mangers Need To Deal With Younger Team Members Who Feel Lonely

Mangers Need To Deal With Younger Team Members Who Feel Lonely

The goal of every manager is to find a way to get the most out of each  of their team members. 

What this means is that we need use our manager  skills to stay on top of them and always be monitoring what their  current status is. What we need to be looking for are team members who  are feeling remote or disconnected. They won’t be able to function well  with the rest of the team and their work performance may start to slack  off. 

One thing that managers need to keep their eyes open for is when  the younger members of their team start to show signs of feeling lonely – this is when a manager needs to step in.

Jul 28, 202208:04
Managers Deal With The Problem Of Too Much Videoconferencing

Managers Deal With The Problem Of Too Much Videoconferencing

As the world has changed and we are all working remotely, video conferencing has arrived as a way for everyone to stay in contact. 

In the beginning  it was an amusing novelty and gave us a chance to see where everyone  lives. However, the initial novelty has now worn off. Just about  everyone has become tired of video conferencing and sorta wishes  that it would go away. As a manager, you need your team to stay  connected and video conferencing is an important tool. 

What can you do  to use your manager skills to prevent video conferencing burn out?

Jul 21, 202208:41
Should Managers Be Using Emojis At Work?
Jul 14, 202208:01
Just Exactly How Should Managers Go About Delegating Tasks?

Just Exactly How Should Managers Go About Delegating Tasks?

As a manager, there never seems to be enough time in the day to get  everything done. 

I’m pretty sure that we all wish that we could clone  ourselves so that we would have more hands to help with all of the work  that needs to be done. 

It turns out that cloning does not yet exist;  however, if you can learn how to delegate effectively then you just might be able to find the help that you need in order to get all of your work done.

Jun 30, 202209:34
How Managers Can Get Over Their Addiction To Email

How Managers Can Get Over Their Addiction To Email

As managers, a great deal of each day is taken up with dealing with email.  

No matter if it is sorting through all of the new email that has  arrived since we last took a look at it or it is crafting the perfect  response to that email that we just got, all of this stuff takes time. A lot of time.  

How can a manager use our manager skills to get over our addiction to email?

Jun 23, 202205:19
Managers Deal With Employees Who Aren’t Coming Back

Managers Deal With Employees Who Aren’t Coming Back

Let’s face it: being a manager is a tough job. 

We’ve got to find ways to  motivate our team to work together in order to accomplish shared goals  that will allow the company to meet its objectives. This is not an easy  thing to do. Then the pandemic hit and everybody went home for a year.  As the pandemic wanes, many firms are deciding that it’s time for their  staff to come back to the office. They want the interaction that can  only happen there – the exchange of ideas, the realization of things  that need to be accomplished. Just one problem: not all of your team  members want to come back into the office. 

What’s a manager to do?


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Jun 16, 202208:05
What A Manager Can Do To Get Their Team To Communicate
Jun 09, 202207:55
Managers Want To Know Why Their Team Members Will Leave
May 26, 202206:34
Should Managers Be Looking For Employees With Videogame Skills?

Should Managers Be Looking For Employees With Videogame Skills?

When you think of someone who plays video games,  what do you think of? 

If you are like most of us, you picture a young  man with long stringy hair that is unwashed, perhaps wearing a flannel  shirt, black jeans, and combat boots. This person probably doesn’t want  to make eye contact with you and instead prefers to talk with his  friends. It turns out that your image of a gamer is way out of date.  First off, girls play video games also. Additionally, the video game  universe has grown so much that video gamers now look like just about any young person that you might run into

This brings up an interesting point for managers: are video gamers the people that we should be hiring?

May 19, 202208:55
Should Managers Be Looking For Employees With Videogame Skills?

Should Managers Be Looking For Employees With Videogame Skills?

When you think of someone who plays video games, what do you think of?

If you are like most of us, you picture a young man with long stringy hair that is unwashed, perhaps wearing a flannel shirt, black jeans, and combat boots. This person probably doesn’t want to make eye contact with you and instead prefers to talk with his friends. It turns out that your image of a gamer is way out of date. First off, girls play video games also. Additionally, the video game universe has grown so much that video gamers now look like just about any young person that you might run into.

This brings up an interesting point for managers: are video gamers the people that we should be hiring?

May 12, 202208:51
What Managers Should Do If Team Members Are Too Engaged

What Managers Should Do If Team Members Are Too Engaged

One of the primary jobs of a manager is to find a way to use our manager skills to get the members of their team to become engaged with the work that they are doing. If we can accomplish this, then productivity can  go up, teamwork will increase, and everyone should be happy. 

However, as  with all such things in life, it turns out that there is a downside to doing this.  

Team members can become too engaged in what they are working on and  this is going to create a different set of problems for a manager.

May 05, 202208:39
Managers Struggle To Deal With Success

Managers Struggle To Deal With Success

It does not happen all the time. 

However, sometimes a manager will be successful.  Something that we attempt will happen the way that we wanted it to or  we might just get lucky and a success will drop into our laps. However,  the problem with being successful is that sometimes this can be a big problem in helping us to grow and develop.  What managers need to do is to find ways to use their manager skills  learn from their success. 

How should managers deal with success?

Apr 28, 202207:60
Are Questions The Key To Becoming A Better Manager?
Apr 21, 202209:04
Managers Need To Learn How To Praise Their Team Members
Apr 07, 202207:15
5 Things That Managers Can Do For Their Team

5 Things That Managers Can Do For Their Team

As a manager, what is your legacy going to be? 

Do you want to be  remembered as being a good manager or as a bad manager? The best  managers are remembered for what they did for their team,  the bad ones are remembered for what they did to their team. Using your  manager skills to be remembered as a good manager is a tricky thing to  do. It’s tricky because, as a manager, it’s easy to focus solely on  tending to the business and your career, forgetting that tending to your  team first will take care of both. 

Here are the five most powerful  things you can do for your team today in order to do right by your team.

Mar 31, 202208:55
Managers Have To Learn How To Deal With People Who Don’t Like Change

Managers Have To Learn How To Deal With People Who Don’t Like Change

So just exactly how much change is there in your life right now? 

If you  are like most of us you’d probably say that there is a lot of change  going on. What this means is that there is probably a lot of change  going on for your team also. What managers need to understand is that we all tend to deal with change differently.  The members of your team will be a great example of this. Some will  take to new things like a duck takes to water – they’ll dive in and  learn all about it. However, others will push back and won’t want to change

When this happens, you are going to have to use your manager skills and get them to accept the change.

Mar 24, 202209:30
What Managers Need To Know About Staff Training
Mar 17, 202208:53
What Does It Take To Be A Good Manager?

What Does It Take To Be A Good Manager?

An interesting question that many of us may not have spent a lot of time thinking about is what does it take to be a good manager?  

All too often in today’s fast paced world of business, many people find  themselves in management positions with little to no manager training  and no manager skills. Additionally, they have no idea how to deal with  direct reports. All too often companies no longer offer any training to  those people that they are placing in management roles and they are  making people managers when they are younger and they are doing it  without any training. 

What is it going to take to make sure that we  become good managers?

Mar 10, 202207:40
Managers Seek Better Ways To Fire Employees

Managers Seek Better Ways To Fire Employees

So let’s face it – firing a team member is never an easy thing for a manager to do.  

You hired this person, you’ve worked with them, and you’ve attempted to  correct anything that they were doing wrong, but now it’s reached the  so-called “end of the road” and you find yourself in a position where you need use your manager skills to let them go.  No manager comes into work early on days like this. However, in our  current day and age the newspapers are full of articles about fired  workers turning violent or causing conflict. 

What’s the right way to let  someone go?

Mar 03, 202208:16
How Can Managers Make Meetings Better?

How Can Managers Make Meetings Better?

One of the least desirable parts of being a manager is the number of  meetings that we find ourselves attending. 

In fact, there seem to be  some days that are just back-to-back meetings that never seem to end. While we are in these meetings it’s pretty common for a manager to wish that they were just about any other place. It turns out that meetings are important ways for information to get  shared within a company. However, it sure seems that a lot of the  meetings that we find ourselves attending despite our manager skills are  a complete waste of our time

Isn’t there a better way to do these things?

Feb 24, 202206:45
What Is The Cost Of A Stressed Out Team?
Feb 17, 202208:14
Are You Going To Be The Last Manager Standing?

Are You Going To Be The Last Manager Standing?

What a great time it is to be searching for a new job! 

There are  currently more jobs out there than there are people to fill them. This  is all well and fine if you are a front line worker, but what if you are  a manager? There is the very real possibility that everyone who works  for you may be thinking about leaving. If that happens, you are going to  very quickly become an ineffective manager because you have nobody  working for you! 

How should managers deal with the great exitious?

Feb 10, 202209:01
Are You Going To Be The Last Manager Standing?

Are You Going To Be The Last Manager Standing?

What a great time it is to be searching for a new job! 

There are  currently more jobs out there than there are people to fill them. This  is all well and fine if you are a front line worker, but what if you are  a manager? There is the very real possibility that everyone who works  for you may be thinking about leaving. If that happens, you are going to  very quickly become an ineffective manager because you have nobody  working for you! 

How should managers deal with the great exitious?

Feb 03, 202208:49
How Managers Should Plan For A Return To The Office

How Managers Should Plan For A Return To The Office

Good news – the pandemic is over, now everyone can go back to the  office. 

Or is it? Managers are finding themselves in a tricky spot these  days. The initial wave of the pandemic seems to have started to ebb.  Companies have been eager to get their workers back into the office so  that they can benefit from all of the impromptu discussions, shared  insights, and easier management. However, now that it is starting to  look like the pandemic might not be over. Instead, multiple variants  have arisen and they seem to be even more contagious than the original  strain. Oh, and fully vaccinated people can catch the virus. 

What’s a  manager to do?

Jan 27, 202209:50
Managers Start To Discover The Limitations Of Artificial Intelligence

Managers Start To Discover The Limitations Of Artificial Intelligence

I don’t know about you, but in the past few years, I’ve been reading more and more articles that seemed to present Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the miracle cure for just about everything. 

There certainly has been  enough manager training on AI over the past few years. No matter if  it’s what your customer are going to buy next or what the office  temperature should be set to, the answer always seemed to have to do with AI.  

However, as time as moved on, managers are starting to discover that it  may turn out that AI really can’t solve all of our problems.

Jan 13, 202208:57
Managers Learn That Innovation Works Best As A Team
Jan 06, 202207:22
What A Manager Should Do When They Are In The Wrong Job

What A Manager Should Do When They Are In The Wrong Job

As managers we are always looking for the next great job.  

No matter if it is with the firm that we are currently working for or  if it requires us to switch firms, finding a better job, perhaps with  more pay or a better title, is something that we are using our manager  skills to look for. However, once we get that next job, the reality may not live up to what our expectations were

When we find ourselves in a situation like this, what should we do?

Dec 16, 202105:36
Do You Know How To Argue Correctly?

Do You Know How To Argue Correctly?

Part of the job of being a manager is disagreeing with other people.  

Look, their ideas may be wrong and you are the person who is going to  have to step up and let them know that they are wrong. As you can well  imagine, this does not always go over well. This is where arguments come  from. Arguments are a natural part of life. However, knowing how to  argue is one of the key manager skills that we need to have. 

However,  since none of us have had any manager training in how to do this, most  of us do it incorrectly.

Dec 09, 202107:57
How Bad Managers Can Become Good Managers

How Bad Managers Can Become Good Managers

So would you say that you are a good manager or a bad manager? 

If,  somewhat oddly, you answered that you are a bad manager, I may have some  good news for you. As we are all very much aware, the past year has  been completely upside down. However, despite creating a great deal of  uncertainty about what everyone should be doing and making the job of  being a manager that much harder, it may have also created some  opportunities for us. 

What this means is that if you went into the  pandemic looking like a bad manager, you just might be able to come out  of it looking like a good manager.

Dec 02, 202108:16
Good Managers Know When To Stand Aside

Good Managers Know When To Stand Aside

Like most managers, you are probably pretty proud of yourself. 

You  understand the value that you bring to the table and you know that your  team is able to accomplish more because of you. However, feeling this  good about yourself can sometimes lead to you getting in the way of your  team. 

There are times that manager need to know when it’s time for them  to step aside in order to allow their team to be more productive.

Nov 18, 202107:32
Four Things That Google Learned About Managers

Four Things That Google Learned About Managers

We all know who Google is, right? 

Well it turns out that they like data and they like processing data.  What this means for managers is that Google spends their time collecting  data about how managers are using their manager skills to manage their  teams and then they process that data. They used to think that the  smartest people made the best managers, turns out that they were wrong –  they needed to get some manager training. It’s the people who do the best job of working with people. Google’s been collecting data for quite some time and they have recently gone back and taken a look at their data. 

Four new characteristics of a good manager have shown up.


Nov 11, 202108:13
3 Things Managers Need To Be Aware Of When Hiring

3 Things Managers Need To Be Aware Of When Hiring

There are a lot of parts of being a manager that are tough. 

One of the most challenging is when it comes time for us to hire someone to join our team.  The world is filled with a lot of people and there will probably be  many who want to get a job at your company working on your team. As a  manager, it’s going to be your job to use your manager skills to sort  through all of the candidates in order to find the best match. This is  not an easy thing to do. 

However, there are three key secrets that you need to keep in mind when you are looking for that next new hire.

Nov 04, 202107:54
How Can A Manager Get A Promotion?

How Can A Manager Get A Promotion?

Sure you are enjoying your manager position, but wouldn’t you like to  receive a raise? 

There is a problem with getting a raise: when it comes  to using your manager skills to ask for a promotion or raise, most of us  focus the conversation around the same thing: ourselves. All too often  this does not get us the outcome that we want. 

What we really need to do  is to listen to what social science research has found out about how we  can make it one more rung up our career ladder.

Oct 28, 202106:23
What’s The Best Way For A Manager To Interview For A Job

What’s The Best Way For A Manager To Interview For A Job

When a manager goes interviewing for a job, they may find it odd to be  on the other side of the interviewing table. 

We use our manager skills  to do a lot of interviewing as a part of our job; however, when we go  looking for our next job we need to know how to use our manager training  to do so successfully. 

What’s the best way for a manager to get the job  that they are interviewing for?

Oct 21, 202107:20
What Should Managers Look For In A Mentor?
Oct 14, 202105:38
Before You Take That New Job, Check Out Its Culture

Before You Take That New Job, Check Out Its Culture

As managers, we are often presented with opportunities to switch jobs.  

We may be presented with a new job that catches our attention and we  may start to seriously start to think about switching employers.  However, as attractive as a new job may appear, it might be in our own  best interest to not rush into taking a new job. 

One of the big  questions that we have to use our manager skills to answer before making  any jump is to determine what the culture of the new company is.

Oct 07, 202106:09
The Problem With Lying At Work

The Problem With Lying At Work

Life is complicated and, yes, there are times when it is inconvenient to tell the truth.  

It can be as simple as one of you friends asking if you like the outfit  that they are wearing (you don’t) or your boss asking if that report  will be done by the end of the day (it won’t). It can be very easy to  “bend the edges” or tell white, gray, or even black lies when we are at  work. 

Our manager training does not teach us how big of a deal this really is.

Sep 23, 202107:34
Can Managers Count On Millennials Sticking Around?

Can Managers Count On Millennials Sticking Around?

Managers who have built a successful team are always worried about one  thing: are their workers going to stay? 

As more and more of our teams  are being built using members of the millennial generation a lot of us have become worried because we don’t have any manager  training on how to get people to stay. The typical description of a  millennial worker is one who moves around a lot looking for the next  best thing. 

Should managers be worried that their team members are going to be moving on?

Sep 16, 202106:54
Managers Want To Know Why Being A Leader Is So Hard To Do
Sep 02, 202108:09
Is It Time To Quit?
Aug 26, 202108:15
Will Working From Home Keep You Behind?

Will Working From Home Keep You Behind?

So where do you want to work? 

This used to be a fairly easy question to  answer: everyone went into the office when they went to work. However,  that darn pandemic changed everything for everyone. We all spend a year  working from home. A lot of us discovered that we liked working from home.  There was no commute to the office required. We didn’t have to dress  up. However, now that the pandemic is pretty much over, a lot of  companies are telling their workers to come back into the office.  

However, what if a manager doesn’t want to go back to the office? What  will the impact on their career be?

Aug 19, 202108:53
Does Your Team Need Couples Counseling?

Does Your Team Need Couples Counseling?

As a manager, we know that the key to our success is the ability to get  along with the members of our team. 

It turns out that things go a bit  deeper than that. In order for our team to be successful, everyone on the team has to get along with everyone else who is on the team.  I’d like to be able to tell you that this is something that just seems  to happen naturally; however, there are times that it doesn’t. 

When a  manager is encountering a problem either with getting along with the  team or with various members of the team getting along with each other,  it might be time for everyone to go to couples counseling.

Aug 12, 202108:32
Managers Deal With The Challenge Of Remote Workers
Aug 05, 202107:60
How Managers Can Manage A Hybrid Work Environment

How Managers Can Manage A Hybrid Work Environment

The world of workplaces has undergone a great deal of change. 

It used to  be that everyone would go into work, sit at a desk, and then go home  again at the end of the day. The pandemic sent everyone home for a year  and the workplace that we all knew and loved appears to be gone for  good. What is taking its place is being called a “hybrid work  environment”. In this new working environment, managers are going to  have to discover what they will need to be doing differently. Our goals  are still the same – we want to get the most out of our teams. 

However,  how we actually go about doing that is going to be different.

Jul 29, 202109:11
How To Prepare For Long, Complicated Meetings

How To Prepare For Long, Complicated Meetings

As managers, our manager training has taught us a thing or two about how to run successful meetings.  

We know that we need to keep them short, tightly focused, and limit the  number of people that we permit to attend. Our goal is to avoid having  to attend those time wasting events that seem to go on and on forever.  We know the drill: meetings should not last more than 30 minutes, we  should not invite too many people, and we should always show up with an  agenda for the meeting. However, not all meetings are created equal.  There are some meetings that by their very nature are going to be long  and complicated. 

How should managers go about handling these?

Jul 22, 202105:11
How Managers Can Get Candidates To Stop Turning Down Job Offers
Jul 15, 202107:58
How Managers Can Learn New Skills?

How Managers Can Learn New Skills?

Managers, at least the good ones, realize that we don’t know it all.  

Sure, back in the day we went to school and took a lot of classes. We  learned a lot. Then we went out and got jobs. Since then we’ve probably  not been learning that many new things. As the world in which we work  continues to spin and evolve, we understand that there are a lot of  things that we probably need to take the time to learn about. Things  like agile development, that new 5G wireless technology, even things  like emotional management. The problem that we all face is to find the  time that is needed to learn new things. 

How can we make this happen?

Jun 24, 202106:55
Learning To Use Anchors In A Negotiation

Learning To Use Anchors In A Negotiation

If you’ve been doing any negotiating, then you’ve probably heard the term “anchoring”.  

This, of course, brings up the question “what exactly is anchoring in  negotiation, and how does it play out at the bargaining table?” 

If you  want to become a better negotiator, then you are going to have to learn how to use this powerful negotiating tool.

Jun 18, 202107:02
Managers Have To Practice Conscientiousness

Managers Have To Practice Conscientiousness

When a manager is looking to use their manager skills to add someone to  their team, what are the qualities that we should be looking for? 

Sure,  we often go looking for a future team member who will be driven,  aggressive, and focused on reaching their goals.  However, is it possible that we’ve been getting this all wrong? It  turns out that the personality trait that predicts success at work more  than any other is associated with some very different tendencies

What we should be using our manager training to look for in new teammates is conscientiousness.

Jun 17, 202107:44
Managers Prepare To Use AI As Their Offices Start To Open Up

Managers Prepare To Use AI As Their Offices Start To Open Up

The Covid-19 pandemic caused just about every office to shut down and  close their doors. 

Each member of your team started working from home  and as a manager you had a whole new set of issues that you had to work  through in order to keep your team both together and productive.  However, now things are once again starting to change. The arrival of a  vaccine has allowed business to once again consider having their workers  come back into the office. 

However, from a manager point of view this  is going to require us to have a new set of skills.

Jun 10, 202107:30