Management Mastery

Truly effective managers act more like the leader of a team than the boss of a department.  In this episode, we discuss what it takes for the boss of a department to become the leader of an effective team and why it is important.

A real temptation for a newly assigned manager is to tackle the biggest problem facing the group to show they are up to the job of managing their new department.  Like taking on too much right away, this can lead to serious problems.  In this episode, we will discuss ways to successfully avoid the potential pitfalls in taking on a complicated assignment too quickly.

Whether you are new to your position, or have been in your position for a period of time, setting realistic expectations for yourself will always be a challenge.  It is in your best interest to be actively involved in discussions of the expectations of your boss and of your staff so you can then determine the best method(s) of prioritizing them and attacking them.  How you handle these challenges will go a long way toward ensuring your success.

When a new boss arrives either through a promotion, transfer, or from outside the company, it will change team balance.  In this episode of Management Mastery, we discuss how making the right decisions initially will go a long way toward the manager achieving success in the position.

Often when a new manager takes over, the boss, clients, staff, or stakeholders may have a number of issues that need to be addressed. Taking on the right issues can lead to success; taking on too many and doing a poor job at them can lead to failure. In this episode, we will discuss ways of successfully avoiding some of these potential pitfalls.

The minute you get promoted, you will no longer be the same person to your boss, your colleagues or your new staff.  In this episode we will cover these changes and how to deal with them.

It should be obvious to any manager, no matter how new, that the more engaged in their work an employee is, the more productive they will be – and the less likely to leave for another position. 

But in this time of remote working, the “great resignation” and economic uncertainty, what should a manager be doing to ensure maximum engagement of the members of their team?  In this episode of Management Mastery we address this critical issue.

A transition to a new leader is pivotal for the leader, the staff, and the business. One of the most important decisions a new leader must make is whether to stick with the existing team and for how long. In this episode, we discuss some of the important issues in deciding what, if any, staff changes to make and when and how to make them.

Regardless of the problem facing your team, as manager, you are expected to have the answer. Right? After all, you are the manager. Well, not necessarily. Unfortunately this is a trap many managers – and not just new ones – often fall into. In this episode, we’ll explore why “always having the answer” can often backfire and how to avoid it yourself.

Leaders often experience isolation at greater levels than most employees.  They have few peers, lots of scrutiny, a good deal of pressure, make decisions sometimes without much data, and have information that must be kept confidential.  In addition, they have to watch for feelings of isolation among their staffs. 

In this episode we discuss some of the challenges leaders face and how to address them.

Every manager, at some time, has to fire an employee. It is one of the most difficult tasks a manager has, but it must be done caringly and professionally. Layoffs are a special subset of termination. We’ll discuss the process for both

A performance improvement plan or “PIP” is a document that aims to help employees who are not meeting job performance or behavior-based goals.  A PIP covers specific areas of performance deficiencies, identifies skills, training, or behavior gaps, and sets clear expectations for an associates’ future conduct.

A critical part of any manager’s job is conducting regular employee performance evaluations or reviews. Obviously, if things are going well, these can be positive experiences for both the Manager and the employee. But, if things are not going well, they can be very stressful for both parties. In this episode, we will cover how to make the most of either situation.

Whether it is through a formal written employment contract, or a more informal “on boarding” process, every new employee must be told exactly what is expected of them if they are to succeed in their new position. Establishing such an employment agreement with a new employee requires understanding, a professional approach and following your company’s hiring system. It also provides the foundation for the equally critical process of employee performance review. In this episode, we will cover how to ensure this important process is successful for both you and the new team member.

Sometimes how something is communicated can almost be as important as what is being communicated.  In this episode, we talk about the importance of presentation – whether written or spoken – in ensuring your communications are effective in achieving their desired goals.

The second aspect of influence is presentation – how you communicate your ideas and what you want the audience to take away or do. 

Importance of Presentation in Written Communications: When we think about “presentation” in terms of communication, we usually are thinking of oral communication – whether one-on-one, a small meeting, or to a large group.  But presentation is just as important in written communication.  And very often overlooked as a critical aspect of delivering the content of the communication.

In spoken presentation, there are three critical elements: The Verbal – what you are saying; the vocal – how you are saying it (i.e., your tone of voice); and the visual – your appearance as you are saying it (e.g., posture, gestures, etc.) We cover all three in this episode.

The ability to communicate effectively is one of the most important skills of any manager. All communication has two aspects – What you want to communicated or the content and How you communicate it – or the presentation.  In this episode, we will discuss how to make your content as effective as possible.

Regardless of the purpose or the method of your communication, there are two components – the content, or what you’re communicating and the presentation or the how you’re communicating it.  This is true whether you are communicating with one person or a hundred. This is true whether your communication is written or oral.

In this episode, we will focus on content; that is, how to make what you want to communicate as effective as possible.

Influence is one of the most powerful tools a manager has. In this episode we will discuss What It is, why it’s Important and how can you increase yours and use it most effectively.

Influence is how you move from merely providing information to entertaining, directing, or inspiring others and, eventually, to influencing ‘em. And, influence is more than words, it is about building a strong emotional bond with your audience. Keep in mind, when we say “audience” in this episode, we mean everything from a single person to a room-full. Influence is all about building an emotional connection with your audience. That connection is what determines whether or not people are going to like you, trust you, and want to follow you.

A critical skill of any good manager is the ability to build, maintain and motivate effective teams.  It is not an ability everyone naturally has but it is one that leaders can develop over time.

In fact it is not a single ability, but a collection of social skills that take conscious effort to develop and maintain.

In this episode, we cover how a manager can become a more effective team leader.

What is one of the biggest weaknesses of poor managers? The inability to build strong relationships at work. It is one of the most important skillsets that any Manager can have. In this episode, we will talk about the most valuable steps you can take to develop this skill.

What is one of the biggest weaknesses of poor managers? The inability to build strong relationships at work. It is one of the most important skill sets that any Manager can have. In this episode, we will talk about the valuable steps you can take to develop this skill.

Delivering superior results doesn’t happen by chance. It happens through conscious choice, discipline, and consistency of behavior.

Making a decision is only half the battle for a good manager. The second half is getting the decision implemented. In this episode, we cover how the good manager gets and keeps their staff on board with their decisions.

The manager’s job is to make decisions. Effective decision-making is critical to effective management. In this episode we discuss the process of good decision-making. We cover the important steps in decision-making from identifying the problem through gathering the necessary information and deciding on the best option if more than one are available.

We also discuss the role of intuition in making a decision and the importance of involving staff at every step.

Everyone has clients. It is critical, no matter what your function, that you clearly understand who your clients are, what your clients need from your department and how to best meet those client needs. Clients can be in the company (e.g., other departments, company employees, etc.) or outside (i.e., those who buy your company's products or services). What is important is that you have a clear idea of who they are and how your department is meant to serve their needs. It is also important that you build an on-going relationship with your client(s) so that you are constantly aware of their needs and how well your department is or is not meeting them.

One of the first, and very important, tasks of a new manager is to begin to evaluate the staffing and structure of their department to ensure it is aligned so as to be most effective in meeting the goals and objectives of their new department. Initially, this consists largely of systematically observing and listening to clients, management, and high-performing staff to identify the department's strengths and, more importantly, weaknesses. Only then, and in discussions with their management, staff and customers, should the new manager begin to make needed changes. These changes must be made cautiously, being sensitive to the feelings and perceptions of the more valuable staff, so that the changes are seen in a positive light.

Understanding the underlying emotional and other, often unspoken, attitudes and beliefs that may motivate staff is critical to good management.  The successful manager needs to be aware of and deal with those critical factors.  This is what we mean by “empathy”.  In this episode, we discuss how the good manager can build empathy both in their staffs and in themselves.

The signs of an unmotivated employee are not hard for a manager to spot and we will go into those.  What is sometimes less obvious is the negative impact such employees can have on a department.  While it isn’t always “contagious”, a lack of motivation can spread to others in the group.  In any case, an unmotivated employee is not contributing their full effort to the department and is thus a liability the manager must address.  In this episode, we will talk about how to spot an unmotivated employee, what some of the more common causes are and the ways a manager can address them.

Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand one’s own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values and motives and how they affect one’s interactions with people in the workplace and their own job performance. Self-control is the ability to control one’s thoughts, feelings and actions. One of the things that makes lack of self-awareness a problem is that, when asked whether they are self-aware, 95% of people answered that they were. However, research done at Harvard found that only about 10-15% of people actually are. In other words, while a lack of self-awareness is relatively easy to spot in others, we rarely see it in ourselves.

Effective communication is one of the most important skills a good manager must have. In this episode, we review not only what makes one a good communicator, but also things that many do that get in the way of effective communication including blaming the audience for not understanding what is being communicated, and not following up to make sure one's communication was accurately received and understood.

It is critical that your staff feel comfortable with giving you bad news or telling you about problems when they occur. This involves establishing a level of trust with your staff where they can feel that giving you such news will not result in negative consequences for them. This episode centers on how to build that level of trust with one's staff and maintain it.

It's never pleasant to get negative feedback from one's boss. But how a manager deals with the bad news can sometimes be more important than the news itself. The same can be true for positive feedback. Responding appropriately in both types of situations is often critical to a manager's success. This episode covers how to anticipate and respond to both positive and negative feedback from one's boss.

It is important for a manager to be proactive in developing relationships with their clients (and every manager has them) where the client feels they can communicate openly and freely with the manager -- even when that involves communicating negative news. It is important that managers learn of issues before they become major problems and that involves having an open, trusting relationship with the client. This episode discusses how to build such a relationship.

It takes patience and effort to develop and keep talented staff. In this episode we cover many of the things that keep talented staff motivated and happy -- and reduce their likelihood of being poached by a competitor or another department in your company.

Your most talented staff can be your greatest asset. But they can also need a lot of attention. It is also important that you not overlook talented staff who may be introverted and not immediately stand out. Identifying and developing these members can greatly benefit your department.

At the same time, you can't ignore the less-talented staff and how to motivate them and head off feelings of jealousy or resentment is also covered.

Nothing can be more nerve-wracking than being told, "The Boss wants to see you." In this episode, we discuss how to prepare for such a meeting in order to maximize the potential for a positive outcome (no matter the topic) and minimize the chances of a negative one. The secret comes down to a single word: Preparation. We'll tell you how to prepare for such a meeting.

Listening is probably one of the most important skills a manager can have and most people feel they are good listeners. However, many are not. In this episode we discuss techniques for good listening and why they are important.

Preparation is critical for any meeting with your boss -- especially one you asked for. Of course, you want to be prepared on the specific reason you asked for the meeting -- but your preparation needs to go far beyond that to maximize the positive impact any meeting can potentially have on your relationship with your boss. It will also reduce the potential for a negative response from the boss.

This is an encore of an episode on your first meeting with a (new) client.

Everybody makes mistakes -- it is a part of learning and growing in any job -- especially management. What is important is how one handles the mistake -- how they get out ahead of it and what actions they take to prevent the mistake from happening again. It is important to own responsibility for the mistake -- even if it was by one of your staff and not you directly. You are responsible.

This is a repeat episode: Building and Maintaining a Network

It is estimated that 30% to 50 % of any department staff are "introverts". They can be extremely talented members of your team, but can easily fade into the background and their potential contributions lost if not identified and handled correctly. In this episode, we talk about how to fully utilize the introverted members of your staff.

A successful relationship with your new boss is entirely your responsibility. We discuss the importance of understanding how your boss interacts with staff (are they a hands-on or hands-off manager?); makes and communicates decisions; how they like to communicate, and other key dimensions of their management style. In addition, we talk about how to deal with the different management styles.

We all do it from time to time -- and are often annoyed when others do it. In a new position, we talk about "how it was done (better) where I was before". DON'T DO IT. Until you are well established and understand WHY things are done the way they are in your new position, don't talk about the way it was done in your previous position. People don't see it as helpful. At best they see it as mildly annoying. Avoid it.

Having an effective network only becomes increasingly important as a manager advances in their career. Knowing how to build and maintain a strong and effective network is a key management skill. It is also important to encourage one's staff to also have strong networks as such networks can also benefit the manager.

This is a repeat of the episode on the importance of maintaining a healthy Work-Life balance.

The primary task of any manager, of course, is to ensure that their department delivers results effectively, efficiently, on time and on budget. In this episode we cover the critical steps managers should follow to maximize their success in delivering superior results.

Once you have identified the candidate you want to hire, there is still much to do, from checking references, making an offer, negotiating salary, if necessary, and successfully on-boarding the new hire. At any point in this process, the candidate may be susceptible to a competing offer from another organization. This episode covers all of these areas to help you be successful in your hiring of your desired candidate.

It is important to remember that, when you seek to hire the best candidates for a job, they will be evaluating you, your department and your company just as you will be evaluating them. Your behavior in the interviewing process can be just as important as the candidate's in determining your success in landing the best candidate.

In addition, your -- and your staff's -- behaviors towards the candidate up until they start on the job can also prove to be important.

The first step in hiring the best candidate for a job is the screening process. This begins with a review of the resumes of interested candidates -- either by the HR Department and/or by the hiring manager. This process removes from consideration candidates who clearly do not meet the requirements for the position, based on their resume. This is followed by a "screening conversation" between remaining candidates and the hiring manager to further reduce the number of applicants to only those worth serious consideration.

Preparation for hiring top talent has to begin even before there is an opening to fill.