You’re a Manager Now: You Have to Dress the Part

You have to dress the part, you have to look like a manager, if you want people to perceive you as a manager. Not sure you believe this? Then watch my new video and leave your comment below.

Time Management for Managers: Is It Important, or Just Urgent?

Time management for managers often comes down to an ability to distinguish between tasks that are important, and those that are merely urgent. Why does that matter?

To answer that question, I posted this video on YouTube. Here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uP7O3a8ANk

Watch the video, take a good look at your To Do list, and take action!

Dealing with Interruptions

Many new managers feel frustrated because they can’t get on with what they perceive as their work for dealing with interruptions by their team members. In this video, I talk about why you shouldn’t resent these interruptions, and also give you some tips on how to deal with them. Enjoy the video, and remember to leave your comments.

Characteristics of Winning Teams

If you look closely at winning teams, you’ll see they have certain characterics in common. And great team leaders work to establish and maintain these team characteristics because they lead to high performance, high productivity and – just as important – to satisfaction among team members.

Here’s a video I made for you describing those characteristics of winning teams.

Building Trust on Your Team

Team collaboration, extra drive for special projects, stepping up to help other team members, team motivation: all these are automatically increased when you have a team whose members trust one another. Here’s a video I made for you on how to build trust on your team.

Guidance for the Newly Promoted

I recently did an interview with Tom Cox on his Internet radio program, Tom on Leadership. It was all about how to use the first 30 days of your new position to get you off to a good start. If you’d like to hear some great insights from both Tom and me, here’s the link to the recording:

Guidance for the Newly Promoted

I’d love to have your comments on the ideas Tom and I discussed, and especially if you put them into practice.

Problem Solving for New Managers

Problem solving is one of the most challenging skills for new managers. In this new 12-minute video, I give you one model of collaborative problem solving. Try it, on your own or with your team.

Managing Team Conflict: 4 Obstacles

One of the topics people often ask me about in my manager coaching engagements is how to manage conflict on their teams or in the workplace generally.

There are many different types of conflict, not all of which is bad. In fact, healthy conflict born of many people bringing a variety of skillsets and viewpoints to a discussion can result in innovation that would not otherwise have been possible.

However, team conflict can also be demotivating and eventually lead to a toxic environment. If you are in a position of leadership, at whatever level, you will do well to create some systems for dealing with conflict in a way that is in the best interests of all concerned.

Of course, this is a huge subject, and in fact it warrants a whole Stage in The Manager’s Journey. But for now, I’ll concentrate on what I see as four common obstacles that keep people from dealing with workplace conflict effectively.

1. Considering only your own interests. If you have four people on your team and everyone is taking this attitude, then you’ll have four people digging their heels in, and the scene is set for conflict. Your job as team leader is to help everyone see the issue in the light of the team’s interests, or even the company’s interests. I’ve founds sports analogies to be quite useful in these discussions: if everyone tried to score all the goals themselves the team strategy would fall apart and they would never win any games. You, of course, must have a very clear understanding of your own team goals, and be prepared to articulate them persuasively. You must also find a way to help each person get at least a part of what they want out of the situation so that nobody will feel they lost.
2. Putting limits on the scope of discussion. Assuming you have jumped over the first hurdle and have everyone will to contribute to a useful discussion of the issue, don’t sabotage your efforts by limiting the possibilities. I love “blue sky” brainstorming sessions, in which everyone is free to put forward any and all ideas for discussion. Set a clear ground rule that nobody is allowed to squelch anyone else’s idea in the first round of simply surfacing ideas. In the next round of discussion, you’ll need to weed out the impractical ideas, but again set a ground rule that comments are to be on the ideas themselves and not personal attacks on those who propose them. No ideas should be categorized as stupid, or you can be sure that fewer ideas will be put forward in future.
3. Judging and rejecting ideas prematurely. People’s thought processes are different. Someone might think a problem through very carefully and come up with a promising solution, but their way of expressing it might not make it clear to everyone else. Ask questions that elicit more information and start a useful discussion. Of course, the solution may not be the right one, but if it has had the benefit of discussion, discarding it is less likely to offend anyone and deepen the conflict.
4. Finally, looking for only one best answer. If you work from the assumption that only one solution is the right one, it follows that you’ll have to reject others that might have had built-in possibilities. If you come up with two, or even three, possible solutions, you can then examine the pros and cons of each, and perhaps even decide on a hybrid that works perfectly for the situation.

These steps will help you work through team conflict arising from process and function discussion. Of course, there are other types of conflict that arise simply because we are all human beings with human failings — but that’s a topic for another post!

In the meantime, check out my “10 Minutes for $10 on Managing Conflict on Your Team” at http://www.mhwcom.com/pages/10minuteaudios.html

New Manager: Invest in Yourself!

Someone recently told me she would like to become a Traveler in my program for new managers, The Manager’s Journey, but her employer would not pay for it. She asked how she could persuade the company to pay so that she could take part in The Manager’s Journey.

My answer probably wasn’t what she expected, but here it is: pay for it yourself! After all, it’s your career, isn’t it?

One of the biggest mistakes new managers make is not investing in their own professional development. Of course it’s great when your company puts you through courses for your development, but you shouldn’t restrict yourself to those. If you want to develop your management career, there are many things you’ll need to learn and they won’t all be available in-house. Those who ask why they should have to pay when it’s the company that gains are taking a very short-sighted view.

In the long term, you will actually benefit more than the company, because you will learn skills that are transferrable. If you move to another position in another company, you will already be more prepared if you’ve learned some basic management skills. If you can truthfully say in your resume that you have taken management courses, that gives you an advantage in the job market, so why not put yourself in this position even if it means paying your own way?

That is, in fact, the reason I have kept the ticket price for The Manager’s Journey low, because I know many new managers will have to pay their own way and I want them to be able to afford it. (By the way, if you haven’t already, you really should read all about The Manager’s Journey to see if it’s for you.)

Don’t be short-sighted, new manager, and don’t be left behind: invest in your own professional growth, invest in your career, invest in yourself!

Leading Meetings: an Essential Skillset for Managers

Monday morning meetings, client meetings, problem solving meetings, staff meetings, regular meetings — just too many meetings! That’s a common problem for managers at all levels, who feel they can’t get on with the work of their department for attending or leading meetings. For new managers, it’s just another layer of added stress!

Meetings are a fact of business life, and while technology can cut down on the number of face-to-face meetings, there are still times when that’s the best way to deal with issues. So whether you are a new manager or a seasoned manager, you’d do well to learn to run effective meetings.

Here are Helen’s 9 Rules for Meaningful Meetings:

1.    Call only necessary meetings.
Could a teleconference, a series of phone calls, an e-mail or a memo serve the same purpose? Develop a reputation for calling meetings only when necessary, and people will be more willing to devote their time to them.
2.    Invite the right people.
Invite people who have something to contribute or who need to be involved in the discussion. Don’t invite people just because they are at a certain level in the organization. Busy people appreciate your consideration of their time.
3.    Distribute the agenda before the meeting.
People should receive the agenda a week or so before the meeting. This lets people know what will be discussed and gives them an opportunity to gather information they will need and prepare their input. Receiving an agenda as you arrive at a meeting is almost as bad as not having an agenda at all — and that’s bad!
4.    Start and finish on time.
Don’t wait for latecomers—they shouldn’t be rewarded for upsetting everyone else’s schedule. Allot a time to each subject on the agenda and stick to it. You will finish on time—and people will love you!
5.    State the objective at the start of the meeting.
State an objective that is results-oriented rather than discussion-based. e.g. “We are meeting this morning to approve the final budget for next quarter.” This is a measurable objective, towards which you can work during the discussion.
6.    Keep the meeting moving towards its objective.
Don’t let people drag the discussion off track. Keep reminding them of the objective and redirect the discussion back when they stray.
7.    Don’t just sit there—say something!
Having something to say and saying it is the only way to contribute to someone else’s meeting. Do your homework in advance and you will know what you want to say.
8.    Arrange for appropriate notes.
If it’s your meeting, arrange for a support staff person to take notes. The note taker should not be a participant, since it is difficult to participate and takes notes at the same time.
9.    When the objective has been accomplished—stop!
Finish early and you’ll be a hero, so don’t spoil it by starting to discuss other issues. Congratulate participants on a successful meeting, and let them get back to their day.
We don’t spring from the womb knowing how to run effective meetings — we need to work on the skills! That’s why The Manager’s Journey includes a whole stage on both leading your own meetings and making the most of the time you spend at other people’s meetings. Learn these skills now, right at the start of your management career, and you’ll save your company money and yourself a whole lot of stress.

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