Very best in management tips
April 25, 2016
Trick Yourself into Changing Bad Habits
Every one of us has a career-limiting bad habit. Whether it’s weak interpersonal skills, a tendency to procrastinate, or good-but-not-great technical prowess, one of the biggest impediments to our upward mobility is a habit we can’t get rid of. But a few small changes can help:
Manipulate distance.Keep bad influences far away and bring good things closer. For example, if you want to read more technical journals, put them in your newsfeed.
Change your friends.Spend time with people who support good behaviors. If you want to cultivate a positive attitude, have lunch with others who have one.
Schedule yourself.You’re far more likely to spend time working toward a goal if you block out time for it on your calendar.
See your choices positively. If you’re resisting an uncomfortable but necessary conversation, don’t think, “I’ve got to go deal with this mess.” Think, “Why do I want to have this conversation?”
April 22, 2016
Get More from Your Hotel When Traveling for Work
Business travel is stressful, but your hotel stay shouldn’t be. Hotels have many helpful services that most guests aren’t aware of. Here are some things hotels may do, if you ask:
Offer a smartphone or laptop charger if you forgot to bring yours.
Provide early or late dining options for client meetings.
Loan you gym clothing if you couldn’t fit yours in your carry-on.
Supply a better hair dryer.
Make a quiet room available for a meeting. (Surprise: The restaurant is not your only option.)
Deliver a yoga mat to your room in case you don’t want to deal with the gym.
Waive Wi-Fi and breakfast charges.
Some hotels have more facilities and better service than others, of course. But the core values of the industry are relationships, service, and reciprocity. Play to those values, and business travel can become — if not a pleasure — a lot less stressful.
April 21, 2016
You Don’t Have to Say Yes to Every Opportunity
It’s hard to say no to great opportunities, even when you don’t actually have time for them or they’re not in line with your top priorities. Let’s face it: Most of us succeed early in our careers by saying yes to almost everything. We’re afraid to say no, so we overcommit. But learning to say no is the only way to find the focus and productivity you need to become great at what you really want to do. You’ll only make progress on your most meaningful long-term goals if you carve out dedicated time for them. So the next time an exciting invitation or opportunity comes along, think carefully about the time involved. In addition to the commitment itself, is there planning or prep work to do? What’s the travel time? Will there be follow-up? Thinking this through will make the ROI (or lack thereof) clearer.
April 20, 2016
3 Ways to Unlock Your Creative Potential at Work
Tapping into your innate creativity requires making changes to what you do at work. You need to break your most destructive, focus-killing habits, such as spending a large portion of your day (or weekend) on email or giving in to persistent distractions. To start, give yourself time to quietly think and reflect. Practicing mindfulness can be extremely helpful for this because it aids cognitive functioning. The other thing to work on is managing stress about your deficiencies and failures. This may be most difficult for achievement-oriented business people, but no one can possibly be creative without failing — a lot. Finally, focus on what makes you happy at work. The positive emotions you feel when you are connected to your personal and organizational purpose will help you stay grounded and creative, even when things are tough.
April 19, 2016
The Best Bosses Follow These 5 Rules
Amazing bosses try to make work meaningful and enjoyable for employees. They’re most successful when they adhere to a few best practices:
Manage individuals, not just teams. When you’re under pressure, you can forget that employees have varying interests, abilities, goals, and styles of learning. But it’s important to understand what makes each person tick so that you can customize your interactions with them.
Go big on meaning. Inspire people with a vision, set challenging goals, and articulate a clear purpose. Don’t rely on incentives like bonuses, stock options, or raises.
Focus on feedback. Use regular (at least weekly) one-on-one conversations for coaching. Make the feedback clear, honest, and constructive.
Don’t just talk — listen. Pose problems and challenges, and then ask questions to enlist the entire team in generating solutions.
Be consistent. Be open to new ideas in your management style, vision, expectations, and feedback. If change becomes necessary, acknowledge it quickly.
April 18, 2016
In an Argument, Validate Your Opponent’s Point of View
When you’re in the middle of an argument, validating the person you’re arguing with is probably the last thing on your mind. But it should actually be your top priority. If you validate your counterpart’s perspective, expertise, and feelings, you will keep the conflict focused on the issue. Use language that demonstrates that you value the other person’s perspective. For example, say something like, “I think this is a really important issue that we need to talk through openly” or “I think it took guts to put that on the table. I respect that.” You can also validate someone by repeating back to them what you heard them say: “From your perspective, this is about…” These tactics can reduce defensiveness and increase the speed with which you get to a mutually agreeable solution.
April 15, 2016
Make Steady Progress on Your Goals
It can be tempting to rely on deadline-induced adrenaline rushes to reach major work milestones. But how can you make productivity more habitual and sustainable? The first step is to understand that being productive means optimizing your entire life. A well-designed personal life supports your efforts at work, and vice versa. For example, instead of eating alone at your desk, meet a colleague for lunch. Eating together will benefit both of your professional and personal lives. Next, when planning your to-do list, try to match the task to the amount of focus needed. Schedule your most challenging work for when your energy levels are highest. Use short bursts of time well by having a list of “microgoals” you can accomplish in your spare minutes throughout the week, such as booking that flight or writing that recommendation letter. By leveraging even short amounts of time, you can make steady progress on your most important goals.
April 14, 2016
Gain Control Over Anxiety-Inducing Thoughts
You’re stuck in traffic. You’re going to miss your flight, and the game-changing meeting at the other end of it. Your presentation is poorly executed; you’re not going to win the new client. There goes the promotion, and maybe worse. If only these anxiety-inducing thoughts could be swatted away like so many pesky insects. The good news is that there is a way to gain control over them. Bring order to the chaos by making a list. Write down what you need to do and a plan to get it done. Tackle the distasteful tasks first to get them over with — procrastinating will only increase your anxiety. If your problem is not too much to do but too little (which can be even worse), seek out additional activities to stay busy and avoid brooding. Too much disorganized space, including mental space, can feel oddly oppressive.
April 13, 2016
The Best Leaders Keep an Open Mind
We often think of great leaders as having the conviction of their beliefs—they’re not pushovers. But the most successful leaders actually show a willingness to be persuaded. How can you do this, particularly on issues where you’re not objective?
Keep your hand on the dial. When debating a decision, envision turning a dial: all the way to the right represents absolute certainty, and all the way to the left signifies none.
Recall a moment of opacity, when you couldn’t see a situation clearly, or when something you were so sure was right turned out to be wrong. Whenever you’re feeling overly confident, remind yourself of that moment, and seek counsel.
Kill your darlings. It can be tough to change your mind about long-held beliefs. But the quicker you acknowledge that an idea (even a beloved one) is unworkable, the sooner you’ll move on to the right course of action.
April 12, 2016
Recruit Top Talent to Your New Team
Whether you’re a founder of a startup, a young CEO, or a veteran leader, if you have big plans, you have one job: Put together the strongest team possible. Here are three concrete ways to attract new top talent:
Master the art of storytelling. Tell people what inspired you to start your business in the first place. Others will only follow you if you really leave them with the impression that you yourself are completely captivated by the opportunity you’re presenting.
Don’t be a one-trick pony. Every potential employee is different, so the way you can best get your message across will vary. Considering the candidate’s background and personality will give you insight into how you should deliver your message.
Never compromise. If in doubt, don’t hire. Your first hires are benchmarks for future hires; new candidates need to set the bar even higher.
April 11, 2016
Don’t Overmonitor Your Goals
Having goals is a good thing. But the current trend of self-monitoring, whether through time trackers such as Toggl or fitness trackers such as Fitbit, means we’re constantly evaluating ourselves — the sales we make, the hours we work, or the miles we run. Overmonitoring can get tiring and cause us to lose sight of what really matters. Avoid this trap by taking a more humane approach:
Assess yourself. If you’re constantly measuring what you’re doing and feeling uneasy about things you actually want to do, it’s time to loosen up.
Reevaluate the why. Think about whether you’re monitoring habits because they work for you or because it’s what you think you should do.
Disappoint people. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the things people expect you to do and be. Let some of them go.
Be brave. Stop looking at your self-worth as a scorecard.
April 08, 2016
Prepare for Tough Business Situations as You’d Practice a Sport
One key tenet of coaching professional sports is preparing people in the most realistic contexts possible. For example, a coach might pour water on practice balls to prepare a team for wet gameday weather. You can apply similar thinking to business situations. For example, you might work on rehearsing your pitch to potential VCs in front of colleagues you’ve asked to pepper you with difficult questions. You might create situations where a VC is late to the meeting — or is rushing you to finish your pitch. You might do the session in a setting that mimics what you’ll likely encounter in the real world, whether that’s a noisy coffee shop or an overheated conference room. By sensitizing yourself to the actual challenges you’ll face, you’ll become more adaptable and have a far greater chance of success.
April 07, 2016
How to Respond to a Raise Request
One of your direct reports just asked for a raise. Whether or not you hold the purse strings for your team or organization, this is a tough situation. How should you respond? Your first reaction, regardless of whether you think the employee deserves the raise, should be curiosity. Say something like “Tell me more,” which indicates that you’re not dismissing the request and gets you more information about where the person is coming from. Remain neutral and explain that you will look into the matter. Say something like “Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I want to give it careful consideration. I’ll get back to you within two weeks.” To help make your decision, consider how important the person is to you, your team, and the company, and talk to your boss and HR to determine the fairness of the person’s current salary.
April 06, 2016
Don’t Get Fooled by a First Impression When Hiring
Disastrous hires can happen when managers are fooled by first impressions. But how can you get beyond the superficial during a brief interview? The key is to focus on behaviors rather than traits. For example, if the interviewee describes themself as a “team player,” do they credit other people when discussing their work? Look beyond what the candidate is saying and focus on how they are they saying it. Watch for nonverbal cues that signal contempt, superiority, and disrespect: eye contact when speaking to another person but not when listening to them or invading another’s space. Another telling question: Ask them to describe their least preferred coworker. Listen for whether they reduce the person to a one-word label (e.g., “difficult” or “micromanager”) or reveal a more complex view of the situation (e.g., “we disagreed about how to get the job done because we were trained in different ways”).
April 05, 2016
Build a Passionate Company
To build a great business, companies need a purpose — one that transcends the traditional bottom line. People want to be passionate about their work, and they want to be surrounded by others who feel the same. But how can managers actually foster passion? Here are five ways:
Let people show their emotions. If you ask your people to check their emotions at the door, you can’t tap into their passion.
Hire passionate people. One way to get passionate people into your organization is to incentivize current employees to refer people they want to work with.
Fan the flames. Find plenty of ways to celebrate joint accomplishments.
Don’t stifle your rock stars. Give your people the autonomy to do the work that interests them most.
Share context. Connect job functions to the organization’s broader mission, and remind people why they do what they do.
April 04, 2016
Cool Down a Heated Negotiation
Emotions can get heated during a high-stakes negotiation. But there are a few ways to defuse a tense conversation:
Focus on your physical reaction. Breathe deeply to send a message to your brain to remain calm.
Listen to what your counterpart is saying. Don’t always feel you need to respond to an outburst. If you can, let it go and move on.
Show you’ve heard him. Calmly paraphrase your counterpart’s argument. Sometimes people just want to be heard.
Show some empathy. Acknowledge that this is a tough situation.
Find out more. If you’re the cause of the other person’s frustration, dig deeper to find out why.
Take a break. If you’re the one getting angry or emotional, step out, go for a walk, and come back when you’re feeling more grounded.
April 01, 2016
Help Focus Your Sales Team on the Right Things
Sales executives often talk about how salespeople spend too much time with existing customers rather than focusing on high-potential prospects. Redirect your sales efforts by asking six questions:
Do salespeople know what’s important? Communicate exactly how you want people to spend their time.
Do salespeople have the information they need? Give them the data to match product offerings to customer needs.
Do salespeople have the competencies required? Train people on how to find and qualify buyers, describe the product’s competitive advantages, and convince customers to buy.
Are salespeople motivated? They need to perceive value from their efforts: career success, recognition, personal satisfaction, money, or all of the above.
Do salespeople have enough bandwidth? If not, consider creating specialized teams that find new clients, while others support existing relationships.
Do salespeople have the right characteristics? Look for “natural sellers” who can learn the industry.
March 30, 2016
In Meetings, Tell Your Team That Silence Equals Agreement
Many managers assume that when they ask for feedback, people will offer their thoughts candidly and directly. But that often doesn’t happen, especially in public settings and high-stakes situations. To force people to open up, no matter how reluctant (or passive-aggressive) they may be feeling, set one key ground rule: “Silence denotes agreement.” Explain that silence doesn’t mean “I’m not voting” or “I reserve the right to weigh in later.” It means “I’m completely on board with what’s being discussed.” You must then commit to enforcing the rule. If someone — even a powerful team member or friend — buttonholes you after a meeting to express reservations about what was said, tell them, “You should have spoken up at the meeting. Now everyone is on board and the ship has sailed. Next time, say something.”
March 29, 2016
Avoid Hiring a Toxic Employee
Toxic employees are incredibly costly for organizations — they can lower employee morale, upset customers, and even bring on litigation fees. So it’s essential to weed them out before they join your company. When you’re interviewing a candidate, be on the lookout for signs of incivility. Consider asking questions such as:
What would your former employer say about you — positive and negative?
Tell me about a time when you’ve had to deal with stress or conflict at work. What did you do?
What about yourself would you like to improve most? How about a second thing? A third?
Also find out how the candidate treated your parking lot attendant, your receptionist, and your administrative assistant. Was he gracious and respectful or rude and condescending? Finally, conduct careful reference checks and investigate any hunches thoroughly.
March 28, 2016
Make a Transition Plan When a Valued Employee Leaves
When a valuable employee tells you they’re leaving, worrying about losing their institutional knowledge and experience is understandable. How can you oversee the transition in a way that helps you retain that expertise? Your first step is to outline how you will transfer the knowledge, whom you will transfer it to, and the timeline you’ll transfer it on. Resist the urge to ask the departing employee to compose a hefty here’s-how-to-do-my-job manual. Too often the person doesn’t bother to write it up, and no one ever reads it. Instead, have another employee shadow the departing employee to learn as much as possible about the job. If you’re short on time and don’t have an identified successor, hold a meeting in which the departing employee shares stories with colleagues about how they handled problems and crises that arose during their tenure. The goal is to reveal insights into the expert’s thought process.
March 25, 2016
Improve Your Team’s Productivity
As a manager, you may already have learned how to plan, prioritize, and streamline your work. But how can you help your team members do the same? Start by setting a good example. Be smart about how you allocate the hours of your own workday — the meetings you attend, the emails you respond to, and the projects you sign on for — so your team can follow your lead. Help set boundaries for your team by outlining key goals and analyzing people’s capacity to execute on them. Then meet with your team members one on one to communicate your top priorities and expectations. Tell each person the top two or three areas you want them to focus on, and give them permission to eliminate or delegate unimportant tasks. Make sure that all meetings have a clearly defined purpose, and reserve plenty of downtime in shared calendars for getting actual work done.
March 24, 2016
What to Do Before Telling Someone They’re Fired
Telling someone they’re fired is never an easy conversation, but you can take steps to make it less painful. Before starting the conversation, make sure you’ve prepared responsibly. Does the person know there’s been an issue? Has he been given an opportunity to act upon your feedback? Next, identify the right environment for the meeting. It should be a private place where you won’t be interrupted. Finally, think about what you want to say. Instead of preparing a scripted speech, focus on setting your intentions. Give yourself some space to really think about this person: who he is, why you hired him in the first place, what this will be like for him. Try to see the best in the other person. Imagine him contributing more powerfully in another organization or role. And approach the conversation with the assumption that he has value — it may just be in a different job.
March 23, 2016
Don’t Discount a Serial Job Hopper
No manager wants to hire someone who is going to quit after a year on the job. But how can you tell whether a candidate is going to stick around, especially if they have a history of job hopping? Start by taking a closer look at their resume and noticing when the short stints occurred. There were massive layoffs in nearly every part of the economy from 2007 to 2010. So when you look at the resumes of people whose short stints fall in those years, focus on what they did to rebuild their careers. Then, when the candidate comes in for an interview, dig deeper. For each job, ask two questions: Why did they leave the position, and why did they take the next one? Listen for patterns. Is she consistently negative about the places she worked? Or her bosses? Or colleagues? If the person always leaves for more responsibility and your organization has room for growth, you may have found the perfect hire.
March 22, 2016
Take Small Steps Toward a Big Career Change
If you’d like to make a career transition but you’re worried about leaving a stable job, how do you take the leap? And how do you decide on your next move? Start by following your energy and interests. Pay attention to what engages and excites you. What stimulates your intellect? Once you know what you want to pursue, learn more about the work involved through research and networking. Instead of making a huge change all at once, try out the work in a low-risk way by taking on side projects or consulting. Remember that creating a fulfilling career is an ever-evolving process.
March 21, 2016
Network More Effectively by Drawing People to You
As you advance in your career, it’s harder to find time to network — especially when the people you want to know also have jam-packed schedules. To meet prominent people, you have to make yourself stand out so that they come to you. Start by figuring out what sets you apart. Ask your friends to identify the most fascinating elements of your biography, your interests, or your experiences. Share this information the next time you’re with a group of people you’re trying to connect with. Building your expertise in a niche will also attract people to you. If you know a lot about wine, or nutrition, or salsa dancing, or email marketing, or any other topic, people who care about that topic are bound to seek you out.
March 18, 2016
Keep Your Team from Burning Out
It’s tough enough to manage your own stress. But how can you help the members of your team handle their feelings of stress, burnout, or disengagement? One approach is to focus on your employees’ personal growth and development. Offer tools like mindfulness and resilience training. Encourage people to take time for exercise or other renewal activities, such as walking meetings. Build buffer time into deliverables schedules so that people can work flexibly and at a manageable pace. Encourage mono-tasking by defining milestones that don’t overlap, and avoid the trap of mistaking the urgent for the important. Allow time and space for people to disconnect outside of work, and be deliberate about helping people pause and recharge during down cycles. Finally, it doesn’t cost anything to be kind. Doing well at work and encouraging people to feel well isn’t just possible — it’s the foundation of a high-performance team.
March 17, 2016
Reset Your Assumptions About Your Colleagues
By the time we’ve worked with someone for a few months, we’ve developed certain expectations for what they will say and do. But if you want to have good relationships at work, it’s important to try to see colleagues as they are now, not as they used to be. As an experiment, try to simply notice your colleagues afresh. How do they look today? What is their tone of voice? What are their facial expressions? Are they really saying the same old stuff, or is there something new that you can notice and appreciate? Improved noticing leads to improved awareness, which in turn leads to better options, decisions, and actions. And better options, decisions, and actions are in everyone’s best interests.
March 16, 2016
Learn While You’re on the Job
Too many of us relegate learning to formal, instructor-led programs. But, you can actually incorporate learning into what you already do every day. For example, you can use a team meeting to work on your communication skills. A morning of returning email can become a chance to apply a new organization system. An afternoon of customer interactions can become a chance to hone your business development pitch. Focus on a skill that you want to develop, and research it online — you can find blogs from subject matter experts on almost any topic, not to mention a generous supply of YouTube videos. Then, set a series of small, progressive goals and enlist a colleague to pay attention to your skill-building effort by offering periodic feedback along the way.
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