Management for Accomplishment, 1-2-3: Here is Step One 

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Step One on a group task or project: Get people aligned on (a) What needs to happen, (b) Who’s who, and (c) How it relates to its external environment’s rules and requirements.

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What to Manage: Workers? Or the Links Between Them?

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Good management practices are a path to better organization performance. One important practice is getting feedback on the success of a team’s products, services and communications to others inside the organization and outside it too. Feedback is a valuable performance resource: how else will we know if our groups are performing well?

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One Management Trainer’s Advice – and Why I Think He’s Wrong

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I’ve been clearing out – very slowly – the client files from my career as a management consultant. I found some notes on what one workshop leader – I’ll call him Alex – said about “how to be a good manager”, and as you’ll see below, I didn’t agree with him on several of his […]

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A Close-Up Look at Micro-Management

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I didn’t know what a micro-manager really was until I got one of my own. My sympathies to the oppressed. Most work – whether producing products, serving customers and/or delivering communications – requires thought and attention, and is best with an occasional dose of creativity and innovation. A micro-manager can quash all that by dictating every move. If you think you might be suppressing your people this way, have a talk with them to find out what changes they would like to see.

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Managing Performance – From a Distance

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Managers are familiar with their own “performance circle” for getting their Departmental or Group goals accomplished. If their “goal team” is now scattered, with members working in different places or at different times, it is time to train those people to see what a manager sees.

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Manager Tip: Clarify What You Really Want in Every Work Request

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Managers are expected to have other people “produce results” as well as to “develop” them and their performance. Here’s an easy way to get both at once.

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We All Need Deadlines

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If no deadline is set, projects or tasks languish in limbo, their importance undetermined and their necessity questioned. Time to ask “by when?”.

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The Leadership Challenge… Again.

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Competent leadership: a personality trail or a practical communication skill? Perhaps a mix of both. It comes with a caution, though.

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All Ears: The Importance of Listening in Organization Change

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Here’s a nice little article on management communication in times of organization change – an important skill to develop, whether the change is small or large, simple or complex. Put this to work!

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Some Advice from an Effective Change Agent

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Sometimes our communication gets a little sloppy, leaving others with a vague or inconclusive answer. We can fix that, and perhaps help others step up too. Be a stronger leader.

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