Prevent a BIG Management Mistake

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What causes worry, stress and anxiety in employees? Unclear job requirements. Here are a few suggestions for improving employee job ownership and satisfaction by creating clear performance agreements.

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Managing Remotely: A Few Tips for “MBO+”

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Management By Objectives (MBO) was popular not long ago, and has been updated to include a different perspective. It’s not about managing people anymore. It’s about managing the agreements for “performance” in a network designed to achieve a goal. Find out more about “performance” right here.

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One Manager is Probably Enough. Two is Likely More than Enough.

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Matrix management is dead? Nope – some people are dealing with two managers, as if one wasn’t enough. There are problems with that, of course, outlined here with a few solution ideas too.

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Want a Successful New Year’s Resolution? Try Management (Recipe Enclosed)

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Want to make a New Year’s resolution that you’ll really keep this time? Maybe put this pandemic to work for you? Use the basics of “results management” to keep yourself on track.

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

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All three steps – Alignment OF the people, Production BY the people, and Accomplishment FOR the people – are needed for effective management. Drop out one step and you are likely to diminish or prevent the alignment, the productivity, and the accomplishment. Management isn’t difficult when you break it down to what you want: the people engaged in their work, the job done well, and the real-world satisfaction for all in its accomplishment.

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

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Step Two in “Managing for Accomplishment” is Managing for Production: setting up the structures and agreements that establish (a) success metrics, (b) a workable performance network (you’ll learn what that is if you don’t already know) and (c) agreements for coordination and communication in that network. Without this, production is delayed due to missteps – the reason so many projects exceed their timelines.

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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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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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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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