Posts

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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How Reliable are “Expectations” for Getting Good Performance?

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We sometimes hear about “living up to expectations”, but it’s time to recognize that it’s impossible to do such a thing without a few prerequisite conditions. We would be better off insisting that people practice communication instead of expectation.

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Supervisors See Four Kinds of Personnel

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What makes a good worker? Here is a collection of criteria from seven different types of organization, where Supervisors – not Managers – defined four levels of employees.

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Accountability is a Manager’s Job – Not an Employee’s Mindset

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Don’t look for accountability in a person. Create the structures and agreements that support a shared understanding of Who is responsible for producing What results and When those results are due. Then establish regular meetings to update the status of those agreements and modify them as needed.

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Performance Management = Count the Hours Worked? Or the Results Produced?

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What is “performance management”? Tracking how many hours people are at work? Or tracking the results they produce? Hmmm. It’s easier to watch the clock than do the real work of managing performance.

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Trump Abandons a Basic Element of Good Management

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The US president has reduced the White House press briefings to once a month, and those conversations could go to zero soon. An article about the Die-out of Press Briefings says Trump told his Press Secretary not to bother with briefings anymore. That’s a mistake. I remember when my boss, in a job I held […]

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Even if We Aren’t “Managers”, Most of Us Need to Manage THIS

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Chuck, a maintenance guy, did some work for us the other day and we got talking about how he scheduled his job appointments. Since he was both friendly and skilled at his work, he had a few spare minutes to let me know the secrets of managing a contractor’s calendar. “It’s all about how I keep […]

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Is Management a Soft Skill?

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Beth, the head of Human Resources in a law firm, was talking with me about the problem of management in an organization full of lawyers. She rolled her eyes, not wanting to criticize her attorney co-workers. “They know the law”, Beth said, “but do they know how to be a manager?” Good question. This is […]

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