Manager Tools Forums

If your boss asked you if you were interviewing, how would you answer?

asteriskrntt1 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:32:00 -0500

I was just reading this ESPN article about the Athletic Director at Boston College saying that if his football coach interviewed for a new position, he would likely fire him. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3811657

Now there are many takes on this and what is really going on might not be accurately reported in the press.

So just wondering, if your boss came to you and asked if you were actively looking (and you were), how might you respond?

*RNTT

Confrontations

littlejus — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:32:24 -0500

As a new manager I'm discovering that parts of my job don't mesh with my character. Like confrontations. My personality prefers to smooth the waters, so it irks me at times when I feel I must be confrontational to one of my directs in order to get things done. From denying a request for leave, or reminding someone to be punctual, to delivering a new work policy, or presenting a new product to the sales team (which product they don't much want to sell).

Mark and Mike often say we don't get paid to do what we like, we get paid to do our job. What I'm wondering is if confrontationalism is an unlikable but necessary part of the job of management, or if it's the case that I'm running into so many instances of confrontation simply because of my inexperience (perhaps I'm relying too heavily on role-power and should strive to be more inclusive?).

Any comments from those older and more experienced greatly appreciated.

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - Eliyahu M. Goldratt

fchalif — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:02:09 -0500

I recommend this book for Managers and any team member in a manufacturing environment.
The author tells a story of the difficulties experienced by a Plant Manager facing a potential closing of his plant. This approach makes this book very useful for all levels of staff to read and to get an understanding of 3 main concepts:
- Throughput (total cycle through to Sales)
- Inventory
- Operational Expense

Those concepts and relative roles in a plant are thoroughly explained. Mr. Goldblatt's also explains his Theory of Constraints and how to consider bottlenecks.

Good book and a very easy read.

Ground Rules - what to do if a rule is "violated"

tokyotony — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:34:18 -0500

I enjoyed the podcast on Ground Rules, however, it did not mention what to do if a ground rule is violated. Say, a member of the team shows up late to the meeting? Should I say something then, wait until afterwards, etc.?

Thanks,

Tony

Ground Rules - for recurring meeting

tokyotony — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:32:30 -0500

I have a weekly team meeting to give updates on what each individual is doing as well as give the team a general update on what's going on department and company-wise. Unfortunately, I never set any ground rules to begin with.

So, I will do this during our next meeting. However, I guess I can assume that we don't have to do this at each meeting. Once they are decided, shall I just put the ground rules in the calendar invite? Hang them up each time? Or, just assume that people know them and "put them to bed".

Tony

The Black Swan

TedTschopp — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:30:11 -0500

Has anyone read The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb?

I would be interested in seeing feedback regarding the book.

Horstman's Laws

hagamanp — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:02:45 -0500

Is there a gathered list of all the Horstman's Laws that are mentioned in the podcasts?

Happy New Year!

jhack — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:12:03 -0500

Happy New Year to the entire Manager Tools forum community! You have all been a source of inspiration to me, and I wish you all the best in 2009.

John Hack

(OK, I know this isn't a "bio" post, exactly, yet it seems the least wrong place to post it...)

Motivation

jrfireboy2 — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:23:44 -0500

BLUF: I am trying to find out what it is that makes my directs get out of bed and come to work. This way I can find out how to keep them motivated.

I know a paycheck is a good motivation however my directs can get paid doing any job. I want to find out what it is that makes them keep coming here. I interact with my directs on a daily basis but I (as a manager) have a hard time nailing their motivator down to one or two things that I can focus on with them. I'd like to take the approach of tailoring work for my directs to keep them engaged in their job, instead of telling them "do it because it's your job". Any ideas or questions that may help??

Josh

Odor problem

jrfireboy2 — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:38:50 -0500

One of my employees has come to me on a few different occasions complaining about the perfume of another employee on the shift that comes in to relieve mine. She arrives at work about 15 minutes early and is in the same room as the employee who is complaining. My employee says that the perfume gives him migraines. I have mentioned to the supervisor of the employee with the perfume that it is causing my employee to get headaches and migraines however nothing has changed. How should I proceed with this?

Standard responses to interviewees

littlejus — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:20:47 -0500

What are standard, polite responses after interviewing a candidate with the following outcomes:

(a) You decide to reject the candidate
(b) You think the candidate is good, but want to continue interviewing before making a decision

Thanks for any suggestions.

First rule of higher educatiion - get good grades

stephenbooth_uk — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:35:44 -0500

Listening to this cast the main thing that struck me was how it is pretty much opposite to the advice I received when I was at university. I'm not saying totally opposite but certainly the focus was different.

The cast could, as I understand it, be summed up as "The number 1 priority is to come out with a good GPA/award, everything else is secondary."

When I was at uni, 1989-93, the message was quite different. I wasn't told "Don't worry about your grades, they don't mean anything" but grades were not represented as the #1 priority. The message was much more "So long as you at least get a degree that's fine, it's the extra curricular activities that employers are more interested in." This was the message I got from my 6th form (6th form is an optional end of secondary/pre-tertiary education where you study A-Levels, pretty much a requirement for getting into university) college careers service, my university careers service, the employment services office (Job Centre), the media and employers I spoke to. Even my bank sent me a booklet saying "Congratulations on getting into university, here's what we look for in our graduate recruits..." and giving similar advice. The view was that there are loads of graduates coming out each year with the same or similar degree as you, you need lots of good extra-curriculars to demonstrate your unique selling point, the thing that makes you different from all the rest. Indeed it was only the 'crusty old academics' (normally derided for giving poor careers advice) who seemed worried about grades.

I graduated with a II:ii (aka a 'Desmond') in Biochemistry from University of Keele in 1993 (along with subsidiary degrees in Computer Science, Engineering Math and Economics). I don't know that I've ever been ruled out of a job on the basis of the class of my degree. I do know that I've very rarely been asked what class degree I got, I know a lot of people who graduated around the same time as me with II:i and Firsts but had as much or more trouble than me finding graduate jobs and employers seemed much more interested in the fact that I'd been Treasurer of the Scottish society for a year, a member of the Constitutional Committee for 3 years and had raised over £100,000 pounds for charity over 3 years as a very active member of the RAG committee than what my grades were.

Presumably things have changed in the intervening 15 years.

Stephen

Boss' Wife Assigned To Me (Whaaaa?)

keith_rr — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:36:44 -0500

Hello,

I am a long time listener to the Manager Tools podcast and am now in my first real management role in a small company. I have two people reporting to me, one of whom is my director’s wife (we will call her Agnes). Since I am new to the company, only found out about the new reporting structure last week, and since Agnes works from home (with young child in tow) I have not had a chance to meet her yet. I have lightheartedly expressed my concern over the awkwardness of this situation to my director and he informed me that he believed this could work out due to my personality (not sure how to take that). As my first contact with Agnes, I am planning to send a meeting invitation for a face-to-face later this week.

Any insight or advice is welcome. If this all works out – no problem. If there turn out to be insurmountable issues, then I am the odd man out and in somewhat of a pickle.

Thanks,

Keith

Audio Prep Question from the Interviewing Series

hscottgilbert — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:16:35 -0500

I think my question is pretty straight-forward. I just listened to podcast #1 of the Interviewing Series. My question is two-fold:

1. Do I start doing my audio practicing immediate or only once I have scheduled an interview? In my experience, it is hard to keep up a daily regimen of practicing my answers unless I have a serious interview coming up.

2. How long do I practice each day? Because I have to go back and listen to the tapes later to evaluate my answers, whatever time I spend each day will actually be doubled by the evaluation. I was thinking 30 mins practice each day and 30 mins of evaluation.

Please let me know what has worked for you.

Thanks,
Scott

San Francisco Meet Up

hscottgilbert — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:06:21 -0500

I'd love to get together for a MT meet up. Are there any other folks in SF interested?

Please post or email me if you're interested.

Thanks,
Scott
hsg0301@gmail.com

feedback tool - www.rypple.com

fab5freddy — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:58:26 -0500

Has anyone used the rypple tool?

Was reading about it in The Economist and it sounded interesting

Hi from Melbourne Australia

AGarth — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:31:46 -0500

Hi all of my management brothers and sisters.

My name is Aaron and i have been a manager of a not-for-profit organisation for the last 7 months. I had not recieved any official training or PD for this role and stumbled accross your podcast christmas eve as I was trying to work out how to help my directs in the new year.

I have a degree in social science (youth work)and have found your podcast to be the most effective tool (pardon the pun) i have come accross in my career.

thankyou,

Aaron

Civilians

aharding — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:36:05 -0500

I was a highly effective manager when in the Marines, but military management in the civilian world seems to make me an "ass hole" (as quoted by me boss). Anyone have an idea how to tone down the Jar-Head and still be an effective manager?

Horstmans's Law of Project Management

MikeK — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:56:21 -0500

OK, I am massively relieved after hearing this segment so far, it is everything I hoped it would be! In fact, I have always been curious if MT would ever cast on project management. Finally!

I have been feeling like an outsider in my company as project management is constantly looking like a set of technologies to manage instead of people. This podcast hits all that on the head and I absolutely agree with it and frankly, its a relief to hear as I don't have the same support for the unnecessary complexities of today's PMI and other technology around PM roles. I find them for most projects unnecessary and largely ineffective as they begin to take the place of managing tasks with people.

That is how I like to run projects and definitely get flac for doing that, even though my projects run smooth and well without all the focus on the PM tools and technologies.

Anyway, looking forward to more of this podcast and would love to hear others' thoughts on it as well.

-Mike
-Learn This

What is classified as Direct Reports?

gmoney1975 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:15:11 -0500

I understand in the corporate world it is very easy to identify direct reports, but in retail it is much more difficult. In my store we have a store manager, assistant store manager( myself), two department managers, two leads, and thirty or so associates. I think my two managers and leads are my direct reports and the associates are theirs, but there is some bleed over as the store manager also is their superior and delegates to them. How do I determine who are my direct reports?

My boss is not on board with One on Ones

gmoney1975 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:02:02 -0500

I am an assistant store manager in retail. I report to my store manager and I have two department managers below me and two sales leads. My store manager is very hands off and does not initiate meetings, feedback, or provide updates or goals unless promted. Last Thursday I emailed an invitation to my department managers and leads for a scheduled one on one next week. I did not CC my boss because I thought he would really not be interested in them at this time. I was mistaken. I received an email from him that stated he had some issues with me scheduling the O3's. First I did not run it by him first. Second, he did not feel that weekly meetings are necessary for all managers. He told me to go ahead with the O3's for this week only, but he did not feel they needed to continue after that unless someone asks to speak with me specifically and even then, I would need to make him aware of the conversation. He ended his email stating that if I felt that maybe I would like to do this on occasion to better develop myself as a manager, then we can discuss that as it comes up. I feel due to his lack of experience and confidence he is threatened by my attempt to manage our staff. How should I respond?

really weird busniness

magates — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:01:08 -0500

Hello everyone,

I just want to say I find the tools here extremely great and I struggle to figure out how to incorporate them into my weird bussiness. I hesitate to call it a small business because in a way I have somewhere around 50-100 virtual "directs" on any given project and I have 1 regular office staff who basically covers sales.

Bottom line, I have 100's of contractors working for me off site (writing music for films) and they COMPETE to have their work selected by our managers and specifically by the client (the film director). It's a massive process to manage. We have someone.

How do I do one on ones with a huge team that is spread all over the world? Do I need to divide everything up so there are lots of submanagers? we do have about 3 submangers who are charge of various activities.

How do I give nonrealtime feed back with the feedback model. There is a constant need for revisions on every piece of music so feed back is needed constantly.

Is there a better way to do this than on something like base camp?

How do you do a hotwash on with such a large virtual team, is doing it on base camp (non real time) okay? (how do you get that rapid fire feeling?)

I have constant contact with our one office sales person, it's a very small office - do I still need to specifically do one on ones? is there a modification I need to do?

any ideas for my very unique problems would be appreciated.

Thanks

Matt Gates
www.thecomposercollective.com

new manager - never coached before

mavagan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:09:08 -0500

I am a first time manager of a new department - as such, no experience in coaching. I have an employee who:

- makes loud personal calls, often
- has a poor attitude - snarky comments, "why do I need to do this", "that's not my job", etc...
- asks me personal questions about other employees
- doesn't really listen to people before saying "i know", therefore missing half of the point, and when they go to perform the task, end up messing it up because they didn't listen, and then say "well how was I supposed to know?"

Often when this happens, it's in the middle of the department - it's very open - and I don't want to say anything in front of other ee's. When is the right time to say something?

My issue is more about the attitude, but also performance due to the attitude. I know I shouldn't care, but I almost hate to say something - I think I'm honestly scared that this person would be mad at me - although I know it doesn't matter.

Any advice?

As leaders we all need guidance to manage our teams.

Jamini — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:35:59 -0500

As leaders we all need guidance to manage our teams effectively. I found a great resource. Debora McLaughlin is an executive coach that was featured in the Blueprint for Success book with Stephen R. Covey. She is writing a new book and is asking leaders to answer one question. In return she is giving away the Journal for Influential Leadership as a gift. Want to know what her question is? Go to
http://www.AskInfluentialLeaders.com

Third person to leave under same direct...help

dragoon — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:04:58 -0500

One of my directs has seen three of her directs (my skips) resign to take another job. On each of the exit interviews, the skips pointed to their supervisor's autocratic behavior as the reason they began seeking new job opportunities.

How would you approach the direct on the issue when you do not have the specific behaviors that are setting folks off and causing them to leave. :?:

The direct is a hard and passionate worker and transfering her is not an option.

Thank you

Ilkhan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:33:19 -0500

I am new to the forums, I hope I'm posting this in the right spot. I am an attorney by trade and stumbled onto manager tools by accident.

Before listening to manager tools I never thought of myself as a manager. Since listening to mt I not only realize that I am a manager of my staff (paralegals, secretarial staff, junior attorneys) but my eyes have been opened to so many things that I've never even considered before.

Time management, goal setting, one on one's, the list goes on. I was one of those guys who had the Outlook pop-ups on and with an average of 100 emails a day my days were one long interruption. Thank goodness you said, TURN IT OFF! As simple as it is, I never would have considered doing so until it was said. My only difficulty now is figuring out which tools to implement first and how many do I start with.

At the risk of being long-winded, I appreciate how everything in mt is POSITIVE. We can do better, we can improve, feedback isn't personal, it's motivated by an earnest desire to help others. The news, radio, internet, work, etc is filled with stressful pessimistic information but mt is all about being positive.

I'm sure you've heard it a million times but thank you for everything.

Interview Series and Career Tools

gjsanborn — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:47:23 -0500

Any consideration being given to people who recently purchased the Interview Series with respect to a career tools premium mambership ?

Perhaps an additional discounted introductory offer ?

My manager cannot communicate - he talks over everyone.

Dusan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:22:31 -0500

I'm sure many on this forum have experienced this, you've done your homework, you've got a brilliant idea, you go to a meeting and as soon as you start to talk your big mouth manager talks over the top of you! Does he know better, probably not. It's just the way it is.

The team I work with are very professional polite people who will not challenge this guy at all - and unfortunately I'm one of them. I'm not sure if he has a problem with self confidence, or he is a megalomaniac. Either way he makes life at work miserable for all of us. I am Serbian and have lived in Australia half of my life and speak with an accent. This does not help me either.

I want to speak back over the top of him but feel this will only make the situation worse. My manager does not listen, has all the answers and is rude not only to his team but has the same arrogant attitude with our customers.

I need some suggestions on how to deal with this type of personality?

Edward Tufte seminar meet-up in Houston 1/28/09?

cyhelm — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:35:48 -0500

Anyone planning on going to the "Presenting Data and Information" course in Houston? We could meet during the lunch break at one of the Galleria restaurants.

Preparing a Compensation Proposal

galway — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:41:03 -0500

[b]My director is vountarily approaching the exectuive to ask that my salary be increased. He's asked that I "give him as much ammunition as possible". What do you recommend I do?[/b]

I am a department manager and have held my current role for approximately four months. Coming from a role that had a defined pay scale, and being young and inexperienced, I signed a contract without any negotiation that pays a relatively small amount.

According to my director, there is concern that I will move on to bigger and better things shortly if they don't increase my pay. The truth is that I'm still finishing my undergraduate degree and have no intention of going anywhere until it's complete. With my degree in hand, however, I will be re-evaluating my opportunities (about a year from now).

What do you recommend I include in my proposal? Specifically:

I have 3/4ths of a BBA with a 3.9GPA, how can I include that?

Results in my department are extremely hard to measure. As a result, I'm in the midst of developing a set of indicators, but numbers to date will be tough to come up with. I'm thinking of preparing a list of initiatives that I have introduced since my promotion, but without results do they carry any weight?

Would competitive numbers be recommended? Ie. salaries that would be available to me if I were to leave the company tomorrow?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Singapore/U.S.A. Meet-Up:

dmbaldwin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:04:15 -0500

Just wanted to leave a post here, giving you some ideas about including MT when you are traveling. I was going to be in Singapore in November and messaged Noel Tan. He and I had a great lunch together and talked about what we had learned through Manager-Tools. It was a GREAT time. I'm not sure we can post photos on this forum, but if you go to Noel's or my Facebook page you'll see a picture of us at lunch.

Just an idea.

Thanks,

Dave Baldwin

How does one price consulting fees?

asteriskrntt1 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:44:12 -0500

I was recently approached by a small marketing/branding company to do some freelance work on a semi-regular basis. Nothing is finalized yet and the "what do you charge?" question is coming up soon.

I know this is a pretty broad question with lots of "it depends" factors: however, anyone have a general system for figuring what rate to potentially bill at?

Thanks very much.

*RNTT

Simple Stakeholder Decision Analysis Tool

sailaboat — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:49:20 -0500

Hi there:

Just listened to this podcast, and tried to download the Word template. Unfortunately I keep getting "Page not found".

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Writing 101

louie — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:07:31 -0500

How can a business train people in the skill of professional English writing?

It's commonly accepted that U.S. students today are less proficient as writers than had been the case two or more generations ago. I manage a law office, where writing proficiency might be presumed. We screen for writing ability in our hiring, but writing samples and cover letters aren't always representative of the candidate's true abilities.

Clear and persuasive writing is key to what we do. Lawyers who have not developed that ability are on a short career path, with us or with any firm. Sometimes the technical writing skills are there, but the basic rules of grammar, usage, sentence structure, and self-editing are missing.

I'd appreciate your ideas as to how to involve those who need training in this area in a training program, without making it appear punitive or degrading ("bonehead English," as they used to call it in school). For example, I was thinking of a couple of off-site one day sessions that would be open to anyone who wants to attend, but to individually ask those who most need the training to attend, so that there is no stigma to attending.

Any thoughts and recommendations will be most welcome. Thank you.

Louie

Winter Baltimore/D.C. Meet-Up

dmbaldwin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:58:15 -0500

Greetings Everyone,

At our last Meet-Up Kate assigned me the task of scheduling and leading our next one. January would be the month we should meet. So let me toss out a couple of dates and see how that works for everyone. Let's try to stay away from a Wednesday evening if at all possible. So how does one of the following dates look to you all? January 6, 8, 20, 22 or any Monday in the month?

I'll start looking for a location close to a Metro Stop. If you have any ideas let me know.

This is basically the same message I posted on the Fall Meet-up Thread, but BJ thought this was a better way to go.

Thank you,

Dave

Consulting resume help

bakhlawa — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:04:21 -0500

Hi-

I need a way to show progression within my company while also showing work on client projects. I have just become Sr. Technical Consultant while working on the SAME client project...so the progression is with my consulting company while I'm working on the same client project...

How do I show this?

Currently the experience section of my resume looks like below.

Consulting Company startdate-enddate
Title (e.g. Sr. Consultant)
Client name: xxx
Accomplishment 1
Accomplishment 2
Accomplishment 3

Title (e.g. Consultant)
Client name: xxx
Accomplishment 1
Accomplishment 2
Accomplishment 3

Asked for references before an interview?

bflynn — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:30:55 -0500

I've been asked to provide references before even a mention of an interview. There's something that bothers me about this but I can't put my finger on it. I've never been asked for references before getting an interview, its usually done once an interview is successful and they're looking to move forward.

Have you encountered this? What is going on and why don't recruiters realize they're sending up a yellow flag at least...if not a red one?

There is very little in the way of response in their email - just literally "Would you be able to provide me with a couple professional references?"

I presume that means she actually wants them now, but a one liner is just a put off.

Brian

Online application can provide too much info?!

exxazz — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:33:14 -0500

Not even innocent job applications are safe these days...

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2008/12/16/vanmarsh.uk.too.m...

I guess we need to continue to do research when applying for a job... :roll:

HELP! Potentially damaging situation in progress

galway — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:32:48 -0500

I may have offended someone at head office, but may not have and don't know whether to follow up with a peace-making e-mail or phone call.

I manage a site-specific department, and through recent conversations and a proposal I have convinced my director that my job requires a data phone, where I currently have a basic cell phone. This is not a big issue for me, but I am often called during off hours and have to rush to the nearest library/internet cafe to respond to the issue.

That being said, I received verbal approval from my director who told me that it comes out of my budget, so I should just get it done. My phone is billed back to head office, so I called the person responsible, someone in finance. Her warm greeting turned noticably cool when I brought up my issue and she replied with the stock "if we give you one, we'll have to give one to every manager" knee-jerk.

In my mind I was very calm and tried to explain it to her that I had approval from my director, which seemed to upset her more. Apparently even directors don't have the authority to make that call. I politley thanked her for the help and ended the conversation.

I'm not sure that the other side of the phone call was particulary offended by our conversation, but it seemed that way to me. Is an apology in order?

Comments on new website

DCochrane — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:02:26 -0500

Dear Mark and Mike

I am staring to navigate around the new site. One initial observation is that it is not clear how visitors should give you feedback about the site or other matters. The old site invited emails to Mike by name, but I cannot spot this option now.

Also it might be useful to have a Tag for "Conflict", as several of your podcasts helpfully address this.

Very best wishes

David

Leading People You Rarely See

galway — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:19:10 -0500

I manage a team of people who work shifts. My responsibilities to the company (meetings, interviews, administrative work) require that I am at the office during business hours on a fairly consistent basis. I make an effort to come in very early some days and stay very late on others in order to communicate directly with as many of my directs as possible, but I don't feel that that communication is nearly enough.

The departments is comprised of 20 front-line staff who report directly to 5 supervisors. I see the supervisors as my direct reports, while the operators report directly to the supervisors. Given the shift work, however, the reporting structure gets obscured because the front line staff may report to as many as three different supervisors in a week.

I've recently rolled out the trinity with my 5 directs and have had excellent returns. The difficulty that I have found is consistent communication with the front-line staff. One-on-ones between supervisors and staff seem flawed to me because either the O3s are delivered by a different supervisor each week, or the staff would be meeting with only one of his/her supervisors.

I can't realisitcally meet with each of my staff every week and fulfill my regular working hour obligations. I'm sure that other managers with staff working shifts have had similar issues, I'd love to hear suggestions.

Main issues:
Ineffective (infrequent) communication with staff - How can I get them the feedback/coaching/relationship development they need?

Unclear reporting structure - Do you recommend that I consider the front line staff to be direct reports as well as the supervisors?

First step in rolling out the Trinity

pmason1111 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:02:23 -0500

Hello MT,

BLUF: Would a presentation about the Trinity to the entire company be an appropriate 1st step in the roll out?

Background: It is a small company (less than 60 people) with little experience with MT and the Trinity. The head of the company is an MT fan and behind the roll out. He has asked a few of us who are familiar with MT to give a presentation on the Trinity as the 1st step in the roll out. Is this a good idea? Or will it create stress and confusion?

Thanks in adavance. As this is my 1st post I'm excited to see the response I get.

Direct going for MBA

transmogrified — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:48:13 -0500

I have a direct who is applying for an MBA program. He asked me to fill out a recommendation form. Mostly it's in survey format, but there is room for a paragraph on "observations about the applicant's potential to undertake or benefit from graduate study."

I didn't go to graduate school myself... how am I supposed to know how he'll do there? :lol:

Can anyone offer insight on what kind of observations they might be looking for?

When to O3 dillemma

galway — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:22:20 -0500

One of my directs works weekend overnights. I am torn between holding his O3s during the last hour of his week (7am Tuesday morning) or by phone on the weekend.

At the risk of re-iterating my previous posts: I manage a team of supervisors who work shifts. I've been using 03s scheduled every week, which has unfortunately meant that they are inconsistent and often occur bi-weekly rather than every week.

I'm moving to a consistent, recurring O3 schedule and have set times with 5 out of 6 directs, but the Friday-Monday night supervisor is a challenge to me. He has recently been promoted and his new shifts run from 10pm until 8am. He had previously been front-line employee with the capability of picking up supervisor's shifts. Before the promotion, I had been running O3s with this direct bi-weekly, usually during his supervisor shifts.

The only time I could meet with this direct in person is at 6 or 7am Tuesday morning. The obvious problem there is that he will likely be thinking more about his upcoming weekend than our meeting, and some of the short-term benefits may be forgotten over the three day weekend.

The alternative, which was recommended by MT poster THAGUMA in another thread (thanks!), is to conduct the O3s by phone.

My concern is that his particular direct has not been forthcoming, and only after a series of face to face O3s has begun to open up. I've also noticed that he does not communicate with me well on the phone under normal circumstances.

I feel that I'm starting to make some real progress with live 03s, but that may be lost if I switch to phone meetings.

Has anyone else had a similar experience, or care to share opinions on the negative of end-week meetings versus phone meetings?

Retail Grocery

Majik — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:14:50 -0500

Hello, I'm addicted to the podcasts. I'm ready to implement O3s but I'm concerned about the frequency based on our team structure. I have 4 Team Leads under me and I can easily fit those O3s in weekly. My concern is my other team members(15 customer assistants). Here we all work different shifts from week to week, including myself. Would this be one of those times where bi-weekly or monthly O3s would be acceptable? I would love to get my team leads involved to do O3s with the CA's but again they don't always work with the same folks every week. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Interviewing with an "ass" or a "jerk", pardon the language...

caroayerbe — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:29:52 -0500

Hi, All!

I sent this in to the MT guys and Maggie suggested I put it here in the forums.

Here's the situation: You've prepared for an interview, listened to all related podcasts, done your homework, and you get to the interview and the guy is a complete ass (inexperienced, doesn't know what he's doing)... or a jerk (wants to take advantage of his interviewer position and play with you a little bit). He still makes the decision to fail you or pass you.

How do you handle that?

It'd be interesting to know what you think!
Cheers,
Carolina, from Bogotá, Colombia.

Hi from Bogotá, Colombia (South America)

caroayerbe — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:26:03 -0500

Hi, Everybody!

I've listened to each and every podcast from the very beginning (Oh, how I love my iPod)and I am a huge fan of this podcast. I am new to the forums, though.

My name is Carolina and I have a degree in industrial design, though my career has been mostly as a design coordinator in graphic design. Right now me and a couple of associates own an ad and design agency in here in Bogotá and I can't tell you how much MT has helped us!

Cheers to all and a Merry Christmas!
Check out my blog www.caroayerbe.blogspot.com where I did actually get a comment from Mark once!

Presenting New Ideas

galway — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:52:54 -0500

I work with people who are hesitant to challenge ideas. I've been trying a new method and would love to read your thoughts.

I have had my current role now for four months and have 5 directs who used to be my peers. While I worked in the department, our boss was a soft spoken man who rarely presented any change or new ideas. He did a good job of keeping the ship afloat, but the department saw very little progress. In that time I noticed that when he did present a new idea or change, my peers offered very little input of any kind. There wasn't much water-cooler bashing either, the behaviors suggested apathy to me. Ironically, most of the same people have strong personalities and are assertive and thoughtful at their jobs.

I have progressed through my 90 day transition phase and am now beginning to introduce some changes to the department. I'm getting a lot of nodding and passive agreement when I present my plans, but am looking for people to challenge my ideas and offer insight.

My solution has been to spend approximately five minutes describing the plan, and then open up the floor by asking my directs to tell me everything that's wrong with the idea and how it can be improved, or scrapped. I discourage any positive comments during that time.

After approximately five minutes of challenges, if the plan has survived, I'll then ask the group to tell me what the benefits of the change will be and what we can do to make sure that it has the maximum positive effect.

In the first meeting that I tried the above method, the comments were few, but improved from the past. I've also been using it in one on ones where I've had better results.

My reasoning is this: 1. When my plans are challenged, they will improve. If they can't withstand the challenges, then they should not go forward. 2. Involving my directs in the decision making process will increase their buy-in. An onlooker can easily criticize, but if she has been given the opporunity to make improvements she will be more likely to actively embrace the change.

Quick example: Our growing department has traditonally consisted of a manager, four supervisors and six front-line staff, all of whom report directly to the manager. The number of front-line staff has more than tripled and the old structure is no longer effective (if it ever was). I am introducing a more structured hierarchy that will be personified by supervisor to front-line one on ones.

I want the supervisors to feel like the architects of this design and want their input into many aspects of its implementation.

So I'll ask you this:
Tell me everything that's wrong with my challenge method and how it can be improved, or scrapped.

Thanks!

Requesting New Podcast Category: Performance Reviews

maymdavid — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:10:29 -0500

M&M,

I just became aware of your podcasts on performance reviews. It has taken me a bit of time searching around on the site and trying to get a list of all of the related podcasts. There is a category called "Performance" but its not targeted towards the process of reviews.

Would it be possible to create a new category called "Performance Reviews" or "Reviews" that contains all of the related podcasts. Especially at this time of year, I believe it would be helpful to have a quick, easy way to access these casts. From my searching, this category would currently contain the following posts (I might have missed some).

[b]Preparing Your Review[/b]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/07/preparing-for-your-review-part-1-of-2/[/url]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/08/preparing-for-your-review-part-2-of-2/[/url]

[b]Preparing and Delivering the Review for a Direct[/b]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2005/12/get-going-on-performance-reviews/[/url]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2005/12/performance-reviews-part-2/[/url]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/01/delivering-the-performance-review-part-1/[/url]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/01/delivering-the-performance-review-part-2/[/url]

[b]Annual Reviews and Compensation[/b]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/10/annual-reviews-and-compensation-part-1-of-2/[/url]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/10/annual-reviews-and-compensation-part-2-of-2/[/url]

[b]Special Related Casts[/b]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/11/performance-reviews-with-little-time-in-role/[/url]
[url]http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/01/performance-evaluations-in-a-matrix-environment-part-2-of-2/[/url]

Thanks,
David

iTunes: Podcast Confusion

Gareth — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:18:04 -0500

Hi All,

New website / forum is certainly a big change. I can't say I'm 100% about it, but I'm sure I will get used to it!

I use the members iTunes link to get all my podcasts - I notice that the image has now changed to 'career tools'. Does this still include the Manager Tools podcasts?

I would rather two different feeds - Manager Tools & Career Tools!