Manager Tools

This cast describes behaviors for managers to engage in to ensure that they deliver feedback ethically and professionally. Mark recently had an experience that was somewhat chilling for him. He was talking to a manager who wanted to show him how good he was at improving. This was a High D, forceful manager who described himself as "a recovering jerk". He was following the Manager Tools Feedback Model, but wasn't getting results? Why is that? Because he was violating the purpose of feedback, to encourage effective behavior. Feedback that meets the purpose of feedback must come from a positive place, from emotions of love and not fear, of respect and not intimidation. We have a series of recommendations for all of us to do before we give feedback, so that we all stay mindful of WHY we're giving feedback, and what its purpose is: to encourage effective behavior.

This cast describes why and how to run your meetings without laptops. For our original cast on the Effective Meetings Protocol, check out "Effective Meetings - Get Out of Jail!"

In this cast, we complete our 2-part series on the Starter Feedback Model, an EVEN SIMPLER method for delivering feedback.

This cast describes an EVEN SIMPLER method for delivering feedback to help those managers who are struggling to implement it.

This cast describes what to do when a manager has two candidates for a job that meet the standard, but you can only offer one candidate.

March 24, 2009 - Embassy Suites Dulles - North/Loudon We’re pleased to offer you the first ever opportunity to attend a ONE DAY Effective Manager Conference (EMC) on March 24th in the Washington DC area.

This cast discusses a way to build your recruiting "bench" during market downturns.

Part 4 of our series on Horstman's Law of Project Management.

Part 3 of our series on Horstman's Law of Project Management.

Part 2 of our series on Horstman's Law of Project Management.

In this cast we describe Horstman's Law of Project Management: Who Does What By When. We've talked and joked about it many times, and this cast will put to rest the details of Horstman's Law of Project Management (HLPM). Mark came up with it several years ago, to help a group of young managers get over their fear of working on fairly complex software development projects. It was actually born over a dinner at Mexican restaurant in Dallas! The concept is simple: all projects are simply tasks, done by people, within certain time frames. Despite all protestations to the contrary, no matter how complex the project, they all boil down to who is responsible for doing something, what they're responsible for, and when they have to have it done by. Complex tools can be helpful, but only on really large projects (and almost nobody looks at them anyway ;-) ). Keep it simple with HLPM. Here's how.

Mark recently blogged with our first ever management koan, "What Would An Effective Manager Do?" In this cast, we share the answer.

It's been quite a while since we talked about feedback. We think one of the reasons for that is that there's some negativity to it. What we mean by that is that one on ones are an easy winner. It's about your team member, they want more time with you, a half hour with you every week seems too good to be true. And, if you've stuck to it, you've noticed improvements in areas that go beyond just employee relationships. Maybe they're kind of hard on your schedule INITIALLY, but they're perceived positively.

We've received a great many questions, comments, and kudos for our show in July on the Feedback Model. Many listeners are discovering the power of feedback, of taking it out of the realm of the rare and into the stream of the every day. Not to sound repetitive, but most managers see feedback as akin to holding their breath - waiting as long as possible, and then creating a lot of sound and often fury. The Feedback Model tells us to see feedback like breathing - so regular as to become unnoticed.Many of you have written asking questions about how to counter some of the typical responses to the feedback you give. "What do I do or say when they tell me they'll 'think about it'? What if they SAY they'll make the change, only to continue in their ineffective behavior patterns? As you might imagine, we've dealt with these issues before, and this show talks about the approach to take, and once again, gives you SPECIFIC things to say and why they work.We do a brief review of the feedback model at the front of the cas

Today we wrap-up our conversation on effective meetings, as well as answer some listener questions on meetings, one-on-ones, and feedback.

Today we cover the second in our series on effective meetings.

How to do you feel about most of the meetings you attend? Are they productive, or generally considered a waste of time? Do you attend too many meetings? How do others value the meetings *you* run? If you are like most managers we know, your experience in running and participating in meetings is less than ideal.

In today's show we continue our conversation on one-on-ones. In addition to a brief review (very brief -- not a substitute for listening to the previous two shows!), we review a number of questions and finer points.