During the past few weeks, I ran three different cohort sections of my live-online Manager Development Program. While initially geared toward new(er) managers, we had many veterans in the groups, all working on sharpening their skills around the fundamentals of leading and managing. As always, the wisdom of the crowd adds value to the pre-planned content.
OK, the topic of feedback isn’t stand-up comedy funny. It’s funny as in odd because there are so many contradictions surrounding it. Here are five practices to help managers bring feedback to life as the performance-enhancing tool it is capable of being:
Transparency is measurable. Accountability is binary. If transparency is low and accountability is turned off, expect to struggle.
Many people think about doing something different with their time and skills. Most daydream about it in moments of stress, and it stops there. However, there’s a way to get beyond the barriers and the overwhelming idea that you have to solve this issue for the rest of your life. Here’s my proprietary algorithm for getting career reinvention right:
From the challenges of dealing with people and personalities to the never-ending, ever-growing lists of things to do, often with conflicting priorities, managing is a tough job. Yet, when I explore the stress points with struggling managers and ask some questions, I often discover they are attempting to execute their role without the benefit of what I describe as a Manager Operating System. Here are six critical components of every manager’s effective operating system:
If it’s time for you or a new manager on your team to take a big step forward in developing as a manager, it’s time to enroll in First-Time Managers Academy-Live.
There’s a Rubik’s Cube puzzle to solve when considering your “next” options in your career. Solving this puzzle requires you to think differently about yourself—something that requires thoughtful introspection and outside support.
We wrapped up the latest Career Reinvent Boot Camp with last night’s group session, and as always, for this program, it’s part celebration of incredible progress and new friendships made, and a short, slightly sad goodbye. Here are some of the key insights gained via this fabulous cohort group:
I regularly talk with managers and leaders who believe they are grinding harder but getting nowhere. One described himself as working in quicksand: “The more hours I spend and the harder I push, the faster we are sinking. I need to do something different.” Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt this way. Here are ideas to help you adjust your approaches and regain control:
New managers are the front-end of our leadership pipelines. And, they face a daunting challenge in shifting from contributor/producer to manager. They need help, coaching, training, and on-going support, and that’s often hard to come by in our time-stressed worlds.
