The Manager's Resource Handbook
Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
Writing Employee Performance Reviews Doesn’t Need to Be a Drag Writing performance reviews of your employees can be extremely aggravating. As managers, we are busy. We correct behavior we don’t like when we see it, so taking precious time away from customers and emails can seem like a waste of our time. But performance appraisals are actually one of the
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How to Deal with Negative Employees in the Workplace His name was Mark. I was 34. Mark, my employee, was 54. It was not my first management rodeo, but I’m pretty sure he likened me more to one of his three teenagers at home than he saw me as his boss. Dealing with negative employees in the workplace is fairly common for managers, but Mark
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A happy employee is a productive employee. A happy team is a productive team. This may be a simple way to describe how an organization benefits from employee engagement, but creating job satisfaction for one’s staff can frustrate even the most experienced of managers. And yet, employee engagement can be the difference maker between seeing your business flourish, and watching only disappointing results trickle in. Additionally, a disengaged staff can lead
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Learning How a Simple Game Makes for Better Business Have you ever played that children’s game of sliding tiles contained within a frame? Most of you probably have. But for those who have not, the objective of the game is to place the pieces in a specific order, perhaps arranged by color or number. What most people don’t know is
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Organizational Health: 5 Things Your Employees May Be Telling You Have you ever really paid attention to what your employees are telling you? After all, employee behavior is often a sign of organizational health. Sometimes they may ask unusual questions that make you scratch your forehead. Other times, their non-verbal behavior in the workplace can say a lot about a business or
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How to Coach and Develop Your Employees As managers, one of our primary responsibilities is to mentor and coach employees. Employee development is a big deal because after all, it contributes directly to organizational performance and can also influence employee retention. While mentoring and coaching can often take place in short spurts during informal meetings or in hallway encounters, there
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Knowing How to Develop Your Staff Developing employees is one of the most important aspects of managing people. After all, the modern worker wants more than a job – they want a career that is fulfilling, and their personal growth is component of that. Moreover, employee growth can be directly linked to things like succession planning and team performance, as well as employee
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Managing Employees Who Are Older Than You I first began managing other people in my mid 20’s. I worked at a Fortune 500 company with over 150,000 employees and was given a small team to lead. Of the five team members, most were close to me in age, and whom I had few concerns as their supervisor. Then there was
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Settling In as a First-Time Boss For some new managers, the idea of giving performance reviews and being responsible for others can be intimidating. For others, there are questions concerning how they manage people older than them, or fears of being accepted by their new team. Though I’ve been managing teams for nearly two decades, I too, had these fears. Bottom
» Read more How to Change the Culture of a Team Two years ago, I took the management role for an organization of about 40 people. My predecessor had been asked to leave the business as the team’s performance had gradually been on the decline. My task was to turn the team organization around – no small feat as an outsider to the organization
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In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the World Chess Championship by beating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. It was a match publicized worldwide as the battle between two superpowers. While both nations had massive nuclear arsenals, this particular battle was fought with figurines on a game board. Now, while I know who Bobby Fischer was, I admit that I
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How to Restructure an Organization If you’ve ever been part of restructuring of an organization, you know that the very mention of it can induce a sense of worry. Restructuring a company is tough and takes a great deal of careful planning. Moreover, business renewal is never easy nor is it fun because big decisions need to be made that affect
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Tip #1 of the Management Success Series described influence as a key ingredient in good managers. You have to be able to maneuver and pull various levers to make things happen, while simultaneously pulling your team along with you. Influence, like trust, is something that is built over time but easily lost. A good means of establishing your influence and building trust is
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