The Manager's Resource Handbook
Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
15 Minutes That Fuel Productivity Meetings are perhaps the most effective form of communication in any workplace. They give everyone a chance to communicate in real-time, they prevent important messages from getting lost in an inbox, and they offer managers a chance to get some valuable face time with their employees. But not every meeting is intended to be a lengthy conversation or
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A Formula for Giving Performance Feedback to Our Most Talented Workers When I first became a manager of other people, I was deathly afraid of having to deal with performance issues and difficult employees. And while it took a little time to figure out how to manage those individuals, it was not until I sat down with my best employee for the
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Manager’s Guide to Better Email Writing Even in the age of Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, email is still at the core of modern business communication. We use email to communicate to our customers, our suppliers, our employees and our superiors. We use it to send mass-communication to our entire organization, and we use email to contact a single recipient. Moreover, according
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Managing and Mentoring The Leaders that Work For You We recently posted an article about the art of mentoring, which primarily centered on coaching junior staff who are just beginning their careers. We wanted to go further into the topic of mentoring, but focus on a different group. As your career advances, your organization gets larger. Eventually, you get to
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8 Tips For Becoming a Great Mentor To Your Staff Last week I met with a new staffer on my team, who joined the firm just a couple of months ago. He was eager and prepared, bringing a number of questions to the meeting; it was a very productive conversation overall. While we did talk about his specific tasks, much of
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18 Things To Do As a First Time Supervisor Great job! You’ve moved up, and now you have entered the world of management! Your first 6 months as a new boss can be eye-opening, to say the least. There’s a lot to learn, a lot to do, and you need to set the tone for your new organization early on. And what about all
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A little while back we posted an article about writing a reply to an RFP (Request for Proposal), which provided a basic outline for responding to potential clients. Since then, we have received a lot of questions from the MRH community asking for details on formats to use as well as what sort of sections and content to include. So, we wanted
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3 Resource Planning Methods to Help Predict Staffing Needs Most businesses and organizations go through an annual headcount planning process for the upcoming year. We all know that such activities are important to running a productive organization. And yet, while resource management is critical, doing it well and doing it right is easier said than done. There are a number of methods
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Working Hard or Hardly Working? It’s a question we all ask ourselves. Telecommuting is no longer a “new” thing. For many companies, large and small, more and more employees work from home, either occasionally, or on a regular basis. All you need is an internet connection. But supervising these remote employees presents challenges to you as a manager because, well,
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5 Things You Need to Do to Create Your Own Skills Matrix Imagine: a critical assignment comes in, and you need to figure out who to give it to in order to get it done. You only have one shot to get it right in order to secure that new contract. Who do you give it to? Who is the most capable?
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15 Ways I Manage My Time As a Boss It’s just about that time of year when things are at their busiest. With the end of the year closing in, the pressure is on to meet our numbers. We’re busy planning our projects and budgets for next year. People are starting to use up their vacation, making their availability limited.
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15 REAL Tips for Working in China Having returned from a trip to China earlier this week, I wanted to take a few minutes to share some learnings about how to conduct meetings and work with your customer in the People’s Republic. Despite some concerns and disagreements before our arrival, my team was made up of several veterans when
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29 Fantastic Ways to Mentor and Develop Your Employees If there is one thing that sets apart the great managers from the rest of the crowd, it would be their ability to continuously develop employees and to grow the capability of their teams. Unlike managers who simply focus on results, the leaders who place deliberate emphasis on employee development build morale and
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Make Staff Meetings More Engaging and Valuable Using These 8 Easy Steps Every one of us has attended a staff meeting – either as a participant or as the host. Some managers treat them as afterthoughts and hold them out of obligation, while others treat them as sacred and essential team huddles, regardless of what’s happening. For new managers, 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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How to Build a Department Budget If you’ve ever had to build a budget for work, you know the stress, headache and aggravation it often entails. If you have not, well, consider yourself lucky. Either way, every leader knows that fiscal management is important and that our stakeholders depend on us to manage within a budget – our team, our shareholders, and in some
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How to Embrace the Diversity of Your Workplace I often overhear business travelers at the airport talking on the phone, characterizing their imminent journey as “I’m headed to Asia” or “I’ll be in the Middle East next week.” I know I’ve done it as well because let’s face it, it’s just easier to mention a region rather than say something
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How to Estimate Hours for a New Project How many times have you been asked the question “It’s going to take you how long?” when you present an estimate of hours required for a new project? Regardless of whether it is your customer or a fellow manager, the conversation is often the same. As the expert, you anticipate the project will
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Preparing to Work In a Different Culture In today’s business environment, working with international partners, customers, or suppliers is inevitable. Sometimes an international project will be brief and short-lived; in other instances your working relationship can last several years as you accrue thousands of frequent flier miles. Perhaps you will even end up on an expat assignment for a couple of years. Regardless
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How to Hold Employees Accountable and Get the Results You Need Among the many challenges first-time managers and business leaders face, learning how to hold employees accountable is perhaps the most difficult skill to master. Holding employees accountable is essential because the results managers are expected to deliver depend on the performance and contribution of their individual employees. Thus, managers
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