Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
Is Managing Change The Ultimate Program Management Challenge? For 18 months now, my team has been negotiating scope changes with a given client to offset our increases in cost. Per our contract, we have the right to seek commercial coverage and have the ability to charge the customer for change. We went into this particular business deal expecting delays before all was said and
» Read more
6 Reasons to Sign a Contract Even if You Won’t Make Money With all the talk about powerhouse brands like Amazon, UBER and Apple, we often hear about companies experiencing rapid growth and making record profits. But these firms are clearly exceptions to the norms that countless small businesses experience. Without a doubt, every business owner wants to be profitable and hopes
» Read more
10 Essential Project Management Resources If you think about the best project manager you know, chances are he or she shares some common traits. For starters, successful project leaders are typically very well organized. Additionally, they are often great communicators, and they can remain calm under pressure. Despite these great talents, though, even the best project managers need help to bring about
» Read more
16 Mistakes We Make When Interviewing a Job Candidate Ever feel like you are just asking random questions to a job candidate during an interview? Do you watch the clock just trying to fill the minutes with conversation? Interviewing job applicants to fill an open position on your team is no easy task, and conducting a meaningful interview is a skill
» Read more
How to Retain Good Employees There are two things that unite every manager and business leader, in every industry, and in every country. First, they want the best talent working in their organization. And second, they want their talented workers to stay. But this is no longer the working environment of the past generations when people remained with the same
» Read more
How To Create and Implement Organizational Vision Last week, my friend Charlie was telling me about his job. He described how he felt directionless and was not sure how he fit into the big picture. High up in his organization, Charlie has been a tremendous asset to his organization over the years. I found it strange: how can someone with
» Read more
10 Management Decisions That Drive Business Success Making financial decisions is not limited to just those managers who work in the Accounting department. For both small business and large corporations, whether we realize it or not, every manager and business leader makes decisions on a daily basis that affect their organization’s costs, finances and performance. We at MRH like to refer
» Read more
10 Easy Steps to Estimate the Cost of Risk Whether we are developing something new for a customer, or leading an initiative to improve the company, every project we undertake contains some level of uncertainty. Because of this, and particularly when the stakes are high, some level of risk analysis is always a good idea. However, managing risk means more than
» Read more
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
» Read more
The 4P Marketing Model: A Case Study On a recent business trip to China, tired of taxis, elevators, conference rooms and hotels, I went out for a walk one night. My translator, whose chosen English name was Martin, elected to stay at the hotel to do some work. Always wanting to try something different, my walk coincided with my secret
» Read more
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
» Read more
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
» Read more
A friend of mine recently changed jobs. He was a 19-year veteran of the company he left, during which time he worked on a number of successful projects and had worked in several departments. And yet, after nearly two decades with the firm, he was informed that no exit interview would be held as the company saw no value for the
» Read more
How Great Businesses Fail and What We Can Learn From Them We all know that there is one constant in the business world: things are always changing. Every day, there are new technologies, legislative decisions and geopolitical events that shape the world around us. The pace of such change continues to accelerate, and throughout it all we see businesses come and go. How, in such
» Read more
Every manager has that first day on the job. And no matter how many years of work experience he or she may have, most first-time managers quickly realize they have a lot to take in. (We’ve all been there!) As we learn, we are bound to have our screw ups, it’s normal. The good news is that we can always
» Read more
12 Key Ingredients to High Performing Teams in the Workplace It’s well understood that good teams get the best results. Sports provide a great analogy for this: we are all familiar with those underdog teams that pull together when it matters most and make a championship run. Everyone on the team does his or her part and they motivate each
» Read more
9 Ways to Evaluate Your Leadership Style There’s a trendy phrase out there in the management world: ‘leadership style.’ But what is leadership style? Well, for starters, your leadership style is the collective approach you take when looking across all aspects of being a manager of people. Further, your style is your style; and it’s part personality, part skill set, part
» Read more
Helping Employees Make Career Choices As managers, our job is to get results, plan resources, and develop our employees. In terms of effective employee development, the time we take to coach our staff members is critical to helping each one become a growing force within the organization. Further, sometimes, we need to mentor them on more than just the day-to-day skills
» Read more
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
» Read more
What to Consider When Downsizing Your Team It might be the most delicate and sensitive topic that you as a manager will face in your career: selecting the names of those people to let go or make redundant. The context here is reducing the size of the organization to maintain profitability, or improve efficiency, not firing someone due to misconduct. From
» Read more