The Manager's Resource Handbook
Tools, Resources and Guides for Managers and Business Leaders. Real Advice from Real Bosses.
Activities, Conversations and Best-Practices For Getting Your New Employee Engaged Quickly You’ve just hired a new employee. Great! Now what? Hiring new employees is an exciting time – you’re expanding your team, your department’s capacity increases, and your staff gets to forge new relationships. When we bring on a new staffer, though, making a good impression is critical for creating
» Read more
A Playbook for Skip-Level Meetings: Questions to Ask and How to Get Engagement Skip-level meetings are an important component of managing a healthy organization. Alongside things like town hall discussions and employee surveys, regular skip-level meetings are an integral part of the standard feedback loop that helps leaders understand internal challenges and identify areas for improvement. In particular, the skip-level meeting
» Read more
A Manager’s Best Practices for Leading Remote Employees: Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind We used to joke, Andy and I, about how the only time he ever saw his team was when he traveled half way around the world to meet with a customer in Japan. “I have to fly to the other side of the globe
» 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
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
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
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
10 Real Quotes from Bad Bosses As managers, if it seems like our employees are watching our every move and closely listening to our every word, it’s because they are. In particular, the words that managers and business leaders say are very important. It’s not about being politically correct or about being nice, but it is about how a manager’s words and statements are interpreted by their
» Read more
Horrible Bosses … in Real Life If you’ve ever seen the movie Horrible Bosses, you probably reacted the way most of us did: some of the amazingly inappropriate behavior in the film registered a little close to home. We’ve all had some sort of run in with a really bad boss in our career, and while the movie makes a
» Read more
5 Free Ways to Motivate Your Staff in Challenging Times Motivating employees is not easy. When times are tough, motivating your staff becomes even harder. For the past two years, our business has been undergoing a significant amount of corporate restructuring, downsizing, and changes in management, all of which have understandably left my employees concerned about the future. To make matters worse,
» Read more
Should I Let Employees Work From Home? Compared to just 15 years ago, the widespread availability of Wi-Fi, tablets, video conferences and smart phones have made the world our office. Many jobs no longer require employees to be housed within the same four walls since they can connect virtually, just as if they were sitting at a desk in a high-rise office
» Read more
7 Steps to Building a Successful Team: People, Purpose, Performance The opportunity doesn’t come often for us, but getting the chance to build a brand new team from scratch is one of the most enjoyable experiences a manager will ever have. After all, building a successful organization requires planning, creativity, execution and oversight…all at once. For me, the first such opportunity
» Read more
A Detailed Account of Downsizing a Team By One Manager at a Fortune 500 EDITOR’S NOTE: The following comments chronicle a layoff event that occurred at a Fortune 500 Company, as recorded by a manager in the organization. This is the second part in a 3-part series. Click HERE for Part 1, HERE for Part 2 or HERE for Part 3. Key details
» Read more A Detailed Account of Downsizing a Team By One Manager at a Fortune 500 EDITOR’S NOTE: The following comments chronicle a layoff event that occurred at a Fortune 500 Company, as recorded by a manager in the organization. This is the second part in a 4-part series. Click HERE for Part 1, and HERE for Part 3. Key details are omitted to
» Read more A Detailed Account of Downsizing a Team By One Manager at a Fortune 500 EDITOR’S NOTE: The following comments chronicle a layoff event that occurred at a Fortune 500 Company, as recorded by a manager in the organization. This is the first in a 4-part series. Key details are omitted to keep it anonymous, however the timing, details and commentary are factual.
» Read more
Regardless of whether its your first management gig, or just a new team for you to lead, every manager has a their first meeting with a new team. And while your new employees are likely to be generally cordial and kind, they’re still getting to know you, just as you’re getting to know them. You want to get past this period
» Read more
The Most Inspiring Question I’ve Ever Heard from a Job Candidate Times were tough. We were working around the clock in response to a major product recall. My team was exhausted. Our customers were furious. We had been at it for months. Even though it was December, many of us knew we would have to work through the Christmas holidays
» Read more
8 Workplace Remodel Tips for Managers Doing it Themselves A workplace is more than just the four walls that surround people. Rather, a modern workplace is an environment in which ideas are born, where breakthroughs are made, and where profit is generated. Impressive campuses likes those of Apple or the trendy refurbished factory that now houses a Brooklyn start up
» Read more
How to Become a More Effective Manager Management effectiveness is not just a trendy phrase, but a true attribute and measure of how well managers perform at their jobs. In this case, we’re not just talking about results, but the whole package – essentially, how our employees see us as leaders. We’ve all had some really bad bosses. But, many
» Read more