10 Things I Learned from the Worst Boss I Ever Had

learning from bad managers

Even Bad Managers Can Teach Us How to Be Good Leaders Over the span of a career, most people will accumulate dozens of bosses and supervisors.  During this time, everyone inevitably gets to work for some great leaders and will have the misfortune of working for some really bad bosses.  I used to think that one only learned from the

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5 Things You MUST Do to Start the Year Right

new year kickoff for staff

How To Create Your Management New Year’s Resolutions Welcome to a New Year!  The beginning of a new year offers the closest thing we ever get to a fresh start as a manager, allowing us to recalibrate expectations of ourselves and our employees.  It also marks a great time for business leaders to set the next 12 months off on the

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Managing Top Performers: How to Mentor Your Best Employees

how to conduct performance reviews

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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7 Mistakes I Made as a Manager and What I Learned From Each One

learning from management mistakes

Learning from the Mistakes We Make as a Managers of People   Giving feedback to our employees is just one of the many responsibilities of being a manager.  It is part of the job, as is receiving constructive criticism from our own boss.  Whether you are an entry-level employee, or the CEO of a Fortune 200 company, feedback is a gift.  No matter

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6 Great Coaching Conversations to Guide Your Employees’ Careers

career counseling

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

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How to Develop Your Employees

How to develop staff

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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5 Inexpensive Ways to Pay for Training Employees

pay for training

How I Cut the Cost of Training My Employees in Half Many managers are familiar with the old 70, 20, 10 Rule for employee development.  The Rule suggests that 70% of an employee’s development should be learning-by-doing while 20% should be through mentoring. According to this principle, the last 10% of an employee’s growth and development should be the result of

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New Manager Ice Breakers: 6 Awesome Ways to Connect with New Employees

Overcome the Fear of Managing Older Employees

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

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Depth Vs. Breadth: Identifying Development Assignments for Employees

managers resource handbook

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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Why Making Your Employees Fail Makes You A Better Manager

managers resource handbook

How to Manage Arrogant Employees There is a reason why employee development is a constant topic among management teams.  After all, in addition to being responsible for getting a job done, we as managers are also tasked with the growth and development of our employees.  This part of the job, though, is especially hard when we have an arrogant employee who doesn’t

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Management Success Series Tip #9: Expect Learning

Managing people is a complex business.  There are personality differences, business pressures and customers to face on a daily basis.  Tip #6 discussed how good leaders need to show their human side.  As a leader of people, it’s important to tap into the human element of curiosity. Plenty of literature exists supporting the notion that a learning organization is the best model for

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How a SWOT Evaluation Can Help Your Business

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis: Take a Closer Look At Your Business Leading a successful company requires you periodically spend time identifying ways to improve and get better.  A SWOT analysis is one evaluation method that aids in organizing characteristics of your business that you deem as successes or concerns.  Specifically, a SWOT analysis is an evaluation technique that helps you capture the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

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Run More Effective Meetings With The 3 “W”s

How to Assign Action Items in Meetings We are all accustomed to going to meetings where there is a lot of discussion and head nodding around the room.  After 60 minutes, there are jovial pats on the back as people leave the conference room; after all, there’s another meeting in there at the top of the hour.  But how many meetings

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