Manager Tools Hall of Fame Casts

This cast explains how to capture interview results in a fast and simple meeting.

During this cast, we complete our series on making a job offer to a candidate. If you haven't listened to last week's cast (part 1), please do so first!

This cast explains a simple way to make a job offer to a candidate.

This cast shares our most important principle in The Manager Tools Effective Hiring Process: Set the Bar HIGH.

Part 4 of our series on Horstman's Law of Project Management.

Part 3 of our series on Horstman's Law of Project Management.

Part 2 of our series on Horstman's Law of Project Management.

In this cast we describe Horstman's Law of Project Management: Who Does What By When.

This guidance describes the fundamental error in trying to achieve "Work-Family Balance" and how to solve it forever.

Today, we cover the second in a two-part series of podcasts on Time Management. If you're new to the show or you didn't listen to last week's podcast, it's probably worth while going back and listening to the previous show first. Otherwise, you'll be joining the conversation half-way through and we all know how comfortable that feels. :-(

Time management is a fallacy, we like to say. Time doesn't need you to "manage" it - it's been getting along just fine without you for billions of years. We can't manage time. But what we CAN manage is what we do with that time. And yet, the overwhelming evidence is that managers do NOT "manage what they do with that time." There's a shocking CHASM between our behavior in this area and our knowledge of what to do. In fact, Mark recently blogged on how busy everyone says they are, which irritates him. He looks at their calendars, and there's no EVIDENCE that they're busy. There are vast swaths of unscheduled time!

This is the second of our casts that describe our recommendations about calendar management.

This cast describes the first of our recommendations about calendar management.

This cast concludes (Part 4 of 4) our guidance on how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

This cast continues (Part 3 of 4) our guidance on how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

This cast continues our guidance on how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

This guidance describes how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

In this cast, we conclude our conversation on giving a decision briefing to your manager.

This cast describes how to give a decision briefing to your manager.

The conclusion of our guidance on what to do instead of multi-tasking.

Our guidance on what to do instead of multi-tasking.

For years pundits have been predicting that technology (videoconferencing, etc.) will lead to the decline and death of business travel. We here at Manager Tools don't agree. We're human, and humans do better with face to face connections to ensure a complex project does well. Technology has led to the globalization of business, but that has INCREASED the need for getting on an airplane.

The hand shake is the most important professional greetings in the world today. There are many cultures in the world, and there are places to bow, and places to hug, and places where cheek-kissing is perfectly appropriate. The handshake, though is the preferred greeting for most of our audience.

For the holidays, we're re-releasing one of our Hall of Fame casts ... the Pre-wire. This cast describes a way to prepare for meetings or presentations where you need to persuade.

The conclusion of our guidance on ethical behavior. Although this show was originally recorded as a Career Tools cast, we've included it for free for our Manager Tools listeners and Licensees given the underlying assumption of ethical behavior in all our recommendations.

Our guidance on ethical behavior. Although this show was originally recorded as a Career Tools cast, we've included it for free for our Manager Tools listeners and Licensees given the underlying assumption of ethical behavior in all our recommendations.

If you're a manager, don't think for a moment that someone else is managing your career. Those days are long gone. YOU are managing your career. What you do - not only in job skills, but also in what we call "Transition Skills" - will be the primary determinant of your career success. You're not going to have the richest, most rewarding series of roles and opportunities by allowing someone in HR to know enough about you to get you where you need to be. And succession planning won't save you either.

One of our most popular podcasts - and it was actually a series of casts - were titled "The Efficient Assistant and The Effective Executive". We laid out a plan for having a great relationship with one's assistant, and we get comments and mails almost every day from managers and executives thanking us for sharing what their firm never did. [Think about the penny-wise and pound-foolishness of giving someone an administrative assistant and then not teaching the basics of how to make the investment valuable!] Many of the assistants actually say thanks for the fact that our system recommends that they do a LOT MORE work than what they're doing now.

Today, we continue our conversation on "Managing Your Boss" or, better yet, "Creating a Good Relationship with Your Boss". Last week we discussed Boss Goals and Boss Communications; today we cover Boss Schedule/Time Management, Boss Work Style, and Boss Relationships.

Managing Upwards for the most part boils down to Creating a Good Relationship with Your Boss. "Managing Your Boss" is somewhat of a misnomer in our world view; tell your boss that you're managing them and see what kind of look you get. :-)

Got Email? Of course - what manager doesn't? We know managers who get 200 (or more!) emails every day. Email is a necessary evil in the corporate management world, and highly effective managers know how to get the most out of their email WITHOUT spending too much time on it. In our latest podcast, we talk about how to make your technology work for you, and how you can spend less time on email while getting more done.

This cast describes a simple verbal tool for addressing tension, conflict or other ineffective emotions in the workplace.

This guidance describes how and why NOT to give feedback to your boss.

We tackle a tough topic in this week's cast: Layoffs. We know it's not an upbeat topic, but it's highly likely you're going to be involved in one at some point.

This cast concludes our guidance on how to prepare for Steel Cage Death Match Meetings.

This guidance describes how to prepare for Steel Cage Death Match Meetings.

In this cast we cover part 2 of our series on mergers and acquisitions. Hopefully, with this podcast, the idea of a merger or acquisition will be just a tad less scary. Put some of the ideas we discuss to work today and you'll benefit handsomely even if there isn't a merger on your horizon!

Never make a counter-offer to an employee who has a competing offer.

Never make a counter-offer to an employee who has a competing offer.

Never make a counter-offer to an employee who has a competing offer.

This cast explains how to respond to requests for 360 degree input.

Today we cover the 2nd part of our series on Preparing For Your Review. After you've listened to the podcast, I think you'll agree that if you follow this simple process you will be in a position to not only get the best possible review possible this year, you will also have all the information you need to improve your performance (and your next review!) over the coming year.

We spent a lot of time at the end of last year talking about how to write someone else's review.

This week, we continue with our discussion on effective performance reviews. Last week, we discussed collecting data; today we discuss evaluating the data and writing the review. In the weeks following, we'll continue with a discussion on actually DELIVERING the review.

It's the end of the year. Most managers we know are thinking about the holidays... and annual reviews. After years of managing, training and consulting, we've concluded this is one of the most poorly managed and implemented processes we're aware of. It's not hard to do, but for plenty of (bad) reasons, managers just don't handle this responsibility well. For those few who do, it's an enormous competitive advantage.

Today, we conclude our conversation on Delivering the Review.

Our guidance on delivering a performance review.

In this cast, we finish up our conversation on jump starting relationships with your internal customers. Last week, we discussed the first of the 5 steps (Identifying Who, Prepping your 5 minutes snapshot, and Sending out the first email), today we'll discuss the actual customer meeting AND, Mark's favorite (because it's the ACTION step) , reporting back to your team.

This week, we conclude our conversation on effective teleconferencing.

This casts lays out our recommendations for an Effective Teleconference Meeting, or Conference Call.