Manager Tools

This cast describes how and why to delegate almost all of your routine reporting to your directs.

This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High D Managers: always putting results in front of relationships. People MATTER!

This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High S Managers: overprotecting your team.

This cast recommends building relationships internally at your organization when you attend training events.

This cast describes Manager Tools' first principle about managing directs from different cultures, based on the Wendii curve.

This cast addresses how to manage a high performer who is arrogant or dismissive of others.

This cast addresses how to stop intra-office gossip.

This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High I Managers: starting well and ending poorly.

This cast describes the first principle of how to develop subordinate managers - Measure Basic Behaviors.

This cast provides guidance on giving feedback when coaching directs on their presentation skills, AND a detailed template managers can use when doing so.

This cast concludes our conversation on how to increase the chances that you will get to hire your favorite candidate when he or she has to interview elsewhere in the organization.

This cast describes how to increase the chances that you will get to hire your favorite candidate when he or she has to interview elsewhere in the organization.

This cast concludes our conversation on a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High C Managers: finding fault with recommendations and ideas.

This cast addresses a behavioral change for an insidious practice of High C Managers: finding fault with recommendations and ideas.

This cast describes how to refresh your One on Ones with your directs after you've been doing them for 1-2 years.

This cast describes how to work with a boss who repeatedly skips over a manager and works directly with your directs (his or her "skips").

This cast concludes our conversation on handling a direct who blames another direct for their failure to deliver a task on time.

This cast recommends how to handle a direct who blames another direct for their failure to deliver a task on time.

This cast recommends how managers handle requests for confidentiality from their directs.

In this cast, we conclude our conversation on the origins of the Management Trinity, focusing on Coaching and Delegation.

In this cast, we continue our conversation on the origins of the Management Trinity, focusing on One on Ones and Feedback.

This cast describes the origins of the Management Trinity: why we preach it, and how it came to be.

This cast concludes our conversation on how to run timely meetings.

This cast describes how to run timely meetings.

This cast describes how to start every One on One.

This cast concludes our discussion on a standard practice of administrative assistants helping managers prepare for business travel.

This cast describes a standard practice of administrative assistants helping managers prepare for business travel.

This cast prescribes asking your directs what their children's names are.

This cast describes a quick and dirty way to choose an interim replacement or number two for your role as manager.

This cast describes how give feedback to a project team member if you are a project manager.

This cast describes how big to size a team when forming it.

This cast recommends simple choices for what to delegate to our directs.

Part 3 of our updated guidance on the Manager Tools Coaching Model.

Part 2 of our updated guidance on the Manager Tools Coaching Model.

Part 1 of our updated guidance on the Manager Tools Coaching Model.

This cast describes how to combat the normal tendency of directs to communicate LESS during a downturn.

In this cast, we conclude our conversation on how to delegate and manage projects more effectively based on the DiSC profiles of your team members.

This cast describes how to delegate and manage projects more effectively based on the DiSC profiles of your team members.

In this cast, we conclude our conversation about beginning change efforts in any organization

This cast describes how to begin any effort to change an organization.

The conclusion of our discussion on Project Manager One on Ones.

This cast explains the basics of how to have One on Ones with project team members who do not report to you.

We've said it a hundred times, but we've never covered the basics of HOW to conduct a One on One on the phone. Clearly it works - Mark has shared that over half of the O3s he's done have been over the phone. Here's how.

This cast concludes our discussion on how to coach one of our directs on how to run our staff meeting which we have delegated to them.

This cast describes how to coach one of our directs on how to run our staff meeting which we have delegated to them.

This cast describes how to delegate running your staff meeting as part of succession planning.

This cast describes an executive priority management technique - One Less Thing - to free up your calendar.

This cast describes how to give negative feedback in an escalating way, over time, to improve performance.

What do we do when we've tried giving negative feedback but it doesn't seem to be working? We've given repeated instances of feedback, and yet we don't see a change in a direct's behavior? We give systemic feedback. And it's easy to give - it's just the four step standard feedback model with a change in focus. If you already know how to give standard feedback, systemic feedback is simple to implement...yet its simplicity belies its power. Really well delivered systemic feedback is exceptionally hard to ignore, and lays excellent groundwork for further efforts if the direct doesn't change his or her behavior.

This cast how to talk about layoffs when they are being considered. Many managers are torn when it comes to layoffs. Most of us know that when they happen, they're probably inevitable. We understand that layoffs are often a painful necessity (even though they're an admission of failure). We also know that the thought, rumor, or knowledge of layoffs is likely to create questions from our team. Just a rumor of a rumor will induce fear. So what are the rules about communicating about layoffs? What do we say when asked? How should we say it? Can we lie?