Leaders & Managers
From the nitty gritty of daily management to addressing your aspirations of leadership, this section for leaders & managers tells you how to make strong leadership decisions, build effective teams, delegate and stay above the everyday management muddle.
Get tips, strategies, tool and advice on: performance reviews, preventing workplace violence, best-practices leadership, team building, leadership skills, people management and management training.
Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley had a lot going for him, although in the beginning, money wasn’t one of them. He arrived in Chicago from Philadelphia in 1891, holding only $32. “A man’s doubts and fears are his worst enemies,” he said. “He can go ahead and do anything so long as he doesn’t know he can’t do it.”
Most employees have skills in creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking and adaptability. They simply need more. “Brain work is more important than ever,” says Pat Galagan of the American Society for Training and Development.
In 1911, two teams of adventurers were preparing to be the first in modern history to reach the South Pole. The leaders of each team were of a similar age and had comparable experience. But one team reached the destination. The other team failed. What made the difference?
The economy is a shambles, and employers are doing everything they can to stay in business. That includes terminations, salary and wage cuts and temporary furloughs. Nearly every one of those moves carries litigation risk. With little to lose, more and more employees are willing to stake bias claims, hoping to score a big settlement. Their allies are attorneys who will look for any reason to sue. What should employers do?
In your role as a leader, working with people is essential, and it takes time. And sometimes, you might be asked to help with something that’s a priority for others, but not for you. The question, says Peter Bregman, CEO of Bregman Partners, boils down to this: How can we spend time where we add the most value and let go of the rest?
You never appreciate a good performer until you’ve fired a bad performer. That’s because bad performers take so much time and attention to manage. From the moment you sense that an employee isn’t working out—and you set in motion disciplinary steps—you have to imagine a judge and jury watching your every move. That way, you can stand behind your actions without feeling embarrassed or guilty.
For many managers, the clock is their biggest adversary. Finding enough time in the day to complete every necessary project can be difficult. But the old adage of “work smarter, not harder” is based on the concept of managing the minutes in your day more efficiently. Here are six tips to help you work toward that goal:
If you were to visit GE’s idyllic 59-acre New York campus known as Crotonville, you would find rising GE managers spending a week or two in leadership training. This, as it turns out, could be GE’s most important production line: the one for leaders.
The problem: A stellar employee seeks a promotion to a job that demands a fair amount of speaking in front of groups large and small. The trouble is, she stutters. Your first thought: This will not work out. What do you tell her?
These seven phrases won’t get an admin noticed—at least, not in a good way, says Dave Willmer, the executive director of OfficeTeam. He recently compiled a list of the words your manager doesn’t want to hear:
