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.
You’re a law-abiding corporate citizen, right? Of course. So that means
you never use a pirated version of someone else’s software.
Everyone knows that change is constant. That’s why I’m not a big fan of
discussing it endlessly in meetings, task forces and huddles in the
hallway.
Q. I’ve been asked to lead some
training seminars for groups of employees at my company. I hate public
speaking, and I really hate teaching people who seem a lot older and
smarter than me. In the two sessions I’ve already led, I’ve been
mortified when I try to ask questions and the group just sits there,
silent. I wind up making a fool of myself. What can I do?
When you’re about to turn in a major report or make an ambitious proposal to senior management, rally support first.
Larry Stupski served as vice chairman of Charles Schwab & Co., a
discount brokerage firm known for its innovative products and service.
Now retired, Stupski is chairman of Jobs for California Graduates, a
nonprofit mentoring program for disadvantaged youth. Stupski is living
proof that it pays to find a wise, insightful guide to help you sharpen
your skills and chart a successful career path.
You may work smart, but all your brilliance won’t matter if people perceive you as explosive.
You can train someone to perform certain tasks well. But you can’t transform an obnoxious whiner into a dynamic leader.
When lining up employees to join task forces, committees or other work groups, you need to select the right mix of people for the best results. Ideally, you want the teammates to gel and lift each other’s contribution to a higher level.
Before you sign a contract with a vendor or supplier, draft a separate “expectation management” sheet.
Many business owners worry about sharing too much information with employees. But the secret of communicating financial data with your team is to
track profit and loss while also teaching them to read a balance sheet.
