Management Tip of the Day
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Take Control of Your To-Do List
 Having an unruly to-do list can be overwhelming. If you find
yourself rushing around, but not actually getting anything
done, try the following process:
 Write it all down. Put everything on one list. Determine
which tasks are easy and which are more difficult.
 Do some easy things. Spend 15 minutes doing the easy
tasks. Focus on speed: make the quick phone calls, shoot
off the brief emails. Cross as many tasks off the list as you
can.
 Turn to a bigger task. Turn off your phone, close all the
open windows on your computer, and focus on one of the
more challenging tasks. Do this for 35 minutes without
distraction.
 Take a break. After 35 minutes, take a 10-minute break.
Then return to step two.
14/12/2011

The Right Way to Issue a Company Apology
 When your company messes up, avoid the half-hearted,
half-baked apology. Instead craft a clear, strategic message
that explains what went wrong and how you're rectifying the
situation. Here are three tips for doing that:
 Keep it simple. Get to the point and don't deviate. Don't
include any veiled attempts to shirk responsibility or
appease investors. You'll just upset customers and muddle
the message.
 Mean what you say, and say what you mean. If you're
truly sorry for your company's actions, say so and leave it at
that. Avoid clarifying phrases and long, self-lauding
explanations.
 Reaffirm your company's core values. Reaffirm what your
company stands for and communicate how you intend to
bring the company back to the values that guided it to
success in the first place.
14/12/2011

3 Ways to Get People to Change
 You can change strategy, products, and processes all you
want, but real change doesn't take hold until your
employees actually change what they do every day. That's
easier said than done. Here are three ways to take on the
challenge:
 Embrace the power of one. People need clear direction. If
you bombard them with eight values or twelve
competencies you want them to practice, expect the status
quo. Instead, focus on changing one behavior at a time.
 Paint a vivid picture. Use stories, metaphors, pictures, and
physical objects to compare "where we are now" to the new
vision of the future. This taps into people's emotions, a
powerful lever for change.
 Activate peer pressure. Peers can set expectations,
shame others, or provide role models. Ask your employees
to set high standards and put pressure on one another to
stick to the new rules.
09/01/2013

Forget Self-Esteem. You Need Self-Compassion
Self-esteem has long been considered the bedrock of
individual success. But high self-esteem may not be all that
it's cracked up to be. Thinking you're great (which of course
you are) comes with pressure to live up to your own self-
image. You may live in quiet terror of making mistakes, and
even worse, feel devastated when you do. When faced with
a challenge, you don't need to believe in your own brilliance
as much as you need to confront your flaws head on.
Develop self-compassion, a willingness to look at your own
shortcomings with kindness and understanding. With a
realistic sense of your abilities and actions, you can figure
out what needs to be done differently next time. Being
perfect doesn't lead to success, but being able to avoid the
same mistake twice does.
09/01/2013

Regain Your Focus
 Multitasking may speed you through your to-do list, but it
also makes you more likely to make mistakes and less likely
to retain information. Here are three ways to focus:
 Think good thoughts. Positive emotions improve the
brain's executive function and encourage creative and
strategic thinking. Improve your emotional balance by
actively thinking about things that make you happy.
 Ban distractions. Be aware of what steals your attention.
When disrupted, make a conscious choice to return to the
task at hand.
 Leave things behind. When you turn to a new task, part of
your brain is still thinking about the last one. Before starting
something new, go for a walk, climb stairs, or do some deep
breathing to clear your head.
16/04/2013

Act with Care When Someone Cries at Work
 It's natural to feel helpless or uncomfortable when someone
cries in front of you in the office. But remember that tears
are a normal human reaction, not a sign of weakness. If
someone you work with starts to well up, here's how to
handle it:
 Acknowledge the tears. Don't ignore them. Use the
occasion to analyze and assess what's going on, not judge
the crier.
 Offer a tissue. This gives the person a chance to breathe
and gather thoughts. It also communicates that you're
paying attention.
 Recognize a problem. Crying means something needs to
be addressed: The person is overworked, stressed, sick, or
frustrated. This is an opportunity to identify the underlying
issue and move forward with clarity
17/04/2013

3 Rules for Making Your Writing Clear
 In business writing, you get points for clarity, not style.
Instead of trying to wax poetic about your division's plans for
the next 60 days, just make your point. Here are three ways
to do that:
 One idea per paragraph. Novels hold several complex
ideas and emotions in a single paragraph. In business
writing, limit your thoughts to one per paragraph. When you
have another suggestion, thought or idea, start a
new paragraph.
 Put your point in the first sentence. Don't entice your
readers with background information and build-up. No one
has time for that. Make your primary point first. Then go into
supporting detail.
 Make it "scannable." Few people read every word in an
email. Use headers and bullet points so that your audience
can quickly scan your message and understand your point.
17/06/2013

3 Tips for Leading People Older Than You
 Seniority no longer reigns in today's organizations. In fact,
it's not uncommon to manage people 10 or 20 years older
than you. Leading is hard enough when you have
experience on your side. Here are three ways to make sure
your age doesn't betray you:
 Be confident. Start strong. Don't qualify your statements or
ideas. Speak with conviction and assume that your ideas
are good ones.
 Be open-minded. Balance your poise with an open mind.
Put your proposals out there and then solicit opinions and
ideas. Give your colleagues a voice.
 Ask for feedback regularly. Make sure people know you
care about continuous improvement. They'll be more likely
to give you useful feedback about your performance.
02/07/2013

How to Handle an Abusive Client
 Some clients are demanding; others are downright
rude. If you’re not in a position to stop working with a
difficult person, prepare yourself instead. Expect your
greedy, selfish, or angry client to act poorly so you
won’t be caught off guard. When you sense that he is
about to say something hurtful, say to yourself: "Here it
comes." After he delivers the blow, take a deep breath
and pause until he realizes he hasn’t provoked you into
losing your cool. Then say something like, "Say that
again?" or "Do you really mean what you just said?"
This is often enough to cause him to reflect on his
behavior and change his approach. If not, at least you
didn’t get flustered. The conversation may still be
stressful, but preparing keeps you from being
blindsided. 11/07/2013

Don’t Be Late for That Meeting
 When you can text or email a colleague and let her
know you’re running late, it’s easy to push back
meetings. This ability to quickly communicate is helpful
when you’re unavoidably detained, but overusing it has
costs. One study found that staff lateness costs the UK
economy £9 billion per year. There's something to be
said for old-fashioned punctuality. Sixty years ago, it
was important to keep commitments because there
was less opportunity to reschedule on the fly. But even
in this era of always-on technologies, being on time is
important. It keeps you focused. It conveys to others
that you’re reliable. And it shows respect for the people
who don’t have to waste their time waiting on you.
06/08/2013

Stop Thinking Like You Always Have
 To surface groundbreaking ideas, you need to challenge the
long-held beliefs the people at your company hold about
doing business. Here’s how to kill the status quo:
 Impose artificial limitations. It may seem counterintuitive,
but this can spark creativity. By enforcing mock constraints –
for example, focusing exclusively on existing customers –
you are forced to dig deeper to uncover more inventive
solutions.
 Compare your organization to others. See how your
company’s best practices stack up against others, especially
those outside your industry. This is not about emulating
others; it's about stimulating new ideas that might not come
to light otherwise.
 Look for unorthodox opportunities. Don't confine your
creative thinking to products or services. Instead, consider
every touch point between you and your customers to
improve how they interact with your organization.
27/08/2013

Leaders, Stop These Behaviors Now
 If you want to empower, engage, or motivate others, don't
just focus on increasing your positive behaviors. Pay
attention to the things you need to stop doing at the same
time. Here are three to avoid:
 Judgmental body language. No one likes perceived
condescension. Watch out for scowling, furrowed brows,
and quizzical or sarcastic looks (as if to say, “Are you
stupid?”). While seemingly harmless, each of these subtle
darts creates a considerable amount of relationship
damage.
 Interrupting. It's almost impossible for people to feel safe if
the boss takes up most of the airtime or cuts people off. Do
more listening than talking, and let people finish their
thoughts.
 Being inconsistent. It’s hard on employees to wonder who
is going to show up: "smiling, charming, funny boss" or
"judgmental, intense, snapping manager." Try to keep your
tone and personality consistent so people know what to
expect.
31/08/2013

Find a Champion for Your Business Case
 When preparing a case for a new project or initiative,
be sure you have someone at a senior level who will
lobby for it. Look at each member of the committee:
Whose goals and concerns will your project most
directly address? Reach out and ask what his or her
department is trying to achieve in the coming year. Get
a sense of what big projects are under way and which
efforts need more support. Explain how your initiative
can help fill in gaps or address trouble spots. Of
course, having someone influential on your side does
little good without a strong case that meets a business
need, a solid project concept, and well thought-out
financials. If any of those elements are missing, even a
powerful champion can’t help you.
25/09/2013

Help Your Company Cut Back on Email
 You can’t control how many emails you receive, but you can
control how many you send. In a recent study, one firm’s workers
followed suit when their executives reduced overall email output.
You can spark a similar reduction and improve efficiency across
your organization by doing the following:
 Choose the right medium. Consider whether your
communication merits a phone call or in-person meeting, where
vocal tone and body language provide real-time feedback on how
clearly a message is being understood.
 Be deliberate. Don’t forward messages unless strictly necessary,
and limit the number of recipients on each outgoing note.
 Make it real. Set a target for reducing the number of messages
you send. Include it in your performance goals to keep yourself
honest.
27/09/2013

Make Good Decisions Faster
 A simple approach can help replace your slow deliberations with
fast decisions. Try this framework:
 Know your ultimate objective. The biggest hurdle to fast
decisions is criteria overload. Of the seven or eight possible
objectives you would love to meet, which one or two will make the
biggest impact? Consider which stakeholder you least want to
disappoint—which goal would they care about most?
 Get a second opinion. Asking one other person can broaden
your frame of reference and help eliminate judgment errors. Plus,
the act of explaining your situation anew often gives you fresh
insights.
 Do something. Select one option while letting go of all the other
"good" ones. No amount of deliberation can guarantee that you
have identified the "right" option, but remember: The purpose of a
decision is not choose perfectly, but to get you to the next
decision.
27/09/2013

3 Tips to Build Better Relationships with Your Employees
 When people feel connected to you, even difficult conversations
feel less threating. Here are three tips to forge stronger bonds
with your employees:
 Relate whenever you can. View every interaction as an
opportunity to get to know someone a little better. Make a habit of
asking employees one question about their work or their personal
lives each time you encounter them.
 Take note of subtleties. People seek emotional connection
through countless small “bids” for attention—questions, gestures,
or looks. Take stock of how much you notice these cues . You
might also solicit some feedback from friends and family on how
well you listen and respond to social cues in general.
 Regularly express appreciation. Research shows that the ratio
of positive to negative interactions is 5:1 in a successful
relationship. You don’t need to pay someone five compliments
before offering criticism, but do be mindful of the ratio
01/10/2013

Make a Plan for Professional Growth
 With the right strategies, even the busiest leaders can find
the time for development. But to make that effort fruitful, you
need to determine what types of development will increase
both personal fulfillment and value to your firm. To come up
with the right possibilities, try these techniques:
 Look over your job description for activities that you
would love to pursue, but haven’t gotten to yet.
 Think about the dreams that you had for your current
position before you started. What did you hope to
accomplish?
 Set up a lunch or coffee with people in similar positions,
either at your company or at a different company, and ask
how they invest in learning.
11/10/2013

Tackle the Tough Business of Hiring New
Employees
 Responsibility for talent management is increasingly shifting
from HR to frontline executives—and hiring may be the
single hardest task in of them all. Screening applicants is
expensive, and a glut might actually signal poor recruiting.
Set apart your best fits by urging away unsuitable
candidates (for example, in the job listing’s requirements) or
communicating the ways in which your organization isn’t for
everyone. Because the process is so rife with variables—
candidates may overstate their qualifications and many
managers are subject to personal biases—some hiring
managers opt to simply outsource it. And unless you
regularly hire for similar types of jobs or operate on a very
large scale, you’ll probably get better results if outside
recruiters gather applicants and winnow the field to a small
number from which you can select. 14/10/2013

3 Simplifying Tips to Increase Productivity
 All organizations are slowed down by unnecessary behaviors that
choke productivity. These practices can help you clear some of it
away:
 Pick up the phone. An email chain can be a useful reference,
but it frequently takes more time to write an email than to have a
conversation. Conversations can get your questions answered
immediately and prevent future back-and-forth messages.
 Encourage streamlining. Ask your employees: What meetings
can we eliminate? What reports can we stop doing? What steps
in a process can be removed? Let your team know that their
suggestions won’t be taken as complaints but as creative ideas
for improving productivity.
 Stop reviewing low-impact work. It’s wise to thoroughly review
documents being sent to potential clients, but not all work
products are mission-critical. Tell your team that it’s their
responsibility to ensure their own quality control — and that you
trust them to do a great job. 23/10/2013

Don’t Extend the Deadline—Plan Better
 You may want to rethink postponing that deadline. Although it’s a
relief to be “given” more time, we rarely use extensions wisely;
instead, we lose motivation, procrastinate, and wind up facing the
same situation again later. Address poor time planning with these
tips:
 Shorten the distance to your ultimate goal. This will keep
motivation high, and keep the pressure on for procrastinators.
Impose interim deadlines, breaking a larger objective up into mini-
targets spaced out strategically in time. These deadlines need to
be meaningful, though— if it’s no big deal to miss the deadline,
then it’s not a real deadline.
 Become a realistic judge of how longs things will take.
Consider how long it’s taken to complete similar projects in the
past, and try to identify the ways in which things might not go as
planned. Break the project down in detail, estimating the time
needed to complete each step and allowing for snags in your
schedule. 13/11/2013

Give Feedback Like a Sports Coach
 As a manager, you play different roles at different times –
but the job of a manager, just like that of a coach or teacher,
is to inspire people to be better. Most people respond better
to encouragement than to criticism, so give praise when you
can. According to Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the most
successful coaches in sports history, nothing is better than
hearing: “Well done.” He says, “Those are the two best
words ever invented. You don’t need to use superlatives.” At
the same time, giving clear criticism is important when your
team members don’t meet expectations. If you are too soft
in your approach, you won’t be effective – but showing your
anger all the time doesn’t work, either. There’s no point in
harping on criticism; pick your moment, do it right away, and
consider it done. Your timing and tone matter.
13/11/2013

How to Manage Someone You Don’t Like
 If you’re like most leaders, you probably gravitate towards direct reports
who act nice and don’t deliver bad news. But it’s often those who
provoke or challenge you—the people you like less—who prompt new
insights and help propel the group to success. When you dislike an
employee you might—consciously or not—mismanage him, treat him
unfairly, or fail to see the real benefit he can deliver. To get the most out
of someone you don’t like:
 Learn how to handle your frustration. Don’t let your distaste show.
Everyone wants their boss to like them, and your employee might
presume that any disapproval has to do with his performance. Remain
fair, impartial, and composed.
 Check your bias. If you’re having trouble being fair, seek counsel from
another manager who is familiar with the employee’s work. Ask whether
your evaluation matches the outsider’s.
 Keep an open mind. It might help to spend more time with the problem
employee, perhaps by collaborating on a difficult task. Remember that
perspectives change, and your favorite employee today might become
your least favorite tomorrow.
13/11/2013

 Motivate Your Customer-Experience Team
Outstanding customer experience requires motivated, empowered
frontline employees. To engage your customer-experience team and
motivate them to provide an exceptional customer experience:
 Hire for attitude, not aptitude — and then reinforce attitude. To get
friendly service, hire friendly people. Recruit frontline staff with a natural
service bent by conducting group interviews. Seeing how applicants
interact with one another will help you assess their communication and
people skills.
 Focus on purpose, not rules. Rules are necessary, but they go only so
far. To motivate employees and give meaning to their work, define your
company’s purpose: a succinct explanation of the intended customer
experience that resonates at an emotional level. When you set clear
expectations and trust your people to do their jobs, they’ll feel valued
and empowered – and they’ll go that extra mile through passion, not
compliance.
01/02/2014

 Tweak Your To-Do List to Really Get Things
Done
 Deciding in advance when and where you will complete
a task can double or triple your chances of actually
doing it. Add a specific when and where to each
task on your list. For example, “Call Bob” becomes
“Tuesday after lunch, I’ll call Bob from my desk.” By
creating a specific plan for calling Bob, you can seize
the critical moment and make the call, even when
you’re busy doing other things. You’ve already done the
hard work of deciding what to do — now you can
execute the plan without consciously thinking about it.
02/02/2014

 Blast Through an Email Onslaught:
 Email is one of the biggest productivity challenges that
executives face. Sorting through the daily barrage
consumes a ridiculous amount of valuable time that could
be spent elsewhere. But this is a solvable problem if you
learn how to efficiently manage your everyday
communications.
 Don’t check your email incessantly; only look at it every
hour or two.
 Discipline yourself to read only the subject matter so that
you can discard irrelevant or unimportant messages right
away. You can purge more than half of incoming messages
this way.
 Practice “OHIO” — Only Handle It Once. Immediately
decide what to do with each email, and answer important
ones quickly instead of filing them away. Because once
you’re finally ready to tackle them, you’ll spend half an hour
just searching through folders.
01/04/2014

 Get Specific When Giving Credit
 Most of us have witnessed moments when credit was given unfairly – a
supervisor unabashedly claims credit for his invisible staff’s work, or a
quiet performer is inadequately recognized for her contribution. This
damages organizational culture and deflates employee motivation. (Why
expend the effort if no one will recognize it?) If you regularly award credit
to deserving individuals, people will see that the system is fair, and this
will drive performance.
 Recognize those who recognize others. Thanking team members
who highlight others’ efforts shows that you value generous and honest
attribution of credit.
 Elevate the quiet heroes. Quiet contributors are seldom concerned
with taking credit, but making an effort to reward them will create a
sense of integrity in your organization.
 Remember there’s plenty of credit to go around. There are no limits
to how many individuals can be recognized for contributing to an
outcome, but recognition loses meaning when everyone (even slackers)
gets it. Specific attributions of credit always trump blanket statements of
praise.
10/04/2014

 Time Is a Midsize Company’s Most Valuable Resource
 While poor time management hurts any firm, it’s especially pernicious at
midsize companies. These companies must move quickly to make up for
smaller competitors’ agility, but they also need to tackle big projects to
compete with larger firms. Time, not money, is the most important
resource for midsized firms.
 Honor deadlines from the top down. Project management is worthless
if the CEO disrespects deadlines. Make missing deadlines unacceptable
at every level. Promote your best time-managers, and make the
consequences of missing deadlines clear.
 Ruthlessly cut projects until only critical ones remain. When a
company tries to do too much with too few resources, projects inevitably
end up late, mediocre, or unfinished.
 Be transparent about a project’s status. In midsize companies, core
projects affect every department since the business isn’t big. Leaders
must keep team members informed about advances and setbacks,
including missed deadlines, to assess the project’s overall progress.
31/05/2014

 Keep Your Meeting from Going Off-Track
 You can follow all the guidelines for holding an effective meeting,
but things can still go wrong. The best way to handle problems is
to prepare ahead of time and to intervene at the right moment to
get things back on track.
 Think about the attendees. Is there a windbag in your group?
Ask him to focus his comments on a particular aspect. A constant
critic? Have the person lead part of the discussion. Someone with
a habit of being late? Give her a job to do during the session.
 Make sure everyone has a turn. If one person is hogging the
conversation, walk closer and closer to him. This draws group
attention to you and away from the speaker. Thank him and call
on someone else.
 Don’t be afraid of silence. Allow silence for one minute – people
might need time to process. Ask if you should clarify something,
or if there’s an issue people are avoiding. Take a short refocus
break, or if people seem worn out, reschedule.
31/05/2014

THANKS TO ALL