In this podcast, we finish our conversation on answering questions during a presentation.

Four easy steps:

1. Your initial response when you first hear the question
2. PHYSICALLY catching the Medicine Ball
3. VERBALLY catching the medicine ball
4. And how to finish up once you’ve answered the question

Mark and I will be in San Francisco the evening (8:00pm) of Tuesday March 6th [edited], 2007 (Mark is speaking at the Game Developer’s Conference in town). I remember a couple of folks asking about an SF meet-up. If anyone in the area would like to take the lead in finding an appropriate place (pizza), we’d love to participate!

Any takers?

Mike

We are pleased to announce the availability of our new members-only RSS feed!

So, what’s so special about the new feed?

1. The new members-only feed contains ALL podcasts (both recent and archived)
2. Not only does it contain all the regular podcasts, it contains all the members-only (monthly) podcasts. Yep, that’s right; ALL the podcasts in a single feed.
3. And the obvious point, it’s available only to registered members.

The URL for the new members-only feed is: http://www.manager-tools.com/registered-members/rss.xml. Plug this into iTunes or your podcatcher of choice — other than being asked for your Manager Tools userid and password, it will work as usual. If you have questions on how to add the new feed to iTunes, we’ve updated the members-only subscription instructions page with the new URL.

We hope this makes your Manager Tools life just a bit easier … let us know how it works for you!

regards,
Mark and Mike

If you’ve ever given a presentation, you’ve probably been asked to leave time for questions. You may have even gone the extra step of thinking about what questions might you get. However, in our experience, 80% of the managers we’ve coached haven’t, but maybe you’re in the 20% category.

But have you ever thought not about the content of the questions, but rather the delivery of your answer? Even if you have a perfect answer, if the question is even slightly confrontational, your delivery could doom you from the start. Most presenters give away their fear and lack of preparation by behaving in ways that actually INCREASE the conflict inherent in a challenging question. In this podcast, the first of a two-part series, we discuss how to answer questions in a manner that leaves you, the presenter, in the best possible position.

Part 2 of our 2-part series on managing conflict when your directs are involved.

We still have slots available for our Effective Manager Conference on April 18th and 19th. Be sure to sign-up now and take advantage of the early registration discount!

What do you do when you’re in conflict with a peer… and your directs become involved? What’s interesting here is that we all ought to know that if we ARE in conflict with a peer, our directs ARE involved. Our directs know who among our peers are our allies, and who we don’t align well with. Our directs make choices, perhaps subtle, but choices nonetheless, that can add to our tensions (yes, even if we tell them not to).

What can we do as managers to help our directs deal with a peer of OURS that WE are in conflict with? When the peer begins to not behave professionally, and doesn’t meet her responsibilities to projects or teams he’s on… what do you do? When the peer expresses disdain, or is less than professional in how he treats one of your team?

Listen up; we’ve got a plan.