Today we discuss the fine art of Coaching. Most managers probably think they do a fine job coaching their teams, but guess what? You probably have several misconceptions about coaching that prevent you from getting the absolute best out of your team. Today, we discuss coaching at length and present a coaching model that you can start using today to improve your coaching abilities. It’s both easier and takes less time than you think.

To improve your understanding of the Coaching Model we discuss on the podcast, download and print the Manager Tools Coaching Card prior to listening to the podcast.

Today we continue our discussion on Coaching. Now, if you haven’t listened to last weeks show where we introduced the coaching model, I strongly suggest you go back and listen to that show first. Also, if you haven’t downloaded and read the Manager Tools Coaching Card yet, please do so. You may just want to print it so you have it available during the podcast. It will assist you greatly in following the coaching example we present today.

Got Email? Of course - what manager doesn’t? We know managers who get 200 (or more!) emails every day. Email is a necessary evil in the corporate management world, and highly effective managers know how to get the most out of their email WITHOUT spending too much time on it. In our latest podcast, we talk about how to make your technology work for you, and how you can spend less time on email while getting more done.

Also, thanks to Tom Comeau for mentioning us during his interview on the Cranky Middle Manager Show. The kind remarks are very much appreciated. For those of you who haven’t heard Wayne’s interview of Tom, you can find the show at the The Cranky Middle Manager Website.

Mark made reference during the podcast to the process of setting-up multiple “in-boxes” in Outlook. Here is a PDF document outlining the steps Mark uses to set those up.

The manager that doesn’t have to make at least one presentation each week is fairly rare. Today, we begin the discussion on making effective presentations, beginning with some general guidelines governing the use of tools like Microsoft PowerPoint.

During the podcast, we make reference to a great book by Barbara Minto, “The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking”. Here’s a link to her book on Amazon. It’s one of our favorite books on management communications and you simply can’t go wrong by purchasing copies for both you and your subordinates.

As we note during the show, Mike will be traveling to Europe this week. Most likely we will not be publishing a podcast next week. And, if we do, it will be mid-week instead of Monday. We’ll be back on schedule the following week!

If you’ve ever scrambled around at the last minute to prepare to interview someone, and then not felt good about the results, you’re like a lot of other managers we know. For some reason, even though we have all been frustrated at times by team members who aren’t as good as we want them to be, we STILL under-invest in the process which could improve the quality of our team — recruiting.

We think interviewing is a real opportunity for most managers — it’s not hard to understand, or to do it right, but we’re guessing that no one’s ever told you how or given you a detailed process. We’re going to show you how in detail over a series of many podcasts. In this first one on interviewing, we tackle interview preparation - what questions you need to ask yourself and your team/org about hiring someone new. We’re NOT going to tell you what questions to ask in the interview (yet). If you wonder why, well, give a listen. When you hear it, you’ll understand.

During the show, we made reference to the Manager Tools Interview Preparation Form. We think you’ll find the tool useful in preparing for your next interview. You can download it here!

We’ve gotten a great many questions, comments, and kudos for our show in July on the Feedback Model. Many listeners are discovering the power of feedback, of taking it out of the realm of the rare and into the stream of the every day. Not to sound repetitive, but most managers see feedback as akin to holding their breath - waiting as long as possible, and then creating a lot of sound and often fury. The Feedback Model tells us to see feedback like breathing - so regular as to become unnoticed.

Many of you have written asking questions about how to counter some of the typical responses to the feedback you give. “What do I do or say when they tell me they’ll ‘think about it’? What if they SAY they’ll make the change, only to continue in their ineffective behavior patterns? As you might imagine, we’ve dealt with these issues before, and this show talks about the approach to take, and once again, gives you SPECIFIC things to say and why they work.

We do a brief review of the feedback model at the front of the cast, but still encourage you to give a listen to our original cast, in the JULY Archives.

One of the most challenging aspects of being a manager is leading people who are remote to you. Sometimes it’s one team member being offsite; sometimes entire teams are spread across the country or even the globe, or even just across a corporate campus. All these situations are examples of “virtual” teams…and managing a virtual team is notably harder than managing a group that are co-located. And, these suggestions work well for project teams that may be in the same location but are matrixed together.

This cast addresses the special difficulties virtual teams present. First, we briefly discuss teams in general, and then we outline the three specific steps a ‘virtual’ manager can take to turn her workgroup into a team:

1. Pay special attention to hiring and interviewing,
2. Spend money to have a face to face meeting, and
3. Special rigor about team communications.

We tackle a tough topic in this week’s cast: Layoffs. We know it’s not an upbeat topic, but it’s highly likely you’re going to be involved in one at some point. Professional managers know how to conduct layoffs efficiently, with candor and compassion. While this is the first time we address the topic, this cast is second in order of the three we plan on the subject. One is on preparation- what you need to do in advance. This is for more senior managers, and those who will be in in discussions with HR. Today we address what everyone always asks us about - How to Actually Lay Someone Off. What do I say in the conversation? How do I say it? How can I deliver this news effectively and compassionately? The final cast is how to communicate to everyone after the fact. It’s an oft-ignored part of the process, but done well it can really help.

Despite our focus on performance at work, we want to state up front that we subscribe to the “soft” manager approach to layoffs. That means that even though you are dealing with THE TOUGHEST SUBJECT POSSIBLE, and the employee may respond with rage or frustration or tears, we think your profession requires you to be compassionate, caring and understanding. We believe these qualities make you a BETTER manager, and not just when you’re laying someone off. So, you may hear some suggestions today that aren’t standard. WE think they ought to be, but they’re not. One thing that will help you understand why we suggest these things is to read them from the point of view of the one being laid off.

We break our recommendations down into three sections: Before, During, and After.

This week’s podcast addresses a topic that many of you might be surprised about: your resume. Your resume, regardless of the baggage associated with it, is probably your most critical career management document. While it’s not something you ought to leave laying around on your desk (or on monster.com, for that matter), that doesn’t mean you ought to treat it like something you dust off only when you really need it. It needs to be reviewed quarterly, believe it or not.

So, in this cast we’ll teach you how to prepare it, and how to maintain it. We won’t talk about cover letters, or how resumes are used in the job search, because job search is only one use of your resume.

The Sample Resume we refer to on the show is here.

We got a great email recently from a listener asking about how to develop one of the managers in their company. The mail went something like this: “hey guys, love manager tools, really like the usability of the recommendations. But need some help. One of our guys has some management responsibilities, and we’d like to help him get better. Wonder if you can recommend some sort of comprehensive coaching program, with some resources or books that we can get him involved in.”

Well, if you’ve ever thought that about one of your managers, or maybe even yourself, this cast is for you. What we’re going to do is present you an abbreviated version of the manager-tools development philosophy, and then give you some coaching examples that would fit within it. Now, we say the word “philosophy with great trepidation. It’s one of those big words that books on management fill themselves up with, but that don’t really help folks like you and us get any better at what we do. So maybe we ought to say this: we’re going to tell you exactly how we develop people, and give you one example to get you started. More examples in a future podcast, as well as the inclusion of development plans.