Winning ‘em Over by Jay A. Conger

Why We Like This Book:

Jay Conger has written the best book about how to present to a corporate audience that we have ever read. This book is DETAILED. If you’ve ever thrown together some slides, Winning will make you feel silly. It lays out how to analyze your audience, how to organize your information, how to prep in advance… in such detail you’ll feel like you’re reading a textbook. GREAT book for managers.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Why We Like This Book:

This book really IS a classic, and a perennial best seller… because it should be. These simple, basic truths about people withstand the test of time: “A person’s name, to that person, is the sweetest sound in any language”. Like it or not, you need to remember people’s names. Those who do outperform those who don’t. There are two other books in this genre that we also like: Never Eat Alone, and Love is the Killer App. If you like How to Win, you’ll love these two as well. Buy this book, especially if you’re an IT person or an engineer. Mike and I are, so we can say that.

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Why We Like This Book:

Unfortunately, large organizations are rife with politics. You’re not going to be successful simply being nice and smart. You’ll have to outmaneuver others at times to get your agenda approved. While poisoning others may not be apropos, the underlying rationale that “in difficult times really good ends can justify really bad means” still rings true. Well written too.

We hate to use the name headhunters rather than recruiters, because Mark never liked that term when it was applied to him. But it’s a pretty common nickname for a group that is playing an increasingly important role in career management today. The World is Flat has taught us that no job is safe (note even fast food order takers!). Companies are no longer taking responsibility for your career. Tom Peters believes in a Brand Called “You”. Your career and its transitions are IN YOUR HANDS. You can’t call yourself a smart manager if you don’t know how to create the right relationship with recruiters in your industry.

Over the next two shows, we’ll tell you EXACTLY how to handle it when a recruiter calls you. There’s a right way to do this, and over NINETY PERCENT of managers fail at miserably. It’s not hard, and we lay it all out here. We’ll tell you some basic things you need to know about recruiters, the guidelines for the first call, and the key questions to ask THEM. As well, we share how to actually address their specific request, and then how to maintain a relationship with them after the call if you care to.

Last week, we discussed some basic things you need to know about recruiters and specifically how to handle the first call from the recruiter. Today, we discuss the key questions to ask them, as well as how to address their specific request. Additionally, we discuss what you can do to maintain a good relationship with them going forward. Would it surprise you that it looks a lot like maintaining ANY relationship?

We’ve also included on the website an Executive Recruiter Cheat Sheet. Print this sheet out and keep it handy in your desk … it will help you remember how to handle that initial call (what to say, what to ask) and assist you in ensuring that the first call from the recruiter isn’t the LAST call. You’ll find the cheat sheet here.

Join in and discuss this topic in the discussion boards here.

The hand shake is the most important professional greetings in the world today. There are many cultures in the world, and there are places to bow, and places to hug, and places where cheek-kissing is perfectly appropriate. The handshake, though is the preferred greeting for most of our audience.

If you’re going to do business in the world, or if you’re a manager at a multi-national corporation, you need to know how to shake hands. This cast will teach you in excruciating (grin) detail.

The Ten Steps to a Great Handshake

• Make Eye Contact
• Smile
• Move Forward
• Left Foot Forward
• Elbow IN!
• Web to Web
• Push Them Back
• Grip the Bat
• 1-2 Pumps Only
• Let Go

Some No-Nos

• No double handed grips
• No shoulder clasp
• Do NOT move your hand side to side in any way
• No pulling

I am sure it makes me seem terribly nerdy to break a handshake down this way… but it works, and we know lots of folks want to know, but don’t know where to go. This is one case where if you go to the world wide web, you’ll be reminded of why we started Manager Tools. What passes for training or guidance is almost always irreproducible.

If you’re a manager, don’t think for a moment that someone else is managing your career. Those days are long gone. YOU are managing your career. What you do - not only in job skills, but also in what we call “Transition Skills” - will be the primary determinant of your career success. You’re not going to have the richest, most rewarding series of roles and opportunities by allowing someone in HR to know enough about you to get you where you need to be. And succession planning won’t save you either.

And one of the most important of the Transition Skills is Building And Maintaining Your Network. Most people are terrible at it. We know this because they have no network.

Now, notice that we did NOT say that the skill was “networking”. That term conjures up schmoozing, and cocktail parties, and too many people don’t like it. So, we’re not suggesting you do that.

We’re suggesting you Build and Maintain Your Network. It only takes THREE SIMPLE SKILLS, and we’ll walk through them.

Oh, yeah … and there’s a blooper in the show. Did you catch it?

One of the lost arts of the corporate world in the past 20 years is how to work with an administrative assistant. While we won’t argue that a great deal of the “leaning out” of corporations has been a good thing, working with admins effectively is one of the painful legacies of the cutbacks.

Of the executives who are assigned admins, our experience is that very few know how to use them well. There are many ways that the fantastic opportunity an admin offers are squandered. But in virtually all cases, the fundamental failure of managers who execute this responsibility is that they fail to delegate enough to the admin.

We start a series of casts on administrative assistants this week. In our first installment, we discuss the basics principles that will guide your thinking.

These casts will either help you do things right when you get to the point where you’re assigned an admin. Or, if you have an admin now, these casts will help you re-invent the relationship, making it what you always thought it should be.

After you’ve listened, you’ll want your admin to hear it.

This week, we continue our series on working effectively with administrative assistants. Given that this is part 2 of 3 parts, we’ve obviously had a lot to discuss on the subject.

This week, we finish (finally!) our series on working effectively with administrative assistants.

Also, for all of those who went to Podcast Alley and voted for Manager Tools, thank you very much! We achieved a long-held objective of getting in the Top 10 list of all podcasts. We don’t know how long we’ll stay there … but we’re enjoying the moment. And we owe that to all our friends here on Manager Tools. Thank You!

Here’s a brief outline of the 3-part Series:

1. Part 1
• The Role of the Executive
• The Role of the Admin
• The Single Biggest Roadblock
2. Part 2
• Managing the Executive’s Schedule
3. Part 3
• Managing the Executive’s Office
• Managing the Executive’s Relationships
• Managing the Executive’s Administrative Deliverables