This guidance recommends asking your directs for work to be done - meaning requesting things in the form of a question – rather than stating your desire for something to occur.

Most managers, when they need something done, tell their directs what to do. Telling relies on role power. It works, but there’s a better, more strategic way: asking.

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Our guidance on the information you need to gather on your bosses.

Some time ago we released our 90 day new job plan. In it we promised to give more detail about the tasks that you need to do in order to be effective in your first 3 months. In this podcast we going to cover the information you need to gather in order to begin working well with your new boss.

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This guidance recommends how to address behaviors in meetings that reduce meeting effectiveness, based on a popular 2012 Wall Street Journal article. This Chapter deals with handling a Naysayer – someone who tries to kill every idea, even after everyone’s agreed.

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Our guidance on how to deal with conflict with a High I.

Conflict is a subject we get asked about relatively often. As Mark’s Dad says, the definition of conflict is two human beings in the same county. With 5, 10, 100, 1000 human beings in an organization, there’s bound to be some conflict. Each of the DiSC styles handles conflict differently. You’ll be more effective if you understand the conflict from the other person’s point of view – you might even get to the holy grail of a win win situation.

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Our guidance on the information you need to develop relationships.

Some time ago we released our 90 day new job plan. In it we promised to give more detail about the tasks that you need to do in order to be effective in your first 3 months. In this podcast we going to cover the information you need to gather in order to make sure that you have a basis for a relationship with the people you meet.

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This is the third part of our guidance on how to deal with bad interviewers; those that talk too much.

We started this series by addressing what to do when you don’t get a chance to tell the interviewer about your experience because they don’t ask the right questions. But what if the problem is not the questions, but that the interviewer doesn’t let you get a word in edgeways. In this cast, we’re going to address what to do when the interviewer is taking too much of the interview and not giving you a chance.

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This guidance recommends how to address behaviors in meetings that reduce meeting effectiveness.

A recent WSJ article headlined “Meet The Meeting Killers” talked about how different behaviors in meetings can ruin the meeting. It’s in the 15 May 2012 edition, and is available to non-subscribers, at least for a time.

This is our answer to those behaviors. And, we’ll address both running meetings of your team, and cross-functional meetings, where you have less direct authority.

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Our guidance on how to deal with conflict with a High D.

Conflict is a subject we get asked about relatively often. As Mark’s Dad says, the definition of conflict is two human beings in the same county. With 5, 10, 100, 1000 human beings in an organization, there’s bound to be some conflict. Each of the DiSC styles handles conflict differently. You’ll be more effective if you understand the conflict from the other person’s point of view – you might even get to the holy grail of a win win situation.

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Our guidance on how to create a 90 day new job plan.

‘What will you do in your first 90 days’ is a common interview question – especially at mid and more senior levels. Whilst we can console ourselves that the Manager Tools guidance ‘fit in, fit in, fit in’ is right, interviewers tend to want to hear about action. Many of you want to take action too. So, okay, we give in. In this cast, we’re going to give you an overview of the areas you can take action in. In follow up casts over time, we’ll fill in the detail.

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This guidance recommends greeting all of your directs when you first interact with them each morning, and how to do it.

This guidance ought to be unnecessary, but sadly, it isn’t. The short answer is, you’re never so busy as to be able to get away with ignoring your directs.

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