This cast concludes our guidance on how to effectively work with your manager when he or she is geographically distant from you.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast gives our guidance on how to effectively work with your manager when he or she is geographically distant from you.

We have a cast on Manager Tools which is designed to give managers who work with geographically dispersed teams some simple things to do to make achieving results more likely. In this cast, we want to give directs a few simple things to do from their side to assist their manager and themselves in achieving results.

You can look at this issue from two sides. For your boss, taking the actions described in this cast will give him confidence that you are a productive member of the team even though you're not co-located. For you, it means that out of sight IS NOT out of mind. Your chances of recognition, payrises and promotions go down when you're not co-located with your boss. These simple steps go some way to mitigating that fact.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast concludes our guidance on how to give an update in a staff meeting.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast gives our guidance on how to give an update in a staff meeting.

Over on Manager Tools, we recommend every manager have a weekly staff meeting. They are a key part of socializing a team. In these meetings, each direct gets ten minutes to brief the rest of the team on what they have going on.

What if you're the direct though? What are you supposed to say and how? Speaking in meetings is a key part of demonstrating your strengths, which in turn leads to promotions. It's important to get it right. So, what's right?

  [Play in Popup]

This guidance describes why and how effective managers insist on their directs pre-wiring information they brief to you.

We were with an executive recently and were told a story about a fellow executive that reminded us that sometimes, the things that go without saying still need to be said. This is one of those topics where, when we heard the story of this principle being abused, we looked at each other and said, you're kidding, right? EVERYBODY knows THAT. Apparently not.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast concludes our guidance on how to prepare for the coming hiring market upturn.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast gives our guidance on how to prepare for the coming hiring market upturn.

As we record this cast in early 2011, the signs of hiring recovering from the recession are still interspersed with more negative indicators. However, whether it's in the next few months or before the end of the year, the recovery will come. The world economies have always and will always cycle through growth and recession, and we need to be as prepared for an upturn as we are for a downturn.

It's not only growth which fuels empty vacancies. As the labor force begins to feel more secure, the quit rate goes up and the liquidity of the labor market increases. That's what we're seeing right now, ahead of the upturn. Whatever the current situation when you hear this cast, you need to be prepared.

Let's not all make the same old, "rushing around getting my resume ready when I get a call mistake" TODAY … because now things happen faster, and you've got social media to worry about.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast concludes our guidance on how to write a job advertisement.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast gives our guidance on how to write a job advertisement.

Writing job advertisements is a job which managers love to delegate. They think it involves creativity and therefore must be difficult and takes lots of time they don't have. Like everything, those of us who have written lots of advertisements know there is a formula.

Once you know how, it's easy.

  [Play in Popup]

This cast gives our guidance on how to finish a conversation.

At least once a month we're asked: is there a way to help a conversation draw to a close without diminishing the relationship building aspect? Most recently, this came up on a forum post which Mark answered, but it comes up so often, we thought we'd answer it in a cast.

We just wish it wasn't that all of the people who ask it weren't incredibly high D's who constantly interrupt and have short attention spans. (Not casting aspersions - it's true of us too).

Literally, we have NEVER met someone who has asked me this question who, when asked for an example, didn't want to end a conversation after an abruptly short period of time, after having appeared to have been tapping their fingers in irritation within seconds. I've seen them expect conversations to be over ("okay, I've built this relationship, now let me go do IMPORTANT STUFF, BYE!") within 30 seconds. In the context of this posting, they would define "reasonable" as that 30 seconds.

But maybe that's not you. ;-)

So, if you think you've spent enough time:

  [Play in Popup]