This guidance describes how to measure the amount of feedback you’re delivering to your directs.

We get asked all the time how much feedback is enough. We see this as very similar to the question, how many meetings should I have? Hopefully we all know there’s no right answer to that, other than, as many as you need. Sometimes a lot, sometimes not so much.

With feedback, the answer for 90% of managers 90% of the time isn’t whether what you’re giving is enough…the answer is, there’s no way you’re giving enough. ;-)

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This guidance describes how to schedule hour-long meetings, which are often back-to-back-to-back, in only 45 minutes.

How many days at the office are you in back to back-to-back meetings? At least one day a week, and for some of us, 2 or even 3 or 4. You hate it. It’s often unproductive. Frankly, it’s ALWAYS unproductive.

Why are we doing this to ourselves? There’s a better way.

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This guidance describes the most important to ask further questions about during an interview.

Most interviews are terrible. And, we’re not talking about it from the perspective of the candidate, but rather the manager! Most of us really are not very good at all at interviewing. When you combine this weakness with what every Manager Tools manager knows – that interviewing is the most important thing managers do – well, that might just be a problem. ☺

The question we get most frequently from managers is what questions should I ask? This is a fine question – and that’s why we have our Interview Creation Tool. But it’s not the best question. The best question is how do I evaluate their answers? Most of us do this poorly. Part of that happens because candidates are terrible at answering our questions. And, most of us don’t probe enough as they’re answering.

One way to quickly get better at evaluating answers is to probe the decisions they make. But how?

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This cast concludes our guidance on how to run a Routine Town Hall Meeting for your organization.

We've talked many times about the importance of managerial communications. Our sample communications plan is one of the more requested documents from us. It shows what we recommend a typical manager do in terms of regular comms with her team, using different media and different frequencies and covering different topics.

And, we've mentioned many times Horstman's Law of Organizational Communications: Say something 7 times and half of your people will say they've heard it once. Every organization has its own sandpaper, rubbing away at your meaning.

One way to reach further down and have more control of your message is to conduct a Town Hall meeting. This is the final meeting that Manager Tools would consider "routine", though it's certainly not frequent. It's in the line of Weekly One on Ones, Weekly Staff Meetings, and periodic Skip Levels.

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This guidance describes how to run a Routine Town Hall Meeting for your organization.

We've talked many times about the importance of managerial communications. Our sample communications plan is one of the more requested documents from us. It shows what we recommend a typical manager do in terms of regular comms with her team, using different media and different frequencies and covering different topics.

And, we've mentioned many times Horstman's Law of Organizational Communications: Say something 7 times and half of your people will say they've heard it once. Every organization has its own sandpaper, rubbing away at your meaning.

One way to reach further down and have more control of your message is to conduct a Town Hall meeting. This is the final meeting that Manager Tools would consider "routine", though it's certainly not frequent. It's in the line of Weekly One on Ones, Weekly Staff Meetings, and periodic Skip Levels.

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This guidance describes the first meeting a manager ought to have with a new team member.

Too many of us don't do a great job of focusing on hiring the right people…and then we compound the error by being too busy to get them off to a good start.

But this is Manager Tools, and there's a right way. As we like to say, here's how. 


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This guidance concludes our discussion on when and how to end an interview with a candidate you won't hire.

Even though many of us do plenty of work to screen candidates, there are still times where the candidate fails to meet our standards. You wouldn't be a good interviewer if you said yes to everyone. And, to be clear, there's no way to be so good at screening that the interview is just a formality. (Too many managers think this.)

But what do we do when a candidate clearly has failed in the first part of an interview? What do we do when we KNOW – not think, not are pretty sure about, but KNOW – that someone will NOT get hired?

Here's what.

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This guidance describes when and how to end an interview with a candidate you won't hire.

Even though many of us do plenty of work to screen candidates, there are still times where the candidate fails to meet our standards. You wouldn't be a good interviewer if you said yes to everyone. And, to be clear, there's no way to be so good at screening that the interview is just a formality. (Too many managers think this.)

But what do we do when a candidate clearly has failed in the first part of an interview? What do we do when we KNOW – not think, not are pretty sure about, but KNOW – that someone will NOT get hired?

Here's what.

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This cast concludes our guidance on how to prepare for Steel Cage Death Match Meetings.

We've mentioned them before, but have never given them their own guidance. And, with a name like Steel Cage Death Match, they DESERVE their own guidance.

What are they, when do they happen, and most importantly, how do we prepare to be effective in them?

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This guidance describes how to prepare for Steel Cage Death Match Meetings.

We've mentioned them before, but have never given them their own guidance. And, with a name like Steel Cage Death Match, they DESERVE their own guidance.

What are they, when do they happen, and most importantly, how do we prepare to be effective in them?

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