Our guidance on having a notebook and pen with you at all times, and what to do with it.

Years ago, Wendii was responsible for the 'work experience boy'. In the UK, 14/15/16 year olds spend a week or two weeks in whatever employment they can find, called work experience. Usually, they have a parent or a parent's friend in the organization they end up at. This teenage boy came into the office on his first day, and Wendii gave him a notepad and pen, showed him where he was going to sit and so on. Then it came time to start describing the work he was going to do. His first question? "Do I need to write this down?".

He was 14 or 15. He can be forgiven not knowing that he should have a pen and notepad with him. He can be forgiven not knowing when to start writing – since in school, he would have been told: "write this down". However, if you're permanently in the workforce, your exemption is gone. So, what kind of notebook and pen, and when to use it?

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This guidance completes our discussion on how to handle your lunch hour.

This may not make sense to a lot of folks, us talking about how to eat lunch. But the fact is, we all do it almost every day at work. If you do take a full hour, that's roughly 10% or maybe even 15% of your day as a manager or professional. That's a huge part of everyone's day. But, for many of us, our approach to it is rooted in how we had lunch at home as kids, or in school. That makes no sense for the busy professional today.

Suppose your boss takes a 45 minute lunch break most days between 1230 and 115. Should you eat then too, or eat at a different time? Should we eat a big meal, or a small one? I'm so busy…should I work through lunch, at my desk?

In a way, lunch at work is like email: we learned how to eat before we became professionals, and we learned how to communicate before we started doing email. And in both cases we probably have some bad habits worth pruning.

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This guidance describes how to handle your lunch hour.

This may not make sense to a lot of folks, us talking about how to eat lunch. But the fact is, we all do it almost every day at work. If you do take a full hour, that's roughly 10% or maybe even 15% of your day as a manager or professional. That's a huge part of everyone's day. But, for many of us, our approach to it is rooted in how we had lunch at home as kids, or in school. That makes no sense for the busy professional today.

Suppose your boss takes a 45 minute lunch break most days between 1230 and 115. Should you eat then too, or eat at a different time? Should we eat a big meal, or a small one? I'm so busy…should I work through lunch, at my desk?

In a way, lunch at work is like email: we learned how to eat before we became professionals, and we learned how to communicate before we started doing email. And in both cases we probably have some bad habits worth pruning.

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This cast concludes (Part 4 of 4) our guidance on how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

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This cast continues (Part 3 of 4) our guidance on how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

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This cast continues our guidance on how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

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This guidance describes how to respond when, through any number of factors, you and your team are OVERWHELMED with lots of new work. Perhaps it's a layoff, perhaps it's a re-organization, perhaps it's because you're GOOD. Regardless, what do you DO??

This question of workload realignments has been a frequent recurrence. There's a layoff, and suddenly some manager has half the people, but somehow twice the work. Or, maybe the team stays intact, but there's a layoff ELSEWHERE, and your team is left with a mountain of work that someone else used to do.

What do you do when you used to be barely keeping up, and now suddenly you and your team's workload jumps by 30, 50, even 100%?

We know this is a tough spot to be in. The most likely response of the VAST majority of managers is a faithless acceptance of a life of short-term failure. It's a fatalistic pose, one that scours the mind free of new ideas, and makes creativity and optimism something better left to others.

What's more, the advice that's out there really makes our blood boil. What do most websites and newspapers and magazines suggest? Oh, they interview clinical psychologists. [This is ALWAYS a bad sign!] They talk to "workplace stress experts". They talk to HR. Suddenly, the solutions seem to be about our own mental health, and about how to guard against one of our directs becoming deeply depressed. Watch for this sign, watch for that, celebrate small successes, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. Oh, and be sure to ask for more resources.

Depression. Mental Health. Additional resources.

Balderdash. Idiocy. GALACTICALLY STUPID. This cast isn't about your mental health. We'd bet it's just fine. Same with your directs. This cast is about meeting a big challenge, and coming out on top. We know what YOU want to know. What can I DO?!? How do I get the WORK done?

This cast is dedicated to two of our members. One is Manon, who asked the question in the forums, when I had a chance to finally answer it. I've meant to for years, but never put pen to web. And, to Rich Ruh, a longtime member and friend, who was kind enough to comment that the answer was good enough to deserve its own podcast. When I told him I would name it after him, he said, that was the most important ANYTHING that I've read in over a month. You can name it the "Something that Rich Ruh wished he could take credit for but wouldn't have thought up by himself in a million years" cast. So it shall be.

The fact is, this problem can be faced, and it can be beaten. YOU- YES YOU – CAN BEAT IT. For those of us who HAVE beaten it, it's a bit like facing death. After you do THAT, you realize most of your concepts are just misconceptions. Once you walk through this fire, you'll feel like you could walk through hell in a gasoline suit.

Mike and I have been there. This is how we did it.

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This cast helps you be more efficient in following up.

We've talked about following up in numerous Career Tools casts. It's one of the marks of a true professional. People who follow up well, who don't let things fall through the cracks and who are in control of their workload stand out from the crowd. So how do you become one of those people?

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Finally we tackle a topic that we're surprised no one asks about: How does one receive feedback? We know how to deliver it (even if far too many of us shy away from it all too often). But that's only half the battle. One of the things many managers realize is that once you start giving feedback, you're going to start receiving it as well.

Sometimes it's well intentioned - your directs realize that you really mean it, and they're willing to give you feedback. And yes, sometimes it's intended to be a riposte from a nervous or insecure subordinate. But what's great about receiving feedback effectively is that it sets a powerful example.

And we guarantee you the most effective way to receive feedback will surprise you.

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Have you ever wondered what your team REALLY thought of you? Have you ever wondered what they say about you to their spouses about you after one of their tough days? Have you wondered if other managers wondered this, or do they have their "stuff" so together that they don't worry about this like you do?

Oh, they worry. Trust us.

The thing is, if you ask around, some people (and more than some in HR) will recommend you "do a three-sixty!"

That's when you really SHOULD worry. 360-degree feedback is very powerful, and almost always inappropriate for managers as a way to learn how they're doing. (We spend some time talking about 360 in the cast, as background.)

This cast teaches you a basic, simple, easy, low investment, low (zero) cost, easily repeatable, hard to mess up, gets-better-when-you-repeat it every-once-in-awhile technique for beginning to learn how you're doing as a manager.

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