Becoming a Great Manager

Delegating : Learn how to choose what to delegate, match employee and delegated assignment, and set the stage for success by both developing your employees and freeing up your time for critical managerial tasks.

Goal Setting : Learn how to set realistic goals, prioritize tasks, and track milestones to improve performance and morale.

Managing Upward : Learn insight into developing a mutually rewarding relationship, with skills for communicating and negotiating with your manager, presenting problems or opportunities to your supervisor and accepting responsibility for your proposed actions.

Meeting Management : Learn about planning and conducting meetings from start to finish; preparation, keeping the meeting on track, and follow-up and dealing with problem behaviors exhibited by meeting participants. 

New Manager Transitions : Learn what it means to be a manager, as well as how to navigate the complex and often stressful transition from individual contributor to a new manager.

Presentation Skills : Learn about preparing and delivering presentations that command attention, persuade, and inspire, rehearsal techniques, creating and using more effective visuals, understanding your objectives and your audience to create a presentation with impact.

Stress Management : Learn the difference between positive stress that enhances productivity and negative stress that breeds tension, lowers productivity, and undercuts job satisfaction, strategies for dealing with underlying causes of worry and stress, tactical coping mechanisms for immediate problem management.

Time Management : Learn how to analyze how you currently spend your time and pinpoint opportunities for improvement, set goals, prioritize tasks, plan your time efficiently using scheduling tools, control time-wasters, and evaluate your schedule once it is underway.

Writing Skills : Learn how to accomplish your business objectives and extends your influence as a manager, create clearer, more effective written communications, guidelines for preparing memos, letters, emails, and other common business documents.

Career Management : Learn how to manage your career--including how to identify your business interests, professional values, and skills in order to target your most exciting career possibilities.  

Change Management : Learn how to manage change constructively and navigate the ups and downs that inevitably accompany a change effort.

Coaching : Learn how to strengthen your coaching skills to facilitate the professional growth of the employees you coach.

Developing Employees : Learn how to encourage your employees to learn and grow, while maximizing the return on the management time you invest in employee development.

Difficult Interactions : Learn how to discuss and resolve difficult interactions in the workplace--whether with employees, peers, bosses, or even suppliers and customers.

Feedback Essentials : Learn when and how to give effective positive or corrective feedback, how to offer feedback upward, and how to receive feedback.

Global Collaboration : Learn critical skills required to manage a cross-cultural collaboration, including negotiating, building trust, overcoming language barriers, and navigating the geographical and technological challenges of working across continents.

Hiring : Learn how to identify the particular skill set needed for a job, and then how to research and interview leading candidates until you find the one who best fills your need.

Leading and Motivating : Learn about the essential tasks of leadership: setting direction, aligning people, and motivating others. Learn how to recognize the skills and characteristics of effective leaders, create an inspiring vision, and energize people to support and work toward your goals.

Performance Appraisal : Learn how to prepare for, conduct, and follow up on performance evaluations--in ways that link employee performance to your company's and group's goals.

Retaining Employees : Learn strategies for attracting and keeping top performers, how to handle common obstacles to retention such as burnout and work/life imbalance, and how to develop programs that address the diverse needs and interests of your workforce.

Team Leadership : Learn how to establish a team with the right mix of skills and personalities and create a culture that promotes collaborative work, steps to leading an effective team and includes innovative, easy-to-implement self-evaluation tools.

Team Management : Learn how to diagnose and overcome common problems - such as poor communication and interpersonal conflict - that can impede team progress, learn to take corrective measures to remove team problems and improve team performance.

Virtual Teams : Learn how to create concrete suggestions for forming virtual teams, including assessing their technology and communication needs, structuring the team to build trust, and keeping the team on track

Budgeting : Learn about the budget process, different types of budgets, and common budgeting problems--so you can allocate resources wisely to meet your goals.

Business Case Development : Learn how to create an effective business case, from defining the opportunity and analyzing alternatives to presenting your final recommendations.

Business Plan Development : Learn the process of preparing an effective plan for a business proposal, applicable to launching a new internal product as well as seeking funding for a new start-up business.

Crisis Management : Learn a practical, hands-on method for looking at crises--from developing a crises audit to avoid and prepare for crises, to managing an actual crisis, to learning from past events.

Customer Focus : Learn how to target the right customers and build their long-term loyalty by developing systems for learning about--and responding to--their needs.

Decision Making : Learn how to identify underlying issues related to a decision, generate and evaluate multiple alternatives, and then communicate and implement your decision.

Diversity : Learn how to manage diversity to extract maximum value from your employees' differences -- including how to recruit diverse talent, resolve diversity-related conflicts, and communicate with employees and customers from other cultures. 

Ethics At Work : Learn how to identify and execute sound choices based on ethical standards and how building a culture of integrity and cultivating an environment of trust among employees, customers, and other stakeholders lays a foundation for sustained success.

Finance Essentials : Learn the essential concepts of finance--budgeting, forecasting, and planning, for managers who are not financial managers.

Innovation and Creativity : Learn how to manage an intellectually diverse work group and their environment to produce more--and better--ideas that encourage innovation when developing products and work processes.

Innovation Implementation : Learn how to implement an innovation--from crafting a vision statement to gaining support and managing resistance--and turn an idea into reality.

Marketing Essentials : Learn the fundamentals that will help you better understand the importance of marketing and how it relates to you, especially for non-marketing managers.

Negotiating : Learn how to become an effective negotiator, the negotiation process: assessing your interests as well as those of the other party, developing opportunities that create value, avoiding common barriers to agreement, and implementing strategies to make the negotiation process run smoothly.

Performance Measurement : Learn how to review financial and non-financial measures used in all areas of organizational performance, addresses both standalone measures (including ROI, EVA, and BET) and measurement frameworks such as dashboards, quality models, and the Balanced Scorecard, systematic processes for tracking performance of initiatives.

Persuading Others : Learn the art and science behind successful persuasion -- changing others' attitudes, beliefs, or behavior to create win-win solutions, -- accomplishing work through others -- rather than simply issue orders.

Process Improvement : Learn what business processes are; why improving them is essential; and how to carry out a business process improvement (BPI) initiative.

Project Management : Learn the nuts and bolts of project management, including project planning, budgeting, team-building, execution, and risk analysis, useful tools and techniques such as GANTT and PERT charts, Work Breakdown Structure, and variance analysis.

Strategic Thinking : Learn how to shape and execute organizational strategy, analyzing opportunities, challenges, and the potential consequences of high-level action plans, addresses identification of broad patterns and trends, creative thinking, analysis of complex information, and prioritization of actions

Nurturing Your Enthusiasm and Being Well in the Workplace

Here are seven essential insights into finding and sustaining your joy, nurturing your enthusiasm and being well in your workplace. See if any are useful for you. They also apply to all the 'other' areas of your life.

1 You are 100% responsible for your thoughts and feelings anywhere, anytime – accept it!

While the body may develop many kinds of 'pain', which we call disease, the 'self' suffers from many forms of dis - ease, which we call 'suffering'! Some pain is inevitable, but suffering is always optional. Pain is physical and suffering is mental/emotional. Pain will inevitably come to you through your body, but suffering is created by you because you are 100% responsible for your thoughts and feelings, regardless of what is happening around you. That means all your stress is self-created, as stress begins with the thoughts you create in your own mind.
This means that it's not the other person, the event or the circumstances i.e. your job, that make you unhappy. It's you! Some people don't like this idea while others love it! Why? Because they realize they don't have to feel like a helpless victim any more. They don't have to wait for others or for circumstances to change. They can do something about their stress, their suffering, by changing what is going on within their own consciousness. But first you need to fully realize 'it's me, not them'. It's easy theory but not so easy to translate into action/behavior. Theory first, then practice, then mastery.

2 You are not responsible for others happiness – realize it!

Give the same chocolate cake to two people and one says, "Wonderful, thank you", while the other says, "Yuk, I hate chocolate". Same cake, two people, different response! It's not easy to see but just as we are each responsible for our own happiness so too it's not your job to 'make' others happy! Sounds obvious in theory but take a moment to consider how often and how much you try to 'please' others!
Take a moment to contemplate the simple idea that everyone makes themselves happy, or not, as the case may be, and see if you can 'see' this truth! Even when you realize this for your self it's highly likely everyone else around you will not have realized it … yet! So you have to step lightly and carefully until they do.
Serve the customer well but don't become dependent on them being happy with you just because you think you did a good job. Keep being kind to your family but don't 'expect' your kindness to always be repaid with a happy gratitude. Relationships are much more complicated than that. When we learn to believe that others make us happy, and vice versa, relationships become 'messy'. That's just a fact of life until we realize we are each responsible for our own happiness.

3 You don't derive your sense of your value from others – end your neediness!

When we are children our parents tend to teach us (mistakenly or otherwise) that we need to be approved and affirmed by them in order to know and feel our own value. As we grow up the authority figure of the parent is replaced either by a manager in a formal context or perhaps a strong senior personality in an informal context. We then look to them to give us our sense of value. Then, when we perceive we are not getting that approval/affirmation, we start to make our self feel inadequate and unvalued. This easily leads to resentment and perhaps anger towards those figures simply because we have learned to believe that it's their job to give us our sense of value.
This can make the workplace an utterly miserable place for some and not a very happy context for others. Most of us tend to be somewhere along that spectrum. This means we are dependent on others for our self-esteem. Can you learn to find your value from inside out and not outside in? Yes you can! But first you need to decide that you are going to 'unlearn' and undo your neediness!

4 Your most difficult relationships are your teachers – use them!

Sometimes you encounter someone who, right from the start, presses your buttons, or rubs you up the wrong way, or just seems to get on your nerves! They are your teacher! But don't tell them that! Who put the button/s on? Who is creating the feelings of resistance towards them? It's you, of course. So the next question is why? Look within and you will eventually find what it is within you that you are using to upset your self! Then stick this line at the top of every page in your diary, "The other person is never the problem"! Read it a hundred times a day until it finally sinks in.
But you're right, it's not easy to see after a lifetime of learning to believe it's always 'them' that is making me feel this way! As soon as you see 'the other' as your teacher and ask your self what is the lesson I need to learn in this relationship, it changes your vision of them and that changes your attitude towards them. And that influences their attitude towards you. This is why life is the real school and the classroom is your consciousness, which is YOU! Other people are your lessons. You have exams every day. Until you pass! Then you can go out and play!

5 You chose to do the job you do because you said YES – don't forget it!

What's your first thought when you awaken most mornings? Does it go along the lines of, "Oh God not another day, I have to go to work"? Or do you awaken with a "Yes, another day, fantastic, work, relationships, fun?" I thought not. Well a few do! Here is probably the most common mistake people make around the job they do – they forget that they CHOSE it. They forget that they said YES to accepting the job in the first place. So if you want to invoke the right energy the moment you awaken, if you want to bring the energy of enthusiasm to work, reaffirm your choice to do what you do… every day! Or else go do something different!
Remember, any time you say you 'have to' in relationship to anything or anyone, it means you are living your life reluctantly! It's as if you have been given the gift of life and you looked down your nose as if to say, "Well I suppose I 'have to' live it"!

6 Do not take anything personally – stop it!

You're right; this one is also not easy! But it's possible. Sometimes we meet people with what we call a 'thick skin'. It's as if you can say anything to them and they don't take it personally, they don't react emotionally, either internally or externally. For most of us it's more often the opposite. We become so sensitive to others comments. Even just an odd expression on someone's face and we will contrive, in our imagination, to believe it's because of something we did or said, as we take it personally. Then we need 'recovery time' to settle our internal turmoil.
So it's time to stop misinterpreting and/or worrying about what others think about you. In reality you can never know what is truly going on in the mind of the other – so what's the point in speculating. It's a waste of time and energy.
Besides who cares what other people think about you? Why do you care so much? It's because you seek your sense of identity and esteem from others. Perhaps it's time to rediscover who you are and the wealth you already have within. No one can ever take it away. We just lose awareness of it. If you need help with that send me an email. Or get together with two friends and co-create a cappuccino conversation with the aim of exploring and understanding more deeply why we become so 'sensitive' and how to thicken your skin…so to speak!
You already know why and how! Realize it and be free.

7 Your joy in life comes through your creativity – cultivate it!

It's true, we do need to recognize and accept that most jobs are not created for someone to be 'creative'. Most jobs are created to be productive and achieve goals within some timescale. This is why so many people think and feel they are NOT experiencing much 'job satisfaction'. The most 'deeply satisfying' thing for any human being is to be creative. It's what we are here to do – not 'get' a life, but 'create' our life. So the trick to creating job satisfaction is to see the job as a creative opportunity and process. Then to find ways to make the way you work as creative as possible. For example, if you have a time management system that you have been given throw it out and 'create' your own system that precisely suits you and the job. Then you are more likely to actually use it.
Take a blank sheet of paper and map the work you do. Then take each aspect and 'create' other possible ways to do it or improve it. Don't wait for permission, just do it and quietly get on with 'creating' the way YOU do the job. Then you will notice a different satisfaction coming from inside out, where before you expected the job to satisfy you from outside in. Life doesn't work like that. It's just that most of us have been taught to believe it does. The job is not designed to 'give you' satisfaction. It's how you do the job, any job, which gives you satisfaction. Has the penny dropped?
That's why empowering your self, being the master of your own thoughts and feelings, consciously refreshing your choice to do what you do and rediscovering your creative spark, is NOT about learning, it's about UNLEARNING most of what you have been taught to believe!
But don't believe me. Time to wake up, smell that coffee and see and know for your self.

Question: Which of the above did you resonate with the most?
Reflection: What could you change/improve about the way you work that would generate more enthusiasm from inside out?
Action: What can you do to make your work more creative?

Fourteen Characteristics of Extremely Likeable People

Personal branding through social media may help you build your professional network, but there will never be a replacement for a charismatic personality.

Napoleon Hill, author of "Think and Grow Rich" - one of the top selling books of all time - wrote about the habits of the most likable people in his essay "Develop A Pleasing Personality," published in the forthcoming collection "The Science of Success."

He introduced his steps to having a "million-dollar personality" by explaining it was steel magnate Charles M. Schwab's charming demeanor that in the late 19th century elevated him from day laborer to an executive with a $75,000 salary and a frequent million-dollar bonus (astronomical numbers for the time).

Schwab's boss, the legendary industrialist Andrew Carnegie said "the yearly salary was for the work Schwab performed, but the bonus was for what Schwab, with his pleasing personality, could get others to do," Hill writes.

Here are Hill's 14 habits of people who are so likable that others go out of their way to help them:

1. They develop a positive mental attitude and let it be seen and felt by others.

It's often easier to give into cynicism, but those who choose to be positive set themselves up for success and have better reputations.

2. They always speak in a carefully disciplined, friendly tone.

The best communicators speak deliberately and confidently, which gives their voice a pleasing sound.

3. They pay close attention to someone speaking to them.

Using a conversation as an opportunity to lecture someone "may feed the ego, but it never attracts people or makes friends," Hill says.

4. They are able to maintain their composure in all circumstances.

An overreaction to something either positive or negative can give people a poor impression. In the latter case, says Hill, "Remember that silence may be much more effective than your angry words."

5. They are patient.

"Remember that proper timing of your words and acts may give you a big advantage over impatient people," Hill writes.

6. They keep an open mind.

Those who close themselves off from certain ideas and associate only with like-minded people are missing out on not only personal growth but opportunities for advancing their careers.

7. They smile when speaking with others.

Hill says that president Franklin D. Roosevelt's greatest asset was his "million-dollar smile," which allowed people to lower their guards during conversation.

8. They know that not all their thoughts need to be expressed.

The most likeable people know that it's not worth offending people by expressing all of their thoughts, even if they happen to be true.

9. They don't procrastinate.

Procrastination communicates to people that you're afraid of taking action, Hill says, and are therefore ineffective.

• 7 Ways to Improve Your Attitude
• 10 Ways to Improve your Remuneration
• A Career in Retail Management
• 10 Ways to Improve your Leadership Skills

10. They engage in at least one good deed a day.

The best networkers help other people out without expecting anything in return.

11. They find a lesson in failure rather than brood over it.

People admire those who grow from failure rather than wallow in it. "Express your gratitude for having gained a measure of wisdom, which would not have come without defeat," Hill says.

12. They act as if the person they are speaking to is the most important person in the world.

The most likeable people use conversations as a chance to learn about another person and give them a chance to talk.

13. They praise others in a genuine way without being excessive.

"Praise the good traits of others, but don't rub it on where it is not deserved or spread it too thickly," Hill says.

14. They have someone they trust point out their flaws.

Successful people don't pretend to be likeable; they are because they care about their conduct and reputation. Having a confidante who can be completely honest with them allows them to continue growing.

Seven Phrases to Avoid on the Job

You want to be successful. Everyone does. But your actual words might be undermining your chances of success. The things you say in the office, no matter how innocuous they seem to you, might be knocking you down the career ladder and putting the top position you dream about out of reach.

Your career is too important to be tanked by a few negative phrases. Here are the seven things you should strike from your workplace vocabulary if you want to achieve the success you richly deserve:"

1. “That’s not in my job description.”

When you accepted your current position, you had a good idea of what the responsibilities and workload of the role would entail. Throughout the months or years since you settled into your job, however, your role has expanded and changed shape. Some of these changes have probably been good, while others have made you wish for simpler times. When a boss or manager piles another responsibility on your already sore shoulders, it might be tempting to pull out this classic gem of work avoidance.

The better option, however, is to schedule a time to talk to your boss about your role. A specific conversation about your place in the organization is a good time to bring up the particulars of your job description, not when you’re asked to get something accomplished. No matter how stressed you are or how valid the complaint, dropping this phrase only makes you look lazy and unmotivated.

2. “It can’t be done.”

Throwing in the towel makes you look like a quitter -- and quitters don’t get promoted. Instead of giving up on a project entirely, frame your response in terms of alternative ways to get the work accomplished. Very little is truly impossible, and most managers and executives want forward-thinking problem solvers to climb the corporate ladder. If you offer solutions instead of giving up, you’ll be seen as a valuable member of the team.

3. “It’s not my fault.”

No one wants to work with a blame shifter. After all, it’s just a matter of time before this person eventually shifts the blame onto you. Take ownership of your mistakes instead of pointing out where others have fallen short. Admitting to a mistake shows character and the ability to learn and grow from problems. Pointing the finger at someone else strongly implies you’ll never truly learn from your errors.

4. “This will just take a minute.”

Unless something will literally take only 60 seconds, don’t overpromise and underdeliver. Saying something will only take “a minute” also has the side effect of undermining your efforts. Most likely the reason the particular task won’t take long is due to the benefit of your professional experience and acumen. By saying it will “just” take a minute, you're shortchanging what you bring to the table.

5. “I don’t need any help.”

The rugged lone wolf type might be the hero of most action movies, but they’re unlikely to become the hero at your company. You might think you can go it alone on a project or in your career, but teamwork is essential. Being able to work with others is the hallmark of a good leader; you’re unlikely to climb your career ladder always flying solo.

6. “It’s not fair.”

Life isn’t fair, and often your career won’t be as well. Instead of complaining, you should look for specific and actionable workarounds to the problems you encounter. Is it unfair a coworker got to run point on the project you wanted? Maybe, but instead of complaining, work harder and go the extra mile. Finding a solution will always be preferable in your professional life to whining about a problem.

7. “This is the way it’s always been done.”

Doing things the way they’ve always been done is no way to run a business. Just ask some of the companies which toed the line, accepted the status quo, and went under. Adapting to an ever-changing marketplace is really the only way to survive in an economy constantly being disrupted by the next big thing.

You don’t have to be a slave to the trends, but you also can’t stick your head in the sand and hope things go back to normal. Instead, come up with creative solutions to new problems and innovate, and you’ll soon be in the driver’s seat taking your organization into the future.

Everyone wants to be successful, so make sure your words aren’t holding you back. These seven phrases are career kryptonite -- by avoiding them, you can fly into your future and become a successful superstar.

What do you think? What phrases do you avoid on the job?

11 Tips to Improve Self Confidence

Here are some quick tips to improve your Self Confidence. If we are committed to have a healthy self confidence there are many things you can do every day to boost your self confidence, each small steps that will help you to reach your goal. The good news is that self-esteem is not fixed and can be improved, try some of the steps below to boost your confidence and self-esteem.

1) Identify your successes. Everyone is good at something, so discover the things at which you excel, then focus on your talents. Give yourself permission to take pride in them. Give yourself credit for your successes. Inferiority is a state of mind in which you've declared yourself a victim. Do not allow yourself to be victimized.

2) Look in the mirror and smile. Studies surrounding what's called the "facial feedback theory" suggest that the expressions on your face can actually encourage your brain to register certain emotions. So by looking in the mirror and smiling every day, you might feel happier with yourself and more confident in the long run. 

3) Exercise and eat healthy. Exercise raises adrenaline and makes one feel happier and healthier. It is certainly an easy and effective way to boost your self-confidence.

4) Turn feelings of envy or jealousy into a desire to achieve. Stop wanting what others have just because they have it; seek things simply because you want them, whether anybody else has them or not.

5) When you're feeling superbly insecure, write down a list of things that are good about you. Then read the list back. You'd be surprised at what you can come up with. 

6) Don't be afraid to push yourself a bit - a little bit of pressure can actually show just how good you are!

7) You can try taking a martial arts or fitness class/course (or both). This will help build confidence and strength. Invest in some new clothing and donate some of your old clothing to send a message to yourself that you both look sharp and feel sharp.

8) Try to make yourself talk positively at all times. When you hear yourself saying you can't do something, stop and say you can. Unless you try, you will never know whether you are able to or not.

9) Don't get wrapped up in your mistakes and dwell on bad points; they can contrast your good points or even give you something to improve. There's no feeling like being good at something you were really bad at.

10) Don't confuse what you have with who you are. People degrade their self worth when comparing possessions.

11) Surround yourself with nurturing friends, not overly critical individuals who make you feel inadequate or insecure. This could do great harm and damage to your self confidence.

Always remember "There is hair line crack between success and failure" Be sure to push yourself a bit, who knows that bit may lead you to success.