“I need to fix this..NOW”

Do your departmental meetings go on and on? Do team members turn up late or don’t attend at all?

You know this situation very well…..

It’s 8.00pm, you’ve already had a hard day at work. In the morning, for the first time, you have to manage a department meeting because your boss won’t be in the office – he only told you as you were finishing off for the day – and you’ve never chaired a meeting before.

Immediately after the meeting, you have to have a difficult conversation with that lazy guy in legal. That was in your diary but you’ve never given someone a warning before and you thought you had the whole evening to prepare for it.

You want to get a full night’s sleep without worrying. It’s 3 hours until bedtime. You have to get the meeting and the hard conversation planned and sewn up so you’re “ready to go” – the minute you get to work.

In the last hour, since you got home, you’ve researched on the Internet and you’ve skimmed some books but all you’ve got is theory and that’s not what you need right now. It feels that you are just going round and round the issue, the background, what various management gurus think etc etc.

You want to yell “I don’t need all this. I need to know EXACTLY how to do it – NOW”

AND

Does your boss drop tasks on you?

For instance…….

You’ve had a crazy, mad month and tonight you’ve planned an evening with a new friend. You’re really looking forward to it. You walk with your boss to the car park on your way home and he says “let’s get together at 9am for a quick meeting to plan how we can improve performance appraisals this year”.

Your heart sinks because all you know is the current appraisal system – are there other models?. If you try to get out of it, your boss will think you know nothing. How can you get the knowledge you need in the one hour you have between arriving home and your dinner date?

5 minute guides will give you good quality information to get you started, enough for you to make an informed and intelligent contribution to the discussion in the morning or to chair the meeting. They are based on sound management theory and buy you time to read up on it tomorrow or on the weekend.

When you need to know how to deal with today’s problems – fast – check out our Five Minute Guides.

“What does a good manager..”

….need to know?

Managers are expected to master a whole range of new skills.

There are some “Must-Have” skills without which it’s impossible to do the job. All managers need them.

Great managers know that these are the skills which they have to develop to a very high level. Great managers also know that they have to develop these skills quickly AND they work to continuously improve them.

The better your skills in these areas, the more successful you’ll be.

In our “Must-Have” Skills section, you’ll find the practical knowledege you need.

“Can I get more information on..”

We’re reviewing our performance appraisal process. I want more information so that I can contribute to the meeting.

Our “Manager Briefings” will give you additional “how to” information which will take you about 15 minutes to read.

They are concise, practical, focused solutions for Managers who haven’t got the time – right now – to read around the task they have to do tomorrow or this week.

“Manager Briefings” gives you the “know how” to use today.

They are not theory but are based on sound, tried and tested theory.

“What do other managers do?”

Everyone likes “stories” to which they can relate.

Case studies can be a great resource to learn from other people’s experiences.

Our Case Studies provide “real life” examples of the problems other managers have faced and how they solved them.

They are specific to a situation and to the people involved. However, the elements of the situation will be widely applicable to circumstances which many managers encounter during their career.

Case Studies offer detail – background, practical tips and suggestions and spotlight pit-falls to avoid in similar circumstances.

“I’m looking for a course”

Finding a training course that suits you is never easy.

Is it on offer the one week you CAN’T attend?

Is it being held soon enough for you?

Does it run at times convenient to you?

Is it on offer in your city or will you have to travel?

Can you afford the course right now?

Our “bite-sized” management training courses allow you to learn at time that suits you, at a pace that suits you and at no additional cost.

Hone up your management skills with one of our members’ training courses “a Bite at a Time”.

We split all the courses up into manageable sections so you can get started right away. By dividing the courses into bite size segments, you can take the part of the course you need – when you need it.

Most of the courses are provided in the form of downloadable PDF files.

“I have a question…”

I’m a lot younger than all the people in the team I manage. I want to gain their respect and be able to lead them.

This is an example of a question we received from one of our members.

When you need more information on something specific or you’d like some guidance on how to approch a situation, use our “Ask Elizabeth & Jack” page to ask your question.

Your question will be anonymous and in total confidence.

There are occasions when it’s not appropriate to ask someone at work about an issue. Your boss may think you’re not up to the job if you mention it or maybe the obvious person to ask at work may be too close to the problem to give you a balanced view.

You may feel you need independent advice on the range of options you think you have and you want to get another view.

Friends and family may not be familiar with your management situation. In some cases, the topic may require friends and family to be unbiased and not favor you in their response.

We’ll get right back to you with an answer. If it’s a topic of general interest to managers, we may also write a 5-minute guide or a manager briefing. Be assured though, if we use your question in this way, we’ll change every possible facet of it so there will be no possibility that you and your company could be identified.

Ask a Question now!

Hello and Welcome to “Managers Need to Know”.

We hope you enjoy our new site and find it useful.

This site is newly designed. It has been conceived as a response to what we’ve heard from the managers with whom we’ve been working for over 10 years.

Previously, we’ve worked with and supported managers of all age groups on a “tell us what you need and we’ll help you” basis.

That’s worked very well and continues to work well.

What we also know from our managers and from our own experience is that there is a real need for the sections on our menu bar.

Browse and enjoy……………

Dealing with Difficult People

You must address the issues. If you don’t deal with the issue, the situation won’t get
better and it usually gets worse. If you leave well alone, hoping the problem will resolve,
conflict simmers and erupts counter-productively. Coworkers feel angry.

Deciding to live with the situation long term is rarely an option.

Firstly, let’s be clear about the sort of person we are considering in this topic.

The person we are not considering is the person who has a real and genuine grievance
because they’ve been badly treated and who is complaining because they should
complain. Those people are completely justified in their complaint.

Be careful that the person you’ve been asked to “sort out” isn’t this sort of person. Do
some research before agreeing to take on the task.

Secondly, it’s more helpful to you and it’s easier to deal with if you think about the
unproductive /unacceptable behaviour rather than the “difficult person”.

The behaviours we are considering here are:

Read the rest of this “5 Minute Guide” for managers..

What Makes a Good Manager

I’m often asked for ideas on how to be a good manager and how to be a good people manager.

These are the essential skills of managers no matter what is the end product – computers, customer service or bread.

Make a list of the names of your previous “managers”. You may even want to go back to schools and when you were growing up. You may even want to consider your parents and how they managed you.

Consider also stories which stick in your mind which you’ve heard from friends and relations about their experiences of people who managed them.

Against each “manager” make 2 lists – what they did well and what they did badly.

Don’t rush this – give yourself a couple of days to ponder it all.

The aim is to give you a reminder of what works and what doesn’t work and importantly, why it works or doesn’t work.

Read the rest of this article

Taking on a New Management Position?

Get our “New Manager Training” and you can stop lying awake wondering what you’ve forgotten.

It’s all there, like a check-list. It’s a step-by-step “how to” guide.

It takes you from what you need to consider before you begin the job all the way through to the end of your first 3 months.

It’s written in an easy-to-read practical style which you’ll come to know is Elizabeth Best’s trademark style. That’s what she’s known for – great practical, focused information.

See our New Manager Training

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