How To Prepare For Long, Complicated Meetings

Some big, messy meetings are a requirement

As managers, our manager training has taught us a thing or two about how to run successful meetings. We know that we need to keep them short, tightly focused, and limit the number of people that we permit to attend. Our goal is to avoid having to attend those time wasting events that seem to … Read more

How Managers Can Prevent Their Teams From Spending Too Much Time In Meetings

Managers need to protect a team's productivity and morale

So here’s an important question for managers: how much of your week do you spend in meetings? I suspect that the answer is probably “A lot.” Too often back-to-back meetings are becoming the norm throughout the business world, leaving everyone frazzled and farther behind at the end of each day. We need to ask ourselves … Read more

How To Celebrate Successes With Your Team

When you team has a success, you need to acknowledge it

As a manager you need to remember that celebrating our achievements is important for every team. Joyfully acknowledging milestones gives credit to the hard work done by the team, provides motivation for reaching goals, and rewards everyone for a job well done. Nowhere is this truer than where we work. Managers need to realize that … Read more

How A Manager Can Effectively Execute An Offsite Team Meeting

A well-run offsite meeting can make a team work better together

Every manager realizes that the members of their team are one of the biggest expenses that their company has to deal with. At the same time we all realize that company culture is critical, and your team needs clear goals. You can tackle all three of these issues by conducting a well-planned company offsite that … Read more

How Can A Manager Build A Happy Team?

It turns out that gratitude is the key

Ok manager, so you are in charge of a team. What would you like to do with that team? If you are like most of us, you’d like to be able to use your manager skills to create a happy, very productive team. The studies have shown us that happy teams score higher on productivity, … Read more

Manager Tips From Google On How To Make A Great Team

Google's research shows what it takes to make a great team

Let’s think about your team for just a moment or two. The people on your team most of the time don’t do things by themselves. Instead, they work with other people on the team in order to accomplish tasks. However, it’s that working together thing that can cause problems. Interpersonal issues can crop up, personalities … Read more

Hey Manager – Could You Be Too Much Into This Team Thing?

Yes, collaboration is important, but could you be hurting your team?

Yea! It’s time to work on a team! How many times have you heard someone say this to you? As managers of a team, we are expected use our manager skills to lead by example and so we are the ones who are supposed to be able to show our team what it means to … Read more

What Should Managers Do About Hugging?

More and more people are hugging at work, what's the right way to do this?

How about if we agree to talk about a touchy topic: hugging. Yep, even in this #Metoo era, the concept of opening your arms up and then enveloping a coworker in a big hug is something that is still done in the workplace. You’d think that all of this would be going away in our … Read more

Managers Need To Learn How To Deal With Dead-End Conversations

Managers need to learn how to turn around conversations that they can’t walk away from

Let’s face it. A big part of the job of being an effective manager is the art of conversation. During an average day, we end up talking with a lot of different people about a lot of different things. It would be fair to say that our conversations have a lot to do with our … Read more