I love holidays … right up to the moment I return to work.
It seems like it takes two days to catch up from just taking one day off.
Guess, I’m going to have to spend some more of my energy improving my time management skills.
I bet most of you spent the short week trying to catch up, too, so I’m sure you’re behind on your reading.
Well, our ResourcefulManager team was keeping its eyes open, and we spotted a few articles that you’re going to want to go back and check out.
Disclaimer: The author cannot be held responsible for any unwanted consequences, direct or indirect, of your breaking the rules.
That said, there are quite a few well-established workplace rules and customs that every manager should try to break – at least once.
Here are my 12.
Most of us use our electronic devices throughout the day almost without thinking. (For some they’re almost like an extension of our hands!) But chances are, we’re not even using our phones, tablets and computers to their fullest extent to help us get things done.
That’s why if you aren’t already taking advantage of these readily available tools, you need to be. Toss out-dated calendars and cumbersome filing systems and replace them with one of these (mostly free) handy apps or programs.
Here are 25 online time management and productivity tools to make you more efficient and less stressed.
Boom!
That’s the sound of performance appraisal processes being blown up across the country. There’s been a collective lightening flash of realization that the old way of doing it just isn’t doing it. For anyone. It’s largely a waste of time, money and mojo.
What replaces it is still not clear. There are all sorts of nascent tech solutions, and various forms of Performance Appraisal Lite. But if there’s one thing that seems to be consistent, it’s the belief that all managers and leaders need to coach their people more consistently, more successfully and more often.
I can’t draw.
And it bums me out. My son’s an artist, so there must be something in my genes, right? But even my stick figures are dreadful.
So I did the adult thing. I signed up for a beginning drawing class.
We spent most of the first night drawing cubes to learn perspective. I really began to get the hang of it. They weren’t pretty, but they were cubes.
Then the instructor pulled out a toy-sized model of a house and told us, “Now draw that!”
The legendary humorist and author Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) was a master of “exploring the American soul with wit, buoyancy and a sharp eye for the truth.”
His works are a mother lode of quotable wisdom. He pulled heavily from real life, from his childhood experiences in Hannibal, Mo., to piloting riverboats to working as a miner.
What follows are 20 gems on leadership that every person can put to good use.
As I get older, it’s easier to forget things.
Turns out that’s a good thing.
Leadership guru Dan Rockwell made a fascinating point a few weeks back: A good leader knows how to forget. They don’t dwell on past mistakes.
That creates negative thinking. And negative thinking doesn’t move you forward.
So, after much consideration and hand-wringing, you’ve finally decided you have no choice but to terminate that misfit-of-an-employee who just never seemed to catch on … to anything … ever … no matter how hard you tried.
The training didn’t take. The pep talks fell on deaf ears. The performance improvement plan sputtered — and failed. Now, you’re out of tricks.
But, pro that you are, you’re well-prepared for that difficult final meeting.
What could possibly go wrong?
Lots of stuff.
So brace yourself for one or more of these 11 scenarios.
Will someone please tell me why so many business execs are obsessed with buzzwords?
Is it their egos? Are they trying to convince others they are smarter than they really are? Is it ignorance? Or do they simply not care?
If I only knew then what I know now …
How many times have you said that?
Hindsight is worth its weight in gold and keeps us from repeating our mistakes.
Tale a moment and think about it.
If you could go back in time to your first management position, what single piece of knowledge would you take with you to make managing easier or better?
To get some answers, I went straight to people on the front lines – executives and supervisors I respect – and here’s what they said:
