Learn How to Manage Your Boss
No matter where you work, you report to someone – maybe even to two or three bosses. And whether you think your boss is brilliant or a bore, the fact is that you have to manage the relationship with your boss if you want to advance your career.
Many of us give little thought to managing our supervisors. We do so at our own peril. Supervisors can have a lot of influence over our success in a job and our long-term career plans. Supervisor recommendations carry a lot of weight when it comes to decisions about raises, promotions, training resources and even job references. Why then do we fail to develop positive work relationships with our supervisors?
In the past, the supervisor-employee relationship has been view as one-way, with the supervisor as boss and the employee subservient to their authority. It is better to view the relationship as a partnership involving mutual dependence. Supervisors need the contributions of subordinates, just as subordinates require support and resources from supervisors. Both parties need to co-operate in order to fulfil requirements and achieve goals.
Why do so many employees try to stay out of the way of supervisors and avoid their notice? Surveys indicate, more than 50 per cent of employees list relationships with immediate supervisors as the worst aspect of their job. Sure, there are poor supervisors, just as there are poor employees. However, both employees and supervisors are responsible for creating effective working relationships.
Develop positive working relationships
Employees, consider your immediate supervisor as an important internal customers. Ask yourself, what does my supervisor needs from me? What is the preferred work style of my supervisor? What kind of environment does my supervisor work in and what pressures do they experience?
What does your supervisor expect of you? Use this information to guide and build your interactions. Remember, supervisors are busy people with many demands placed on them. Make good use of their time and resources.
Take initiative
The workplace is fast-paced; it’s smart to take the intiative. Don’t wait for your supervisor to give detailed directions. Instead, show initiative, demonstrate sound judgment and ask questions. Ask your supervisor for feedback and act on the feedback. Most supervisors appreciate the participation of employees in company work activities. For example, participate in meetings, volunteer to sit on important committees and welcome delegated tasks as a way to increase your skills.
Be professional
You create good working relationships with your supervisor by acting professionally. Meet work deadlines and keep your supervisor informed about accomplishments and problems. Be honest and don’t agree to do things if you have no intention of following through on them.
The workplace requires you keep up-to-date about developments in your field and improve your work skills through ongoing learning. Avoid the temptation of becoming a superhero, working solo for long hours with excessive overtime. These behaviours can have negative effects on your family and volunteer activities. Learn instead to become a team player and to strike a good balance between work and family responsibilities.
Be resourceful
Growth requires change. Supervisors appreciate employees that are resourceful. Be creative, share ideas and develop problem-solving skills. Have Plan B on standby, in case Plan A doesn’t yield the outcome measures or standards required.
Flexibility is a worker’s key asset. Practise time management skills and schedule time each week for networking. Know who you can call for help when you need it. Supervisors are looking for self-motivated individuals who are interested in more than financial rewards alone.
The choice is yours
Supervisors can be an advocate or an adversary. The choice is largely up to you. The relationship you develop with your supervisor should not be left to chance. Learn to manage your supervisor by taking initiative, being professional and resourceful. Treat your supervisor as your most important internal customer and offer exceptional customer service. Doing so will enhance your employability skills and increase your marketability.
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How to Prepare the Room for Your Speech or Presentation
Think about the time invested in preparing a great speech: research, organization, practice, preparing a slide presentation, etc. Now, imagine neglecting the last preparation step by not allowing time to prepare the facility when you’ll give your speech.
Your presentation is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. You blast into the room —with the audience already there— at 9:58 a.m. and proceed to set up your notes and equipment.
Ten minutes later, you’re fiddling with cables trying to connect the projector to you laptop. You haven’t booted up yet. It’s powered by Windows, so we know we have another ten-minute wait while it starts.
By this point, you’ve pretty much lost your audience.
Make sure that you spend enough time in the presentation room before your speech begins. Don’t let unforeseen circumstances put a damper on your speech. Get the details of the location where you will deliver your speech ahead of time.
Before leaving
- Make sure you have all the material you need: notes, files, handouts, USB stick, projector, etc.
- Double check your equipment. Make sure it’s working.
- Bring extra hardware as practical. Have two memory sticks, with the presentation file. Throw in an extension cord and extra connector cables for your tech. hardware.
- Make sure you have directions to your location, so you can get there early.
At the location
- Arrive early. At minimum, you need time to get your material ready. Better yet, be there early enough to set up and then greet audience members as they arrive. You can help build rapport with the audience by spending a few minutes chatting with them.
- Check the set-up. Can everybody see the speaker and presentation clearly? If possible, arrange the chairs and tables in a configuration that works for you.
- Make sure that the room is comfortable. Is it too hot or cold? Can you adjust the temperature?
- Set-up any electronic equipment you are using and test it to make sure it’s working properly and can be seen easily.
- Make sure the cables and cords are run in a safe manner. A roll of masking tape is helpful for keeping the cable out of the path of audience members.
- If the venue is providing the equipment, take a few minutes to make sure you know how to operate it.
- Test the microphone and sound system, standing where you’ll be using them.
Preparation at every stage of the process leads to a successful speech or presentation.
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How to Get Organized Using Lists
My wife is the queen of lists. She carries a iPod Touch and can, with a swipe and a couple of taps, pull up whatever information she needs to plan her next action. For example, she tracks all our shopping lists. If we pop into Home Depot to pick up a gallon of paint, she checks to see what other hardware items we might need, saving a second trip. She has lists of gift ideas, quotes for greeting cards, honey-do’s and much more.
Organized people don’t rely on their memory — they rely on their lists.
Lists are the simplest tool or system for managing your life. They consolidate all your tasks in one place. They can tickle your memory or stimulate your creativity. Lists can be as simple or as complex as you need.
Here is a quick outline of some of the lists you can keep:
- Reference
- Dates
- Birthday
- Anniversary
- Account information
- Dates
- Action
- To-do
- Bills to pay
- Projects
- Communication
- Planning
- Context-based
- Shopping
- Groceries
- Clothing
- Household
- Gifts
- Ideas
- Someday/Maybe
- Quotations
- Blog content
- Learning Opportunities
- Entertainment
- Movies
- Books
- Music
- Restaurants
David Allen suggests lists can be useful, fun, and interesting. These are a few I keep on my PDA:
Account and $ numbers - credit card #s, PIN #s, etc. (Be careful with this list. It should be encrypted and protected with a strong password)
Basic personal numbers (self and family members) – drivers license, social security, insurance policies, Whatever you may need for yourself and others when filling out forms. (ditto on encryption)
Birthdays - (if you don’t put them on your digital calendar system), group by date, as reviewable (those during a month, put in tickler for that month, etc.)
Gifts - organized by people and/or a general list of neat things to buy for others and where to get them. Great for birthdays, ad-hoc niceness, and Christmas time.
Ideas I don’t know what to do with, now that I’ve had them… – we all have them, and they don’t fit anywhere except in an “they don’t fit anywhere” place
Restaurants - for business or pleasure, to review for ideas instead of same-old same-old.
Style or product numbers I may need when I’m buying things- oil filter, vacuum cleaner bags, labeller cassettes, etc.
See them all at The David Allen Company —Cool/convenient lists to have
What are some of the lists you use?
Once you have your lists in place and in your planner, putting them to work should be easy.
If you want an interesting perspective on our use of lists, read the Sasha Cagen book, To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us.
<blockquote cite=”http://www.davidco.com/tips_tools/tip2.html”><strong>Account and $ numbers</strong>- credit card #s, PIN #s, etc. (if you’re using a Palm you can put these in Tel/Add, make them “private”, and turn off the Private view so that you only can see those entries when you turn it on with your password.)
<strong>Basic personal numbers (self and family members)</strong>- drivers license, social security, insurance policies, Whatever you may need for yourself and others when filling out forms.
<strong>Birthdays</strong>- (if you don’t put them on your digital calendar system), group by date, as reviewable (those during a month, put in tickler for that month, etc.)
<strong>Gifts</strong>- organized by people and/or a general list of neat things to buy for others (fresh maple syrup from Vermont, styluses for Palms, etc…. and where to get them.) Great for birthdays, ad-hoc niceness, and Christmas time.
<strong>Ideas I don’t know what to do with, now that I’ve had them…</strong>- we all have them, and they don’t fit anywhere except in an “they don’t fit anywhere” place
<strong>Restaurants</strong>- for business or pleasure, to review for ideas instead of same-old same-old.
<strong>Style or product numbers I may need when I’m buying things</strong>- oil filter, vacuum cleaner bags, labeller cassettes, etc.</blockquote>
See them all at <cite><a href=”http://www.davidco.com/tips_tools/tip2.html”>The David Allen Company —Cool/convenient lists to have</a></cite>[
8 Ways to Develop Your Employees
Over the past couple of years, we’ve gone from a strong economy that has created job growth to a down turn that has led to layoffs and rising unemployment. The current economic trend is indications of improving. Regardless of the economic climate, there is challenge of recruitment and retention.
One strategy that can improve recruitment and retention is training. Investing in staff training and development can alleviate skill shortages by improving your current staff’s abilities to handle increased or new challenges.
Training may sound expensive, but the cost of turnover is even more expensive. Replacing and employee can cost between 50 and 100 per cent of a positions’ annual salary! With this in mind, take a look at the following eight ways to develop your employees, from AILS.
- Training
- A well-designed training program that maximizes learning before, during and after instruction translates into positive, lasting changes on the job.
- Effective programs should include orientation, on-the-job training and classroom instruction.
- Internet-based learning is an option that allows employees to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule.
- Self-directed learning
- This approach puts individual employees in control of their own learning, allowing for personal differences in learning styles and encouraging ownership of the learning process.
- When using this approach, many employers work with employees to develop a learning contract or personal development plan. The contract or plan, which is signed by both parties, outlines clear learning goals.
- Coaching and mentoring
- Demonstrated benefits of these approaches include improved quality and quantity of work, transfer of learning and, for employees, improved communication and problem-solving skills.
- Effective coaching and mentoring programs depend on the skills and personality of the mentor or coach, adequate time for coaching and mentoring sessions and established time-lines and goals.
- Employee promotion
- Promoting someone to a position of greater responsibility is a traditional way of rewarding good performance, developing employee skills and retaining valued employees.
- Effective promotion involves careful consideration of many details, including identifying gaps in skills and experience and providing support through training, coaching or mentoring.
- Job enrichment
- Job enrichment increases the employee’s authority or responsibility within their current position. Examples include committee work, special assignments or serving on cross-functional teams.
- This approach increases interest and motivation by allowing employees to try new skills, build new relationships and explore new areas of specialization.
- Job rotation and cross-training
- Job rotation moves an employee through one or more different positions. The rotation can last several hours, several months or even a year or two. Cross-training is a specific type of job rotation where an employee learns the skills of a different position.
- These approaches can effectively add diversity and interest, prepare individuals for promotion, rejuvenate work units and improve communication.
- Lateral moves
- In a lateral move, an employee moves to a different position with similar status, pay and responsibility. A lateral move may offer new challenges or encourage the development of different skills for an employee who may not necessarily want increased responsibility.
- This approach increases flexibility and communication among work units and, in small businesses with few opportunities for advancement, helps to retain valuable employees who might otherwise leave.
- Job aids
- Job aids include checklists, tip sheets, wallet cards, posters, pictures, code lists, flow charts and diagrams—anything that offers on-the-spot practical help or reminders. Job aids can reduce the amount of information employees need to recall by providing easily accessible facts.
- Well-designed job aids are concise, written in plain language and make good use of white space and graphics for easy interpretation.
Effective training and development better equips an organiztion to meet business challenges from filling staffing shortages to retaining current staff. Developing employee skills help generate the kind of performance that carries employers and employees forward.
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7 deadly sins for speakers and presenters
It takes a lot of preparation to craft the kind of speech or presentation that is going to grab your listener’s attention. Once the speech is crafted, you need to spend a lot of time practising, so as to make sure you keep their attention.
Listeners don’t give their attention lightly and it doesn’t take much for it to wander. Here are seven bad speaking habits that will guarantee your listeners will be focusing on other things, instead of what you’re presenting.
Rambling – if you don’t know where you’re going, the audience is not going to follow. If you do not have anything to say, sit down! No one has ever complained about a speech that ended early.
Speaking in a monotone – not only are you [...] Continue Reading…
10 Tips to Help You Stay Organized
Learning how to get organized is one thing, but staying organized is a completely different matter. Many people put off getting organized because they’re not sure they can sustain the process long-term. Breaking your disorganization habit takes more than making sure to put things in their place.
Once you have a system in place and you know how to be organized, you will need to know how to stay organized.
Conquer clutter immediately. Clean up clutter as soon as you create it. If your desk harbours mounds of papers, books, files and personal accessories, you may be adding unnecessary stress to your day. An organized desk will help you relax and become more productive.
Conquer clutter daily. Schedule 10 to 15 minutes each week to clear [...] Continue Reading…
7 Leaderships Tips From Leaders
What is a leader?
A leader is a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. A leader is not the boss of the team, but the person that is committed to carrying out the mission of the venture.
Leaders exist to get things done. Leadership is needed beyond the bounds of politics and business. Leadership is needed in families; schools and universities need leadership; charitable organizations need leadership. In fact, whenever there is an opportunity for two or more people to collaborate to get something done, leadership is a key ingredient.
Here are 7 tips on the subject of leadership from those who have demonstrated themselves [...] Continue Reading…
How to write an elevator speech
Our public relations director came by my office recently with a prospective volunteer board member. As part of the introduction, the director asked me to outline my role, in 30 seconds or less. Well… I hemmed, hawed and took about 90 seconds to stammer out a rambling answer.
Time to write an elevator speech.
What is an elevator speech? An elevator speech is a short description of what you do, or perhaps, a point you want to make, delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (say, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).
Why use an elevator speech? It is important to be able to quickly introduce an organization, product, service, etc. to potential stakeholders. You only have a few moments to make a first impression. Investing time in developing [...] Continue Reading…
11 Golden Rules of Time Management
No one manages time; they only manage how they use their time. Successful people use their time on the things that matter most and on tasks that move them closer to their goals.
Consider the following “golden rules” of time management. See if you can be more effective in how you use your time.
Understand the value of your time: We may all value our time differently, but we all have the same number of minutes in a day. Once they are lost, they are gone forever.
Plan: You don’t plan failure, but you have to plan for success.
Do tomorrow’s planning today: Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of the day to figure out what you need to accomplish. Determine that before the day starts.
Identify your “prime time:” What part [...] Continue Reading…
5 Tips for Effective Delegation
As a manager/supervisor, you just can’t do it all. To achieve effective results, you need to able to delegate projects and work to others. By effective delegation, you communicate to your employees that you have confidence in their ability to complete a job or project.
Define the task and identify the outcome, not the process. The process that works for you may not work for others. Maybe you’ve been doing a job one way, because that’s how you were taught 20 years ago. When delegating, describe the successful outcome and let the person to find their best way to completion. Who knows, you might learn something from them.
Give enough authority to accomplish the task. If the person receiving the task has to get approval at [...] Continue Reading…
