Management Mastery

The minute you get promoted, you will no longer be the same person to your boss, your colleagues or your new staff.  In this encore episode of Management Mastery, we cover these changes and how to deal with them.

When overseeing a project in their department, the manager must continuously evaluate progress and make the decision when to wind down the project.  We covered, in a previous episode of Management Mastery, the manager’s role in monitoring the progress of a project.  In this episode, we cover the steps important to the successful winding down and conclusion of any project. 

We’ve discussed defining the problem a project is meant to address, selecting the team for the project and conducting the initial team meeting.  Ideally, once the project is underway, the manager’s role becomes one of monitoring the team’s progress to ensuring its success.  The project needs to be managed through a clear, efficient, operational structure if it’s to be successful..  That’s the topi...

After understanding the project and choosing the best staff to achieve success, we now move to the important initial meeting with staff.  This meeting, if handled well, will dramatically increase your odds of having a successful project.

While it’s easy to say, “A project is only as successful as the people behind it,” it also requires time and attention to get the process of selecting the team right.  Finding the right balance between technical skills, social skills, and interpersonal fit are all important considerations.  Selecting the best team for a project is the subject of this week’s episode

Managing a project is a complex process influenced by a range of factors that can make it challenging, both on a personal and an organizational level.  We’ll look at managing and overseeing a project in this episode beginning with defining the problem.  In future episodes we’ll examine setting up a project team, monitoring team progress, making course corrections as a project progresses, ongoing e...

The ability to make decisions Is one of a manager’s most important skills.  Making a good decision involves having a clear focus on your priorities and then choosing between two or more options.  Doing it well shows business acumen, confidence, leadership and, sometimes, even courage.  Doing it poorly creates doubt in the minds of your management, as well as your staff, about your leadership skill...

Whether you’re a new, or experienced, manager you’ll face problems at work.  The way that you approach solving them will prove to be an important aspect of your success.  In this week's episode of Management Mastery, we’ll discuss a good process to follow.

As a manager you’re constantly being pulled away from your strategic objectives by everyday tasks that may be important, but aren’t helping you to achieve your primary objectives.  As the manager, you should continuously seek ways you can maximize your group’s overall performance.  In this podcast we’ll discuss how to keep your focus on productivity while, at the same time, managing key relationsh...

Most of us believe that we are good listeners.  Research has shown that’s not true.  Listening is demanding both cognitively and emotionally.  It takes focused attention and effort to do it well.  We’ll discuss mistakes that manager’s make and how to avoid them in this episode.

The damage that a bad boss can inflict upon their staff and their organization is substantial.  Multiple studies have found that somewhere between 30-50% of both managers and workers leave their jobs because of a bad boss and a negative work culture.  We’ll look at how to avoid being a bad boss in this episode

Every manager needs the ability to persuade internal and external constituencies to reach consensus to move issues forward.  Sometimes it’s a major issue that needs to be decided on, like an issue with a client, or a change of direction, and other times it’ll be smaller, day-to-day operating decisions, such as moving a product out faster.  As the manager, you’ll be called upon to use your skills o...

In the last episode we discussed the importance of understanding your leadership style and how it’ll be important to your success.  Your style was developed over a series of events during your lifetime.  In this episode we’ll discuss how you can use your leadership style to be a more effective leader.

Understanding and improving your leadership style is important to your success as a manager.  They’re a number of ways you can approach this task.  In this podcast we’ll discuss a simple, straightforward way to think about and develop an effective leadership style.

Almost everyone has had the experience of working with a toxic coworker.  How to deal with that situation can be difficult and emotional.  It is not something that most people want to deal with, but it is in your interest, and the other persons, to work out the problem.  We will deal with ways that you can do that in this episode.

Former sales executive Jake Kilrain discusses his experience in dealing with a colleague who felt they should have his position and tried to undermine him at every opportunity.

Executive presence is a critical component of being a successful senior manager. It’s the ability to project an image of confidence, competence, and leadership, inspiring trust and respect in others.  As you continue to grow your career, developing and exhibiting the behaviors that define executive presence will be important for your growth as a manager.  In a previous episode, we discussed the im...

Executive Presence is the ability to project an image of confidence, competence, and leadership that inspires trust and respect in others. Executive presence is a critical component of being a successful senior manager.  As you grow your career, understanding and displaying the behaviors and demeanor that define executive presence will be important for your development.  In this episode, we discus...

In our episode entitled “The Basics of Speechmaking” from February 18, we said that half of the world’s population was terrified of making a speech and we discussed the basics of making a speech.  In this episode we’ll discuss how to think about your presentation and how to share what you’re passionate about with others.

How better can you learn about being an effective manager than listening to one of the masters in the subject.  One is Peter Drucker whose writings are the subject of today’s podcast. Overview:  Leaders are all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths and weaknesses.  They range from extroverted to nearly reclusive, from easy going to controlling, from open to clo...

In previous episodes we’ve spoken about “Designing Jobs” and “Assessing Staff Wellbeing.”  Now we want to  talk about you and some issues related to managing your own career.  It’s important to remember that you’re both a manager as well as an employee of your company.  So, not only are you a boss, you also have a boss. In this episode we’ll discuss how to deal with your own manager in ways that’l...

In almost any company of any size, managers do performance reviews.  And, as with anything, some managers are better at it than others.  Some have biases that they can’t get away from such as giving better reviews to people they hired, or that they know socially outside of the office.  Nevertheless, almost everyone agrees there is a valid place for performance reviews when they’re done fairly and...

In a previous podcast on one-on-one meetings with your staff, from December 17 of 2024, we discussed how to manage and conduct one-on-one meetings with the members of your staff.  Unfortunately, many managers either downplay the importance of one-on-one meetings or focus only on discussing what the staff member needs to do to successfully complete their jobs.  In this episode we expand on what out...

In addition to the job performance of their staff members, a wise manager is also concerned with the general and emotional wellbeing of their staff.  This may require watching for signs of problems that’re outside of just job performance.  By being sensitive to general issues of staff wellbeing, a good manager can often head off performance problems down the road.  We discuss how in this episode.

Your relationship with your boss is critical, and the first meeting is among the most important you will have. In this encore episode, we will cover how to plan for and behave in this all important meeting.