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Articles by Beat Overcommitment
More Isn't Always Better!
The vast majority of managers do not provide feedback often enough. For the most part, micromanagement is a rare occurrence. However, while most managers should be giving more feedback, this should not mean “the more often, the better.” Managers in this position give feedback at intervals so short that they hardly feel like intervals—a problem that can easily lead to micromanagement. When employees receive feedback that is given at the proper frequency, they grow more capable and confident.
Sticky Notes: 5 Signs You’re Managing on Autopilot
Nine out of 10 managers default to informal, as-needed communication, rather than structured dialogue organized around the basics. The #1 self-reported time-drain for most managers is “solving problems that never should have occurred,” ranging from errors and delays to conflicts and personnel problems. When not responding to problems large or small, most managers spend most of their management time on five activities: Monitoring and responding to various electronic communication.
Sticky Notes: What Are Your Good Work Attitudes?
You’re professional. You are approachable and welcoming, and you communicate in a purposeful, straightforward manner. You’re persuasive. You make your arguments based on clear evidence, not assertions of opinion. You’re a troubleshooter. You focus on how to make things better, and you project hopeful confidence about successful outcomes. You’re generous. You offer your respect, commitment, hard work, creativity, sacrifice, or gratitude rather than solely focusing on what you need or want.
Sticky Notes: Don’t Lose Sight of the Basics
With so much training technology available today, it can be difficult to decide which is right for your team or organization. While online courses boomed during the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, they seem to be here to stay. When evaluating these options, don’t lose sight of the tried-and-true basics: Engage managers in the training process by turning them into coaches. Tell people what to do, and how to do it. Track performance every step of the way.
Sticky Notes: Boost Employee Engagement by Treating It as an Equity Issue
By now, the business costs of harboring unengaged employees are well known. Time is wasted. Resources are squandered. Employee turnover is much more likely, making the costs of turnover much higher for organizations. But many organizations miss the mark on employee engagement. They may over-rely on messaging and corporate branding to impress upon their employees why the work matters and, therefore, how their individual efforts contribute to a larger mission.
Sticky Notes: Turn Every Manager into a Training Officer
The increasing pace of change in today’s workplace has made it clear to workers of all ages they must continually improve to remain competitive. Skills that were relevant a week ago may no longer apply today. Conventional industry wisdom fluctuates every few months. Adapting and evolving are the only options, whether you’re an entry-level employee or the CEO. But the problem facing most organizations is cost and time: How can they possibly afford to provide training for their entire organization?
Sticky Notes: From Feedback to Focus
Home Magazine Articles Sticky Notes: From Feedback to Focus Please Share Your Input The data we collect from our 2024 Training Industry Report Survey and Annual Salary Survey will help us help you determine a roadmap for your L&D organization in 2024/2025 and beyond. Please participate today! Take the Training Industry Report Survey Take the Salary Survey Cast Your TMN Choice Awards Vote Today! Voting is open for the 2024 Training Magazine Network Choice Awards program.
Sticky Notes: The Best Coaching Begins with Customization
The best coaching-style managers consistently do the following things: They customize their approach with every person because every person is different. This is what I call tuning in to each person’s unique frequency. They choose their words carefully to make sure they get the facts right, balance criticism with praise, and try hard to strike an appropriate tone. This is what I call accuracy. They set concrete goals with clear parameters and deadlines every step of the way.
Sticky Notes: Recognize Overcommitment on Your Team
If you want to prevent people from quitting, as a manager, you must fight “overcommitment syndrome” within your ranks. This is the toxic cycle: Everything is urgent and important. People overextend themselves, committing to too many projects with too short lead times. Clients, customers, and collaborators are left frustrated. So they increase the pressure. But once the pressure builds up, people begin to shut down.
Sticky Notes: How to Fight Overcommitment and Be a Master Collaborator
The world of work has been becoming more complex and uncertain since we began studying it in 1993. But now, of course, that complexity and uncertainty has been magnified by new and unexpected challenges. Many of the problems to be solved are new. But many more of them have been faced and managed by those I call the “indispensables”—the go-to people who stand the test of time. Let me be clear: Nothing those indispensables do speaks directly to the challenges of the Great Resignation or hybrid work.
Leading Your Team Around Resource Constraints
Every time you approach a new project, task, or responsibility, you need to ask: Do we have the resources we need to do the work? Make resource planning a regular part of your regular one-on-one dialogue with every direct report. Teach everybody to do a regular resource-needs inventory: -Workspace -Supplies -Materials -Equipment -Transportation -Information -Operation -Maintenance -People -Talent -Training -Communication -Cooperation Some resources are a whole lot easier to come by than others.
Sticky Notes: Too Much “Take 5”
What can you do about employees who take too many breaks and waste time at work? Talk about it in no uncertain terms: Reiterate that when they are at work, they are expected to be focused on getting work done well at a reasonable pace all day long. Clearly, breaks are allowed, but they should remain within the allotted time. Help people identify their time wasters and eliminate them.
Leading When So Many Factors Are Outside Your Control
No matter where you work, no matter what you do, there are so many factors that really matter and yet are totally out of your control. It feels very much like there is nothing you can do: Change is a constant, and constant change is the new constant. Competition for limited resources is a constant, and perpetually constrained resources are the new constant. Interdependency is a constant and increasingly unavoidable in today’s complex world.
How to Help a Superstar Move Into a Leadership Role
Managers always ask me about that superstar they are struggling to get to the “next level,” whatever that “next level” may be in this case. On the one hand, this can be an internal struggle for the manager: If you succeed in getting that superstar to the next level, maybe you will lose her. Maybe the next level means not reporting to you anymore, either now or in the near future. Maybe it means the superstar will take on a new role, leaving a gap in her current role.
How to Help a Superstar Move Into a Leadership Role
Managers ask me all the time about that superstar they are struggling to get to the “next level” whatever that “next level” may be in this case. On the one hand, this can be an internal struggle for the manager: If you succeed in getting that superstar to the next level, maybe you will lose her. Maybe the next level means not reporting to you anymore, either now or in the near future. Maybe it means the superstar will take on a new role, leaving a gap in her current role.
Sticky Notes: Working 9 to…4:45?
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The Challenges of Managing Superstars
Let’s cut right to the chase: The very best talent—-at every level—- is worth so much more than other employees; the only way to be fair, keep them motivated, retain them, and develop them is to differentiate radically and invest wildly in recognizing and rewarding them. You know very well that one great player on your team is worth three, four, or five mediocre people. The difference in value is sometimes hard to quantify—- sometimes not so hard.
Sticky Notes: Teaching Employees to Get Organized
With the latest electronic devices and systems, how could anybody be disorganized ever again? The answer is simple, of course: The greatest devices and systems in the world are no good to someone who doesn’t use them. So often there is a disconnect on the front lines between the organizational tools that are available to employees and what they are actually doing.
The Challenges of Managing Superstars
Let’s cut right to the chase: When it comes to the very best talent—at every level—the only way to be fair, keep them motivated, retain them, and develop them is to differentiate radically and invest wildly in recognizing and rewarding them. The MVPs You know that one great player on your team probably is worth three, four, or five mediocre people. The difference in value is sometimes hard to quantify—and sometimes not so hard.
Sticky Notes: A Matter of Time
What is to be done about employees who cannot adhere to a schedule? In some cases, these problems are due to a blasé attitude or a lack of care, consideration, or diligence. If so, then there is no substitute for constant reminders in your regular one-on-ones. But sometimes it’s not a lack of care, but rather a lack of skills and habits. You might be the first person to hold them accountable for being “on time.” In the process, you might end up doing this person a huge favor.
Managing Attitudes
Attitude affects productivity, quality, and morale. It also has a huge impact on collegiality, cooperation, and cohesion. It can be the difference between employees embracing or rejecting development opportunities. Attitudes can make the difference between retention versus turnover. Good attitudes drive positive results. Bad attitudes put drag on results. So why do most managers avoid dealing with bad attitudes?
Sticky Notes: Your Time Starts…Now!
When teaching employees to meet deadlines, start with one small goal with a short deadline and all the specifications. If they deliver, then set a little bigger goal and a slightly longer deadline. And so on. Gradually increase the amount and importance of the work you assign, until you reach the employee’s appropriate scope of responsibility…for now. Once the employee reaches that point, you can continue to empower them by coaching them and by using project planning tools together.
Sticky Notes: Teaching Time Management
Time is precious: Everybody gets just 168 hours in a week. Employees almost always want more free time and more control over their own schedules. Managers typically see employees’ time as a business resource to be optimized. Thus, an incessant tug of war over time is always being played out. Understand the True Time Requirements Before you engage in a tug of war over time management with any of your employees, first make sure you really understand the true time requirements of the jobs in question.
The Logistical Hurdles of Managing Employees Remotely
Even in the easiest circumstances, maintaining an ongoing dialogue with every person requires organization, planning, and rigorous and disciplined follow-through. And how many people work under the easiest of circumstances? More likely, you might be managing around one or more logistical hurdles. Maybe you have too many people to manage, or you are trying to manage people in remote locations or who work a different schedule than you.
Sticky Notes: Soft Skills: A Key Part of the Equation
Hard skills minus soft skills are much less than the diminished sum of the parts. Even if… …the nurse is great at inserting needles, if they don’t take notes correctly, then patients will suffer. …the computer programmer writes great code, unless they understand user needs, the code goes nowhere. …the data analyst is a master at reporting, if they don’t follow through, leaders could be starved of timely key performance indicators.
Sticky Notes: Build Up New Go-To People
If you are anybody’s boss, part of your job is helping your people get better. You owe it to them to be a coaching-style or teaching-style leader. Spell out expectations at every step; follow up; guide, direct, support; track performance; troubleshoot; problem solve; and provide course-correcting feedback. Encourage them to learn and grow and aim for the next level. You don’t have to be the boss to help people get better.
How to Set Your New Team Up for Success
This is a unique twist on the “new manager” situation when everybody is new to you and each other. You have not met each other yet. You are not sure how long this team will even exist. You didn’t get to choose the team. As you know, nobody on the team has ever worked together. You know that you have, let’s say, eight people, at least to start. Some are more experienced than others, of course. None of this is out of the ordinary. It’s a start-up situation of one kind or another.
How to Successfully Transition from Peer to Leader
You finally got the promotion. Congratulations! Yesterday you were a team member. Today you are in charge of that same team. When you are promoted from within, you can easily make the mistake of thinking you already know everything and everyone. You already have relationships with everyone, and you likely already have strong opinions about who’s who and what’s what. Guess what? They already have opinions about you, too. Those who were your peers just the day before are your direct reports today.
Sticky Notes: Be An Amazing Customer
Once you find your go-to people, be their most amazing customer. What does that mean? There’s a lot more to being a great customer than giving somebody your business and paying good money. You also give them positive word of mouth, business referrals, comfort, ease, and trust in dealings. And who knows? The person selling (or helping you with) something today could be your customer tomorrow, or your boss, your direct report, colleague, teacher, friend, or uncle-in-law.
Sticky Notes: Make After-Action Reviews a Habit
Originally developed by the U.S. Army, the after-action review is being used by more private-sector organizations. Such reviews can focus on how a process runs or how a group dynamic can function better. Or they can be focused on the actions of individual participants. Questions that can guide an after-action review include: What happened? Why did it happen? What went right? What went wrong? How could it go better next time?
Sticky Notes: Make a Great “Thank You” One of Your Signatures
“Thank you”—like “please”—is as old as the hills. But like please, I’m afraid thank you has gone out of fashion. When we do say it, too often it’s in a perfunctory way. A meaningful thank you can be especially valuable in our sideways and diagonal relationships. Too often, we get in the habit of feeling nothing but frustration with each other, usually because neither side understands the challenges the other faces.
How to Build Trust in Remote Teams
“I believe that all human progress begins with trust.” This was something Frances Frei said to me in a recent conversation we had about transforming toxic workplace cultures. And research seems to support this belief. In one Harvard study, employees in high-trust companies reported: 50 percent higher productivity 40 percent less burnout 74 percent less stress and 76 percent more engagement Let’s face it, in today’s high-collaboration environment, it’s hard enough to build trust in teams in person.
Every Manager Is a Chief Retention Officer
When people leave their jobs voluntarily it is almost always—at least in part—directly attributable to their relationship (or lack thereof) with their immediate leader, manager, or supervisor: Their manager fails to regularly keep track of what’s going on, but still makes important or sweeping decisions that affect everyone on the team. Their manager fails to make expectations clear to individual employees.
Sticky Notes: Specialize in What You Do Best
Focus as much of your work time as possible doing the things you already know how to do very well, very fast, and deliver with a great attitude. Know what specialties you want to be known for. The more work you do in your specialties, the better your outcomes. Every minute you spend on the things you do very well will add more value than a minute spent on something that is not your specialty. That’s true, whether you are digging ditches or practicing surgery.
Winning the Talent Wars: Defining Your Employer Brand
Defining your employer brand If you want to set yourself apart as an employer, you have to define your employer brand in terms of a clear value proposition. Decide who/what you want to be as an employer and tell your story loud and clear, not just in terms of mission, vision, and culture; but specifically in terms of the work that your organization accomplishes, how, and the value proposition you have to offer to the employees who do that work. That means you need a purposeful staffing strategy.
What Is Really Causing Today’s Extreme Talent Shortage
After huge recent fluctuations in the labor market—record low unemployment before the pandemic, record job losses during, and record re-hiring in the aftermath—employers are facing more severe talent shortages than any time since we at RainmakerThinking began our workplace research in 1993. While the particulars differ by geography, industry, skill specialization, and level, the evidence of talent shortages is widespread: Voluntary unplanned turnover (the “quit rate”) is increasing.
The Best of the Best
I’ve had the honor and privilege of working as a researcher, consultant, and trainer for many professionals in the U.S. military, including special operations forces. Think about Army Special Forces (Green Berets), Navy SEALs, Marine Reconnaissance, Air Force Special Operations Command – these are meant to be the best of the best. These groups are strikingly impressive— their esprit de corps, the powerful ethic of service and sacrifice, the reeking confidence and skill.
How to Apply Continuous Improvement to Build Relationships at Work
In today’s workplace, we seek to practice ongoing, continuous improvement in nearly every area and aspect of the organization. We also need to apply those practices in an ongoing, continuous way to improve our working relationships—up, down, sideways, and diagonal. Continuous improvement The key to continuous improvement is capturing the lessons to be learned when things go wrong—instead of finger-pointing. But it also means capturing lessons when things go right and celebrating them.
Sticky Notes: When to Say, “No”
The very good “no” is all about timing and logic. “No” at work is a way to prevent you and your colleagues from wasting time and attention and, very likely, money and other resources on something that cannot be done, is not allowed, or should not be done. I call these the three “no gates.” I’m borrowing from the concept of the gate review process.
Smaller Chunks of Work - Bigger Chunks of Time
Rafael works as a regulatory affairs manager in an engineering firm. He has a near-superhuman workload, but he’s one of the best people I’ve seen at finishing what he starts. The secret to finishing what he starts is in the way he plans and executes using a “do” list that utilizes “bigger chunks of time. Smaller chunks of work.” He keeps a schedule and a to-do list. But he also keeps a “do” list. He showed me his system. He keeps two whiteboards mounted on the wall on either side of his desk.
Sticky Notes: Reimagine Yes and No
All day long, the asks keep coming at you from every direction—from your boss, direct reports, sideways and diagonal colleagues, etc. Every decision about yes and no is all about opportunity cost: Every bad no is a missed opportunity or a delayed and soured opportunity if the no gets overturned. Every bad yes is a waste of time, energy, and money that will crowd out a better opportunity. Every good no—or not yet—makes room for a better opportunity.
How to Expand Your Repertoire
When it comes to expanding your repertoire of specialties, be systematic. Don’t Be Daunted, But Don’t Be Totally Undaunted Either. Let’s say you just got what appears to be a pretty great new assignment with a promising new internal customer. What if you’ve never done anything quite like this before? What if the thought of it brings out all of your worst fears about your abilities? Don’t be intimidated. This is a chance to learn and grow.
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