Tom had been working on a major project for two weeks, carrying his laptop between his home and the office and putting in countless hours of overtime. The report he was working on was likely the most important of his career thus far – his boss had never assigned him and his team a project of such magnitude before this one.

One morning Tom walked into the office, set up his laptop, and walked away to get a cup of coffee. He was starting to feel the pressure of the looming deadline and had begun to become frustrated with the slow pace some of his teammates were taking with their contributions to the research. As he was settling back into the office to begin working, a member of his team came in and sat across from him at his desk. They began discussing files and the team member reached across to grab and handful of relevant papers. On his way back across the desk, he accidentally knocked over Tom’s cup of coffee – the one he had placed just a little too close to the laptop.

After a frozen moment of terror, both men watched as the coffee settled into the small keyboard, working its way into the computer’s mainframe. There was an ugly grinding sound before the computer halted to a stop and the screen went completely blank. Tom’s project was destroyed – no one would be able to recover the lost document in time.

Tom went absolutely crazy. He couldn’t think straight, began yelling obscenities, and blamed the poor soul on the other side of the desk for his misfortune. His behavior escalated until he had progressed from anger to outright rage. It took three members of upper management to calm him down.

Tom was understandably upset, but was his rage justified? It was not. There is never a good reason for behaving in an inappropriate manner at work. Tom was devastated because he was in a new management position, was coordinating his first project, and felt as though he had just failed.

If Tom had remained calm and collect, he could have mourned his first draft and then collected his team for a meeting to determine the quickest and most effective way of recreating the work that had been done thus far. Each member of his team had a role in the process and, with a little bit of work, what he had done so far could have been duplicated. Instead, he ignored his feelings of frustration until he was pushed over the edge by a single incident. This is a terrible example of anger management.

My example about Tom’s situation is a slight exaggeration. Most people won’t react quite as harshly when they lose their tempers, but their anger will still be blinding. Anger is a natural human response to a bad situation, but you can control your anger and choose your own reaction.

How will you choose to respond?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

You’re going to have plenty of angry moments at work. It’s inevitable. A team member might call out sick, leaving the rest of you in a lurch; an employee may become indignant or miss a deadline; or a superior might dump a project on you at the last minute. Occasional bouts of anger are an undeniable part of life.

When you start feeling angry every day, however, it will be time to assess whether or not you’ve reached an unreasonable or unmanageable level. Will you be able to catch and control your anger before it turns into rage? Better yet, will you be able to identify misplaced anger in your employees before they go off the deep end or some sort of workplace violence occurs?

I’m going to come back to the subject of anger management a quite a bit over the next few weeks. I feel that gaining a strong understanding of anger, anger management, and how it impacts workplace performance is important facet of your management training and will only serve to help you form your own unique leadership style.

We’re going to discuss the reasons why people get angry, how they deal with anger, and what you can do to control and manage situations as they arise.

Remember, a happy workplace is a productive workplace. Take a few moments to think about your life and your team – do you think you may have anger management issues? Keep them in mind as we go through this process. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone share their views.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Time management continues to be a touchy subject, and this morning I woke up wondering how you are at juggling your personal life with your professional life? We’re told time and again to leave our personal lives at home and our work lives at work, but that’s far easier said than done. Often times we wonder how we’ll get the kids from point A to point B, how we’ll get the bills paid, or what we’re going to feed our families after work. Of course, there are often far more important concerns that edge their way into our days.

I’ve seen far too many good employees get sucked into the time management trap. They spend a considerable amount of time worrying about or trying to plan their personal lives and eventually the quality of their work project begins to suffer. This is especially difficult to handle when the employee in question is in a management position and his or her subordinates begin floundering because they have no one to turn to with their questions and problems. A supervisor with personal time management concerns can easily become unorganized and cause the entire department to crumble apart.

It’s important to take the steps necessary to ensure your personal time is as organized as possible so that your day to day concerns don’t have a negative impact on your work life.

Try incorporating the following tips into your daily routine, whether you’re a manager or not:

• Make a prioritized to-do list on a daily basis. Write down everything that needs to be done and then break those tasks down into categories. For example, activities marked with an “A” might be the most important; “B” may be the second most important; and so forth. Make a separate list for your personal life and work life.

• Keep a log of your daily activities. Writing down everything you do each day, from brushing your teeth to checking your email, will help you identify the things you are doing that simply waste time. You don’t need to check your email 20 times each morning!

• Set some personal goals. Setting both short-term and long-term goals will help you to focus and develop a sense of direction. People focused on a goal have less trouble managing their time. These goals can be personal or professional, but I recommend writing a few goals for both aspects of your life.

I personally experienced a huge boost in productivity when I started keeping track of my daily tasks and prioritizing what really needed to be done. I was able to clear my mind at the start of each day, approach my work tasks at work, manage my team, and then effectively switch gears and address my personal tasks after hours.

Start with these exercises and let me know whether or not they help you to both manage your time and keep your personal and professional lives separated. I’m positive you’ll see great improvements!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Workplace diversity comes in many forms. One such issue you’re likely to encounter at least once or twice is the issue of religion in the workplace. In most scenarios, there will be question regarding whether or not your company or organisation will make accommodations for workers of varying faiths.

Take XYZ Corporation, for example. XYZ has three shifts, and employees are rotated monthly so that no one person has to spend too much time on the late shift or early morning shift. A problem arose when Joe, who had thus far only worked the early or mid-day shifts, was suddenly required to work the late shift. What was the problem? He was a strict follower of a certain Jewish sect and needed to be home before dark on Friday evenings. A meeting with his supervisor was held to draw up an effective time management plan. Fortunately, there was another employee who was able to trade shifts with Joe and management was flexible enough to make an exception based on his needs.

We’ve heard of similar stories. In the United States, there was a factory in a town with a heavy Muslim population. Some wanted to stop working during business hours to pray, while others wanted to leave work during the day on Fridays to attend a prayer group. The managers of this organisation, sensitive to the needs of both their company and the community, were able to juggle employee schedules so that everyone had the time they needed without missing extra hours of work.

You may be faced with similar issues at some point during your career. You’ll find men who refuse to work for a woman in a superior position. Others will refuse to adhere to dress codes that they feel conflict with their religious practices. Some employees will stand firm in their beliefs, while others will be more likely to compromise. The question is whether or not you’re prepared to sit down and speak with your employees in order to get a better understanding of where they’re coming from and what they need. Effective management means being sensitive to your work group.

Have you experience something similar to this in the past? If so, what did you do to remedy the situation? I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

We’ve spoken quite a bit lately about management skills. One such set of skills focused on technical ability, otherwise known as your ability to understand and accomplish tasks based on your ability to use the various systems established within your workplace.

To kick off the week I propose a quick exercise. It’s designed to get your creative juices flowing while taking your mind off of the gargantuan tasks that are certainly going to be set before you this week.

Start by choosing some of the key elements we’ve been discussing. Choose simple words such as time management, conflict management, leadership skills, etc. Choose your favorite Internet search engine and do a quick search for each of the words you have chosen. After you’ve done this first set of searches, think of three or four companies that are competitors in your same field of work and conduct another Internet search for those names.

I’m not asking you to conduct any in-depth market research. What I really want you to do is take a few moments to reflect upon whether or not these searches were difficult to conduct and whether or not you found any valuable information. Was it easy to identify web pages that gave you valuable information on the search terms in question or did you have to continue clicking on a number of links before finding something credible?

If the idea of conducting a quick Internet search sent your eyes rolling back into your head in fear, or if you spent more than a minute or two on each search, you may need to evaluate your technical skills and consider whether or not you need to take a few refresher courses. Searching the Internet may not be one of your job duties, but I’m willing to bet that finding accurate information relating to your projects is an important element of your day.

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how you did. As a manager, what did you learn from this exercise? I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”