Change is one of the most difficult things you’ll have to deal with as a manager, especially if you know that the changes you have to implement will cause anxiety or dissention amongst team members. Take a look at the following change management scenario:

Imagine that your company has grown successfully and that you are about to open a second branch office two towns over. The new office will be smaller and the corporation does not plan to hire a second office manager until the new location grows. You will now be responsible for both offices.

In order to make the new office function you must split your team in half. They’ve all worked together well for quite some time, but you must now take a look at the team and determine how it is best split. You’ll hire new employees for both offices, but the new office will need to have staff that is already experience as well.

If you were in this situation, what criteria would you use to decide which employees would move to the new office and which would stay behind? What would you do to ensure that all of your employees were as comfortable as possible with the changes? And, finally, what would you do to make sure that your current employees and the new ones you hire are able to work well together?

Leave your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear your approaches to this difficult situation!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

Today I’d like you to spend a few minutes on another quick exercise that will help you to enhance your personal time management skills. The better you are able to organise your time, the less stress you’ll feel on a daily basis.

Start by making a list of the things that occur within your life, especially within your workplace, that seem to cause stress in your life. Consider outside influences such as children or school as well as your management responsibilities. Is the economy getting you down? Are you worried about an upcoming promotion? Be honest and detailed in your assessment of yourself.

Once you have the list in front of you, try the following:

• Determine whether or not poor planning or time management on your part is causing each event to be more stressful than it needs to be. For example, are you always late for work because you consciously leave the house later than you know you should?

• Make a plan for improving your schedule with regards to each event.
• Are any of your stressors related to each other? Perhaps you’re having a difficult time with your spouse because you work too much; but you feel you have to work to solve your financial worries. Is there anything you can change to realign these issues?
• Do you have any stress management outlets (hobbies, activities, etc)?

I’m sure that once you write out your main stressors and get a better grasp on how they’re impacting your life you’ll be able to move forward in a positive manner. Let me know how this activity impacts your thought process.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

Let’s start the week off with a quick exercise. Now that you recognize that making a decision is not a simple one-two process, you’ll need to formulate a personal plan for handling the major decisions that will come across your desk from time to time. What would you do in the following situations?

- There was a major fire at one of your company’s international plants. The fire was caused by negligence on the part of a group of employees and there was at least one death along with several injuries. The fire damaged surrounding businesses and the cleanup will likely take at least 6 months. Your manager has asked you to write a press release expressing apologies, sympathy for the families of those who were lost, and well-wishes for those who are injured. He knows the press will begin to question you and has indicated you should tell them that cleanup will take no more than 3-4 weeks! You know this is something the public would like to hear, but that the information is incorrect. How will you handle the situation?

- The troubled economy is having a negative impact on your business and sales are down. You’re going to have to let one of your employees go in order to cut back on costs, but both of the employees in question are struggling to get by. You know that one has a medical condition and needs to pay for extra health care, but you know that the other is a single parent with a young child at home. Which one will you lay off?

These are difficult decisions and both will take bit of thought. Are they programmed or nonprogrammed? Are you making the decision based on your personal beliefs, or are you looking at the whole picture and making an ethical decision?

Good luck!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

It’s been a long week and I’m sure most of you are as happy about the upcoming weekend as I am. I thought we’d spend a few minutes today working on our communication skills.

One of the things I find disturbing is a lack of awareness when it comes to the differences in time zones. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received an early morning phone call from an overzealous account manager in a foreign office who, in his eyes, was merely starting his afternoon.

So, let’s pretend you are a manager at an international corporation with an office in New York City. Your office has branches in San Francisco, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. You need to speak to the managers of each of the other four offices, but an email isn’t going to do the trick. You are going to arrange a conference call. So tell me – what time of day will be best for this call?

You’re going to need to start by identifying the time differences between your office and each of the others. You’ll then have to find a time of day that is still within regular business hours (or at least normal waking hours) for everyone in each of the other offices. Is it possible? What times did you find best for the conference call?

I don’t expect you to memorize the international time zone charts, but you do need to be aware of the differences and how they impact your ability to do business. Not paying attention to time zone differences could severely inhibit your ability to communicate with others and may, in some cases, cause you to miss a deadline or lose business.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks again,

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”