Just-in-Time Management Advice
Join Jed and Bob as they talk through how to organize your thoughts if you are considering making a career change.
Watch the ‘Career Transition Jump Start’ Video (17 mins 46 sec):
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Here is all the information you need to build your own Career Transition Plan. Most people will have many careers in their lives, but fail to put together a Career Transition Plan. Here are the elements of a Career Transition Plan:
Values
In the context of a Career Transition Plan, we use a literal definition of the term “values” – what are the things that are most important to you?
There is a list of values to help start your thinking in this area in the Career Transition Plan Workbook.
Work Interests and Needs
There may be things that you particularly like about your current work, and there may be minimum requirements that must be met. An important part of your Career Transition Plan is to articulate these things:
Strengths and Stretch
Everybody brings certain skills and development opportunities to their career. You need to articulate these as part of your Career Transition Plan:
Skills and Experience
To be able to describe your skills and experiences in a meaningful way is a critical part of a Career Transition Plan. Ensure to frame the answers to these questions in a way that speaks to a prospective employer:
Other Factors to Consider as Part of Your Career Transition Plan
What should I do?
Three Things to Remember About Career Transition Plans:
The Career Transition Plan Workbook
We’ve put together a simple downloadable worksheet that will walk you through the different decisions that we’ve talked about today.
Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about creating a Career Transition Plan (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):
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Avoid the 8 Fatal New Manager Mistakes if you’re considering or recently made a career move. Often it’s sink or swim, and Fast Start ensures you properly position yourself for longer-term career success in 90 days or less.
In the old days ( i.e. 1850 – 1995), you’d get an entry-level job, work your way through an organization, and peak just above or below your highest potential skill level.
You’d then begin your transition to cranky old (usually) man — counting the years and months to retirement, until such time as you were presented with a gold watch that you took home to help you keep track of the relatively short time you had before you died.
That concept of work looks more outdated than orange shag carpet, and acid-washed jeans – and about the same level of comfort, too.
There is a credible argument that this all changed because of the decline of large employers, and the increasing irrelevance of labor unions.
But I wonder if it’s a result of our collective Career Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.)
Virtually the entire workforce was raised on television — that in addition to encouraging ADD, teaches us some very powerful lessons that we come to expect in the workplace:
After a lifetime of having these messages reinforced, we become part of a workplace that has absolutely no resemblance to a TV sitcom, and we become more shocked than a Wheel of Fortune game show contestant that accidentally ends up on Jeopardy.
It is uncertain how many careers you will have in your lifetime. What is more certain is that if you’re like most people, the transitions between these careers won’t be well thought out or planned. Join the Wily Manager guys this week as they talk about how to make good decisions when you’re in a career transition phase.
Monday’s Tip: Be very clear on what you value. “Values” is a loaded word, but in this case, it simply means being very clear on the things that are most valuable to you in a career, and in life.
Tuesday’s Tip: Know your likes and dislike. Write down those things you particularly like and dislike about your current role. Also consider what you like to do when you’re not at work.
Wednesday’s Tip: Know what you’re good at. Write down what you’re good at, and what you’re not so good at as it pertains to your job.
Thursday’s Tip: Articulate your skills and experience. What marketable skills do you have, and what experience is transferrable to any potential future role?
Friday’s Tip: Consider other factors. Where to you want to live? How much do you want to travel? How much money do you need to make? Will your ego needs be satisfied?
Dealing with a Bully at work can often take us by surprise. Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the four steps you need to take when dealing with a Bully in the workplace.
Watch the ‘Bullies at Work’ Video (17 mins 06 sec):
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Bullies at Work are common occurrence that can be easily handles with a few simple techniques. Below we discuss:
Defining Bullies at Work
Bullying is more than just not getting along with another person. A Bully is:
Bullying is NOT:
Defining Bullies at Work: Fire or Ice?
People will recognize Bullies at Work when it is most obvious, but there is more than one type of Bully:
Fire
Ice
How to Deal with Bullies at Work
Step 1. Determine if it is bullying
It is important to delineate Bullying from other forms of confrontation or negative human interactions that may occur in the workplace. Sometimes people claim to have been bullied by their boss, when their boss is merely holding them accountable. When determining if bullying has occurred consider the following:
Step 2. Suppress Your Emotions
Strong emotions can compromise your ability to adequately react to Bullies at Work. You must do your best to suppress your emotions and (re)act as rationally as possible.
Step 3. Redirect
Bullies at Work want you to absorb the negative energy they are projecting. The best thing you can do is redirect that energy:
Step 4. Adjourn if Necessary
Sometimes it is a completely legitimate course of action to adjourn your meeting with Bullies at Work. Of course, if you do not follow up afterwards, you will be seen as avoiding or yielding to the bully which will invite more of the same behavior. Reasons to adjourn:
3 Things to Remember About dealing with Bullies at Work
Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Bullies at Work (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):
Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …
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Bullies don’t disappear when they become adults. They just move to a new playground.
You’d think in an era as political correct and risk sensitive as ours, that bullying in the workplace would be a more distant memory than a stadium full of screaming fans for Huey Lewis and the News. However, it still exists for a variety of reasons – not the least of which is that bullying tactics often work. Ask anyone who has ever worked in retail, and they’ll tell you that the people that most often get what they want are those that are the rudest and the nastiest.
There is only one way to deal a bully, and it requires taking him or her out at the knees before they get entirely worked up and out of control. When confronted by a bully it is good to have some ready-to-go responses that will make the bully more confused than your dog when you pretend to throw the ball, but hide it behind your back.
Here are some suggestions:
In the best case scenario, such a comment should shut the bully down. But even in the worst case scenario, it will put them off guard long enough for you to call security.
We’re joking here, of course. A bully in the workplace is a serious issue that causes havoc and stress for everyone involved. However, a skilled manager can successfully gain the upper hand and take control of the situation.
The Dealing With Bullies at Work Video and Cheat Sheet combo was just added to the Wily Manager membership area, and it’s one of over 90 topics available now.
In it, we explain how to deal with the two radically different types of bullies you’ll encounter on the job. Armed with this insight, you’ll be able to shut down a bully’s attack and restore peace at work.
Become a member and get 8 free bonus gifts worth $187, plus instant access to all the existing tools and advice already available in the members-only area. It’s jam-packed with Videos, Cheat Sheets, and other tools…and new content is added each and every week.
Next week we’ll be talking about Career Transitions, and you’ll get the advice you need to ensure you don’t compromise your success by fumbling through critical career changes. You won’t want to miss out – become a Wily Manager Member today.
Can’t we just all get along? Probably not — if some people in the workplace have their way. Bullies in the workplace have existed as long as there have been workplaces, so it makes sense to have some strategies in place for dealing with these people. Join the Wily Manager guys this week as they talk about how to handle Bullies at Work.
Monday’s Tip: Determine if you’re dealing with a Bully. Make sure you keep it in perspective… a Bully isn’t simply someone who says something you don’t like, or who doesn’t like you. Bullying behavior is aggressive, intimidating and hostile.
Tuesday’s Tip: Suppress Your Emotions. Many Bullies are motivated by provoking emotional responses in others. Don’t allow them that satisfaction. Stay as rational as possible, and focus on the issue at hand to take the wind out of the Bully’s sails.
Wednesday’s Tip: Acknowledge the Bully’s point. It is important that you don’t cede ground to a Bully, but you can acknowledge their point, by restating it to them in neutral terms. By virtue of simply being heard, you may diffuse the situation.
Thursday’s Tip: Ask the Bully for a solution. Often Bullies aren’t interested in the solution, but rather simply enjoy the fight. By asking them for their suggested solution, you may be able to disarm some of their hostility.
Friday’s Tip: Adjourn if necessary. In some cases, you may want to adjourn your meeting with a Bully – particularly if you feel emotionally compromised. If you choose this course of action, you must follow up however – otherwise you are signaling to the Bully that s/he has won.
Many organizations plug a new manager into a vacant position without having done anything to develop the talent required for that job, then insist the manager work 60 to 80 hours a week. When the manager burns out, they replace him with a younger model, and the cycle is repeated. Managers – the Ultimate Renewable Resource.
I once worked for such an organization. We called the head office Jurassic Park because:
In this organization, the only way to advance was to have started when you were sixteen years old, and then work excessive hours your entire working life.
Education was actively discouraged. If you had any aspirations to better yourself through post-secondary education, you had to keep it a secret or risk being put on ‘student status’ which meant your benefits were curtailed, and you were ineligible for advancement.
This company didn’t infuse their management ranks with talent from the outside, either. They very much believed that if you did not ‘grow up’ with this company then you didn’t have any experience worth considering. They didn’t believe their competitors had any talent, nor were skills learned in any other industry worth anything.
It was so inbred, it made the kid on porch playing the banjo in Deliverance look like a Rhodes Scholar.
Interestingly, this company was in a highly competitive industry with a number of new, aggressive entrants to the market. Yet I was once told the company was doing well because it only lost 5% of market share and 2% of revenue in the previous year. That’s right – they measured their success by how little their performance sucked.
You can imagine how this all ends.
In such a company, all the highest potential people leave to go where they can advance their skills and their careers. The few who remain become more overwhelmed than George W. Bush at a Mensa meeting, and sooner or later just give up.
Until now, organizations have been able to get away with treating managers as the Ultimate Renewable Resource. But demographics are quickly turning the tables. The Baby Boomer mass workplace exodus has begun, and many companies are shocked to discover that they are having trouble filling those vacant positions, especially management roles.
If you work for a company where the senior leadership looks anything like the characters from Jurassic Park, how can you evolve from the age of dinosaurs?
Smart organizations have realized that they need to proactively develop potential leaders in-house. When a vacancy arises, they have a pool of qualified talent to choose from, instead of scrambling around trying to find a warm body to fill the position.
The first step is an organizational commitment to ongoing development of leadership skills in employees at all levels.
A Wily Manager Corporate Membership gives you and your co-workers practical, ‘in-the-trenches’ leadership advice that’s actually fun, requires less than 20 minutes a week, and doesn’t take you away from the office.
And best of all, your organization pays. They’ll be happy to foot the bill when they see how inexpensive it is, how easy it is to get started, and all the ways it will benefit the company.
You can help – put us in touch with the right person at your workplace, and we’ll suggest a Wily Manager Corporate Membership for you and your co-workers.
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Succession Plans are an effective, but often under utilized tool that leaders can use to better manage their business. Below we discuss in more detail:
Why Bother with Succession Plans
Many managers would not bother with Succession Plans unless their HR group insists they are done. Good managers in competitive businesses must take on Succession Plans on their own, even if there is no organizational support.
The success of your business strategy depends on having the right talent in place to execute it.
“If I were to pick one marker above all others to use as a warning sign, it would be a declining proportion of key seats filled with the right people.”
Jim Collins, How the Mighty Fall (Page 57).
Where to Start with Succession Plans
Any attempt to improve a business or its people is only effective if it is done within the context of better achieving business results. Start by asking these questions:
Then look at where you are now
The 9-Box System of Succession Plans
Replacement Planning
Development Planning
Many organizations have significant training and development activity. Far fewer do so in a systematic way that will advance the goals of the organization. All training and development that does not change specific, targeted behaviors is a waste of time and money.
Targeted Development asks fundamental questions:
Talent Management
Three Things to Remember About Succession Plans
Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Succession Plans (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):
Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …
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