I share 5 ways to keep your boss happy with better communication. You don’t have to work harder. You don’t have to pander to your boss. Just use these communication tips to keep your manager happy. 

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 How to have a conversation with your boss starts with looking for and understanding their communication preferences. How to communicate with your boss should be one of the first things you sus out. Think about how often, methods and styles with communicating with boss. 

Next for effective communication skills with your manager, over-communicate rather than under-communicate. When you are proactively telling your boss what you are up to each day, they get a sense of control and involvement. Very important in how to keep your boss happy. 

To keep your manager happy with better communication, focus on giving clear, concise and progress focused updates. Bosses are more time poor than we are. Spend time thinking about the keep points you want to get across before speaking to your boss. This is one of the best communication tips to keep your boss happy. 

Next in how to communicate with your manager, spend the time to question, listen and respond. Asking questions and listening is the other HALF of communicating with managers. Find out what your manager is working on and their pressures. 

Finally, when communicating with your boss, commit to ensuring “no surprises”. Every boss hates surprises, even the good ones. Remove surprises with good and proactive communication. 

If you have any questions on “5 Ways To Keep Your Boss Happy With Better Communication”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

In this manager training success guide we cover some of the key factors to deliver effective management training. 

I share the best managers to give management training to, who you should train first, how to measure the benefits and 6 core skills to focus on first.

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Why training is important for managers? Managing a diverse team with different strengths, interests, energy levels and more is not an easy job as any manager knows. Good managers will multiply the value of output from their team. The top 5% of managers deliver more than 8 times what an AVERAGE manager delivers through their team. That is tens of £’000s to £’millions in profits for the company depending on the size of the team.

Think how much you are losing through missed opportunities. Over 80% of new managers are not given any training. Training new managers will give them confidence, tools and a route to delivering better team performance.  

Which managers to train? Those that are keen to learn, enthusiastic and are energised by leading teams – these are the best managers to enrol in training.

Training managers at any time will help company performance. Managers are responsible for all the decisions with significant impact. Managers are also responsible for helping everyone else be as productive as possible. Training managers leverages your training spend in effect across everyone in the company. 

Who gets the most from manager training are those managers that are ambitious and put their team ahead of themselves. 

Measuring the benefits of training managers is not as easy as other forms of training as managers generate most of their value indirectly through the team they lead. With good KPIs and feedback from their team you will know which managers get the most from training.

Finally, I share 6 core management skills that any manager should focus on first. When managers get really good at these skills and they generate a lot more profit through their team.

If you have any questions on “Manager Training Success Guide – Deliver Effective Management Training”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

enhance.training

How to balance boss and staff, especially when they have conflicting demands is not easy. For managers to avoid feeling stuck in between these two important groups for your success, I share 3 tactics that every manager should use. 

Make you like as a manager more enjoyable and professionally successful by keeping your boss and your team very happy with you! 

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How to deliver for both boss and team starts with understand what both parties want. If you don’t find out what both parties really want and need keeping your boss and your team happy is nearly an impossible task. 

To balance your boss and your team, without feeling you are being batter from both sides. It is a good tactic to act as a bridge between the two groups rather than being a barrier. 

How to balance boss and team starts with expectations. When you set aligned expectations with boss and team, communicate them clearly and repeatedly, you will have the least hassle and disconnect. When the desires of both groups are out of alignment or in conflict, overcommunicate and negotiate balance your boss and your team's demands. 

Balancing boss and staff is not easy. It is easy to focus on one, rather than both. The wheels can start coming off the wagon if you do. One of the best ways to balance the demands of your boss and your team is to overcommunicate with both groups. Understanding and appreciate solves lots of problems. 

Lastly, for how to balance boss and team members, really work hard at delegating and developing your team. Delegating well gives you the personal space and time to focus on the highest value work you can and gives you time to develop the capability of your team. This enables you to delegate even more, and is essential to progress through the management ranks. 

If you have any questions on “How To Balance Boss And Staff – 3 Tactics For Managers To Keep Both Happy”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Overcome the fears that stop you giving feedback and you open the doors to a ton of benefits as a manager. Giving feedback to help your team member builds trust, increases performance, develops and a lot more. 

What stops managers giving feedback – the fears we all have of annoying, upsetting, of damaging relationships. I share a tried and test approach to build your feedback skills no matter where you are in your career. 

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What stops you giving feedback to your team are fears that we may upset others and cause ourselves social harm. What stops you giving feedback to your team is fear of what might happen. You have been promoted into a manager position because you have good communication and people skills or good potential in this area. You won’t mess up.

To help you overcome the fears that stops you giving feedback I take you through 8 fears and why they are a barrier in your head only. These 8 barriers to giving feedback are easily overcome with a little practice. 

To reduce your fears about giving feedback, I share some really interesting survey findings about feedback. The bottom line – employees are desperate for more feedback – positive or corrective. The mindset you have giving feedback is probably the most important thing. 

Then I take you through the practical steps to start giving team feedback in the lowest risk way, building up to being a master at giving all feedback, including corrective feedback. 

Giving feedback to your team daily, is one of the most important jobs as a manager or leader because it enables so many other really good management practices. Why no feedback means no manager promotion is because you miss out on encouraging and helping the team perform that much better.

If you have any questions about “Lead With Courage - Overcome The Fears That Stop You Giving Feedback”, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

enhance.training

Build great teamwork fast! I share 6 ways to create great teams quickly. This have been tried and tested with many teams, in top companies and when transforming the performance of the worst team in multiple companies. 

Most managers lead a group of individuals, not a team. Groups of individuals typically work alongside each other, doing their own work. There is chat but not a lot of in depth discussion, not much collaboration and little joint problem solving. 

Use these tips to build teamwork in any team, no matter where the level of teamwork is in your team today. 

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The leader or manager is the most effective person in building a great team culture. I share multiple ways to teach teamwork to your team. Each are ways to increase teamwork so you will see a noticeable improvement within weeks. 

The first of my tips to encourage great teamwork is to show you have the team’s back. Trust is one of the most important currencies managers have with their team. Everything you do in front of your team should be to demonstrate you are trustable and have the best interests of the team at heart (rather than you own). I share 6 actions you can take to build trust quickly – essential in building high performing teams. 

The next of my tips for great teamwork is to advertise responsibility and accountability.  To build a strong team, each team member needs to know what is expected of them AND what their team members will be covering. Make this clear to each team member and advertise responsibilities across the team. This is the first important step to holding team members accountable. 

The next of my tips for effective teamwork is to incentivise a lot of communication. Lead from the front. One of the ways to coach teamwork is to demonstrate communication and then help each team member build to build stronger relationships with each team mate. Create the expectation for a lot of talking, discussing and joint work together. 

Another of the really important activities to build teamwork is to find goals that scream success. Choose goals that have a story, that are relevant to team members and that the team can get behind. Don’t just talk about goals in terms of financial targets. Common shared goals are a key part of team building and essential to build a strong team.  I explain how to start finding valuable goals. 

How to build a great team at work is a process that any manager can follow. Chances are you have the skills. You just need to know what to do AND work hard in service of the team. 

If you have any questions on “Build Great Team work Fast – 6 Ways to Create Great Teams Quickly” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training 

Making decisions at work and having good decisions making skills are highly prized by all organisations. I have 9 questions to ask yourself when making decisions at work. These form a framework, a decision making process, that will keep you making GOOD decisions at work.

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The first question to ask when making decisions at work is “How much time do I have to make the decision?” With a day, there is lots that you can do and a lot of questions to ask yourself when making decisions. With 5 minutes, the questions you can ask are much more limited. You nearly always have more time to make a decision than you (or the other person) thinks.

How to make decisions quickly, in my view, is about following a process, a framework. Following a framework will feel clunky and slow to start with as you learn the steps. After a few weeks, the process will feel very natural. After a few months, you won’t realise you are following it out of habit. 

The next of the questions to ask yourself to make great decisions at work is “What specifically is the desired outcome?” Being really clear on what is needed is huge in terms of how to make decisions faster. You also get better decisions. Start asking questions to really understand what the decision you are making or being asked to make is really trying to achieve. Once you have this really clear, everything else in the decision making process will be a lot quicker and easier. 

The third of the questions to ask when making decisions is “What is the context of the decision?” The context of the decision will literally change what you decide. Think about authorising a hiring request. In a growing business your decision would be yes. In a struggling company, your decision is very likely to be no. 

The fourth question when making decisions is the last of the core questions that you should always ask yourself regardless of the type of decision you are making. 

Then I share 5 very valuable questions to ask for the more complex decisions, the ones with larger impacts or those with only bad options to choose from. 

The 9th of the questions to ask yourself when making decisions at work is the one missed by many decision makers. Missing this question nearly always causes a lot more problems later on and can be pretty embarrassing. Always ask this question whenever you need to make any significant decision. 

If you have any questions on “9 Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself When Making Decisions At Work” please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

enhance.training

Working with an insecure boss can be very bad news for your development, your happiness at work and your career progress IF you don’t know how to handle the situation. It is easy to find yourself on the end of put downs, criticism, and undermining when you don’t know how to work with an insecure boss.

I share 5 actions of insecure managers and then 5 key actions to take to gain the support and trust of an insecure manager.

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I take you through 5 actions of insecure leaders. Knowing the signs, you can quickly spot an insecure boss and take action that will improve rather than damage your relationship with your boss. For example, A person’s natural reactions to their boss trying to exert too much control is to push them away and communicate less. This type of reaction makes things worse not better. 

Another classic action of insecure managers is be overly concerned about what other people think of them. They take decisions and actions for popularity rather than what is best for the team and business. I share other signs your boss is worried by you. These are each signs your boss is intimidated by you in some way. 

Next, learn about 5 ways for how to work with an insecure manager. These work just as well for how to work with a jealous boss or a boss intimidated by you. 

When you are working with insecure leaders, the first action is to play to what they need from you. Understand what makes them feel insecure or what actions or language creates a negative reaction in them. With understanding you can then plan tactics to avoid their trigger points while giving them what they need to feel more in control and secure. I share practical tips for what to do and how to use language to keep them feeling safer. 

Another very important tactic when working with an insecure boss is to position yourself as a ally and not be a rival to them. Again, use all the practical tips I share to achieve this quickly and with confidence. 

If you have any questions on “5 Actions of Insecure Managers & How to Work with an Insecure Boss”, please email me on [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

enhance.training

Creating strong ownership in teams is a great step to significantly improve team performance. Team performance defines a manager’s performance and directly impacts a manager’s personal rewards. 

I share 3 approaches to create strong ownership in teams for great performance in any team.

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The first of the stages to create strong ownership in teams is all about responsibilities. If a team member doesn’t take responsibility, you have little chance of they taking ownership. 

The most important insight to remember – employees will only take ownership if the CHOOSE to. 

How to create strong ownership in teams starts with creating responsibility. I share my best tips for HOW to create responsibilities in teams - the first stage to create high ownership in teams.

The second stage to create high ownership in teams is to build accountability. Creating accountability is undertaking 5 inter-dependant actions, that when put into practice well, will drive strong accountability in any team. I share very practical tips of how to start creating accountability. For example, you can’t hold team members accountable for performance unless they have clear goals and objectives, which they understand.

To create more ownership in teams at work first allocate clear responsibilities and then create accountability for those responsibilities. 

Finally to get your team taking ownership, and creating ownership at work more generally, work on the creating the right environment for ownership to flourish. This absolutely in the control of nearly all leaders and managers in nearly any business. 

To create high levels of ownership in teams put into practice the 5 actions I discuss. Pretty much every manager is able to work on each of these actions to drive team ownership of work.

If you have any questions on “3 Approaches to Create Strong Ownership in Teams for Great Performance”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you.

Jess Coles

enhance.training

Building great decision making skills in teams is brilliant for you personally as a leader or manager. Helping team members with how to build better decision making skills will free up your time to focus on the tougher more challenging decisions. More time on these usually means better results and more interesting work. 

I share 4 approaches to build great decision making skills in teams.

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Resources

Access all our prize winning management expertise for you to stand out from your peers, increase your confidence and credibility and move your management career forward faster! We share a ton of content, e-books, help sheets and more to save you a ton of time while unlocking more of your manager potential. Click the link to find out more about the Management Skills Hub

https://enhance.training/management-skills-hub-ulp000/

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One of the most important ways to build great decision making skills quickly in a team is to encourage team members to take decisions. Just telling team members or verbally giving permission is rarely enough. Alignment of permission, actions, reactions, safety and skills is required from the manager. 

How to build great decision making skills starts with making team members feel safe. i.e. no repercussions for making poor decisions through inexperience. If team members don’t feel safe, they simply won’t make decisions. They will pass making decisions onto you. Safety is the first of the steps to build great decision making skills.

The next step of how to work on decision making skills in teams is to give them the right decisions to make. No all decisions are the same and breaking down all the different decisions being faced by the whole team and intelligently allocating them is vital to building skills and confidence. 

How to work on decision making skills with team members depends on their current decision making skills and confidence. The impact of decisions is big psychological factor to consider. The bigger the impact, the harder the decision to make for most people. What help and support available is a big factor. Are the decisions going to be reviewed by more experienced colleagues before being actioned is another big factor. 

Another way to build great decision making skills in any team is to plan specific activities for individuals and groups to work together on different decisions. Deciding together is often a lot less daunting than deciding alone.

Like all skills, how to improve your decision making skills is through practice. How are you going to get your team members practicing the right level of decision making skills for them. I share my best tips and practices for doing just this. Developing team members is a vital leadership skill for manager to be very successful. 

If you have any questions on “4 Approaches to Build Great Decision Making Skills Quickly in Teams”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles

enhance.training

Who likes micromanagement. Next to no-one. Yet nearly everyone has experienced some form of micromanagement. I am sharing 4 tried and tested ways to quickly win over your micromanaging boss. 

Stop micro management quickly! 

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Resources

Access all our prize winning management expertise for you to stand out from your peers, increase your confidence and credibility and move your management career forward faster! We share a ton of content, e-books, help sheets and more to save you a ton of time while unlocking more of your manager potential. Click the link to find out more about the Management Skills Hub

https://enhance.training/management-skills-hub-ulp000/

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 Working for a boss that doesn't let you think for yourself is frustrating and career limiting. Turn the situation into one where your boss trusts you and lets you solve problems independently of them by building trust and demonstrating capability. This is great for how to win with micromanaging boss. 

I have 4 tried and tested ways for how to get a micro managing boss to trust you. 

Firstly, it is critical to understand exactly what your boss wants from you. Ask for specific and clear goals and expectations. If your boss doesn’t provide these, then create them yourself and get their approval. This is critical for how to survive a micromanager. I share additional vital tips for how to get really valuable goals to your boss.

Second, start overcommunicating to your micromanaging boss. Tell them exactly what you are doing and what you plan to do. There are ton of ways that you can do this. The more you communicate, the more you alleviate their fears and insecurities (if relevant) and the more trust you build. 

Third, when manager that doesn't give you any autonomy and you are overcommunicating and meeting expectations, start educating your boss on how they can get more from you. This is a particularly good approach when your boss has recently become a manager for the first time. 

If you have a boss that treats you like a robot, the fourth approach is to consistently overdeliver. Doing a good job is only half the battle. To turn performance into trust I share a couple of vital steps too many team members miss out doing. This build trust quickly and reduces micromanagement just as quickly. 

You absolutely can reduce micromanagement. Take the proactive steps I share, and it will happen faster than you expect. 

If you have any questions on “4 Ways To Quickly Win Over Your Micromanaging Boss”, please email me at [email protected] and I will get back to you. 

Jess Coles 

enhance.training