While a promotion can be gratifying, exciting and rewarding, it often carries with it new or increased pressures and strains on both you and your family.  In this episode we talk about how to deal with some of those new burdens.

The best managers recognize that one-on-one meetings with staff members are key to building a cohesive, well-run team.  By one-on-one meetings we’re talking about status update meetings where you and your staff member discuss their progress on assignments as well as any other issues they or you may have.  Why? Because staff members are critical to your success, both as individuals and members of the team.  They’re constantly evaluating you in terms of how much you care about them as individuals and as members of the team.  Not feeling that you’re interested in them can cause them to lose interest in the success of the department. In this episode we discuss how to demonstrate your interest in them through these regular one-on-one meetings.

A manager cannot be explicit or clear enough regarding guidelines.  One of the ways that you can provide clarity is by spelling out the way that your staff need to work together and interact with colleagues, clients and stakeholders.  A simple way to think about this is to ask, “what specific behaviors will enable us to succeed?”  In this episode, we’ll discuss what a set of ground rules might look like, how to put one together if you haven’t and how to ensure that every member of your team is aware of them. 

Far too often, Managers think that “customer service” refers only to services provided to the general public or others outside of the company.  As we have discussed in previous episodes, every department, in every company, serves customers. Whoever uses what your department provides is your customer and how well, or poorly, you service their needs will determine how your department – and you – are perceived and valued within your company.  In this episode, we’ll discuss how to provide the best possible customer service regardless of who your customers are.

It is estimated that 30% to 50 % of any department staff are "introverts". They can be extremely talented members of your team, but can easily fade into the background and their potential contributions lost if not identified and handled correctly. In this episode, we talk about how to fully utilize the introverted members of your staff.

As manager, you’re the chief representative of your department – both inside and outside the company. In other words, you are the Chief Marketing Officer or CMO of your department. In this episode we will discuss with this means, why it’s important, and how successfully to market your department.

As a leader in the organization, you’re the Symbol of the Organization for your department and company in everything you do with people that you meet both inside and outside your company.  In this role, you may be called on to lead a team to represent the company for important external stakeholder meetings or presentations. We’ll discuss some of the challenges involved in being an effective company representative in this episode.

Hook: Every business operates within an internal and an external context. The internal context is made up of the business objectives and priorities of the organization, including how it wants to be perceived by its clients and the general public. The external context is made up of the legal, regulatory and competitive environments in which the business functions.

The purpose of policies and rules is to ensure that employees work in a way consistent with, and supportive of the business, as well as the regulatory and legal realities of the organization – that is, its context. When these rules and policies are not consistent with this context or when the context is not fully understood by the employees, it can have a negative, demoralizing effect on staff. The good manager ensures that staff are fully aware of, and understand, the business context, both internal and external, and how all the rules and policies are in support of that context. In this episode we explore how to ensure that this alignment of rules and context can be implemented and maintained. 

You don’t have to be the owner to act like the owner.  Acting like an owner means being fully accountable for production, commitments, responsibilities as well as building strong, positive relationships with staff.  But most of all, you need to be seen as the leader that people want to follow.  This episode will discussing Acting As An Owner by Showing Your Leadership

You don’t have to be the owner of the company to act like an owner.  Acting like an owner means taking responsibility of your role and function in the company as if you were the owner.  In this episode, we will explore what it means to be a symbol of the company as if your name were on the door.  In terms of representing your company, acting like an owner is not optional.  Depending on the situation, you will be seen as representing your company.  In this episode, we will discuss why that is and how you need to do it successfully.