Management Mastery

The traditional concept of authority is simply exercising control over others because of one’s position in an organization.  In today’s world that may not be the best strategy.  Indeed. it may not even be an option.  A more realistic and, indeed, effective approach on the use of authority is to lead by motivating staff members’ energy and commitment.  How to effectively do that is the subject of this episode.

A difficult problem requires a manager, and their team, to take the time to break it down into individual steps, thinking through potential solutions, considering alternatives from all sides of the problem, and providing follow-up.  In each step formulating and asking effective questions is critical.  In this podcast we’ll suggest ways to successfully do this

In any job market it’s difficult to attract and retain top talent, the kind that add valuable skills and abilities to your department.  In the past, a major component was pay, but more recently there are other factors that come into play.  In this episode we’ll explore what top talent seeks and what the manager should do to ensure that talent remains.

We discuss what senior sales executive called, in an earlier episode, "Sales Content" and "Sales Style" and why they are important in effective and efficient selling.

This week we discuss how our guest, Senior Sales Executive Jake Kilrain successfully started as a new manager in a new company in a new city.

Senior sales executive Jake Kilrain is our guest to discuss how he successfully moved into a management position in a company new to him, in a city new to him and to lead a department where an incumbent felt they should have been given his position. He also talks about what he calls the key elements of selling: Sales Content and Sales Style

Having successful teams involves a clear, agreed upon approach as to how the members of the team work together to achieve their goals as well as a clear understanding of what those objectives are.  It’s also important to have both individual and group accountability for the team’s performance.  Team success also requires a strong, positive working relationship between the Department Manager and the Team Leader.  We cover why these are all important in this week’s episode.

In the first episode on working with teams, we discussed the importance of trying to keep working teams smaller than 10 to 12 staff people. We also talked about the importance of establishing the mission for each team as that will impact how the team is comprised. In this episode, we will talk about how to assign staff to each of the teams based on its “mission” and to maximize efficiency and probability of success.

In our last episode, we talked about the importance of talented staff to the success of a manager and how leaders should effectively manage them.  In this week’s encore episode, we explore, in greater depth, what talented staff look for in a position – the kind of working environment they want and how they want to be treated.  By understanding what they are looking for in a job, the good manager is better able to keep talented staff motivated and productive – as well as on the team.

You can’t be successful unless your talented people are successful. In this encore episode, we discuss some key aspects of managing your most talented staff.