Our guidance on what to do instead of multi-tasking.

For years pundits have been predicting that technology (videoconferencing, etc.) will lead to the decline and death of business travel. We here at Manager Tools don't agree. We're human, and humans do better with face to face connections to ensure a complex project does well. Technology has led to the globalization of business, but that has INCREASED the need for getting on an airplane.

The hand shake is the most important professional greetings in the world today. There are many cultures in the world, and there are places to bow, and places to hug, and places where cheek-kissing is perfectly appropriate. The handshake, though is the preferred greeting for most of our audience.

For the holidays, we're re-releasing one of our Hall of Fame casts ... the Pre-wire. This cast describes a way to prepare for meetings or presentations where you need to persuade.

The conclusion of our guidance on ethical behavior. Although this show was originally recorded as a Career Tools cast, we've included it for free for our Manager Tools listeners and Licensees given the underlying assumption of ethical behavior in all our recommendations.

Our guidance on ethical behavior. Although this show was originally recorded as a Career Tools cast, we've included it for free for our Manager Tools listeners and Licensees given the underlying assumption of ethical behavior in all our recommendations.

If you're a manager, don't think for a moment that someone else is managing your career. Those days are long gone. YOU are managing your career. What you do - not only in job skills, but also in what we call "Transition Skills" - will be the primary determinant of your career success. You're not going to have the richest, most rewarding series of roles and opportunities by allowing someone in HR to know enough about you to get you where you need to be. And succession planning won't save you either.

One of our most popular podcasts - and it was actually a series of casts - were titled "The Efficient Assistant and The Effective Executive". We laid out a plan for having a great relationship with one's assistant, and we get comments and mails almost every day from managers and executives thanking us for sharing what their firm never did. [Think about the penny-wise and pound-foolishness of giving someone an administrative assistant and then not teaching the basics of how to make the investment valuable!] Many of the assistants actually say thanks for the fact that our system recommends that they do a LOT MORE work than what they're doing now.

Today, we continue our conversation on "Managing Your Boss" or, better yet, "Creating a Good Relationship with Your Boss". Last week we discussed Boss Goals and Boss Communications; today we cover Boss Schedule/Time Management, Boss Work Style, and Boss Relationships.

Managing Upwards for the most part boils down to Creating a Good Relationship with Your Boss. "Managing Your Boss" is somewhat of a misnomer in our world view; tell your boss that you're managing them and see what kind of look you get. :-)