So here’s an important question for managers: how much of your week do you spend in meetings?  

I suspect that the answer is probably “A lot.” Too often back-to-back  meetings are becoming the norm throughout the business world, leaving everyone frazzled and farther behind at the end of each day.  We need to ask ourselves why does this happen? It sure seems as though  pointless recurring meetings are one kind of calendar crud. Just as bad  are ad-hoc meetings – those meetings that aren’t planned but get added  whenever something comes up. Taken together, all of these meetings can  easily quickly take over your calendar no matter how good your manager  skills are. 

How can a manager help their team deal with this overflow of meetings?

The world of management is filled with a number of different buzz words. 

One such word that we’ve been hearing for a while is “emotional intelligence”. The reason that managers should start to pay attention to this topic is because evidence is showing that emotional intelligence plays a big role in workplace performance if we can develop the right manager skills. Team members with high  emotional intelligence perform better and usually experience better  psychological and physical well-being. As managers, clearly this is  something that we are going to have to take some time to get some  manager training in order to get our hands around it. 

Let’s see what we should be doing to become more emotionally intelligent.

As a manager you need to remember that celebrating our achievements is important for every team. 

Joyfully acknowledging milestones gives credit  to the hard work done by the team, provides motivation for reaching  goals, and rewards everyone for a job well done. Nowhere is this truer  than where we work. Managers need to realize that many of team members  spend more time working than with their families, and the rewards can  seem few and far between. 

How can a manager acknowledge a job well done?

As managers, one of our goals is to find ways to get the most out of everyone who is part of our team. 

One way to go about doing this is to show some flexibility in where our team members perform their work. Right now both remote working and “working from home” are popular workplace trends that can have real benefits for your team.  

Managers know that there are huge benefits for the company as well,  especially when you think about the having ability to add team members  regardless of where they are located.

Every manager realizes that the members of their team are one of the  biggest expenses that their company has to deal with. 

At the same time  we all realize that company culture is critical, and your team needs  clear goals. You can tackle all three of these issues by conducting a  well-planned company offsite that can help you excel in all three  categories. 

A meeting like this will allow you to reset, make sure  everyone is aligned, and gives the team an opportunity to connect outside of the office.

One of the biggest challenges that we face as managers is trying to determine just exactly how hands-on we should be with the members of our team.  

The problem is that there is no one solution to this problem. A great  example of this dilemma comes when it’s time for an employee to set goals. 

As their manager, should you be using your manager skills to do this and if you do, will it result in them not trusting you?

When we enter into a negotiation, we never know who will be sitting across the table from us. 

Will they be a negotiator who is just starting  out or a skilled professional who has done this countless times before?  In any negotiation that you participate in, you will undoubtedly find  yourself on the defensive at certain points in time. 

What you need are  strategies that you can use to get the deal that you want out of the  negotiation.

Managers know that technology has given us more flexibility in how we  work than ever before, and for that, our mental well-being has  definitely improved. 

They know that the human brain can only tolerate so  much stimulation before reaching overload. Managers try to combat this  by changing the work environment to avoid burning out, giving teams a  fresh atmosphere in which to thrive. This helps them stay in the “flow,”  that state of mind where employees not only do their best work, but  enjoy it the most. The good news is that technology has untethered us  from the static workstation. 

However, there’s a dark side to that bright  screen when it comes to team member’s well-being.

I really wish that we did not have to have this discussion. 

No matter  how much manager training you’ve had or how sharp you think that your  manager skills are, none of us is ready to deal with a life & death  situation that having someone in our office with a gun creates. In the past this never seemed to be a problem. The office was seen as being a safe place where everyone could get along. Sure people might argue,  but the worst thing that would happen is that there would be a fight in  the parking lot. That has all changed. 

Are you ready to deal with this  new world?

What is the most precious thing that you own? 

Your home? Your car? Maybe  an expensive watch or some jewelry? Nope, I can say with some  confidence that the most valuable thing that you own is your time. This is the one thing that even with our manager skills none of us ever seem to have enough of and we would all like to find ways to get more of it. 

The biggest question that we all have to answer is just exactly where is our time going and are we wasting it?