Tips for Managers

Referee a dispute: 3 tactics

April 22, 2020
Here are several behaviors and tactics you can use when you need to step in and help settle a dispute.

3 ways to make silence speak

April 22, 2020
Let’s face it: Some employees love to participate during meetings and conference calls, and others don’t. The trick is to give everyone a chance to make a real contribution—and to establish a value for silence, too.

Crickets? Try sentence completion

April 22, 2020
Write one (or try all) of these sentence leads on a large pad or white- or blackboard, and ask people to complete the statement.

Help employees fight fear of failure

April 22, 2020
Sometimes it may seem as if individuals are simply lazy—and sometimes they are. However, more often, folks simply aren’t engaged with their work because they’re unsure their efforts will pay off. This fear shows up in several different ways.

Try a breakfast meeting

April 22, 2020
Scheduling your workgroup or department meetings for early in the day is an attractive idea: People’s energy will be high and their minds fresh, and the meeting will be out of the way early on. All possible, but be realistic.

Support expertise, but stifle arrogance

April 22, 2020
Look out for three negative attitudes that are tip-offs of a descent from supportive expertise to confrontation.

Little chats are time well spent

April 22, 2020
Small gestures of kindness should be part of every manager’s efforts at engaging and motivating employees. Take, for example, the practice of not only greeting your people but also chatting for a few minutes. This type of act has a surprising number of good qualities to it.

Silent treatment? Take this tack

April 8, 2020
What can you do when an employee doesn’t want to talk to you? Try to discern whether it is shyness, anger, or something else that is keeping the employee quiet. Some guidance.

A checklist for effective feedback

April 8, 2020
Keep these feedback guidelines in mind.

Defuse the conflict, save the discussion

April 8, 2020
When employees begin to argue, with the volume rising and the reasonableness departing, it’s time to step in.