Delivering bad news is an unfortunate, but necessary part of every manager’s responsibilities. Deciding what to communicate and how to deliver the news can be a stressful and emotionally draining experience for the bearer of bad news. However, nothing is worse than having to communicate a termination or lay-off during the holidays. Unfortunately, an end-of-year lay-off is still quite common and requires particularly sensitive care when delivering the devastating news.
New Manager Strategies for Addressing Conflict
Conflict of varying degrees is a natural part of the workplace and is impossible to avoid completely. While managing and resolving conflict is a critical skill for leaders, it’s one that is rarely addressed with formal training for new managers. This is an unfortunate and expensive error, as many front-line leaders see conflict as an exclusively negative experience and therefore seek to avoid or eliminate it through unproductive methods.
Building Team Spirit in a Virtual Team
Study after study reinforces that remote workers enjoy greater job satisfaction, work/life balance, and are more productive. As more organizations embrace the benefits of a remote workforce, they also recognize that leading a virtual team comes with unique challenges. New leaders may struggle with using traditional management techniques for building team spirit in a virtual environment. Additionally, they often report feeling unsure about how to create a sense of connectedness and rapport amongst their virtual team.
Don’t Make This Development Budget Mistake
Budgeting season is always a tough time for leaders as they juggle maintaining business-as-usual while simultaneously trying to predict the future. The process can be exhausting with several rounds of revisions and the need to advocate for necessary resources. So, it’s understandable why, out of pure exhaustion, the column for employee development costs is often just copied and pasted from the previous year’s budget. Many leaders probably see that as a win because that means they’re able to retain employee development resources. However, carrying over a budget line item arbitrarily means we’ve skipped an important step in the process—the employee … Read More
Resilience: The 21st Century Workplace Skill
Many of us grew up learning the 3 R’s throughout our education (reading, writing, and arithmetic). However, as technology changed and the needs of the workforce became more complex, educators realized the true skills necessary for success had changed as well. For the past decade, educators have been focused on teaching the four C’s that have been deemed 21st Century Workforce Skills. The 4 C’s necessary for workforce readiness are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Many organizations report that, despite higher education’s focus on the 4C’s, new graduates still lack basic proficiency in these areas.
Striking a Balance: When Positive Feedback Backfires
A conversation with a former colleague this week reminded me that the old saying is true—it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Over coffee, my friend shared some reflections and lessons learned she had identified after her first year as a manager. Like many new front-line managers, she was a high performer who was at high risk of leaving her organization until they offered her a promotion. Eager for a new challenge, she jumped at the opportunity to step into her first leadership role. Aside from leveraging the help and advice of other leaders internally, she … Read More