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Posts Tagged ‘facilitation’

Managewhich Question: Who the “mans” the Role of Policy Police?

“The rules make it fair for everyone,”  a quote from one Managewhich who’s struggling with influencing and managing her peers.

The Managewhich was describing how other groups are rewarded for complaining (as opposed to problem-solving),  how other managers were giving undocumented vacation days in exchange for excessive for overtime, and other “rule-breaking” perks.  Her point of view is that the rules were put in place for a reason.  She follows the rules, and it makes her look like the bad guy when she doesn’t break them and others do.  She wants to influence her peers to follow the rules.

Small Business Owners and Solo-preneurs: Learn the Power of Partnering

While many of us who start our own businesses or who become solo professionals value our independence, we quickly find more value in having people at our side to give us extra strength, visibility and insight in the market. And so we get out there both in person and online to network and build relationships.

It’s great to meet new people and learn what they do, and it’s even more exciting when you can find a great deal of synergy between your goals and theirs. This is when you can start to explore referral partnerships or strategic alliances.

For the Managewhich and Business Owner: Who’s a Team Player?

Photo by Joseph Shemuel

Photo by Joseph Shemuel

Team Player is one of those phrases that we all assume we have the same definition for.  It’s one of the performance management buzz-phrases that shows on reviews and on job descriptions.  And, we all think we know what it means, but do we?

Manage Which? Up or Down (Part 3)

In the saga of Breeze and Hoover, so far Breeze has been able to minimize the number of times her team is derailed by Hoover’s ad hoc requests.  We set up three circumstances for which she’ll will accept the mission.

First, she has to fully understand how the ad hoc report or spreadsheet will be used.  This forces Hoover to be clear about what he wants, and it also allows Breeze some input into how it’s produced.  This minimized rework when Hoover has asked for something that actually won’t give him what he wants, and sometimes Hoover realizes that he doesn’t need the work done at all.

Manage Which? Up or Down (Part 2)

Photo By Brian

Photo By Brian

Where we left off last post is that our Managewich, Breeze, gets urgent requests from her manager, Hoover, and Breeze habitually has managed down, meaning that she’s generally accepted the work and the consequences of doing it for herself and her team and has muddled through by either directing her team to do the work or doing it herself.  I made a request of Breeze that she not accept work until one of three things has happened, the first being that she understands fully and completely how these reports and spreadsheets are going to be used and how they add value.  So far, this has resulted in some relationship building with Hoover, and it’s reduced some of the distracting work.  And, we’re not done yet.

Manage Which? Up Or Down?

Photo by Daniel R. Blume

Photo by Daniel R. Blume

One of the recurring dilemmas for the Managewich is the balance between managing up and down.  Today we’re going to examine the phenomenon of  having to produce worthless crap that adds no value simply because the boss says so.

Take my friend Breeze. Her boss, Hoover, continually asks for this spreadsheet or that report, all of which demands that Breeze and her team drop whatever [productive] work they are doing to deliver this new requirement ASAP.

Woo Hoo Woo Hoo, Making My Radio Debut

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m very excited to have been invited as a guest on the “Business Networking Brunch” this Sunday.  We’re going to be on the air from 9am – 11am Central time on 1360 am in Dallas.

Managewiches, I am there to beat the drum for the cause.   Some of the topics I plan to hit:

  • Why middle managers are integral to execution
  • Why leadership is important in all levels of the organization

Managewich Tip: Negativity Doesn’t Work, So Quit Getting Sucked In

Photo by elain

Photo by elain

I had a great weekend.  As most of you know, Grow Your Business Grow Your Life LIVE! was in Dallas this past Friday and Saturday, and I was blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the behind the scenes planning and execution.  I say blessed because I got to spend time with bright, generous, kind people, and frankly it was uplifting.

The Customer Experience & The Managewich

Photo by Tamer Shabaneh

Photo by Tamer Shabaneh

My hubby and I  just got back from an awesome trip to Cancun.   I bought the trip somewhat last minute from Sams Club of all places.  It was a surprise for Russ’s birthday, so I wanted it below the radar.  The trip was almost too good to be true price-wise, and even though I did my research, my biggest concern was that the hotel was going to be awful.

Tax Day for LLC’s

For my Small Business Owner friends…. friendly reminder that today (not Oct 15) is tax day for certain entities.

And this concludes my shortest blog post ever!

Be Your Best You Today,

Carolann

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