Pocket Mentor – serie

Leading productive teams requires laying the groundwork for success and following through effectively. This guide offers immediately actionable advice on how to choose the right team members; clarify goals, rules, and responsibilities; foster trust, creativity, and risk taking; and resolve conflicts and maximize productivity. The Pocket Mentor Series offers immediate solutions to common challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real life examples to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness.

"Running Meetings" will be the essential guide to meetings that mobilise people toward constructive action. It covers everything from meeting location and etiquette to effective planning, facilitation, and follow-up; from dealing with problem behaviours to getting closure on key issues. It explains what effective meetings entail - and shows how to make them happen. Packed with ideas and applicable tools, "Running Meetings" is every manager's portable meeting advisor. It instructs readers how to: plan and run effective meetings; set agendas that work; handle problem behaviours and keep meetings on track; energize participants to take action; and, close meetings and identify key next steps.

"Managing Time" delivers proven advice on how to get the right things done - faster, smarter, and more efficiently. From setting goals and breaking them down into tasks to creating a manageable schedule and putting it into action, this user-friendly guide outlines proactive ways to focus on mission-critical tasks, eliminate or delegate non-priority projects, control interruptions, and avoid distractions. It is the essential guide to maximizing every manager's most valuable commodity. It instructs readers how to: set goals and focus on high-priority tasks; organise their space and save their time; use scheduling tools that really work for them; avoid distractions and control interruptions; delegate effectively; and, get more done in less time.

"Managing Projects" provides proven strategies for making sure any size task achieve its goal - on time and on budget. Covering the gamut of tasks involved in managing any project, this portable guide develops ideas about planning, team building, motivation, mid-course assessment and correction, and after-project review. It helps managers determine whether and how to make the critical tradeoffs between time, cost, and quality that are the essence of project management. Managers at any level can use this portable guide to become more efficient and effective multi-taskers. It instructs readers how to: scope out a project and identify resources needed; develop schedules and set deadlines; monitor budgets and keep projects on track; communicate progress and problems to stakeholders; and, overcome some typical project snags.

Most managers coach employees by giving them feedback and evaluating their performance, right? Wrong. Coaching differs markedly from other managerial functions. With its wealth of tips, worksheets, and self-assessments, this handy guide shows managers how to use coaching--not only to strengthen direct reports' skills but also to rev up their performance to unprecedented levels.

Good feedback is essential to helping employees perform better at work. It lets people know when they are meeting or exceeding expectations, and when they need to get back on the right track. This practical guide shows managers how to develop and refine this necessary skill. The books in this series offer immediate solutions to the challenges managers face every day. Each book is packed with handy tools, checklists, and real life examples, including a Test Yourself section to help identify strengths and weaknesses. For all readers eager to address the daily demands of work, these books are ideal.

Today's leaders don't use command-and-control. Instead, they leverage their communication, collaboration, and conflict-resolution skills to inspire employees to ever higher levels of performance. Packed with practical tools and expert advice, Leading People shows managers how to bring out the best in their team.

Effective business writing rests on a foundation of basic principles. Master them, and you'll know how to handle the many different writing tasks that come your way. This book will help you organize and edit your message for maximum impact. "The Pocket Mentor" series offers immediate solutions to common challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests and real life examples to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at you desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness.

Making persuasive presentations isn't just a matter of charisma and fancy charts: it requires concrete skills that are vital to keeping your audience engaged and involved. This handy guide contains key information on how to customize your presentations to keep people focused and produce the results you want.

Negotiation is the process by which people resolve their differences. Whether those differences involve the purchase of a new automobile, a labor contract dispute, the terms of a sale, or a complex alliance between two companies, resolutions are typically sought through negotiations. This guide will help you prepare, conduct, and close a negotiation successfully

Stress in the workplace can't ever be completely eliminated, but it can be managed so that you can function in a healthy and effective way. Managing Stress will give you practical, hands-on suggestions for managing workplace stress, from short term fixes to long-term methods for changing the situation and or changing your response to the situation.

Is your in-box always full? Are you constantly working overtime on tasks that "only you" can do? If so, you could benefit from delegating some of your workload. This volume shows you how to: * Identify which tasks to delegate * Decide whether to delegate based on employee, task, project, or function * Identify the skills required for each delegated assignment * Make an assignment and monitor the work * Address problems with delegated assignments

While no one likes to be the bearer of bad news, managers are sometimes faced with the difficult task of having to dismiss an employee. In this book, you'll learn how to effectively manage a dismissal--including making key decisions before, during, and after the critical event. Handled skillfully, dismissing an employee can set your team--and your company--on a positive new path.

Every business needs a business plan, a plan to meet the expected and unexpected opportunities and obstacles the future holds. Preparing a business plan is part of the process of preparing for a business. This book will show you how to take a long, hard look at each element of the plan and then how to communicate the right message to the right people to maximize the chances of getting your business venture launched. "Creating a Business Plan" covers the kinds of information that need to be contained in a successful business plan as well as how to present that information so that your readers get what they need and understand quickly what you're asking of them.

Managing up is not political game playing. Rather, it's a conscious approach to working with your supervisor toward goals that are important to both of you. Through managing up, you build a productive working relationship with your boss and create a way to use the complementary strengths of you and your boss to deliver value to your company. This volume helps you: * Understand the business results you produce by learning how to manage up * Cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship with your manager * Communicate effectively with your boss about priorities and problems * Negotiate win-win solutions to on-the-job challenges with your supervisor

You've just been promoted to a managerial position for the first time -- congratulations! But beware: the managerial role differs markedly from the individual contributor role. Go into the job with mistaken assumptions about what to expect, and you just may be blindsided by surprising realities. This book helps you lay the foundation for succeeding in your new role, explaining how to: * Discard the "doer" role of the individual contributor for the orchestrating role of the manager * Adjust your leadership style to maximize your team's performance * Balance conflicting expectations from your boss, peers, and direct reports * Deal productively with the stresses and new emotions that come with being a manager

As a manager, you make countless decisions every day. Some are straightforward, such as assigning a team member to a project. Others are far more complex, such as determining how to handle an under-performing product line. How can you boost the odds of making the best decisions for your organization? Treat decision-making as a process. This volume reveals key strategies for handling each step in the process. You'll find out how to: * Generate a diverse set of alternative courses of action for the decision at hand * Assess the feasibility, risks, and ethical implications of each alternative * Select the best course of action * Communicate your decision and carry it out

The Pocket Mentor series offers immediate solutions to the challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness. Many organizations encourage diversity because providing equal opportunity for everyone is the right thing to do. A diverse workforce can also yield such important competitive advantages as a higher level of profitable innovation, a better understanding of market opportunities, and stronger employee productivity and commitment. But as people with different backgrounds, beliefs, and values interact in the workplace, conflicts can arise. How can you foster diversity on your team and surmount the challenges that can come with it?This book teaches managers how to: - Recruit a diverse team - Foster an inclusive environment by replacing common misconceptions with facts - Handle diversity-related conflict - Tap the business value generated by the team?s diversity

The Pocket Mentor series offers immediate solutions to the challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness. Ideas are not enough: successful innovation requires people to pick up where the creative process leaves off. These people must take the creative idea and apply it to a real-life problem to design a new product, service, or process. They must construct a carefully articulated vision for the project, draw up a feasible financial plan, and advocate the project over the whole course of its development and implementation.This book teaches you how to execute an innovation from start to finish: - Develop a vision statement that stands up to evaluation criteria - Build a strong business case to the stakeholders who will be affected - Manage both explicit and hidden resistance to change - Sustain the passion around your idea and keeping its momentum going

A budget is a financial action plan for an organization. "The Pocket Mentor Series" offers immediate solutions to the challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self tests, and real life examples to help you identify strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness.

The Pocket Mentor series offers immediate solutions to the challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness. Managing employee growth is critical to your organization's success. But to develop your employees effectively, you must have certain skills, such as the ability to seek out opportunities, set goals, and provide feedback. This volume teaches you to: * Assess developmental needs * Understand and take into account differences between your employees * Use a Performance and Potential grid to determine next steps * Conduct a career development discussion

How do you lead a team scattered across the globe? How do you keep members you can't see organized, communicative, and productive? In this book, you?ll find valuable advice on forming virtual teams, assessing their communication and technology needs, and ensuring that they produce high-quality work. You'll learn how to: - Understand the benefits and challenges of virtual teams - Build a virtual community that promotes collaboration and ongoing communication - Utilize technology to enhance your virtual team?s focus, motivation, and output Meet Your Mentors Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps are CEO and Chief Scientist, respectively, of the Boston-based consulting firm NetAge and authors of many books and articles on networked organizations, including Virtual Teams."

Every day on the job, you face common challenges. And you need immediate solutions to those challenges. The Pocket Mentor Series can help. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable, concise guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with speed, savvy, and effectiveness. The latest volume in the series: Executing Strategy That strategy you've defined for your group is brilliant--promising better market share, higher profits, or some other impressive business result. But your strategy won't deliver the expected outcomes if you and your group don't execute it that is, if you don't put it into action by implementing the right strategic initiatives. This volume helps you master the challenging art of strategy execution.You'll learn how to: -Craft action plans for the strategic initiatives required to meet your goals -Keep your action plans on course despite the inevitable setbacks and surprises -Cultivate employees' sense of ownership and accountability for your plans -Create a group culture in which everyone views strategy as their job

Setting goals is a key part of any manager's job. Through goal setting, you define business outcomes that you and your team will accomplish collectively and individually. Managed effectively, the goal-setting process creates a long-term vision that motivates you and your employees to reach even the most challenging objectives. Every day on the job, you face common challenges. And you need immediate solutions to those challenges. The Pocket Mentor Series can help. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable, concise guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with speed, savvy, and effectiveness.

The latest volume in the series: Understanding Marketing Businesses soar when everyone in the organization adopts a marketing mind-set?an awareness of who the company's customers are, what they want, and how the organization can serve them profitably. But marketing's a big subject. How might you demystify it for yourself and your group if you don't have a marketing background? This volume provides the concepts and examples you need. You'll learn how to: -Define a target market -Identify and understand your toughest competitors -Develop a marketing strategy that lays out "the four Ps": product, promotion, pricing, and "place" (distribution) -Test new product or service ideas with customers -Get the most from relationship marketing

Every day on the job, you face common challenges. And you need immediate solutions to those challenges. The Pocket Mentor Series can help. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable, concise guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with speed, savvy, and effectiveness. The latest volume in the series: Fostering Creativity To survive in today's hypercompetitive climate, businesses must innovate constantly. Innovation hinges on creativity--generating novel and useful ideas. By fostering creativity in your team, you help unleash your company's innovative powers. But this requires a disciplined process for leveraging employees' unique experiences, thinking styles, and expertise.

Every day on the job, you face common challenges. And you need immediate solutions to those challenges. The Pocket Mentor Series can help. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you?re at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable, concise guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with speed, savvy, and effectiveness. The latest volume in the series: Laying Off Employees Implementing a layoff is one of the most difficult and painful challenges a manager can face. Handled skillfully and compassionately, a layoff can set your team--and your company--on a positive new path. But, when handled improperly, layoffs can have negative effects that impact morale, productivity and more. This volume provides managers with valuable advice proven strategies for laying off employees. In it, you'll learn how to: - Make key decisions before, during, and after a layoff - Communicate effectively with employees about a layoff - Rebuild a dedicated, high-performing post-layoff team

To be a successful manager, you need to master the skills that characterize strategic thinking--from examining situations to interpreting information--and know how to apply those skills on the job. In Thinking Strategically, you'll learn to: Understand what strategic thinking is and why it is valuable View strategic thinking as a process Recognize the personal traits, behaviors, attitudes, and cognitive capacities that strategic thinkers demonstrate

What can you, as a manager, do to attract top talent and keep your company's high-performing employees? In Retaining Employees, you'll learn ways to stay competitive in the war for talent by using creative and effective retention strategies, including: Managing or removing common obstacles to retention, such as burnout and work-life imbalance Developing programs to better meet employees' diverse needs and interests Hiring the right employees in order to improve retention