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A Manager Bullied by Their Staff? No Way!

This seems to an issue that people and organisations are unaware of – that a manager can be bullied by a staff member. But there have been times when I hear a story from a manager and I say ‘You are being bullied by your staff member’ and the manager looks astounded and then, the light bulb goes off as they say, ‘Yes, I am!’ What is bullying? It is ‘the repeated use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively to impose domination over others.’ The key word here is…continue reading →

Computers are More Complex than People

Agree? No I thought you wouldn’t! However when it comes to where companies spend their training money this statement appears to be true. I was in a hotel delivering one day’s management training to a group. And this one day was as a result of a small tussle with the company over budgets as their original idea was half a day! It was in the lift that I got talking to a guy who was excited about attend another training course in the same hotel. A five day training course on the computer…continue reading →

Don’t Do it Alone!

Never deal with a Difficult Conversation alone.  And I don’t mean going into the Difficult Conversation with a couple of lieutenants walking two steps behind – that would frighten the poor individual into the only sane responses at that point – fight or fold, say nothing and get your own back later! What I mean is that if you have a difficult situation developing with a member of staff use all of the resources around you to consider what approach to take.  And why is powerful: Difficult situations are emotive – and as…continue reading →

Life is Made Good by doing Scary Things!

I sent this statement out as a tweet earlier in the week but I couldn't stop thinking about it, particularly as I had some scary things myself to face this week. For many managers the scary thing is that difficult conversation with a staff member  -  but once faced and done they feel great!! The need for that difficult conversation could have been simmering for weeks, months, maybe even years.  Perhaps the problem was never a BIG problem, just a little problem that wouldn't go away.  And little problems, when they are repeated…continue reading →

Being a Manager and Being Nice does not Work!

I am now standing back ready for a whole load of comments saying that I am totally wrong! But let me explain!  Obviously you don't want to be 'not nice' or horrible or nasty but it really DOES work against a manager if they try to be nice in order to be liked by everyone. And the reason why?  Because as a manger you may have to do things from time to time that are not nice.   Like a business restructure that takes away a favourite project, or making redundancies, or, as one…continue reading →

New to Management? New to Difficult Conversations?

When you become a manager there are a whole load of new skills to learn!  You have been promoted because you have been good at achieving results, hitting deadlines and the task you have been employed to do, eg accountancy, sales, customer relations. But you have yet to prove yourself good at management!!  Yikes!  I remember that during my first year as a manager I had a cartoon pinned above my desk. It was a cartoon of a terrified bungee jumper and it so clearly demonstrated what I was feeling at the time. …continue reading →