Manager Tools: Getting the Basics right

I've said it before and I'll say it again Manager Tools is great. Mike and Mark have been providing fundamental advice for 2 years with their weekly podcast and I have tried to spread the word.

The problem that I experienced when I first found them was where to start. When I looked through the back catalogue I initially want to get the basics out. Since then I have been through and listened to everything and eagerly await Monday for the next installment.

The problem for MT Newbies is now addresses with the the core podcasts bundled up into the basics series.

This will lead you through the foundations of MT

• One to Ones
• Feedback
• Coaching
• Delegation
• Running Effective Meetings
• Solution to a Stalled Technical Career

A good introduction for newcomers to help build the context for many of the other podcasts and even a great refresher for those who have been listening for some time but would like to brush up their skills.

O3's - One to One's a tool for mobile managers

Being an avid listener to Manager Tools and having applied nearly all of the tools and techniques so well presented by Mark and Mike there is one catch with the One-2-One guidelines.

Go get the podcast

The suggestion is to document the session in a file for follow up week to week and for easy review come appraisal time. This causes a problem when you travel a lot.

The solution is to use some desktop available tools that allow for easy note taking and a more flexible structure. This means Mind Manager.

Having created a template for using in the O3 the next step was to incorporate another of the Manager Tools, retention tracking.

Go get the podcast

The result is the Mind Manager template that I am sharing here.

For those without Mind Manager, suggestion is to get it as the tool is very flexible, you can see an image of the layout



Take the time to go an register at Manager Tools. The podcast series is excellent and there is now the added bonus of Premium content.

Book: Peter Flock - Flawless Consulting

A good reference if you want to [re]learn about consulting methods and approaches. Equally useful for internal and external consultants and maps very well to line management. The discovery process and meeting guidelines described would certainly help a line manager understand and deal with conflict.

Books: Tom Markert

A good and short book from Tom Markert "You Can't Win a Fight With Your Boss and 55 other rules for success"

Very easy to read (143 pages in just over one hour)

Lots that sound familiar and more then it's fair share of ah ha moments.

DWYPYWD? read the book and find out.

Useful Excel Tools - Making Management Easier

I have been using little Excel tools that I have put together to help track holiday for myself and my directs.

Following on from the variations I have generated for David Seah's Compact Calendar there is a great use for the neat solution he has put together.

Over and above country specific version it would be very easy to generate employee specific versions that help you keep track of when and when they're in the office. The table used in the compact calendar can easily accommodate inserted rows to include personal vacation.

I started out with a different tracking spreadsheet which you can download from here.

The top bar is generated for the total amount of holiday each person (in their own tab) has. The bottom bar changes as you add the holiday record as people request the time off. Helped me keep track of how close people were to using their leave up. Also helps me remind people to plan as the year end approaches and the carry over limit from one year to the next is announced.

If there any comments or suggestions on improvements/other usage please feel free to contact me.

Compact Calendar - Indonesia Version

Adding to the variations I have created to David Seah's Compact Calendar please see the tentative version for Indonesia for 2008.

This is to add to the Thailand and Singapore versions already available.

You can find the versions here:

Indonesia
Singapore
Thailand

Also go and look at David's work:

Compact Calendar
Printable CEO

David Seah's Compact Calendar - Singapore Version

Having already created a Thailand version of David Seah's Compact Calendar I like the format so mush that I have created a Singapore 2008 version to complement it.

How would you use it?

If you use Excel for any planning, like creating simple Gantt Chart's, this is an invaluable aide to quickly seeing by month how many working days there are. Put both the Thailand version and a Singapore version in the same workbook and you can get an idea of the influences on a project team based on the public holiday's in their respective countries.

A little bit more tinkering in Excel and you could build a table that allows you to see which days all potential resources are in the office (unless on vacation) so you can plan the best days to have your all hand's meeting or Community Centre (smaller than a Town Hall) meeting.

Get the Singapore version here
Get the Thailand Version here

I would also recommend taking some time to look at David's Printable CEO series.

People: Feedback... is a gift

What is feedback?

Many people assign negative responses to feedback because feedback is "criticism".

People readily accept praise - praise is simply positive feedback.

Feedback is an art and not well performed by many people today and above all it's a gift as it gives something tangible about our behaviours to work with.

Key points:

• Feedback is not the delivery it is the reception
• It's about the behaviour not the person
• designed to continue postiive/effective behaviours
• designed to change or adjust negative/ineffective behaviours

The other point to remember is that it is the recipient that owns the behaviour and therefore they need to be engaged when feedback is being communicated.

"communication is what the listener does"

Peter Drucker on communication

To get the recipient engaged they need to be ready to receive the feedback, therefore always ask if you can deliver feedback to them. This means that you need to treat traditional feedback and praise (positive feedback) in a consistent manner. Don't be easily read such that by asking the person assumes that the feedback is going to be negative, otherwise they won't be listening.

Mark and Mike @Manager Tools have a great podcast on the subject, well worth listening to.

People: One-to-Ones

What is the key to getting to know your people, letting them get to know you and how to keep track of what they're doing?

A: One-to-Ones

Mark and Mike at Manager Tools give you the ins and outs of the "single most effective management tool" in their typical, likeable style.

We with some excellent advice and a useful template for setting up the meeting and how to keep track of the notes and actions.

When you tie this in with retention you get a very powerful platform to stay connected to your team.

Resources:

The single most effective management tool part 1
The single most effective management tool part 2
Retention

If you go and have a look at the tools section you will also see the templates to use.

The difficulty I had was trying to balance a paper or word document based system to keep track of everything whilst I am on the move. So I have created a MindManager template that you can use to keep up to date with the One-to-Ones.

Get the template

Mind Manager 7

I use MindJet's MindManager Pro a lot for all kinds of actions, project tracking, coding ideas, blog ideas, one-2-ones.

The tool is extremely flexible and now the new version 7 is available.

Key Features:

• New User Interface - The fluent (ribbon) user interface is compliant with the new Microsoft standard seen in Vista. This means tabbed browsing and a quick access toolbar. The tabs are customizable so that you can keep your most widely used functions to hand. This also removes the map parts side bar.
• Key Benefit: the tabbed browsing replaces the sidebar and that leaves more space available for viewing the map.
• Topic Styles - Allows creation of named styles across the map regardless of the level.
• Key Benefit: as the topic style travels with the map this gives more flexibility to highlight key topics and have a consistent view with other users
• Saved Queries - Version 6 had powerful filtering capabilities. This has been extended with the ability to save the resulting query as a saved query to save repetition in filtering the map
• Key Benefit: less key strokes required to view and redimension the map.
• Saved Views - another use for the saved query is the ability to save the modified map as a saved view. The saved view keeps collapsed topics closed and allows for a zoom factor to be saved within the view.
• Key Benefit: Allows for larger, more complex maps, with quick access to the key phase or map area. The view travels with the map and this means that the consistent view can be accessed by all viewing parties. Ultimately this means more map space that can be accessed and viewed as quickly as possible.
• Show Branch Alone - a slight variation on the saved view is the ability to show the map branch in isolation.
• Key Benefit: more efficient use of maps. Particularly when using MindManager for project tracking a branch is typically a phase or a feature. This means the map can be quickly focussed on that phase or feature for viewing and modifying.

The overall direction for the changes is on the user experience. All of the same powerful features are there in MindManager 7 but the ability to handle larger and more complex maps with the above key features makes the product more usable.

Creative Thinking: Brainstorming

Invention and thinking of new solutions to old problems is one of the key skills required for today's manager. This could be applied to Projects and People; wherever there is a problem there could be a need to be creative in the solution.

One of the key tools is Brainstorming. For this I use MindJet's MindManager Pro. A great tool and very easy to use. But there is more than the tool....

Blockers: Premature Judgment
Nothing is so harmful to inventing and idea creation as a critical sense waiting to pounce on the drawbacks of any new idea. Judgment hinders imagination.

Blockers: Searching for the single answer
If the first impediment to creative thinking is premature criticism then the second is premature closure. By looking from the outset for the single best answer, you are likely to short-circuit a wiser decision-making process in which you select from a large number of possible answers.

Brainstorming Objective: Separate the inventing from the deciding
Before brainstorming:

• Define the purpose
• Choose a few participants
• Change the environment
• Design an informal atmosphere
• Choose a facilitator

During brainstorming:

• Seat the participants side by side facing the problem
• Clarify the ground rules
• Brainstorm
• Record the ideas in full view

After brainstorming:

• Highlight the most promising ideas
• Invent improvements for promising ideas - use the SCREAM technique
• Set up a time to evaluate ideas and decide

There are some great podcasts on Brainstorming.

I recommend the two part Manager Tools series:
Part 1: 2006.07.10 - Brainstorming part 1 of 2
Part 2: 2006.07.17 - Brainstorming part 2 of 2

In addition there is also a nice summary available in the PMO Memo.
The PMO Podcast Episode 19

The PMO Podcast is presented by Mark Perry.

MindJet's Mind Manager

My former boss and good friend starting using MindJet's Mind Manager and got me using it.

Now, more than one year on, I am still scratching the surface on this excellent tool's features and abilities.

I find myself using it for the traditional uses of brainstorming and defining scope, and initial work breakdown structure, for project initiation.

Having listened to Dina on Mind Manager, an interview with Tim Bombosch, I have taken the time to listen to a couple of the webinars available on the MindJet website. The series looks to be shaping up nicely.

I would recommend the following webinars to learn more of the ability of the software

• Creating a Project Dashboard
• Running Effective Project Team Meetings
• Planning & Initiating projects
• Improve Project Performance - Integrate Mind Manager with MS Project

Now with some of these new features at hand I will using my software for

• Managing meetings more effectively
• Project Dashboard
• Knowledge Management
• Resource tracking - applying some of MT's tools.
  

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Manager Tools - A Review

I stumbled across Manager Tools at the beginning of the year.

Manager Tools is a weekly podcast with supporting blog and very active forums for registered members. Since finding the podcast I have worked through the back catalogue and have been really impressed by the quality of the podcast, the advice and how successful I have been implementing some of the advice in the real world.

Manager Tools is the work of Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne. Their style is very informal and well worth listening to