Management Training Seminars

By introducing our Management Training workshops to your staff we help ease the negative effect of change on both managerial and supervisory personnel. The change in job responsibilities, the change in personnel, job duties, and the rising challenge of developing subordinates are specific goals of our learning systems courses. We are highly successful at helping Managers and Supervisors learn and adapt to the necessary skills and proper behaviors to be successful at work as well as in their personal lives.

For more information on our management training classes please contact us.

As a part of our management training courses, Managers and Supervisors will learn how to:

• Minimize the chance of miscommunication by understanding what people are really saying, and why
• Deal with difficult people, manage tense situations, and resolve conflict
• Make use of proven active listening skills to improve your ability to gain helpful information
• Be able to facilitate, guide, and close discussions in one-on-one or group settings
• Improve understanding and communication by giving and receiving good feedback
• Use ideas submitted by a member of the team without causing other members to be defensive
• Develop a comprehensive team building strategy that improves productivity of the whole team
• Emphasize the value of working toward common goals without devaluing individual accomplishment
• Define and set up a method to track staff activities
• Be able to manage time and work assignments effectively
• Conduct team meetings that capture and hold the audience’s attention
• Interview and hire the right person for the right job
• Save time and work more effectively through the use of a clear time management plan
• Understand and comply with proper hiring and managing requirements
• Communicate effectively with both superiors, peers and subordinates
• Become effective coaches for their work team
• Conduct accurate and difficult performance appraisals

 

Here are a few pointers of what to do and what not to do when it comes to dealing with employees. Please follow this guideline, lest you want to get sued by somebody who has all the time and energy in the world to get to the end of a long (or not so long) workplace harassment trial.

RULE #1: Don't expect your new hire to be your "buddy". And if you're looking for somebody to be your pal, let them know in the interview. That way, they'll know what to expect once they're on the job. You might also want to take into consideration that if they are going to be your buddy, make sure you treat them with a modicum of respect so they'll want to be your pal or they'll be hating you all the time, and who wants that. Unless you get off on other people's misery. And they'll just end up quitting anyway, and you'll have to start the quest of "find a new buddy" all over again. Time waster and possible lawsuit in your hands. Stick with the job. Friendship might come later. If you find that this person absolutely didn't work out as your buddy and make up a complete lie/reason to fire them, then might as well just shoot yourself.

RULE #2: Your employee is not a mind reader. When your new hire first starts a job, he/she might have skills and experience, but you also will have to communicate what the tasks will be and how they tie in to what you're trying to accomplish. Or your new hire will be working in the dark and make mistakes. Make sure your new hire learns what he/she is supposed to do. It is not his/her responsibility to learn or figure things out on his/her own when it comes to the inner workings of the job. It is YOUR responsibility. YOU are the manager or supervisor, not them. There's always a reason why employees make mistakes or fall behind, and it's not 100% the employees fault. It's the training they received once they get there, which should be thorough and complete on your behalf. And train them properly. If you don't, they will just agree with you to get away from you. Then they'll make a mistake and you'll blame them.

RULE #3: Don't overestimate or underestimate an employee. Just because you don't know an employee, it doesn't mean you know them. Don't assume you know anything about this person just by the way he/she looks, acts, or talks. The reality is... you don't know. They can surprise you either way. In other words, don't judge a book by its cover. Treat everybody with respect whether they're the CEO of a company or janitor. You never know who you're really talking with. And you never know what can happen in the future.

RULE #4: If you want to fire your employee whatever reason, don't make excuses as to why you want to fire them (unless you were a real asshole to this employee and you want to cover your ass for legal reasons). If you want to cover your ass for legal issues, then lie away. Put it all on the employee.

RULE #5: Take responsibility for your actions. If you're not afraid of legal consequences, then you can come clean and admit your mistakes. Your employee will appreciate it. But if you still think this is showing a sign of weakness, then you're screwed. Pride, especially in the workplace, never helped anyone. Your employee will be disappointed and eventually quit. And unless you like hiring people over and over again, this won't be a fun game to play. Admitting you're wrong wins loyalty and respect, which is far more productive.

RULE #6: Don't pretend you're the employee's friend when you're having "the talk" if you were a jerk the rest of time. When you sit the employee down to try to "save" their job, just don't. The employee sees through it. You both know it's a bunch of BS and that you never cared in the first place. Too late to start acting humane.

RULE #7: If you like to play the cat and mouse game with your employee and be a tyrant and actually enjoy it, get ready. A lawsuit is not far from the horizon. Don't say I didn't warn you.

RULE #8: Your employee will test you. You heard me. I know you're the boss but in reality, an employee is actually interviewing you when you're interviewing them (no matter how modest they may seem). An employee is constantly testing you in a variety of ways everyday to see if you're a good person to work with/for and if you care about their well being. They will add or deduct points as they see fit. They want to be happy on the job, just like you, but everybody has a breaking point. And if you're points are too negative, they will fire you (or quit, or do things to get fired).

RULE #9: Get over the power trip. Nobody cares if you're the CEO, the CFO, if you've got a BS, Masters, or if you work for the best company in the world. By trying to belittle or humiliate your employees, you're showing what an idiot you really are. Doesn't matter how many titles you got in your business card. Don't try to be Hitler. Again, not attractive or productive. Unless you want to start recruiting your own posse for after work activities and like to torment employees in their every move. By the way, anybody who's in this game of "let's bully an employee just cause we have nothing better to do" might get their asses hauled into court as well. Again, don't say I didn't warn you about that lawsuit.

RULE #10: Don't always listen to other supervisors when it comes to employees. If another supervisor has a complaint about your employee, don't be quick to judge the situation. Especially if you haven't been around to know what's really going on. That supervisor/manager who come up to you with the complaint might have a hard on for that employee and it's trying to get him/her fired. You can listen blindly, that's fine. But if you make a wrongful termination, it's your ass. You look good in front of your fellow supervisor, but look like an idiot to them and the employee you just fired as well. If you don't mind playing the "puppet" to your fellow supervisors, then that's fine.

RULE #11: Don't be ridiculous with your work rules. Is an employee really supposed to sit there all day long doing nothing? All because they have to stay in their station or by a phone? If they want to volunteer to do something, let them do it and be productive at the same time. Don't get in their face about it. Especially if it was their first time doing it and thought it would be OK since there was nothing else to do! Let them read a freakin' book while sitting there doing NOTHING. Are there really hundreds or even 10s of people coming in through the door that need attending to? Let the employee learn something while he/she is doing NOTHING. Stop trying to play the lion tamer while your employee plays the lion in the cage. Other situations apply as they arise.

RULE #12: Don't throw employees in situations where they're not properly trained just so they can mess up and you have an excuse to get them fired. Instead, just fire them. OK? Just fire them. It saves time and money.

RULE #13: Don't fire an employee for personal reasons. If an employee has an office romance with another employee and you have the hots for that other employee, just leave them alone. They've all been handed the sexual harassment manual and the office romance office rules. Let them make the mistake. Don't get in the middle and try to break them up because you are jealous. You look like an idiot and everybody will find out eventually.

RULE #14: Appreciate. If you're giving them complicated tasks or long hours that are beyond what you and your employee originally agreed to, pay them accordingly. You're not running a slave factory, are you? And if you are paying them less than what they deserve, make it up to them by giving them a bonus or a raise shortly thereafter. Employees are not tables or chairs, they're living, breathing living beings and they have lives and families. You or your company is not the center of their universe. Make it known you appreciate their work verbally or by actions. Keep them loyal or else they walk (in some cases sooner than you think).

RULE #15: Everybody is different. Teach Accordingly. People are different, therefore people think differently. If you are smart, you would take advantage of that to see things from different angles so you and your company can profit (especially in certain fields). Not everybody is going to like the way you teach. Why? Because their brain might work differently than yours. So you have to change your teaching style; you have to personalize teaching for your employees. If you want them to learn anything. Don't assume an employee is dumb just because he's not getting what you're saying. If both of you see the same thing in a different way, it's up to you to speak their language. Some people learn better visually. Some people are more "hands-on". If you have to, explain another employee the task so they can let "translate" to other employee. But for this to happen and to be effective, you have to be aware. Awareness of how other people think. And this is VERY important. Why? Because if you know how employees think, you can place them in positions that match their skills, making them more productive. If you throw an employee to do any random task and he/she is not happy with it, guess what? It's a matter of time before they start moaning about their job. Match employees with their strengths and you will see results. I'm just sayin'.

RULE #16: Talking down to your employee won't help him/her learn. Intimating your employee into learning something or while putting him/her down won't help either. People can't learn if they're on the defense. It just doesn't work. Get it through your thick head.

RULE #17: Know that you are protected... for now. Sexual harassment is illegal, but office bullying is not. Other countries such as Canada, and Sweden have strict policies against office bullying and the USA has not caught on. But this is becoming more and more in the open as new people come forward with their stories. Soon there will be laws against bullying in the USA, and you won't be safe. If there were only more laws against being a HORRIBLE BOSS in general... one day.

The rules above should be no brainers to all employers, yet it seems like many blatantly want to ignore these facts. I've seen and experienced it so many times. Many brilliant minds are wasted and turned the other way because of negligence and ignorance by managers/supervisors. Half the time, the owners of companies don't even know what's really going on in their own businesses because these nitwits are running the show for them. If there's one rule I have for some of these owners is: pay attention. One of these "professional supervisors" might be their downfall. But it might be too late and they might be left to pick up the pieces and the damage would have been done. Not to mention the money spent on legal fees if cases go to court. Or money spent on advertising trying to find new employees because of high turnover, which is detrimental for a company's productivity. But all the money in the world can't quiet the ignorance that has already been spread and will continue to spread if somebody doesn't nip this silent epidemic in the bud.