Contents

8   Your First Team “Gathering” (Not a Meeting)

• Self-Intro “Cheat Sheet”

9   Three Team-Meeting Fundamentals

10 How to Run Effective Team Meetings

• Best Practices for Facilitating Team Meetings
• Serious Mistakes in Facilitating Team Meetings
• Lousy Ways to Present an Agenda to the Team
• Agenda Preparation
• Great Agenda Format for Team Meetings
• AGENDA <sample>
• Truly an Open-Ended Discussion?
• Don’t Opine First (or: How Not to Shut Down Team Discussions)
• “How Do I Ensure that the Best and Most Creative Thinking Bubbles Up?”
• “How Do I Ensure that Everyone Participates Equally?”

• The Seating Chart Technique

• “How Do I Deal with Ultra-Aggressive Talkers?”(Who Dominate Team Meetings and Often Try to Change the Subject)

• The Poker Chip Game

• Re-directional Phrases

• Amazing – You Reap What You Sow

11   Your First 1-to-1 Meeting with Your Manager

• What Are Your Manager’s Concerns and Priorities?
• What Are Your Skip-Level Manager’s Concerns and Priorities?
• What Does Your Manager Most Want You to Accomplish in the First 3 Months on the Job?
• Who Did Not Get the Job? (a Dicey Topic to Bring Up)

12   Your First 1-to-1 Meeting with Each of Your Direct Reports

• Agenda for the Initial 1-to-1 Meeting with Each Direct Report

• Agenda Format <template>

13   The Art of Recurring 1-to-1 Meetings with Your Direct Reports

• Benefits for Direct Reports

• Why Career Discussions Are Important

• Benefits for the Manager (that’s You!)

• Agenda for Recurring 1-to-1 Meetings with Each Direct Report

• Agenda format for 1-to-1 meetings <template>

14   What If You Learn During the First Week on the Job that You’ve Been Dropped into a Huge Mess?

15   Triaging Urgent Problems

16   Taking Control of the Triage Process

• Triage Table (aka facing reality)

17   Developing a Realistic Triage Schedule

18   Hiring Is the Most Important Thing You Do

19   Great Hiring Begins with Top-of-the-Line Job Descriptions

20   Crafting a Top-of-the-Line Job Description

• Job Title <J.D. template>

21   An Interview Is Not a Conversation (Did You Think It Was?)

22   Strategic Planning for an Interview Loop

23   Whom Will You Choose to Interview the Candidates?

24   Thorny Issue – How to Deal with Internal Candidates

25   The Hiring Manager’s Laser Focus on Motivation, Team Fit, and Upside Potential

26   Who Asks Which Questions?

27   The Question-and-Answer Game

28   Warm-Up Questions

29   Follow-Up Questions (aka Penetrating the Façade)

30   Real-Time Feedback Is Critical

• An Efficient Format for Real-Time Feedback

• Real-time feedback format <template>

• “Maybe” or “Perhaps” or “Not Sure” Is Not Allowed

31   Did the Candidate Have Any Questions for You, the Hiring Manager?

32   Try to Talk the Candidate Out of the Job (If You Want to Hire the Candidate)

33   Trust Your Gut

34   Going into “Sell” Mode

35   The Role of the Hiring Manager (That’s You!)

• Why the Hiring Manager Goes Last in the Interview Loop

36   The “Chameleon Candidate” Nightmare (or: the Tale of a Bad Hire)

• How to Prevent It from Happening Again

37   Beware “the Passion Thing”

• Problem #1 – Rehearsed Passion

• Problem #2 – Cultural and Personality Differences

• Problem #3 – The Double-Bind of Women Candidates

• Additional Thoughts on Passion

38   Instant Prejudice

39   Hire People Who Are Smarter than You

40   Retaining Staff (or Letting Them Go Gracefully)

• Early Warning Signs

• Retention Strategies

• If It Isn’t a Fit, Let Them Go Gracefully

41   Dealing with Bad Apples

• How Do You Identify a Bad Apple?

• Can You Fix the Situation?

42   Team Destroyers – the “Greats”

• Meet “Martha the Great”

• Meet “Sheldon the Great”

43   How to SMARTly Manage a Martha or a Sheldon… or Worse

• SMART Goals (an Excellent Methodology for All Your Direct Reports)

44   Walk & Talk, and Lunch with You (If You Have a Large Team)

• Walk the Hallways

• Lunch with You

• Self-Intro Crib Sheet (for informal lunch meetings)

45   The Culture Gap… When You Are a Manager of Managers

• Consider “Culture Fit” When Hiring a Direct Report Manager

• Three Techniques for Closing the Culture Gap

46   “The Vision Thing”

• “Is this Vision Stuff Relevant to Me?”

47   Creating a Powerful Vision

• Key Characteristics of a Vision Statement <template>

48   Criteria for Mission, Goals, Strategy, Success Metrics, and Tactics

49   Strategy

• What Is Strategy?

• Understand Your Starting Point

• (Before Devising a New Strategy)
• Success Metrics vs. Completion Metrics
• Execution Is Strategic

50   Putting a Toe in Strategic Waters

51   Preparing to Open the “Wrong Strategy” Can of Worms with Your Manager

51   (Very Carefully, of Course)

52   The OARP Model – For Keeping a Project on Track

• OARP Model – Definitions <table>
• Alpha Spec Review
• Beta Spec Review
• Final Spec Review
• Summary of Benefits of the OARP Model
• Two Things to Remember to Do…

53   Developing a Communications Strategy(Internal and External)

• Identify Your Potential Audiences
• How Often Should Each Audience Receive a Status Report from You?
• What Format Should You Use for Status Reports?

54   Which Member of Your Team Will Come Up with the Next Break-Through Idea?

55   “Managing” Your Peers… Effectively

56   What If Someone Makes You Angry? (Be Very Careful)

57   What Is the One Guaranteed Motivator?

58   The Difficult Dance of Opposing Principles

• Colliding Principal #1: Believe What You Think with Your Whole Heart
• Colliding Principal #2: Don’t Believe Everything You Think

59   There’s Never Enough Time to Do It Right… But There’s Always Enough Time to Fix It

60   Perfectionitis (a Good Way to Lose Market Share)

61   LUTAS and Other Tips for Exec Reviews

• The 2/3 Rule for Presentations
• The 3-Minute Rule for Presentations
• How to Structure Your Slide-Deck Presentation

62   Email No-No’s

63   “Isn’t It Enough to Be Fair?”

64   Delivering Bad News

65   What Is the Most Important Thing You Do as a Manager?

66   Worry-Free Vacations (or Are You Constantly on Edge?)

67   What Is the One Thing that No One Can Take from You?

• “Well, Jack, Aren’t You Being a Little Simplistic, a Little Naïve?”
• “How Can I Tell If I’m Sacrificing My Integrity?”