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Management Tips

The Management Tips section is all about putting ideas into action. The feeling that we're doing well as managers is an important contributor to our happiness, and there is an abundance of resources available to teach us the techniques we need to be effective.

As you put these management tips into practice, remember to build on the basics. Seek smarter ways to work, hone your analytical and critical skills by asking good questions, and always strive to keep things simple. Before you follow the links to our articles and tips, consider one of our favourite Peter Drucker Quotes ....

the-happy-manager-management-tips

He once asked the aging, former head of a very large, world wide organisation:

“What do you look for in placing the right people into the right places in an organisation?”

The old man, who had been famous for doing just that replied:

“I always ask myself, would I want one of my sons to work under that person?”

Articles - Management Tips

What Makes a Good Manager? Whether you're entering a management role for the first time, moving to a new level, or simply taking time to reflect, asking this question should be your starting point. And it's an important one!

Value of a Good Manager? People leave managers, not companies.
Here's perhaps the best management tip of all. Whilst there may be many things we dislike about our jobs, the relationship between managers and employees is arguably the most critical. Employees who are well managed can forgive many of an organisation's shortcomings. When people are badly managed, there can be unhappiness, reduced efficiency and high staff turnover. When we resign, we often leave poor managers, not the organisation.

Seven Step Problem Solving Process.
Here's a seven step problem solving technique, full of tips to help you arrive at the best solutions to your problems. In this article you'll find several of our other problem solving tools and management tips, brought together to provide a complete problem solving process.

Best Management Tools Ever? - A Good Question. The best management tools are good questions but why are they so important, and how can we ask better questions? The danger with many management tools is that they may create a false sense of security encouraging us to hide from the real thinking that needs to take place.

"What Great Managers Know - It's Obvious."
What do great managers know? J.D. Rockefeller once said: “the secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well”. What do great managers know? It should be obvious! Read our five tests for an obvious idea.

5 Whys: Getting to Root Causes, Fast!
Asking why 5 times: "the 5 Whys", is a simple but powerful tool to use with any problem solving activity. It's a technique to help you get past the symptoms of a problem, and to find its root causes.

Critical Success Factor: Managing Waste in the Workforce
As Peter Drucker once said: "What is the first duty – and the continuing responsibility – of the business manager? To strive for the best possible economic results from the resources currently employed or available."

Improving Motivation at Work: In Search of Optimum Performance
How do you go about improving motivation at work? Perhaps by seeking optimum performance. Managing is essentially a balancing act. The manager's role requires constant adjustment of resources, priorities and focus, and that's without that other great balancing act - work and life!

Peter Principle: a "Bad Boss" Early Warning System?
What is the 'Peter Principle'? Here we discuss some of Laurence Peter's excellent insights based on his famous principle: that people rise to their level of incompetence. Use these to arm yourself with a 'bad boss early warning system'!

Problem Solving Technique: 4 Steps To Improve Your Processes,
Using questions to analyse, challenge and improve business and management processes is a very useful skill.

Problem Solving Activity - A Question Checklist For Problem Solving
This question checklist is a simple but effective problem solving activity. It's straighforward to use and easy to adapt to any specific circumstance. Using a set of structured questions encourages both broad and deep analysis of your situation or problem. The questions themselves may be simple, but when used as part of the checklist, they become a powerful management tool.

Problem Solving Skill is a useful tool to help you find the right problems to solve. Asking "why not" is an effective way to seek innovation and encourage creativity.

The Power of Positive Thinking: 5 Questions to Transform Problem Solving.
Go from problem-solving to opportunity-creating using the power of positive thinking. This tool uses 5 questions to help you radically change the way you solve problems.

Peter Drucker Quotes: Wisdom from the Giant of Giants
Searching for Peter Drucker Quotes? No management site would be complete without these essential quotes from the giant of management giants. Peter Drucker quotes: a better way to manage!

Time Management in the Workplace: Creating Discretionary Time
In this article we discuss choice and time management in the workplace. Imposed demands on our time tend to make us feel trapped. Building more choice into how we spend our time, and how we perform our work, can reduce stress and make work more fulfilling.

Employee Motivation Program: Play Your Ace!
Base your employee motivation program on the things that really matter to employees. Years of extensive research reveals how to keep enthusiastic employees enthusiastic. For the proven benefit of all!

Group Decision Making Methods
What group decision making methods do you use? If you're unsure how to answer that question, then this article will help you think through some relevant approaches.

Teamwork Principles: Six of the Best
Teamwork principles can often be lost in the day-to-day busyness of work. We all know the value of teamwork. Or do we? Here we discuss 6 principles of teamwork.

Teamwork Theory: Tuckman's Stages of Group Development
Probably the most famous teamwork theory is Bruce Tuckman's 'team stages model'. Tuckman's model is widely used as a basis for effective team building and leadership. He suggests that teams grow through clearly defined stages, from their creation as groups of individuals, to cohesive, task focused teams.

Why is Teamwork Important? 8 Good Reasons!
Why is teamwork important? Well it's one thing to create a team, but quite another to create teamwork. Just as it's one thing to join a team, but quite another to perform as a team member. To put it simply, teams don't work without teamwork.

Tools and Tips

Asking Good Questions: In a Minute?
We think the best management tools are good questions, but how do you find time to ponder them? This page contains some short cuts to asking good questions at work.

Benefits of Teamwork: Group Activity Tool
What are the benefits of teamwork in your organisation? Use this teamwork group activity tool to help find out.

Creativity Problem Solving: 5 Questions to Help Put Your Creativity to Work!
Whether you've a problem to solve, or a decision to make, our creativity problem solving questions help promote 'possibility thinking'....

Effective Meetings
How do we manage effective meetings? It's been said that there are only two kinds of activities in an organization. Attending meetings and answering the phone for colleagues who are attending meetings!

Problem Solving Skill: Finding the Right Problems to Solve. pdf

An understated problem solving skill is to see every problem as an opportunity, start by finding the right problems to solve. This tool will help.

Problem Solving Activity Tool: a Question Checklist for Problem Solving. pdf

This question checklist is a simple but effective problem solving activity. It's straighforward to use and easy to adapt to any specific circumstance. Using a set of structured questions encourages both broad and deep analysis of your situation or problem.

Problem Solving Technique Tool: 4 Steps to Improve Your Processes. pdf

This tool contains a useful problem solving technique to help you improve your business processes. Critical examination is a structured questioning process which uses Kipling’s six honest serving men: what, why, when, how, where and who.