All managers and organizations have their philosophies about how to motivate employees and manage their teams. Some seek to create cooperation and loyalty. Others rely more on the competitive spirit to get things done. And the truth is different approaches can work, but it’s important to understand what kind of work environment you’re creating with …

I admit it: program budgets, operating budgets, budget narratives, budget justifications, and audited financial statements are not some of my favorite things. Fortunately for me, and possibly many grant managers, developing program budgets and other financial information needed for grant proposals is a team effort. Previously, I outlined the financial information to include in your …

The day of your big presentation preparation is fast approaching. You have been amassing plenty of facts, thoughts, photos, charts, and graphs, enough to fill a large file. Now the big question is how do you organize it? One great way to proceed is to start from a big-picture viewpoint. What is the point of …

Know thy audience, young crisis managers Social media crisis management can be confusing to navigate, especially if you’re not sure which stakeholder groups you’re dealing with. Although each comment obviously comes from an individual, there are discernible groups that you see emerge again and again to join in online debates and dramatics. In a post …

Effective trainers who have nothing to say aren’t really trainers. They may be entrepreneurs really. Quite frankly some have just learned how to make a buck with social media in particular and are good at jingoism. Or, to give them more respect, they could be speakers and even trainers who have sold good training tools, …

Take these steps and make every employee a crisis management asset Sure, your employees are hired to fill specific roles, but anyone who’s been in the middle of a crisis situation knows that a whole new set of responsibilities pops up, whether you’re ready or not. BCM president Jonathan Bernstein was recently interviewed for a …

“I know I should delegate but: “I can do it faster…He won’t be able to get it done on time…she’s bound to make some mistakes.” These are things I’ve been hearing frequently from overworked, stressed out managers. I jokingly mentioned, in a recent presentation, if there was something in the air that’s causing this outbreak …

Managing Disappointments: Effective Crisis Communication Failing to live up to stakeholder expectations is one of the quickest routes to reputation damage. Compounding this is the fact that sensation sells, meaning reporters, reviewers, and bloggers are happy to crank up the drama in order to draw more readers. Just take a look at this quote, from …

For any CxO or company seeking to adopt or scale Agile for their software development groups – get ready for some organizational soul searching! The mindset and processes of Agile reflect back your culture, your enacted (not espoused) Theory of Management, and the structural inefficiencies of your org chart…and these are just the beginning! Culture …

As promised, here is Part II of Useful Quotes for Training and Education. I have decided, on a whim really, that I will sit down with my new speech students and let them discuss the meaning of the following quotes, and how they might use them in a speech. Of course, there are useful quotes …