Off-The-Shelf, Turnkey Courseware on How to Delegate
Being able to delegate effectively is one of the most critical skills that Supervisors and Managers need to develop. It helps someone accomplish much more than they could working alone, and allows them to devote their time and efforts to their most critical tasks, or things they do best. Put simply, being able to delegate effectively is one of the keys to a successful career in Supervision, Management or other key leadership role.
- Why Delegate?
- Key ingredients for a successful delegation.
- The delegation process
- How to identify what tasks to delegate.
- How to identify what the person you’re delegating to needs to do the task.
- How to delegate at a level that makes you comfortable.
- How to keep track of what you’ve delegated.
- Avoiding common traps and pitfalls.
- How to get started.
- Personal action plan.
What’s Included?
“DELEGATING FOR RESULTS” provides you with everything you need to conduct an effective 1 day workshop. You get:
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A Power Point Presentation with annotated speaker notes covering each topic.
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Interactive Exercises that get participants actively thinking about and discussing what they’re learning.
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A comprehensive Leader’s Guide in PDF format.
Who Should Buy This Course?
Because it’s pre-written and off-the-shelf, “DELEGATING FOR RESULTS” is perfect for Trainers and other professionals who need to conduct training for supervisors and managers on how to delegate, but don’t want to spend the large amount of time needed to research, design and develop a program from scratch. This includes:
- Internal Trainers
- Training Managers
- HR Managers
- Training Firms
- Consultants
- Anyone who needs to teach Supervisors or Managers how to delegate.
We’ve made “DELEGATING FOR RESULTS” extremely easy to afford. Base prices start as low as $350. For more information and to view a sample, click here.
Note: “DELEGATING FOR RESULTS” is only available for purchase by U.S. buyers.
Boost All Your Managers’ Productivity by Putting the “Manager’s Toolkit” on Their Workstations, Laptops or Tablets.
In today’s challenging economy, organizations need to find ways to substantially boost their Managers’ and Supervisors’ productivity. Fortunately, there is an amazingly simple way of doing so by combining the power of technology available at your fingertips with electronic handbooks in PDF format that help Managers and Supervisors deal with their most challenging tasks. This post shows you how.
The concept is simple. Use your e-mail system to provide your Managers and Supervisors with the set of tools they need to deal with the common set of daily challenges they face. They can store these tools on their workstations, laptops, and work tablets (like iPad) and access them whenever they need to. They can use them when they’re in their office/workstation, at home, on the road, or in meetings.
All you have to do is buy one copy of the appropriate electronic handbook, buy the number of additional licenses you need, and send it out by e-mail with instructions on how to store and use it.
The 6 common challenges facing Managers and Supervisors
Regardless of their function (accounting, operations, sales, production, etc.) Managers and Supervisors face 6 common day-to-day challenges that greatly impact their productivity. These are:
- Designing and running meetings
- Holding team discussions
- Delegating work
- Leading or participating on project teams
- Coaching employees
- Managing their own time
Talk with any Manager or Supervisor and you’re probably going to hear either how they’ve either mastered the skills to deal successfully with these challenges, or the headaches they’re experiencing because of them.
The problem to date, is that each Manager or Supervisor usually has to develop their own solution. If they’ve been to training, they may have the handouts to refer to (if they can find them). Or, they may have developed their own reference library of books dealing with these issues.
So, each time they face a challenge, they have to dig through what they’ve got stashed, which is both time-consuming and cumbersome. And what do they do if they’re in one place and the books/materials in another?
Worse yet, everyone’s got their own solution and it’s not easily sharable.
What’s needed is an effective set of tools that all of your Managers and Supervisors can easily reference each time they need help dealing with one of the 6 challenges. Sometimes they need step-by-step guidance on how to deal with it. Other times they just need a quick refresher to make sure they don’t leave anything out.
What’s the Solution?
To help Managers and Supervisors have the needed tools and guidance in one convenient place, KAW Consulting developed the “Manager’s Toolkit“, a set of electronic handbooks that guide Managers and Supervisors step-by-step on how to develop the skills needed to deal with the 6 key challenge areas. These are:
- “Meetings That Work”"
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Team Tools” (Frameworks for Making Better Group Decisions, Solving Problems, Generating Ideas, Setting Goals and Planning Tasks
- “Delegating For Results”
- “Project Management for Managers and Supervisors”
- “Coaching Skills for Managers and Supervisors”
- “Time Management for Managers and Supervisors”
Unlike most books on the 6 key skill areas, that are too complicated and hard to understand, the “Manager’s Toolkit” electronic handbooks are exactly the opposite. They’re written in easy to understand language that walk the Manager or Supervisor step by step through the processes needed to apply each of the 6 key skills. Many even include sample forms and checklists.
Like any great handbook, the electronic handbooks in the “Manager’s Toolkit” are something meant to be used over and over again. And unlike paper handbooks, that get lost easily, they’re in PDF format, so Managers and Supervisors can store them on their computer, laptop or work tablet so they have them accessible each time they need to design a meeting, hold a team discussion, delegate a task, manage a project or coach an employee. Just call up a handbook and it’s ready to use. If they want a hard copy, they can print what only they need. To save time, and allow the book to function as an e-tool, we’ve even included hyperlinks in each handbook’s Table of Contents, as appropriate, so they can jump right to the page or section they need without having to spend time scrolling through unneeded pages.
How Do I Get These Tools Out to the Organization?
Making the electronic handbooks available to your Managers and Supervisors is extremely easy. You can purchase a single copy of any of the books online and download it. Then all you need to do is purchase licenses for the number of people you want to send it to (also available online) and then simply send out the file by e-mail. They then store the books in a folder or library on their workstation computer, laptop or tablet, and it’s available whenever they need it. It’s that simple, really.
Better yet, prices are extremely affordable. Single copies of each title range from $15.95 to $21.95. Additional licenses to distribute to each of your Managers and Supervisors (or others in your organization that can use them) range from $14.95 per user per title to $19.95 per user per title.
How to View Samples and Purchase
To view more information on the “Manager’s Toolkit” and each of the titles in it, click here, or visit our main website at www.kawconsulting.com.
Note: Available to only U.S. customers at this time.
6 Timeless Vital Skills Every Manager Needs to Master
Due to their organizations needing to adapt to a rapidly changing business environment, today’s Managers and Supervisors face what at times can seem to be a host of overwhelming challenges, such as managing larger staffs and facing increased demands on their time from both above and below. To survive and thrive in this type of climate, it’s vital that Managers and Supervisors master 6 vital day to day skills that have proven timeless in their importance. These are:
- Designing and Running Better Meetings
- Holding Effective Team Discussions
- Delegating Work Successfully
- Managing Projects
- Time Management
- Coaching Employees
Following is a list of the major skills needed to be successful in each area.
Designing and Running Better Meetings
Meetings are a vital part of a Managers or Supervisors day. Yet, many seem to fail. In fact, a major survey revealed that 70% of employees feel the meetings they attend are a waste of time. Consequently it’s important that as a Manager or Supervisor understand:
- What makes meetings succeed, and why many fail
- The crucial roles that need to be filled in each meeting
- How to use 8 basic steps to design an Effective Meetings
- How to use some basic tips for Running an Effective Meeting
- How to deal with common problems that can derail a meeting such as:
- Stares and Silence
- Negative Remarks
- Separate Agendas
- One person trying to dominate the discussion
Holding Effective Team Discussions
Look at the types of discussions that Managers and Supervisors hold with their teams and you’ll find they often fall into 5 areas. Consequently, Managers and Supervisors need to be able to effectively hold discussions with their teams to:
- Brainstorm ideas
- Solve Problems
- Make Decisions
- Plan Tasks
- Set Goals
Delegating Work Successfully
Not only do Managers and Supervisors have to manage larger staffs, they’re also expected to make sure that their staffs are more and more productive. This means of course that the Managers and Supervisors are skilled at the art of delegating work. Skills in this area include:
- Identifying what tasks to delegate
- Identifying the right people to delegate to
- Identifying the level of delegation that the Manager is comfortable with
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Determining what the person doing the task needs, so they can deliver the results the Manager/Supervisor expects.
- Conducting the needed follow-up to stay on top of the person’s progress.
Managing Projects
More and more Managers and Supervisors are asked to take a lead role in managing special projects. This can mean having to develop and use a whole new skill set which includes:
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Defining the project’s scope, objectives, deliverables, critical success factors, resource needs, and collaboration requirements.
- Breaking the work down into its major work blocks and tasks.
- Developing an easy to use project schedule
- Monitoring the project’s status and what to do if it’s off course.
Coaching Employees
One of the implications of managing larger staffs is that individual staff members are going to need to be increasingly self managed. Consequently, it’s vital that Managers and Supervisors know how to provide each staff member with effective coaching to help them be as productive as possible. To coach effectively, a Manager/Supervisor needs to be able to:
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Establish the groundwork to have an effective coaching relationship with their employees.
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Determine expected performance levels for their employees’ major tasks and responsibilities.
- Provide their employees with the needed training.
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Analyze their employees’ current level of performance against expected levels, and identify areas needing improvement.
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Hold an effective coaching discussion to provide employees with feedback on how they are doing, and develop plans for making needed improvements.
Time Management
Of course to be able to apply any of these skills and meet the heavy demands being placed on them, Managers and Supervisors need to become good managers of their time. To do so, they need to become adept at:
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Analyzing their job and identifying what to focus on to achieve both what’s expected and their own personal goals.
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Developing an ideal picture of how to allocate their time between their various activities.
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Analyzing how they’re currently spending their time and identifying the gaps from their ideal picture.
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Developing weekly and daily schedules so they focus their time on the activities needed to achieve their goals.
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Dealing with time management challenges such as unexpected interruptions, non critical phone calls, high volumes of e-mail, and unproductive meetings.
While desperately needed, too often attempts to provide Managers and Supervisors with training and/or resources in these important areas fail. Some of the common reasons are:
- Available training is too expensive, so none is offered.
-
Available books and resources on the subjects provide too much information, and no real “how to” application tools.
- Materials are too hard to get to when you need them.
To correct this, KAW Consulting developed the “Manager’s Toolkit“, a set of electronic handbooks that guide Managers and Supervisors step by step through each of the processes used in the 6 basic skill areas.
Unlike most books on the 6 key skill areas, that are too complicated and hard to understand, the “Manager’s Toolkit” handbooks are exactly the opposite. They’re written in easy to understand language that walks the Manager or Supervisor step by step through the processes needed to apply each of the 6 key skills. Many even include sample forms and checklists.
Like any great handbook, the handbooks in the “Manager’s Toolkit” are something meant to be used over and over again. And unlike paper handbooks, that get lost easily, they’re electronic books in PDF format, that Managers and Supervisors can store on their computer so they have them accessible each time they need to design a meeting, hold a team discussion, delegate a task, manage a project or coach an employee. Just call up a handbook and it’s ready to use. If they want a hard copy, they can print only what they need. To save time, we’ve even included hyperlinks in each handbook’s Table of Contents, as appropriate, so they can jump right to the page or section they need without having to spend time scrolling through unneeded pages.
We’ve also made these handbooks very easy to afford and purchase. The most expensive single copy is $21.95. You can purchase directly online and start using right away.
Sharing with additional users across your organization is also easy–just purchase additional licenses (also available online) and send the handbooks out by e-mail.
To view samples of each handbook, and to learn how to purchase copies, click here.
Coaching Skills for Managers and Supervisors
One of the most important tasks for Managers and Supervisors is coaching their employees. Good Coaching:
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Helps employees understand what they should be doing and how.
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Provides employees with important information on whether they are performing up to expectation and if not, how far off the mark they are.
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Helps employees develop and enhance new skills needed for future positions.
Yet as important as it is, for many Managers and Supervisors, it’s also one of the most dreaded. Managers and Supervisors often worry that their employees will react negatively to a coaching discussion. Without the proper ground work employees may feel caught off guard, and indeed react negatively to what they consider as unwarranted criticism.
Despite these reservations, the ability to effectively coach employees and help them attain the desired level of performance and/or development is often the difference between a successful or unsuccessful Manager or Supervisor. Consequently, as a Supervisor or Manager, the ability to successfully coach your employees is one of the most important skill sets you need to develop.
Successful Coaching Efforts
Successful coaching involves a number of key ingredients. Some of the most important are:
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The Manager/Supervisor has credibility in the employee’s eyes that the Manager/Supervisor knows what they’re talking about.
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The employee trusts the coach’s opinion.
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The Manager/Supervisor sets an environment conducive to effective communication.
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The Manager/Supervisor makes sure that the employee receives the needed training on how to perform as expected.
- Performance expectations and measurement criteria are clear.
- Feedback on the employee’s performance is accurate.
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The Manager/Supervisor provides feedback on things done well as well as areas needing improvement.
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The Manager/Supervisor actively involves the employee’s ideas on how to make needed improvements.
Coaching Efforts That Fail
When coaching fails, it’s also often for some key reasons. Some of the common ones are:
- The employee doesn’t trust the Manager/Supervisor.
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The Manager/Supervisor hasn’t established credibility in the employee’s eyes that they know what they are talking about.
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The Manager/Supervisor sets a threatening atmosphere for the discussion.
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The Manager/Supervisor hasn’t trained the employee how to perform as expected.
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The employee doesn’t feel they’ve been told the applicable performance expectations and how they’re going to be measured.
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The employee doesn’t feel the Manager/Supervisor’s feedback is accurate and objective.
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The Supervisor/Manager can’t provide specific examples of what the employee needs to improve.
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The Manager/Supervisor only concentrates on what the employee needs to improve and doesn’t praise things done well.
Because be able to effectively coach your employees is such an important skill, KAW Consulting developed “COACHING SKILLS FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS”, an electronic handbook that will help you learn these vital skills.
You’ll learn how to:
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Establish the groundwork to have an effective coaching relationship with your employees.
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Determine expected performance levels for your employees’ major tasks and responsibilities.
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Provide your employees with the needed training.
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Analyze your employees’ current level of performance against expected levels, and identify areas needing improvement.
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Hold an effective coaching discussion to provide employees with feedback on how they are doing, and develop plans for making needed improvements.
Why it Works
Most books on coaching employees focus on the wrong thing. They are often modeled on sports coaching or other non-work related situations rather than the type of day to day situations that both Managers/Supervisors and employees face. “COACHING SKILLS FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS” is exactly the opposite. The skills you’ll learn are meant to be used in the work environment, not the athletic field.
What’s more, it’s written in easy to understand language that walks you step by step through the process of how to coach your employees effectively. We’ve even included sample forms you can use to identify how you want to define expected levels of performance, develop training plans, analyze how well your employees are performing, and plan an effective coaching discussion.
Like any great handbook, “COACHING SKILLS FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS” is something you’ll want to use over and over again. And unlike paper handbooks, that get lost easily, it’s an electronic book in PDF format that you can store on your computer so you have it accessible each time you need to use it. Just call it up and it’s ready to use. If you want hard copy, you can print what you need. To save you time, we’ve even included hyperlinks in the Table of Contents so you can jump right to the page or section you need without having to spend time scrolling through unneeded pages.
You can buy single copies for the low price of $21.95.
Sharing with additional users is also easy–just purchase additional licenses at $19.95 per user.
To view a sample and instructions on how to purchase online click here.
Note: Available to only U.S. customers at this time.
What Every Manager Needs to Know About Time Management
One of the biggest challenges Supervisors and Managers face is managing their time. Because of the very nature of their job, Supervisors and Managers are often bombarded with competing demands on their time from staff, internal/external customers and management. Unmanaged, these demands can prove to be overwhelming. Yet, the ability to identify and focus their attention on the most important tasks is often the difference between a successful or unsuccessful Manager or Supervisor. Consequently, as a Supervisor or Manager, the ability to successfully manage your time is one of the most important skill sets you need to develop.
Symptoms of Poor Time Management
Find a Supervisor or Manager struggling to manage their time and you will often find common symptoms. Among these are:
- A Lack of a clear understanding of what they should be focusing their time on.
- Underestimating how long things take, so schedules are unrealistic.
- Failure to prioritize between activities.
- Belief that Time management tools and methods are too complex and cumbersome.
- If using a time management strategy, using one that ignores the needs of key people they deal with.
- Inability to successfully deal with time wasters and barriers to getting things done.
Signs of Good Time Management
On the other hand, Supervisors and Managers that effectively manage their time also usually share some common traits. They have:
- A clear handle on what they want to accomplish and when.
- A clear understanding of the needed steps and time requirements to accomplish the tasks needed to meet these goals.
- A daily routine that permits them to spend the needed time on each area.
- A time management plan that also reflects the needs of other key people that they interact with such as their boss, clients, staff and colleagues they need to collaborate with on projects and issues.
- The ability to deal with common time wasters and barriers to getting things done.
Because be able to manage your time is such an important skill, KAW Consulting developed “TIME MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS”, an electronic handbook that will help you learn these vital skills.
You’ll learn how to:
- Analyze your job and identify what you should focus your time on to achieve what’s expected and your own personal goals.
- Develop an ideal picture of how to allocate your time between your various activities.
- Analyze how you are currently spending your time and identify the gaps from your ideal picture.
- Develop weekly and daily schedules so you focus your time on the activities needed to achieve your goals.
- Deal with time management challenges such as unexpected interruptions, non critical phone calls, high volumes of e-mail, and unproductive meetings.
Unlike most books on time management that are too complicated and hard to understand, “TIME MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS” is exactly the opposite. It’s written in easy to understand language that walks you step by step through the process of managing your time more effectively. We’ve even included sample forms you can use to identify how you want to spend your time, track how you’re currently spending it versus how you’d like to, and develop the weekly and daily plans to get what you want done.
Like any great handbook, “TIME MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS” is something you’ll want to use over and over again. And unlike paper handbooks, that get lost easily, it’s an electronic book in PDF format, that you can store on your computer so you have it accessible each time you need to use it. Just call it up and it’s ready to use. If you want hard copy, you can print what you need. To save you time, we’ve even included hyperlinks in the Table of Contents so you can jump right to the page or section you need without having to spend time scrolling through unneeded pages.
You can buy single copies for the low price of $15.95.
Sharing with additional users is also easy–just purchase additional licenses at $14.95 per user.
To view a sample and instructions on how to purchase online click here.
Note: Available to U.S. customers only at this time.
How to Give Your Managers and Supervisors the Training and Tools They Need To Succeed, and Get Them To Use Them
In today’s turbulent economy having effective Managers and Supervisors is key to your organization’s survival. Managers and Supervisors are being called on to take on much larger challenges than many are used to such as dealing with larger staffs, taking leadership positions on special projects, and dealing with increasingly heavier demands on their time from both above and below. And many are being asked to do so without the training and support they need to know how to deal effectively with these challenges.
To succeed in this type of environment, Managers need to master 6 basic skills. These are how to:
- Design and Run Effective Meetings
- Hold Effective Team Discussions
- Delegate Work Successfully
- Manage Projects
- Manage Their Time
- Coach Employees
While desperately needed, too often attempts to provide Managers and Supervisors with training and/or resources in these important areas fail. Some of the common reasons are:
- Available training is too expensive, so none is offered.
- Available books and resources on the subjects provide too much information, and no real “how to” application tools.
- Materials are too hard to get to when you need them.
To correct this, KAW Consulting developed the “Manager’s Toolkit“, a set of electronic handbooks that guide Managers and Supervisors step by step through each of the processes used in the 6 basic skill areas.
Unlike most books on the 6 key skill areas, that are too complicated and hard to understand, the “Manager’s Toolkit” handbooks are exactly the opposite. They’re written in easy to understand language that walks the Manager or Supervisor step by step through the processes needed to apply each of the 6 key skills. Many even include sample forms and checklists.
Like any great handbook, the handbooks in the “Manager’s Toolkit” are something meant to be used over and over again. And unlike paper handbooks, that get lost easily, they’re electronic books in PDF format, that Managers and Supervisors can store on their computer so they have them accessible each time they need to design a meeting, hold a team discussion, delegate a task, manage a project or coach an employee. Just call up a handbook and it’s ready to use. If they want a hard copy, they can print what only they need. To save time, we’ve even included hyperlinks in each handbook’s Table of Contents, as appropriate, so they can jump right to the page or section they need without having to spend time scrolling through unneeded pages.
To view samples of each, and to learn how to purchase copies, click here.
Why Projects Fail and How to Avoid It
If you’ve led or been involved in a project that failed, or ran into significant problems, you know first hand that it can be a real nightmare. Even if it’s not a major project, the aggravation of unmet deliverables, missed deadlines, or cost overruns can be substantial, and have a real negative impact on your career.
So if your called upon to lead or participate in a project in addition to your regular responsibilities, understanding some of the common reasons why projects fail and what to do about it is a must.
Common Reasons for Project Failure
Projects that fail, often fail for some common reasons. Among these are:
- Poorly Defined Project Requirements:
- Example: A new computer system implementation that left out a plan to adequately train new users.
- Poor Task Analysis:
- Example: An office move that left out important steps.
- Overlooked reaction from people impacted by the project:
- Example: A plan for a new road that didn’t plan sufficiently for negative community resistance and boycott.
- Poor Scheduling:
- Example: A project plan for implementing an initiative that called for heavy involvement from staff during peak normal workloads.
- Lack of understanding or agreement by project team members of their responsibilities.
- Example: A critical task isn’t done because one of the project team members didn’t realize they were responsible for it.
- Lack of Coordination with other Groups/Departments.
- Example: The failure to include the impact of a new computer system on another system that uses the same data.
- Missed Deadline:
- Example: The failure to hold timely project reviews to monitor the project’s status, and take corrective action when necessary.
Projects That Work
On the other hand, successful projects are usually completely the opposite of projects that fail. They usually have the following traits:
- A clearly defined purpose and scope.
- Clearly defined objectives that can be measured to determine if the project is a success.
- Deliverables that are clearly stated and agreed upon.
- Buy-in by Key Stakeholders on the need for the project.
- Identified Coordination requirements both within the project team and with other affected groups.
- Clearly defined critical success factors.
- A project plan and schedule that includes all the needed work tasks and deadlines.
- A budget that reflects all the needed costs to successfully complete the project.
- Sufficient status monitoring that measures progress against the schedule, and identifies any needed corrective actions.
Because being able to manage projects successfully is such an important skill, KAW Consulting developed “PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS”, an electronic handbook that will help you learn these vital skills. You’ll learn a 4 phase process to:
- Define the project’s scope, objectives, deliverables, critical success factors, resource needs, and collaboration requirements.
- Break the work down into its major work blocks and tasks.
- Develop an easy to use project schedule.
- Monitor the project’s status and what to do if you find you’re off course.
Unlike most books on project management that are complicated and hard to understand, “PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS ” is exactly the opposite. It’s written in easy to understand language that walks you through the process of managing a project step by step, helping you think of the key ingredients to make your project successful, and avoid the common problems that crop up in unsuccessful ones. We’ve even included sample forms you can easily adapt to fit your own project when defining the project’s key ingredients and developing the schedule and budget.
Like any great handbook, “PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS” is something you’ll want to use over and over again. And unlike paper handbooks, that get lost easily, it’s an electronic book in PDF format, that you can store on your computer so you have it accessible each time you need to use it. Just call it up and it’s ready to use. If you want hard copy, you can print what you need. To save you time, we’ve even included hyperlinks in the Table of Contents so you can jump right to the page or section you need without having to spend time scrolling through unneeded pages.
You can buy single copies for the low price of $21.95.
Sharing with additional users is also easy–just purchase additional licenses at $19.95 per user.
To view a sample and instructions on how to purchase online click here.
What Every Manager Needs to Know About Project Management and How to Learn It
As part of their work, Supervisors and Managers are often asked to manage or participate on a project in addition to their regular duties. The ability to successfully manage these projects is often a key component of being a successful supervisor or manager, and often a criterion for further advancement. Yet, because they are non routine events, successfully managing projects require different skills than supervisors and managers use in their day-to-day work. Consequently, if you’re a Supervisor or Manager, or hoping to become one, being able to understand and use basic project management skills is one of the most important skill sets you need to develop. These basic skills include the ability to:
- Define the project’s scope, objectives, deliverables, critical success factors, resource needs, and collaboration requirements.
- Break the work down into its major work blocks and tasks.
- Develop an easy to use project schedule.
- Monitor the project’s status and what to do if it’s off course.
Because being able to manage projects successfully is such an important skill, KAW Consulting developed “PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS”, an electronic handbook that will help you learn these vital skills.
Unlike most books on project management that are complicated and hard to understand, “PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS ” is exactly the opposite. It’s written in easy to understand language that walks you through the process of managing a project step by step, helping you think of the key ingredients to make your project successful, and avoid the common problems that crop up in unsuccessful ones. We’ve even included sample forms you can easily adapt to fit your own project when defining the project’s key ingredients and developing the schedule and budget.
Like any great handbook, “PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS” is something you’ll want to use over and over again. And unlike paper handbooks, that get lost easily, it’s an electronic book in PDF format, that you can store on your computer so you have it accessible each time you need to use it. Just call it up and it’s ready to use. If you want hard copy, you can print what you need. To save you time, we’ve even included hyperlinks in the Table of Contents so you can jump right to the page or section you need without having to spend time scrolling through unneeded pages.
You can buy single copies for the low price of $21.95.
Sharing with additional users is also easy–just purchase additional licenses at $19.95 per user.
To view a sample and instructions on how to purchase online click here.
Note: Available to U.S. customers only.
Off-The-Shelf, Turnkey Courseware to Help New Supervisors Get Up To Speed
One of the most challenging transitions someone makes in their career is to become a Supervisor. The changes from being an individual contributor are enormous. Suddenly, the person faces a whole set of new challenges and expectations requiring a whole host of new leadership and management skills. For many, the transition can be quite traumatic. Consequently, it’s vitally important that new Supervisors get the training they need to help them succeed in their new role.
Topics include:
- Why Become a Supervisor?
- What Supervisors do.
- What’s different than being an individual contributor?
- What makes a good Supervisor?
- What skills do you need?
- Levels of authority and power and when to use each.
- Appropriate levels of oversight.
- Typical challenges.
- What other Supervisors wish they had known before becoming one.
What’s Included?
“THE NEW SUPERVISOR” provides you with everything you need to conduct an effective 1 day workshop. You get:
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A Power Point Presentation with annotated speaker notes covering each topic.
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Interactive Exercises that get participants actively thinking about and discussing what they’re learning.
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A comprehensive Leader’s Guide in PDF format.
Who Should Buy This Course?
Because it’s pre-written and off-the-shelf, “THE NEW SUPERVISOR” is perfect for Trainers and other professionals who need to conduct training for new supervisors but don’t want to spend the large amount of time needed to research, design and develop a program from scratch. This includes:
- Internal Trainers
- Training Managers
- HR Managers
- Training Firms
- Consultants
- Anyone who needs to get new Supervisors up to speed.
We’ve made “THE NEW SUPERVISOR” extremely easy to afford. Base prices start as low as $350. For more information and to view a sample, click here.
Conference Presentation Recap Form
You’ve just attended a great conference, enjoyed it tremendously, met a lot of great people and attended some great presentations. The challenge now is how to take advantage of what you’ve learned, and put it to use.
Here’s a form to help you recap what you’ve learned and start thinking about how to put it to use in your organization. It includes space for:
- The presentation’s main concepts
- Your key learnings
- Who is using these ideas in the field?
- How are they benefitting from using them?
- How your organization can benefit from using these ideas.
- Who in your organization might be interested in these concepts.
- What you need to do to get started bringing these concepts to life.
You can use the form for each presentation you want to recap. It’s written in Microsoft Word, and has room for as many pages as you need.
Feel free to share it with others, or simply retweet.
To access the form click here.
Planning for a Major Change Initiative
Note: This post provides a list of questions that need to be considered when planning a major change initiative. For assistance in developing a plan based on these and other questions unique to your organization, contact KAW Consulting directly.
Introduction: For a major change initiative to succeed, it’s vital that the planning for it addresses key strategic, leadership and operational issues. Projects that fail often don’t sufficiently address these areas and find that they didn’t have a broad enough definition of the project’s scope, didn’t include all the necessary activities, or have the needed resources to make the initiative a success.
Following is a list of questions to ask when developing the strategy for a major change initiative to help ensure your plan addresses the needed areas.
Strategic
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Is there a clear Vision for the initiative that clearly states why it’s being done, the reasons why it’s critical for the organization’s continued success, the benefit of doing it, and the probable impact of it on the organization?
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Can the Highest Executive in the organization clearly explain this?
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Is the definition of the initiative’s scope broad enough to encompass what really needs to be done?
Example: Does the initiative require a re-examination and redesign of existing business processes as well as integration of new technology? Will there be major impacts on staffing, relationships between departments, need for better teamwork, etc. as a result of the initiative?
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Does each member of Executive Leadership have a clear understanding of the initiative’s purpose, strategic intent and true impact on their segment of the organization, and their role in making this a success? Many times this is only vaguely understood and the result is a lack of communication down the line that this effort is “critical” and the needed attention be paid to it as one of the “key things we’re working on”.
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Is this initiative’s success reflected in key organization strategic goals and performance criteria at the executive level?
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Are the initiative’s resource requirements understood and included in the organization’s capital and operating expense budgets?
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Is the status of the initiative included in the organization’s key monitoring systems that evaluate progress against key strategic goals?
Leadership
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Who has overall responsibility for implementation of this initiative? Is this clearly communicated and understood by the organization’s Executive and Senior Leadership?
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Does this responsibility cover all the needed areas such as business impact identification and process redesign, user training, system implementation and adoption planning versus just system development and testing?
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Does the initiative have a Leadership Team composed of representatives from impacted departments/stakeholder areas with responsibility and accountability for successful implementation in their Department?
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Do these Departmental representatives clearly understand their roles and responsibilities? Is the success of this initiative a key part of their performance criteria?
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Do the Departmental representatives have enough organizational authority to ensure the initiative gets the needed attention in their department/area?
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Do the various Departments and Stakeholders have this initiative and its success as one of their key performance goals? Are the necessary resources included in their Departmental operating budgets?
Operational
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Does the initiative’s overall project plan include all the major activity areas such as business impact analysis, process redesign evaluation, staffing and culture change needs, communications, implementation planning, user training, etc. versus just system design, testing and implementation?
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Key Question to Answer: What are the areas someone might say “This is clearly a major area we overlooked in our planning…” if the project failed. These are all activity areas that need to be in your plan.
Example: Departments did not really understand the impact on their operations and proactively get ready for it, and experienced substantial difficulties once new technology started up. When looking at the initiative’s overall plan after the fact, it didn’t include enough attention to departmental business impact analysis as a major phase.
