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    Monthly E-Tip                                                                                                                      May 2009
This Month
Tips for Enhancing Your Personal Confidence
Upcoming Events
Recommended Reading
Painless Performance Conversations Gets Rave Reviews!
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Painless Performance Evaluations
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and receive 10% off!!
Greetings!
 
mailing list 2009 Last month our e-tips were all about building confidence. Having confidence as a manager gives you the ability to communicate the important messages-- the tough messages-- even when you'd rather avoid them. This month's e-tip offers five more suggestions for building the confidence you need to have tough workplace conversations more comfortably.
Tips for Enhancing Your Personal Confidence  
                                                                                                        
Confidence                   
 
Last month we offered five tips for building managerial confidence. These tips included:

1. If not you, then who?
2. Build mastery.
3. Model successful people.
4. Practice visualization.
5. Mind your negative thoughts.

To see the full article click here.

Those five tips were only the start. Here are five more tips for boosting your confidence as a performance manager:

1. Have the toughest conversation today. Performance conversations can be uncomfortable for everyone involved. The longer you put them off, the harder they become. Build your confidence by tackling the toughest issues today. The sooner you address a concern, the sooner the employee can begin to make adjustments.

2. Wait through the silence. In tough conversations, there's a lot going on in the minds of everyone involved. Because emotions are competing for space in the brain with facts, a little silence can provide the necessary space for everyone to think. Stop talking and wait to hear what the other person has to say. The more you hear from them, the more you'll understand and the more they'll understand.

3. Shift your focus. We often enter performance conversations with the goal of "fixing" something or someone. Many times, there is no "fix" for the issue; rather, a shift in perspective is in order. Before you enter your next performance conversation, consider these shifts:
   -focus on what's right, not what's wrong
   -focus on what you have, not what you don't have
   -focus on solutions, not problems

4. Ask for reassurance. Sometimes we need a little boost from one another. Ask someone close to you for some reassurance before you dive into a tough conversation. Your boss, a colleague, a representative from Human Resources--all of these individuals can be a sounding board to remind you that you are doing the right thing by having the conversation.

5. You don't have to be PERFECT all the time. Remember that the conversation is just the beginning and that you may not see dramatic changes from one exchange. Even if the conversation doesn't result in the immediate changes you envisioned, you have had an impact. Be patient and follow-up, if necessary.

Some conversations are just tough. They cause our hands to sweat, our heart to pound, and our mouth to go dry. Still, you can convey confidence and strength in your approach. It just takes a little work.


Click here to view the first five Tips for Enhancing Your Personal Confidence.  
Upcoming Events
 

Prescott PAHRA

Prescott Area Human Resources Association
June 2, 2009
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Hassayampa Inn
Prescott, AZ

Join Marnie for It's Okay to Say "I Don't Know."

It's almost a waste of ink to say these are uncertain times. We hear it everyday. No matter what business you are in, you've probably experienced economic ups and downs and your employees are probably asking or at least wondering:

· Is my job safe?
· Is the organization financially sound?
· What does the future hold for this organization?

In these scary times of budget cuts and layoffs, employees look to Human Resources for the critical information they crave. The reality is that you may not know the answers to their questions. Still, your responses can send strong emotional signals about your ability to lead under pressure. Join us for this honest look at how to handle the tough questions we are all facing.

For more information visit: Prescott Area Human Resources Association
 


Eubanks Logo

Stephanie Eubanks Business Writing Workshop
May 20 & June 26, 2009
Live over web and phone

Write for Success: Live, online business writing class

Perfect for busy employees and entrepreneurs who write e-mail, letters, and memos.
Receive 50% off for the second person attending.
Go to: http://www.eubanksbusinesswriting.com/online-business-writing-classes.htm to sign up!

BLAT! Put your bottom line at the top!
You'll get faster, more accurate, and nicer response if your bottom line's at the top. If your bottom line's not at the top, your readers are very likely to miss it. Or they'll misinterpret it. Or they'll ignore the entire message.

Write for Success gives you the tools to BLAT easily and quickly. It will change your relationship with your readers forever.

For more information visit: Eubanks Business Writing
 
bookRecommended Reading
 
Problems exist in every organization, but often remain hidden for several reasons. Once they surface, they can be devastating. Wouldn't it be great to discover these problems before they swell into significant failures? Great leaders aren't just great problem solvers; they are great problem finders.

Know What You Don't Know: How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen (ISBN 13: 9780131568150 $27.99, Wharton School Publishing, 224 pps., March 2009) authored by Michael A. Roberto spells out key skills required to ensure that problems do not remain hidden in your organization and explains how leaders can become effective problem finders, unearthing problems before they destroy an organization.

In being a problem finder, it is important for leaders to:
· Learn how employees, customers, and suppliers actually behave
· Evade the "gatekeepers" who shield leaders from upcoming problems
· Look for patterns in issues that might initially seem unrelated, but actually do have a lot in common
· Train specific employees in a communication technique
· Encourage useful mistakes
· Look at your own organization's conduct and performance, as well as your competitors

Your most dangerous problems are quite simply the problems you don't even know exist yet. There is plenty of information about problem solving out there, but you can't solve a problem until you know it exists. Read Know What You Don't Know and you will.

Know What You Don't Know is available via our website at a discount. Click here to order this helpful tool.
 
Painless Performance Conversations Gets Rave Reviews! 

Our newest workshop is Painless Performance Conversations: A Practical Approach to Difficult Conversations at Work. Presented by Marnie Green, this in-depth look at why we avoid the most difficult, yet most important conversations at work provides the tools leaders need to excel in today's topsy turvy environment. Participants will walk away with:

· Customized written feedback on actual performance documentation they have created
· Specific feedback and extensive practice on real life, participant-created scenarios
· A fully developed list of performance expectations that apply to their work unit
· Practical tools for preparing for difficult performance conversations

Click here for a full program description and email us to discuss bringing this new resource to your organization.
 
 
Sincerely,

Marnie Green
Management Education Group, Inc.
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