Manage your career

Managing The Counter Offer

What do you do when an employee tells you s/he’s been offered more money to work elsewhere? Below we discuss:

2 counter offer situations
Why you should be cautious
Before you make a counter offer
Three things to remember about managing a counter offer

Where you Might Face the Counter Offer

We will talk about 2 situations where you as a manager might have to use a counter offer:

When an employee has an offer from another company and you want to make the counter offer in an attempt to retain the employee
When you negotiate salary with a new job candidate

Caution!

It doesn’t make good business sense to overpay for a job
Your other employees will be watching
In the case of retention this rarely works anyway

Before You Make an Offer

Assess the risk of not keeping the current employee or not landing the new candidate. Who else is available? What other options do you have?
You can only go so far with base pay.

What’s the highest you’re able to go? Gather information
Consider internal equity
Overpaying for a job
Make sure they understand total rewards

Consider alternatives:

Retention bonus – this might at least buy you some time
Signing bonus
Alter the job
Schedule flexibility
Etc

Determine why the employee is leaving. You’ll likely need to fix more than salary to keep this person long-term.

3 things to Remember about Managing the Counter Offer

It’s not a paper exercise. In both cases determine as much as you can verbally.

Quicker
Less stress
Better employee relations

Know your limit … stay within it.
Get more creative with you employment offer.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Managing the Counter Offer (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Introducing Yourself as a New Leader

Make a strong first impression in your new management job with Fast Start, our 90-Day Onboarding Program. It will help you avoid the 8 Fatal New Manager Mistakes.

People start new jobs everyday, and most are well aware of the first-impressions they are making upon others. When you start as a new leader, that scrutiny is amplified simply by virtue of being the boss. There are many cues as to the tone that a new manager sets, and leaders should take control of that messaging to ensure that the impressions they make upon people are what they intend.

As such, here are a few ideas on how to set the tone, when you join a new organization as a leader:

Lock yourself in your office, and have someone start a contest to guess what you look like.
Keep a low profile for a couple of days, and then unannounced, run through your new workplace screaming loudly, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel – to the tower!”
Begin the first week on the job by hosting a series of 3-martini lunches, and ask people to confess as to what really goes on in the organization.
Dress up as a different Disney character everyday for the first two weeks, and then hold a contest to see if people can guess which one is your favourite.
Hire a string quartet to serenade you to your desk every morning.

These ideas would definitely give your people an indication of what to expect of you.

As ridiculous as it sounds, doing one or all of the above is probably a better course of action than simply showing up as a new leader and hoping that things go well. You can increase your odds of success as a new leader by doing just a little bit of planning prior to showing up.

It’s either that, or get out the Minnie Mouse suit.

Make a strong first impression in your new management job with Fast Start, our 90-Day Onboarding Program. It will help you avoid the 8 Fatal New Manager Mistakes.

Introducing Yourself as a New Leader

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There are many ways to make a first impression in a New Leadership Role. Preferably, you will want to make that impression deliberately and with some forethought. Below we suggest four steps to introducing yourself when taking on a New Leadership Role:

Assess the Situation in Your New Leadership Role
Build the Narrative for Your New Leadership Role
Build Rapport With Key Stakeholders
Layout a Plan and Define Expectations

Assess the Situation in Your New Leadership Role

Your entry into a new business or department should be guided by the situation you find when you get there. In some circumstances you may have arrive and act quickly, in others you will have more time to ease in to the situation.

Do as much homework in advance as you can.
Ask lots of questions.
What is your business situation? Is it a turnaround, or are you sustaining previous success?
What is the environment you find yourself in?
What is the corporate culture like?
Can you ease-in, or do you have to take immediate action?

Build the Narrative for Your New Leadership Role

Based on the situation, frame your story appropriately:

How did you get here?
What are your stories?
What things do you value?
What can people expect from you?

Target your audience, and adjust the delivery as necessary.
Build Rapport With Key Stakeholders

Put in lots of face time
Listen more than you talk
Meet individually with all of your direct reports.
Meet individually with important stakeholders

Layout a Plan and Define Expectations

Tell people what you will do in the short and medium term.
Reinforce what you’ve already told people about yourself by defining consistent expectations.
Strike the appropriate balance between micro-managing and under-managing people.

3 Things to Remember About Introducing Yourself in a New Leadership Role

Communicate times ten. Do not underestimate the importance the volume and quality of communication required.
Act appropriately to the situation. Based on your situation you may need to act quickly and take action, or perhaps the opposite.
Have a plan – think about how you will introduce yourself in a New Leadership Role, and plan accordingly.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Introducing Yourself in a New Leadership Role (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Career Transition Jump Start

Join Jed and Bob as they talk through how to organize your thoughts if you are considering making a career change.

Watch the ‘Career Transition Jump Start’ Video (17 mins 46 sec):

Download the ‘Create a Career Transition Plan’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Create a Career Transition Plan

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Here is all the information you need to build your own Career Transition Plan. Most people will have many careers in their lives, but fail to put together a Career Transition Plan. Here are the elements of a Career Transition Plan:

Values – what are the things that are most important to you?
Work Interests and Needs – what are those things that interest you most, and what are those things you absolutely need in a career choice?
Strengths and Stretch – what are the strengths you can leverage, and what are skills you need to develop?
Skills and Experience – what skills and accomplishment do you bring to a new career?
What should I do?

Values

In the context of a Career Transition Plan, we use a literal definition of the term “values” – what are the things that are most important to you?

Someone who understands her values and is self-aware knows where she is headed and why.
She will be willing to turn down a job offer that does not fit with her principles or values.
She will be better able to resist taking an opportunity for the wrong reasons – such as making more money.
People who mesh decisions about work with their personal values find work enjoyable and fulfilling.

There is a list of values to help start your thinking in this area in the Career Transition Plan Workbook.

Work Interests and Needs

There may be things that you particularly like about your current work, and there may be minimum requirements that must be met. An important part of your Career Transition Plan is to articulate these things:

What do I like about my current job?
What do I not like about my current job?
What do I like to do when I’m not at work?
Who do I like to surround myself with?
Are there any “non-negotiables” when comes to career choices (travel, minimum salary amounts etc.)

Strengths and Stretch

Everybody brings certain skills and development opportunities to their career. You need to articulate these as part of your Career Transition Plan:

What do I do really well?
What are areas that I can do but take some effort?
What do I suck at?

Skills and Experience

To be able to describe your skills and experiences in a meaningful way is a critical part of a Career Transition Plan. Ensure to frame the answers to these questions in a way that speaks to a prospective employer:

What have I done?
What have I accomplished?
What am I most proud of?
How have I added value?

Other Factors to Consider as Part of Your Career Transition Plan

Where do you want to live?
How much do you need to make?
What are the current job market conditions?

What should I do?

Nothing. You may decide your best option is not to make any change – just make sure this is a decision, and not a default position because you’ve failed to identify your options.
Move up.
Move across. Lateral moves should be considered if they can help you advance your career goals.
Move out. Sometimes you may have to part ways with an employer if your goals, and their plans for you no longer align.
Consult. Many people take on consulting role once they are done working in a job full time.
Retire.
Start your own business.
Take a job to get a job.

Three Things to Remember About Career Transition Plans:

Don’t underestimate the importance of values.
Balance chasing your dream and being realistic.
Be courageous and true to yourself.

The Career Transition Plan Workbook

We’ve put together a simple downloadable worksheet that will walk you through the different decisions that we’ve talked about today.

You’ve lost your job
You’re feeling unfulfilled in your current job
You’re ready for a career change

Get the Career Transition Plan Workbook here

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about creating a Career Transition Plan (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Conquering Career A.D.D.

Avoid the 8 Fatal New Manager Mistakes if you’re considering or recently made a career move. Often it’s sink or swim, and Fast Start ensures you properly position yourself for longer-term career success in 90 days or less.

In the old days ( i.e. 1850 – 1995), you’d get an entry-level job, work your way through an organization, and peak just above or below your highest potential skill level.

You’d then begin your transition to cranky old (usually) man — counting the years and months to retirement, until such time as you were presented with a gold watch that you took home to help you keep track of the relatively short time you had before you died.

That concept of work looks more outdated than orange shag carpet, and acid-washed jeans – and about the same level of comfort, too.

There is a credible argument that this all changed because of the decline of large employers, and the increasing irrelevance of labor unions.

But I wonder if it’s a result of our collective Career Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.)

Virtually the entire workforce was raised on television — that in addition to encouraging ADD, teaches us some very powerful lessons that we come to expect in the workplace:

Work should always be fun! They told us all we had to do was go to college and study hard, and we’d be ultimately and indefinitely fulfilled by our work.
Any problem can be sorted in 22 minutes. Remember Freddy “Boom Boom” Washington’s drug problem on Welcome Back Kotter? Probably not – but it lasted 22 minutes. He was fine the following week.
Tomorrow’s problems are someone else’s problems. Any episode of The Apprentice will make it clear that you just need to do whatever it takes to win today’s challenge, and don’t worry about tomorrow’s.
If you’re having a conflict with someone, just yell at them. Your passionate argument will win them over, they’ll say they’re sorry, and you’ll be best friends from then on (see #2 for further detail).

After a lifetime of having these messages reinforced, we become part of a workplace that has absolutely no resemblance to a TV sitcom, and we become more shocked than a Wheel of Fortune game show contestant that accidentally ends up on Jeopardy.

As a result, many of us end up with ‘Career A.D.D.’ — we listlessly wander from employer to employer, looking for the Holy Grail of fulfilling work that was promised to us by the TV.

Career and internal role changes are a fact of business life today. Our Fast Start program is a 90-Day Onboarding Plan for the transitioning leader. It leads and supports you through the critical first 90 days in your new management position. Coincidentally, each of the 6 Training Videos included in the Fast Start program is approximately 22 minutes long, just like a TV sitcom…and they will solve critical problems every new leader experiences.

Upward Management: Get Your Boss to Do What YOU Want

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Below we talk about why Upward Management is important to every employee, and how you can best go about doing it. There are four key steps to Upward Management:

Continually Manage Upward
Know what’s important to your boss
Assess how your boss makes decisions
Do your homework

Continually Manage Upward

Don’t make the mistake of only proactively managing your boss when you need something. Upward Management is a continually effort. Here are some ideas as to how to continually Manage Upwards:

Be credible to your boss. The best way to build credibility is to always do what you say you’re going to do.
Manage expectations on an ongoing basis. Make sure you keep your boss up to date as to how things are going. Don’t wait for her to ask!
Never surprise your boss.
Adjust your style, if necessary. If you and your boss do not have a compatible work style, the onus is on you to change.
Align your goals with his/hers. A key aspect of Upward Management is to make sure your boss views your efforts as furthering her own goals.

Know What’s Important to Your Boss

A critical component of effective Upward Management is to have a very clear understanding of what your boss thinks is important. If you don’t know, you need to ask. When trying to influence your boss, can you:

Frame what you want as advancing one of his/her goals?
Articulate what’s in it for your boss.
Identify any potential risks your boss might see?

Assess How Your Boss Makes Decisions

Some people rely most on fact, others on how decisions impact people, and others still on the financial impact. There are multitude of criteria people use when making decisions. Effective Upward Management means understanding how your boss makes decisions. Does s/he:

Rely mostly on facts?
Does s/he need a high level of detail?
Need to contribute to part of a bigger picture or strategy?
Highly value dollar considerations or bottom line?
Consider political issues?

It is imperative to know how your boss sees these things.

Do Your Homework

Upward Management is not something that should be improvised. You need to lend careful consideration to all the things mentioned above, and also:

Anticipate objections your boss may have.
Mitigate risks that your boss may see as a result of your suggestion or action.

Three Things to Remember about Upward Management:

No matter good you may think your suggestion or idea is, you still need to “sell” it.
You need to continually cultivate your relationship, and your credibility with your boss.
S/he may know something you don’t. If you don’t get the action or answer you want, remember that there may be parts of the situation that you are not privy to.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Upward Management (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Influencing Your Boss

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the four key elements to effectively influence your boss. If you stand any hope at all of getting your boss to act on something for you, you need to listen to this week’s podcast.

Watch the ‘Influencing Your Boss’ Video (13 mins 54 sec):

Download the ‘Influencing Your Boss’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

5 Ways to Influence Your Boss

Back when I had a real job, I had a boss that just wouldn’t do what I needed him to do. I set out my expectations clearly, I continually clarified and reinforced what I needed him to do, and I tactfully drew attention to those areas where he wasn’t meeting expectations. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, and I had to let him go. On paper, he was still my boss, but I essentially minimized my relationship with him because he failed to perform.

Oddly, I’m only partially kidding about the above. It did get me thinking about different ways we can influence those over whom we have no control. In ascending order of desperation, here are some ways to influence your boss:

Do what you say you will. To influence, you need credibility. The best way to be credible is to consistently deliver on what you promise. If you have a reputation for being as reliable as a 1970s model Ford Pinto, then you’ll end up the same way: in a ball of flames at the bottom of a freeway off ramp.
Address your boss’s concerns. You need to frame whatever it is you want in terms that matter to your boss. If all he wants for Christmas is the GI Joe with the Kung Fu Grip, then link what you want to that wish.
Go Eddie Haskell: Be a boot-licker. With some people, sucking-up actually works. If you’ve got a boss that isn’t repulsed by oral-anal attention, then pucker-up and go for it.
Frame or blackmail him/her. This option is easiest if you’ve already got dirt on your boss. If you don’t, bring in hash-brownies or poppy seed muffins (shows up as opium in the blood stream), and then tip-off HR and suggest that a random drug test might be in order.
Sleep with him/her. It’s drastic measure, and one that becomes complicated if sexual orientations are not compatible. It is also fraught with moral hazard. However, it may quite likely yield the result you’re looking for.

After reading this list, if you feel dirtier than a coal miner at a brothel, remember that the best way to influence your boss (or anyone else), is to create expectations of them, and continually manage those expectations.

At the very least, you should expect your boss to:

Offer timely feedback
Communicate the larger picture to you
Assist with your developmental goals

There’s one very easy way for your boss to assist with your professional development – a Wily Manager Corporate Membership for the whole company.

You and your co-workers get instant, practical advice that allows you to confidently handle leadership situations. You’ll be a better boss and get ahead in your career. And best of all, your company pays.

Your company will be happy to foot the bill, because they get an ongoing, relevant, and engaging leadership development program that’s very low cost, easy to follow, and doesn’t take employees away from the office.

Put us in touch with a decision maker in your organization so we can get to work arranging a Wily Manager Membership for you and all your co-workers.

We’ll use our powers of influence…and hopefully we won’t have to sleep with your boss. We’ll try blackmail first.

Dealing With Work Overload – The Sequel

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Below we talk about how to manage Work Overload. Specifically, we talk about how you can better manage Work Overload by better planning and communicating what it is you intend to do.

Wily Manager Member Comment:

“I’m all for taking responsibility for my workload issues and accept that many of my problems are probably my own. However, how can you tell when you are actually overloaded through no fault of your own? I took up a new role two years ago and I’m still drowning, but I’ve no benchmarks to judge against other than that I coped fine in my previous role for the same organization.”

The Tough Talk About Work Overload

If you’ve been drowning for two years it’s nobody’s fault but your own.
It doesn’t matter whose fault it might be, what you need to do is focus on is how to get out of it.
It’s not healthy for you or those around you to be perpetually overwhelmed.
It’s not good for your organization in the long run for you to be perpetually overwhelmed as it can lead to turnover, lower quality, missed deadlines, etc.

The Two Step Solution to Work Overload

While people occasionally have to push themselves to work some extra hours at times when something big is going on, working excessive overtime for extended periods indicates a fundamental failure in two areas:

Planning – What are you trying to get done, and have you set realistic time frames for doing so?

Communication – Have you effectively managed the expectations of your stakeholders?

Planning as a Solution to Work Overload

Of all the projects currently under way, what’s the most valuable thing I can be working on?
Which project will have the highest direct impact on our customers? How much will the work I am doing benefit them?
How much “work effort” will each take?
Am I doing something that could be done by someone else?

Communication as a Solution to Work Overload

You need to build a plan to communicate and manage the expectations of all your stakeholders:
- Take your plan to the boss.
- Take your plan to the team.
- Talk to the customer.
- Talk to any other key stakeholders

Push Back on Demands to Manage Work Overload

Question the value of every meeting or new project.
Filter all requests through your priorities.
Make yourself inaccessible at times.
Ask for help where appropriate.
Delegate whenever possible.

Three Things to Remember About Managing Work Overload

It’s your boss’s responsibility to get as much out of you as she can.
It’s your responsibility to tell her when you’ve reached “overload”.
You have choices. Do nothing, Do something.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Dealing With Work Overload (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Managing The Counter Offer

Introducing Yourself as a New Leader

Introducing Yourself as a New Leader

Career Transition Jump Start

Create a Career Transition Plan

Conquering Career A.D.D.

Upward Management: Get Your Boss to Do What YOU Want

Influencing Your Boss

5 Ways to Influence Your Boss

Dealing With Work Overload – The Sequel

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