David Lowe’s Weblog

Learn to be more effective, one week at a time

For managers who actively seek out guidance that can make themselves more effective week after week, it is very hard to beat what Manager Tools (www.manager-tools.com) has to offer. Manager Tools podcast, started by Mark Horstman and Michael Auzenne back in 2005, has been providing actionable advices to manager of all ranks every week.

The Manager Tools podcast focuses on helping manager to improve his or her performance. Many consider Mark and Mike’s advices spot on, as well as a much more effective way of doing managerial work, I included. The podcast covers a wide range of managerial topics, including many coaching, feedback, and delegation related topics. Don’t take my words for it. Just check out the discussion forum and see what other people said about the podcast. Manager Tools also has won The People’s Choice Podcast Awards in the business category for 2006, 2007, and 2008, not to mention the podcast won the overall People’s Choice Podcast Award for 2008.

The podcast subscription is free. You just need a podcast manager software like iTunes or something similar. There are over 250 podcast episodes available since 2005, so there is an ample amount of great ideas to help you improve. There is also a premium service you can purchase, and you will receive the transcribed show notes. In my opinion, the show notes are nice but they are not critical to get the most out of the podcast. The podcast contents from the free membership or the premium membership is the same – the quality of the advice is the same.

Will listening to Manager Tools make you a better manager? It is definitely possible if you are willing to take the time and effort to adopt the practices and integrate the knowledge into your daily managerial routines. Putting the Manager Tools advices into action often requires behavioral changes, and they are not always easy. For the benefits of the people you are leading, there is no reason not to adopt some of the good practices. If some of your directs are also managers, ask them to check out Manager Tools and emulate the behaviors outlined in the podcast. We can always benefit from having more effective managers around, can we not?

Add comment May 24th, 2010

Amplify Our Effectiveness

“Effectiveness is a discipline. And, like every discipline, effectiveness can be learned and must be learned.”

–Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive

With that quote from Peter Drucker, we celebrate the revival of my blog with this post. Moving forward, the mission of the blog is to share and to discuss everything that we can use to make us more effective in what we do. Being effective is a personal choice and a journey. Achieving effectiveness is also something that can be learned and get better at. Effectiveness and efficiency often go together, and they complement each other. By over-emphasize one or the other is not always optimal, either.

The information shared in this blog is not going to be anything revolutionary or shockingly new. After all, many business and management scholars have studied the subjects of effectiveness and efficiency for decades.  The intent of this blog is to share, educate, and encourage idea exchange. In the end, I sincerely hope the information presented here will be more than a helpful reading but also something that is actionable.

Now back to Drucker’s book for a bit…

The book rests on two premises where 1) the executive’s job is to be effective; and 2) effectiveness can be learned. Dr. Drucker also defined “executive” as a knowledge worker who “is responsible for a contribution that materially affects the capacity of the organization to perform and to obtain results.” I believe that definition includes most, if not all, of us. Moreover, I will not going into the books in great details since many others have already done the in-depth reviews. You can check out the following URLs and see what others had already said:

http://www.manager-tools.com/book-review/effective-executive
http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459

Add comment May 13th, 2010