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Leading with Influence
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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Todd Kazenske
Todd Kazenske

Getting Managers Prepared for a meeting

We have multiple managers in our department and during meetings they make decisions without knowing all the facts or being on the same page. This is very concerning to faculty. How can managers avoid confusion when creating a meeting agenda?
Christopher bruce
Christopher bruce

Meeting for the sake of meeting.

In my opinion meetings should only take place when they are necessary. Managers & line level employees should be communicating daily, in person and/or by email. Having a meeting only because "it's meeting day" take away from regular operations & that never works well.
Ashley Whitaker
Ashley Whitaker

Transitioning from friend to manager

What are some ways to deal with managing people that I used to be friends with? I have found that it can be difficult to be taken seriously in my new position by the people who worked under the manager before me. What can I do to gain more respect among such employees?
Sharda Sewell
Sharda Sewell

Resolving team conflicts

Resolving team conflicts really stood out for me.Especially the four steps to resolving conflicts. Applying this concept to a team enviroment for me will help keep peace,bring more order and easy resolutions for my team. The one that will be applied the most for my team is Negotiate a resolution. It is important for teams to come to a common ground and explore new possibilites
Mallelyn Hidalgo-Ruiz
Mallelyn Hidalgo-Ruiz

Promoted to a high level stress department

I was recently promoted to a different department as a manager. In this department I deal with stress every day. I will appreciate any insight on how to deal with a very high level of stress on a regular basis.
Casey Roten
Casey Roten

Improving Communication

Our Team is in the field the majority of the day with limited time spent together. How can we tackle all of these issues in one meeting if we meet once a week?
Vanessa Mrazek
Vanessa Mrazek

Too Young to be taken seriously??

I seem to have an issue everywhere I work where I am much younger than other people in my position and my peers dont take me seriously and act like I dont know enough to be able to bring anything to the table. I have gone through the exact same schooling and training - if not more!! I just worked straight through instead of taking breaks. How do I get them to realize I got this job for a reason and I do know what I am doing??
charles johnson
charles johnson

Planning the meeting

I was never aware of the components that are necessary for a successful meeting. This has really opened my eyes. thanks
roy parsons
roy parsons

Personal integrity

Personal integrity is an individual’s decency, respectability, and character. Morally decent individuals are honest and fulfill their commitments. An individual of integrity treats everyone they encounter with respect, fairness, impartiality, and compassion, seeing in others a reflection of themselves. Personal integrity is a necessary component of a supervisor and leader. It is essential in achieving respect for oneself, and the respect and cooperation of others. Maintaining one’s personal integrity is essential if you want your direct reports to follow you. One must lead by example, set the bar, and always display professionalism. If a manager jeopardizes his/her personal integrity once,… >>>

Jeanette Perez
Jeanette Perez

Managing Direct Report Insecurities due to rapid changes

How do you effectively manage insecurities and subsequently motivate your direct reports when upper management is experience a series of personnel changes?
roy parsons
roy parsons

The Peter Principle

I have recently encountered the Peter Principle (people are promoted to their level of incompetence) in a real-world application, and as a result I have begun to reassess my perceptions that hard work, dedication to ones career/job, job competency, and team leadership skills, would be sufficient for upward movement. Could someone clarify why this type of a senior might transpire in today’s completive economic situation businesses are facing? I would perceive that companies would want the most qualified individuals in key management positions.
Mark Forbear Jr.
Mark Forbear Jr.

Rewarding Success

I have found that rewarding employees for the work they have accomplished can be very important. Prior to this course I had always let the employee know that I appreciate everything that they do, and that they are doing a good job. I find this gives the employees a better feeling about what they have done, and that what they do, is getting noticed. What I did learn, is that by creating a safe enviroment, it will give the employees a place to get away and vent frustration.
Valerie Ruckman
Valerie Ruckman

Leading and Motivating

I'm blown away by this course. The things I'm learning about vision and leadership will really help. I plan to set a clear vision for my department and will implement the things I have learned in this course.
Bruce Bryant
Bruce Bryant

Vision

I really got taken back with the vision part of this training. More often I have only heard vision from the entire company. I am going to impose a vision for my department that is in line with the company but with more apprehensive and direct results from my department. Meaning, I will put together a specific vision for my department goals and simple to understand. The art of leading was very informative, I believe being a coach and having a pacesetting agenda combined is the best plan of action to move a successful team toward the goals of the… >>>

Matthew Hill
Matthew Hill

Not being the facilitator, can I bring more structure to a meeting?

We have weekly meetings to report on our campus Matrix numbers and Instructor performance. Our meetings are planned for 1 hour and 30 minutes. A majority of the time our meetings will exceed 2 hours, and can go as long as 3 hours. We have Problem Solving, Decision Making, Reporting & Feedback and Status Update Meetings all rolled into one meeting. Being merely a participant in these meetings, what can I do to help structure our meetings better?
Krista Miller
Krista Miller

Newbie!

So I just became a manager of a team of 8. We have many issues to deal with and problems planning a meeting time that doesn't interfere with class schedules and team member availability. We have about an hour to allocate 2-3 times weekly to meeting, yet many issues to cover. This hour usually falls between classes. Can we effectively meet in 45-50 minute increments throughout the week, yet still have effective meetings in such a short amount of time?
Mark Roberts
Mark Roberts

Team Buy In

A big challenge to any manager is to first get the team to buy into your management ideas and goals. The approach needs to take in consideration all aspects of the team. Who they are, skills they bring, and a willingness to learn new ideas. A manager needs to be open minded and guide when needed or let the team run with their ideas, it all come down to what works for your own group of people.
David Landau
David Landau

Getting member "buy in"

On a team I am involved with the focus seems to be on each member protecting their individual “rice bowls”. Any new suggestion is met with suspicion from members trying to determine how it will affect their departments work load I am open to any suggestions, beyond what we have learned in class to counteract this phenomenon.
Cheryl Blain
Cheryl Blain

Corporate Culture

Having completed my dissertation on Corporate Culture, I would like to interject something I've found to be important. Quite often during projects that take a long time to complete (more than 8 months)it becomes very important to bring the whole team back together at critical touch-points to remind them why the project is happening. The Project Leaders need to remind team members of the company culture, it's mission and vision. Often, team members become tired or distanced from the project goals and deep into their specific taks and details. They forget about the dynamics of a team and how strong… >>>

Christine Bitler
Christine Bitler

Lack of accountability

How do you handle a situation where management is also involved in project execution and fail to hold themselves accountable for dropping the ball? In other words, blame the other team members for their mistakes. I have been involved in projects where I and a fellow team member were "thrown under the bus" many times because they failed to complete their phase of the project. It cost us money, resources, and conflicts arose within the ranks.