Managing Workplace Challenges

Public

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.

Wade Witherspoon

Change Leadership

We manage things but we lead people. So I like to call it Change Leadership.

Donald Wallace Jr

New outlook at goals

I have never been one to write down my goals. I have always thought about what I wanted to accomplish and then went from there. After reviewing the information in this module, I have come to realize that I could have accomplished much more by using what I have learned from this module. I guess I would say this is where I need to start making better goals and writing them down. After a year of this method I would like to see how it compares to the way I used to set my goals.

Delores Smith

Stress as an instructor

I have been an instructor since 2004, in this field you come across many types of people, from all walks of life. Some are trying to start over; some never got the chance to get started. One thing I have learned is never judge people and assumes that they know the little things as thank you, good morning etc. I take no student for granted. I try to find out where they are and how to reach them. Sometime this can be very stressful, but I have learned to "Stop, Breathe and reflect.

Rita Kendall

Setting my goals

I have never been a good goal setter. After taking this session I now know that goal setting is a must. I have been a person that has just gone with the flow. I know that this is not a good thing. I plan to put this goal session to work for me.

David Haar

Procrastination

One of my biggest time wasters is Procrastination. If I have something I don't want to do, I'll have the cleanest office around. The suggestion of setting an deadline that is difficult to move really helps. I will schedule a meeting where I know the work has to be complete before the meeting can be held.

terry fruit

time management

don't let others during the day keep you off schedual but make time for some free time to refresh yourself.

JOYCE SCALLISH

Good Stress

I feel that "good stress" can help to keep you on target for the tasks you need to accomplish.

Karen Exlos

Employees with severe personal problems....

Some employees may resent a manager coming to them and notifying the employee that the employee needs to attend a class on "How to manage personal problems". If the manager would like to do this, why not PRIVATELY suggest this option to the employee to see if employee would want to consider it.

Karen Exlos

When you behave ethically, you are teaching your students...

I found that when I behave ethically, most students will be "learning" by observing how I handle situations in an ethical way. They learn be observation and actions taken by an instructor. The "do as I say" doesn't teach ethical behavior. Students learn by example and they learn from their instructors, counselors, and other they come into contact with. They are watching even when not in the formal atmosphere of the classroom.

Erica Peterson

Directing your Career Path

I really enjoyed this lesson. I currently teach Digital Media Classes and I have a strong interest in video production. I went to college to become a film director, and I ended up teaching after graduation. I love teaching part time and I would love to incorporate some independent filmmaking in my career endeavors as well. This lesson really inspired me to become more aware of this desire and start to network with professionals in the field for more opportunities. The most important lesson I learned today was that you do not have to move up laterally on the career… >>>

Jacob Prell

Don't just jump into somthing but Understand your boss

I know this from experience. When I was a personnel officer in my unit my commander told me to set-up a chain of command since we were a new unit and needed it. I took it into my hands to do it and e-mail everyone about it because I thought thats what my commander wanted. I was wrong but luckily my commander was cool about it but I did learn from my mistake. This assignment shows know your boss and who your working with. Don't beat yourself up if you do make mistakes but learn from them.

Carla Kikilidis

Confidence and Goal Setting in a new environment

I really connected with Rosabeth Moss Kanter's short video. She made me understand how my lack of confidence is contributing to the difficulties I have had recently in making goals. I am very new to the company, the role, and an office environment in general. Over the last weeks I have vacillated between feeling capable, and lacking. My manager has been supportive, and I see now how she is trying to feed me positivity. But now I am wondering if my lack of confidence has led me to overlook what her broader goals are because I am afraid to ask.… >>>

Crystal Flower

Distraction

I was wondering what a good tool is to block out the activites of co-workers when working in a cubical enviroment? For example not becoming part of their phone calls, or if they feel right outside your cubical is a good place to chat with others.

Krista Miller

Student Interruptions/Company Policy

I am the director of a program on my career school campus. I also share an office with another program director. Our programs are unrelated, but we both have large class sizes, thus many student issues. We also share one phone line, because of the location of our office. Our company has an open door policy, basically stating we are "never to busy". One of our company's major values is helping our student achieve their goals, and treating our students as "customers". This has particularly become very challenging given the shared office, phone line, and lack of extra space due… >>>

Khawar Aizaz

Workplace Stress

Workplace stress is one of the main reasons behind a stressful lifestyle. Workload, deadlines and difficult colleagues are some of the reasons behind the stressful environment.One of the main reasons i think that workplace stress gets escalated is because staff does not have a back up plan, especially a fiscal plan. Majority of times a stressful situation gets tied to the employee losing his job & that distracts the employee from focusing on the issue and thereby addressing the issue. The employees should have a back up plan to fall back on irrespective to how long they have been on… >>>

Lila Sterling

Stress Management

What is the best way to approach your supervisor about having your workload too high?

Vance Graham

Dealing with Interuptions

I will often get emails requesting my attention throughout each day, which isn't a problem when I'm not teaching. However, when I am teaching a class I find that setting my OOF (Out of Office) attendant helps with avoiding these interruptions. I set my OOF to respond with a message stating I'm training all week and will respond to emails during lunch and between 4-5pm. Doing this has practically eliminated any problems I've had with people saying I wasn't responding to their emails within a reasonable amount of time. This allows me to focus on outside problems outside of the… >>>

Tu Nguyen

Being distracted

I have 19 faculty members in my team and additional 15 administrators on campus that I support. How do I manage my time effectively if I have random people running to my office because "the sky is falling" on a daily basis?

Florita Robinson

Training

Training..... I live by the standard, "One is never too old to learn" and "Practice makes perfect".... which applies to everything in life, being it learning to bake a cake, an academical course or technical skill,....The more you do it, the better you become at it, as you will learn from your mistakes or successes, and do it better and better... Would you agree that any method of learning, being it through lecturing, CEU'S (continuing education, on-line, etc adds to a person's formal learning. If so, can you share those?

Tu Nguyen

Having the right skill set

A great opportunity arised but you feel that you don't have the right skill set for it, how would you handle this?

Related Learning Opportunities

ML133 - Goal Setting

ML134 - Career Management

ML135 - Time Management

ML136 - Stress Management

ML137 - Change Management

ML138 - Crisis Management