I Reckon That This One Is My Favorite

Post date: Mar 29, 2015 12:57:13 PM

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Have you ever done something a whole heap of times, but there is one instance of it that you look back on fondly as your favorite?

Well, as at the date of this post there have been 68 BookPals Business Sanity podcast episodes and the one I'm about to tell you about is the one that I must say has been my favorite so far, because in this episode I interviewed Mark Horstman of Manager Tools.

Let me explain why -

I was a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Australian Armed Forces back in the early 1980's and when I first "got out" I really did struggle with the transition back into civilian life - particularly from a supervisory/management perspective.

The reason for this was quite simple - in the military, getting your staff (soldiers under your command) to do "stuff" was pretty easy - you asked them to do something and if they didn't, you ordered them to do it and if they still didn't, you had them charged for insubordination!!!!

Keep in mind that we were "kids" in our early 20's back in those days, so when I got out of the military and my first job "out" was that of a Departmental Manager in a retail store I was "full of beans" - and putting me in charge of "civvies" was always going to be an absolute recipe for disaster!!!!

Needless to say, there was a situation shortly after I started in this position where one of my staff did not do what I asked them to do as quickly as I would have liked them to do it and they did not appreciate the "tone" of my response when I explained to them that I was not happy with their tardiness in completing the task!!

In retrospect, I could have been much (MUCH) more "tactful" in my explanation of my dissatisfaction, but you have to keep in mind that I had just come out of a career where "tactfulness" was not a pre-requisite, so I was only doing what I had been "trained" to do.

Anyway, I soon realised that retail management was not my "thing" and moved on through a number of different career changes which normally ended up with me in some kind of supervisory role and even though I "mellowed" in my management style as I got older, I must admit that I did struggle with finding a way to effectively manage staff.

Until I found Manager Tools!!

To be truthful, I "stumbled" across the Manager Tools podcasts when I first started listening to business podcasts more than 6 years ago and I was attracted to it because here were these two ex-U.S. military officers teaching people how to more effectively manage staff and all I could think of was "ex-military guys - perhaps this is just what I need to listen to".

Well, I listened to an episode where they talked about something called a "feedback model" and I was immediately "hooked" - here were these two ex-military guys talking about how to provide feedback to staff on their workplace performance in the most un-confrontational manner I had ever heard of!!!

Needless to say, once the BookPals project started and the BookPals Business Sanity podcast series was created, Mark Horstman of Manager Tools was one of the first people I asked to interview.

If you manage staff, this episode is a "must listen to" because in it you will learn what I believe to be the most effective - yet most non-confrontational - management "style" that you will ever hear of.

I'm not going to sign off with my usual "I hope you enjoy this episode of BookPals Business Sanity" here because if you manager staff, I KNOW you are going to enjoy this episode of BookPals Business Sanity!!