Management and Leadership Questions and Answers

 

 Contents


1 Management and Leadership
1.1. What is a manager?
1.2. What are the signs of a good manager?
1.3. What does it take to be a leader?
1.4. What is a leader?
1.5. What is a leadership?
1.6. What traits do leaders exhibit?
1.7. What are the differences between managers and leaders?
1.8. Be A Leader: Leading cross functional teams
1.9. What are the top ten priorities the CIO Leader must have?
1.10. What does interpersonal relationship include?
1.11. Describe effective teams.
1.12. What are the practical steps you can take to create and sustain an environment that will motivate your team?
1.13. How do you handle a team member who is not performing?
1.14. As an engineering manager, what kind of team environment do you emphasize?
1.15. How have you managed negative personalities?
1.16. What style do you have to communicate with both technical and non-technical people?
1.17. How to improve knowledge transfer in virtual teams?
1.18. What is empowering a team or an individual means?
1.19. Why managers hang onto low producing employee?
1.20. When to terminate?
1.21. How best do you motivate a stressed project team?
1.22. What should be done to achieve collaborative, innovative and progressive meetings?
1.23. What are the top three benefits you offer to motivate and/or retain IT staff?
1.24. What are your top three concerns regarding your IT staff?
1.25. What are the single most things for a team to be successful?
1.26. What is character?
1.27. What are the differences between goals and objectives?
1.28. How do you assess an organization’s performance?
1.29. How do you improve low morale?
1.30. How do you matrix manage?
1.31. If you were vice president of this company, what would you do?
1.32. How do you develop a sales strategy?
1.33. In your opinion, what makes a successful manager?
1.34. What are the key habits of successful people?
1.35. List tips for successful leadership.
1.36. List tips to manage successfully.
1.37. List tips for successful project management.
1.38. List steps for being an outstanding communicator.
1.39. List tips for business success.
1.40. List marketing and sales tips.
2 Vision, Mission and Values
2.1. Whom do you admire?
2.2. Will you trust someone?
2.3. What is integrity?
2.4. What is the role of a person in building a business?
2.5. What is morale?
2.6. What is a plan?
2.7. How do you define strategy?
2.8. Distinguish between a strategy and a tactic.
2.9. What are the steps to developing a strategic plan or strategy?
2.10. In relationship to your career, what does thriving mean to you, what does surviving mean to you and how would you classify yourself: thriving or surviving?
2.11. What are the secrets to success?
2.12. What is a good idea?
2.13. How do you set priorities?
2.14. How do decide your priorities?
2.15. What are the criteria you use to set priorities for your decisions?
2.16. What are the criteria you use to set priorities for your actions?
3 Empowerment
3.1. Why do you need power?
3.2. How do you get more power?
3.3. How do you give power through responsibility? Why is it important to clearly define responsibilities?
3.4. Do clearly defining responsibilities inhibits creativity and stifles initiative?
3.5. Why is it important to tell people how their responsibilities relate to goals?
3.6. What is the need to communicate and reinforce responsibilities?
3.7. When would you communicate and reinforce responsibilities?
3.8. What is the need to distinguish between tasks and responsibilities?
3.9. How do you build pride through responsibility?
3.10. Why souldn’t you duplicate responsibilities?
3.11. Why do you need to prioritize responsibilities?
3.12. What to do when responsibilities change?
3.13. What are some of things to keep in mind as you assign and communicate job responsibilities to the people who work for you?
3.14. How do you give power through authority?
3.15. What is the importance of delegating authority?
3.16. How much authority should you delegate?
3.17. How do you communicate authority?
3.18. How to delegate authority without losing control of the work?
3.19. How do you minimize conflicts over authority?
3.20. What to Do If a Person Abuses Authority?
3.21. How do you give Power through Standards of Excellence?
3.22. How and Where to Set Standards
3.23. Communicating and Reinforcing Standards
3.24. Motivating People to Achieve Excellence
3.25. What to Do When Standards Are Inconsistent
3.26. Power through Training and Development
3.27. How to be an effective Mentor
3.28. Power through Knowledge and Information
3.29. Pitfalls to Providing Knowledge and Information
3.30. Determining How Much Information People Need
3.31. Methods of Communicating
3.32. Power through Feedback
3.33. The Purpose of Feedback
3.34. Ways to Give Feedback
3.35. Feedback for the High Achiever
3.36. Feedback for the Low Achiever
3.37. Power through Recognition
3.38. Ways to Recognize People
3.39. Power through Trust
3.40. Types of Trust
3.41. Blind Trust vs. Earned Trust
3.42. Ways to Demonstrate Trust
3.43. What to Do When Trust Is Violated
3.44. Power through Permission to Fail
3.45. When to Let People Fail
3.46. Creating an Environment Where People Aren’t Afraid to Fail
3.47. Power Through Respect
3.48. Ways to Show Respect
3.49. How to Tell When a Person Feels Disrespected
4 Communication
4.1. What is a perfect answer?
4.2. When should I talk to employees in person?
4.3. When should you put something in writing?
4.4. When should not you put something in writing?
4.5. How can I best get my messages across?
4.6. What is the importance of body language in communication?
4.7. How to use body-language to attract or influence people?
4.8. How do I say “no” to an employee request?
4.9. How do I deliver really bad news?
4.10. What is anger?
4.11. Is it “bad” to feel angry?
4.12. What causes people to become angry?
4.13. What are common methods of handling anger, and which is the healthiest?
4.14. What is counseling for anger management, and how does it work?
4.15. Do you need an anger management class or counseling?
4.16. Can anger harm your health?
4.17. What can you do if you are confronted by someone whose anger is out of control? How can I respond to an angry employee?
4.18. What are some of the ways to tame your temper?
4.19. How can I encourage my employees to share their ideas or talk about problems with me?
4.20. How can I counter erroneous rumors?
4.21. One of my colleagues continually interrupts me. What can I do or say to end this?
4.22. How can I improve my listening ability?
4.23. How can I present my ideas persuasively?
4.24. How can I communicate more effectively with employees in remote locations?
4.25. How can you improve the quality of your voicemail messages?
4.26. How can I best give directions to my employees?
4.27. How can I become better at making presentations?
4.28. How can I better manage the email messages I send?
4.29. How can I better manage the email messages I receive?
4.30. How can I improve the quality of reports I write?
4.31. What are the different categories of reports?
4.32. How can I improve my writing style?
4.33. How can I ask questions to get the information I need to do my job?
5 Motivation
5.1. What is motivation?
5.2. How do you motivate engineers?
5.3. How do you motivate managers?
5.4. What things are important in managing people?
5.5. Explain how you motivate people. What is your primary motivational technique?
5.6. Do you believe in managing by consensus? How important is consensus in making tough management decisions?
5.7. What is your philosophy about delegation?
5.8. Are you a strong delegator?
5.9. How do you set goals?
5.10. How do you determine that your goals are appropriate?
5.11. What do you do if an employee is not meeting her goals?
5.12. How do I identify employees’ needs to motivate them better?
5.13. How are employees demotivated?
5.14. What non-financial rewards and recognition can I use to motivate my employees?
5.15. How can I best deliver a sincere compliment when praising employees?
5.16. How can I help my high achievers to feel uniquely valuable?
5.17. What can I do to motivate my average or mediocre performers?
5.18. How important are the physical surroundings in motivating my employees?
5.19. How can I adapt my employees’ jobs to make the work itself motivating?
5.20. How wise is it to use competition among employees to motivate and encourage increased productivity?
5.21. How can I instill ownership to motivate employees?
5.22. How do I delegate tasks that I am tempted to do myself?
5.23. How do I create a culture of empowerment?
5.24. How important is it for me to help employees find the work “fun”?
5.25. Is there a good balance between micromanagement and a hands-off approach to motivate employees?
5.26. How do I keep enthusiasm high during tough economic times?
5.27. How do I keep plateaued employees motivated?
5.28. How can I counteract the negativity of a few employees?
5.29. How can you motivate an employee who has reached the top of his salary range and is not qualified for promotion?
5.30. How can I motivate part-time workers and temps?
5.31. How do you keep an employee who was passed over for a promotion motivated?
5.32. How do I create an atmosphere of openness and trust in my staff?
5.33. How should I respond when an employee says to me, “That’s not my job”?
5.34. How can I encourage employees to use their initiative?
5.35. How can I motivate offsite employees?
5.36. How to build trust?
6 Coaching, Counselling and Mentoring
6.1. What is the difference between a mentor and a manager?
6.2. What is the purpose of coaching or mentoring?
6.3. What is the difference between a coach and a consultant?
6.4. What is your coaching philosophy?
6.5. How do you mentor someone?
6.6. How to be the perfect Mentor?
6.7. How to become a mentor?
7 Effective Delegation
7.1. What is delegation?
7.2. Do you like to delegate?
7.3. Why do you need to delegate effectively?
7.4. How does delegation helps in recognizing skills?
7.5. How does delegation helps in improving time management?
7.6. How does delegation helps in improving team motivation
7.7. How does delegation helps in improving team development?
7.8. Will improving your delegation skills bring benefits?
7.9. How do you go about delegating?
7.10. How good are your delegation skills now?
7.11. What are the different delegation styles?
7.12. Which delegation style to use?
7.13. What exactly is the job I am being asked to do?
7.14. What should you delegate?
7.15. Whom should you delegate to once you have decided to delegate the job?
7.16. Which delegation style should you use for which individuals or teams?
7.17. How do you express what you want done?
7.18. How do you monitor job progress?
7.19. How do you give praise or criticism?
7.20. Why some people, including you, might feel nervous about delegating?
7.21. Why do some people not want you to delegate to them and how you can overcome this?
7.22. Problem people you may have to delegate to
7.23. If individuals do not want you to delegate to them, how do you deal with it?
8 Conflict Management
8.1. Is there such a thing as “good” conflict and how can I take advantage of it?
8.2. How can I help employees with a personality conflict get along better?
8.3. How do I go about mediating a dispute?
8.4. How can I get things back on track after I have an argument with an employee?
8.5. How do I prevent disagreements from escalating into violent incidents?
8.6. What can I do to address conflicts with other managers within my organization?
8.7. How can I resolve conflicts within my team?
8.8. When I hear rumors that an employee is angry with me, how do I deal with him?
8.9. When should I seek help in resolving conflicts between my employees?
8.10. How do you avoid, deal or resolve conflict with your manager?
8.11. How do I handle my boss if he is a bully?
8.12. How can I tell the difference between personality conflicts and conflicts due to misunderstandings and true work-related problems?
8.13. What should I do if I am caught in a personality conflict?
8.14. How do I cope with someone who becomes angry with me and loses his or her temper before others?
8.15. Is it always wrong to express my own anger?
8.16. How can I recognize my hot buttons?
8.17. What is the difference between mediation and arbitration?
9 Negotiation
9.1. How can I become more effective as a negotiator?
10 Meetings Management
10.1. Why do meetings start late, drag on forever, and fail to accomplish anything?
10.2. When should I hold meetings?
10.3. How do I keep control of a meeting?
10.4. What are my responsibilities as group leader?
10.5. As an attendee at a meeting, what can I do to make the meeting more productive?
10.6. What is the best way of keeping a meeting from wandering off course?
10.7. How can I keep someone from dominating a team session?
10.8. How can I encourage all to participate at a meeting?
10.9. What can I do to get people to meetings on time?
10.10. What can I do to improve decision making at a meeting?
10.11. How can I stimulate creative ideas?
10.12. How can I counter groupthink?
10.13. How can I work with a group to reach consensus on an issue?
10.14. What can I do to get members to follow through after a meeting?
10.15. How can I skip meetings to get work done without getting flack from the meeting leader?
11 Time Management
11.1. Which one of the following is most effective in helping you manage your time at work?
12 Emotional Intelligence
13 Recruitment, Hiring and Retention
13.1. What do you know about our company?
13.2. Why do you want to work for this company? Why should we hire you?
13.3. Why are you looking for a new job?
13.4. Tell us about yourself or your background.
13.5. What are three major characteristics that you bring to the job?
13.6. Describe the “ideal” job... the “ideal” supervisor.
13.7. How would you handle a tough customer?
13.8. How would you handle working with a difficult co-worker?
13.9. How does this position match your career goals?
13.10. What are your career goals (a) 3 years from now; (b) 10 years from now?
13.11. What do you like to do in your spare time?
13.12. What motivates you to do a good job?
13.13. What two or three things are most important to you at work?
13.14. What qualities do you think are essential to be successful in this kind of work?
13.15. How does your previous work experience prepare you for this position?
13.16. How do you define “success?”
13.17. What has been your most significant accomplishment to date?
13.18. Describe a failure and how you dealt with it.
13.19. What leadership roles have you held?
13.20. Are you willing to travel?
13.21. What have you done in the past year to improve yourself?
13.22. In what areas do you feel you need further education and training to be successful?
13.23. What are your salary requirements?
13.24. On some jobs it is necessary to act strictly in accordance with policy. Give me an example when you were expected to act in accordance with policy even when it was not convenient. What did you do?
13.25. What types of experience have you had in managing situations that involve potentially high money loss situations to ensure your job effectiveness?
13.26. Describe a time when you found a policy or procedure challenging or difficult to adhere to. How did you handle it?
13.27. Describe a situation in which a crucial deadline was nearing, but you didn’t want to compromise quality. How did you deal with it?
13.28. Describe something you developed or coordinated that had to be exactly right. Exactly how did you test it?
13.29. Describe an effort you undertook to make product/service quality a fundamental priority in your business. Exactly what steps did you take to do this?
13.30. Describe a difficult situation in which you took full responsibility for actions and outcomes. How did you act on this?
13.31. Some people can be counted on to go the extra mile when their organization really needs it. Describe a time when you demonstrated dependability in trying circumstances.
13.32. Describe a time when you gave long hours to the job. For example, tell me about when you took work home, worked on weekends, or maintained long hours due to system maintenance.
13.33. Give me an example of a time when you demonstrated a sense of urgency about getting results.
13.34. Describe a situation that illustrates how well you manage multiple projects simultaneously.
13.35. Priorities can be set meaningfully based on ease of task, customer size, deadlines, or a number of other factors. Describe a time when it was challenging for you to prioritize.
13.36. Think of a project in which you skillfully coordinated people, tasks, and schedules. How did you do it?
13.37. Describe a time when you had to apply changes to a mission critical system. What did you do to insure the stability of the system? What actions did you take and what were the results?
13.38. Select an experience from you past, which illustrates your ability to be attentive to detail when monitoring the systems environment. Tell me, in detail, what happened.
13.39. How have you gone about ensuring accuracy and consistency in a document or data you were preparing? Tell me about a specific case in which your attention to detail paid off.
13.40. Tell me about your experience in dealing with routine work. What kinds of problems did you have to overcome in order to concentrate on the details of the job?
13.41. Give me an example that demonstrates your ability to organize and maintain a system of records.
13.42. Tell me about a situation in which you aggressively capitalized on an opportunity and converted something ordinary into something special
13.43. Describe something you’ve done that shows how you can respond to situations as they arise without supervision.
13.44. Describe a time when you voluntarily undertook a special project above and beyond your normal responsibilities.
13.45. Many people have good ideas, but few act on them. Tell me how you’ve transformed a good idea into a productive business outcome.
13.46. Do you think it is important for employees to work their way up in their chosen industry?
13.47. What personal traits do you look for in people when you are hiring?
13.48. What are the basic needs of all hiring managers?
13.49. What do you look for in a candidate when you hire?
13.50. What do the hiring managers like?
13.51. Do you hire persons who are more qualified or less qualified than you?
13.52. How can I make sure I hire the right person?
13.53. How can I determine what the requirements are for the jobs I have to fill?
13.54. What constitutes a well-written job description?
13.55. What can I do to make help-wanted ads more effective?
13.56. How do I best use Web ads to recruit people?
13.57. How can I effectively prescreen candidates?
13.58. What can I do to make a candidate feel more at ease?
13.59. What are the benefits of working with search firms?
13.60. How do I hire the best recruiting firm?
13.61. How can I increase the number of prospective candidates available?
13.62. What are the advantages of recruiting on the Web?
13.63. What are the ten most common interviewing questions that could cause legal problems?
13.64. What are “reasonable accommodations”?
13.65. How do I legally discuss accommodations with the applicant?
13.66. How can I probe for an applicant’s weaknesses?
13.67. What kinds of notes should I be taking during an interview and how should I use them?
13.68. How can I ensure that individuals hired fit into our corporate culture?
13.69. How can I conduct an effective reference check?
13.70. How do I decide between two good candidates?
13.71. What does it mean for an employee to be hired “at will”?
13.72. What do I do if I cannot hire anyone from my group of winners?
13.73. How can I make a new hire’s first day on the job productive?
13.74. What are the guidelines for selecting a buddy for the new hire?
13.75. What can I do to help a new hire succeed in the job from the first day?
13.76. When and how should I notify all the other applicants that the job has been filled?
13.77. Given the costs of recruitment, how do I reduce turnover?
13.78. How can I maximize the use of exit interviews?
14 Performance Management
14.1. If I give my employees regular feedback about their work, why do I need to conduct formal evaluations?
14.2. What can I do to be a better evaluator?
14.3. What criteria should be used in setting performance objectives or standards?
14.4. What is the difference between performance goals and standards?
14.5. Should I include individual credibility as part of performance management?
14.6. How should I phrase a goal or standard?
14.7. How can I get employees to accept being evaluated?
14.8. What are “stretch” goals?
14.9. Are there legal implications in the performance appraisal process?
14.10. What can I do to make sure my assessment is legally defensible?
14.11. What should I document as part of performance management?
14.12. What is the “halo effect”?
14.13. What are the most common errors managers make in performance appraisals?
14.14. Why do most appraisal programs call for formal reviews during the year?
14.15. How should I best approach quarterly meetings?
14.16. When should I discuss money?
14.17. How can I counsel a poorly performing employee?
14.18. If the performance problem is due to a personal problem, how do I start talking about someone’s personal life without appearing to be nosy or invading privacy?
14.19. If I bring up a performance problem, what do I do or say if the employee becomes emotional?
14.20. How do I coach an employee?
14.21. Is there any best way to conduct the year-end performance appraisal interview?
14.22. What do I do when an employee disagrees with something I have written on the performance appraisal? If I accept their argument, can I upgrade their assessment?
14.23. How can I use the evaluation to set employee development plans for the next year?
14.24. What is “performance appraisal”?
14.25. Where did performance appraisals come from?
14.26. What is the purpose of performance appraisal?
14.27. The performance management process in our organization has conflicting purposes. We use it to determine merit increases and performance feedback for work done during the previous twelve months, to determine training needs, and as a key tool in succession planning. Can one procedure really serve all those functions well?
14.28. How many meetings should I have with an employee to talk about performance?
14.29. All these meetings take too much time. Why should I spend all this time doing performance appraisal when I've got much better things to do?
14.30. If performance appraisal is truly important, why is it the butt of so many jokes and the target a Dilbert cartoons?
14.31. W. Edwards Deming, the quality guru, said that performance appraisals were an organizational evil that should be abolished. Was he wrong?
14.32. Even if they try to be objective, managers cannot help but discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, and other illegal considerations. Isn't performance appraisal actually a very biased process?
14.33. What are the legal requirements for a performance appraisal system?
14.34. How do I make sure that our performance appraisal system is legally defensible?
14.35. Is performance appraisal really necessary? Cannot the benefits that the system provides to organizations and the people in them be obtained any other way?
14.36. What is “performance planning”?
14.37. What are the manager’s responsibilities in the performance-planning phase of the process?
14.38. What are the employee’s responsibilities for performance planning?
14.39. When is the best time to set and review expectations?
14.40. I have never held a performance-planning meeting. How do I get the planning meeting off to a good start?
14.41. What is the difference between “results” and “behaviors”?
14.42. How do you determine someone’s key job responsibilities?
14.43. Some big rocks may be bigger than others; some key job responsibilities are more critical than others. How do you determine the most important items?
14.44. How do you determine a method for evaluating someone’s performance in meeting their key responsibilities?
14.45. Descriptive measures seem subjective. Don't we have to be objective when we evaluate someone’s performance?
14.46. Where does goal setting fit into the performance planning process?
14.47. How do I pick the right goals? Where shoul an individual look to find goals and objectives?
14.48. How should a goal statement be written?
14.49. What are SMART objectives?
14.50. How high should I set my performance expectations?
14.51. What do I do if the individual disagrees with the goals I want set, or says that my standards are unreasonable, or that one of the key job responsibilities I've identified is not really part of the job?
14.52. How do I wrap up a performance-planning meeting?
14.53. What is “performance execution”?
14.54. What are the manager’s responsibilities in the performance execution phase?
14.55. What are the employee’s responsibilities in the performance execution phase?
14.56. How should I keep track of employees' performance? Should I keep a journal? And should I record day-to-day performance or just note the exceptional positive and negative events?
14.57. Should employees have access to my performance log?
14.58. How do I motivate people to deliver good performance and to correct performance problems?
14.59. What about pay? Isn't money the only thin that really motivates?
14.60. What can a manager do to create the conditions that motivate?
14.61. What about recognitions? Isn't recgniing an employee who has done good work an effective motivational tool?
14.62. We are considering starting an employee-of-the-month program. Is this a good recognition tool?
14.63. Do people need praise every time they do good job?
14.64. I don't have a budget for awards to recognize people. How can I recognize their good performance if I cannot demonstrate financially that we appreciate good work?
14.65. Is recognition just a matter of heaping on t praise?
14.66. How do I actually use recognition? Is there more to it than just saying, “Thanks . . . nice job”?
14.67. Would not some people—the better performers—end up getting more recognition than others who don't perform as well? Isn't that discriminatory?
14.68. 4.2 What are the manager’s responsibilities for performance assessment?
14.69. What are my boss’s responsibilities in the performance assessment phase? Does she have to review and approve my appraisals before I deliver them to my staff?
14.70. Should I ask the individual to complete a self-appraisal using the company’s performance appraisal form?
14.71. I have to write a performance appraisal. Where do I start?
14.72. What information do I need to write a valic performance appraisal?
14.73. What about collecting data from other pec to use on the performance appraisal form? Wou be a good idea to ask for information from a salesman’s customers, or ask a manager’s subordinates about her performance as a supervisor?
14.74. I've asked the employee to write a self. appraisal. Should I use what the employee has written in the self-appraisal as part of the official appraisal I’m writing?
14.75. 4.11 Should I put more emphasis on the results the individual achieved or on the way the person went about doing the job?
14.76. One of my subordinates works in a different city and I don't see him very much. How can I appraise his performance accurately?
14.77. Should I include the employee’s success( and failures in completing the development pla part of his formal performance appraisal?
14.78. What are “rating errors”?
14.79. Should I go over the employee’s appraisal with my manager before I review it with the individual?
14.80. How do I go about convincing my boss (assuming her approval is needed) that one of n people deserves a particularly positive or negati review?
14.81. If the appraiser’s boss approves the appraisal before the employee sees it, hasn't the door been closed on the possibility of any changes?
14.82. The individual failed to achieve an impol objective, but there were extenuating circumstances. How should I rate her performai
14.83. In writing the individual’s performance appraisal, should I consider how well he performs compared with other people in the department who are doing the same job?
14.84. Our rating scale is numerical: one, two, three, four, and five, with five being the highest c the scale. Sally basically did a good job this yea] Should I rate her a three, a four, or a five?
14.85. Should employees in new roles be measured and evaluated the same as employees who have been in a role for a length of time?
14.86. How can we take the “personal” out of review and still give an accurate picture of the employee? For example, Joe’s going through a divorce. His performance has suffered, but I
14.87. One of my subordinates does a very good job
14.88. I have a concern about one of my people' performance, but I haven't previously discussed with him. Is it okay to bring it up for the first tine on the performance appraisal?
14.89. What are the employee’s responsibilities in the performance review phase?
14.90. What should I do before the meeting?
14.91. Before I sit down to conduct an appraisal discussion with an individual, is it appropriate to talk with others to get some insights into what I might expect?
14.92. How should I open the discussion?
14.93. How do I start the appraisal discussion an individual who has a great deal of experie and has worked for the company much longe I have?
14.94. How do I figure out what the employee i feeling?
14.95. How can I get someone to agree with al honest and accurate performance appraisal rz
14.96. The employee I’m about to review is an unsatisfactory performer and the appraisal to like it is. How should I start the meeting?
14.97. What do I do when an employee disagrees with something I have written on the performance appraisal?
14.98. How do I handle defensive reactions?
14.99. How should I react when an employee s crying during the appraisal discussion . . . or g mad at me?
14.100. When should I talk about the pay increase?
14.101. How do I bring the performance apprai' discussion to a successful close?
14.102. What’s the best way to deal with an emp] who refuses to sign the performance appraisal document and refusses to provide his own comments?
14.103. Is there an ideal performance appraisal fc
14.104. How does a company determine which competencies are 'truly core competencies?
14.105. Why is it better to write the narrative that explains what is meant by a competency as a description of master-level performance? Would a dictionary definition work just as well?
14.106. What’s the difference between organizat core competencies and job family competence
14.107. How do I determine the key job responsibilities of a position?
14.108. Aren't goals and projects part of a person’s job responsibilities? Why does an ideal appraisal form have a separate section for goals and projects?
14.109. The last part of the recommended performance appraisal form covers the individt major accomplishments over the course of the appraisal period. Shouldn't the individual’s achievements be described throughout the appraisal form?
14.110. Are there any other elements that could be included on a performance appraisal form?
14.111. How many different forms should there bE
14.112. How many rating levels should there be on the form?
14.113. What should we call the different levels? Does it make any difference whether we use wo or numbers?
14.114. Should we use different rating scales for assessing different areas within the form?
14.115. 6.13 Should the form provide for putting different weights on the various sections?
14.116. Should the form provide a recommender distribution of performance appraisal ratings?
14.117. Some computer-based performance appraisal systems offer an electronic form with different traits listed: quality of work, quantity c work, attitude, or dependability. The manager clicks on a one to five scale and then the machi generates the text for the appraisal. Are these programs a good idea?
14.118. Most people do a good job—not outstanding, not unacceptable—and therefore get rated in the middle category. But they all hate getting rated there. They see it as being labeled as a “C” student. How do we explain that getting the middle rating is not a bad thing?
14.119. What does an effective performance appra process look like?
14.120. We're getting ready to design a completely new performance appraisal system from scratch. Where should we start?
14.121. What should top management, appraisers, employees, and human resources professionals expect from a performance appraisal system?
14.122. What kind of training do managers need to do a good performance appraisal?
14.123. Do we need to provide training to employees about our performance appraisal process?
14.124. Should we provide managers with samples of completed appraisal forms that they can use as models when they have to prepare performance appraisals?
14.125. How can an organization determine whether its managers are doing a good job in performance appraisal and that the system is working well?
14.126. Both appraisers and employees are confused about what the different rating labels actually mean. How do we solve this communication problem?
14.127. Managers don't seem to understand all things that they need to do and end up waitin the last minute to meet their performance apt activities. Human resources then ends up pla policeman. What can HR do to help them do better job?
14.128. We use a lot of self-directed work team; our organization. Should we evaluate team performance in addition to the performance o individuals? And how do we evaluate the performance of teams?
14.129. We are concerned that people who perform the same may get different ratings from different supervisors. How can we make sure that appraisers apply consistent standards across our organization?
14.130. What Is “upward appraisal”?
15 Discipline and Termination
15.1. What is progressive discipline?
15.2. How do I conduct progressive discipline?
15.3. How do I conduct an internal investigation?
15.4. Can I be sued for not firing some employees?
15.5. How do I counsel employees for misconduct or rule violations?
15.6. What if bad job performance is due to a physical problem?
15.7. Can an employee assistance program (EAP) solve performance and discipline problems?
15.8. What alternatives do I have to termination?
15.9. What is termination for cause?
15.10. What is the best way to conduct a termination meeting?
15.11. What do I do if an employee becomes very emotional, or even threatening, when I terminate him?
15.12. Do I need to document the termination meeting?
15.13. Why is termination sometimes a good thing for the employee being fired?
15.14. What if I do not feel right about terminating an employee?
15.15. What do I say to the rest of my work group about termination of an employee in the group?
15.16. If I have to lay people off to save money, how do I choose which ones to let go when none are problem performers?
16 Team Building
16.1. Why should I build a sense of teamwork among my staff members?
16.2. What do successful work teams have in common?
16.3. How do I handle a talented loner or non-team player on my team?
16.4. How can pulling employees together into a team maintain productivity during tough economic times?
16.5. How can I make new hires members of the team from their first day on the job?
16.6. If I build a strong team, am I abdicating power or control?
16.7. What are my responsibilities as team leader?
16.8. Why is it important to have diversity within my team?
16.9. What are the four stages of cross-functional teams?
16.10. How do I choose members of a cross-functional team?
16.11. How can taking my employees away from the work environment enable me to build a sense of teamwork?
16.12. As a new supervisor, how do I build rapport with the informal group within the department?
16.13. How can I build trust from the team?
16.14. How can involvement of the team in department goal setting and planning improve the likelihood of achieving the plans?
16.15. How can I engage employees in this process?
16.16. If my team develops action plans that could fail, what should I do?
16.17. What mistakes do managers make that undermine team productivity?
16.18. What can I do to get my employees to think for themselves?
16.19. Why should team members be involved in the selection process?
16.20. What are the keys to building high performance teams?
16.21. Why team building?
16.22. What is the difference between team versus group?
17 Change Management
17.1. How would you go about influencing someone to accept your ideas?
17.2. How can I measure my acceptance of change?
17.3. How do you lead people through change?
17.4. How can I know when change is in the wind so that my department can prepare for it?
17.5. How can I be a change leader?
17.6. How do I get commitment to a change from my staff?
17.7. I worry that I would not be able to handle objections to a change in a staff meeting. What can I do to overcome objections in that situation?
17.8. What do I do if there are people on my staff adamantly opposed to the change?
17.9. How can I help employees cope with change that requires new skills and practices?
17.10. How can I use small improvements to build on a major shift in operations?
17.11. How do I motivate my staff to see the opportunity that comes with change?
17.12. How do I involve employees in change efforts without abdicating my own authority over the final decisions?
17.13. I have seen change inaugurated, then things return to before the change. How can I avoid slippage back into old ways?
17.14. How can I create a culture that will encourage flexibility and innovation?
17.15. How can I get my team through a period of change overload?
17.16. What do I do if I discover a project just would not work?
18 Career and Life Skills
18.1. How can I improve my mindset about my job search?
18.2. What are the different ways one could make a bad first impression and how could you recover?
18.3. What should I do if an interviewer is rude?
18.4. How to keep the interviewer fully engaged?
18.5. Do you favor outsourcing?
18.6. What do you do if your interviewer asks about your experience working with, for example, Excel spreadsheets and you have none?
18.7. How do you respond when the interviewer says “You are over-qualified?” What do you do when the interviewee say that you are over-qualified?
18.8. I am graduating from college and the market looks bleak. What should I do?
18.9. I have received a job offer that is low on the pay scale, but includes more benefits than I need. Could I negotiate this?
18.10. List some strategies for job searching online. How do I figure out key words that will lead me to the right openings?
18.11. I have a lot of experience. I am afraid I am going to appear too experienced, should I show less background on my cover letter and resume?
18.12. Working Knowledge: How can I get inspired again in my work or career?
18.13. What are some of the hot tips for managing your career?
18.14. How can I reduce stress due to work?
18.15. How can I deal with workaholism?
18.16. I seem to work from crisis to crisis. What am I doing wrong?
18.17. How can I balance the demands of the workplace with my family obligations and personal interests?
18.18. How can I minimize intrusions on my personal time?
18.19. How can I ensure that I get credit for the work I do?
18.20. How can I ensure that ethics and integrity are not just values listed on a sheet of paper?
18.21. Do I have to suffer from all those interruptions during the day?
18.22. How can I eliminate procrastination?
18.23. How do I determine what to do first?
18.24. How can I better organize my workspace to maximize my productivity?
18.25. How can I build networking skills?
18.26. How do I try achieving layoff immunity?
18.27. What can I do if I expect termination?
18.28. What should I do to improve my relationships with my superiors?
18.29. How can I make traveling less stressful?
18.30. How can I start working from home?
18.31. What kind of handshake makes the best impression?
18.32. Would dating a colleague have a negative impact on my career?
18.33. How can I improve my general managerial skills?
18.34. How to get that raise?
18.35. What is your strategy for salary negotiation in this competitive job market?
19 Appendix A - Sample Job Descriptions
19.1. Chief Quality Officer - VP QA, Test and Integration
19.2. Sr. Director IT Applications Development
19.3. Director of Enterprise Application Engineering
19.4. Senior Manager - Enterprise Application Development
19.5. Senior Technical Program Manager

 
   

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