.Business Writing Skill Helps Your Career

A manager needs to be able to get his or her point across in written communications. The article Writing for Business details in five simple steps what every manager needs to know about successfully writing for business. The better you are at written communication, the further and faster you will be able to advance your career.

A friend of mine is hiring for a key position. He is understaffed and really needs to fill the position as quickly as possible. He told me last night that he had found a great candidate. Good technical skills, good customer relation skills, solid management skills, and industry experience, but he was hesitant to hire her. She wasn't excited about the job. I told him Passion Pays and that he would be better off not hiring her, even if it meant he had to do the extra work himself a little longer. If an employee isn't passionate and excited about a job, especially when they are just starting, they won't be working at maximum productivity for long. Wait until you find the right person for the job and you will be rewarded with not just increased output, but also reduced hassles.

Many new managers, and even a few experienced managers, struggle with difficult employees from time to time. It can be hard to remember what you are trying to get done when you are repeatedly confronted with the issue of a difficult employee. Shouting at them or "pulling rank" won't solve the problem. However, this article, Dealing With Difficult Employees, will help managers prepare a plan, confront the behavior, and find a solution to the inappropriate behavior of difficult employees.

Many managers believe that their job is to resolve problems when they arise. While that is true, it is only the lesser part of the job. It's more importantly that a manager learn how to prevent problems. This is the difference between reactive management, which solves problems as they occur, and predictive management, which tries to prevent many problems from arising in the first place. The article Good Management Is Predictive Management Not Reactive Management explains the difference and shows you how to improve your predictive management skills.

The Web site Payscale.com has a tool called Meeting Miser that calculates for you the cost of a meeting, based on the job titles of the people attending. It is a fun little diversion, but I wouldn't put too much emphasis on its answers. A better choice is to make your meeting more productive. To do that, you can use my Meeting Management techniques.

Layoff should be a last resort of a management trying to address major financial problems, but they do happen. You may have been through one already. You may be facing one. There are no guarantees in life so the best thing you can do is prepare. Here is What You Need To Know About Surviving A Layoff. If you are concerned about a possible layoff, take the time to read it. If you are planning to do a layoff, read it to help you decide which people to keep.

By F. John Reh, Management Guide