The question, “What are the best interview questions to ask?” was recently discussed in The Watercooler, our online community of 1,000+ managers in Know Your Team. Here were their answers. You only have one hour with this person, so you need to decide: What are the best interview questions to ask them? Hiring is one… Read the full article...

Virtual team building is tough. Here are 7 ways you can build social connections on a remote team, even from afar. I’ll be shocked if you’re shocked: Building social connections on a remote team is the hardest part of managing a remote team. According to a survey we ran this past fall with 297 remote… Read the full article...

The upsides, downsides, and everything in between, to consider around using OKRs to set goals as a manager. I remember the first time I heard the term, “OKR” about five or so years ago. My initial reaction was, “Er Okay, what?” Turns out “OKR” is an acronym for “Objectives and Key Results” — a framework for setting… Read the full article...

The #1 piece of information you should be focused on as a leader is sharing company vision. Here’s exactly how to do it. “Company vision” might be the fluffiest business term I know. Thrown around by every nearly business book and article, “vision” is often used vaguely, without nuance or thoughtfulness. Yet despite its watered-down… Read the full article...

Based on input from 1,000+ managers in our online leadership community in Know Your Team, here’s what to consider if you’re thinking about doing performance reviews. “Should I do performance reviews?” A manager recently wrote this to me. We’d arrived in the middle of the year (already?!), and he was curious if he should kick-off… Read the full article...

Here’s the #1 thing your team meeting should be focused on – and exactly how you should structure your team meeting agenda. “What should I put on our team meeting agenda?” I asked myself this question recently because — for the first time in our small team’s history — we’re starting to hold monthly team meetings! Bear with me… Read the full article...

You’ve got your first one-on-one meeting with a new employee scheduled. Here are the 15 questions you should put on the one-on-one meeting agenda. The other week, I held a one-on-one meeting with a new employee – the first I’ve conducted in a while. (We don’t hire that often at Know Your Team, so it… Read the full article...

Being a great manager and English gardening have more in common than you might imagine. If you want to improve your leadership skills, there no shortage of analogies that have been made about great managers. A great manager is a “coach,” a “captain of a ship,” or even a “human shield.” However, I heard a… Read the full article...

If you’re looking for the best employee engagement survey questions, these 32 questions have the highest response rates in Know Your Team – and share four distinct characteristics. “How engaged are my employees, really?” We ask ourselves this, as leaders — and then write our employee engagement surveys questions, determined to find an answer. Yet during this… Read the full article...

Here are the 5 most telling signs of micromanagement – and what you can do instead. I won’t tell anyone: You think you might be a micromanager. Argh. If there were scarlet letters for a bad manager to wear, “m-i-c-r-o-m-a-n-a-g-e-r” would be among them. But, how do you know if you’re a micromanager, for sure?… Read the full article...

Six things to consider when managing managers instead of individual contributors. “What’s the biggest difference between managing managers versus managing individual contributors?” I recently was asked this question at a conference I spoke at in the United Kingdom. Then a few days later, funnily enough, this same question was the central topic at a panel… Read the full article...

We all know we’re supposed to “work on the business and not in the business” as a leader but what holds us back? And, how do you exactly put “stepping away” into practice? “Work on the business, not in the business. Pause. Step back. Take stock. Reflect. “ This is some of the most ubiquitous… Read the full article...

Instead of promising you quick ‘n easy answers, this new manager checklist probes deeper with 4 questions to help you become better as a leader. You want the answer. The silver bullet, the trick, the hack, the leadership best practice, the new manager checklist. There’s got to be some secret point of leverage that you… Read the full article...

Best practices from 1,000+ managers on how to share progress with your team as a leader...

17 phrases and suggestions to avoid the common leadership weakness of coming across as too controlling as a manager. Recently, a manager told me how he’d received feedback from his team about his greatest leadership weakness. “I come across as too intense or controlling,” he admitted. Genuinely concerned, he then asked me, “What can I… Read the full article...

Here’s one way to create more mental wriggle room for yourself in tough situations as a leader. Before you figure out what to do, you must first figure out how to think like a leader.  But what if you’re not even sure what to think? A direct report who’s well-liked by the team is underperforming,… Read the full article...

We don’t ask ourselves this enough. Here are 6 critical questions to reflect on when considering if you should become a manager or not. When we’re asked, “Do you want to become a manager?” we often assume there is only one answer. “Oh, of course, I want to be a manager.” Right? Who doesn’t? Especially… Read the full article...

What makes a great manager isn't the problems they solve, but the questions they ask. Start with these 16 questions here...

Attend our in-person leadership training and manager workshop to get better as a leader, faster...

The 6 indispensable leadership lessons I learned working as a restaurant hostess...

Coaching an underperforming employee? Here are 7 things to consider if, when, and how to use a performance improvement plan...

If you’re looking to leave your company to work for another, you’ll want to consider this. Recently, someone asked me for advice about getting a new perspective boss and potentially leaving one company to go work for another. He was curious about what factors he should consider before making the decision. He’d already vetted the role,… Read the full article...

Having a bad boss shapes our leadership style more than we realize – for better and for worse. Who’s the worst boss you ever had? Your answer to this question matters. It influences your leadership style in more ways than you think. For myself, I can answer that question, “Who’s the worst boss you ever… Read the full article...

Two things I’ve found helpful to consider when trying to decide what to be transparent about with my team – and what to keep to myself. How transparent should you be as a leader? This is a question many leaders struggle with — including myself. Do you share financials with the company? Or how about salary? How open should… Read the full article...

Listen to our leadership lessons now on iTunes, Spotify, and read the best management quotes from 31 leaders from each episode, so far. I’ve got some fun news to share: The Heartbeat is now a podcast! You can listen to your favorite leadership lessons during your commute, daily walk, while you’re cleaning your kitchen… well,… Read the full article...

Building trust in our team is more than a “feel-good” thing – here’s the data that show how trust affects our team’s performance and the company’s bottom line. Trust in the workplace matters to us. Or at least, we say it does. We surveyed 597 managers and employees back in Fall 2018, and 91% of… Read the full article...

Managing an underperforming employee is tough. Here’s advice from 1,000+ managers in Know Your Team on how to address poor performance. It’s time to have “the talk”: The one where you have to figure out how to discuss poor performance with an employee. This not-so-fun conversation you likely saw coming. After missed deadlines and low… Read the full article...

The minute you stop tying your leadership so closely to your identity, you become a better manager. You are not your leadership style. In order to be a good leader, you must internalize this. As much as you might self-identify with being an “empathetic leader” or a “decisive leader”, you’ve got to let these notions… Read the full article...

How do you build trust in a team? First, let’s understand what trust really is and why it matters. Who do you trust? The first people who likely came to mind were your partner, your family, and your friends (hopefully). How about your boss? Your coworker? It’s harder to say. A 2016 study conducted by Edelman… Read the full article...

Are you a first-time manager? Of all the management advice for new managers, embrace this one, first. Don’t be fooled: Becoming a new manager is deceptively difficult. No matter how many leadership books you’ve read or conversations you’ve had with mentors – the transition to becoming a manager is precarious. Talk to any leader, and they’ll… Read the full article...