Mike McBride Online

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Linked – The 1 Major Skill That Most Employees Say Their Bosses Lack
ByMike McBride April 11, 2023April 11, 2023 Reading Time: 1 minute

Every poor manager I’ve ever dealt with has been a poor communicator. Almost every shortcoming or problem I’ve seen people have with a manager or coworker could be filed under a problem with communication. It’s THE thing in the workplace. Ideas, expectations, priorities, and everything else in the workplace come down to the ability to communicate. If you cannot communicate clearly, you are lost, and the people who work for you or lost.

Yet how many organizations promote the top performer or their most senior individual contributor without ever considering whether they are good communicators? And how many prioritize teaching them how to communicate as managers?

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Career

Remote Work Requires Different Management Skills
ByMike McBride April 10, 2023April 10, 2023 Reading Time: 2 minutes

I’ll let you go to the article to read about those non-negotiables, but I agree. I think this is the real problem when it comes to bosses complaining about how remote isn’t a good option. They haven’t managed a remote team; they’ve been managing a team that works outside the office. There is a difference.

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Career

Linked – The French Understand That Work Sucks
ByMike McBride April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 Reading Time: 2 minutes

Everything that brings us the most happiness and spreads that happiness across society gets set aside because we are supposed to identify ourselves based on our jobs.

So yeah, maybe the French won’t necessarily still get to retire with a pension at 62. (though Nathan does a good job of explaining why that isn’t impossible, this was a choice made to protect the wealthy from being taxed, after all.) I still think many of us could learn something from the French, and Europe in general, about where our jobs fit into the fuller picture of our lives. If you aren’t making time to “live,” what’s the point of all that time spent at our jobs?

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Career

Linked – One on One Meetings Help Employee Engagement and Retention
ByMike McBride April 4, 2023April 4, 2023 Reading Time: 1 minute

This, of course, is the rub. The value of a one-on-one meeting is subject to the ability of the manager and the direct report to conduct a quality meeting. While that sounds pretty simple, let me ask you a question.

Have you ever been taught how to have a quality one-on-one meeting with your boss or with a direct report?

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Training

Are You in the Correct Brain Space to Learn?
ByMike McBride April 3, 2023April 1, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

As learners, we should do everything we can to give ourselves a better chance to change our brains when trying to learn new skills. Learning about neuroplasticity and the best way to encourage that brain state would be a good place to start, and then we can move on with our lifetime of learning.

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Career

Linked – Will non-linear work days be the new hybrid working?
ByMike McBride March 31, 2023March 31, 2023 Reading Time: 2 minutes

I suspect this will remain a very niche thing now, though. The issue is the expectation of what the “work day” is. Granted, if you work in a customer-facing position, even a remote job where you have to interact with customers in real-time virtually, it’s unlikely they will be OK with a meeting at a time outside the 9-5.

On the other hand, there are plenty of jobs where those interactions make up part of the day but not all. Why can’t the other part of the day be outside the 9-5 so we can take care of other things during the day? You know, when doctors’ mechanics, banks, and other services are open, or when we want some time outside in the sun?

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