Congratulations! You made it past your first 90 days at your new job. Hopefully, it went smooth and now you can focus on building your tenure into something great. Even if your first 90 days was a little rocky, you can still turn it around into something positive. Your first 90 days was a time of acclimation, learning and fighting the jitters. Beyond your first 90 days there is still a lot to learn but now it’s more about performing and contributing.

What Worked, What Didn’t

The best thing to do after your first 90 days is to do a self-assessment. Your first 90 days plan should be reviewed. This review needs to be an honest dialog as to what worked and what didn’t. By doing this, you will understand how well you are assimilating into the culture and how hard/easy it is to get things done. If you have a good rapport with your new boss (which I hope you do), then sit down with her and review how she perceives your performance. You should have a pretty good idea from your one-on-one’s but a focused meeting might be a better venue to dig a little deeper.

Once you understand how you did, create an action plan for the next 90 days on how you will maintain and improve. This method of evaluating your performance every 90 days is a great way to think about your tenure. Ninety day increments are long enough to get meaningful work done, yet short enough to remember what you did. Make this part of your one-on-one. Doing this will allow you to focus on what’s important and have check in points more often than your annual review.

Tip: Create a 90 day plan for yourself. Review the plan with your boss to ensure that you are working on the right tasks

Taking on More Responsibility

As your grow into your new job, it’s natural to want to get more involved with how the company is run. This may lead you down the management path or a more senior contributor role. To achieve your desired goals, you should slowly take on more responsibility. Displaying the aptitude for taking on challenging tasks and performing them shows your new company that you are a valuable employee that has growth potential. Responsibility may not mean directly managing people but may mean being the lead on a project or just going solo on a special project. More responsibility does come with more accountability so make sure you are ready for the challenge when you step up.

Tip: Perform your assigned tasks well and on schedule. This will naturally lead to more responsibly. Be self-aware as to what you can safely handle while still making your commitments.

Building Stronger Bonds

Your coworkers, bosses and senior management are an important part of being successful. These people will be the ones that you interact with daily, work with to solve problems and will be asked to assess you. Through the long hours of working and problem solving, you will naturally build professional and personal bonds with people. These bonds will shape your working experience. Building strong bonds early will ensure that you will be successful. Strive to get to know people at both a personal and professional level. Take an interest in what they do and learn how their function contributes to the overall success of the company. Be willing to help out when able so that you are a problem solver and a team player instead of a selfish silo. Doing these things will naturally lead to building co-worker bonds.

In some companies, it can be difficult to build bonds with senior management since you may not interact with them on a daily basis. It’s vital to have your bosses boss at least know who you are and what you do. Look for opportunities to present your high quality work to senior management. These opportunities are how you demonstrate your ability while also getting to know how senior management thinks.

Tip: Be curious about what others do so that you understand how everyone fits into the company. Get to know your co-workers at a personal level.

Becoming Indispensable

Success at a company has many variables. One essential variable is becoming the go to person when things need to get done. This is part of becoming indispensable. Getting to this stage requires a deep understanding of your companies culture and needs. It’s also important that you get things done and project a “can do” attitude. Indispensable people are the ones that get pulled into discussions or projects where their expertise can be used to rapidly and effectively solve problems. Look for opportunities to prove yourself in high profile situations where your actions directly affect the company. Strive to help out where you can but also remember that delivering on your commits is what management wants you to do. Remember that being indispensable does not mean not replaceable — so being a team player is certainly part of becoming indispensable.

Tip: Find a project or task that gives you the visibility to show that you are indispensable. Strive to always meet commitments and be the go to person for difficult tasks.

Setting the Stage For Promotion

There are several rules of thumb about promotion. One says “do the job, get the job” while others may dictate “you can learn as you go.” In order to get promoted, you need to figure out how your company promotes people. This varies from company to company and boss to boss. One universal promotion truth is that you need to have someone who can take on your old job ready, willing and eager. It’s important that you mentor, train and coach others to do the job that you are presently doing. The reason is simple. When you leave, someone has to take over and having a ready replacement gives management one less excuse to not promote you. It’s also a good practice to develop the people around you so that you again, become indispensable. People who deliver, promote Esprit de Corps, mentor, coach and train others are naturals for promotion. Plenty of companies promote their technical or creative staff just as readily and they look for the same things.

Tip: The best way to get promoted is to train your replacement.

The Journey Never Ends

Your tenure will be a constant revolving of these 90 day plans until you leave or run the place. Thinking in terms of 90 day increments will allow you to focus on what’s important but also allow you to show your boss the value you add at regular increments. This is vital because your yearly review is too infrequent and not a good tool to ensure that you are delivering to you and your bosses expectations. Ninety day plans are also a great way to set expectations so that you and your boss are aligned to what is important.

Tip: Make the 90 day plan a regular part of your career building toolkit.

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After Your 1st 90 Days At A New Job originally appeared on The Daily MBA on August 30, 2010.

A Guest Post By: Angelita William

As a young business-minded person, you might have been at the top of your class when you were getting your MBA but education alone won’t gain you the respect of those who you manage, many of whom may be much older and much more experienced than you and not keen on being managed by a young go-getter. Regardless of how your employees feel about you, they’re the people you’re supposed to lead and inspire– something that can be tough when you don’t feel you’re getting the respect you deserve. Of course, like anything worth having in life, this kind of respect has to be earned, not demanded, from older employees. Consider these tips to help ease the process.

Check your expectations. Many head into management positions without a real understanding of what managing people will really be like. Often, the focus can be on being in charge and making business decisions rather than on things like helping people and dealing with challenges around the office– issues that are often at the heart of what it means to be a good manager.

Focus on people. You might have wanted to move into management to showcase your financial strategies or marketing abilities but don’t forget about what it really takes to make a workplace thrive: the people. Your first priority should always be helping your workers perform at their best.

Stop trying to prove yourself. It is not possible to do everything yourself or to be perfect and superhuman. Do your job well and over time your employees will respect you. It’s just that simple.

Be assertive. It’s inevitable that one of your employees will challenge you, try to bypass you, or generally treat you like you don’t know what you’re doing. Respond with confidence and assertiveness. This can mean learning to say no, not apologizing when you ask more and speaking up when you have something to say. It does not mean being aggressive or not listening to others.

Learn when to criticize and when to compliment. Most workers are seeking praise for a job well done, whether they’re old or young. Learn when to dole out

this kind of praise and when to offer criticisms. Striking a balance is essential to gaining respect and being an effective manager.

Give respect. You can’t expect to get respect if you don’t give it. Ask employees for their opinions and don’t always assume that you know best, especially if your employees are quite experienced. Use this age and experience of your employees to your advantage and you will see smoother sailing and perhaps even greater returns.

It’s never easy to step into a management position as a new and often younger boss, especially with a rapidly aging and often much more experienced work force to direct. Yet with patience, a calm demeanor and the right attitude towards your employees you can become someone they respect and even look to for guidance.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online college courses.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

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Managing Across Generations originally appeared on The Daily MBA on August 23, 2010.

How’s this for a twist? Managers moving into individual contributor roles. Sounds kinda whacky but it’s starting to happen more and more. This is actually common in engineering and the sciences where the value of a manager is wedged somewhere between “engineers can manage themselves” and “management is just overhead.” Throw a decaying economy in the mix and a lot of managers find themselves going after individual contributor roles just to pay the bills. In some cases, it’s not even an economic decision. You may have been doing management for a while a realize that your real value add is on the technical side. Making this transition can be a lot harder than jumping to management. The single biggest gravitates around doing as opposed to managing/thinking. The key to getting back into the worker saddle is to tackle these issues in a manageable way while leveraging your managerial skills to give you an edge.

Reasons To Move Back

Most technical managers always carry a little bit of nostalgia for their days as an individual contributors. Some even continue to do side projects to keep their technical skills sharp while others just love to sit in on design reviews and poke holes. Surprisingly, the reasons to move back to being an individual contributor are numerous and include:

• Ground floor opportunity: You might stumble across a new startup that just so happens to need workers instead of mangers

• New industry: Changing industries usually means a lot of learning and the best way is to get in and do the work.

• Management burn-out: You come to a point where management is just not fun anymore. The dealing with people and assorted administrative tasks just grind on you.

• Promise of advancement: The company may not need a manager right away but the growth potential is there and getting in now will set you up for success later.

• Really don’t like management: This is for those new mangers who made the switch and are now regretting it. Good for them. It’s far better to find out sooner rather than later.

• Realize Your Value Add is as a Contributor: Some people just can’t manage. They think they need to go down the management track to be successful but that’s a dilution. You should cater to your strengths and seek a truly objective review of your management skill.

The decision to switch back to an individual contributor is a personal one. Make sure that you consider all the options before jumping back in. The road will be tough but doable.

Overcoming Rusty Technical Skills

Probably the single biggest challenge you will face is the sharpness of your technical skill. Technical skill does go away and if you plan on moving to an individual contributor, within a technical field (like engineering or science or graphic design), you will need to refresh those skills. The amount of brush up will depend a lot on how long it has been since you last performed at a contributor level. Some of the methods you can use to get your technical skills back on track include:

• Take classes: Classes are a good way to get overviews and network. Classes show that you are committed but don’t solely rely on them.

• Do side projects: Working on an actual project is a great way to come up to speed on new technology and methods.

• Provide support: Sometimes just supporting an individual contributor by way of testing or documenting or clean up, can add a lot of value and help you learn.

• Work on essential but non-critical tasks: All projects have essential tasks that must get done. Some of those tasks can be mundane or even boring. As a new contributor, you can add a lot of value and learn by taking on these tasks.

• Contribute to Open Source: Open source projects are wonderful ways to both give back and show that you can still do stuff.

• Volunteer: Similar to open source but maybe at a non-profit that needs certain services. Non-profits are forgiving when it comes to volunteers and the experience will not only help them but you as well.

Making the switch to contributor takes more time than moving to management because of the ability to get work done. You will not be as efficient as someone who is doing the work day in and day out. Keep this in mind when you start to feel the frustration that you are not as efficient as you used to be.

Leveraging Legacy Knowledge

At some point, we all did some sort of individual contributor work. This knowledge may be 20 years old but the fundamentals can always be applied to even the most exotic technology or situation. The trick with leveraging your past knowledge is to use as a foundation not as the endpoint. Try and put whatever new you are learning into the context of something you already know. For example, if you used to write software code 20 years ago, consider that you still have to compile code, debug it and create functions to achieve results. Sure, the entire object oriented, multi-tasking, threaded stuff is all new but fundamentally, software engineers still write code, compile it, debug and repeat until they get the desired function. If you could learn Fortran then chances are Python, Java or C++ will come in time. Even architecting a solution has not changed much. There’s the inputs, outputs, dependencies, specifications and performance criteria. This applies to other professions as well. The skills may be rusty but they were sharp at one point and that knowledge base can be used to regroup and become a contributor once again.

Convincing Others You Can Still Do Work

Contributors tend to fear mangers. For some reason, they think that if a former manager is hired as a contributor, that they will have to do less work or end up managing them. Anxiety like this is rational and must be dealt with by showing and doing rather than talking. The best way to deal with this is to show them you can do the work. Talk only gets you so far. Get out there and do something you can point too. By doing, you quickly overcome the skepticism that you are just another dud buying time till the next management gig. If you can’t point to something you have done, then describe in detail what you have done and why you want to go back to doing. It’s important that your new colleagues trust that you will contribute to the group and not just boss them around.

Dealing With Your Own Performance Anxiety

Doing is hard. Management is also hard but in a different way. The actual doing of work will cause you sleepless nights wondering why on earth did I switch back. Embrace this anxiety. Use it to challenge yourself to do better. It’s perfectly natural to feel stressed out that you are not getting up to speed faster, contributing more, being more productive or solving complex problems. As time goes on, you will get the hang of it and your performance will improve. Just be honest with yourself and your new boss about what you can and can’t do. Ask for help if you need it and try as hard as you can to contribute. Pressuring ourselves to perform is healthy until it starts to make you loose sleep. Rather than descend into a emotional mess, relax and set micro-goals for yourself. That way, you can celebrate the small wins. This will build up your confidence and reduce your anxiety.

Leveraging Your Management Skills

The nice thing about management skills is that even an individual contributor needs some management knowledge to be successful. For the manager turned contributor, this is where you can really shine. Your new team and job will heavily leverage your management knowledge even if you are not considered a manager. A couple of management skills that find direct applications to an individual contributor role include:

• Organizational skills: Being organized is paramount to being successful. As a contributor, the more organized you are, the less your boss will worry about you.

• Status reporting: As a boss, you remember how you liked clean, crisp status reports that were actionable. That knowledge as a contributor is golden since your new boss wants just want you wanted — clear, actionable status reports.

• Strategic thinking: Understanding the big picture is a skill that most contributors don’t exercise enough. As a former manager, you know the value of strategic thinking and can use that to help your new group succeed.

• Knowing what the boss is really saying: Boss speak can sometimes to hard to understand. Luckily, you are fluent in it and this is a big asset when things start to get stressful or tasks need to get done fast.

• Understanding management pressures: Managers are under a tremendous amount of pressure. Being aware of these pressures will allow you to help you boss instead of adding to them.

• Mentoring fellow workers: As a former leader, your insights will be sought after by your colleagues. Use these opportunities to teach, mentor and coach them. They will appreciate and respect this.

• Helping your boss: Sometimes your boss will need help on some management task. It may be a schedule, budget or presentation. Having you around will allow your boss to bounce ideas around and have you give your valuable managerial input.

• Be the employee you want to manage: All managers know who there star employees are and who are the real pains. This insider knowledge will allow you to be the employee you wanted to manage. Doing this will also reduce some of the management burden that your new boss may feel.

Remember that self-management as an individual contributor will help you boss immensely. Just remember that she is the boss and not you. Strive to support, not dominate, your boss and group. This will sometimes be a challenge since the desire to manage a situation is hard to control. If you do step out of bounds, quickly apologize and move on.

Setting A Positive Tone

There will be times where you will be lost, feel alone and question your decision to take on an individual contributor roll. Fret not. As long as you have a positive attitude, want to learn, get things done and contribute to the team, you will be fine. Your boss knows that it will take some time to get you to a level where you contribute like everyone else. She hired you knowing that and will continue to support you as long as you are making progress.

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Transitioning From Manager to Individual Contributor originally appeared on The Daily MBA on August 9, 2010.

A Guest Post by: Jeff Reed

Let’s face it: this is an exceptionally rough climate to field any type of employment. Well, the type of employment sure to earn the respect of your family and friends, and yourself. The latest incarnation of world miracle, however, can seriously ease your quest to land the job. That’s right – your very own iPhone offers manifold applications to sniff out cutting-edge resources and opportunities that will help you succeed. Play with these ten suggested apps before you next pound the pavement:

1. Career Bliss: Wished you could have one forum in which to fling through dozens of companies, their reviews, and their salary offerings? We introduce you to Bliss, which boasts authentic company critiques from real-life employees.
2. CraigSelect: Of the several Craigslist applications available, CraigSelect stands out for its user-friendly GPS component that facilitates your journey to any location or appointment made via Craigslist.
3. Good Job: This application does a great job of organizing every single task, interview, appointment, or what have you – for you! The unemployed can utilize the program to keep track of their searches and hopefully snag a position that lives up to Good Job’s name.
4. Interview Buzz Lite: Don’t bite your nails before interviewing! Chew instead on the reams of job-appropriate interview questions that this application fires to you, to help you nail it.
5. Job Compass: Too tired, too bummed, too jaded to go on even one more job search outside? Enter Job Compass, who accomplishes the task for you with a vigorous local job search engine.
6. Job Street: Those on the hunt for positions in Southeast Asia need look no further than this streetwise, regionally-focused app.
7. LinkedIn: What has been hailed as the Facebook for professionals is now only a tap or two away. Survey the details of any colleague or client through the nifty phone application.
8. Monster.com: The award-winning, career-building phenomenon website now goes local to your iPhone; use everything you appreciate about Monster on the go and at your convenience.
9. Now Hiring: This application advertises its international focus in addition to stateside searches, promoting job opportunities for you anywhere from the UK, India, and so many locales in between.
10. Toodledoo: Arguably the most important application of this list! Toodledoo lets you customize your interactions with your tasks and job searches to the nth degree, and the “Hotlist” function prioritizes what needs your focus at this very moment.

Jeff Reed is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online courses for Guide to Online Schools.

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Ways Your iPhone Can Help You Find a Job! originally appeared on The Daily MBA on August 2, 2010.

Flat organizations have tremendous advantages when your company is a small, nibble startup. As you grow, the flat organization starts to strain under the burden of too many reports, reporting to too few people. Startup management likes the flat organization because they feel they can directly connect with employees. In reality, that connection will be lost as the company starts to grow. When growth happens, management will try in vain to hold onto control. This is when the downsides of a flat organizational structure will start to show. To be clear, a flat organizational structure is one in which there are few if any layers of management. The classic flat management structure is the small startup (under 10 people) where everyone reports directly to the CEO.

When Flat is Good

Small organizations (read startups) need a flat organizational structure because it affords the maximum amount of team interaction. When the management chain and the working chain are directly coupled, decisions can be made rapidly and stuff gets done. This is critical when a venture starts out. The vision of the CEO needs to be directly and continuously communicated to the troops in order to ensure that it gets properly implemented. At this stage, no real management infrastructure is in place so everything needs to be communicated in real time and will likely change in real time. Flat organizational structures allow this real time management where more traditional structures require much more inertia to change direction.

When Flat is Bad

Flat organizational structures are ideal when the group is small primarily because of management bandwidth. In reality, a manager can only effectively manage 7 to 9 direct reports. As the number of reports increases, so does the management burden. This is one of the reasons a flat organizational structure does not scale — a manager can only handle so many reports. Another reason is that once the company starts to grow, the management role changes. When it was just 5 guys in a garage, management was easy — it was all about building the product. Once growth happens, the higher level managers have to remove themselves from the daily grind and focus more on strategy and direction. This is when things get dicey since the old ways of doing business will change. It’s inevitable that this will create a tremendous amount of tension and anxiety.

Setting up for Scale

Growing a company requires management to realize that process and structure needs to be put in place. This process and structure is the complete opposite from how a flat organization works. The days of making rash decisions in the hallway will slowly fade away into more disciplined thought processes and much more debate. This debate is critical because now the company has momentum and changing momentum gets harder and harder as a company grows. Consider these other activities that are essential for scaling a company.

• Create process and procedures: Most startups skimp on any kind of process or procedures when they are developing their products. This skimping is fine when there are only five people. As the company scales, guidelines need to be in place to manage everything.

• Develop or hire leaders/managers: Mangers are vital to a growing company. They are the glue that will hold the whole enterprise together as the growing pains start to show. Hire and develop these mangers as soon as you can.

• Streamline reporting structures: With growth, comes people. With people comes reporting structures that need to be rational and reasonable. Gone will be the days where everyone reports to the CEO.

• Write down requirements: All kinds of requirements are critical to capture and adhere too. This is important because inertia will rapidly sap all productivity if the requirements constantly change.

• Settle on a road map: Creating a product roadmap is the single best way to align your growing company. These roadmaps are the compass in which to steer. Without them, your company will flounder due to no one will know what direction they should be going in.

• Stick to decisions: The bigger the company, the more important it is to stick to decisions. The constant changing of decisions will send the wrong message to your employees and this will confuse them. So, don’t change decisions on a whim, rather, be deliberate and logical about why decisions are made and changed.

• Trust employees: With scale, comes loss of control. In order to mitigate this, the management team needs to trust all employees. This trust is the single biggest thing that can help the transition from small startup to world class company.

Setting up these systems, polices and attitudes before the growing pains start will make the transition from nibble startup to world class company much smoother. There will be chaos and the old ways will fight hard to stick around. That’s why it’s critical to admit that different stages of a company require different skill sets and people. Some of these skill sets are complementary while others just don’t mix.

Some People will be Left Behind

When a company scales, some employees will be left behind. By left behind, I mean they will never full transition from flat, nimble startup to structured, real company. In some cases, this is the best for all involved. Nothing will crash morale, disrupt operations or make the transition harder than someone who desperately clings to the way things used to be. This can be especially disruptive if these individuals are high up in an organization and don’t realize that their roles are changing.

A successful company will have to change many times over it’s lifetime. It’s critical for management and employees to embrace these transition points and strive to bring their company to the next level. Doing any less will result in squandered opportunities and lackluster performance.

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How to Move From Flat to Functional originally appeared on The Daily MBA on July 26, 2010.

Raise your hand if you have ever heard this from your boss “You need to switch your top priority to project Hummingbird right now. Stop working on project Mallard ASAP” and then a week later. “Project Mallard is back on as your number one priority. Stop working on Hummingbird.” Kinda frustrating, huh?

Priorities are one of those nagging sore spots for employees and managers. For some reason, some bosses just can’t set a priority or think that their reports can do two things at once. This priority uncertainty can wreak havoc on a group and make it next to impossible to get things done. This will frustrate everyone.

Priority Shift Manifestation

Bosses have a unique set of challenges that they need to juggle in order to move their group and company forward. These challenges tend to shift around like tectonic plates. These shifts are rarely seen by an employee but their affects manifest themselves in what you are assigned to do.

As the priority plates shift, your boss feels a tremendous amount of pressure to adjust priorities so that she can ride out the tremor. In fact, these priority shifts don’t feel like a big deal to your boss because in her mind, once she tells you to do something, it’s done — at least in her mind.

Priority Quantum States

Quantum mechanics has an excellent model for how hard it is to precisely determine different properties of a particle. The uncertainty principle states that the more you know about one aspect of a particle, the less you know about others. This means that the more you focus on measuring or focusing on one parameter, the less certain you are about the value of other parameters. This principal applies to priories since your boss is usually focusing on the crisis at hand while ignoring the other priorities. This then makes the uncertainty of the ignored priorities much greater and when the focus shifts, it usually leads to the realization that the ignored priority is now more important.

Dealing with Priority Uncertainty

Uncertainty is the only certain constant in a company. The tectonic plates of the marketplace, your competition and your ability to execute will create unexpected priority tremors that will make your boss jump from one priority state to another. This is an inevitable part of management life if you work at a company that is trying to grow like crazy.

As an employee, it can be tremendously frustrating since you are the one that has to do all the work and switching between tasks wastes time and effort. In order to make that a little smoother, think about the following actions you can take to reduce the effects of this quantum priority jumping.

• Don’t react right away: When a priority changes, there is some residual that it might not stick. If you can, wait 24 hours before reacting to any sudden priority changes.

• Clarify the objectives: Getting clarification is a great way to truly understand what the priority shift means.

• Find a convenient place to stop: Before completely switching to the new task, find a good place to stop. That way, you can pick it back up once the priority changes again (since, it usually will).

• Don’t take it personal: A lot of people take a priority shift as a personal attack on their work product. Don’t think of it that way. Rather, separate yourself from the decision and rationalize it as a necessary part of your job.

• Vocalize any concerns: Make sure that the objectives of the new priority are clearly understood and that your concerns are property addressed. Don’t make your concerns complaints but do make sure that valid concerns are addressed.

• Get on with it: In the end, your boss probably has a good reason for making the priority change. So, put the hard feelings behind you and focus on the new task at hand.

These techniques do help you step back and takes things into perspective. That’s an important thing to do when priorities change since during times of rapid change, bad decisions can made and priorities can jump quantum states repeatedly.

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The Priority Uncertainty Principle originally appeared on The Daily MBA on July 12, 2010.

A Guest Post by Alexis Bonari

Have you ever tried to move an immovable object? Sometimes motivating your group to reach pre-set goals or quotas can feel like pushing a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back on you. So, what does it take to achieve your goals as a team? You have your game plan. You have a talented team of people. What else do you need? The answer is motivation. The most difficult challenge faced by any manger is getting others to share your vision. How do you inspire the uninspirable? Here are five proven rules that will make you an inspiration to almost any team:

Rule One: Positive reinforcement ALWAYS trumps negative reinforcement

Scream it from the rooftops. Put a sticky note on your bathroom mirror. Do whatever it takes so that you never forget it. Many managers mistakenly try to force their team to embrace their vision. That didn’t work for communist Russia, and it won’t work for you. When your team makes any steps in a positive direction, make sure you mention it. When an individual within your team makes a specific contribution, no matter how small, make it a point to complement them. Organize events to reduce stress after an extended period of high-stress work. Bring food to the office. Simple gestures go a long way toward convincing your group that you appreciate their efforts.

Rule Two: Balance individual recognition with team recognition

Every team has one or two outstanding individuals. While it’s important that their contribution be recognized, it’s crucial to balance that with team recognition. If the same individuals are given accolades on a regular basis, the rest of the team will begin to feel that you’re playing favorites. Recognizing group achievements as well as those of the individuals, and you’ll find that more will be motivated to seek individual recognition.

Rule Three: Balance the workload

Your most productive people will want to overwork themselves, eventually driving them into lower productivity per man-hour. At the same time, your lower-productivity team members will take the opportunity to do less work. As a manager, it’s your job to allocate tasks. Offload appropriate tasks to those who need a little extra motivation, freeing up the overachievers to take on more complex tasks. Your overachievers will appreciate it, and your lower-achievers will realize how important their contributions are.

Rule Four: Manage the group dynamics

Nothing undermines productivity more than personality conflicts between group members. If you know certain team members don’t work well together, break the tasks up so that they aren’t directly communicating with each other. If one particular team member is unable to work with others in the group, consider assigning them an individual project. In an extreme case (i.e. the person has specialized knowledge but can’t work within a group dynamic) consider having them work remotely, having them work a different shift or letting them go.

Rule Five: Manage the schedule

Your vision for the project will often have to change in response to outside forces. An unexpected deadline change will often discourage your team. Do your best to keep deadlines constant for the good of your project. In the event that you can’t control a deadline change, consider your team’s previous efforts when rearranging the workload. Assign crucial tasks first, and non-crucial tasks second. Let your team know that you went to bat for them and tried to keep the schedule on-track.

Go to bat for your team, and they’ll go to bat for you. Management is about working with people. Your job is to work with the variations of personality and circumstance that exist within your assigned group and make them productive. To effectively do that, you need to provide the motional leadership your team needs. Remember that motivation comes from the top down.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online education programs. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

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Diamonds in the Rough: 5 Proven Motivational Strategies originally appeared on The Daily MBA on June 28, 2010.

Getting a new job is an exciting time. There is something special about jumping through all those interview hoops and landing an offer. This excitement can quickly turn to fear, panic and anxiety once you realize that you will have to learn a whole new set of rules, interact with new people and immerse yourself into a new culture. Setting yourself up for success depends a lot on how your first 90 days goes. These critical weeks set the foundation for your tenure and need to begin before you even set foot into your new office.

Before You Begin

Your job pre-game activities matter whether you are a top executive or getting your first job. The research, studying, thinking and planning you do before your first day will make the transition much easier. A couple of items that any good pre-game should have include:

• In-depth company research: Learn as much as you can about your new company before you walk in the door. This includes who they compete against.

• Rough plan for your first 90 days: A rough outline of a work plan or learning plan will help focus you. There will be a lot to do and learn so having some sort of plan will make that a little less scary.

• Ask for as much material as you can: Reading up on internal company policies, procedures and specification will make your first week a lot easier. Knowing just a little bit will impress people on how quickly you are coming up to speed.

• Give yourself at least a week between jobs: Downtime is important so don’t just jump into a new job right after leaving your last. Spend some time doing the tasks you always meant to do or maybe just go on a mini-vacation.

• Do a little work: Along with your work plan, spend a couple of hours or a day doing something that will benefit your new company. This way, you have already accomplished something before you even started.

These are just a few of the activities that will make your first 90 days go smoother. The intent of your pre-game is to get past the awkwardness of the unknown by immersing yourself in the small aspects of your new job. This allows you to work through some of those emotions before your first day.

Your First Week

Your first day will be one that you will remember for a long time. Your first week will probably be a blur. The first couple of days at your new job will have lots of ups and downs. If you did your pre-game, then most of your emotions will be the excitement of wanting to get things done and impress your new boss (or shareholders). To that end, it’s tempting to dive right in and start to contribute. Resist this urge your first week. It’s important that you first get accumulated to your new environment before starting to change things. The reason for this is simple — you really don’t understand who or how things get done at your new job. Jumping right in without that understanding may create a lot of enemies that will be hell bent to stop your from being successful. Of course, taking on assignments is important but don’t be so gung-ho to change the world your first week.

Getting Up to Speed

One of the many challenges you will face in your first 90 days is getting up to speed on all the tribal knowledge that’s locked inside your new co-workers heads. This knowledge is critical to your success because it’s how work gets done. To get you up to speed faster, consider the following:

• Schedule a one-on-one with your boss: One-on-ones are a critical component of a successful on-boarding process. Your boss needs to know your concerns, plans and issues regularly. Hallway conversations are not enough. A repeating, structured meeting where you control the agenda is required.

• Get to know all of your co-workers: The quicker you bond with your co-workers, the more comfortable you will feel. These personal connections do not have to be deep but should be more than just a passing wave or nod.

• Immerse yourself in all the documentation: Read as much as you can about what is going on within the company. Ask questions when you can but respect peoples time.

• Attend meetings: I am not normally a fan of meetings but for your first 90 days, attending more meetings than you should will teach you the dynamics of the company and who says and does what.

• Take lots of notes: Write down as much as you can during meetings and hallway conversations. If you new gig has any kind of blogging or wiki technology, then start an on-line page or blog. Anything to get you to write down what you have learned will help you remember it.

Getting up to speed is probably the single biggest frustration you will face since in order to get stuff done, you have to understand how your new company works. This can be taxing your first couple of weeks. Rest assured that those feelings will subside once you understand the dynamics of your new gig.

Assimilating Into the Culture

Culture play a vital role within a company. This culture starts from the CEO and percolates all the way down to the janitor. Understanding this culture will take time since most cultural norms are not written in the employee handbook. Culture is a tricky thing to understand and adapt to. It’s best to emerge yourself in the culture by following these simple steps:

• Find a trusted mentor: This can sometimes be hard but lookout for colleagues who seem to just get things done and know the ins and outs. These are great on-boarding mentors because they can help you understand certain methods and procedures.

• Understand why things are done: All companies have their quirks. It’s important to understand the why and not just bash a policy or procedure until you really understand it.

• Try to fit in: Fitting in means embracing the companies culture and getting to know as many people as you can. Learn their names, where they live and what you have in common. This is the single biggest way to assimilate into the culture.

• Don’t challenge right away: Showing up to your new gig and immediately bashing long established norms will backfire. Those norms are there for a reason and you must first respect them and then try to figure out how to change it. This is true even if everyone hates the policy or procedure. Go slow and build your reputation up first before challenging company norms.

• Know what’s important: Your first 90 days will be filled with lots of tasks to do. Make sure you fully understand the priorities of those tasks and what your boss expects. Confirm these priorities often so that you are always working on the right thing.

Grasping your new companies culture will take time. Don’t feel that you have to be a “company guy” right from day one. Embrace the culture and strive to understand how it evolved. You will find places where everyone agrees change is needed but don’t try and change things right away — that will just make people resentful of you.

Performing at Your Best

Your first 90 days sets the foundation for your tenure. Do your best to get something meaningful accomplished as soon as you can. Be prepared for the overwhelming sense of anxiety that any new job has. Strive to balance doing with learning so that you are doing the right tasks, the right way. By doing this, you will make your first 90 days about learning, growth and achievement instead of about stress, anxiety and frustration.

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Your First 90 Days at a New Job originally appeared on The Daily MBA on June 21, 2010.

A Guest Post by Thomas Warren

Hiring new employees is always a challenging endeavor. You never really know what you’re going to get until they actually show up to work. The point is, it’s a mixed bag. So how do you decide which applicants offer the best solution for your company? Aside from knowing the requirements of the position, there are several things to look for when considering potential hires.

Clearly, the first thing to check is references. If an applicant has lied on their resumé, what else will they lie about? That is a situation best avoided. If they actually make it to the interview, there are several things you should take note of. For starters, are they appropriately dressed? Anyone coming to an interview, and I mean anyone, should be smartly appointed in business-casual attire, at the very least. I don’t care if they’re interviewing to be a dishwasher, they shouldn’t come dressed in last night’s rumpled t-shirt and baggy jeans. On the other hand, if the applicant shows up in clean (albeit casual clothes) with the explanation that they are unable to afford a nicer outfit, at least it shows that they have a clue about what is appropriate, and that is acceptable at your discretion. Also note if they are on time. Tardiness is a bad habit that is not easily broken.

But those are the simple signs. Other clues to a good employee are harder to spot, but simple body language will alert you to potential problems. For starters, does the applicant look you in the eye? This is a dead giveaway. A confident and honest person will look you in the eye when answering your questions, whereas a person who is anxious or evasive will look anywhere else. Nervousness aside, you don’t want someone representing your company who cracks under the pressure of an interview. You want someone who is natural and at ease. Although you may want to avoid people who seem too cocky or arrogant. These types can be almost as off-putting to clients as the nervous ones.

You can also ask them unusual questions. No doubt you have a list of common questions like, “Why did you leave your last job?” and “Why do you think you’re a good fit for this company?” A few that may not be on you list, but should be, are:

• Tell me about a conflict you had at a previous job and how you resolved it. (shows how they react to high-stress situations)

• What made you want to apply for this job? (see what motivates them)

• List your three best and worst qualities. (everyone is prepared with a list of good attributes, but you’ll see how well they think on their feet with the bad list…if they’re quick, they’ll come up with bad qualities that are actually good, such as “I’m a perfectionist” or “I have trouble turning over project to others”)

• What product or service that we offer interests you most? (see who did their homework)

• If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why? (this is a neat one to throw in because it gives you some insight into their personal interests…will they choose a religious or political figure? A celebrity? A family member? You can tell a lot about a person by how they answer this question, and it’s also kind of fun)

At the end of the day, you want someone who’s not only going to be able to do the job, but who also has the potential to excel, advance, and fit in at your company. You don’t have to settle for someone who’s just good enough when you can have an employee that’s amazing. And having the right credentials doesn’t always guarantee a good employee, so be sure to look into all of your options before you choose. It may take a little longer to find that diamond in the rough, but when you do, you’ll be glad you made the extra effort.

Thomas Warren is a content writer for Go College, one of the oldest and most trusted resources to guide students on how to finance and succeed in college.

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How to Hire So You Don’t Have to Fire originally appeared on The Daily MBA on June 14, 2010.

Vendors and supplies provide a critical service for any business. This service allows your business to focus on building products or services that add value to your customers. Vendor and supplier relationships are a delicate dance between your businesses best interests and the sometimes competing interests of your suppliers. One thing is clear: all parties need to receive mutual benefit form the releationship. This is an important dynamic to understand since, in the long run, a healthy vendor and supplier relationship will be a competitive advantage.

Developing Relationships

Relationships matter. So much so that it’s vital to develop good vendor and supplier relationships continuously. The foundation for these relationships includes the following:

1. Respect: Relationships are built on mutual respect. If you don’t respect a vendor or supplier than the relationship will be doomed to fail.

2. Trust: Building trust provides the cornerstone of your vendor or supplier relationship. Trust is a two way street that must be cultivated at all times. Trust becomes important when times get tough.

3. Mutual Benefit: Relationships need to provide benefits to both parties. Without mutual benefits the partnership will be on shaky ground since the incentives to stick around are lacking.

4. Fairness and Honesty: Fair and honest partners will always win out in the long run. Any short term gain realized by lying, cheating or taking advantage of a partner will tarnish the long term relationship and destroy trust.

Without these components, a vendor or supplier relationship will be challenging to maintain and will certainly descend into a bad situation over time. Remember all of these components must be present because they feed off each other and allow the relationship to be productive instead of a chore.

Getting The Right Deal

There are many facets of a vendor or supplier relationship to consider when negotiating terms. These facets revolve around the following:

• What’s in it for me? This seems obvious but many a business person has launched into a deal where they did not understand the true benefits a particular vendor or supplier gave them. They basically just followed the crowd and did what everyone else did.

• What’s in it for them? A mutually beneficial relationship requires both parties to understand what each one brings to the partnership. Having a keen insight into why a particular vendor or supplier wants your businesses will make the deal easier to do.

• What really matters to my business: Sometimes price will matter while other times maybe turn around time is your hot button issue. Whatever the issue, understand how each vendor and supplier contributes to your business and how that plays into your core business needs.

• Can they deliver? Vendors and suppliers can promise a lot but never deliver. This is especially true for small vendors that are ramping up their capabilities. Be aware of the particular challenges that your company may apply to a supplier so that you can judge their ability to deliver.

The list above is my no means exhaustive but gives a good starting point for figuring out the type of deal your company needs. One thing to avoid is to make the process all about price. The price you will pay is always important but there are so many other considerations that may matter more. Assess your real needs and then go after the deal that makes the most sense.

Conflict Avoidance and Resolution

All relationships have conflict no matter how good they are. Always try to avoid conflict but recognize when conflict is present. A good vendor or supplier relationship will be able to withstand some amount of conflict as long as both parties want to resolve the conflict in a productive way. Too often, a vendor or supplier relationship will turn south when one of the parties decides to take advantage of the other. Taking unfair advantage of a situation is a short sided approach to building a lasting business. Again, it’s fine to negotiate hard get the best deal but it’s also wise to understand the implications.

Resolving conflict is never easy. In fact, most of us shy away from dealing with conflict until it hits the point where the conflict becomes unavoidable. Some of the most common vendor or supplier conflicts include:

• Late payments: Everyone makes late payments so don’t avoid a late payment issue by just ignoring those accounts receivable calls. Confront any ability to pay problems as early as you can and talk with your vendor or supplier about it. Nine out of ten times, they will understand and try and figure out a way to work with you.

• Product returns: Products can sometime come to you damaged or defective. When this happens, you vendor or supplier should be notified right away so corrective measures can be taken. Handle any product returns with care and respect since a good vendor will want to correct the issue as soon as they can.

• Specification misunderstandings: Subcontracting can be a tremendous asset to a company if the work to be performed is properly specified. When specification misunderstandings creep in, strive to not lay blame but rather get to the root of the matter as a team.

• Late Delivery: Chronic delivery problems are a telling sign that your vendor or supplier is struggling to meet your demands. This problem can be sorted out in a variety of ways depending on the root of the problem. Discuss the late delivery issues with your supplier by looking past the late delivery and figure out why the deliveries are late.

• Poor product performance: Product performance can be affected by many things. Most vendors and suppliers are constantly looking for ways to reduce their costs while still maintaining a high level of quality and performance. Sometimes, they miss an important parameter that they feel is a nice to have but for your product, is critical to have. This is why proper performance specifications should be agreed upon up front. That way, any process change can be compared to what your requirements are.

Conflict resolution can be tough but avoiding the conflict will be even tougher. It’s always best to avoid conflict if possible but if that’s just not going to happen, then be as proactive as you can to resolve it.

Strive to Build Lasting Partnerships

Building a strong partnership should be your goal when selecting vendors and suppliers. These partnerships will only strengthen your business and allow you to focus on your core competencies. Good vendors and suppliers also want to build strong partnerships because that builds a strong business for them. The selection, cultivation and building of your vendor and supplier relationships should be a continuous process that strives to balance your business needs with the needs for your partners. When those needs align, your partnership will be successful. When they don’t, you will need to either work hard at aligning them or choose a new partner.

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How To Build Strong Vendor and Supplier Relationships originally appeared on The Daily MBA on May 31, 2010.