Working 60, 70, 80+ hours in America has become the norm for too many teams. Yet it seems impossible to get everything done in only 40 hours. Not for the employees of Wildbit. This week’s guest shifted her organization to a 32-hour, 4-day work week. Over a year into it, they’re seeing more positive results than they could have imagined. Natalie Nagele is the co-founder and CEO of Wildbit, the company behind Postmark, Beanstalk and Conveyor. With 29 team members across 5 countries working on mult...
Aug 21, 2019•32 min
For many teams, email is the primary form of staying connected, making it critically important but also a major point of stress. Logistically, the most obvious way to make email more manageable is to just have fewer emails coming in. But in reality, this might actually be the hardest thing to make happen because we’re not totally in control of how many emails we receive every day. But, there are a number of things you can do with regards to how email is used amongst your team members and therefo...
Aug 13, 2019•17 min
Employee handbooks are typically filled with procedural information, legal requirements and company policies. They provide an important function, but aren’t typically fun to read. Nor do they incorporate concepts for how the team will work together to build a positive environment in which people thrive and great work gets done. Building off the idea of an employee handbook, this week’s guest created a Team Playbook which clarifies how the team will collaborate in a playful yet articulate manner....
Aug 07, 2019•30 min
Very few people are eager to add more meetings to their calendar, but what would happen if you scheduled a weekly check in with each of your team members? That’s what this week’s guest did. Chris Zaugg has been leading people for over 40 years, and according to his own reflection, had made LOTS of mistakes and had a few victories. He has trained people in leadership principles and communication all over the world, and loves to share what he's learned from other leaders. He currently serves as th...
Jul 30, 2019•32 min
Ah, Millennials. This generation may be the most broadly stereotyped, yet often misunderstood. As managers, we may be Millennials ourselves trying to figure out how to manage and build relationships with older peers, or we may be struggling with how to manage this unusual cohort which seems to “know everything,” and “demand autonomy.” What is really going on with Millennials and what does it mean for managing every generation in the workplace? This week’s guest is Lee Caraher is the CEO of Doubl...
Jul 24, 2019•29 min
Email overload plagues almost every manager. After feeling frustrated with myself for missing important emails and watching my inbox slowly tick up, I decided to take a new approach to managing my inbox. I set out to learn more about various approaches to email management and then try them out. In this episode, I share with you the various practices I learned and the impact I’ve noticed on my own mental state, productivity, stress level and inbox management in just a few weeks. This is part one ...
Jul 16, 2019•20 min
I typically follow the 80-20 rule when considering the challenges that managers face. About 80% of a a manager’s role and the challenges they encounter are the same regardless of the setting. But that 20% which is different can be drastically different. So what might we all learn from building culture in a retail setting? This week’s guest is Lorean Cairns, Co-Founder of Fox and Jane Salons, Skin Habit, and Little Lion Salon. Her initiatives employee over 150+ members in globally. Lorean leads t...
Jul 09, 2019•30 min
What’s the tone of your team? Do you assume people want to work hard, learn, grow, and achieve results? Or do you feel like you’re constantly trying to motivate people to take ownership over their work? Do you set the bar high and support your colleagues to be successful? Or do you set average expectations and focus on compliance? This week’s guest, Bob Dusin, is the co-author along with Sue Bingham of Creating the High Performance Work Place. They collaborate with leaders and organizations in a...
Jul 02, 2019•30 min
Flexible work hours, greater autonomy, freedom, virtual teams, work from anywhere… These are growing in popularity but not always easy to implement. To successfully manage a team “at a distance” (whether that be geographic or just being more hand’s off), you need solid systems and colleagues with the right skills to succeed in that environment. This week’s guest, Carissa Reiniger, is the Founder & CEO of Silver Lining Ltd. She started Silver Lining in 2005 and created the Silver Lining Actio...
Jun 25, 2019•33 min
Building psychological safety may be the most important thing you do as a manager. Creating an environment in which people feel comfortable acknowledging mistakes, asking questions, offering ideas and feedback, and experimenting and failing, enables a team to think big, be nimble, and accomplish great feats. In this episode, I’ll touch on what psychological safety looks like in the workplace and why it’s important, the difference between psychological safety and trust, why people don’t speak up ...
Jun 18, 2019•19 min
You may have heard the idea of manager as coach before. It’s one of the core ideas I subscribe to as a manager - that we should coach our team members to unleash their potential. But what about coaching yourself? Is that even possible? This week’s guest, Jennifer DiMotta, is the Owner and President of DiMotta Consulting LLC where she takes her 20+ years of triple-digit growth success and transforms it to easily digestible strategies and plans for clients, particularly in the luxury direct to con...
Jun 12, 2019•32 min
There is an old joke that a manager’s work is to go to meetings. As a meeting expert, that sounds lovely to me, but as an experienced manager, I know that’s not the case. This week’s guest, Mike Tannenbaum, is Founder, Principal, and Lead Strategist of Humanity. Mike helps people create better experiences by deepening their understanding of humans. He focuses on helping people and teams become the best version of themselves by redesigning the way they relate to their work so they experience more...
Jun 04, 2019•33 min
Is your organization more like a stoplight or a round-a-bout? That may seem like an odd question but while they do the same thing (manage traffic intersections), they operate in fundamentally different ways. This week’s guest, Aaron Dignan , has spent the past 10 years studying organizations and teams with a new way of working that prioritizes adaptivity and autonomy over efficiency and control. Aaron contends that teams everywhere need to join them in the future of work. As the Founder of The ...
May 28, 2019•32 min
It’s been 1 year since I launched The Modern Manager podcast. To celebrate, I take a look back at some of my favorite episodes and lessons learned, and share plans for the future, including some exciting changes. Get all the free mini-guides (episodes 1-52) in a single download. There is a new community! Join the Modern Manager community to get the full guides, guest bonuses, access to the forum and more. Join before June 30th and get two special bonus gifts : a Modern Manager mini-notebook (usu...
May 21, 2019•25 min
How many languages do you speak or understand? Learning a new language helps you appreciate the importance and nuance of language and how it impacts your ability to communicate and connect with others. Leadership and management have their own language which you can learn. This week’s guest, Krister Ungerboeck , is a CEO Coach, and expert in The Language of Leadership. Prior to retiring at age 42, Krister was the award-winning CEO of one of the largest family-owned software companies in the world...
May 14, 2019•31 min
Unfortunately, bullying is not limited to kids and playgrounds. This week’s guest, Matt Paknis , is a senior management consultant who focuses on lessening bullying in the workplace. He was a former assistant coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno and has spoken publicly about being abused as a child. He is the author of Successful Leaders Aren’t Bullies and has over twenty-five years of experience helping global clients embrace healthy management practices. Warning: The content of this episode i...
May 07, 2019•25 min
Virtual meetings are laden with problems. Incorrect or missing call-in numbers, strange echoes, and the occasional choppy connection delay and interrupt what is already a difficult situation. But even without technological issues, virtual meetings have all the typical challenges of in-person meetings and more. So how do we make virtual meetings engaging and productive? Get the free mini-guide with suggestions for virtual meeting practices and how to use technology to enhance your online gatherin...
Apr 30, 2019•18 min
What sets apart great leaders and high performers from everyone else? Why is it that some people seem to create magic over and over again for themselves in their personal life, with their team, or their organization? This week’s guest, Rob Shallenberger , is one of the world's leading authorities on leadership, planning, and execution. Rob is the CEO of Becoming Your Best Global Leadership and has spoken to and trained more than 200 organizations around the world. Rob and I talk about two of the...
Apr 23, 2019•33 min
We all experience stress at work. Ideally, it’s short lived and easily manageable. When a heightened state of stress becomes the new normal, you may be on the way to burnout. While burnout is the extreme and typically rare case, it’s critical to notice when stress, frustration, overload and overwhelm are taking over. They’re the signs burnout may be coming. Get the free mini-guide with questions to help you identify stressors in your life and your team members’ lives. When you join the Modern Ma...
Apr 16, 2019•19 min
Team building can develop relationships in ways that profoundly impact the team. When people get to know each other, they are able to work together more effectively and efficiently. This week’s guest, Amani Roberts , is a DJ, music producer, podcaster professor and creative who loves to help people unlock their creativity by teaching them how to DJ. After a successful career as a corporate executive, Amani took the leap into the creative space. Amani and I talk about his experience in both corpo...
Apr 09, 2019•29 min
Your team members are your greatest resource. When they succeed, you succeed. Taking time to focus on each of them rather than the work can have exponential impact on employee engagement, quality of work, productivity, trust, and more. That is the power of One-on-Ones. Get the free mini-guide with the One-on-One agenda template I use. When you join the Modern Manager community , get the full guide with suggestions for how to introduce One-on-Ones to your team, plus a Manager’s Guide and Team Mem...
Apr 02, 2019•17 min
This is the fifth bonus episode in the Parenting Your Business series. In these episodes, I talk about my experiences as a parent and manager / entrepreneur, comparing situations and learnings. In this episode, I reflect on moments when we are asked questions that make us uncomfortable and how we might be underestimating both our kids and our colleagues. Get in touch and join the conversation! mamie@mamieks.com mamieks.com/podcast patreon.com/modernmanager...
Mar 30, 2019•6 min
Managers play many roles throughout their day: leader, task-master, visionary, advisor, facilitator, cheerleader, etc. One of the most important roles any manager plays is that of coach. When a manager puts on their metaphorical coaching hat, they’re shifting out of the role of telling people what to do and into one of encouraging team members to discover their own answers . This week’s guest, Amy Born , has spent most of her professional career in the field of organizational development and org...
Mar 26, 2019•26 min
Managers are often expected to be natural interviewers with a discerning ear, able to determine if a candidate is both capable of doing the job and a good fit with the team. I had to learn how to interview and assess a candidate because it's way more complicated than a gut check. This week, I explain learning from experience interviewing and the process I use to understand a candidates capability, competencies and culture fit. Get the free mini-guide to help you prepare for your next interview. ...
Mar 20, 2019•16 min
Are you a good listener? Like breathing, listening is something we do every day yet most of us struggle to do it well simply because we were never taught how. A lack of listening skills in combination with the many distractions vying for attention can have a profound impact on our ability to work effectively, make good decisions, and connect with other people. This week, I speak with Oscar Trimboli, speaker and author of Deep Listening: Impact Beyond Words. Oscar is on a quest to create 100 mill...
Mar 12, 2019•32 min
How many times have you thought, “I’m too busy to figure out a better way to do X” or “I’ll improve this process as soon as things settle down.” The reality is that things never really settle down and yet, if we don’t periodically pause to reflect and improve our processes, we’ll soon discover they’ve eroded into overly complicated, burdensome ways of working. This week, I walk through a real-life example of a process redesign session I led with one of my team coaching clients. It was an incredi...
Mar 05, 2019•15 min
Asking questions, and knowing when not to, can be a kind of ‘secret sauce’ that enables you and your team to be more efficient and effective. Questions can help you prioritize, clarify, and even make decisions, when you know how to use them. This week, I speak with Pete Mockaitis, award-winning speaker and coach who helps professionals perform optimally at work, and host of How to be Awesome at your Job podcast. Listen to Pete interview me about productive meetings in episode 321 of Awesome at Y...
Feb 26, 2019•28 min
As a manager, you are responsible for your team members accomplishing their individual and collective goals, but you also need to motivate them to work in ways that will foster a culture that will ultimately serve the team best. This may include what seem like obvious behaviors such as owning your mistakes, or more complex ones such as giving real-time feedback to one another or asking for help. It’s your job as the manager to find both the internal and external motivators that resonate with eac...
Feb 20, 2019•18 min
"It's OK to fail." Really? Does anyone actually believe that? No matter how genuine your intent, innovation will never flourish while your team remains constrained by systems designed to enforce and reward traditional metrics of success. So how can you truly invest in new ideas and recognize "failure" as a vital part of the idea development cycle? This week, I speak with Jesse Fowl, managing director and lead strategist at Solomon where he coaches clients to help them create a safe space for inn...
Feb 12, 2019•28 min
I’ve found that most teams don’t often enough pause to reflect on or evaluate the success of the work itself. There is so much to do, that we just keep pushing forward without pausing to ask how we’re doing and if we should keep going. In this episode, I outline four approaches to evaluating your teams’ work. Get the free mini-guide to help you get started with evaluating your team’s work. Join the Modern Manager community to get 30% off personality based coaching to help you better understand y...
Feb 05, 2019•15 min
