Gary Winters

Coach • Workshop Facilitator • Author
Gary Winters
Coach • Facilitator • Author

J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q and R are for Sigh…

charlie-sighI began blogging an alphabet collection of ideas on April 1st as a response to a suggestion from Arlee Bird on the blog Tossing It Out.

I managed to get to the letter “I” before other priorities in life, such as finishing and submitting the final manuscript for my latest book, Managing the Soon To Retire Employee) overtook me, and I set the alphabet posts aside.

I skipped everything from “J” to “Q,” and realized today should be “R” day. I can only wonder what I would have written about during that interval had I had the time.

Now, we’ll never know.

Perhaps I would have had an insight so bold, so brilliant, that it would have changed the practice of leadership forever.

Then again, perhaps not.

What I’m realizing this morning is that all I have is the present – what’s passed is past, and what lies ahead remains unknown. And author Terri Guillemets reminds us not to “let the past steal our present.”

With that in mind, I’m letting go of feeling any angst, disappointment, or even curiousity about what I would have done with J-Q. I’m betting you, too, didn’t get everything done you had in mind from April 12-19th.

Let’s all take a deep breath and let it go.

Today, I have R.

R is for resilience, response, reaction, rehabilitation, rebound, and revolution. It’s for repeat, and renege, and reiterate, not to mention review, revoke and reveal. It’s also about renew, and that’s what I propose to do with the A-Z suggestion.

I’m renewing my commitment to completing the challenge. I’m already wondering what will emerge when I consider S, tomorrow.

But that’s for the future to reveal. Today, I’m going to enjoy the now.

 

This article is part of a series of 26 posts for the month of April called “Blogging from A to Z,” an idea first suggested by Arlee Bird of Tossing It Out.

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“What ELSE Your Boss Never Told You” is the sequel to the very popular “What Your Boss Never Told You.” Packed inside are more tips, techniques, and insights about the challenging, but rewarding leadership position.

“What ELSE Your Boss Never Told You” is written in a conversational tone, as though you and the author were enjoying a cup of coffee and talking about the issues that emerge for new leaders. It stands alone, and/or could be read before or after the first volume, “What Your Boss Never Told You.” You can start with any chapter and read in any order you like.

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if you search for a book on management, you’ll find a staggering 600,000+ books currently available. How can you narrow that down? “What Your Boss Never Told You” is the best place to start.

No textbook here – this book is short and sweet. It’s designed to help you “unpack” your new job and be effective from the first day with your new team. It contains twenty-one chapters filled with the wisdom Winters has gathered from real managers – effective, successful leaders in organizations much like yours.

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Leaders make decisions every day – big and small. Most know that if they include others in the decision-making process, the quality of those decisions – and the commitment to them – will likely improve. That said, they also know it’s impractical, if not impossible, to include others in every decision they confront.

“To Do or Not To Do” tackles the question of when to make decisions on your own, and when to involve your team. It gives you a deceptively simple but proven method to determine, when you are facing a difficult decision, how to decide how to decide.

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Far too many meetings are dreadful, mind-numbing, energy-draining, productivity-sapping, colossal wastes of time. As someone once said, “To kill time, a meeting is the perfect weapon.”

Here’s the deal: if you’re willing to learn and apply the techniques in “So, How Was Your Meeting?”, you’ll call fewer meetings, while vastly improving the ones you do lead. They’ll take less time, have more balanced participation, produce better decisions, and result in concrete action items for follow-up afterwards.

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While there are thousands of books written for people about to retire, this may be the only book for people who manage soon-to-retire employees. Written in a casual, conversational style, “Managing the Soon To Retire Employee” will give you everything you need to know to move forward with confidence and grace.

You can be successful with Sooners. It won’t happen by chance, and it’s not a matter of pulling some management “trick” out of your hat. But you can learn how to do it, and you can apply what you’ve learned right away.

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Managing friends or former peers can be awkward. When you become the boss, everything about these relationships can suddenly be uncomfortable. There’s a new set of ground rules to establish – as manager, you are going be accountable for the work performance of friends or former co-workers on the team, and they are going to have to adjust to the fact that they now report to you. Everyone involved can feel awkward and hesitant about the future. 

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Have you been approached by management with an offer to promote you to supervision? Or, are you mulling over the possibility for the future? Find yourself not sure whether to accept the promotion?

If so, you’ve come to the right place. Help! They Want to Make ME a Supervisor will help you sort out a very big question: Should you accept the offer to become a supervisor? Once you’ve read this book, you’ll be confident that you’ve made the best decision for you and for your organization.

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