Gary Winters

Coach  Workshop Facilitator Author

Lighten Up!

A manager and a horse walk into a bar. The bartender glances at them and asks, “Why the long face?” The manager sighs, and says, “Well, I’m way behind on my quarterly report, I’ve an employee review to deliver next week, and the boss is hinting they’re going to cut my budget by 10% next year.”

The bartender says, “That’s a pity. But I was talking to the horse.” 

How often do you hear the sound of laughter in your workplace?

If it’s not at least once or twice a day, it’s time to lighten up. 

Humor can bring so much to the workplace. It can reduce tension, energize a team, help somebody feel more comfortable, and unleash creativity. A workplace that’s more fun, frankly, is more engaging and productive. 

Of course, some managers are more comfortable than others at bringing humor to their workplace, just as some are better at running meetings, or conducting interviews, or setting goals. But if that’s you, remember that you can learn to do it better. 

You don’t have to be a comedian (and probably shouldn’t be)…

to gets folks to laugh now and then. But you can poke an occasional joke at yourself, or share a cartoon in a slide presentation, or maybe drop a humorous story into an email and lighten up the mood.

In case it never occurred to you, there’s a lot of material available on Google. It’s that easy. 

One manager wanting to introduce some levity at the next staff meeting sent his team an email looking for material. “Send me a joke,” he wrote. One employee responded, “I’m working right now.” The boss replied, “That’s a good one!” 

Perfect.

If you’re not hearing the sound of laughter in your workplace, bring it on. Get everyone to lighten up!

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.