Bruce Tulgan

If your managers are like most, they are stuck in a vicious cycle of undermanagement… and it’s likely they don’t even realize it. 

Undermanagement is hiding in plain sight in nearly every workplace.  Despite all the meetings and metrics surrounding everybody at work these days, nine out of ten managers struggle to practice the fundamentals of leadership.  They don’t provide employees with regular high-structure, high-substance guidance, direction, support and coaching.  As a result, unnecessary problems occur and problems get out of control.  That’s why most managers spend so much time in firefighting mode.  Then they are even more convinced that they don’t have enough time to practice the fundamentals.  

What is undermanagement and how can you recognize it in your organization or team? 

What are the costs of undermanagement? 

Why is it getting so much harder to manage people today? 

What are the most common myths that keep managers from taking a more highly-engaged approach? 

How can you break the vicious cycle of undermanagement? 

In this program, Bruce answers these questions and more, drawing on 25 years of workplace research and sharing true stories from real managers.  With a blend of humor, insight, and concrete best-practices, Bruce teaches leaders how to fight the undermanagement epidemic and start building a culture of strong highly-engaged leadership. 

Hiring managers tell us that today’s newest young employees have unrealistic expectations, lack good work habits, don’t want to pay their dues, and are too fragile and demanding. 

But the reality? Millennials and Gen Z employees are not disloyal, lazy slackers. They’re not looking for leaders to humor them or do the work for them. Today’s young talent want managers who take them seriously, set them up for success, and recognize their best efforts. They want leaders who make expectations clear and provide support and guidance when needed. 

In this program, Bruce draws on decades of longitudinal research tracking young people in the workplace, busting the myths and getting to the reality of what Millennials and Gen Z truly want and need in the workplace.  With true stories from real managers, Bruce blends humor, insight, and concrete best-practices to help audiences: 

·       Understand the attitudes and behaviors of today’s newest young employees, beyond the popular stereotypes

·       Better attract, select, and retain the best young employees

·       Communicate the right messages during onboarding

·       Help young employees understand the basics of self-management and learn to work smarter, faster and better

·       Teach young employees where they fit in the organization and the basics of the manager-employee relationship

·       Provide the kind of regular supportive coaching-style leadership that builds trust and confidence with young workers and sets them up for success 

There is an ever-widening soft skills gap in the workforce, especially among the newest young members of the workforce. Soft skills like self-awareness, people skills, problem-solving, and teamwork may be less tangible and harder to define and measure than many of the hard skills, but they are absolutely critical. 

The cliché is that people get hired because of their hard skills but people get fired because of their soft skills.  

When employees have significant gaps in their soft skills: Potentially good hires are overlooked. Good hires go bad. Bad hires go worse. Misunderstandings abound. People get distracted. Productivity goes down. Mistakes are made. Customer service suffers. Workplace conflicts occur more frequently. Good people leave when they might have otherwise stayed longer. 

The good news is that soft skills can be taught, coached, and developed – just like technical skills. All it takes is the right understanding and commitment from the managers and leaders in your organization. 

In this program, Bruce answers these questions and more, drawing on 25 years of workplace research, sharing true stories from real managers.  With a blend of humor, insight, and concrete best-practices, Bruce teaches managers how to successfully improve the soft skills of their direct reports using his research-based soft skills competency model paired with the fundamentals of highly engaged management. 

The relationship employees have with their immediate manager is the number one factor determining their success.

So many managers are so busy—or otherwise unwilling to provide strong leadership—that most employees simply do not get what they need from their managers. But employees can do a lot to help themselves. 

Be the employee who says to every boss, “Great news, I’m going to take responsibility for my part of this management relationship! I know you are busy. I’m going to work with you to make sure I understand exactly what you expect of me. I’m going to learn standard operating procedures and use checklists. I’m going to keep track of everything I’m doing and exactly how I’m doing it. I’m going to help you monitor, measure, and document my performance every step of the way. I’m going to solve problems as soon as they occur and, if I come to you for your help, you’ll know I really need you. I’m going to learn and grow and be able to take on more and more responsibility.” Then you’ll be one of the most valuable employees that boss has. 

Blending humor, insight, and concrete best-practices, Bruce guides employees through the critical skills of managing their relationship with their bosses by highlighting what factors they can and can’t influence and how to work successfully within that framework. 

In hundreds of advanced management seminars, Bruce has taken experienced leaders through one problem-solving session after another, focusing on one real life case study after another: “Who are the employees you are really struggling with? What are the really tough cases?” 

Like clockwork, the same basic cases come up over and over again—the same 27— maybe it’s the superstar the manager is afraid of losing, the slacker the manager cannot figure out how to motivate, the one with an attitude problem, or the two who cannot get along. From decades of research, Bruce has identified the most frequent and toughest challenges managers face and the best step by step solutions. 

Of course, different challenges require different approaches. What’s astounding, however, is how many of these challenges—even the most difficult—fall away when managers really commit to high-structure, high-substance communication. 

In this program, Bruce draws on decades of research, sharing true stories from real managers, blending humor, insight, and concrete best-practices to show participants how to apply the management fundamentals to the challenges managers most often face: 

·       Leadership transitions, especially the challenges of new leaders

·       Employee self-management skills and work habits

·       Performance management

·       Employee attitudes, personal problems at home, and conflict between and among employees

·       Maintaining engagement and retention for superstar employees

·       Managing despite factors beyond your control like resource constraints, constant change, logistics, and interdependency

·       The need to re-energize a longtime employee

·       The need to re-energize yourself as a leader

Every day, people move into positions of supervisory responsibility and leadership because they are very good at their jobs, they’ve shown a commitment to the organization, or they’ve shown maturity and the ability to take on more responsibility.  These new roles often involve responsibility for other people.  New leaders usually get some quick lessons in doing some new paperwork.  But too often, nobody ever teaches them how to do the people work.

Every new leader must go through the challenging process of assuming authority, establishing communication with direct reports, and managing workflow. This is especially daunting for those who are younger and less experienced.  

How do you introduce yourself as a strong new leader without being “the new sheriff in town”? 

How do you project the right amount of humility without soft-pedaling your authority? 

How do you ask the team what should change and what should stay the same without raising expectations or inviting an endless group debate? 

How do you quickly assess the individual members of the team? 

In this program, Bruce draws on decades of research, sharing real stories of helping new leaders stand up in their roles and thrive.  Blending humor, insight, and concrete best-practices, Bruce

introduces new leaders to the “take charge by learning” approach to standing up as a leader and gaining the tools to be a successful manager: 

·       How to handle your first team meeting

·       How to establish a regular schedule of one-on-ones with every direct-report

·       How to create a system for tracking performance

·       How to create accountability

·       How to build relationships of trust and confidence, one person at a time          

Learn the Proven Best Practices for saying “yes” and “no” at work.

Skills for establishing extreme alignment on your team

When the workplace is no longer a place