October 18, 2011 • Volume 2, Issue 21 • ISSN: 2154-3240

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In This Issue

♦	Feature Article: The “New” Manager
♦	Ask Amanda: How do peers deal with someone whose personal life consistently creates extra work for the team?
♦	Practical Tips: Scheduling Work Time

The “New” Manager

The role of a manager has changed dramatically, particularly over the past decade. Before then, a manager’s job was largely about understanding and interpreting data. MBA programs offered a scientific approach to management focused on understanding statistical analyses and training graduates to draw conclusions and create recommendations based on the data available. With information less accessible, managers were considered “good” if they had ready access to data, could interpret it quickly, and make sound, logical recommendations. Their performance measures were very black and white.

Technology digitized those tasks and freed up managers to contribute in a different way.
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	If your boat has no rudder, you go where the water takes you.

Practical Tips: Scheduling Work Time

If you’ve been in the work world for any length of time, you know how easy it can be for the day to get away from you. Other people’s priorities, urgent meetings and tasks associated with the normal course of business can eat up time so that suddenly the day is over. And yet you haven’t accomplished anything on your “to do” list.

You can avoid this by scheduling time for your work. Block time on your calendar for the projects that deserve your attention. When others interrupt, keep good boundaries.
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One of my teammates has many physical issues and always seems to have something bad happening in her life—death of a family member, serious illnesses, etc. I believe she's telling the truth about her life but it's difficult to remain sympathetic when we are all picking up her "slack." How should we deal with this? Shouldn't our boss step in? J.S., Danville, CA

It sometimes seems that good people do have an inordinately high number of bad things happening to them. It creates a quandary because naturally you feel sympathy and want to help, yet at the same time it’s creating a business conflict.
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About Us: Our Corporate Life LLC (OCL) is a company that offers a new system for reducing unnecessary workplace suffering caused by the organizational, interpersonal, and ethical issues of our time. It is founded on the belief that adhering to core human values and achieving business success are always compatible. Working with both companies and individuals, OCL helps create solutions that enable corporate employees at every level to optimize profits while enabling them to thrive in the corporate environment. OCL was founded by Amanda Mitchell to help meet the needs of people working in corporate America during this transformative moment in our nation's history. The OCL system reflects her experience and insight gained from a 20–year corporate career working with Fortune 500 companies, and as an executive coach to senior–level corporate executives.