Welcome to Steve's Blog

Find the Love of Your Life

10/9/2011 2:11:00 PM

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Love and Relationships

A tip on how you might help yourself find the love of your life.

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Great Managers & Growth

10/9/2011 2:10:00 PM

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Great Managers & Growth

Tips on how you might become a great manager.

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Coaching a Manager

4/2/2011 3:51:00 PM

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Managing From the Gym

Managing takes training. Just like an athlete who might have great talent needs a coach to become great so do people who will become great managers.

Are You a Great Manager or A Manager?

1/11/2011 4:19:00 PM

It snowed like crazy last night and today. The city is frozen out. Decision time. Are you a great manager or are you a manager.

Let me give you the best example I have seen in many years. Sean, manager over a critical needs area knew the situation. The entire city was shut down. No one was coming to work. Sean took action. While most of the city was reacting to the hype of bad weather, while most of the city was hunkering down and reacting to the news by making excuses why they could not go to work, Sean acted.

The night before the huge storms he planned his staff. He contacted them, he arranged with them, he shared with them. They were prepared for what was coming. While everyone else, including my work group spoke of nothing but why they probably would not be able to make it into work, Sean's team was already into a completely different mode and had enacted a solution to a problem that did not yet exist.

Sean arranged transportation for his group through a service that would not be stopped by inclement weather.

My usual 55 minute drive to work was the longest of any of my coworkers. All of them shared the day before that if this storm happened they would not be able to make it in. As I said goodbye to them that afternoon, I said to all of them, see you tomorrow and without exception they said, 'we'll see.' But you see, by my words you already know my ACTION. I was coming to work. I had made my decision. I had enacted MY plan. And it was one that I knew I could put into place and make happen. Everyone else was waiting to react to whatever was coming our way. My 55 minute drive took almost two hours today, I knew it would, I planned for it.

After six hours on our desks only one other of my 9 member crew had come to work. Of Sean's crew all five had made it to work. And as I spoke with my managers, supervisors and superiors I noted that none of them had come to work either.

A manager/boss, sets the tone for the office by their own actions. I and Sean had taken ACTION while everyone else reacted to the storm. Sean had his people catered in for their respective assignments and catered home, picking up his second shifters on the way.

As I sit here, now alone, I note that unless something changes, my second shift will be without staff. How critical is it that this job be manned 24 hours a day? Well, if your facility intends to operate 24 hours a day then the support staff they employ needs to know they are important to the organization and especially to their manager.

Sean not only made arrangements for his staff to be here, he was the one picking them up. He worked all day and then into this night making sure his vital department staff understood their importance to the organization. I only understood that if I neglected my duties probably every other person on my crew would ignore theirs. I planned my course of action and made it happen. Was it easy? When most people give up or give in it's then that you realize who has the strength of character you are looking for.

Sean is one of the GREAT MANAGERS I talk about. How about you? Did you stay home and hope your staff made it to work? Did you stay home and hope your staff would help you out?

Become great by learning how to be a GREAT MANAGER. Come subscribe to my blog at www.stevesapato.com and get weekly information and articles on managing people, because GREAT MANAGERS ARE MADE NOT BORN.

Great Managers Are Proactive

1/2/2011 6:45:00 PM

It's NEW YEARS EVE and I am always stunned by the number of resolutions people make at this time. Resolutions are merely wishes hopes and dreams that people could not set goals for all and suddenly find support to do it TODAY! As a manager and trainer I find that the people who didn't set their goals all year long are probably not going to succeed with those goals at this time of the year.

Great Managers are the opposite of New Years Resolution people. Great Managers always have to be looking ahead, by days, weeks, months and even years. They have to be planning for their people, their departments, the goals that they have set and that their superiors have set.

Great Managers are influential in helping their people be proactive rather than reactive. Great Managers help their people establish themselves as leaders, as movers and shakers and as great followers.

The one great failure for most managers is their lack of vision. Their lack of being able to see the bigger picture and how to conquer and succeed in that picture.

What will you be doing in 2011 to establish your department as the primo department for the year? What will you be doing to make your department the envy of your company or organization. Here's to an amazing and prosperous 2011.

What is being said in your office? Who is saying it? Why are they saying it?

12/9/2010 4:50:00 PM

Are you a good manager or a great manager? A good manager gets to work on time, gets his department on track and gets the job done. And they think that is all they need to do. They will even justify how hard they work and how good they are.

But a GREAT manager does all of those things and more, much more. A great manager will accomplish all of that and when asked will invite and encourage feedback, listen, share and try to understand why his people are do what they do. A GREAT manager will be involved, actively involved in finding out what his people are talking about, gossiping about, complaining about. A good manager will hear a complaint, typically push it aside because they are so busy and ignore it because they forgot all about it because it was just people complaining. While a GREAT manager will actively involve themselves in the gossip, to find out what it is, why it is taking place, and follow it. At the source they will find the truth of the gossip, complaint or vibe. A GREAT manager will have access to that because their people will know they are not going to be in trouble because a GREAT manager will have great communication skills and attitude so that their people will know and understand that their manager is their to help them, build them up and make them better at their job so that they, as the manager, will look even better.

Finding the source of office gossip, dealing with the situation or problem and rectifying any areas that need improvement are the responsibility of a GREAT manager. Most people won't gossip if they know they can take any complaint or situation directly to their GREAT manager and get it off their chest. And a GREAT manager will deal with each thing that comes up with honesty and integrity and even making sure that there is follow-up conversations to let their people know all about what is happening and how it affects the entire group.

Here's hoping you have many GREAT managers working with, for and around you, including your boss, another GREAT manager.

Great Managers Are Learners

11/24/2010 10:06:00 AM

See what Steve has to say about great managers are learners.

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Great managers are learners.

Steve Sapato of Sapato Seminars discusses why great managers need to be learners in order to excel and succeed.

Manage Great People

11/17/2010 9:34:00 AM

See what Steve has to say on YouTube re: "Managing Great People".

http://www.youtube.com/v/BKP6LpIGdko?hl=en&fs=1%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam

Great Managers - Finding Your Center!

10/20/2010 9:47:00 AM

I watch managers struggle every single day and wonder.. is it because they truly don’t know? Don’t understand? Or have never been taught!

I watch managers every day who don’t know how to delegate or are afraid of the consequences, repercussions or reactions of their staff. I watch supervisors react in situations instead of acting upon those situations.

A GREAT MANAGER should be trained, informed, held accountable for their staff, the training of that staff, the motivating of that staff, the effectiveness of that staff. It is the managers duty to involve their people, create in their people a desire to not only be effective but to excel at their jobs and even superset and help others succeed at their jobs also.

GREAT MANAGERS ARE MADE by seeing the problem or challenge before it happens and planning how they will handle the situation if and or when it arrives. A great manager is made into someone who will face their boss and deliver an effective solution to a problem or at least acknowledge and share with them the problems they are facing so that they can get help fixing the problem if they are not prepared or trained for that situation.

Staying focused and not getting out of balance in a crucial moment can make all the difference in resolving a situation and not exacerbating it. FIND YOUR CENTER and know that you can handle any situation even if it involved asking for assistance from your boss or your staff.

Remember, you hired your staff for their excellence. Don’t be afraid to call upon it.

Need additional management training to turn your supervisors and managers into GREAT MANAGERS? Call upon www.stevesapato.com for some real answers and excellent training for your people.

Want to be a better speaker?

10/1/2010 12:45:00 PM

Would you like to be a better speaker in front of a group?

It used to be said that the fear of speaking in public was the number one fear people had. While that made little sense to many of us it was very true for those who had that fear. Well, somewhere along the way from 1950 until today we have found in the computer age that we find ourselves speaking to groups fairly frequently. So while it may not be as frightening as it once was it is an area where we now want to excel.

As a wanna-be manager, supervisor and manager we need to be better speakers. We need to know how to garner followers, give confidence, show strength, reduce stress and anxiety and show us as capable individuals.

If this is true then what are you doing to become a better speaker? I taught public speaking for seven years at the college level and have continued to teach and instruct on a contractual level for many years.

What I have found is that most of us really do not understand the subtleties of speaking in front of a group. We think we know. Most managers THINK they are great speakers but when you ask their staff most just roll their eyes. After all, we can’t speak badly of our boss, they might hear about it and take revenge.

When I ask people if they really know how to speak in front of a group, most say of course, and blow me off. But then I ask, really? So you practice making faces in front of your mirror? Answered 100% of the time… no! of course not. That’s stupid.

And then I ask, but you know what your face and body language are saying?

And again, unequivocally YES!

So have you ever had someone ask you if you were OK? Or if you were having a bad day? And you weren’t? Then you don’t always know what you r face or body language is saying. And it’s THAT type of thing that we all need to improve.

If you are speaking in front of a group and you don’t realize that you are raising an eyebrow, or that your mouth moves a certain way, or that when you speak you tug at your lip… then you have no clue what message you are sending to your audience.

Want to get better at speaking in front of a group? Sign up for some private/group training. Have your company contact a professional. Someone who KNOWS how to train speakers. Someone who will not tippy toe around you because you have a position but will tell you what you need to improve upon and make you improve, allow you to make mistakes, video tape you and show you the flaws so you can ‘understand’ emotionally what you need to work on. And believe me when I say, the video taping is MANDATORY for your improvement.

Want to be a better speaker in front of a group? Call someone today.