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Managing Goals

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Managing_Goals

When employees have clearly set goals, their managers can assist them in developing necessary skills and meeting those goals. Clearly set goals help team members to stay focused and committed to achieving the end result. They can also motivate employees to organize their time efficiently to maximize productivity. In this podcast, Associate Dean of SAIS Development and Alumni Relations Kim Morton discusses the importance of effectively managing employees’ goals.

http://lms14.learnshare.com/l.aspx?CID=89&A=1&T=588135

 

Developing Your Employees

By in Communication No Comments Tags: ,

Employees_Learning_New_Skills

Becoming a great manager of employees requires managers to expand their focus from “How can I get excellent performance out of my team members?” to “How can I get excellent performance out of my team members while helping them grow?” In this podcast, Senior Director of HR Shared Business Services Wanda Karangelen discusses the importance of developing employees.

http://lms14.learnshare.com/l.aspx?CID=89&A=1&T=588136

 

 

Giving Recognition

By in Communication, Relationship Awareness No Comments Tags: ,

Getting_Praise

Most organizations link performance management to pay. While pay is one of the more common methods of rewarding employees, and while many supervisors would like to be able to give larger increases to their high-performing employees, the fact is that budgets must also be considered. So the question is: how can employees be rewarded during times when the budget for pay increases is low or non-existent? Employee recognition is not just a nice thing to do for people. It is a communication tool that reinforces and rewards the most important outcomes people create for themselves and for the organization. In this podcast, the Director of WorkLife and Community Programs, Ian Reynolds, discusses the importance of employee recognition and the ways that managers and employees can be recognized in the workplace.

http://lms14.learnshare.com/l.aspx?CID=89&A=1&T=584831

 

Conducting an Effective Checkpoint Meeting

By in Communication No Comments Tags: ,

MidYear_Checkpoint

In the middle of the performance cycle, managers and employees should hold a checkpoint meeting. This is the time for you to make sure you’re on track to meet your goals and receive feedback. Feedback can happen formally or informally, but it’s recommended that you and your manager meet, at least once, about halfway through the year to formally review your goals and to check on your progress towards meeting them. It’s also a good time to discuss any changes in priorities or initiatives that might have an impact on the relevance of your goals and those of your team. In this podcast, Senior Organization Effectiveness Consultant Anne Moore discusses the importance of the checkpoint meeting in the annual performance cycle.

http://lms14.learnshare.com/l.aspx?CID=89&A=1&T=584829

 

The 10-Minute Check-In

By in Communication, JHU No Comments Tags:

Check_In_Meeting

Managers are responsible for giving timely performance feedback to employees. These feedback conversations should occur, at the very least, during the annual performance review and even as frequently as on a monthly basis. However, there are multiple reasons managers feel there’s not enough time to fit these conversations into their busy schedules. One way to overcome the time deficit is to have 10-minute check-ins. In this podcast, Senior Organization Effectiveness Consultant Anne Moore discusses the benefits of the having 10-minute check-ins.

http://lms14.learnshare.com/l.aspx?CID=89&A=1&T=584828

 

Managing Change

By in JHU, Navigating Change No Comments Tags: ,

Managing_Change

Once upon a time, an old Greek philosopher (Heraclitus) said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” Fast-forward to the present age and most people would not only agree with this maxim, they would probably notice that change is happening exponentially in our world.

Whether it’s moving to a new city, stepping into a new job, or buying a new house, the ability to successfully navigate through change remains one of the most important life skills anyone can possess. But before we can learn to embrace a new reality, we must traverse the change process. Only by dealing with feelings of resistance, denial, and uncertainty can we finally accept the new reality in which we find ourselves.

For more on managing change, click here to access the Johns Hopkins e-course.

 

Relationships and Teaming

By in JHU, Relationship Awareness, University Culture No Comments Tags: , , ,

Happy_Team

There are many factors involved in achieving success at work and in life, but there are two variables that can make or break any endeavor. They are the ability to build and maintain relationships, and teaming.

When people are able to build and maintain positive relationships with one another, they’re more likely to form teams that are productive. And productive teams can more effectively help an organization to achieve its mission.

If you want to learn more about relationships and teaming, click here to take the Johns Hopkins e-course.

 

Innovation and Problem Solving

By in Innovation and Problem Solving, JHU No Comments Tags: , ,

Innovation

There’s an old adage that goes, “don’t re-invent the wheel” when it comes to creating new concepts, programs, or projects. Instead, try making something better through innovation! A simple way to define innovation is to think of it as problem solving.

Contrary to what many people may think, innovation is different from invention, in that when you innovate, you’re creating something new by applying a new method to an existing invention. It requires you to use problem-solving skills to see the flaws in an existing invention, or to envision better ways of using existing inventions.

Want to learn more about innovation and problem solving? Click here to access the Johns Hopkins Innovation and Problem Solving e-course.

 

Insert Audio for More Engaging PowerPoint Presentations

By in Microsoft Office, Technology No Comments Tags: ,

Inserting_Audio

Unfortunately, we’ve all been subjected to a couple (or more) dull, verbose, and graphically painful PowerPoint presentations that would make anyone happily poke her eyes out with a dull pencil instead of sitting through the 100+ slides. Here’s how you can insert audio into your PowerPoint presentation to make things more interesting.

(Please note: These instructions are for PowerPoint 2010. If you have an older version, the process might be slightly different.)

Inserting audio:

  • From the Insert tab, click Audio.

PowerPoint_Toolbar

  • A drop-down menu will appear.
  • Select “Audio from File.” You will need to have an audio file saved on your computer in order to retrieve it at this point.
  • When a dialog box opens, select your audio file (mp3 recommended). Then click Insert.

PowerPoint_Audio

  • Once you’ve correctly inserted your audio, your slide will have a speaker icon on it. Click Play to test it out!

PowerPoint_Speaker

Nine Tips You Can Use in Microsoft Word

By in Microsoft Office, Technology No Comments Tags:

Keyboard

word-2010

We could all use a little extra time, right? Here are nine useful tips to help you format your Word documents:

 

  1. To insert a page break, press Ctrl+Enter.
  2. To add a row at the end of a table, click on the last table cell and then press Tab.
  3. To move a table row up or down, select the row and then press ALT+SHIFT+UP ARROW or ALT+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW.
  4. To center, left-align, or right-align a selected paragraph, press CTRL+E, CTRL+L, or CTRL+R.
  5. To see the same document in two different views, click Split on the View tab and then choose the views you want.
  6. To view a document’s organization and jump to different sections, check the Navigation Pane box on the View tab. On the left-hand side of the document, a navigation bar will appear, allowing you to view the document’s organization.
  7. To go to the beginning or end of a document, press CTRL+HOME or CTRL+END.
  8. To add a checkbox to a document, make a list with one item per line, highlight the list, click the Home tab, select Bullet Library from the Paragraph menu, select Define New Bullet, click the Symbol button, and then select a checkbox from your list of options. Voila!
  9. To look up synonyms in the thesaurus, select a word and press SHIFT+F7.

For more tips, check out the Microsoft website.

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