Staff Management Handbook

IEMG 8540A: Staff Management in International Context

Professor Christopher D. McShane

Courtney Jackson

April 13, 2015

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"Leadership and learning are
indispensable to each other."
—John F. Kennedy

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 Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Candidate interviewing and selection

3. Managing effective teams

4. Performance management and evaluation

5. Discipline and conflict management

6. Promoting diversity/cross cultural issues

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 Introduction

This Staff Management Handbook has been created with the purpose of addressing concerns I have about

my future career and the leadership role I will play within international education. While I am interested

in focusing my career on global education and development, I often fluctuate between wanting to work

internationally and wanting to work domestically. I have therefore picked more general topics that will (or

have already) been an issue for me in my professional life, without a focus on region.

In my Career Management course earlier this semester we spent a good deal of identifying online career

resources to help us with our development. My favorite resource so far has been The Muse

(themuse.com). Since then I have made an effort to read articles posted on The Muse frequently, as I have

found that these articles are short enough to read during a busy day, and applicable enough to my career

development to be interesting and helpful. I had already been using The Muse for development and as a

job search engine, however, until I started this project I did not realize that they have an entire section on

management. I then became interested in how I could introduce management readings into my daily

schedule, without altering my normal reading patterns. I decided to see if the management section of The

Muse would be as useful as I have found the rest of the site. Therefore, all of the articles in my handbook

come from The Muse, as it is a source I would realistically incorporate into my routine.

Candidate interviewing and selection

Interviewing

In his article Beyond the Resume: How to Choose the Best Candidates, Jim Belosic encourages a few

"non-traditional techniques" to finding the best new employee. He also emphasizes that these techniques

do not rely heavily on the hire's resume. Belosic explains that paying special attention to the application is

more important than to the resume, as most resume's are inflated. However, if a person puts effort into

their application (e.g. excellent cover letter/ follow up call or email) and if they pay close attention to

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detail they might already have an edge. It is also important to do more than ask questions during the hire's

interview. While interview questions are often necessary, Belosic encourages including mock activities

into the interview, such as an activity that the potential employee will be asked to do if hired. Also, asking

the right questions when speaking with a potential employee's references is a good way to decide how the

hire could fit into your workplace. Asking references standard questions about work performance is

helpful, but asking about a person's sense of humor, cleanliness, and interactions with other staff members

can tell you a lot about your new potential employee. Lastly, Belosic explains that trial periods, if such a

thing is possible in your organization, are a good way to "test drive" an employee before you decide

whether they are right for your office on a full-time basis (Belosic).

On a similar note, Lily Herman gives 3 tips on giving interviews in her article How to Interview Someone

When You're the Youngest in the Room. She explains that emulating someone older can be helpful when

interviewing a peer, so as to not come off immature. Putting yourself into that "older mindset" could be

effective in giving the candidate the sense of maturity you want (Herman). While emulating someone

older can be helpful, it is also important to use your age to your advantage. This could include generating

a more casual environment in which potential employees (and yourself) may feel more relaxed. Keep it

professional, but also help people feel at ease. Lastly, Herman points out that it is important not self-

deprecate yourself . This means not openly discussing your age or experience in the interview. It is very

likely that if you emulate someone older, the interviewee will have no idea what age you actually are.

Therefore, most likely their initial reaction will be to respect you, until proven otherwise. Don't give them

fuel to see otherwise (Herman).

Candidate Selection

Terri Tierney Clark's article How to Decide Between 2 Awesome Job Candidates advises on ways to

decide how to pick a new employee. Clark advises that you evaluate a few things to get a better sense of

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which candidate will meet your needs best. The steps I found most useful where what Clark calls the

"beer test," as well as remembering that hiring is a two-way street. The beer test is basically making sure

that the candidate will fit well within the office's culture. This could possibly be determined by asking

yourself "...which of the two [candidates] would you rather have a beer with after work?" There are even

companies who have "social interviews" where they take candidates out with the team to let them

socialize. It is also important to keep in mind that once an offer is made, the candidate will have their own

requirements, such as salary. Will you be able to meet the requirements of this candidate (Tierney Clark)?

Personal Analysis

Herman's article How to Interview Someone When You're the Youngest in the Room brought up a lot of

concerns I personally have, as I am often the youngest employee at an organization. For example, in my

most recent position I was even younger than the majority of our students. Therefore, between cultural

gender issues and cultural age issues, I spent the greater part of my experience at this job convincing

everyone in my workplace I was older than I am. Clark's article about choosing between 2 candidates was

also really helpful, as I often overanalyze and spend too much time and effort worrying about making the

wrong decision. I think that becoming more confident with my own decision making skills will be a big

part of becoming a leader for me.

These interviewing and candidate selection tips will be helpful to me in my future career, as I will most

likely play a part in hiring in some way or another. I have already been a part of many interviews in my

career, however, after having read these articles I feel that there were more effective ways to go about it. I

also liked how focused each of the articles was. I am finding that the more targeted articles are easier to

relate to.

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 Managing effective teams

Development

One of the most important parts of managing effective teams is to address the development of your

employees. Anne Niederkorn, in her article 5 Steps to Helping Your Team Advance, addresses a few ways

to add to employee development. These steps include discussing goals in order to assess specific things an

employee may need to achieve these, identifying team development gaps to address any skills or

experience that could improve, and establishing training objectives and training plans to address

resolutions for these areas of improvement (Niederkorn).

One way to go about determining these development points might be to have one-on-one meetings with

your employees. These meetings are important to getting to know your employees better, as well as to

discussing topics like feedback (which I will touch on more in the next section) and professional

development. During these meetings it is good to keep a few things in mind. First, make sure you are

asking the right questions. This involves thought-provoking, open-ended questions that help start a

conversation. Second, it is best to keep the meeting conversational, rather than running the meeting

yourself. This will give your employees the chance to discuss the issues that are most important to them.

Third, having a backup plan can be helpful, just in case one of you runs out of ideas to talk about. And

fourth, having these one-on-one meetings out of the office. Going for coffee or having lunch will give a

your employees space to talk, break routine, and make them feel valued (Greenawald).

Personal Analysis

The best bosses I have had where the ones who took an interest in helping me to build by career

development. These are the bosses that I personally admire, as they made me feel like a valued employee,

and they are the bosses that I would like to emulate when I become a manager. I want to be the type of

leader who is personally invested in my employees' futures. I believe that helping employees develop the

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direction of their career is mutually beneficial, as it may help you retain employees by satisfying their

desire to gain skills and further training.

Furthermore, while I have had quite a few awkward one-on-one meetings, I really appreciated the one-on-

one meetings that went well. These were the times that made me feel valued, as I was able to express my

opinions and concerns in a less public, more secure atmosphere. It was usually in these meetings that I felt

I was being heard. Yet, I also believe that it takes a lot of practice to conduct a successful, not awkward

one-on-one meeting. So hopefully the tips mentioned above will help me until I have gained more

experience in this area.

Performance management and evaluation

Performance Reviews

While generally both employees and managers hate performance reviews, they are necessary for

workplace improvement. Therefore, as a manager I would like to be as good at performance reviews as

possible. The process is always going to be uncomfortable, so it might as well be effective. Amy Adams

in her article A First-Time Manager's Guide to Performance Reviews explains that planning ahead and

preparing for an annual performance review long in advance will help give better, more all-inclusive

feedback. This will also avoid surprises from employees. She explains the importance of setting goals

and expectations early on to ensure that everyone is clear on what is expected of them. Adams suggests

using the SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Results-oriented, Time-bound) framework as a

roadmap. Adams also suggests holding touch-base meetings, both to help yourself stay organized in

preparation for summarizing an employee's performance at the end of the year, and to keep the employee

informed so that there are no surprises during the performance evaluation. Lastly, Adams stresses the

importance of preparation (both from the manager and the employee), as well as documentation.

Scheduling dates and starting paperwork early will help to make sure that a performance evaluation is not

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rushed, but rather insightful and accurate. Performance review meetings should be help in-person, which

leads well into my next topic (Adams).

Giving Feedback

It is critical that a good manager be able to give constructive, and sometimes critical, feedback. Many

people are open to feedback because they realize you care and want them to do their best. However, there

are those employees who make giving feedback difficult. Sara McCord, in her article How to Give

Feedback to Someone Who Hates Getting It, categorizes these employees into three groups:

1. The Employee With the Emotional Response

2. The Employee Who Gets Defensive

3. The Employee Who Doesn't Get It

The first group of employees might be someone who gets angry or who cries when given feedback about

their performance. If this is an unusual response for this particular employee, it is possible that there be

other reasons for their behavior. In this case, it would be best to wait for another time to discuss this

employees performance. However, if this employee regularly has an emotional response to feedback, it is

important to discuss their inability to deal with criticism. McCord explains that a manager could start this

conversation by explaining the importance of feedback and highlighting how criticism could provide this

employee with suggestions to grow (McCord).

The second group of employees might be someone who avoids blame, or defends their actions to a fault,

refusing to hear criticism. McCord suggests being direct and firm with these employees, without being

blameful. The example she uses is as follows: “I understand why you made the decision you did, but our

policy is to handle the situation you encountered this way.” Hearing out this also employee is key, if

they are ever going to be receptive of feedback (McCord).

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The third group of employees might look and sound like they comprehend your feedback, however they

continually make the same mistakes because they do not actually understand. In this situation, it is

important to be very clear with your feedback, including examples (McCord).

Personal Analysis

Both performance reviews and giving feedback are being addressed because they have been difficult for

me in the past, and I anticipate that they will continue to be difficult for me until I have the tools and the

practice to succeed with them. I have always been uncomfortable with getting performance evaluations.

Not that I have ever pictured myself as being a bad employee. However, like those employees mentioned

above, I do not like to hear about my shortcomings. Usually, I do not like to hear about my shortcomings

because I am already aware of my them myself. Therefore, a performance review just seems like a

discussion about my inability to fix what I already know needs fixing. However, I have had a few bosses

who gave very good feedback and helped to set realistic goals. Like them, I would like to be the sort of

manager who helps others improve, little by little, as I imagine I will have employees who feel the same.

I have also always been uncomfortable with giving feedback, whether face-to-face or through an online

platform (my most recent job mandated we all give each other "anonymous" feedback this way). I am not

naturally a critical person, so it is often takes a lot of effort for me to find something about someone's

work that I do not like. That being said, I recently left a job where one of my employees was in the

"defensive group" from McCord's article. She was impossible to work with and made the entire office

uncomfortable. At the time, I did not feel that it was my place to give her feedback on her defensive

nature, however I do hope that her manager will someday. She is not a bad person, and she deserves to be

told so that she can grow as a person, as I sense that her defensiveness affected more than just her work

life. At the same time, I hope that I can be the type of manager who can address these uncomfortable

issues for the good of the rest of the office, as well as for the good of that particular employee.

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 Discipline and conflict management

Conflict

While an employee may be performing his/her job well, if nobody in the office wants to work with them,

as a manager you are not maintaining a productive environment for the rest of your employees. Allison

Green of Daily Worth explains that,

"...an employee who is abrasive, unable to get along with others, or otherwise difficult to work

with can be as disruptive as one who is falling short on “hard skills,” like missing deadlines or

turning in shoddy work. And so it’s perfectly reasonable to treat these issues just like you would

any other performance issue."

It is therefore important to sit down with this employee to discuss these difficult to talk about issues. In

this discussion it is important to be specific about their shortcomings and your expectations, so that the

employee understands that being difficult to work with is a serious issue. After this discussion, it is also

important to continue to offer feedback on this matter (Green).

Avery Augustine's article 4 Ways to Get Over Your Fear of Confronting Employees brings up a few good

strategies for meeting with employees in order to have these discussions.

1. Think from your employees' perspective. Most likely the employee is not purposely lacking.

Relating to that employee and empathizing, while still giving constructive criticism, can make the

discussion feel less like confrontation.

2. Make it routine. This will make confrontation less awkward, as it sets a standard and lets

employees know that are comfortable with discussing issues with them.

3. Steel yourself. In other words, have plenty of proof or documentation to back yourself up if the

employee denies or argues with you when confronted.

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 4. Realize you're not being "mean." If an employee is not doing their job, it would actually be

"mean" and unfair for you as the manager not to deal with the situation. It is not "mean" to hold

someone accountable for their work. Augustine even explains that " ...your employees expect—

and benefit from—that kind of tough love (Augustine)."

Discipline

Similarly, as Jennifer Winter, author of Never on Time: How to Handle a Perpetually Late Employee,

puts it, "don't be afraid to discipline." If discussing the problem with the employee fails multiple times, it

might be time to take more serious matters, such as threatening to write the employee up, actually writing

the employee up, etc. Winter explains that every employee is different, and with therefore learn different.

There will be employees for whom a discussion will be plenty, and there will be employees for whom real

consequences will be necessary (Winter).

Personal Analysis

For me personally, conflict aversion has become a theme during my short time here at MIIS. I dislike

conflict so much that apparently I have spent most of my life doing everything in my power to avoid it, as

an Amiable would. However, I understand that in order to be an effective manager I will need to become

more comfortable with this, or at least learn to do it and then pretend to be comfortable with it.

This topic is also very close to me personally, as I struggled with an extremely defensive co-worker at my

last job. I disliked working with her so much that if I had not already known I was leaving for graduate

school, I would have started looking for positions elsewhere. It is not like me to dislike people, but I

could not work with this woman effectively. I believe a lot of this was my unwillingness to discuss her

defensive qualities with her. However, I did not discuss her defensive qualities because I knew she would

be defensive, which would cause conflict. I did not feel that it was my place to deal with this issue, as she

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was my peer rather than my employee. But I do hope that when I become a manager I will be more

inclined to deal with these situations, so maintain a safe working environment for all of my employees.

Promoting diversity/cross cultural issues

Hiring Diverse/Cross Cultural teams

To promote cross cultural teams it is important to address the barriers that often keep diverse populations

out of the workplace. This includes evaluating where your hiring pool comes from, as well as advertising

job postings in less represented markets (like the Association of Black Foundation Executives)

(Andruszka). Another way to promote diversity, specifically gender diversity, is to create policies that

support women and parents in the workplace. This includes offering flexible schedules, without penalty.

Not only will parents then not feel as though they have to choose between work and family, but the

employees will also feel more valued and supported. Supporting women in the workplace also includes

ensuring that there are women in leadership positions, offering equal and competitive wages, offering

paternity leave, taking sexism in the workplace seriously, and empowering women by including their

opinions in shaping office culture (Rogers).

Nathan Parcells, in his article 5 Strategies for Creating a More Diverse Internship Program, discusses

strategies to use when focusing on hiring diverse, specifically ethnically diverse, employees. These

strategies include keeping accurate, well-rounded data on ethnically diverse employees hired, as well as

expanding outreach and research by engaging with diverse organizations and organizations that reach a

national population. It is also important to share your hiring initiatives to become more diverse, including

creating hiring policies that relay these message. For example, creating processes that promote tolerance,

religious freedom, and cultural diversity in your interview process and job descriptions to attract a more

diverse and understanding population (Parcells).

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Personal Analysis

I been the "token" minority in almost every work environment I have ever been in. Perhaps this is because

of the areas I have lived and the fields I have chosen. However, there is an obvious lack of diversity in the

workplace, and this is especially unacceptable in the field of international education. More of a focus

needs to be made to include minorities, and I hope to be able to use many of the tips above when hiring

employees.

However, I also believe that the lack of diversity also has a lot to do with the limitations within the

education field. There is a lack of diverse employees in international education, just as there is a lack of

diverse students participating in study abroad. The majority of students who study abroad are white

women, as are the professionals within international education. If more diverse populations were able to

study abroad, there would be more of an interest from these populations to go into the field. This is one of

the major reasons I have decided to study and work in international education. I believe that international

learning opportunities should be widely available and affordable for less advantaged populations, and that

this should be a major priority within international education.

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 Works Cited

Adams, A. (n.d.). A First-Time Manager's Guide to Performance Reviews. Retrieved April 9, 2015, from

https://www.themuse.com/advice/a-firsttime-managers-guide-to-performance-reviews

Andruszka, R. (n.d.). Where Diversity in Hiring is Even More Important. Retrieved April 9, 2015, from

https://www.themuse.com/advice/where-diversity-in-hiring-is-even-more-important?ref=search

Augustine, A. (n.d.). 4 Ways to Get Over Your Fear of Confronting Employees. Retrieved April 9, 2015,

from https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-ways-to-get-over-your-fear-of-confronting-

employees?ref=autocomplete

Belosic, J. (n.d.). Beyond the Resume: How to Choose the Best Candidates. Retrieved April 9, 2015, from

https://www.themuse.com/advice/beyond-the-resume-how-to-choose-the-best-candidates

Green, A. (n.d.). How to Manage the Employee Nobody Likes. Retrieved April 9, 2015, from

https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-manage-the-employee-nobody-likes?ref=search

Greenawald, E. (n.d.). How to Have One-on-Ones That Actually Matter. Retrieved April 9, 2015, from

https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-have-oneonones-that-actually-matter

Herman, L. (n.d.). How to Interview Someone When You're the Youngest in the Room. Retrieved April

9, 2015, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-interview-someone-when-youre-the-

youngest-in-the-room?ref=autocomplete

McCord, S. (n.d.). How to Give Feedback to Someone Who Hates Getting It. Retrieved April 9, 2015,

from https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-give-feedback-to-someone-who-hates-getting-it

Niederkorn, A. (n.d.). 5 Steps to Helping Your Team Advance. Retrieved April 9, 2015, from

https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-steps-to-helping-your-team-advance?ref=search

Parcells, N. (n.d.). 5 Strategies for Creating a More Diverse Internship Program. Retrieved April 9, 2015,

from https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-strategies-for-creating-a-more-diverse-internship-

program?ref=search

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Rogers, R. (n.d.). 5 Ways Companies Can Attract More Women (Aside From Offering to Freeze Their

Eggs). Retrieved April 9, 2015, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-ways-companies-can-

attract-more-women-aside-from-offering-to-freeze-their-eggs?ref=autocomplete

Tierney Clark, T. (n.d.). How to Decide Between 2 Awesome Job Candidates. Retrieved April 9, 2015,

from https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-decide-between-2-awesome-job-candidates

Winter, J. (n.d.). Never on Time: How to Handle a Perpetually Late Employee. Retrieved April 9, 2015,

from https://www.themuse.com/advice/never-on-time-how-to-handle-a-perpetually-late-

employee?ref=autocomplete

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