Management, Leadership and Supervisory Learning Tools For the Busy Learner

Management and Supervisory Guides and Job Aids for Busy People

Supercharge your management and supervisory skills and practices

Over the years we've developed learning tools for managers and supervisors so they can improve their effectiveness, and make the managerial process more enjoyable and stress free. The material contained on our helpcards is drawn from practical experience, best practices, theoretical and practical research, and draws on some of the best minds in management.

Best part? Low cost. Fast reads. We know you are busy, so we've boiled down the content on these topics into chunks you can learn from in 30 minutes to an hour. Note that material on other topics of interest to supervisors or managers can be found via the menu to the left.

General Management Topics, Skills and Practices

Delegation For Managers

Want to focus on the tasks only you can do? Have more time in the day? Want less stress? How about motivating and developing staff? Delegation is a key skill for accomplishing a number of purposes in an organization and should be one of a manager's most effective tools. Sadly most managers haven't had the chance to learn to do it properly. This extremely detailed job aid provides everything you need to know, fast. More...

The Responsive Manager

Why do some managers and leaders inspire loyalty and effort above and beyond the call in their employees? It's not magic, and probably the answer isn't simple, but here's one piece of the puzzle. Those "special leaders and managers in business" tend to show a behavioral trait called responsiveness. They tend to interact with employees in ways that make them feel valued, wanted, and listened to. More...

Strategic Planning Tools

An Integrated Strategic Planning Model Helpcard

If you are looking for a comprehensive and complete model for strategic planning that combines both strategic and tactical planning, this card is for you. Works best if you buy this one and the one on making strategic planning work. More...

Making Strategic Planning Work Helpcard

Written by consultant and and author Robert Bacal, Making Strategic Planning Work offers a number of suggestions to help you ensure your strategic plan becomes a dynamic document that can be used to make everyday decisions. More...

Performance Management and Appraisal

Robert Bacal has written five best selling books on performance management and appraisal. Since it's hard for busy people to find the time to read 200 page books, Robert created the job aids and tools listed on this page to help managers, HR staff, and employees understand and use the performance management process so everyone succeeds.

These are listed below and are available for instant download as soon as you purchase them or in printed form.

Performance Appraisal For Managers Helpcard

Provides the basics for understand the difference between performance appraisal and performance management, and outlines the complete set of steps to follow. Excellent starting point. More...

Performance Planning For Managers

It's one of the key steps that's often lost - performance planning and goals setting. This essential step aims and focuses the employee, helps improve motivation and engagement and creates common ground for the appraisal process. We teach you to do it. More...

Progressive Discipline For Addressing Performance Problems

One of the worst things managers do is wait too long to address performance problems and issues. The delay usually results in the escalation of a minor problem to a major one where everyone loses. It's understandable. Dealing with performance problems creates discomfort. This job aid teaches you how to tackle problems early and easily, and takes the pain out of "discipline". More...

Diagnosing Performance Problems Helpcard

You can't improve performance or address performance problems properly unless you first understand what is causing them. This helpcard walks you through the process so you do it completely, accurately and end up with information about what actions to take to improve performance. More...

Getting The Most From Performance Appraisals For Employees Helpcard

Performance appraisals work best when the employee is an active participant, since often it's the employee who can diagnose and formulate solutions to performance challenges, problems and barriers. This unique helpcard is written for employees, to help them understand the why's, hows, and benefits of engaging actively in the performance management and appraisal process. A unique approach to making employee reviews less painful. More...

Performance Management Checklist

Performance management done properly operates as a system, with a number of inter-related parts. Each part needs to be carried out at the right time. If you miss something, the value of performance management and performance appraisals is often lost. Here, we outline the steps in a checklist format that you can use with each of your employees. More...