In many growing companies today our managers are "working managers," that is they don't just manage people they also have their own projects to get done. And to make matters worse their workload is not just full-time; they could easily fill the day of 2-3 people. So your success as a working manager depends on prioritizing the right actions, that will get you the most value now and in the long-term, and then moving as quickly as possible to get more done. The reality of this whirlwind of activity and fighting fires is that we procrastinate the proactive people management stuff. So stuff lingers long enough to multiply and contaminate, and then we end up spending more time in clean up mode than we would have in proactive management mode.

• Right now this moment, do you have performance issues or unresolved disagreements in your company? How long have they lingered?
• How confident are you that your managers have a sound strategy for addressing them, and that they are doing so in a timely manner?
• Is there perhaps a difficult conversation you need to have with someone that you have not gotten around to?

Being proactive and effective in people management is about as difficult as losing 20 pounds. Most people don't accomplish it on their own. They need a good support network, a sound strategy and someone that holds them accountable on a regular basis to follow through. This is what we do at OrgSpeed. We meet with your managers one-on-one regularly (several times a quarter if necessary) and help them think through and analyze what's going on with their people. We then make sure they create a plan, act timely and proactively, and adapt to new stuff as it comes up. It's a mentoring relationship but very practical and hands-on; helping them to be better people managers right here right now. With our support you can rest assured that your managers are preventing people issues from lingering, and perhaps even minimizing the actual number of issues that arise in the first place.