************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAMS "EVALUE .EXE" ********************** "ATTITUDE.EXE" "COMMUNIC.EXE" "TIMEFIND.EXE" "DECISION.EXE" "DELEGATE.EXE" "MOTIVATE.EXE" "MANAGER .EXE" "MY-BOSS .EXE" "INTERVEW.QES" "PLANNING.EXE" "GET-DONE.EXE" Here is an overview of the series of programs mentioned above. This is a set designed for management and supervisors, but with the exception of "EVALUE.EXE", all can be extremely helpful for anyone in both their personal and business lives. I have been in management for 25 years and a Management Seminar Instructor for 11 years. What follows in these programs is a computerized summary of some of the most important areas (the ones with the most problems) for supervisors. My experience has been that as a manager improves in these areas, either one at a time or all at once, he will be far more EFFECTIVE in what he or she gets done. What is contained on disk is in reality, a complete computerized management course. It is informative and educational. I have tried to make it entertaining. In the "message" sections at the end of most of the programs, you will find humorous quotes, jokes or famous quotations along with a brief exlanation of how it applies to the subject in the program. They are for you to enjoy and learn from at the same time. You should certainly read and/or print out the .DOC file that applies to the program you plan to run. It will give you some additional insight about what the purpose of the program is and what it does. The only one that is not a program is INTERVEW.QES. This is designed to print out to paper for a hard-copy of questions you might consider asking anyone in a job interview, before you would hire that person. If you are in the position of looking for a job, it might help you think about what to say in the interview. These programs should not be run once and put away. To get full value of the material contained within each, you should make a yearly planning calendar and go through each one at least quarterly. Also, the hard-copy that each produces can and should be referred to even more frequently. My department heads find these programs useful and beneficial....I hope you will too. Your comments would be appreciated. Send them to: M.D. Smith C/O WAAY-TV 1000 Monte Sano Blvd., S.E. Huntsville, AL 35801 (205) 533-3131 ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "ATTITUDE.EXE" *********************** This program, which is one of the set, is designed to help a person improve his/her attitude or of a subordinate. The purpose is to help make attitudes MORE POSITIVE than they are. Mostly, it is just making up one's mind to be more positive. If one does not WANT to be more positive, then they won't. But if they want do, and just need a little help achieving it....this this program is for them. When this program runs, it will present 30 statements and you decide if they apply to you, 1=NEVER through 5=ALWAYS. After you have run the program, you will see how you/they did. You will learn better methods for a more positive attitude as you answer the questions. If you scored lower than 80%, you can certainly be a more positive person by working on the items that you rated yourself 3 or lower. If you print out a copy of the 30 items, work on them, and can increase your score by 20 or more points, you will be a FAR MORE POSITIVE ATTITUDE PERSON. This program has six closing inspirational messages picked at random. I suggest you read 2 or 3 of them at the end of the session. If you get the same one, just ask for another until you get a different one. These messages following an evaluation session are especially helpful at this time. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "DECISION.EXE" ********************** This program is part of a series for managers. This is to help managers (or anyone for that matter) become better decision-makers. As you run this program on decision making, you will be presented with 25 questions that you should answer with a "Y" or "N" input. This program may not be what you expect the first time you run it. However, it is designed to give you a big "plus" in your decision making abilities. Of all the programs in this series, this one is the most deceptively simple. Do not believe that quickly running it once and putting it aside is all it is worth. You should run it a number of times....read several of the valuable inspirational messages at the end and then work on the items that you see you need to improve. No program can actually make decisions for you. Each job is usually too complex and only you have all the variables to make the proper decision. This program focuses on the universal areas of decision making to help you improve your "BATTING AVERAGE." There are 5 different inspirational messages at the end of the program and they are picked at random. If you get the same message, ask for another one. I would suggest that you end each run of this program with 2 or 3 of the messages to reinforce what you have learned from the session. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "DELEGATE.EXE" ********************** This program, like others in the series, is designed to help a person improve their delegation abilities. Many people do not do as much delegating as they should, because they have had bad experiences with it, or do not REALLY know how. In my 25 years in management and 11 years as a Management Seminar Instructor, I have found that lack of ability to Delegate EFFECTIVELY hold both the manager and the subordinates back. When done well, delegation builds the manager and the delegatee. As you run the program and truthfully answer the questions about yourself, you will learn as you go. You will find helpful messages in the program and especially at the end. When you are asked if you want a closing message, always get at least one. This is a random message section presenting one of six different closes. If you want another message, you might even get the same one as before, since they are picked totally at random. Then, just ask for another one until you get a different one. Making a hard copy of the questionnaire and working with it is another way to maximize the benefits of the programs. The programs are self-prompting. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "EVALUE.EXE" ************************* This program is designed to aid supervisors in Evaluating employees. At our business, we arrived on a 20 point form that covers most of the important employee categories for almost any job. Of course, a super- visor would add another sheet of specific, duty-related areas to complete the evaluation. However, an employee who scores high in these 20 areas, is likely to be a far superior employee from one who does not. Also, it gives various departments a universal yard-stick to measure their employees regardless of the job performed. This is important in EEOC and Union Shop situations. If the evaluation program is run on an employee at regular intervals, such as quarterly, semi-annually or annually, it provides a good growth record of each one. This program allows a manager to display the results on a screen, print out a hard copy for personnel records file, or print to a file to keep. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "GET-DONE.EXE" ********************** This program, similar to the others, is to help you get more things done in a day, week, or year. The recent "buzz-word" of MFR stands for Managing For Results. It is also the title of a good management book. The idea is that we certainly must get results or we can not be good managers. Just getting results, at the expense of morale and turnover, is not very desirable. The other programs in this series cover many good employee management methods. This program focuses on getting results. You will see, as you answer the 20 questions with a 1 through 5, that ACTION does play a large part in getting better results, but must be tempered with other good management principles. Just select the program from the main menu screen and it will prompt you from there. As with the other programs, the close lets you select one or more of the random messages. Ask for several, even if you get duplicates, since this is a random selection from six possibilities. Making a hard copy of the questionnaire and working with it is another way to maximize the benefits of the programs. The programs are self-prompting. ******************* DOCUMENTATION ON INTERVEW.QES ************************* This is a text file of 20 interview questions that manager's should use in interviewing prospective employees. It also contains instructions for the interviewer. Print out this file and you will have a nice, justified document to be used whenever you are interviewing prospective employees. Type the command COPY INTERVEW.QES LPT1: and press and you are directing the file to your printer. Be sure to set the perf in the paper just at the top of the print head so that everything will be lined up on each page correctly. If this command does not work for your system/printer, see your DOS manual for help. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "MANAGER.EXE" *********************** This program, like others in the series, is designed to help a person improve their overall management abilities. This program is a little bit different from the others in that it points out all the things a manager can do wrong in their job. With the other programs, the best score is 5=Always. With THIS program, the best score is 5=Never. So many managers are not very good simply because of so many things that they do wrong or that they do that they should not do at all. The idea is to help you or the people you supervise, become better managers by avoiding doing these things. Nobody is perfect, and we all do a few of these things from time to time. So the idea is to get better in each one of these areas by identifying things we should never do, if we can help it. As with the other programs, the close lets you select one or more of the random messages. Ask for several, even if you get duplicates, since this is a random selection from six possibilities. Making a hard copy of the questionnaire and working with it is another way to maximize the benefits of the programs. The programs are self-prompting. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "MOTIVATE.EXE" ********************** This program, like others in the series, is designed to help a person improve their motivation abilities. Some supervisors are surprised to find out that what they thought would motivate their workers, was far down the list of actual motivational items. The number one motivator, without question is "UNDERSTANDING AND HONEST APPRECIATION OF THE GOOD WORK DONE." One of Dale Carnegie's Most important principles from his Book "HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE" is to "Show Honest, Sincere Appreciation." A manager who knows and practices this principle regularly, is a far more motivational manager than one who doesn't. In the questionnaire section of this program, you will see this and a host of other motivational items mentioned. Depending on how you score yourself, you can see what kind of a motivator you are on a regular basis. As with the other programs, the close lets you select one or more of the random messages. Ask for several, even if you get duplicates, since this is a random selection from six possibilities. Making a hard copy of the questionnaire and working with it is another way to maximize the benefits of the programs. The programs are self-prompting. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "MY-BOSS.EXE" *********************** This is one of the more unusual programs in the series. It is a 30-point questionnaire designed to be filled out by subordinates in evaluating their BOSS. You could print out one of the questionnaires and make copies for employees to use to evaluate you, or whomever their boss might be. Or, you could simply use the 30-areas to work on for yourself to try to become a better boss. These items have come from many sources. Many of them have come directly from employee gripes and complaints about their supervisor. It takes a strong person to let each employee evaluate him/her as a boss. An even stronger one to show the results to THEIR BOSS. So, depending where you are on the totem pole, use it for yourself in private, or let your employees evaluate you. I suggest you run this program for yourself a number of times and each time try to improve your self-evaluation score. Just remember, that how you see yourself may be entirely different from the way your employees see you. Even if you are sure you are a good listener....if your employees think otherwise.... who is right? Your employees are the ones that matter and you need to reconcile the differences. An additional value of this program is that employees find themselves evaluated often, but they wish they could return the favor for their boss. Here, they can. If you did nothing with the resultant forms, morale can easily improve, just because you care enough to be interested in what they think of you. If the forms are turned in to YOUR BOSS, a signature can be optionally included. If they are to come back to you, they should be anonymous and deposited in the suggestion box, under your door, or something like that. It's the only way to get a meaningful, unbiased report. Otherwise, they will likely only report things they believe you will like to hear. WARNING! This is potentially powerful medicine. USE IT SPARINGLY ! ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "PLANNING.EXE" ********************* This program, similar to the others, is designed to help a person improve their skills as a planner. Everyone assumes that they plan and are fairly good at it. The truth is that most of us don't plan as often as we should or we plan poorly and run into major problems right away. This program on planning is designed to make us more aware of the steps in planning, which begin with clear, well defined results to be achieved (goals). More important than our ability to make good plans, is our remembering to involve others in the planning stage if they are going to be a part of the plan. Both the questionnaire and the inspirational screens that follow illustrate this principle. As with the other programs, the close lets you select one or more of the random messages. Ask for several, even if you get duplicates, since this is a random selection from six possibilities. Making a hard copy of the questionnaire and working with it is another way to maximize the benefits of the programs. The programs are self-prompting. ************ DOCUMENTATION FOR PROGRAM "TIMEFIND.EXE" *********************** This program is designed to help a manager or employee find extra hours in a given workday, by becoming better organized and more efficient at what he/she does. There is no real "MAGIC" here, but it really works. As a person runs this program, it asks you to evaluate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5....where 1 is NEVER and 5 is ALWAYS. As you answer each question, you will see the areas that are a problem for you and cause you to not always feel that you did what you wanted to do each day at work. By self- analysis of the completed 20 items from the program, you will immediately see where you need to help yourself and what needs to be done. Having been a manager for 25 years and a Management Seminar instructor for 11 years, I have seen that these 20 items comprise about 90% of the average person's problems with EFFECTIVE Time Management. Again, this program, like the others in this series, is self-prompting. You have the option of directing the completed questionnaire to a printer for hard-copy. The program ends by asking if you want an inspirational message. I think you should always ask for it. There are six nice closing screens and they are designed to be motivational in nature. The message is picked at random, so if it is one you have already seen, ask for another one and you should get a different message. Your comments would be appreciated. Send them to: M.D. Smith, C/O WAAY-TV 1000 Monte Sano Blvd., S.E. Huntsville, AL 35801 (205) 533-3131