Focus on Them

Perfect the Skills to Excel as a Manager

An engagement crisis, a management skill shortage, a retention problem―call it what you will, today’s research and workplace insights emphasize that many employees leave managers. . . not companies.

Good managers know they need to deliver results to be successful. But great ones? They understand the essence of managing encompasses something more: making connections, embodying the right skills, and developing their direct reports. They also realize managing well takes practice. With Focus on Them, you’ll get the tools and know-how to excel as a manager.

Edited by the Association for Talent Development’s own management authority Ryan Changcoco, research expert Megan Cole, and content developer Jack Harlow, this book explores ATD’s new management framework―the ACCEL model. Each chapter, written by a leader in management and talent development, focuses on one of the five skills all managers need:

Accountability (Timothy Ito)

Communication (Ken O’Quinn)

Collaboration (Winsor Jenkins)

Engagement (Hunter Haines)

Listening and assessing (Michele Nevarez)

By investing in your own development―boosting your ACCEL skills―you signal to your employees that you’re serious about their development and learning, too.

Becoming a manager isn’t climbing a mountain. By focusing on the basics, you can transform from a results-oriented manager to the super people manager your employees need.

About the Editors

Ryan Changcoco

Ryan Changcoco is an author, blogger, thought leader, and facilitator on the topics of management development and employee engagement. As the senior manager for ATD's management development and TD industries group, Ryan is responsible for identifying and partnering with subject matter experts from all over the world to develop content in the areas of management development, leadership, and industries training. Ryan is also the program director for the ATD/Yale Management Excellence program. Prior to ATD, Ryan served as a business consultant for several large healthcare organizations, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Ryan is also the co-founder of a physician advisory and consulting group called The Physician's Edge, which is dedicated to helping physicians become more adept at the business side of healthcare.

As an author, Ryan has contributed to a few healthcare publications including Talent Management in Healthcare—Exploring How the World's Health Service Organisations Attract, Manage and Develop Talent (2017) and Leadership in the World's Healthcare Sector (2018), both of which were published by Palgrave Macmillan UK.

When asked what three phrases best describe him, Ryan's response is: optimist, traveler, and free spirit.

Megan Cole

Megan Cole, PhD, is a research analyst at the Association for Talent Development (ATD). She regularly writes research reports, blogs, and magazine articles, as well as hosting webcasts. She has authored numerous research reports on talent development topics including The Science of Learning: Key Strategies for Designing and Delivering Training, Needs Assessments: Design and Execution for Success, and Change Enablement: Skills for Addressing Change.

One of her first projects at ATD was creating research around the ACCEL model—published as ACCEL: The Skills That Make a Winning Manager—that eventually led to the creation of Focus on Them. Megan has since been involved in the development of other ACCEL-related content.

Megan has also worked as a market research analyst and an instructor at Arizona State University. She has published articles in several peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, and most recently Journal of Social Psychology. Her work has been featured in Time, Forbes, Huffington Post, PBS News Hour, and US News & World Report.

Megan received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Central Florida. She earned a doctorate in communication from Arizona State University.

Jack Harlow

Jack Harlow has spent his entire career managing people—writers, that is. As a developmental editor with the Association for Talent Development, Jack works behind the scenes with notable subject matter experts—such as Clark Quinn, Karl M. Kapp, and the Focus on Them contributors—to develop book concepts that resonate with readers.

Just like managing direct reports, Jack's role empowers him to apply ATD's ACCEL model: He applies a human-centered culture of accountability with authors and other stakeholders. He leverages his experience with language to communicate clearly and build trust. He adopts a collaborative mindset to coach authors through the publication process. He applies the latest findings around workplace apathy to engage authors. And finally, he listens to authors because their stories are the ones worth telling and he wants to see them all shine.

Before joining ATD, Jack served as an editor for Communications Development Incorporated, an editorial and design house in Washington, D.C. There he filled a jack-of-all-trades role as proofreader, copy editor, content developer, and project manager on economic and development reports for the World Bank and United Nations organizations.

Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Jack lives with his wife, Casey, and three pets Obi-Wan, Wookiee, and Barney. He has a masters in publishing from George Washington University's College of Professional Studies and a bachelors in English language and literature from the University of Maryland.

About the Contributors

Hunter Haines

Hunter Haines, MS, ACC, CPLP, ODCP, is a senior organization development and inclusion consultant at the University of Maryland Medical System and president of People Leading People, a company that provides leadership and team coaching. Hunter is known for her compassionate and results-oriented approach to helping leaders and teams achieve exceptional results. She challenges leaders to be intentional about their leadership practice and to maximize their impact on individual, team, and organizational performance.

Hunter has worked with (and learned from) leaders and teams at organizations including Exelon, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, and Johns Hopkins University. She is a mentor coach for the Maryland University of Integrative Health and a Certified Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coach. Hunter graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in business, an MS in applied behavioral science, and a graduate certificate in change management.

Hunter holds the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) certification from the Association of Talent Development (ATD) and is a past-president of ATD Maryland. She is an Associate Certified Coach and member of the International Coach Federation (ICF). She

supports both ATD and ICF in promoting the professional talent development and coaching communities in Maryland, where she lives with her family. Hunter can be reached at hunter@peopleleadingpeople.com.

Timothy Ito

Timothy Ito is currently a vice president at the Association for Talent Development, overseeing the content and digital marketing division of the organization. Previous to ATD, he ran the content marketing group for ASCD, including oversight of the business and revenue strategy for ASCD's digital properties (website, video content, mobile applications, and e-commerce). Tim's career has also included stints at America Online and Netscape as the product and strategy lead for AOL e-commerce in careers and real estate, and running the business operations for Netscape Japan and the Netscape International channels.

Tim is a former senior editor and producer at AltaVista and washingtonpost.com, and was a reporter and writer for U.S. News & World Report magazine. He began his professional career teaching English at a Japanese High School in Tokyo, Japan.

Winsor Jenkins

Winsor Jenkins is president of Winsor Jenkins & Associates, which is based in Portland, Oregon. His company specializes in talent development, including coaching.

Winsor has spent more than 30 years with three publicly traded companies, which has given him the knowledge, insights, and tools to help people and organizations achieve results. As a leader who served in senior human resources positions (including vice president) and contributed to the professional development of business executives at all levels, he brings a deep understanding of what it takes to lead in today's changing global business world.

Along with holding coaching certifications from the Hudson Institute of Coaching and the International Coach Federation, Winsor is a certified facilitator in several best-in-class leadership development training programs including Situational Leadership II, as well as various assessments used in training and coaching such as MBTI and Polaris 360. He has a bachelor of science from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Idaho.

Winsor is the author of The Collaborator: Discover Soccer as a Metaphor for Global Business and also serves as co-designer of the training program The Collaboration Game. He has written articles for the Soccer Journal and The Journal of The Human Resources Planning Society, along with writing blog posts for the Association for Talent Development.

Michele Nevarez

As head of leadership programs and strategic partnerships for key step media, Michele Nevarez is leading efforts in the development and forthcoming release of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Coaching Certification and Training Program. She is also an adjunct faculty member for Cultivating Well Being in the Workplace: A Neuroscientific Approach, a program co-developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business and Center for Healthy Minds, based on Richard Davidson's New York Times bestselling book The Emotional Life of Your Brain.

With a focus on positive organization development, Michele is passionate about helping companies align business strategy and tactics to organizational purpose and values. Specializing in coaching highly driven executives and professionals, Michele leverages emotional and social intelligence to help leaders tap into their self-efficacy by developing self-awareness, focus, and resilience.

Michele brings more than 20 years of HR leadership and C-suite experience working for industry leaders in healthcare, manufacturing, investment management, and management consulting. A founding member of Rangjung Yeshe Institute, an international university based in Kathmandu, Nepal, Michele has practiced mindfulness-based and contemplative training for the past 25 years. She has a BA in religion from Bryn Mawr College and an MS in positive organizational development and change from the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University.

Ken O'Quinn

Ken O'Quinn is a communications workshop leader, a corporate writing expert, and an author and speaker for ATD. His professional business writing and management communication workshops have helped thousands of business professionals around the globe improve their communication skills.

He started Writing with Clarity following a journalism career with the Associated Press and now conducts workshops for corporations throughout the world. He is the author of Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill) and Business Writing for Managers (ATD Press). His clients include Facebook, GE, Chevron, Dell, KPMG, Cisco, Campbell's Soup, Oracle, the Gap, SAP (worldwide), Dow Chemical (China), Fidelity Investments, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Reebok.

Ken speaks at many business conferences, and his writing has appeared in Fast Company magazine, the New York Times, the Harvard Management Communication Letter, and the Journal of Employee Communication Management.