Ray Salemi, author of Leading After A Layoff (Oct 26-Nov 6)

Please welcome Ray Salemi, author of Leading After A Layoff: Five Proven Steps To Quickly Reignite Your Team's Productivity. Ray will be chatting on LibraryThing until November 6th.

There is no better feeling than coming home and finding a big box of your newly published books sitting in your office. It is the final proof, in my mind, that the second edition of Leading After a Layoff has arrived.

Leading After a Layoff gives you a 12-week plan that will get your team moving again after the disruption of a layoff. I wrote the book for managers who want to take the concepts of books such as The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First, Break All the Rules, and break them down into a step by step process.

The new edition of the book has twice as much material as the original. I've added three chapters on working with remote employees, plus I've added dozens of management tips.

I've also added my personal model of management-- the five C's: Collaborate, Challenge, Choose, Connect, and Coach. This model fits in with the twelve week program to help you rebuild your team from the bottom up.

I'm happy to answer questions you might have about how to bring your team through a layoff, or about management in general.

Ray, I'm an employee who works remotely. I "speak" with my manager once or twice a week via email. The freedom is nice, but I'd like to get a bit more "face time" to help ensure my position in the company. Tips?

Hi Dwight,

I think the quotes around "speak" when referring to email are appropriate. I find that email is not real communication. At best, it can be used to convey information or summarize a phone call, but it's a very poor medium to build a relationship or influence someone.

I suggest that you try to get some phone time with your manager. If your manager is OK with getting a phone call periodically, I'd suggest finding an excuse to call at least once a week. I would definitely pick up the phone if an email thread goes more than two or three replies deep.

As to ensuring your position in the company, I would consider three questions:

1. Am I doing something that I like doing and do very well.

2. Is this thing that I'm doing critical to the company?

3. Am I in a position to get credit for this critical thing that I do well.

If all three of these areas are true, then you have a good shot at sticking around.

Ray

Thanks ray,

I wrote your points down.