-
Johanna’s Books
Tag Archives: one-on-one
Management Myth #7: The Talkers are Competent
I don’t know how many managers tend to be extraverts (in the Meyers-Briggs sense of the word), but I suspect more managers tend to be more extraverted than introverted. If you’re not sure which one you are, ask yourself … Continue reading
Management Myth #3: It’s All About the Work
Too many technical managers think that if they assign people to good work and leave them alone, people will be happy. It’s true that people need challenging and interesting work. And it’s true that micromanagement or other interference is … Continue reading
Schedule Game #2: 90% Done
I was a fortunate young developer. In my first three months at work, I ran into the 90% done schedule game. I did it to myself. I estimated a particular task was going to take 6 weeks. Of course, … Continue reading
Posted in schedule games
Tagged inch pebble, iterative planning, management, one-on-one, transparency
6 Comments
Spending Time With the Schedule or the People?
In one of my classes earlier this week, one project manager explained that he spent an entire day each week working the Gantt chart in a scheduling tool. He has a project of roughly 20 developers, a few testers, … Continue reading
Succession Planning or Working Yourself Out of Job
In Who Wants to be a Technical Lead? I promised I’d talk about succession planning. Here’s the general idea: as someone who works for a living, your job should be to work yourself out of your current job by learning, … Continue reading
Coaching is a Management Obligation
Managers have an obligation to coach employees to help employees obtain better performance. However, managers choose when and whom to coach. Managers also have an obligation to provide feedback — which is not a choice. Every employee deserves feedback … Continue reading
Who Wants to be a Technical Lead?
In his comment, Rich explains, “I am directly managing 12 employees and 14 contractors doing application support and maintenance for something like 12 or 15 software products. I have most of my old team, and 6 other teams. I have … Continue reading
Posted in HIring the Best Knowledger Workers
Tagged leadership, management, one-on-one
Leave a comment
Ask for More Value
David Anderson has an intriguing post, Lawyers, Unit Tests and Performance Reviews. David says “Individual team members can be set specific goals and behavior objectives…” and gives examples. I prefer that team members set their own goals with input from … Continue reading
Visible Progress
Rick commented on my last post that some engineers think that status checking slows them down. Mark said that engineers push back on demos and pointless measurements and then said in another comment, “progress metrics can always be free.” … Continue reading
One-on-Ones: Just as Necessary for Managers
Last week at the Software Development conference, I met a software director. His group, a total of about 30-40 people (I’ve forgotten the exact number) is responsible for all the software his company produces. He has two managers managing … Continue reading
