I’m teaching my older daughter how to drive, and I now realize why inexperienced drivers are so dangerous. They are inconsistent and unpredictable, because they are inexperienced. I can’t help her gain experience by making a list of all possible situations and explaining what she has to do. I have to generalize. Right now, […]
My colleague, a senior manager, is inundated with too much to do. Hundreds of emails, seven of hours of meetings every day, hundreds of emails, hiring the next level managers so he doesn’t have to backfill, project portfolio management, and backfill of those management roles not yet filled. My colleague is trying to manage
I was reading Hiring Great Hackers, and I realized what went wrong in the places I’ve worked who hired great hackers. (In this case, a hacker is not a derogatory term, it’s someone who lives and breathes producing great software — just not software that yet has a customer base.) The problem was the
In general, technical people don’t seem to make great managers (unless they’ve been trying to become great). A result of that is what Reifer says in his IEEE Software (May/June 2004) column Catching the Brass Ring: “software professionals aren’t often tapped for top corporate leadership positions.” He goes on to say “executives of my
Now that I’m back from vacation, I’m catching up on my reading. I enjoyed David Anderson’s Management versus Leadership on ‘The Apprentice’ which prompted me to think about what I would have done in Kwame’s place. It took me a long time to learn, but a manager always has the option of firing people who
Because I work for myself, I frequently miss things like Secretary’s Day or Boss’s Day. This year I almost missed Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work day. When the Ms. Foundation started Take Our Daughters to Work day, many colleagues poo-poohed it. “Who needs such a thing?” But a funny thing happened. Girls started
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 their managers. But the key here is that a technical person should be looking to
I’ve been thinking about Martha Stewart and her felony conviction this past weekend. I use this quote in the hiring book: “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don?t have the first, the other two will kill you.” — Warren
I’m editing a chapter in my hiring book, and the original sentence reads: …managers amplify the work of other people … The editors have suggested that amplify is the wrong word, and suggested “facilitate.” I’m still thinking about this. Managers do facilitate the work of other people. They also make their staff more effective.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Dale’s post about managers needing to appreciate the work. Appreciation isn’t enough, unless I’ve misunderstood Dale’s post about John Levy‘s quote. To be an effective manager, you have to understand how the work is organized, how to prioritize the work, how to assign the work, how to give people