This is Johanna Rothman’s October 2025 Pragmatic Manager newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. I happened to see a recent review of Practical Ways to Manage Yourself that made me laugh. (I don’t normally read book reviews because once I put the book out into the world, that book is […]
This is Johanna Rothman’s June 2025 Pragmatic Manager newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. All my clients are dabbling with AI. They’re using it to think about more, such as generating more features in a backlog so each person can do more. Or more code with vibe coding. Or even
This is the July 2024 Pragmatic Manager Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Years ago, as a director, my VP, Fred, told me there was no money for raises. I looked at him and asked, “Really? No raise money? Even though all the senior managers just went for
I don’t know of anyone who likes layoffs. However, they are one tool in your management toolbox. But so many layoffs don’t return the results the managers expect. Worse, the layoffs alienate the previous employees and the survivors. And the customers? If your customers can tell you laid people off, you won’t get the business
Any time we mess with people’s money, status, or ability to work, we create emotions—for ourselves and the other person. As managers, when we offer a job or a promotion, those emotions tend to be happy. But layoffs? Those emotions are rarely happy—for anyone. If we try to bury those feelings, we might appear as
The news is full of this “quiet quitting” idea. Supposedly, employees are doing just what the work demands and no more. That sounds reasonable to me. (See the blog post, It’s Time to Clarify Work Boundaries and “Quiet Quitting.”) I don’t see why people should do “more” than a day’s worth of work in a day.
The news is full of this idea of “quiet quitting.” That’s where people do just what the job requires and not more. Well, I have a contrarian view: Why do managers think it’s okay to ask people to do more? What is it about “more” that managers want? In Practical Ways to Lead and Serve
Dan, a Vice President, worries that his teams work more as individuals than as teams. He’s a physically active guy and decided that teams can choose from these activities: a zip line course, a hike up and down a local mountain, or an escape room. But when he suggested these ideas to one of his
Tim, the Engineering VP, was worried he would lose people after their reviews and salary changes. He didn’t have enough money to pay the salaries he thought everyone deserved. He’d fought with his fellow VPs for more money, but that didn’t work. He had a too-small pot of money to distribute. He had these problems:
Modern Management: Start with Congruence to Change Your Culture Do you want a more effective organizational culture that delivers more agility? Maybe you’ve tried agile framework for teams or products. While you’ve seen some improvement, you’re not where you thought you’d be. Instead of focusing on practices or team principles, consider changing your culture to