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 giggle. (I don’t normally read book reviews because once I put the book out into the world, that book is […]
Barney, a senior manager, said, “I need everyone to return to the office. I’m okay with what they’re doing, although I miss the buzz of people doing the work. But I don’t know how to build the human connection with them when they’re not here.” I nodded. “You’re always telling me to have empathy with
I’ve been talking with a very sharp leader about how that person uses the ideas of risk and technical debt. I’m paraphrasing, but the leader said something like this: “We realize we need to incur some technical debt. So we explain that we choose to include the debt as part of our risk mitigation. That’s
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
Do you know what to say when it’s time to lay people off? The first time I had to lay someone off, I had no idea what to say. However, if you have a reasonable context, you (or HR and you) can create a script you can use to make a layoff a respectful and
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
We’re pretty good at knowing when someone is a good fit for a technical role. But how do we know when someone is ready for technical leadership or management? That’s a lot more difficult, and that’s because leadership or management—at any level—is a different job than working in the technology. Here are some ideas based
Dan, a CIO, needs the teams to work faster. The customers are moving away from the company’s products. If they can recapture the customers, the company will succeed. If not? Layoffs loom. Dan demands the teams start more work. And he demands they finish the work faster than the teams think they can. Even when
You need a senior person at a meeting. The meeting is supposed to start at 2 pm. The leader strolls in at 2:15. When leaders act this way, they show their power. When I’ve asked why the person is late, they often say, “I had another meeting that ran long.” While that’s what occurred, people