If you are like most people I know, you have way too many meetings. That leads to an overcrowded calendar and delayed decisions. Worse, it means the time you spend in meetings prevents you from doing “your” work, whatever that work is. That’s especially important the more responsibility you have. The greater your responsibility, the […]
Some company is buying your company (or vice versa). Why? They claim it’s “Economies of scale,” and the combined organization will save money by centralizing “overhead” and flattening management. You know who that “overhead” is: the people who support the business, such as finance and HR. And, the managers. Worse, the new management asks managers
Up until a few months ago, my office was a disaster. I had a ton of old data: Paper in reverse chronological order on surfaces (most recent on top). Printed articles to read. Notes from previous workshops I wanted to integrate when I updated those workshops. Over the past year, as I realized the pandemic
Modern Management: What Value Do You Offer? Sherry, a VP, was worried. Cliff, a new director, insisted on keeping his “hands in” the code. Now, she realized Cliff focused more on the code than his director role. And he irritated the team because he no longer understood enough of the technical details. Sherry had offered
A manager said to me, “I’m responsible for this department of people.” I asked, “What does that mean?” He said, “I’m responsible for managing the people. I also define the products and what the people need to deliver.” I said, “That seems like a lot of work.” He nodded. “I’m exhausted. I work all the
I had a terrific time with Scott Hanselman on his podcast, Hanselminutes. Listen to our conversation on Modern Management Made Easy with Johanna Rothman. I started listening to Scott’s podcast a couple of years ago. I regularly listen because he: Selects people I’ve never heard of before Organizes the interview in ways that clarify the
I had fun with Ian Gill on his Agility by Nature podcast: A Conversation with Johanna Rothman about the Modern Management Made Easy books. We laughed a lot. (Partly at me. I am the Queen of the Career-Limiting Conversation.) We spoke a lot about what managers can do in practice as opposed to theory. And
I had a terrific conversation with the two Jeffs at the Agile Wire. See Modern Management Made Easy with Johanna Rothman for our recording. We touched on many topics in the Modern Management Made Easy books: The system of work How fast can managers learn? How managers can facilitate the work of others and much
There’s a twitter conversation about how to manage team compensation. How can we pay people what they are worth and compensate a team for their value? I know there are teams where I was quite valuable—not because I was “the” leader, but because I helped the team achieve our goals. And, there are teams where I
I’ve met many managers who were in the wrong position. Sometimes, it was the Peter Principle. Sometimes, it’s managers who have been founders or who have been technically great and got promoted into management positions. Because they are so intelligent, and because they do not read about management, they don’t know or don’t care about