I taught a management tutorial at the Better Software conference this week. One of the points I discussed (and asked participants to discuss) was delegation. The managers in my tutorial said they ran into these problems when trying to delegate: Being too concerned with how the delegatee did the work, not the results. Wanting people […]
I’ve been watching, reading, and listening to the Katrina coverage over the past week. And the one thing that stands out for me is my perception that there was a lack of disaster planning. I’m not going to play the blame game–there’s plenty to go around. But here are the questions I would have
I’m in the middle of a new activity for me: visiting colleges with Daughter#1. (She’s a senior in high school, trying to decide where she wants to attend school next year.) When I was thinking about college (university to those of you across the pond), my father told me I could go up to
In the past few months, I’ve been teaching a variety of project management and hiring workshops. And (surprisingly to me), we’ve had discussions about whether someone is a manager or a lead. Some organizations have an aversion to calling people “managers.” Instead, they call them “leads.” One organization called their project managers “people lead.”
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 this question: Do you need to speak in order to think (extravert) or to think before
Technical people and their managers get caught in this myth all the time. And there’s a good reason for it. For the first few years of a technical person’s career — in fact until the person moves into management — each technical person is evaluated on their technical skills. When a star technical person moves
The full title of this management myth is: “If I just do a great job, the organization will run like a well-oiled machine.” Nothing like setting yourself up for failure, eh? Let’s unpack this myth. First, organizations are made up of people. And, let’s assume that they all come to work wanting to do a
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 not helpful. But people, even the most introverted people, need a relationship with their manager
This one hooks me all the time. I certainly try to be my best at all times. And, when I’ve worked for companies, I want to make them the best, too. But here’s the sad truth: you don’t have to be the best. You just need to be better than your competition. That said,
I’m crazy-busy with the finishing of Behind Closed Doors, so I’m starting another series of blog posts, this time about management myths. (When I’m in a series of posts, it’s easier for me to stay focused on writing a post every or every other day.) I’ve worked with many managers and teams who think