I’ve been writing a series of management myths this year. I didn’t realize when myth #3 went live and #4 went live yesterday. Management Myth #3: We Must Treat Everyone the Same Way and Management Myth #4: I Don’t Need One-on-Ones are up. Please leave comments over at Techwell.
One of the biggest management myths is, “I must treat everyone the same way.” In our organizations, we have career ladders that try to fit us into “ticky-tacky” boxes for promotion, assume that everyone brainstorms the same way, and that everyone likes the same kind of projects. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone
I recently spoke with a colleague who’s a little confused. John was just promoted to being the development manager in a small organization. He’s used to doing lots of work—whatever needs to be done, he does. Now, he’s managing 6 developers in an organization that’s trying to move to agile. No, they haven’t had any
I’ve written before about getting organized, especially when it comes to cleaning up my office. My breakthrough came the last time, when I realized I’m the kind of person who needs to see everything out that I’m working on. Same with my to-do list. (See Cleaning Up the Office, Round 3.) I use paper for
Since Esther and I started advertising our One-on-One workshop, I’ve been hearing wonderful stories about how managers and team members have benefited from one-on-one meetings. Here are some: A tester said he’d been ready to give notice when his manager started doing regular one-on-ones. WIth the advent of one-on-ones, his relationship with his manager
Via Keith’s A Few Good Posts by Ed Gibbs, I read Better Feedback Loops With One on Ones. Sounds like one-on-ones are helping Ed and his team. Last week, I had dinner with a manager (also using Scrum) who has had great results with one-on-ones. It’s always nice to hear positive news about a
A new-to-a-company manager explained this situation to me recently. She’d overheard something like this recently from one of her team members. So you’re working in a place where it seems as if all the managers are Bozos. But you like the work and you like the people, and you know nothing lasts forever. After
Contents: This month’s Feature Article: Using One-on-Ones to Build Trust Announcements =-=-=-=-=- Feature Article: Using One-on-Ones to Build Trust A colleague of mine just arrived at a new company as a manager. He’s inherited a group where management was (and still is) a dirty word. Due to some of the previous managers’ actions, the technical
Contents: This month’s Feature Article: Becoming Comfortable with One-on-Ones Announcements =-=-=-=-=- Feature Article: Becoming Comfortable with One-on-Ones Last month’s feature article was about building trust with one-on-one meetings. In response, a reader mailed me this question: “How long should it take to become comfortable with one-on-ones?” Ok. Here’s the standard answer: It depends. It depends
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