Cesar Abeid interviewed me, Project Management for You with Johanna Rothman. We talked about my tools for project management, whether you are managing a project for yourself or managing projects for others. We talked about how to use timeboxes in the large and small, project charters, influence, servant leadership, a whole ton of topics. I […]
“Larry, I need VP approval for this,” said Josh, the director of engineering. Larry looked annoyed. “This is only $30. Why am I signing off on $30?” “Because I have no signature authority on anything. Even though I’m a director, I can’t sign off on any discretionary purchases. I have no capital equipment authorization. I
Workshop Objective: You may have started with technical component teams long ago. You were all responsible for your own teams, as technical leaders. It made sense then. Now, you need to work together, in an agile or lean organization. This workshop will help you learn how to be technical problem-solving leaders, as a team, in
“OK, I’m really glad we can start this management meeting now. It’s time to talk about standardization. I want to create standards for our projects. I want to standardize on agile for all of our projects.” Joseph, the CIO, thought all of his directors would be pleased. “Uh, Joseph, are you telling us you want
Summary: Just because you have a fancy job title doesn’t mean you can manage your team members by bossing them around. Servant leadership is an important skill for managers, as the best managers are those who serve the people who work for them. Belinda, the VP of engineering, gathered her thoughts. I am not looking forward
I once worked for a manager who thought everyone should bow down and kiss his feet. Okay, I’m not sure if he actually thought that, but that’s how it felt to me. He regularly canceled his one-on-ones with me. He interrupted me when I spoke at meetings. He tried to tell the people in my
Bill popped his head into Jan’s office as he was leaving for the evening. “Jan, do you have a minute? I have to do performance reviews tonight. I was going to drink Scotch and work my way through all of them.” Jan laughed and said, “Sure. Scotch might make you feel good, but it will
Sharon poked her head into Heath’s cubicle. “Hey, Heath, are you done yet with that fix?” Heath turned around. “Sharon, you asked me that less than an hour ago. I’m not done yet.” “Well, I need to know when you will be done. Oh, and I need to know if you’re using the design we
Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader You and I both know that we’re not supposed to boss people around anymore, that we’re supposed to be servant leaders. Well, a client asked me, “What the heck is servant leadership?” When you’re a traditional manager, you might have thought of accumulating people and power. If you
When I talk about interviewing an agile team, many people think, “Oh, we should pair!” and that’s it. But, many teams don’t pair regularly. If you pair in the interview and you don’t pair at work, you have an incongruent interview. That’s not helpful to you or your candidate. Instead, you want to create an