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Category Archives: Management
Get your own team
Your company likes to promote from within. One day you come in to find that management has recognized all the leadership you’ve been providing and has promoted you to your first position as a team manager. Congratulations!(?)
Keep it simple, make it fun
I’ve received dozens of performance reviews over the years and yet only really one stands out. What made it different? It took place over a pair of ice cream floats at a quiet, private table in a restaurant near our… (read more)
Removing Roadblocks
One moment your team is efficient and effective and the next moment: they’re at a dead stop. What happened? Someone hit a roadblock.
Watching a frog jump
How do you decide whom to hire? Do you rely on your recruiter? Does HR call the shots? Do you interview and then call their references? Let’s say you’re hiring a juggler or a chef—would you hire either without watching… (read more)
How big is it?
Recruiting for a role can be a powerful tool to let your people grow and mature in their abilities by delegating to them certain tasks and responsibilities to stretch themselves. It can also be cause for resentment, especially in “volunteer”… (read more)
Breaking up the team
Last month I wrote about Team Development and the four stages a team goes through reaching high levels of performance. There are some who would add a fifth stage, Adjourning, that would follow the previous four. This stage covers what… (read more)
References
As a hiring manager, I always call a candidate’s references. I always ask for them and I always contact them (with a candidate’s permission). These references tend to give the shiny version of the stories and so I also use… (read more)
Yes, and . . .
How many times have you said “Yes” to a request, only to regret it later? Many of us like to please our coworkers (and especially our bosses), but always saying “Yes” to a request puts you on the fast-track to… (read more)
A Charles Dickens Management Lesson
In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a ghost grants Ebenezer Scrooge the chance to look back into his past and see a company holiday party that Fezziwig, his employer at the time, threw one year. Scrooge observes Fezziwig and his… (read more)
Getting over the hump
I had lunch with a colleague this past week and the subject of long, large-effort projects came up. Projects with a big “hump” keeping you from finishing easily and quickly. (see graph) He manages a small team of folks who… (read more)
