It’s remarkable how many people are accidental managers. These are people who became managers because they happened to be around when there was a need to put a manager in place. There just as many others who choose to become managers because of dreams of how it “should” be or pressure from family and friends. […]

Managers love pie charts. Unfortunately, my initiation to the Dark Side did not include the Handbook of the Art of Pie Charts. When I see a pie chart in a presentation I usually wonder “What’s up with this pie chart?” or “What is this really trying to tell me?” It usually flashes up on the […]

Wednesday was a very long day, not leaving me much time or energy to write. So today’s post is a reblog of a funny – and educational – post from Ask A Manager from a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been following Alison Green’s blog for several years now and really enjoy and value her […]

Who owns quality for your product? Whenever I ask that question, I am often met with one or more of the following reactions: A blank stare “Testing/Quality Assurance/Quality Control, of course!” “Management.” (lots of variations on that) “Creative/technical leadership.” So, maybe the better question is: Who defines quality?

Have you ever worked with a manager who was a poor listener? Or have you worked with a team that has trouble listening to each other? If so, then you know how frustrating it can be when the people around you don’t seem to be listening. Teamwork is dysfunctional. Debates occur even when people are […]

Mission for today: find one positive thing happening at work and tell people, including your manager, about it. Ever notice how fast bad news travels around the office? What gets shared first: problems or successes? Particularly on difficult projects, most conversations about work tend to be focussed on the problems being solved rather than successes […]