Have you ever walked away from a meeting thinking you had just witnessed a thing of beauty?  It does not happen to me very often, but I was fortunate enough to witness that twice this year.

Now that we’ve established the realities of being a manager, what are the real rewards?  Being a manager is a tough job, so what keeps us going?  It’s not power, money or being able to get your own way all the time and you’ll likely be expected to lend a hand to the team from […]

Often in professional development discussions young team members bring up the topic of becoming a manager.  My first question is always, “Why?”  As the conversation continues, I usually have to practice the 5 Why’s to get to the heart of the matter and I can share the truth about being a manager. As a manager, […]

Improving team engagement and motivation has been a hot topic for me this week.  It has become clear that the team at one of our suppliers is not performing as expected because the team’s engagement with the product and the job is not where it needs to be.  They are doing the functional part of […]

After three weeks of discussion on how to get a job, I thought I would conclude with a post about the other side of the job relationship:  the break-up.  A young engineer I am mentoring, who recently quit his job, wrote: I felt that like any break up it doesn’t pay to tell the person […]

This “motivational poster” shows how a bit of positive feedback goes a long way!  My Audio Director was on the ball (as usual) and I responded with “You’re awesome!”  He took a screenshot and quickly whipped up this poster and sent it to me, much to my delight.  This five minutes of jovial feedback even […]