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The week before WWDC is a good time to remember that it won’t always be like this. Take a deep breath and…

What do you do? Seriously, on your business card there is a title. Say it out loud. “Senior Manager of Engineering” “Industrial Data Analyst” “Human Factors Specialist” Is that what you actually do? Try this: think about the last four hours of your job and give yourself a title. Mine would be “Sr. Meeting Wrangler”… more

The first few days of any significant overseas trip, I’m a jerk. It’s not just the jetlag that’s poisoning my attitude; it’s the lack of context. I get twitchy when I don’t know where my stuff is. Combine that with the fact that no one is speaking English, there are two toilets in the bathroom,… more

Twelve days in Europe has revealed the following: Drinking good red wine with every dinner mellows you out Hanging in Italy and France during the World Cup is the only way to understand what soccer means to the rest of the world. My first night in Italy was the day of the USA versus Italy… more

Ed: The last day of Deconstructing Managers week. It all started on Day #1. What happens when they lose their shit? Pride and panic. The two delicious ends of the management spectrum. Pride is when it’s going swimmingly. Great product release, selling well. Hired that phenomenal guy from the other group who is going to… more

Ed: Day #5 of the Deconstructing Managers week. Day #1 is where this whole piece begins. Back at Netscape, Internet Explorer was threatening, but we were under the illusion the sky was not falling. We were merrily planning the next release of the browser under the assumption that Microsoft was going to somehow screw-up their… more

Ed: Day #4 of the Deconstructing Managers week. Day #1 sets the stage and is a good place to begin. How does your manager talk to you? My first piece of advice to all new managers is “Schedule 1:1s, keep them on the same day and time, never cancel them.” With this mind, some of… more

Ed: Day #3 of the Deconstructing Managers week. If you haven’t a clue what is going, I’d suggest starting with Day #1. How are they compensating for their blind spots? Now we’re going to pick on your favorite manager. Tell me about him. Probably a great communicator, funny guy, charismatic, you say? He probably inspired… more

Ed: This is Day #2 of the Deconstructing Manager’s piece. Day #1 might help you figure out what is going on here. I am not going to explain what your manager does all day. Sorry. I am going to hand you six critical questions that you need to answer in order to figure out if… more

Ed: This piece is long. Really long. Like 16 pages long. For the original publishing, I’ll be serializing this piece into six days of management deconstruction. Enjoy. Back in February, I asked the question “Who is the worst person you worked for?” If you print out the responses in a smallish font, you end up… more