I can turn a phrase. High school journalism is where I discovered this. Mrs. Wickett kept bringing stories to me in my junior year “Needs a clever headline.” I’d read the story and throw out a terse, clever headline. No clue where this ability come from. If I actually think about how I pick the… more
Right now, there’s a CEO standing in front of his 85-person start-up at an all-hands meeting and he’s saying, “In the next 90 days, we need to do the impossible”. The particular version of impossible doesn’t matter. What matters is that everyone in the room is shocked when he says it. You can tell by… more
If you’re wondering about your next job, there are a series of Rands articles that might make the transition easier. First off, there’s A Glimpse and a Hook, which will describe how managers read your resume. Then we’ve got The Sanity Check, which will prepare you for the phone screen. And finally, there’s Ninety Days,… more
There is a long-standing perk for working at high tech companies. If there is a nerd-relevant movie coming out, it is the obligation of management to get a sneak preview for the engineering team. An opening day morning showing works, but has significantly less morale impact than the sneak preview earlier in the week as… more
Worst meeting ever. It’s not that the attendee list is wrong. All the right people are there and they’re bright and they are the decision makers. It’s not that the topic is boring or poorly defined. It’s a big deal. The problem with this meeting is that it’s never going to end. See, about a… more
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
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
Managers, wanna-be managers, and folks who want to understand managers simply need to read the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green and Joost Elffers. I’ve purposely not done any background research on this document because my first reaction to this list was profound and I wanted to stare at that reaction. There’s some pretty… more
The list of reasons folks want to become a manager is varied. I think it looks like this: I want to have more influence over product development. I wanted to try something new and I get along with people. I’m never going to be a great programmer, but I sure know what programmers are talking… more
With the completion of the Fez column, I have enough content to start stitching together a book based off my various management essays. Book publishing has never been a stated goal, but based on the response to many of the articles, there’s a good chance folks outside the webosphere might find my management musings of… more
