April 24, 2016
Lily And My Empathy Breakthrough
Last week I published an article about the importance of a manager cultivating and showing empathy. I send out articles…
April 17, 2016
Empathy Isn’t A Dirty Word For A Manager
TL;DR? Watch the 1 minute summary below.Many teams tolerate “brilliant but difficult” people. I have little time for them. I don’t see the point of having someone who can carry 20 gallons of water if they’re pushing over the people…
April 17, 2016
The Danger Of Being An Accidental Coach
TL;DR? Watch the 1 minute summary below.A tech company CTO, Dinesh, recently asked me whether he should fire a product…
April 10, 2016
Boss Life : A Leadership Story Never Told
TL;DR? Watch the 1 minute summary below.Many leadership and management books come from big, noteworthy businesses. Fortune 500s, celebrity CEOs,…
April 4, 2016
Jeffrey Pfeffer’s Nihilistic Masterpiece On Leadership
Jeffrey Pfeffer’s new book, Leadership.B.S, came to me as a holiday gift. I’d noticed the striking yellow cover and red stamp on…
April 2, 2016
Perks. Why Tech Companies Have It So Good
Life of Luxury Perks. Employees at tech companies have it so good. Google employees get high quality food for breakfast,…
March 28, 2016
Inexpensive Ways To Show Employees You Care
A few years back, I found myself in an argument with our IT department about standard equipment and refresh policies for my team. They wanted us to move off Macs and standardize on Windows, use small monitors and buy new…
March 27, 2016
It’s Time To Leap, With Seth Godin
If you aren’t familiar with Seth Godin. Type the word “Seth” into Google. His blog is the first result, ranking…
March 27, 2016
Mental Resilience Is A Raft On The Ocean
Think of mental resilience as being a raft. Everything happening around you is the ocean. At first your raft is a few planks of wood,…
March 22, 2016
Three Words Every Manager Should Say To Their Team
Here’s the scene... I have just taken on the largest team I’ve ever managed. I have prepared for this challenge diligently. I know where I want to take the team and how we’re going to get there. Because I believe…
March 22, 2016
Self-Management Has A Go-To-Market Problem
My good friend Josh Allan Dykstra recently wrote a piece called The Future Of Managers, Is No Managers in which…
March 4, 2016
Practicing Acceptance In The Rain
Acceptance is the art of being at peace in uncomfortable situations. When things aren't going our way we try…
March 2, 2016
Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek
I can’t decide if Simon Sinek is a brilliant author or just skilled at pointing out the blindingly obvious. If…
February 23, 2016
Employee Conflict Is A Matter Of Perspective. The Parable of Talia Jane and Stefanie
Talia Jane Have you had to resolve conflict or a difference of an opinion between two team members? If you haven't, you will eventually and you need to learn that conflict resolution isn't about finding out who is right or…
February 21, 2016
14 Concepts For A New Manager
There are a lot of books and articles about "how to be a manager". Being an effective manager doesn't have…
February 20, 2016
Cultivating The 4 Types Of Transparency In Business
We're tackling the topic of transparency within a team or organization. Part one concluded by arguing that transparency is hard because…
February 15, 2016
There Are 4 Types Of Transparency In Business
Questions for the Reflective Manager is a regular column where managers and their employees ask questions about the management topics top of mind for them and their organizations. Send your question to the Reflective Manager at [email protected] The Question Matt…
February 2, 2016
Conversations To Create A KPI
Brad is a Technical Recruiter for a staffing and professional services company. He works in business development and sales, connecting…
February 1, 2016
Story About Anonymous Is A Guide To Self Management
At some point between 2008 and now, you probably became aware of a group of computer hackers going by the…