One of the primary reasons for layers of management in an organization is coordination and alignment (C&A) across the business. When systems and processes for C&A are lacking, the work of C&A must be handled manually, which requires more layers of management. Sometimes this happens because leadership has not put the right systems in place,…
Category: Miscellaneous
Are You Unknowingly Part of the Problem?
“How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?” — Jerry Colonna Are you part of the problem? Do you contribute to the things you dislike at your job—such as meetings, emails, and more?
Leadership Means Owning the Hard Choices
When I hear a leader say they need to do something for their metrics, it raises red flags. Metrics can indicate that action needs to be taken, but the right actions depend on the situation. Sometimes, doing the right thing means your metrics will be off. It is also the manager’s responsibility to bear many…
You Don’t Have to Say “Yes” to Everything
It’s healthy to push back on your leadership when necessary to do the right thing. You don’t want to do this all the time, but when leadership requests something that doesn’t make sense, it’s important to explain why. This helps develop your relationship with them. They begin to see that you’re a critical thinker who…
Want to Make Big Changes? Start by Nailing the Basics
If you build your manager’s trust, you’ll be allowed to make the changes you believe are needed—but it takes time. When you first start in a role, your manager wants you to stay in your lane and get really good at your core responsibilities before expanding and trying to do more. This can be difficult,…
Outperform, Don’t Outwork
Think of yourself as a professional athlete. Your sport is using your brain in specific ways to achieve goals at work—executing day-to-day tasks, making decisions, creating plans, developing novel solutions, and solving problems. If you want to excel in your job, consider the best ways to manage your body—because your brain is part of it—to…
Stop Waiting-Make things happen
Stop letting the winds of others’ requests blow your priorities back and forth. Make things happen—stop sitting and waiting for things to happen to you. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait for others to hand you tasks or find projects for your development. Be willing to say “no”—to your own ideas and to others’ requests.…
Why Managers Can’t Tell You Everything
As managers, we have to keep certain information confidential, such as personal details about others. As a manager, I can’t share everything with my employees, but I will tell you as much as I can. I’ll also let you know when there’s something I can’t disclose—unless I’ve been specifically instructed not to say anything at…
Too Stressed for Change? That’s Exactly Why You Need It
There’s a saying: If you’re too stressed for meditation, then you need meditation. How about, if you are too busy for process improvement then you need process improvement? Are you shooting yourself in the foot by always believing you’re too busy for activities that could actually make your job easier? This might include implementing process…
Balancing Help and Growth: A Manager’s Dilemma
As I grow as a manager, I’m realizing that I need to focus on developing my employees. This process isn’t as straightforward as one might think because there’s no step-by-step plan to follow. Each employee is at a different stage in their development, and they may not even realize they need development. On top of…
Sometimes you just have to sit down and color
I borrowed the title from phrase a friend says when we have to do things as described in this post. Thanks E.R. Sometimes we have to do things that don’t seem to make sense—such as attending a meeting that feels like a waste of time.This is often due to the complexity of the organization. The…
Before You Solve It, Define It
I find that engineers often jump to solving a problem without clearly defining it first. When they come to me for help, I ask them to state the problem. At that point, they usually hesitate and struggle to articulate it. I work with them to define the problem verbally, and once it’s clearly stated, they’re…
Optimizing for the Whole, Not the Parts
You cannot build a high-performing company with everybody self-optimizing.” — Robert Glazer We must always ensure that a process improvement benefits the business as a whole. If an improvement helps a small group but negatively impacts the company overall, it should not be implemented. The reverse can also occur—sometimes a company makes an improvement that…
Initiative Over Recognition: The Path to Promotion
Employees who consistently earn promotions don’t wait to be assigned projects. They identify areas for improvement and take the initiative to fix them. It’s as if they have an internal drive to solve problems—not for recognition, but because they genuinely care about making things better. On the other hand, employees who ask for projects often…
Your Job Needs Maintenance Too
Periodic maintenance isn’t fun. It would be much better if you could just drive your car without ever needing to change the oil. Getting a new roof on your house, painting, replacing your car’s tires—all are forms of periodic maintenance. You have to do them to keep things working as they should. Yearly reviews, project…
The Difference in Leadership Capital When You Become a Manager
Leadership capital is a concept from the book Extreme Ownership. “Think of the amount of influence you have on the people around you as a bank account. Leadership capital represents the funds available in that account.”— Echelon Front As an individual contributor, your leadership capital is limited because no one is directly obligated to follow…
Before You Escalate: Have You Tried Talking?
I often have team members tell me that someone hasn’t responded to their email, and they expect me to address the issue. I ask if they’ve tried calling or speaking to the person directly, and this suggestion often seems like a revelation to them. One person even told me it must be a generational thing…
Growing as a Manager to Develop Team Members
Growing as a manager can be challenging. While there are countless books outlining the obvious responsibilities of a manager, the most difficult areas for growth are often the ones you’re not even aware you need to improve. For example, when I first started as an engineer, I read Executive Leadership by Elliot Jacques, which described…
Metrics and Updates Are an Important Part of Your Job
Providing updates and supporting metrics is part of our job and helps us keep our job by ensuring the organization works together. As much as we might wish otherwise, we cannot work independently. We will always need to communicate with others and adjust our activities to minimize the impact on them.
Pockets of Reducibility and the Work We Can’t Control
In engineering, we’re taught that we can simulate certain physical processes using equations—but only within limited conditions. This limitation exists because there are simply too many variables to model every possible situation. Stephen Wolfram refers to this concept as “pockets of reducibility”—specific areas where we can model our world with some success. Outside of these…