As an employee gains experience, they also develop their sense of accountability. The first two levels of accountability involve completing their work and following through on commitments. The next level is influencing others to create change. Without formal authority, this often means nudging and persuading people to take action. The third level is about making…
Who Prioritizes Your Work?
If your leadership won’t prioritize your work, you need to prioritize your work.
When Companies Lose Their Soul
Some companies have more of a soul than others, and it often comes down to their humanness. I understand that companies need to make money, but sometimes the things that get cut to boost the bottom line are exactly what make a company special to work for. I once worked for a company that started…
Cutting Through False Urgency
Too often, I see people use false urgency and artificial deadlines to pressure others into helping with their projects. This creates unnecessary stress across the organization. We need to teach healthier ways to collaborate and develop processes that reduce the need for excessive ad hoc teaming. When I need help, I prefer to appeal to…
The Hidden Cost of Mistakes
Recently, my department has been blamed for mistakes that actually originate outside of our team—mistakes we cannot control, at least on the surface. It is embarrassing to be associated with these errors, and frustrating to be blamed for them. However, the real issue is that this situation makes my department’s work more difficult. With repeated…
Who Owns Your Time
Sometimes we schedule weekly one-hour meetings. After several weeks, we realize we don’t need the full hour, and someone suggests reducing it to thirty minutes. Then someone else says, “I like having the full hour blocked so no one can schedule another meeting.” Think about what that means. If the time is freed up and…
The Hidden Role of Coordination and Alignment in Management Layers
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,…
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…