How to guides

Let Your Team Take Care of the Monkeys

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What is all this talk about Monkeys you may ask?  Well, the article is inspired by one of the most famous management articles written in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) back in 1974 called Management Time – Who’s Got the Monkey?

I think this is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed in their career no matter what your level is today.  I actually only read this article 5 years ago and found the examples and advice still very relevant today.   In this week’s article, we will talk about tips for managers – why you should leave the Monkeys to your team and focus your time more on Gorillas.  Monkeys and Gorillas are basically animated analogies to represent small and large business problems your company is facing. ...  read more

Five Behaviors to Avoid as a Manager

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bad manager

We often hear about the skills we should develop when we transition from team member to manager. What we seldom hear is that we need to UNLEARN some behaviors in order to transition into effective managers. Some of the things that made us excel as a team member can be the kiss of death to our performance as a manager. Here are five behaviors to avoid as a Manager: ...  read more

#4 Most Common Mistake People Make at Work

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life is an echo

It took me about six years to learn how not to make this mistake at work. In some ways, I am still learning how to avoid it, as my instinct as an engineer and an overachiever is to tell people that I am right when I feel that I am right. 

You may say, “if you are right, why can’t you tell people so?” Well, I can tell you right now, even when you know you are right, it’s better not to lead with it unless you don’t care about breaking relationships. Guess what? No one wants to be told that they are wrong, especially in front of other people. ...  read more

#1 Secret to Career Success

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resilience

What do you think is the #1 secret to career success is?  You may say good communication skills, people skills, or a pedigree education.  Well, I would argue that there is another skill that is critical to your career success above all else: a self-management skill called Resilience – the ability and courage to recover quickly from unexpected situations and adversity. ...  read more

Recovering from a Work Setback – Dos and Donts

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I had an important meeting to lead yesterday. After six months of managing this project, I was hoping this meeting would be the final one needed to get there necessary agreement from all the key business stakeholders. Everything was looking good — we already went through 4 rounds of feedback, and addressed all the concerns voiced over emails or on previous calls. Some of the key stakeholders that I thought would have serious objections were now big supporters of our reject output. This last meeting was just going to be a formality to put the bow on the final product. ...  read more

Dealing with Difficult Personalities – What Not to Do

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difficult-personalities

How should we deal with difficult personalities?  I have been thinking about how to write about this topic for three weeks now.  I realized it’s hard, because there are so many potential dimensions and scenarios to this question:

  1. Who is this person that you consider “difficult” – a senior executive, boss, peer, colleague, customer, vendor, or support staff?
  2. What is your definition of “difficult” – does this person appear elusive, rude, incompetent, belligerent, passive aggressive, unreliable, back-stabbing, etc..?
  3. What do you need to accomplish with this person, but it’s been “difficult” – are you trying to get information, delegate work, reach a common goal, get a buy-in, etc…?
  4. What could you accomplish if this person stopped being “difficult” – would you get more done, have less stress, feel happier at work, etc.?
  5. What are the risks to your job if this person continues to be “difficult” towards you – tense work environment, slow work progress, cannot work around them, etc?
  6. Does this person seem “difficult” to everyone, or just you?

I decided to use one of my past experiences with a “difficult personality” to illustrate how we can deal with these types of situations.  At my last job, I had to work well with a lot of cross functional colleagues in order to get information and achieve results.  I remember the first meeting I had with a new colleague (let’s call her Anna).  Anna is a data team lead who provided invaluable data analysis for my projects.  She had a great reputation for being smart and excellent at her job.  I also met her casually in the hallway, and thought she was quite nice. ...  read more

Most Common Mistake People Make at Work

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upward management

The most common mistake that people make at work is not obvious to most people. Some may not find out that they are doing this for many years. The most common mistake people make is failing to dedicate time to manage upwards. Upward management is never listed in any job description, but I can assure you that it makes all the difference to the speed of your career progression. No matter what your position is in the business world (business analyst, project manager, VP), upward management is essential to your success. ...  read more