Soft skills

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

Trust Yourself and Take Your Own Path

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I turned 40 this year.  I don’t know about you, but in my 20s, I always thought that 40 year olds were very responsible people. I also thought that 40 year olds seemed to know what they were doing — they seemed to have life more figured out. They were usually married, with a house, career, and 2.2 kids. At that time, I may not have wished to be old, but I wished I and life more figured out. ...  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

Don’t Care Too Much at Work

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It may sound counter-intuitive for me to recommend that you shouldn’t care too much at work.  However, after reading this story, hopefully you can understand and appreciate why you should not care too much, if you want to accelerate your career success.

On Monday, I had a morning phone meeting with one of the data team leaders who was doing some reporting for our enterprise level initiative.  I was not looking forward to it, as the lead person is one of those less-than-competent folks I mentioned in my recent article, How to Deal with Others’ Incompetence.
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#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

Transition to Managing People is a Roller Coaster Ride

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roller-coaster

If you want to advance in your career, advancement to people management is an important milestone to achieve.  It takes 5-10 years to get promoted to manager.  That’s like the initial climb into a Roller Coaster ride.  The top looks wonderful and it’s thrilling to keep climbing up and up the team member ladder until eventually you reach the day where you are promoted. ...  read more