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Tag Archives: leadership
Always Ask the Zeroth Question About Your Projects
© 2012 Johanna Rothman Sometimes, you wonder why you are doing this project. You spend all this time on it, you’re sure there isn’t much value from the project, and still, the project is on the top of your manager’s … Continue reading
Stop That Mole Now
©2010 Steven M. Smith Do you have a mole undermining the work of your team? Someone who constantly complains privately to any teammate who will listen but refuses to bring that same complaint publicly to the team? Someone whose actions … Continue reading
Make Your Mission Possible
Copyright 2008 Johanna Rothman, originally published in Better Software Janice strode down the hall and made a sharp right at a cubicle decorated with dragons. “Hey, Steve, got a minute? I need your help with a problem.” “Janice, the last … Continue reading
The Blame Game
©2007, 2009 Don Gray and Jerry Weinberg Engelbert watched Pam nervously chew on her knuckle as she stood in the door of his office, answering his call. “Come in and close the door.” He motioned her to a seat, then … Continue reading
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Tagged career, collaboration, Dealing effectively with conflict, Individual, leadership, management, Organization, Systems Thinking
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The Technology of Cooperation
©2009 Gerald M. Weinberg, www.geraldmweinberg.com IT professionals must be good team players, but what does that mean? For one thing, it means they must know how to come into a situation and quickly cooperate and gain cooperation, but cooperation takes … Continue reading
Choosing Facilitation
© 2003 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com Meetings are a fact of our lives. Most of the time we don’t need a facilitator to help move our meeting along; we can manage to accomplish the goals of the meeting without a formal … Continue reading
The Appreciation Gap
©2004 Esther Derby In a recent workshop, I described an exercise for expressing appreciation. “That won’t go over here,” stated Patty, one of the managers in the workshop. “These are engineers; they don’t want that mushy stuff. Besides, they know … Continue reading
Advice for Software Development Managers
© Gerald M. Weinberg, 2004 www.geraldmweinberg.com Software Development Magazine recently interviewed Jerry. Here are some of his answers. Q: What’s the most important piece of management-related advice anyone has ever given you? GW: If you blame your employees, you’re a … Continue reading
Safety Check
©2005 Steven M Smith He is wearing his traditional garb — dark suit, white button down shirt, red tie, and black tasseled shoes. The glare off his wire rimmed glasses makes it difficult to see those steely blue eyes. Harry … Continue reading
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Tagged Communication, Facilitation, Feedback, leadership, Problem Solving
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Convincing Management That Context Switching Is a Bad Idea
© 2005 Johanna Rothman (This article previously published in Better Software.) The last few times I’ve taught project management, I’ve explained that multi-project context switching wastes time. The project managers agree with me. But then they ask the question, “How … Continue reading
How 2 Buddy
©2004 Johanna Rothman www.jrothman.com Introduction If you’ve hired new people or transferred people into your group, you know that they’re not immediately productive when they start. If you’re lucky, they start to be useful in a month, but you most … Continue reading
Planning for Technical Management Time
©2005 Johanna Rothman I recently spoke with a manager who’d just incorporated another group of four people to his original three. “I was doing fine with my three people before I took over this group. I had time to manage, … Continue reading
Managing the Group Meeting
©2003 Johanna Rothman, www.jrothman.com Does your staff look forward to flu season so they don’t have to attend your group meetings? Are you looking for ways to escape your manager’s meetings? Boring group meetings tend to be a result of … Continue reading
Multiprojecting: The Illusion of Progress
©2005 Johanna Rothman This article was originally published on Stickyminds.com Your CIO has two projects he wants finished in the next month. “We can share this project manager and that test team on both of these high-priority projects,” he declares … Continue reading
How Much Work Can You Do?
Developing and Managing Your Project Portfolio (c) 2005 Johanna Rothman This article appeared previously on stickyminds.com. I meet many managers in the course of my work, and they all share a common complaint: They have too much work to do. … Continue reading
Do We Have to Choose Between Management and Leadership?
©2006-2007 Esther Derby This column originally appeared on stickyminds.com In a recent discussion on the state of a software company, a programmer declared, “We don’t need managers around here, we need leaders!” I’m always puzzled by statements like this. “How … Continue reading
What’s Your IQ?
©2002-2003 Esther Derby, www.estherderby.com People who work in software are smart people. We take pride in our ability to understand complex information and solve difficult problems. What about that other IQ, our Influence Quotient? To some of us, influence is … Continue reading
The Exception is the Rule
©2005 Gerald M. Weinberg The other day, I was trying to help a client (let me call them “StartupCompany”) mired in conflicts, exceptions, errors, anomalies, lapses, modifications and other deviations from the norm. These annoying exceptions were playing tricks with … Continue reading
Managing in Mayberry: An examination of three distinct leadership styles
©2001 Don Gray and Dan Starr Near the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, not far from where you think it should be, there really is a town called Mayberry. Although the main highway bypassed the town years ago, the … Continue reading