Category: Management

Last update on

11 Better Ways to Manage Teams Without Tedious Meetings

As a firm evangelist of the values of asynchronous communications, I’m strongly opinionated when it comes to meetings. Meetings are not all evil. I’ve covered some workarounds for meetings (when necessary) and several reasons to set up a meeting. But beyond that, meeting creep is so prevalent—especially in the context of remote/hybrid environments—that productivity and work satisfaction are almost non-existent right now.  According to a study led by Microsoft, virtual meeting hours increased by 252 percent. As a result, today’s experts (including me), are full of suggestions for improving meetings or simply how to avoid them. I have two businesses… Continue Reading
Last update on

22 Self-Improvement Areas for Effective Leadership

As a manager, you need to be an exemplary leader in order to help your organization grow. There are lots of leadership traits that define great managers. Most of them are hard to observe and investigate unless you know what you are looking for. In this piece, I will uncover some of the most important traits that we look for when hiring intrapreneurs and top talent internally, as well as the main areas to work on with individuals and managers for professional self-improvement across different organizations. 1. Defining Success In order to be successful, you first need to figure out… Continue Reading
Last update on

How to Manage Difficult People in Your Team

One of the biggest problems new managers face is juggling team management with other responsibilities. According to an analysis by the Center for Creative Leadership, about 68% of new managers struggle with this problem. In team management, managers mainly deal with difficult people and challenges involving underperformers, skills mismatch, slackers, and workplace conflicts. Although workplace conflicts resulting in confrontations are quite common in most companies, not all managers are adequately trained in handling such problems. This is particularly true for the 60% of new managers who have claimed that they never received any form of training in transitioning into their… Continue Reading
Last update on

How to Handle a Resignation by a Key Player on Your Team

Handling resignations can be a tough process especially when it’s the top employees who are leaving. Searching for the best replacement for that soon-to-be-vacant role is the most challenging part of the process. So, as much as possible, you want to prevent them from leaving and ensure that employee turnover remains acceptably low for your company. There is a very common fallacy stating that people don't quit jobs, they quit managers. That's definitely the case in many corporations and large organizations with tens of thousands of people and tons of different management layers. Managers are important. But in large organizations,… Continue Reading
Last update on

Managing Interruptions And Boosting Work Performance During Crisis

Digital businesses were forced to move fully remotely during the social isolation of COVID-19. But this is one of the worst experiments of "testing out remote working". Employees experience different dynamics at home. Kids are home-schooled (or babysitters are no longer available). Social contacts are non-existent. The biological weapon creeping out there keeps everyone alert. So do you still think that coronavirus is the best social experiment for assessing a distributed company? Remote Work In COVID-19 Times Enter the world of interruption science. Different studies under interruption science report that interruption during productive hours may take 15 to 45 minutes… Continue Reading
Last update on

Creating an Employee Performance Review and Feedback Workflow

Resilience is my number 1 hiring trait.  As a manager, you will have ups and downs with your employees, and your feedback should reflect this. It's not about harshness or power play, mind you. Receiving critical feedback may be absolutely devastating for juniors and many introverts.  However, your options are very limited and you don’t want to do any of the following that might only jeopardize the entire company: Stick to praising (missing out on improvements)Prolong tough times until it becomes unbearableSugar-coat problemsLook for a replacement because a civilized conversation is unlikelyDeliver feedback and receive a resignation letter the morning… Continue Reading
Last update on

Employee Motivation Strategies For Managers And Executives

What determines “progress” in terms of employment? Progress is defined by focusing on a higher goal without having to constantly worry about day-to-day needs (food, water, shelter, clothing). Those are the basic survival needs. Until you are sure that those are taken care of, your mind constantly switches back to the urgent needs at hand which are the absolute minimums for survival. A business organization employs that same process, but on steroids. Considering that the paycheck covers the basic needs and then some, employees must feel safe, comfortable, and motivated at the workplace. However, the reality is that employees may… Continue Reading
Last update on

12 Productivity Frameworks And Tools For Effective Management

Over 50,000 US users search for “productivity” in Google every single month. When you add the long list of queries around productivity tips, productivity apps, productivity planners, and other forms of definitions around the term, we’re ranking over 300,000 total searches across the board. We are all eager to fight procrastination and maximize our time. Best-case scenario, deliver more in less time, reduce stress and the tedious backlog at the end of the day, and get better at everything we do: professionally and personally. Productivity Trends But here’s a fun fact for you. Productivity has always been a chore. Humankind… Continue Reading
Last update on

5 Business Process Challenges For Project Managers

Management and ownership are different. But are these truly incompatible? Successful business owners and entrepreneurs have simply struggled for a continuous period of time, juggling with anything and everything from legal and accounting through sales and marketing, IT, operations, recruitment, branding, management, negotiations, to name A FEW. This isn't necessarily a great thing if the vast majority of your time goes into dreadful stuff. I always cringe when I need to handle accounting or legal cases for over an hour! Experienced managers, however, are paramount to the future (and the growth cycles) of an organization. Yet, these are rare to… Continue Reading
Last update on

7 Reasons Why It is Difficult to Manage New Projects (Or Inherit an Old One)

What makes projects so difficult to manage? As a project manager, you need to assess the culture, your role, your team, how problems escalate, what your responsibilities are and how to tackle edge cases (delays, problematic team members, running out of budget, handling scope creep, disagreeing with a client, etc.) And within the right environment, everyone follows the company mission statement and the core principles of the organization. This will turn your decision-making process into a quantifiable, well-oiled machine, which should facilitate the team and get the work done. Project management is, in theory, the activity of ensuring a project’s… Continue Reading