Modern corporate environments demand new forms of personal sacrifice (bit). Make an ultimate sacrifice by naming your child as your company name (tip).
Examples: <Your Company Name>ina, <Your Company Name>in, <Your Company Name>a with generic catchalls Companin and Companina.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
Customer Facing skills are important (bit). What equally important are Support Facing skills (tip).
Support facing skills are vital to get the best response from support and manage customer support expectations (what they expect from you, what you expect from them you already know). One way to learn support facing skills in relatively mild manner is by purchasing your company product while you are still employed (especially in support).
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
Research shows that employee productivity rises for the next 30 minutes after receiving salary increase or a bonus (bit). Condition this timing for an employee to have the maximum impact (tip).
For example, in these 30 minutes an employee may generate an idea that secures a company’s future success or ensures that a project finishes on time with less budget.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
Previously announced book (publication date is 1st of September, 2010) now got preliminary front and back covers.
Front cover:
Back cover:
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
“… those people who are really good at what they do and yet are at the bottom of a management hierarchy have a power that no one else in the hierarchy has. They can’t be demoted.”Robert Glass, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering
Understanding and overcoming resistance is one of the tasks of a manager. A public performance (transcript) of the manager is different from an inner transcript and the same can be said about transcripts of engineers. I now recall that in one of my previous companies I worked for, a senior engineer was telling one recently hired junior colleague in a private setting (canteen) to always tell VP of Engineering how he loves the work. I recently became interested in analysis of managerial domination and of various forms of hidden resistance and stage performances of subordinates and internal pressures they experience. Doing my research I stumbled across this book on Amazon and bought it:
Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts
The book is written in almost jargon free style and highly recommended as a stimulating and refreshing read to remind about additional perspectives on relations inside teams and engineering organizations, between customers and their relationship managers (inverse domination).
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
If you move to work in another country it is always useful to read about local workplace norms, redundancy regulations, various employment acts and other smart knowledge. If you happen to be the native of that country then you should prefer to read such books as well. More than 8 years ago when I moved to work in Ireland I bought this guide (one of the previous editions):
Today I was visiting a local bookshop and browsing the bargains section where I found this book written by the same author and immediately bought it. “Exit” chapter is recommended to read during the current turbulent times in Irish economy.
Smart Moves at Work in Ireland
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
A definition:
This is a people manager who abdicates and becomes one of former subordinates to increase customer satisfaction in crisis times when no head count is available.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
The title of this post employs an operating system metaphor for a team member as a thread in a process (team). I recalled this morning a book that I was reading 3 years ago and dug it from one of my dark dusty office corners:
My Job Went to India: 52 Ways to Save Your Job (Pragmatic Programmers)
I think it is relevant in this economic downturn if you replace India as an empty set or empty string: My Job Went to “”.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
From time to time it is useful to have formal thank-you-for-your-service letters emphasizing how customers need your services for day-to-day running of their business processes and / or during their critical situations (bit). Have ready templates for asking about such letters (tip).
Follow-through prioritized service requests with feedback templates. If there are no critical issues schedule periodical questionnaires. When people ask you for a service-favour request a letter clarifying how your service-favour reply helped them to do their business.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
To my shame I have never read the famous book “AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis”. Being interested in antipatterns which I often figure out myself in the practical domain of software technical support (see Crash Dump Analysis AntiPatterns) I looked for the most recent collection of the management ones and found this book which I’m reading now:
In addition to their own patterns, the authors of the book provide the description of Brown’s antipatterns (the book mentioned earlier, “AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, …”), provide two tables for easy antipattern identification in an organization or a team (Management Antipattern Locator and Environmental Antipattern Locator), list and comment on Myers-Briggs personality types, discuss Keirsey temperament groupings and Bramson’s human personality phenotypes. Highly recommended. I especially liked “All You Have Is a Hammer” antipattern of which I was guilty myself during my earlier Team Lead role experience.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ ManagementBits.com -
