people management

Articles

The Power of “Pull” Conversations

My team has been looking for ways to make sure we understand what our business stakeholders really want from each software feature that we develop. We felt that we had to solve a basic communication problem but didn’t know how to approach that.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
 Have an Objective Ranking System Management Myth #5: We Must Have an Objective Ranking System

An objective ranking system is unnecessary when trying to determine an employee's value, and it can even be detrimental to collaboration on teams. Providing feedback, facilitating knowledge building, and allowing them to contribute are three key ways to help your employees excel in their roles.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Tips for a Productive Workday

Some days you leave work feeling as if the day went by without an inkling of progress or productivity. Other days, you leave feeling as if you conquered the world, with an internal spark of satisfaction and anticipating resuming progress the next day. So, what is it that makes the difference?

Nirav Assar's picture Nirav Assar
The Problems with Overachievers on Agile Teams The Problems with Overachievers on Agile Teams

Using an amusing medieval tale with a modern twist, Andrew Fuqua and Charles Suscheck tackle the dilemma of dealing with problematic overachievers in your agile team.

Management Myth #4: I Don't Need One-on-Ones

One-on-ones aren’t for status reports. They aren’t just for knowing all the projects. They are for feedback and coaching, and meta-feedback and meta-coaching, and for fine-tuning the organization. If you are a manager and you aren’t using one-on-ones, you are not using the most important management tool you have.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
The Weighing Scale Management Myth Management Myth #3: We Must Treat Everyone the Same Way

One of the biggest management myths is, “I must treat everyone the same way.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone has different goals for their career, and those change over the course of a career.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Heard and Valued: Three Short and Useful Bits of Advice for Improving Your Leadership Skills

Yogi Berra famously said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” In this article, Payson shares some of what he’s learned about leadership just by listening. Learn how transparency and iterative improvement can maximize the results of great leadership.

Payson Hall's picture Payson Hall
On Beauty, Quality, and Relativity

The saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” rings true whether you’re staring at a centuries-old painting, listening to a busker’s music reflect off the tiles in a subway station, or testing software. It’s one thing to evaluate quality, but how do we evaluate how we evaluate quality?

Zeger van Hese's picture Zeger van Hese
person on podium We're Not "Special"

Often, when I comment on someone's blog post or respond to a tweet with a story about how my team succeeded with some practice, someone replies, "Yeah, but your team is special." I interpret this as meaning, "You're a presenter and book author. You must be an expert, so of course your team can do anything." This frustrates the heck out of me.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
Management Myth #2: Only ‘The Expert’ Can Perform This Work

How many times have you seen this in your projects: You need something specific done such as a new database, or a specific user interface designed, or you need a release engineer, or a user interface designer, or a part of the system tested and the normal person who does that work is not available? What happens on your project? Does it wait until The Expert is available?

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman

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