In the last post on Career Stages, I described a few key attributes for evaluating career progression that organizations and/or individuals need to take care of if they want to effectively manage the career, esp. of their senior employees. Low engagement level, 'through others' contribution mode, and # of real working hours are key points … Continue reading Why do we work – when organizations care about careers
Category: Manager
Why do we work – Career vs. Needs Hierarchy
I have been talking to many working professionals over past few weeks about their need to work and what they seek from work. This post (and the next one) summarizes my observations and theory around what I hear. From a career and motivation perspective, there are 4 levels of employees in an organization: Entry Level … Continue reading Why do we work – Career vs. Needs Hierarchy
New Managers: moving from 1 report to 5 reports effectively
You were a management understudy and had a report (or 2) to test your management abilities. Now your manager thinks you are now ready to be a manager and you now have 5 reports. Congratulations! Once celebrations are over, you start thinking: is this going to be any different than before? Do my strategies for … Continue reading New Managers: moving from 1 report to 5 reports effectively
Effective 1-1s – Fostering trust and creating no-harm zone
Effective 1-1 is the cornerstone of a successful management career, and acquiring necessary competencies in order to have a great 1-1 with your reports is a great career enhancement technique. I have referred to this topic many times in my posts and have couple of posts devoted to this topic (see Managing 1-1s and Effective … Continue reading Effective 1-1s – Fostering trust and creating no-harm zone
Comparing management experiences in US, China, and India
I have been working in China for last 18 months or so, with one of the largest software MNC here. During this period, I have (very briefly, 3 months) been an individual contributor and rest of time I have been a people manager. Having been a people manager in India and US in the … Continue reading Comparing management experiences in US, China, and India
High-performance teams – Do they need leaders?
Recently I attended a training which highlighted some of the differences between team and workgroups. The discussion started with the team definition. The definition used was the one from 'Wisdom of Teams' book: A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach … Continue reading High-performance teams – Do they need leaders?
What do leaders/managers give to organizations?
This is performance review time, and naturally I am thinking about what I have done over the past year as a leader/manager to warrant any reward. It is always hard to figure this out, because all the work is done by an Individual Contributor, and so it is hard to be objective when evaluating the … Continue reading What do leaders/managers give to organizations?
Managing Careers
Here is the background on this series, and here is the previous post on this series (Managing Expectations). This is the final post in the series, and this tackles perhaps the most important question of all: Ravi needs to help people in his team build and grow their career as they work under his guidance. … Continue reading Managing Careers
Managing Expectations
Here is the background on this series, and here is the previous post on this series (Managing Work). In this post, we are going to try answering the question: How does a manager as important as him (and holding as many resources) manage expectations from other senior managers and executives without over-committing his team or … Continue reading Managing Expectations
Managing Work
Here is the background on this series, and here is the previous post on this series (Managing 1-1s). In this post, we are going to try answering the question: While Ravi is the smartest guy and the leader in the team, he is also the bottleneck. How can he manage his work (delegation or empowerment … Continue reading Managing Work
Career Bloom 