Welcome to the 12 days of management.
This series will start on the 12th. of December and end on the 25th. of December.
 
You guessed it: I have used the structure of the 12 Days of Christmas to look at what we in middle management can receive and give (Thanks to Rosa Say for making giving and receiving the December theme for Joyful Jubilant Learning).
Each post will have 2 days of management:

The odd number days focus on what I receive from my manager
The even days focus on what my employee give to me. 

The last two days will be posted on Christmas day.
Of course my name …read more

Don’t get me wrong, I love fun at work I just resent when someone says we must have FUN at work. This is when I feel like one of Michael Scott’s (NBC television show The Office) employees who are coerced into engaging in FUNtivities.

My Master’s thesis was on humor in counseling. Humor and playfulness are my top signature strengths according to both the VIA Signature Strength Survey and my children. I am not dour and sour – I love to play, but don’t tell me to play. Most imposed FUN reminds me of the analogy of the dead frog to explain a joke — explaining …read more

How do the people you manage feel about you? Do they love you or leave you?
How do you feel about the person who manages you? After another unproductive meeting do you curse your fate and feel hate for your manager?
Bruce L. Katcher along with Adam Snyder have written 30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking and What You Can Do About It.
The book is divided into 5 parts:

Employees are treated like children
Employees aren’t respected
Employees aren’t receiving what they really need
Employees feel unappreciated
W-O-R-K has become a 4-letter word

The book helps you understand why employees are not happy and …read more

I was cruising through the Internet, minding my own business, when suddenly I see a link to a site that says “Nobody should work with a jerk! Make sure you’re not working for an abusive or bad boss.” I clicked the link and came upon eBossWatch. As a manager, I thought to myself, “Am I on this list? Is someone I know on this list? Is this real?”
Quickly, I typed in my name. Whew, nothing for me.
I typed in my boss’ name. And my boss’ boss’ name. And others I knew. Not one hit.
Maybe we’re really all great managers, just …read more

This is a question for any fountain pen aficionados out there: how do you jumpstart your ink flow after letting your pen rest overnight (or a couple of days)?
This has always bothered me, and I’ve tried a variety of solutions. The “lick it” trick (over and over until the ink flows freely); the dip in water trick; the clean-the-nib trick; the work it with tissue paper until the gunk is gone trick; etc…
Is there a one size fits all solution for getting your ink flow moving in the morning?

Gleaned from my personal experience as a boss, here’s one way to approach this:

When the boss is out of the office on Friday, call them up and appeal to their sense of safety. Tell them that one of their employees needs a new desk in order to prevent injury. The boss’s desk is the only one that’ll work. If the boss is a total pushover, like me, it’ll be no problem. The boss might put in a gentle word to please, whatever desk I end up with, just put everything back where it was so I don’t have to …read more

Hey, social events in Portland are heating up these days, but if you’re still looking for something interesting, Lisa Haneberg is coming to town on Sunday, May 20. We’ll be having dinner at Gustav’s near Washington Square. Meet at 6pm, done whenever we’re done. Dwayne was gonna come too, but he’s gotta go to Prague. Bummer for Dwayne, eh? Being a rock star tech exec takes it’s toll, I guess. :-)
Lisa is kicking off a cross country motorcycle tour in support of her newest book, but we’re just meeting for dinner and good conversation–no book pressures. Come on by and …read more

Just airing a personal peeve here. Many people use the word “obvious” too liberally. If it really is obvious, then there’s no need to point that out (obviously). If it isn’t obvious, then saying that it is will likely not have the effect of making you look smart, but rather have the effect of irking the person you’re talking to.
But all that kinda makes it sound like there’s not an obvious time to use the word, doesn’t it? It might not be obvious to everyone, but sometimes you can hedge a bit when you use the word rather than simply …read more

I’m on vacation and not really keeping up with things, but Ron at BrandCurve sent a note around about Kathy Sierra getting some very uncool comments on her blog. There has always been a segment of blog culture that thrilled on being edgy and controversial. Sometimes for the links, sometime because they really believe what they write. In either case, the stuff that Kathy is getting hit with is beyond the pale. Kathy notes an ongoing police investigation, and I’m glad to see that.
Frank Paynter (mentioned prominently in Kathy’s post, and cleared in an update at the bottom), writes that …read more

Jeffrey Phillips tagged me on this meme, so I’ll be a good sport and participate. I guess I’m supposed to list five things that aren’t generally known about me:

I wear a bone conducting hearing aid
I’d rather be surfing
I taught English in South Korea
I’ve bungee jumped (3 times!) off a bridge in Washington State
I’ve climbed Monkey Face (the “easy” way (I’m not one of the climbers in that video, but that’s the route))

Now I get to punish tag five other people. Let’s see… How about Eric Mack, Raj Setty, Jamie Notter, Dwayne Melancon and Ken Flowers.