by Esther Derby | May 29, 2005 | The Rest
When companies adopt Agile methods, management roles shift. Team manages their own work and managers focus on system problems. The manager’s stance toward the team moves to facilitative leadership and away from hierarchical leadership. For managers who have been...
by Esther Derby | Sep 4, 2003 | The Rest
I was talking the other day to a friend of mine, Tom, who was promoted into management last year. Tom’s story is not unusual. In fact it’s quite common.Tom was the top technical contributor in his group– he had the deepest knowledge, best skills, and...
by Esther Derby | Aug 7, 2003 | The Rest
The other day I was talking to a friend who is trying to accomplish the work he used to do with a staff of three with just himself and one other (junior) person. “We’re all stretched so thin that if one person takes a day of vacation, it’s a...
by Esther Derby | May 5, 2003 | The Rest
Oh, dear. Oh, dear.Sunday afternoon, as I was getting ready to fly out to visit a client, I cast about for some airplane reading. I found a thin little book called Managing Your Boss, by Sandi Mann.In the section titled “Emotional Management,” the author...
by Esther Derby | Apr 18, 2003 | The Rest
How could I have forgotten that classic: They’re all number one priority! Usually uttered in response to a question like: What’s the top priority? In this case, the speaker may not know what the top priorities are. Or he may believe that ranking the tasks...
