by Esther Derby | Sep 6, 2011 | Leadership & Management
“A talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while there is determined by his relationship with his immediate... 
by Esther Derby | Aug 12, 2011 | Collaboration & Teams, Leadership & Management, Systems and Complexity
How can managers support teams to truly support team responsibility? In the early days of Agile, some pundits (and developers) declared, “We don’t need no stinking managers.” They asserted that if teams were self-managed, management work was waste.... by Esther Derby | Nov 11, 2010 | Collaboration & Teams, Leadership & Management, Systems and Complexity
The answer is (of course): “It depends.” Self-management is a spectrum, not a point. How much self-management is right for a team depends on that team. I see many teams in small companies and start-ups who self-manage. They set product goals, make... by Esther Derby | Oct 21, 2010 | Collaboration & Teams, Leadership & Management
Sometimes, wanting to give a team space to take more responsibility, managers step back. Sometimes too far back. However, a too hands-off approach can be just as bad as micromanaging. Both inhibit learning and effectiveness. A Struggling Team I recently worked with a... by Esther Derby | Sep 7, 2010 | Coaching, Collaboration & Teams, Leadership & Management
I talk with many managers–and some coaches–who complain that their teams can’t function without a leader. “Leader,” in these conversations, usually means someone who set standards, assigns work, tracks progress, tells people what to do. That is not...
