Management

You’re sitting at your desk, daydreaming about the vacation you’re taking next week. You’ll get to sleep in, drink fruity drinks with umbrellas in them, and use your phone for jealousy-inducing selfies, not just sending frantic work emails at all hours of the day and night. It sounds downright blissful… until your boss walks through

A few years ago, I worked with a graphic designer named Vanessa. She was brilliant, creative, and outstanding at her job, which proved to be her undoing. Vanessa was invariably a part of our higher-stakes projects because her work was of such a high quality that she made the entire team look good. She never

Have you ever disagreed with someone about something and had to resort to conflict management? Probably once or twice, right? Disputes are happening all around us. There are so many differing opinions and beliefs across the world it’s nearly impossible to avoid conflict at all times. But even though these disagreements arise, it doesn’t mean

As I write this blog, I’m recalling my very first corporate job. I had my own office, but it had no windows, the fluorescent lights clicked and buzzed nonstop, and every available surface was covered with piles of paperwork that probably made more sense to the previous occupant than it did to me. Toda, we’d

It’s 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, but the paperwork is piling up on your desk and incoming emails are creating a to-do list that will be longer than your arm by Monday. To make matters more complicated, you aren’t sure how to properly distribute this workload among your team. Who is too busy? Who isn’t?

Did you know the word MANAGEMENT is synonymous with the word DIRECTION? With each new year, every project manager should take a close look at the figurative compass of their business to ensure they are staying on the proper course. When it comes to project management, being even one degree off your path can have

Work styles involve the way people interact with each other, think, and get things done. No style is better than any other style. For any team to thrive, it needs different people, ideas, and work techniques. When managers hire new team members, they have to decide if the individual’s style will work well with everyone

The department is mostly empty because everyone has gone to lunch. Your annoying co-worker is still there, though, humming loudly to the music piping through her earbuds, so you slowly cross the office floor.  This time you’ll do it, you tell yourself. Kristin is a nice enough person, but she’s been coming to work an

Theodore Roosevelt once described an ideal manager as one who has the good instincts to hire the right people and enough self-restraint to keep from interfering with them while they work. That one sentence illustrates the fine line between being an attentive manager and a micromanager. If you’ve ever had a micromanaging boss, you’ll know

“Can I give you some feedback?” At one time, I used to absolutely hate that question. Why? Because I worked for a boss who really meant, “Do you have time for me to tell you what you did wrong?” For him, giving feedback meant criticism. When new employees would complain that he never commented on

If you’re a manager, sooner or later you’re going to have to fire someone. Guaranteed. While it’s never fun, some experiences are more draining than others. As a manager, I’ve fired employees for no-brainer reasons, like falsifying timesheets and routinely calling in sick when their Facebook profiles showed them at a friend’s afternoon pool party.

Are difficult problems part of your daily life at the office? If so, stand up and wave your hand because I think we work at the same place! I manage projects at a creative agency, and it seems like every time I log into my email, there’s yet another large problem to deal with. For