October 2007

The Difficulties of Going on Vacation

October 28, 2007

So, I am finally taking a few weeks off, after months of uninterrupted work. This is a vacation with a difference. I am going to stay at home, do whatever I want, and try not to put on too many pounds in the process. To replace hectic work with a hectic travel schedule does not […]

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When Managers and Employees Disagree

October 14, 2007

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine contacted me about my previous post on managing other people and put forward some caveats. He pointed out that the comparison between managers and employees is not quite valid. There are many managers who are quite clueless about the company strategy, while many employees have a […]

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Don’t Manage as if You are Managing Yourself

October 8, 2007

A common mistake of managers is to assume that their employees are like themselves and manage them accordingly. This causes frustration among both the managed employees and the manager. Here are some examples: “I could have finished that work in 30 minutes. Tom has taken much longer and he has done it the wrong way.” “Harry, […]

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Individual vs. Team Productivity

October 4, 2007

Many people define “productivity” as how much you can accomplish in a given unit of time. Using this definition as the basis for higher productivity can sometimes be counter-productive. Consider the following examples: As a product manager, you can start writing up many new product features for your development team. But, if you do not […]

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