Posts

The easy way to have difficult conversations

Most people don’t enjoy having a difficult conversation with someone else, leading to procrastination, sugar coating, or even hinting through emails or texts instead of having a real conversation. This only makes the situation more difficult and frustrating for all parties involved.

But what is it that makes a conversation difficult to begin with?…

Never shoot the messenger

Getting bad news is always hard, especially when they are unexpected. We may feel frustrated, angry, or plainly sad.

It’s OK to feel this way. What’s not positive is to react in a way that will hinder our action and our awareness of future bad news…

Understanding your deal-breakers

People are very different from one another and management styles are too.

You should always strive for being able to work with as many different types of people as you can. There will be some people with whom you don’t feel comfortable working. That’s ok. The important thing is that you identify why and create your list of deal-breakers for...

How to do 1:1 meetings properly

Manager-reportee meetings are extremely common practice these days. Once a month you meet and have a nice conversation discussing how work is going and how things are at home.

If that’s your regular 1:1 agenda, you might have a lot of upside in changing things up a bit…

How to create a career plan

Developing a career plan may seem difficult. Sometime we feel there’s no time to sit and do it, or that there’s no certainty of the future; so why bother with a career plan that we will never accomplish.

The beauty of a career plan is not following every step on it without question. The key is to have a guideline...

Must-ask questions for one-on-one meetings

1:1s can be one of the most enjoyable parts of people management. It’s the place you can get real with your team members and build the base of your relationship. The tone of the meetings will have a significant impact on the work you do. If you are having trouble finding the right questions to engage with your team, try...

How to survive performance review season as a manager

In most tech companies, clearly assessing the quality of work done by the employees is one of the top priorities for managers. Companies want to create a meritocratic culture. If you don’t know how to compare two employees’ performances to one another, there’s no way you can ensure merit, right?…

How to give feedback the right way

Nail your next feedback meeting with your reportees by applying some basic feedback principles…

Observations vs Judgements

What are observations and judgements and how can you use them to give better feedback?…

Marketing Basics

Marketing may have different meaning in different contexts and companies, but it always boils down to drawing people into your business. Or does it?…