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Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
Great management is difficult to see as it occurs. It's possible to see the results of great management, but it's not easy to see how managers achieve those results. Great management happens in one-on-one meetings and with other managers---all in private. It's hard to learn management by example when you can't see it. You can learn to be a better manager---even a great manager---with this guide. You'll follow along as Sam, a manager just brought on board, learns the ropes and deals with his new team over the course of his first eight weeks on the job. From scheduling and managing resources to helping team members grow and prosper, you'll be there as Sam makes it happen. You'll find powerful tips Full of tips and practical advice on the most important aspects of management, this is one of those books that can make a lasting and immediate impact on your career.
172 pages, Paperback
First published September 19, 2005
85 people are currently reading
1,829 people want to read
About the author
Johanna Rothman
41Ìýbooks107ÌýfollowersI provide frank advice for your tough problems in my non-fiction. I write about tough, smart women in my fiction. My heroines have more guts than I do...
Here's the more formal bio:
I consult, speak, and write on managing high-technology product development. I've helped managers, teams, and organizations to become more effective by applying my pragmatic approaches to their issues of hiring, project management, risk management, and people management. I write a monthly email newsletter, the . Please review back issues and sign yourself up.
I'm known for my wacko sense of humor and frank approach. My clients appreciate both!
I blog at , , and . Please do join me there.
Here's the more formal bio:
I consult, speak, and write on managing high-technology product development. I've helped managers, teams, and organizations to become more effective by applying my pragmatic approaches to their issues of hiring, project management, risk management, and people management. I write a monthly email newsletter, the . Please review back issues and sign yourself up.
I'm known for my wacko sense of humor and frank approach. My clients appreciate both!
I blog at , , and . Please do join me there.
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October 18, 2012
Week 1
-Initiate weekly one-on-ones with each person in your group.
-Notice someone doing something well and comment on it.
-Leave your office! The key to MBWAL (managing by walking around and listening) is to notice changes. Become familiar with the normal noise level, decor, and mood. Don't limit yourself to the office area. Stop for coffee in the kitchen area. Eat lunch in the lunchroom.
-Make a list of all the work your group performs, including your own. Use the list to start a project portfolio for the group.
Week 2
-Clarify the goals for your group. See whether you can clearly state the goal of your department. Once you can, see if your boss agrees. Once you and your boss are in agreement about key goals, ask the people in your group how they see the group's goals. Use this to start a discussion about how your group adds value in the organization and what they think the most important deliverables are. Make sure everyone has a clear understanding of the goal you are mutually accountable for.
-Create a first draft of the project portfolio. Clear a wall in a conference room, and using the list of work you created last week, block out the work, week by week.
-In your next series of one-on-ones, ask what people find satisfying about their work. Ask what skills they'd like to work on and whether they want to continue developing their skills in the same job. Be open to people who want to perform different work. Look for ways to support the shift within your group. If someone does want to transfer from your group, analyze the job so you can hire the appropriate replacement.
Week 3
-Assess your group meetings. Are your meetings providing a relevant exchange of information between all the participants? Do your meetings have action-oriented outcomes?
-Provide feedback to each person during one-on-one meetings. Give feedback on something that's going well. If you see a problem, use the one-on-one to provide information on what needs to change.
-Ask yourself whether you've been deliberately avoiding any feedback issues. If so, what's preventing you from providing feedback?
Week 4
-Look for opportunities in your one-on-ones to work with each person to improve their capabilities. Define career goals once a quarter or so; discuss progress toward career goals every week.
-List the people you work with. Now make a separate list of the people on whom your success depends. Wherever the list does not overlap is an opportunity to build a relationship, before you desperately need it.
-Check your blind spots. Are you using gestures or language that reduce your effectiveness? You may want to ask a trusted colleague for help. Eliminate any demeaning or degrading language. Try stating how you feel, rather than acting it out.
Week 5
-Make a list of your group's problems. Identify any that can be solved within your group, and choose one of them as the topic for your next group meeting. The problems you can't solve alone are candidates to work on with your management peers.
-Stretch your group problem-solving skills.
-If you haven't updated the project portfolio in a couple weeks, do it now. An out-of-date project portfolio is a useless project portfolio.
Week 6
-Pry your fingers loose from some task you know you need to give up - and delegate it.
-Persist with your one-on-ones. Find something to notice and appreciate about each person each week.
-Especially if you haven't started, try coaching one member of your team.
-If you haven't yet, ask two or three trusted people for feedback about how you manage your emotions.
Week 7
-Review the practices you've adopted. See whether you can detect any changes in your work and your group's work.
-Review the practices you have not yet adopted. Consider how these practices might change the work you and your group achieve. What's preventing you from adopting these practices?
-Review your management journal. Look for trends or evidence that you are accomplishing more of the important work and reducing the amount of effort expended on low-priority work in your group. Check to see whether you're surprised by work. If you're still surprised by work or still performing work that should be on your not-to-do list, influence your peers to arrive at common goals.
-As you review your management journal, look for times you are effectively managing yourself and times when you are not. What's different in each situation?
Guidelines for Effective Coaching
Unless you can answer "yes" to all these questions, refrain from inflicting help:
1) Could this person be more effective if he or she made some changes?
2) Is the coaching about the technical work or the behaviors related to the job?
3) Does this person want to work on this area?
4) Is this person willing to accept your help?
-Make sure you've provided timely and effective feedback.
-Ask whether the person wants coaching or offer to provide helpful information.
-Engage in conversation to articulate how new skills or behaviors would increase effectiveness.
-Discuss additional options, alternatives, or strategies. People usually choose the best alternative they know - but may have a limited repertoire. Coaching helps increase the range of effective options from which to choose. We have found questions like these help people generate options:
1) What problem are you trying to solve?
2) What are the benefits of taking that option?
3) What could go wrong if you take that option?
4) Who else is affected by that option?
5) What alternatives did you consider?
6) What are two other ways to accomplish this goal?
7) How could we make the situation worse?
8) If we could do only one small thing, what would it be?
9) How would an engineer, marketing person, salesman, or tester (choose a role different from your role) look at this?
10) Where do we get the greatest leverage?
-Discuss the implications of each option. Don't lead to a particular outcome; instead, encourage exploration of each option from the perspective of the person you are coaching. Share your perspective but allow the person you are coaching to select the option that best suits his or her needs.
-Develop an action plan.
-Follow up each week in your one-on-one meeting. Recognize successes. Analyze less successful attempts at trying new skills and behaviors. Look for ways to refine and enhance what did work and correct what didn't.
Setup for Successful Delegation
-Choose your delegatee wisely. Select someone who wants to take on more responsibility and who has identified areas of career development where this work would fit. Don't select someone who is not interested in the work you want to delegate.
-Articulate your expectations about the work: what's acceptable and when you need it.
-Clarify any unacceptable solutions.
-Define interim milestones. If you've delegated a decision, recognize that a decision has at least two parts: generating alternatives and choosing an alternative. Clarify which part(s) you are delegating, and be explicit if you really want a checkpoint between the two parts.
Questions to Ask Yourself
-Is it a discrete chunk of work?
-Does the person have the skills to do the work?
-Does the person have the authority to be successful?
-Does the person have the tools necessary to be successful?
-Does the person know what the result should look like?
-Does the person know when the work is due?
-Do you know how often you want this person to report on progress?
-Does this person know what progress looks like?
-Is this work too risky to delegate?
-Have you set the boundary conditions, e.g., budget, time, and other resources or constraints, for the work?
-Do you have a format for the work product that you want this person to use?
Facilitation Essentials for Managers
-Make sure the meeting has a goal.
-Generate and integrate ideas.
1) Traditional Brainstorming
-Everyone participates
-Write down all ideas for the entire group to see
-No discussing the ideas - compliments or criticism - during the brainstorming
-It's okay to build on others' ideas
-No idea is too wild or too silly
2) Silent Brainstorming
-State the topic focus, review the process, and set a time limit.
-Allow five to ten minutes for each person to jot down at least ten ideas related to the topic. Ask for at least ten ideas.
-Form pairs to discuss the ideas. Have each pair identify their best ideas and transfer them to large index cards. Do the math so that you end up with about thirty-five ideas; e.g., for a group of fourteen, have each pair select five ideas.
-Post the cards on a wall for all to see. There will be duplicates and that's okay.
3) Affinity Grouping (use this after traditional or silent brainstorming)
-Ask the group which ideas seem related, and move those cards close together. Continue asking the question and moving the cards until all the cards are in clusters.
-Name the clusters. The names of the clusters represent the consensus of the group around a particular idea.
4) Evaluate Options
-Evaluate each option on its own before comparing options to each other.
-Draw two lines on a piece of paper (creating three columns).
-List the pros and cons and what's interesting about the option in the three columns.
5) Testing Agreement
-Ask each person to vote on each option using the thumb method (thumbs up = "I support this proposal"; thumbs sideways = "I'll abide by the will of the group"; thumbs down = "I do not support this proposal and wish to speak").
-Allow time for those with reservations to speak.
6) How to Handle the Lone Holdout
-Set a time limit and a fallback decision rule.
a) Turn the decision over to some outside person or group
b) Take a vote
c) Make the decision yourself on the basis of the group input
7) Help Everyone Participate
-Ask for a progress check (e.g., "I notice that we only have twenty minutes left. Can we concentrate on prioritizing the remaining items since we can probably only finish two?")
-Make room for others to speak (e.g., "It looks like Jody has something to say." or "I think we may have interrupted Joe before he was finished. Joe?")
-Restate using different words (e.g., "I hear you saying XYZ. Do I have it about right?")
-Comment on what you see (e.g., "I notice that we're talking about Topic X again. Do we need to reopen that, or can we move back to Topic Y?")
-Summarize (e.g., "Here's what I've heard us agree to. Is that correct?")
Guide to Giving Effective Feedback
-Be specific. Telling a person "This report is exceptional" doesn't help the person understand what was exceptional. "The table of contents made it very easy for me to find what I was looking for in this report" is better.
-Provide feedback as close to the event as possible. Waiting until a year-end review is not helpful. Even waiting until a quarter-end is not helpful.
-Don't label the person; describe the behavior or the result. So instead of saying "Your work is sloppy," say "I noticed the last set of release notes contained typing and spelling errors."
-Don't blame the person; describe specifics. Instead of "You never test your code," say "When you checked these last three changes in, you didn't test the changes."
-Check to make sure the feedback recipient agrees that your description (observable behavior or results) is correct. When the feedback recipient doesn't agree with your data, he or she will check out of the conversation and certainly won't change behavior.
Six-Step Process for Feedback
1) Check whether this is a necessary item for feedback: Does it affect the work? Does it affect working relationships? If not, don't bother with feedback.
2) Prepare to give the feedback. Gather specific examples of recent instances of the problem. Focus on behavior or results.
3) Determine the outcome you desire. Be ready to give corrective feedback or coaching.
4) Deliver feedback privately. Deliver "normal" feedback (appreciations, corrective or coaching feedback) in one-on-ones. When someone is close to losing his or her job, call a separate meeting so the person understands the gravity of the situation.
5) If you have some specific action or result you want, say it. If you're open to a range of possible solutions, engage in joint problem solving.
6) Agree how you'll follow up.
Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) Goals
For setting group goals, consider using a technique called affinity grouping:
1) Frame the question. Here are possibilities:
-What problems did we encounter in the last project?
-What problems have we encountered over the last few months?
-Where do we want to be in six months?
-How do we accomplish this goal of increasing revenue in the next six months?
2) Write down one answer or idea per sticky.
3) Post the stickies on the wall, and group them by common theme.
4) Label each grouping.
5) As a group, develop actions that will help you achieve the goals stated in each theme
Set individual goals in a one-on-one. Individual goals are complementary to the group goals and are tied to the group's mission. In addition, individual goals address each person's specific issues and may include career development goals.
Manage By Walking Around and Listening
-Tell people you're going to leave your office and circulate. Let them know that you'll be asking them questions.
-Leave your office and walk around. Aim for once or twice a week. Daily is great, but we've never met a manager who had the time every day to wander. How long you spend mingling depends. Five minutes is probably not enough. An hour is probably too much.
-Listen to the current conversations.
-Don't interrupt people who are on the phone or who seem to be working intently. One thing we've done is use do-not-disturb signs or red/green flags for people who don't want to be disturbed. This works for other people as well as for you.
-Take your notebook to record action items. As you circulate, people will ask you questions. Record action items, and let people know when you'll have an update. Be careful about walking around silently taking notes. That looks like spying.
-Notice what people ask you. Their questions are a clue about their concerns. It shows you areas where people don't know how to obtain information for themselves or where your communication may be weak.
Run Effective Meetings
Meetings create value when people do the following:
-Plan work
-Solve problems
-Reach decisions
-Share pertinent information
-Provide answers to questions
Meeting organization template:
-Meeting Purpose (the reason you've asked people to spend their valuable time with you)
-Expected Attendees (the people who will make the decision(s) or solve the problem(s))
-Goal (what you expect to accomplish by the end of the meeting)
-Agenda (the steps you will use to reach the goal)
-Roles (any special roles, e.g., facilitator, scribe)
Guidelines
-Use meetings for multidirectional exchange of information
-Create a formal Observer role (attend to listen and learn, not participate)
-Create an agenda
-Keep meetings short
-Distribute the purpose, agenda, and expected outcomes prior to the meeting
-Use a flip-chart page or an agenda on a whiteboard to create the focus for the meeting
-Capture key information during the meeting
-Review outcomes
-Distribute notes after the meeting
-Plan to improve (At the end of every meeting, gather data about how valuable the meeting was for its participants. Use a subjective measure such as Return on Time Invested (ROTI). Using a five-point scale, ask people to report how much value they received for the time they invested in the meeting. Post the ratings on a flip chart, and poll the group. Create a histogram that shows the results. Then ask for information about what made the meeting worthwhile or not. Ask the people who rated the meeting a 2 or above what specifically they received for investing their time in the meeting. Ask people who voted 1 or 0 what they wanted but didn't receive for their investment. Ask what to keep, what to drop, and what to add for the next similar meeting.)
Run Effective Team Meetings
Template:
1) Gossip, rumors, news
2) Problem-of-the-week (the problem that you will work on as a team this week)
3) Review action items
Guidelines
-An hour is usually sufficient for this sort of meeting, but you may need more time if you're working on a significant problem.
-Avoid times when people are likely to be sleepy, tired, or ready to leave for the weekend.
-Here are the reasons we ask for rumors, gossip, and good news:
a) Asking for rumors and gossip reduces the power to distract people by making them explicit. Once you are aware of the rumors and gossip, you can fill in the blanks with real information.
b) Rumors and gossip are an excellent indicator of the mood of the organization, particularly when the organization is under stress.
c) Sharing good news helps improve morale.
-Never ask for individual status in this meeting. Individual status is for one-on-ones. Asking for individual status in a group meeting wastes everyone's time. This is different from asking about status on action items that affect the group.
-Focus on solving problems the group needs to solve together. If you're not sure what your group problems are, you can do the following:
a) Ask the group to brainstorm their current list of problems.
b) Review your mission and goals (or define them).
c) Brainstorm ways your team can be more effective in their work.
-We recommend team meetings be at the same time and location each week. This will help your team form a rhythm of working together.
-Track group-required action items, and work with people individually to monitor their progress and help them if required.
For an interdependent team, using a fifteen-minute daily standup meeting can be very effective. In a daily stand-up, each team member answers three questions:
-What did you do since our last meeting?
-What will you work on today?
-What is getting in your way?
Making One-On-Ones Work
-Greeting. Say "hello." Ask how things are going. This may seem like small talk. It is, and it helps you built rapport.
-Discuss status and progress. This is where you find out what people accomplished over the last week, what they didn't accomplish (that they'd planned to), and what their plans are for the next week. Looking at one week in isolation doesn't give you the information you need to know whether the person is getting work done or struggling. When you track status and progress for several weeks in one-on-ones, you can begin to see whether people are having trouble planning, estimating, or accomplishing work.
-Obstacles. We ask for obstacles in one-on-ones. We find that if we don't, people suck it up, assume they must soldier on alone, and don't tell us. Removing obstacles is part of a manager's job. So you need to know what the obstacles are.
-Help. Always make a conscious decision about helping. Inflicting help where it isn't needed feels like micromanagement to the victim. Start by asking whether the person needs help. Help can come in the form of solving problems jointly, generating options, talking through alternatives, pointing to specific information, or simply listening. Help directly when asked or when department deliverables and goals are in jeopardy.
-Career development. Paying attention to your team member's career is another way to build relationships and trust. It shows you are not just there to wring as much work out of him or her as possible - you care about his or her career and interests too. Paying attention to career development will help you keep the best employees.
-Anything else to discuss. Leave room for topics your team members want to address.
-Review actions (yours and theirs)
-Take notes
-Troubleshooting one-on-ones (plan in "inch-pebbles" - tasks that deliver something in a day or two
-Initiate weekly one-on-ones with each person in your group.
-Notice someone doing something well and comment on it.
-Leave your office! The key to MBWAL (managing by walking around and listening) is to notice changes. Become familiar with the normal noise level, decor, and mood. Don't limit yourself to the office area. Stop for coffee in the kitchen area. Eat lunch in the lunchroom.
-Make a list of all the work your group performs, including your own. Use the list to start a project portfolio for the group.
Week 2
-Clarify the goals for your group. See whether you can clearly state the goal of your department. Once you can, see if your boss agrees. Once you and your boss are in agreement about key goals, ask the people in your group how they see the group's goals. Use this to start a discussion about how your group adds value in the organization and what they think the most important deliverables are. Make sure everyone has a clear understanding of the goal you are mutually accountable for.
-Create a first draft of the project portfolio. Clear a wall in a conference room, and using the list of work you created last week, block out the work, week by week.
-In your next series of one-on-ones, ask what people find satisfying about their work. Ask what skills they'd like to work on and whether they want to continue developing their skills in the same job. Be open to people who want to perform different work. Look for ways to support the shift within your group. If someone does want to transfer from your group, analyze the job so you can hire the appropriate replacement.
Week 3
-Assess your group meetings. Are your meetings providing a relevant exchange of information between all the participants? Do your meetings have action-oriented outcomes?
-Provide feedback to each person during one-on-one meetings. Give feedback on something that's going well. If you see a problem, use the one-on-one to provide information on what needs to change.
-Ask yourself whether you've been deliberately avoiding any feedback issues. If so, what's preventing you from providing feedback?
Week 4
-Look for opportunities in your one-on-ones to work with each person to improve their capabilities. Define career goals once a quarter or so; discuss progress toward career goals every week.
-List the people you work with. Now make a separate list of the people on whom your success depends. Wherever the list does not overlap is an opportunity to build a relationship, before you desperately need it.
-Check your blind spots. Are you using gestures or language that reduce your effectiveness? You may want to ask a trusted colleague for help. Eliminate any demeaning or degrading language. Try stating how you feel, rather than acting it out.
Week 5
-Make a list of your group's problems. Identify any that can be solved within your group, and choose one of them as the topic for your next group meeting. The problems you can't solve alone are candidates to work on with your management peers.
-Stretch your group problem-solving skills.
-If you haven't updated the project portfolio in a couple weeks, do it now. An out-of-date project portfolio is a useless project portfolio.
Week 6
-Pry your fingers loose from some task you know you need to give up - and delegate it.
-Persist with your one-on-ones. Find something to notice and appreciate about each person each week.
-Especially if you haven't started, try coaching one member of your team.
-If you haven't yet, ask two or three trusted people for feedback about how you manage your emotions.
Week 7
-Review the practices you've adopted. See whether you can detect any changes in your work and your group's work.
-Review the practices you have not yet adopted. Consider how these practices might change the work you and your group achieve. What's preventing you from adopting these practices?
-Review your management journal. Look for trends or evidence that you are accomplishing more of the important work and reducing the amount of effort expended on low-priority work in your group. Check to see whether you're surprised by work. If you're still surprised by work or still performing work that should be on your not-to-do list, influence your peers to arrive at common goals.
-As you review your management journal, look for times you are effectively managing yourself and times when you are not. What's different in each situation?
Guidelines for Effective Coaching
Unless you can answer "yes" to all these questions, refrain from inflicting help:
1) Could this person be more effective if he or she made some changes?
2) Is the coaching about the technical work or the behaviors related to the job?
3) Does this person want to work on this area?
4) Is this person willing to accept your help?
-Make sure you've provided timely and effective feedback.
-Ask whether the person wants coaching or offer to provide helpful information.
-Engage in conversation to articulate how new skills or behaviors would increase effectiveness.
-Discuss additional options, alternatives, or strategies. People usually choose the best alternative they know - but may have a limited repertoire. Coaching helps increase the range of effective options from which to choose. We have found questions like these help people generate options:
1) What problem are you trying to solve?
2) What are the benefits of taking that option?
3) What could go wrong if you take that option?
4) Who else is affected by that option?
5) What alternatives did you consider?
6) What are two other ways to accomplish this goal?
7) How could we make the situation worse?
8) If we could do only one small thing, what would it be?
9) How would an engineer, marketing person, salesman, or tester (choose a role different from your role) look at this?
10) Where do we get the greatest leverage?
-Discuss the implications of each option. Don't lead to a particular outcome; instead, encourage exploration of each option from the perspective of the person you are coaching. Share your perspective but allow the person you are coaching to select the option that best suits his or her needs.
-Develop an action plan.
-Follow up each week in your one-on-one meeting. Recognize successes. Analyze less successful attempts at trying new skills and behaviors. Look for ways to refine and enhance what did work and correct what didn't.
Setup for Successful Delegation
-Choose your delegatee wisely. Select someone who wants to take on more responsibility and who has identified areas of career development where this work would fit. Don't select someone who is not interested in the work you want to delegate.
-Articulate your expectations about the work: what's acceptable and when you need it.
-Clarify any unacceptable solutions.
-Define interim milestones. If you've delegated a decision, recognize that a decision has at least two parts: generating alternatives and choosing an alternative. Clarify which part(s) you are delegating, and be explicit if you really want a checkpoint between the two parts.
Questions to Ask Yourself
-Is it a discrete chunk of work?
-Does the person have the skills to do the work?
-Does the person have the authority to be successful?
-Does the person have the tools necessary to be successful?
-Does the person know what the result should look like?
-Does the person know when the work is due?
-Do you know how often you want this person to report on progress?
-Does this person know what progress looks like?
-Is this work too risky to delegate?
-Have you set the boundary conditions, e.g., budget, time, and other resources or constraints, for the work?
-Do you have a format for the work product that you want this person to use?
Facilitation Essentials for Managers
-Make sure the meeting has a goal.
-Generate and integrate ideas.
1) Traditional Brainstorming
-Everyone participates
-Write down all ideas for the entire group to see
-No discussing the ideas - compliments or criticism - during the brainstorming
-It's okay to build on others' ideas
-No idea is too wild or too silly
2) Silent Brainstorming
-State the topic focus, review the process, and set a time limit.
-Allow five to ten minutes for each person to jot down at least ten ideas related to the topic. Ask for at least ten ideas.
-Form pairs to discuss the ideas. Have each pair identify their best ideas and transfer them to large index cards. Do the math so that you end up with about thirty-five ideas; e.g., for a group of fourteen, have each pair select five ideas.
-Post the cards on a wall for all to see. There will be duplicates and that's okay.
3) Affinity Grouping (use this after traditional or silent brainstorming)
-Ask the group which ideas seem related, and move those cards close together. Continue asking the question and moving the cards until all the cards are in clusters.
-Name the clusters. The names of the clusters represent the consensus of the group around a particular idea.
4) Evaluate Options
-Evaluate each option on its own before comparing options to each other.
-Draw two lines on a piece of paper (creating three columns).
-List the pros and cons and what's interesting about the option in the three columns.
5) Testing Agreement
-Ask each person to vote on each option using the thumb method (thumbs up = "I support this proposal"; thumbs sideways = "I'll abide by the will of the group"; thumbs down = "I do not support this proposal and wish to speak").
-Allow time for those with reservations to speak.
6) How to Handle the Lone Holdout
-Set a time limit and a fallback decision rule.
a) Turn the decision over to some outside person or group
b) Take a vote
c) Make the decision yourself on the basis of the group input
7) Help Everyone Participate
-Ask for a progress check (e.g., "I notice that we only have twenty minutes left. Can we concentrate on prioritizing the remaining items since we can probably only finish two?")
-Make room for others to speak (e.g., "It looks like Jody has something to say." or "I think we may have interrupted Joe before he was finished. Joe?")
-Restate using different words (e.g., "I hear you saying XYZ. Do I have it about right?")
-Comment on what you see (e.g., "I notice that we're talking about Topic X again. Do we need to reopen that, or can we move back to Topic Y?")
-Summarize (e.g., "Here's what I've heard us agree to. Is that correct?")
Guide to Giving Effective Feedback
-Be specific. Telling a person "This report is exceptional" doesn't help the person understand what was exceptional. "The table of contents made it very easy for me to find what I was looking for in this report" is better.
-Provide feedback as close to the event as possible. Waiting until a year-end review is not helpful. Even waiting until a quarter-end is not helpful.
-Don't label the person; describe the behavior or the result. So instead of saying "Your work is sloppy," say "I noticed the last set of release notes contained typing and spelling errors."
-Don't blame the person; describe specifics. Instead of "You never test your code," say "When you checked these last three changes in, you didn't test the changes."
-Check to make sure the feedback recipient agrees that your description (observable behavior or results) is correct. When the feedback recipient doesn't agree with your data, he or she will check out of the conversation and certainly won't change behavior.
Six-Step Process for Feedback
1) Check whether this is a necessary item for feedback: Does it affect the work? Does it affect working relationships? If not, don't bother with feedback.
2) Prepare to give the feedback. Gather specific examples of recent instances of the problem. Focus on behavior or results.
3) Determine the outcome you desire. Be ready to give corrective feedback or coaching.
4) Deliver feedback privately. Deliver "normal" feedback (appreciations, corrective or coaching feedback) in one-on-ones. When someone is close to losing his or her job, call a separate meeting so the person understands the gravity of the situation.
5) If you have some specific action or result you want, say it. If you're open to a range of possible solutions, engage in joint problem solving.
6) Agree how you'll follow up.
Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) Goals
For setting group goals, consider using a technique called affinity grouping:
1) Frame the question. Here are possibilities:
-What problems did we encounter in the last project?
-What problems have we encountered over the last few months?
-Where do we want to be in six months?
-How do we accomplish this goal of increasing revenue in the next six months?
2) Write down one answer or idea per sticky.
3) Post the stickies on the wall, and group them by common theme.
4) Label each grouping.
5) As a group, develop actions that will help you achieve the goals stated in each theme
Set individual goals in a one-on-one. Individual goals are complementary to the group goals and are tied to the group's mission. In addition, individual goals address each person's specific issues and may include career development goals.
Manage By Walking Around and Listening
-Tell people you're going to leave your office and circulate. Let them know that you'll be asking them questions.
-Leave your office and walk around. Aim for once or twice a week. Daily is great, but we've never met a manager who had the time every day to wander. How long you spend mingling depends. Five minutes is probably not enough. An hour is probably too much.
-Listen to the current conversations.
-Don't interrupt people who are on the phone or who seem to be working intently. One thing we've done is use do-not-disturb signs or red/green flags for people who don't want to be disturbed. This works for other people as well as for you.
-Take your notebook to record action items. As you circulate, people will ask you questions. Record action items, and let people know when you'll have an update. Be careful about walking around silently taking notes. That looks like spying.
-Notice what people ask you. Their questions are a clue about their concerns. It shows you areas where people don't know how to obtain information for themselves or where your communication may be weak.
Run Effective Meetings
Meetings create value when people do the following:
-Plan work
-Solve problems
-Reach decisions
-Share pertinent information
-Provide answers to questions
Meeting organization template:
-Meeting Purpose (the reason you've asked people to spend their valuable time with you)
-Expected Attendees (the people who will make the decision(s) or solve the problem(s))
-Goal (what you expect to accomplish by the end of the meeting)
-Agenda (the steps you will use to reach the goal)
-Roles (any special roles, e.g., facilitator, scribe)
Guidelines
-Use meetings for multidirectional exchange of information
-Create a formal Observer role (attend to listen and learn, not participate)
-Create an agenda
-Keep meetings short
-Distribute the purpose, agenda, and expected outcomes prior to the meeting
-Use a flip-chart page or an agenda on a whiteboard to create the focus for the meeting
-Capture key information during the meeting
-Review outcomes
-Distribute notes after the meeting
-Plan to improve (At the end of every meeting, gather data about how valuable the meeting was for its participants. Use a subjective measure such as Return on Time Invested (ROTI). Using a five-point scale, ask people to report how much value they received for the time they invested in the meeting. Post the ratings on a flip chart, and poll the group. Create a histogram that shows the results. Then ask for information about what made the meeting worthwhile or not. Ask the people who rated the meeting a 2 or above what specifically they received for investing their time in the meeting. Ask people who voted 1 or 0 what they wanted but didn't receive for their investment. Ask what to keep, what to drop, and what to add for the next similar meeting.)
Run Effective Team Meetings
Template:
1) Gossip, rumors, news
2) Problem-of-the-week (the problem that you will work on as a team this week)
3) Review action items
Guidelines
-An hour is usually sufficient for this sort of meeting, but you may need more time if you're working on a significant problem.
-Avoid times when people are likely to be sleepy, tired, or ready to leave for the weekend.
-Here are the reasons we ask for rumors, gossip, and good news:
a) Asking for rumors and gossip reduces the power to distract people by making them explicit. Once you are aware of the rumors and gossip, you can fill in the blanks with real information.
b) Rumors and gossip are an excellent indicator of the mood of the organization, particularly when the organization is under stress.
c) Sharing good news helps improve morale.
-Never ask for individual status in this meeting. Individual status is for one-on-ones. Asking for individual status in a group meeting wastes everyone's time. This is different from asking about status on action items that affect the group.
-Focus on solving problems the group needs to solve together. If you're not sure what your group problems are, you can do the following:
a) Ask the group to brainstorm their current list of problems.
b) Review your mission and goals (or define them).
c) Brainstorm ways your team can be more effective in their work.
-We recommend team meetings be at the same time and location each week. This will help your team form a rhythm of working together.
-Track group-required action items, and work with people individually to monitor their progress and help them if required.
For an interdependent team, using a fifteen-minute daily standup meeting can be very effective. In a daily stand-up, each team member answers three questions:
-What did you do since our last meeting?
-What will you work on today?
-What is getting in your way?
Making One-On-Ones Work
-Greeting. Say "hello." Ask how things are going. This may seem like small talk. It is, and it helps you built rapport.
-Discuss status and progress. This is where you find out what people accomplished over the last week, what they didn't accomplish (that they'd planned to), and what their plans are for the next week. Looking at one week in isolation doesn't give you the information you need to know whether the person is getting work done or struggling. When you track status and progress for several weeks in one-on-ones, you can begin to see whether people are having trouble planning, estimating, or accomplishing work.
-Obstacles. We ask for obstacles in one-on-ones. We find that if we don't, people suck it up, assume they must soldier on alone, and don't tell us. Removing obstacles is part of a manager's job. So you need to know what the obstacles are.
-Help. Always make a conscious decision about helping. Inflicting help where it isn't needed feels like micromanagement to the victim. Start by asking whether the person needs help. Help can come in the form of solving problems jointly, generating options, talking through alternatives, pointing to specific information, or simply listening. Help directly when asked or when department deliverables and goals are in jeopardy.
-Career development. Paying attention to your team member's career is another way to build relationships and trust. It shows you are not just there to wring as much work out of him or her as possible - you care about his or her career and interests too. Paying attention to career development will help you keep the best employees.
-Anything else to discuss. Leave room for topics your team members want to address.
-Review actions (yours and theirs)
-Take notes
-Troubleshooting one-on-ones (plan in "inch-pebbles" - tasks that deliver something in a day or two
November 17, 2016
"Behind Closed Doors" is a relatively small set of essays about project manager Sam and his team.
The idea is not new. Tom DeMarco in his remarkable "Deadline: A Novel about Project Management" already tried this idea: to tell a story about poor guy who is constantly facing some project management issues.
Unlike "Deadline", "Behind Closed Doors" is a mix of fictional stories with some explanations, "Try this" and "Check this" sections. And unlike "Deadline" this book tries to cover even smaller st of management-related missing some important once like compensation, working environment, "zone" and many others. It doesn't cover everything, but what it covers it covers amazingly good.
The main idea behind all the stories is how not to be a jerk.
This book teaches how not to forget that the main goal for every manager is to facilitate other's work. This book teaches respect. Book shows why it is important to find right task for the right people without assuming that "good engineer can do every task I want". Book shows why many engineers hate all meetings so much and teaches how to make them as productive as possible. This book shows the value of one-on-one, timely feedback and value of coaching.
This is very short, but very interesting book with tons of insights on many topics.
Definitely *must read*!
The idea is not new. Tom DeMarco in his remarkable "Deadline: A Novel about Project Management" already tried this idea: to tell a story about poor guy who is constantly facing some project management issues.
Unlike "Deadline", "Behind Closed Doors" is a mix of fictional stories with some explanations, "Try this" and "Check this" sections. And unlike "Deadline" this book tries to cover even smaller st of management-related missing some important once like compensation, working environment, "zone" and many others. It doesn't cover everything, but what it covers it covers amazingly good.
The main idea behind all the stories is how not to be a jerk.
This book teaches how not to forget that the main goal for every manager is to facilitate other's work. This book teaches respect. Book shows why it is important to find right task for the right people without assuming that "good engineer can do every task I want". Book shows why many engineers hate all meetings so much and teaches how to make them as productive as possible. This book shows the value of one-on-one, timely feedback and value of coaching.
This is very short, but very interesting book with tons of insights on many topics.
Definitely *must read*!
April 13, 2015
Regarded by many as the best book about being an efficient manager and understanding your managers if you aren't one yourself.
Johanna follows the story of Sam Morgan who has just taken the new position of Director of Development in a high-tech organization. Sam is experienced and wants to help his new colleagues.
During the course of 'Behind Closed Doors' there are many scenarios where Sam interacts with his department's managers - Ginger, Kevin, Jason and Patty. Each of them have their pros and cons. Sam serves as the textbook example of a perfect manager and his interactions with the managers and how he handles different situations are teaching us the right manager behavior.
However Ginger, Kevin, Jason and Patty each have personalities everyone can relate to and understand their judgement. They aren't bad people. They have the potential for growth and Sam helps them..
The last chapter - 'Techniques for Practicing Great Management' is a summary of the techniques Sam used in his department. If you're limited in time, this is the chapter where you would learn the most. Still I suggest reading the whole book when you have time. It's really easy to read by non-managers.
Johanna follows the story of Sam Morgan who has just taken the new position of Director of Development in a high-tech organization. Sam is experienced and wants to help his new colleagues.
During the course of 'Behind Closed Doors' there are many scenarios where Sam interacts with his department's managers - Ginger, Kevin, Jason and Patty. Each of them have their pros and cons. Sam serves as the textbook example of a perfect manager and his interactions with the managers and how he handles different situations are teaching us the right manager behavior.
However Ginger, Kevin, Jason and Patty each have personalities everyone can relate to and understand their judgement. They aren't bad people. They have the potential for growth and Sam helps them..
The last chapter - 'Techniques for Practicing Great Management' is a summary of the techniques Sam used in his department. If you're limited in time, this is the chapter where you would learn the most. Still I suggest reading the whole book when you have time. It's really easy to read by non-managers.
December 11, 2017
This is a pretty good book for a new manager (note, that this definitely should not be the only one - it just doesn't cover enough). It gives a decent glimpse into the basic challenges of team/people management.
In that capacity and at that level, the book is great. The examples are fine at this level, but hopelessly simplistic if you try to get just a bit deeper. They also start showing their age: a strict hierarchy, where a Manager sits in his office and divines the decrees on their lieutenants is no longer as pervasive, especially in the technology field.
Still, it is a great tool for a new manager to avoid most common pitfalls when it comes to dealing with both a team of people, a bunch of projects and a product strategy. I cannot say I've discovered anything eye opening when reading it, but it was a nice refresher of the basics.
Bottom line: not the "be all, end all" books on management, but it gives a good advice and is a good starter for those new to management.
In that capacity and at that level, the book is great. The examples are fine at this level, but hopelessly simplistic if you try to get just a bit deeper. They also start showing their age: a strict hierarchy, where a Manager sits in his office and divines the decrees on their lieutenants is no longer as pervasive, especially in the technology field.
Still, it is a great tool for a new manager to avoid most common pitfalls when it comes to dealing with both a team of people, a bunch of projects and a product strategy. I cannot say I've discovered anything eye opening when reading it, but it was a nice refresher of the basics.
Bottom line: not the "be all, end all" books on management, but it gives a good advice and is a good starter for those new to management.
October 4, 2013
Pretty darn good, considering the astronomical aspirations of the authors. The format is wisely chosen, swinging back and forth between a fictional narrative of a middle-manager and topic-oriented discourses.
The problem is that most managers don't start in the middle, and by the time they get there, they've honed their chops as a lower-level manager, managing contributors directly. Most of the people reading the book, I imagine, are like me new managers of direct contributors, and many of the techniques (such as high-level portfolio planning) are difficult to torture into applicability when you're only managing a tiny number of engineers.
But all in all, a leap above most "management secrets" books.
The problem is that most managers don't start in the middle, and by the time they get there, they've honed their chops as a lower-level manager, managing contributors directly. Most of the people reading the book, I imagine, are like me new managers of direct contributors, and many of the techniques (such as high-level portfolio planning) are difficult to torture into applicability when you're only managing a tiny number of engineers.
But all in all, a leap above most "management secrets" books.
February 8, 2025
What a great hands-on guide to management, particularly in IT. Breaks it down to a great level of granularity to know how to get started and be consistent. I'm sad this book isn't printed anymore, I still find it extremely relevant.
July 16, 2017
I would have loved to read that book two years ago. I could have prevented so many mistakes.
June 16, 2018
I am not sure how much I can start using in my everyday job immediately as I am not in the similar position as examples used but this surely was informative and easy to read book. Highly recommended for new managers and everyone interested in knowing how management should be done.
April 28, 2015
Another classic quick-read.
I've read it because some people (that I respect) have recommended it to me ("You didn't read Derby/Rothman book? Never?! Really?! How is that even possible?") ... and the first impression wasn't that good - this book feels quite 'stiff'. I know it sounds odd, especially keeping in mind the fact that book focuses on interpersonal aspects of management (so it's not another PMI-like PM-bookkeeping type of book), but due to fiction insertions that are very 'artificial' & 'stock' (like stock photos) I couldn't help the feeling that it was written at least 20 years ago, in a completely different reality (which is not true, actually it's just 10).
But, if you overcome this aversion, the book is still relevant & it focuses on real problems in real world. It's not very sophisticated & it provides rather basic lessons, but I could easily recommend it to any fresh manager.
I've read it because some people (that I respect) have recommended it to me ("You didn't read Derby/Rothman book? Never?! Really?! How is that even possible?") ... and the first impression wasn't that good - this book feels quite 'stiff'. I know it sounds odd, especially keeping in mind the fact that book focuses on interpersonal aspects of management (so it's not another PMI-like PM-bookkeeping type of book), but due to fiction insertions that are very 'artificial' & 'stock' (like stock photos) I couldn't help the feeling that it was written at least 20 years ago, in a completely different reality (which is not true, actually it's just 10).
But, if you overcome this aversion, the book is still relevant & it focuses on real problems in real world. It's not very sophisticated & it provides rather basic lessons, but I could easily recommend it to any fresh manager.
June 15, 2009
This book is a good summary of many diversified books (about management, meetings, retrospectives, ...). It's a good start for a technical person who will have a management role soon, but if you're serious about management you also really need to read more complete books, like "" and "". This book help you choose these other ones with a lot of references.
January 9, 2012
I've experienced good and bad managers during my career. If I try to figure out patterns the good managers I worked with had followed, that would almost match the contents of this book.
The book goes even further though. It provides ultimate guidelines for being a great manager. Plus it introduces agile management principles very gently without labeling them so explicitly. Thus it is a must read for managers who are skeptical about agile or anybody willing to introduce agile guerrilla-way.
Furthermore this book provides great advice on inter-people communication, coaching and working in an organizational context. I highly recommend it.
The book goes even further though. It provides ultimate guidelines for being a great manager. Plus it introduces agile management principles very gently without labeling them so explicitly. Thus it is a must read for managers who are skeptical about agile or anybody willing to introduce agile guerrilla-way.
Furthermore this book provides great advice on inter-people communication, coaching and working in an organizational context. I highly recommend it.
October 3, 2011
A really quick read. The agile bias of the authors shows when they limit planning to 3-4 weeks, or put emphasis on people rather than process.
More than two years later, the only thing that really stuck to my mind is that one-on-one meetings with managers should be more about career development than status reporting.
More than two years later, the only thing that really stuck to my mind is that one-on-one meetings with managers should be more about career development than status reporting.
December 28, 2014
Very good refresher book for a lot of common sense behaviors and best practices that we all should keep in mind as managers. It's one of those books that I'll pull out again in a year just to thumb back through and get back on track where needed.
June 26, 2015
I loved this book. This book has given me lots of practical ideas and techniques to try! I really recommend it to anyone looking for inspiration.
Also it's very well written, so it's quite quick and easy to read. Authors have done a great job.
Also it's very well written, so it's quite quick and easy to read. Authors have done a great job.
February 9, 2019
It's sad that this book isn't talked about as a top flight technical management book. It should be. I think the reason it isn't is that it came out just before social media and it never got the exposure it should have.
There are some issues with the book. It uses the style of a month in the life of Sam, the fictional manager in the book. This can come across as dry, but it's effective in getting the information across. Sam is the equivalent of a director level manager, so the book doesn't address what it means to be a day to day technical manager.
However, what it does do is shows the various parts of management and breaks down the skills it takes to do them well. One on ones, coaching, feedback, running meetings, facilitating, project management, planning, etc. It's a great survey of all of these and explaining why the are important.
The best part of the book is that it ends with a series of short chapters that contain overviews of how to use the techniques discussed in the book as well as checklists that can be used to put them into practice. This is a great reference for getting started and for going back to refine after you've used them for a while. Looking over these made me realize areas I could improve and also areas where I'd had managers not running things well but at the time couldn't articulate why.
I'd recommend pairing this book with Camille Fournier's The Manager's Path as a power set of books for any new manager just starting in tech and for seasoned managers who want to pick up some new techniques to use.
There are some issues with the book. It uses the style of a month in the life of Sam, the fictional manager in the book. This can come across as dry, but it's effective in getting the information across. Sam is the equivalent of a director level manager, so the book doesn't address what it means to be a day to day technical manager.
However, what it does do is shows the various parts of management and breaks down the skills it takes to do them well. One on ones, coaching, feedback, running meetings, facilitating, project management, planning, etc. It's a great survey of all of these and explaining why the are important.
The best part of the book is that it ends with a series of short chapters that contain overviews of how to use the techniques discussed in the book as well as checklists that can be used to put them into practice. This is a great reference for getting started and for going back to refine after you've used them for a while. Looking over these made me realize areas I could improve and also areas where I'd had managers not running things well but at the time couldn't articulate why.
I'd recommend pairing this book with Camille Fournier's The Manager's Path as a power set of books for any new manager just starting in tech and for seasoned managers who want to pick up some new techniques to use.
August 12, 2018
Meh. I finished it, but didn't really take away anything useful, and not much of it stuck. However, the book managed to stay reasonably engaging by showing a fictional worked example of a mid-level manager's first few months on the job ... and that's not a career path I ever plan to take. I think the right thing to do would be to reference the book when struggling with a particular scenario that it discusses, rather than reading it straight through.
One of the most useful things I got was realizing that a lot of the skills I learned for running meetings at UTIG fall under "facilitation" ... so rather than thinking of it as "meeting mode", think of it as a bunch of different skills that can be used to make meetings more useful without requiring total buy-in to a rigid methodology.
One of the most useful things I got was realizing that a lot of the skills I learned for running meetings at UTIG fall under "facilitation" ... so rather than thinking of it as "meeting mode", think of it as a bunch of different skills that can be used to make meetings more useful without requiring total buy-in to a rigid methodology.
November 12, 2022
Behind Closed Doors is one of those books that have a terrible title and great content. I would have never picked it up myself, but a trusted colleague of mine recommended it and it was surely worth it!
The author attempts a Phoenix Project novel type thing but then also adds non fiction to it so the flow feels off. It’s also written in 2005 so it’s very “physical�. Managing by walking around and using flip charts no longer makes much sense in a fully distributed world, but that was the context back then. And that’s about the only bad thing I have to say about the book!
It has so much knowledge about management that I found myself emailing me parts for review and highlighting way too much.
I already lined up a few others from her to carry on reading.
Definitely worthwhile!
The author attempts a Phoenix Project novel type thing but then also adds non fiction to it so the flow feels off. It’s also written in 2005 so it’s very “physical�. Managing by walking around and using flip charts no longer makes much sense in a fully distributed world, but that was the context back then. And that’s about the only bad thing I have to say about the book!
It has so much knowledge about management that I found myself emailing me parts for review and highlighting way too much.
I already lined up a few others from her to carry on reading.
Definitely worthwhile!
July 8, 2017
Overall, good advice. This review does a great job summarizing: /book/show/4...
If I had to pick just one book on frontline management, I'd probably go with The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman instead. These books have some great overlap, but I prefer the approaches in Effective Manager (not to mention their data-driven approach to recommendations).
If I had to pick just one book on frontline management, I'd probably go with The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman instead. These books have some great overlap, but I prefer the approaches in Effective Manager (not to mention their data-driven approach to recommendations).
May 11, 2019
Apesar de eu não concordar com algumas opiniões das autoras, o livro é um excelente resumo sobre o que é o papel de um gestor. O conteúdo aborda, ainda que de forma superficial, os principais temas que um bom lÃder e gerente precisa conhecer. Estou dando cinco estrelas justamente por entender que o livro tem um propósito claro e é efetivo em cumpri-lo: dar uma visão geral sobre o tema, principalmente para leitores que estão começando nessa área, de forma clara e objetiva.
September 17, 2022
This deliberate short book is a really good introduction and reference for management tasks. It let us accompany a fictional manager on his first weeks in a new company and explains his steps in various situations - ranging from the first introduction to his new reportees, to difficult meetings with other managers or his upper management.
I especially like the reference cards at the end of the book, I think I can make good use of the ideas around 1on1s.
I especially like the reference cards at the end of the book, I think I can make good use of the ideas around 1on1s.
December 1, 2024
This is an absolute must- read for every manager. The book was an interesting discovery for me - it‘s 19 years old however all the points are very modern in the context of a people-centric management. The authors speak about facilitation and coaching in 2005 while not every manager is aware of these words today in 2024. I need to make all my managers to read it - maybe then we all will become happier with our jobs.
April 22, 2018
Good overview of what it takes to be a great manager. The story format is nice and makes for an easier read than just a list of rules, and it also provides some concrete examples on how to approach various challenges in the life of a manager. I gave it a medium score because, while interesting, it didn't give me anything I hadn't already read about elsewhere. If you're new to the topic though, you can consider the score one point higher
October 17, 2022
Best management book I've read in a while. Especially appreciate the final chapter broken out into templates and suggestions for each technique discussed throughout the book. Will keep this one close-by moving forward in my management practices.
December 7, 2017
Consistent with the best I've heard from great managers in my past, podcasts, and Manager Tools podcasts.
Read this.
Read this.
April 5, 2018
Good info
Good information. Timely. Very to the point. Reduces conducting about what management is. Will read again since there is a lot there.
Good information. Timely. Very to the point. Reduces conducting about what management is. Will read again since there is a lot there.
September 30, 2018
Short and useful. A fictional narrative is used as backdrop to teach some basic management skills. Sound values and principles underpins the concrete advice and tools presented. Recommended.
December 16, 2019
An excellent management book. It combines useful pieces of advice and practical examples how to apply them.
August 28, 2020
Easy read, basic and mostly good and great practices, definitely recommended for the middle management in larger and with some caveats smaller organisations.
August 11, 2022
So many good things in this short and easy to read book. Wish I had read it sooner, because I was mediocre.
March 14, 2019
Best guide to get your projects quickly on track
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