Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Management and manager

Do you use Kanban for personal productivity?

zooropa — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:05:25 -0800

Do you use Kanban as your personal productivity system? Greetings, everyone!

I'm curious to know if you use Kanban. I just started working as a senior manager with five direct reports in a Fortune 100 company, so getting a handle on both my task and project management skills has become critical.

Over the years, I've used various systems like FranklinCovey, GTD, and Total Workday Control. Although no particular system has stuck, I've picked up various techniques over the years from each that have become part of my routine.

I'm not a developer, but I'm fascinated by Lean, Agile, etc. and want to try to apply them to marketing knowledge work. What especially interests me the most about Kanban is the idea of simplifying task management down to its barest essentials (backlog, doing, done).

Right now, I'm most interested in personal task management using Kanban.

How do you manage all that email and keep your kanban updated?

I get how Kanban is used for managing projects. But what about individual Next Actions that aren't necessarily tied to a project (e.g., "Answer the phone.")

Any assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

At your service,
Michael

Preparing to be a manager?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:46:12 -0800

Questions for my boss's boss about preparing to be a manager? My current boss is pushing me to enter management at a medium-large tech company. It's not something I imagined myself doing when I joined (for many reasons similar to this) but after a couple of project cycles of being a technical-lead I'd like to step out of my comfort zone and figure out whether it's my thing... or whether I'll be just another victim of the Peter Principle.
My boss is on vacation but I'll soon have the opportunity to meet his boss for an Informal Discussion. A couple of questions I'm preparing are specific to my division, but I'm having trouble coming up with more general "what am I doing here"/"what's it like" ones.
What should I ask about preparing to be a manager?

Tips for managing while ADHD?

roscopcoletrane — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:46:06 -0800

I have finally gotten myself promoted to manager -- sweet! I have ADHD -- crap! Have you been in this situation before? What worked for you? Help me figure out how to not just survive, but thrive! I've been diagnosed for roughly 12 years, so I'm very well-acquainted with the challenges of living with ADHD. I've slowly, slowly been getting better at life, but I still have bad days (and weeks, sometimes months). I feel like I can barely manage myself at work, but I've also learned that I am my harshest critic, and overall people think that I'm pretty good at my job, and they tolerate the occasional missed deadline.

But now I'm a manager, and I'm responsible for managing the one person who reports to me, and also for looking to the future and growing the team and our capabilities. To make things more complicated, we're a user experience design team, and our role is relatively new, undefined, and poorly understood, and my manager doesn't have much experience in growing a UX team so while I have his support, he's really looking to me to tell him how we should grow the team. Which is awesome, dont' get me wrong -- I'm psyched for the opportunity and mostly I'm just afraid of screwing things up.

My biggest struggle right now is that the two of us are the only in-house designers in the entire company (approx. 160 people), so we get a lot of little one-off requests from all over the company. I'm really struggling to keep track of them, and I also struggle to have a good sense of what our full workload is because it feels like it's constantly in flux. I originally started this question to get suggestions for how to address that specific issue, but I'm also open to any advice you have for for managing while ADHD!

Is Motel Manager a Decent Job for Me Based on my Goals??

Piscean — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 16:55:46 -0800

Through a friend I have been offered the opportunity to work at a "mom and pop" 60 bed motel that has a fitness center, pool, and serves meals. It averages decent ratings from guests. I'm up for the challenge but I'm no spring chicken. I lost a good paying position in the recession in 208 and subsequently had to drop out of a Ph.D program just before comps- and it looks like I won't be finishing that degree any time soon, because I currently work in a call center and can't even afford a car. One of my dissertation interests is urban agriculture and housing communities set up to support it. I'd love the opportunity to work alongside community designers to plan and/or design and/or run such a community. I figure that work in fields somehow related to such an endeavor would be helpful since I can't afford to return to school.

The motel job is is live-in and would give me experience in property management, which I think would be very helpful. The pay is HORRID but includes room and board and internet. I wouldn't need a car, and I'm hoping I can get at least breakfasts out of the deal!

Basically the only reason I'm considering such a job is to put a management position back on my resume and to gain experience for my career goals. I do have experience as a travel agent and in management, but not enough to impress employers.

My questions to people with this type of experience run along the lines of: What is it really like to work as a live-in motel manager? Does it look good on a resume? Would this kind of experience help me with the career goals I've mentioned? What skills will I be building? What makes a great motel manager? How can I parlay this position into something better paying down the road? What are the pros and cons?

This call center job does not use my best skills and is a go-nowhere job. The pay is good for the current economy, however, and I have health insurance - plus I can walk there. I won't leave my current job if a motel manager position won't move me toward my goals.

Managing Gossip for Senior Management

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 08:03:10 -0800

Any good books out there on handling employee gossip, from a managerial perspective? My boss's boss is justifiably frustrated with the level of gossip and water-cooler nonsense in our company. I can see on a daily basis really great reasons for him to want something concise and action-oriented on the topic (he is absolutely that kind of manager.) Especially because the gossipers like to think of me as someone nice and friendly that they can complain to, and I'm quite averse to confrontations of the "please go away and let me do my own work now" variety.

The trouble is, he wants me to buy him a 22-page, $99 (not a typo) "executive report" from a company that never answers their phone and doesn't reply to emails (I've called multiple times since the email I sent two weeks ago and I'm about ready to give up.) Before I walk into his office and tell him that he'll have to pull out his American Express and pony up the money on his own, trust that it'll work, and wait a week for reimbursement (I can't set up a purchase order or use company funds for this without either their tax ID number or a receipt from him) I was hoping MetaFilter had suggestions.

It also really annoys me that this thing costs so much and the whole situation is so very MLM/"exploiting harried people with expense accounts" looking. $4.50 per page??? Seriously???

I've already checked with our corporate HR/training group and the EAP office and all they could suggest was that he attend an 8-hour training session on unhealthy workplace attitudes (they're eagerly awaiting word of my magically awesome better solution, and did offer me the chance to hunt through our unindexed library of several thousand licensed classes to see if there might be something useful out there.)

The key thing is that it has to be easily digestible, oriented toward management, and appeal to the sorts of folks who would like an Executive Action Report. I've thought semi-seriously about drafting one for him using my own research, but that's enough outside of my job description to give me real pause before suggesting it. Having said that, I am keeping my eye out for good AskMes on the issue, just in case.

I have decided, after due consideration, not to directly link the report he wants me to buy. But if you Google "managing gossip," I think you'll find the one I'm talking about. And if you do, and you've used it, and it's awesome and unbelievable and totally worth $99, please feel free to tell me. I couldn't find a single human being who wasn't paid by this company or quoted by them on the site (or one of its many, many mirrors using different corporate identities and phone numbers) who'd vouch for it or even admit to having seen it, ever.

(Asking anonymously on the off chance that my supervisor finds out I did this on my own time, which is technically forbidden for lots of good reasons, just as accessing MetaFilter from work is also forbidden; the corporate world is neither forgiving nor understanding of such dilemmas.)

How do I manage a resistant employee?

dawn_chorus — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:07:02 -0800

How do I manage a resistant employee? I'm new to this job and I need some advice on people management of a difficult person. I manage a team of 8 press officers for a charity - 3 of them are senior. One of the senior press officers is resistant to being managed by me. By this I mean she always has a reason ready why something cannot be done - either she is waiting for information from another department (which is valid and happens) or she uses her past experience to say why my suggestions and guidance are not the right way to do things. In a nutshell she's negative and says why things can't be done instead of how they can be done. Also, she spends too much time getting involved in the internal politics of who she's working with rather than focusing on her work, and that has the effect of her working longer hours than necessary and feeling underappreciated.

Overall, however, she gets her job done well.

I am looking for ways to address this with her and build up respect between us so I can actually have influence with her and manage her the way I believe is right. Any pointers?

Background: I am new at this job (10 weeks in) and in this field. Previously I've been a journalist working in global news and this job is at a large international charity. So, I am trying to establish myself in the workplace as a new manager (building relationships etc), get to grips with a new field of work and the practices of a new organization.

Here's an interesting detail - last summer I interviewed for a job here, which I didn't get but led me to be hired for the better position I am now in. That post would have been working under the senior press officer I am now finding difficult. She was on the interview panel then. I'm not sure if this is playing a role in my difficulty with her or not, but I've got a hunch that it is (gut instinct rather than proof).

Your work is unacceptable...but anyway, what are you doing this weekend?

Christ, what an asshole — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:53:42 -0800

How do you elicit respect -- while still being liked -- in a supervisory position? I'd like to run my staff where they do what I ask of them, but still be able to grab a beer after work.

How best to assume more control in a LLC?

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 10:02:13 -0800

How best to assume more control than the other members of an LLC? I have started a member-managed LLC with two other people. We have not yet signed an Operating Agreement, but that is on the horizon as things are starting to come together.

As we have begun working together, it's become clear to me that my skills, knowledge, experience, and capability pertaining to our business outweigh those of my partners.

Not only am I having to do all of the organizational operations to make the business function as a business, such as the finances, but I am finding that I have to teach my partners about both how to do their jobs (i.e. the technical aspects of what we do) and how to develop their responsibilities into the formalized processes that will allow us to expand and grow as a business.

It seems that the scenario would make more sense if I simply did not have them as partners in the LLC and instead just hired them as employees, except that I haven't the capital to do that. It will take some to-be-determined timeframe before the business will start generating enough revenue for anyone to actually get paid and because of the nature of the business it requires virtually no up front expenditure as long as we aren't paying ourselves.

So I feel like making them partners has been a good way to motivate them to be a part of the business without anyone getting paid now, with the expectation that if/when the business becomes successful we will all start getting paid. However, due to the disproportionate experience, I feel like I should have more control over the overall management decisions, and ultimately, when we are successful, get paid more, at least until my partners have made enough improvement and gained the experience necessary to operate a little more independently.

I am looking for advice about how to, first off, approach this with them in a way that doesn't undermine the skills and capabilities that they do bring to the table, but also more importantly, how best to actually go about structuring the LLC in such a way that allows me this higher level of control and authority.

If I haven't included enough information, or you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me via email at: metafilter.anonymous@gmail.com - I would love to discuss the details further, if anyone is interested!

How do I learn to manage up?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:41:56 -0800

tips and resources for "managing up?" i like my job, my team, my coworkers, and my VP.

in-between me and my VP, there exists a director. nice guy, wants to be everyone's buddy...which means he does as little as possible to manage, plan, skirts responsibility, avoids confrontation or advocacy for his team. he's always johnny-on-the-spot when [major brand client] calls and wants a contact @ our co., but unavailable when his team is in the line of fire or resourced inadequately for a project.

i'm new to this experience. how do i turn this frown upside-down?

(anon because a few coworkers are on mefi, thanks)

Recommend me a good contact manager for phone numbers and names?

jacobean — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:41:56 -0800

I'm looking for a "lite" contact manager for my PC? I am tired of losing scraps of paper with temporary phone numbers on them...I do not want to enter them into my Outlook contacts manager. Is there any no "bells and whistles" application out there that I can quickly tap in the details into my PC? Even better would be an application that syncs with a Palm device?

MP3 file organizer with alphabet top-level directory

srboisvert — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 12:30:01 -0800

Is there a free mp3 music organizer that will move files into a multi level directory structure with the first level being the letters of the alphabet or groups of letters? Proper handling of 'the' would also be super.

My network and xbox are choking on the huge top level band based directory I currently have.

What is the best music management application?

mr_silver — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 03:17:19 -0800

What is the best (iTunes-like) music management application for USB based MP3 players? I have a project related around a device that plays music files (mainly MP3, could be some others) which plugs into your computers USB port to sync.

As such, I need to look at music management applications to make this experience as plesant as possible. Obviously "power users" could hit it with the Explorer - but for everyone else, something a bit slicker will be needed. If you hadn't already guessed, this is for Microsoft Windows.

In short, I'm looking for something which is very similar to iTunes. It doesn't need support for a shop-front but does need to handle detection of the device, viewing of music in a clean way, playlists (both user defined and smart), ratings, album art, lyrics and obviously syncing (including support for downsampling music prior to loading it onto the device to compensate for a small capacity).

Additionally, it needs to have support for common languages (English, Spanish, German is a good start) and some theming capabilities would be nice (but isn't essential).

As much as I like it, iTunes is simply not an option because it belongs to Apple, so I need to evaluate something else. From some basic research, I've come up with the following:

- MediaMonkey
- J River Media Center
- musikCube
- Foobar 2000

I'm aware that some of the applications may need specific functionality on the syncing device to support some of the features. Again, this isn't an issue, as long as the documentation is available.

What other Windows based music management software would you recommend? Price is not an issue so please mention anything you can think of, however expensive. In fact, I'd probably be more interested in the ones that cost as they're more likely to have a solid company behind them which can be used for support.

How can I decide if I'm management material?

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 13:17:12 -0800

How can I decide if I'm management material? My boss, who I'll call H., gave notice a couple days ago. He's moving on to a similar position, but with broader scope, at a similar company, so it's a step up for him.

I mentioned this to some people, including my mother, who asked me if I was planning to apply for the job. I honestly hadn't thought about it, and told her so. She said not to sell myself short, and that I'd make a good manager, even though "management has its challenges." (She's recently retired, but was a manager in a different field for 30-35 years.) I mentioned the idea to my girlfriend (no management experience), and she said I'd make a good manager as well, saying that I'm honest, fair-minded, and committed.

I had never entertained the thought of moving into management, because I never thought of myself as particularly being a "people person", and because I don't relish the idea of having to be the bad guy upon occasion. (And I most definitely do not want to be two-faced, but would have to resist the temptation to tell people what they want to hear or at the least put the best spin on everything.)

However: I've been told repeatedly that, despite my protests, I am a people person. I also have sold myself short before, and after being pushed/goaded/convinced, have gone on to succeed in ways I didn't think were possible. So I may be overly harsh in evaluating myself, or I may be clear-eyed. I just don't know.

Lots of background, because I'm posting this anonymously:

Our department has a bunch of people (maybe 20) that all do the same thing -- something that is moderately technical and hard to describe without getting into specifics. (There's a creativity/problem-solving component to it as well. I'd say it's roughly analogous to technical writing.) I'm one of these twenty.

I report to H., who is the department manager and who's the guy who's leaving. He does the budget, hires and fires, does some scheduling of the day-to-day/hour-to-hour operations, goes to department and division meetings, does performance reviews, and for all I know a bunch more stuff.

There's also a supervisor, who I'll call K. K. does the bulk of the day-to-day/hour-to-hour operations and scheduling. He has input on things like budgets, hiring decisions, and performance reviews, but he also reports to H. K. is the person who sets my daily schedule, decides which projects I (and the rest of the twenty) will be working on, et cetera. I've filled in for K. a few times -- not as much as some other co-workers of mine -- and was told I did a very good job. I enjoyed it, but it was challenging -- solving rapidly changing logistical problems while people kept coming up to you and asking you unrelated questions. (I've never filled in for H. -- typically K. fills in for H. and then one of the twenty of us fills in for K.)

H. used to have a job like mine, and eventually became a supervisor like K., and then moved to our city where he became the boss. (I used to work with H. when he was a supervisor, in the other city. A few months after he moved here and became the manager, he recruited a few of us to move here.)

H. has an odd relationship with lots of people. Many in our company dislike him -- he can be really gruff and brusque, especially to people who don't work in our department. He's gruff all the time, and half of the time it's concealing a heart of gold, and half the time he can be a real jerk, even to our staff. The problem is, he's mercurial, and you don't know which H. you're going to get at any given time. However, almost everything that's been good in my career, including some high-profile projects and business trips, came about as the direct result of H. -- he's given me good reviews (and pretty good raises), recommended me for things, and generally looked out for me.

He's done this for other people, too -- I'm not the teacher's pet. But I can't exactly love the guy or hate him.

(Everybody gets along well with K.)

The idea of being a manager is intriguing. I'm not sure whether to pursue it. How can I figure out if it's right for me, or if I'd be a good one? I'd have to decide how much I'd miss the work I'm doing now, which I enjoy and am fairly good at. I'd have to figure out how to handle co-workers' reactions to my changing role, being on call more, going from hourly rate to a salary (no more overtime) and the like.

And of course, if I apply I'm not sure how much of a shot I'd reasonably have at the job. Ordinarily, I'd talk to H.'s bosses (S. and his boss E.), both of whom I'm friendly with and have worked with for a while, but since they're presumably going to be deciding who to hire, I don't think they'd be willing to have an off-the-record conversation about my career and how suitable I'd be for this kind of role.

I assume K. will be applying for H.'s job. I think he'd do a good job, but he's quieter and not as forceful as H. He's popular with the staff, and morale would go up if he were to get H.'s job, and other people in the company who H. rubs the wrong way would probably be pleased as well.

S. and E. could go outside the company, however, and bring in someone else for H.'s job, or bring in someone else from another city where our department operates.

I am also wondering if I should apply for K.'s job, if K. gets hired to replace H. Again, I don't have as much experience in filling in for K. as some on our staff do, but I have some. I could do the job, but so could others.

So: How can I make all these decisions? How can I figure out if I'd be a good manager, or if that's indeed what I want? How can I figure out if it's worth applying for either H.'s or K.'s job? How can I tell if it's reasonable for me to apply? What questions should I be asking of who? What should I be thinking about?

Again, apologies for the alphabet soup and exhaustive background, but I won't be able to comment in the thread without blowing my cover.

Keeping Track of Passwords

muckster — Sat, 31 Jan 2004 11:08:59 -0800

What's the best way to keep track of an escalating number of logins and passwords? For the web, there's Opera's magic wand, but what about hosting accounts, ftp servers, ATM PINs, etc? Encrypted text file on the desktop? Scribbled note under the pillow? How do you manage (and hide) your password library?