Management Nugget No 20: Use the Delayed email sending feature

March 5, 2024 by Mark Myers Leave a comment

When you’re managing a project or just doing managerial stuff in general and are working with people who are not management and are feeling a bit twitchy ¹. Use the delayed email sending feature, this is available out of the box on all modern email systems, and when you are doing late night/weekend or out of hours emails, its a great way of not being a jerk to those working for you. Most people in this always-on corporate world or those supporting a 24/7 system will interrupt what they are doing to glance at an email or notification and unless you need a response right then and there for something that will have a serious impact before the beginning of the next working day, this is something you really don’t want to do as it shows you are dismissive of others time. While you as a manager might think it shows you are dynamic and on the ball to your bosses, it really does not work the other way. Additionally “the right to disconnect” style laws are spreading and becoming more common and this will help you provide that for your teams. Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

mainly support or those that look after production systems in any way[↩]

The Stockdale Paradox: A Lesson on how to deliver a hard project

January 26, 2024 by Mark Myers Leave a comment

The Stockdale paradox is a fascinating thing, but to paraphrase it for a corporate project point of view:

While you’re going to hit your delivery in the end. Don’t get overexcited, don’t over promise and under deliver as it wears your team and the other people on the project out and dispirits them. This philosophy works most practically in those hard grinds or crisis situations when delivering complex projects as you’re working through multiple options for delivery.

Getting overexcited about each one of your sub deliveries on a project is mentally very tiring for both your team and your clients, and it leads to a culture of avoiding disappointment. So people who are attempting to fix something for you, if you overhype it and it then doesn’t work they don’t want to tell you. Whereas if you go “right!, we’re gonna get there in the end, This is just option one, let’s go for it.” If option one doesn’t work, then they’re willing to tell you because even though you maintain your positivity, you’re not getting over optimistic and putting additional pressure on people that they don’t need.

Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

– James Stockdale on “which prisoners didn’t make it out of Vietnam”

Podcast interview with one of my favourite bosses.

November 28, 2023 by Mark Myers Leave a comment

Paul Brotzel is one of the few high-level directors that I have ever truly trusted. ¹. and it’s fascinating listening to his history outside of a pub.

He and I are working together on some side bits, but I look forward to hopefully working with him again the next place he takes by storm.

There have been 2 in total[↩]

The Poison of “On a Roll”

September 28, 2023 by Mark Myers Leave a comment

“While we are on a roll” is a phrase often used when a manager has just received notification of success in a number of things or for a particularly tricky deliverable, they use it to signify that while we have this momentum of success we should keep pushing at the same level and see if we can get even more done.

The use of this phrase is one of the most innocently toxic things a manager of any level can say to someone who has just delivered something.

Let me explain.

Somebody has worked their guts off for the company or project, come up with a delivery often going above and beyond and presented it to you, You have then dismissed it most likely with no more than a “Great”, and then said, “Can I have more? and have it faster than last time”

There is a line in “Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee that fits this situation

“And the more I got, the more I called for more. It was like feeding a fat young cuckoo”

Every time someone does something for you above and beyond ¹. Acknowledge it. Respect the effort, feedback that you respect it and give them a moment to take a breath before you reload them with other things. If you do not respect, give them positive feedback and reward them, then what reason do they have to put the effort in? ²

If you are still wondering why I’m making a fuss over this, imagine you are doing housework and have just spent a hard Saturday gardening and getting some of the really nasty chores done, you complete them and invite your partner out to see your handy work. But they just reply, “Good, As you are in a tidying mood, can you do the bathroom” … do you still feel like going above an beyond with your share of the housework?

and I do mean every time not just the first[↩]
Now there are times when the intention behind this phrase is valid but that is nearly always to do with a third party or a set of access or resources that are not normally available, in which case be specific on what you think would be a good idea to minimise work, i.e. “while we have the XXX team on the call, is there anything else you needed them to answer for you, so we don’t have to organise another call”[↩]