How Can A Manager Build A Happy Team?

It turns out that gratitude is the key

Ok manager, so you are in charge of a team. What would you like to do with that team? If you are like most of us, you’d like to be able to use your manager skills to create a happy, very productive team. The studies have shown us that happy teams score higher on productivity, … Read more

How Should Managers Be Practicing Transparency?

Trust starts with being transparent

The goal of every manager is to become a respected manager. This is a fine goal to have, but just exactly how can we make this happen? It turns out that one important step in getting your team to respect you is for you to make the practice of transparency important. Why should you bother … Read more

Do Your Team Members Have The Soft Skills That They Need?

As an IT manager you are counting on your team to get tasks accomplished in part so that you’ll look good to the rest of the company. In order for your team to be successful, they are all going to have to be able to work together. This is going to require a different set … Read more

Great IT Managers Aren’t Afraid To Stumble On The Way To The Top

A quick question for you: are you afraid to fail? Would you be willing to take on responsibility for leading an IT team that might not be a success? I’m willing to bet that a lot of us would say “no” – our company’s IT managers who are perfect are rewarded while IT managers who … Read more

New Thoughts About That Vision Thing

I’m pretty sure that your company has a vision. I’m also fairly certain that if asked, you’d be hard pressed to tell anyone just exactly what that vision is. Although we all basically understand that having a vision is good thing, the whole vision thing has been so badly handled that it’s pretty much a … Read more

Is An IT Manager Really An Artist?

Here’s an interesting question that I like to whip out every so often and run through my mind: is IT a science or an art? For that matter, are we all engineers or are we really artists? If you think about it, our jobs consist of taking basic elements (colors) combining them (painting) and creating … Read more

3 IT Manager Secrets From The Folks At Pixar

Toy Story, Cars, Finding Nemo, Wall-E – who hasn’t been amazed at the movies that Pixar has created over the past few years? I think that we can all agree that clearly Pixar has found a way to foster and grow creativity within their organization. What if IT Leaders could find out how to do … Read more