The saying goes that we should “trust our instincts.”  In many life changing moments, I believe this to be good advice.  When someone pops you the question, you know in that very instant whether to say “yes” or “no.”  When offered two jobs – one with a high salary but boring work and one with […]

I am generally an impatient person.  It’s not that I don’t like hard work.  I’m willing to put forth the effort to get what I want.  But when I set my eyes on something, I want it as soon as I can.  And when I have a problem, I want it solved as quickly as […]

There is such a thing as caring too much. If you… Worry about every single detail, Constantly nit-pick at others, Have trouble sleeping due to anxiety, Believe everyone is judging you with every interaction, Refuse to allow mistakes, Won’t take risks, Think about things that can’t change, Haven’t tried to get unstuck for a long […]

We want things now.  Yesterday even.  We have short attention spans, and we don’t have time to wait.  If we don’t get it soon, we’re not going to wait around for it.  Your customers have ten billion different options to choose from, so you better get it out the door. These are probably all true. […]

If you’ve ever worked for a project manager (or heaven forbid, you are one like me), then you know we love processes.  We like to plan ahead, bring stability and keep things moving forward.  All these things require processes that let everyone on the team know what to do.

People want desperately to stand out.  There’s one surefire way you can do just that with two little words: Follow.  Through. When you do what you say you’ll do, magical things happen: Superiors recognize your work. People start depending on you. You earn the trust of your peers. Everyone listens to you. Co-workers want to […]

In response to my post about viewing your teammates as idiots last week, Cara wrote: I have yet to see that there is a successful way to get people to stop thinking of almost all others as “idiots” if they don’t want to. Sometimes this is straight-up narcissism on their part, but sometimes I think […]

I used to work for a software engineer with horrible estimation skills.  Our boss always wanted him to give the rosiest estimates possible of when the product would be done.  He always came back with the estimate our boss wanted to hear, knowing full well the team couldn’t deliver.  This was equally frustrating for me […]

Today’s post is a guest blog by Johnathon Sullinger, a Construction Field Supervisor who also has experience in software development.  He just recently became promoted and wrote up some of his experiences about becoming a new supervisor.  Enjoy his advice on making the transition and what he’s learning about managing a team. About two months […]

I’ve noticed in Fellowstream’s Google Analytics data that a lot of people get to the site by reading some past articles I wrote on self–managed teams.  I’m very passionate about this subject because I’ve done my absolute best work under the hand of a well-run self-managed-team.  When executed right, they give you the flexibility to […]