Comparing the incomparable

Posted on February 4, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

We all have been taught at certain stage that you cannot compare apples to oranges. What was usually meant by that is that the world is divided into clear categories and those categories should not be mixed up. There are Developers and there are Managers, there are First world countries and there are Third world countries, there are “winners” and there are “losers”. By conveniently dividing the complex reality into more simple and digestible parts this thumb rule clearly makes our life easier, but nevertheless – is it true? Continue reading →

Life without biases Part 1: Is it possible?

Posted on January 28, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

The events of the recent years have clearly shown the repercussions of bad decision-making, both on a personal level when people were buying things they cannot afford; on a corporate level when companies kept pouring money into unsuccessful projects, neglecting all kinds of efficiency monitoring; on the national level when whole countries Continue reading →

Happy New Year, everybody – let’s start it on the right foot!

Posted on January 7, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

For many of us these are the days of making resolutions for the coming year. As different as the resolutions of different people may be, there would always be something common between them – we all hope that following these resolutions will make our life better. And when something needs to be changed for the better – AnyaWorkSmart will always have something to say :-). Continue reading →

Learning to be Rational – From Ask Anya mails

Posted on December 6, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

Following series of posts on How good are you in making decisions.

Question:

“There are so many components to our decisions that I doubt the change in a decision making process can be achieved so easily. How can we become rational if we don’t always know when we’re irrational?” Continue reading →

Validating Skills on the interview – From Ask Anya mails

Posted on November 22, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

Following Post Thumb rule #1 for building your team

Question:

“I agree that ability to learn is really an important attribute. What would you consider a good indicator of this ability, i.e. how can you assess a candidate for that?”

Answer: Continue reading →

Craftsman, Scientist or Artist – who are you? Three approaches to Expertise

Posted on November 15, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

In my post on communication I mentioned that language has its limitations when trying to explain something – for the simple reason of possible gaps in the understanding of terminology by the involved parties. We’ve already encountered this problem when trying to distinguish between Skill, Competence and Expertise, as everyone seems to understand these concepts differently. However, there is an elegant solution for this problem: Continue reading →

Skills, Competence, Expertise – what is what?

Posted on November 12, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

How do we know if someone is good at something? How do we know who’s professional enough to get the job done and on time? How do we know to choose the right consultant who’ll help us to push the project down the road with his extensive knowledge? How do we know to train our employees and ourselves to be better at what we do? Continue reading →

Communication skill: more or better?

Posted on November 8, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

We are all aware of crucial role communication skills play in any endeavor; they can bring back a failing project from ashes and make a successful one sink like Titanic in a blink of an eye.

There are numerous training resources out there that call for communicating more, trying to break down into bits and pieces what communication is and how it should be done properly. So why do we still struggle so much in conveying our messages when we want others to do something for us or, at least, to understand what we’re talking about? Continue reading →

Utilizing Data and Research in Management

Posted on November 1, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

Why would I choose to focus on this topic? It sounds so boring that I risk losing your attention already at the title.

But no, I haven’t lost my marbles. Lately, we’ve discussed at length the crucial role of the Manager in the Decision-making process, so it brings us naturally to the most crucial component of this process – the interpretation of information. Continue reading →

How good are you in making decisions? Part 1 – The Process

Posted on October 9, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

Imagine someone approaches you at a party and asks what you do for a living. You proudly answer that you are a “(level of seniority) Manager at (name of industry/ company)”. But then you’re asked: “Yeah, but what do you DO there?” How would you describe your job in one sentence to someone who has never managed people or projects? Continue reading →