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The right to rest – see you in two weeks! :-)

Even though I advised you guys against becoming the Lonely Hero who holds the world on his shoulders, this is a lot like I feel for the last few months :-). Wearing so many crucial hats simultaneously could be and is a hard job. So I decided that at least two weeks of not doing anything at all would be in order for me.

However, AnyaWorkSmart being still Anya Work Smart, there is no going on vacation, without leaving a relevant message behind. And here it is – make sure that you also remind yourself of your right to rest. Look at that like at another perspective of being a manager – manage yourself like you would manage others. And you do let your employees rest, right? 🙂

So, see you all in two weeks and I promise to bring a lot of vacation-inspired inspiration to the pages of my blog.

🙂

Project Manager vs. the “Real” Manager

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Project Manager vs. the “Real” Manager?

One can ask: what do I mean by this title? Is there even a distinction? Are Project Managers not considered “Real” Managers?

Well, theoretically, there supposed to be a perfect synergy between the Project Manager and the different Functional Managers in the organization. FM’s manage the organization and PM’s manage the projects inside the organization. The problem is that as Project Manager usually comes from outside the organization, he’s naturally treated as outsider and could be even perceived as a threat to “local” managers. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that there are significant differences in the skill sets of PM’s and FM’s, so they are not always speaking the same language about similar subjects. This lack of communication and trust between the two critical Management branches of the organization can seriously disrupt the working process, so I find it advisable to mitigate the conflict in order to reduce possible losses.

Trust is best built by understanding the other side, so in my next post I’ll try to reverse some existing myths about Project Manager not being a “Real” Manager.

Competence Training

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Isn’t it a dream of any company to get on board only those employees who will contribute straight from the first day without the need to invest time and money into teaching them on the job or any kind of dedicated training (that will be a sunk cost in any case, whether the person will stick with the company or not)?

I think this subject deserves its own series of posts, which I’ll tag “Competence training“.

What to start with?

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There are so many interesting topics in self-management and management of others that I would like to tell about, but one of them seems especially prominent.

Everything we do, directly or by implication, revolves around people. People are the core of any enterprise, it’s most important and most vulnerable part. Let’s start with them, then.