[mikehollinger]

“The Effective Manager” by the people behind Manager Tools (a great podcast) is a really, really good view of this.

Re: Communication, this book starts there and builds upon that foundation. It’s targeted at line managers, but anyone in a leadership position can and will benefit. For example, I don’t do one-on-one’s with my team. I do “Project Management 1:1’s” or “Weekly project status updates.” I don’t always give feedback the way they prescribe (because the team doesn’t formally report to me). I do, however, go out of my way to say “Just to let you know, when you do X, Y happens.” And from the book, learned that there’s a 10:1 ratio of positive to negative feedback to strive for.

Side note: Manager Tools has a great podcast series that is arranged into a “map of the universe” [1] which shows a huge list of topics, and how to discuss everything from good or bad performance, dealing with various types of conflict, to even how to structure emails or how to address a personal scent issue (which I’ve actually used).

[1] https://www.manager-tools.com/map-of-the-universe

[plugin-baby]

> how to structure emails or how to address a personal scent issue (which I’ve actually used)

How did that play out?

[mikehollinger]

Honestly pretty well.

One of our colleagues took aggressive advantage of the ping pong tables at the office (in the before times) every afternoon after lunch. I’d noticed as had some others. I had a short talk with that person about the fact that in a shared office environment he was essentially showing up post-workout for the balance of the afternoon. I actually don’t recall what changed - but we stopped noticing the issue. I think they just started playing toward the end of the day then just went home after.