Tag: behavior
Professionalism: No Yelling November 21st, 2023
It’s never acceptable to yell at work. The norms of professional behavior call for a cool demeanor. It’s normal to have emotions at work, but there’s a limit to how strongly you can express those emotions, particularly anger.
How to Build Trust November 16th, 2023
What are the major management behaviors that can help build trust? Management books often cover the importance of trust, but abstractly. There’s precious little writing about the nuts and bolts, the day-to-day tasks of trust-building. That’s the gap I’d like to try to fill with this article.
Professionalism: What is “professionalism” and why am I writing about it? April 12th, 2022
I’m starting a new series on professionalism: the set of workplace behaviors that are generally expected at work. These behaviors are largely unspoken, but they do exist: there are consequences for violating them. In this series, I aim to write down some of these rules and explore their implications. Eventually, I hope to have a solid list of what “professional behavior” really means.
When you're a manager, your behavior is under a microscope October 26th, 2021
If you want to be a good manager, you need to accept that your behavior is under a microscope. You need to watch your behavior carefully and pay attention to what that behavior communicates.
The Mass Email Mistake May 10th, 2021
Addressing behavior through mass emails or new policy rollout is a mistake. Here’s why.
How managers should respond to defensiveness after feedback March 23rd, 2021
I had a call a few weeks ago with a friend and fellow engineering manager, and we spent most of it talking about someone on her team who wasn’t responding well to feedback. He was performing several parts of his job pretty poorly, but when each time she told him that his work wasn’t acceptable, he pushed back. He argued, sometimes loudly, and refused to make the changes that she was asking for. My friend came to me pretty frustrated, not entirely sure how to respond to this guy. Most managers know this feeling: they’re doing their job as a manager, giving clear, specific, professional feedback but it’s going poorly. What should you do in a situation like this?