I believe there are two ways one can advance his career: either becoming a highly qualified specialist or providing general utility to the team and organization. The first ones often become seniors – senior engineers/programmers/lawyers. The second usually becomes managers: middle managers, Project Managers, Process Managers, etc. Governing other people requires less hard skills and […]

Innovation is a cornerstone for modern Businesses as even the smallest performance gain can separate a profitable company from a bankrupt one. CEOs, experienced managers, and business gurus all talk about innovation. As a first-time manager, you play a vital role in the innovation process. Apply these tips to help your team innovate: Promote cooperation […]

According to the definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, micromanaging bosses “try to control or manage all the small parts of something (such as an activity) in a way that is usually not wanted or that causes problems.” Even though micromanagement is usually portrayed negatively, there are quite a few exceptional situations where micromanagement might be […]

Genuine problem solving often requires us to ask people for help and information. This is applicable for both work projects and career advancement as a whole. Creating strong cases for your requests will improve the chances you get positive answers and prevent miscommunication of excepted results. Often, inner thoughts dissuade us from asking for anything. […]

As my latest article with tips for first-time managers has received much positive feedback on Telegram, I’ve decided to play with this topic a little more. Let’s talk about facilitating coordination and cooperation within a team. Cooperation is a must-have aspect of effective teams. Promoting cooperation is one of the most important manager’s responsibilities. You […]

No book is going to have the perfect advice for each situation first-time managers face. Being a good manager is making good decisions with information on hand and following several guidelines that differ very bad managers from okay ones. In this post I’ve listed the 8 that I think is the most important: 1. Success […]

We often rush doing tasks that we just received. It can lead to us spending time on tasks that will be of no use to anyone. Imagine finishing a report just to find out that the requestor has already received the same information from another source. Such a task can be discovered to violate your […]

Good presentation on a performance review is vital for your career advancement, getting realistic feedback from the manager, and increasing collaboration with your colleagues backed by increased authority and respect. According to UC Berkeley’s Guide to Managing Human Resources, “Performance Management is an ongoing process of communication between a supervisor and an employee that occurs throughout the year, […]

Being knowledge workers, we all got multiple projects and tasks. Our managers and colleagues rely on us to keep things under control and manage up when needed. Have you ever struggled to tell your manager, outside the project, what has changed since last week? Most probably, something happened, but you weren’t involved. That’s a natural […]

To answer new challenges of nowadays interconnected, global, and technocratic world we need to embrace a new style of leadership. Professor M.S. Rao has developed a concept of Soft Leadership, based on behavioral theory and a collegial OB framework that can help us with that. Soft Leadership is leading through soft skills and people skills. […]

I bet every one of you has ever asked the question “Why does this meeting take so long?” Meetings are exhausting. It was a problem before the pandemic, it has become an even bigger problem for remote meetings. You would never want important customers or stakeholders to feel the meeting was a waste of time. […]

A year of remote work brought the importance of effective business writing to the next level. With these skills you save a lot of time and effort both offline and online. Effective business writing communication helps with controlling projects, creating innovation & collaborating effectively. Written communication won’t solve all your problems though. Complement written communications […]

You may find a lot of job interview tips on the Internet, but they mostly focus on the way companies and job postings are built, not how you sell yourself. It’s wrong. I found my first and current job at Citi last July. Since then, a lot of my student friends from universities got hired […]

The importance of soft skills for IT specialists is highly debated. You may be a wonderful Data Analyst, Product Manager, or IT Project Manager, but without writing skills your career opportunities are limited. Writing is required both for remote and on-site employees. Every meeting you don’t schedule is an extra cup of coffee. Effective written […]

Sharing is caring. Have you been in a situation when different teams in an organization each try to gather work-related information on their own? It’s duplicate work. It’s bad and inefficient. But what are the ways to share information between teams efficiently? 1. Send an email. Email is the easiest way to share information in […]

Working in Industry, especially with Analytics, we have to prove certain points and ideas to our managers, colleagues and requestors. Every Data Analyst knows the benefits of data-driven decision making. But how do you make indirect conclusions backed up by logic? I work as a Business Analyst in Banking and I prove ideas every day. […]