Managing is hard. Managing for the first time is even harder.
bringing up the boss
why? | latest post | SIGN UP | all posts | who?
Latest Posts
Wanna just look at the pictures?
Why the Heck Do We Need More Writing on Management?
(Or, Isn’t the Airport Bookstore Filled With This Stuff?)
Here’s the movie: new start-up comes on the scene filled with a few incredible young people. Start-up grows, the team expands, and those few incredible young people all of a sudden have the responsibility of a team underneath them. Just a year or few prior, these incredible young people were barely able to manage themselves in the crazy, ever-changing company that they are a part of. Now, these incredible young people are “managers” and are expected – without any direction or manager role models - to know how to develop, coach, structure work, review, and set expectations for a whole bunch of new incredible young people. Sound familiar? (read more...)
Why the Heck Do We Need More Writing on Management?
(Or, Isn’t the Airport Bookstore Filled With This Stuff?)
Here’s the movie: new start-up comes on the scene filled with a few incredible young people. Start-up grows, the team expands, and those few incredible young people all of a sudden have the responsibility of a team underneath them. Just a year or few prior, these incredible young people were barely able to manage themselves in the crazy, ever-changing company that they are a part of. Now, these incredible young people are “managers” and are expected – without any direction or manager role models - to know how to develop, coach, structure work, review, and set expectations for a whole bunch of new incredible young people. Sound familiar? (read more...)
Have a management challenge or question you want me to explore in a post?
What We Talk About When We Talk About....Managing.
The Four Very Official, Very Scientific Buckets of Management
1
Managing an Individual
How do you motivate and develop individuals? How do you set expectations and manage someone else’s work? How do you provide constructive feedback?
2
Managing a Team
How do you create a well-functioning team? How do you encourage diversity of thoughts and ideas within a team setting? How do you optimize the work you do as a team versus an individual?
3
Managing
Up
How do you proactively manage your own boss? How do you complement your boss’ skills and abilities? How do you effectively push back?
4
Managing
Yourself
How do you think about and own your own development? How do you choose a job and career that suits your own skills? How do you balance managing others with managing yourself?
And a bonus unit!
5
Managing
Culture
How do you build and sustain a strong organizational culture? How do you create structures and processes that reinforce that culture? How do you allow for your employees to embody and own the organizational culture?
This blog attempts to explore each of these categories!
Who are you to tell me how to be a better boss-person?
Well, I've seen a lot. For much of my career I've worked to build, analyze, and support companies - both big and small - as they evolve, and more importantly, develop the people within those companies to navigate the complicated and messy world of work.
In the last few years, I was the Chief People Officer of Oxeon, a venture fund and advisory firm, where I led all people-related activities within the company, as well as advised our portfolio companies on challenges related to building and scaling fast-growth healthcare organizations. I was on the founding leadership team of the JPMorgan Chase Institute, a big-data start-up incubated within JPMorgan Chase, where I built our operations and people infrastructure. I've built out offices and teams in Dubai and Kazakhstan, and have had the joy (and pain!) of experiencing management issues across many distinct cultures. And now, I research these issues as a PhD candidate in Management at Wharton, where I continue to explore how organizational and team dynamics impact the success of companies.
I love helping start-ups solve their people and management challenges, and am fortunate enough to be on the Board of Advisors at Onduo, a tech-enabled diabetes start-up, Maven Clinic, a women's health start-up, Vicarious Surgical, a robotics start-up, and PolarWorks, a 3D printing start-up, as well as, work with a range of other organizations as they tackle their human capital strategies. I am on the founding faculty of the Entrepreneurship in Education Program at UPenn, where I teach a foundations in Management course to budding entrepreneurs. Additionally, I am the founder of The Michael Project, a behavioral health non-profit aimed at helping college students explore alternative paths in life.
Thanks for reading, and please email with ideas, questions and suggestions!