People and Teams
 |
Seeking Feedback the Right Way Receiving negative feedback can be uncomfortable. You may immediately get defensive. But to grow personally and in your career, you need to be able to receive feedback—both good and bad. Here's how to recognize the three types of feedback you will get, and know how to solicit it and respond to it in the right way. |
|
 |
Is There a Place for Pranks in the Office? Some people think pulling pranks in the office is the height of hilarity. But they should remember that what they view as funny may not be viewed that way by those on the receiving end. There are many opportunities in the workplace for a joke to backfire. Before you think about pulling a prank, think it through. |
|
 |
Leadership in a Time of Crisis There’s an old saying that leadership is defined by what a leader does in a crisis. The current COVID-19 situation is such a crisis for every business. Whether you lead just yourself, a team, a line of business, or an enterprise, now is the time to step up and be a leader. Here's how to do that when times are tough. |
|
 |
Aging Gracefully in QA Employee churn is inevitable in every industry, and positions are being filled by fresh young faces all the time. Instead of becoming worried or insecure, senior team members should embrace their new status as someone to be looked up to for experience, lessons, and mentoring abilities. Here's how to do that in QA. |
|
 |
7 Tips to Make Working from Home Work for You At first glance, working from home might sound ideal, and it can be. But even with all the benefits, there are also numerous challenges. Deciding where, how, and when to work can take some adjustment. As more people are asked to or choose to work from home, these seven tips can help make the most out of remote work. |
|
 |
Absentee Leadership: The Worst Kind of Manager Absentee leaders are managers who are physically present but psychologically absent. They are incompetent and disengaged, to the extent that they don't support their teams adequately. If you have an absentee manager (and don’t have the luxury of seeking another position), here's how you can try to handle the situation. |
|
 |
Scrum Roles, Goals, and You The Scrum Guide specifies that there are three roles: product owner, developer, and ScrumMaster. It’s essential that a Scrum team have each of these roles to help it work well. But depending on how you implement the roles, you may end up hurting rather than helping your Scrum process. Focus on goals, not job titles. |
|
 |
The Problem with the People-Management Bell Curve Conforming team performance evaluations to a tidy bell curve is a simple, quantitative solution to the challenging problem of rating employee performance. However, it doesn’t work. It’s unrealistic (not to mention counterproductive) to force-fit employee evaluations to the curve when that doesn't reflect their work. |
