Project Management, initiative, leadership

Every now and then, depending on the company, a manager has to evaluate the people in the team. If you are a project manager, you might have it when the project is over, or when you release some of the people from the project. If you are a people manager, and have directs in your responsibility for the whole year, formal performance management will probably happen once or twice in the year. Either way, the performance evaluation process is the most official and an important step in providing formal feedback to your employees. It is a good opportunity to formalize the feedback that you provided along the year, to recognize progress or to take corrective actions. But how do you deliver an effective performance review? First of all, and the most important step, well known by all of us, is that the performance review should not be a surprise to the employee. As a manager, you have to provide feedback about the way the employee executes on the job during the whole year. Use every opp...

I will probably be in agreement with most of you, when I say that Apple has definitely re-invented the computer through their innovative design, characteristic colors, transparent plastic and cool shapes. After seeing such a great design , with an easy-to-use (although sometimes still cumbersome) interface on their OS, people might think: what could be best? Is there anything better than iPhone , could anyone innovate more than them? Beating a successful design, coming up with even greater ideas is not an easy task - lots of brainstorming happens, long nights spent in imagining other ways of creating a lot of practicality combined with a cool touch... And when I was thinking that all was said and done, I have seen this cool ad for Microsoft , and I felt that there is still a lot of great stuff to be brought to life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAhJTxC1C8w&feature=player_embedded Watch this video - I find it inspiring, and although it might match to other companies, ...

Yes, exactly: do you think this can help? If yes, by when should we expect to become obsolete? All of us, or... just the Project Managers, or just the People Managers, or only the CxOs? Let's take a step-by-step approach to analyse this idea. - what does a CxO do all day long? Looks at numbers, weighs ideas, run a lot of meetings, join in quite a few, and then decide. This is one job that even a robot could do, right? - what does a Project Manager do? Looks at graphics, numbers, tasks, activities, costs, weighs in the variables and probabilities of various risks, and then decide. A robot could do that as well, right? - what does a People Manager do? Looks at graphics, numbers, operational aspects, hire/fire people, give some random advices, and then decide. It seems simple, and straightforward, right? So... why are we still here? why isn't our place already taken by robots? Maybe in my logic I made some mistake... yeah, there might be a chance that - beyond numbers, a...