Creating an Environment for Success

I'm in Boston for a book-writing week with Johanna Rothman.

We're focusing the skills managers *must* have -- the skills that form the foundation for effective management:

Managing one-to-one

Building relationships

Speaking the language of the business / the technical staff

Setting clear priorities

Delivering feedback

Pursuing feedback

Managing the project portfolio

Assigning the work

Handling people issues

If you master these, you're well on your way to being a great manager. Without these, what ever else you do won't amount to much.

We're having fun, and we're facing the same problems every project must deal with....scope creep.... we keep generating more ideas of what to include and must firmly tell ourselves "No!" (Now that would be a great chapter: A Manager's Guide to Saying NO and Keeping Your Job! Ah, we'll save it for the next release!)