Scheduling meetings is another topic that should be discussed on day one of management training. There are a few simple rules that should be followed that often are not. Check the attendee’s calendar before you send a meeting invite. No one likes to be double and triple booked. Sending blind invites when your attendees are […]
June 20, 2011
Chasing The Chaos – A Bad Leadership Habit
Many of you have worked at companies where major issues come up and all the managers and executives start running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The call goes out to fix the issue at all costs. Dedicate whatever resources you need echos through the halls. You know the drill. You put a […]
March 5, 2011
Followup Emails
If you have been in management long, you have probably seen or personally experienced a situation where verbal conversations occur and very specific things are discussed, then at some point after the fact, the details of the conversation change. At times, this can be an inconvenience, at other times, this can be a situation that […]
February 20, 2011
High Performance Teams, Require High Performance People
I know this topic seems like a no brainer, but it really is something that many companies lose sight of. If you want a high performance company, you need high performance teams, which require high performance people. There are times that your company may have a product or service that allows the company to be […]
February 16, 2011
Single Points Of Failure
Single points of failure are a serious problem in every part of your business but in an Operations team, a single point of failure can put you out of business or at least, out of a job. As an Operations leader, single points of failure should be enemy #1. Anytime I join a new company […]
February 13, 2011
Disaster Recovery Planning For Your Operations Team
Having a good disaster recovery plan is an essential part of business these days. If your company gets audited for things such as, SAS70, SSAE16, PCI, etc, or you just want to do the right thing for your company, having a good disaster recovery plan is a must. This document is not intended to be […]
February 9, 2011
Simple Project Management for Operations Teams
If you manage any type of Operations organization for more than a few weeks, you will find there are almost always a dozen or more projects in the works. Many times, engineers and managers attempt to manage these projects on the fly. Projects that are managed via verbal conversations and emails tend to drag out […]
February 9, 2011
Why You Should Use Deadlines For All Tasks And Projects
When it comes to project and task management deadlines there are really two schools of thought. The loose approach of assigning a task to someone and then allowing them to just say they will do it or the more structured approach of requiring ETA’s and deadlines for tasks and projects that are assigned. If you […]
February 5, 2011
Effective Incident Communication
One area that can almost always use a little improvement is our ability to communicate. I know as an executive responsible for various operations teams, bad communication drives me crazy. There are few things I hate more than running around trying to track down the details for an issue, when I should already have the […]
February 5, 2011
Hidden Costs of a Poorly Managed NOC/Monitoring Center
During my career, I have managed several Monitoring Centers, NOC’s (Network Operation Centers), or whatever your company calls them. I have also worked with many customers that have had their own monitoring centers. In almost every case this area of the company is neglected to the detriment of the entire organization. A poorly ran NOC […]
January 30, 2012
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