Manager

I’m long term fan of the guys at Manager Tools and I think there’s plenty to learn from those podcasts even if you’re not a manager. That being said, they’ve got a series of podcasts designed for the individual contributor role now too: Check out Career Tools.

A Fable by George Reavis:

Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world” so they organized a school. They had adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that, except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. He also developed a “charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceeding well and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.

The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.

Well, I’m really glad I went to the Manager Tools Meet Up this evening. There were only three of us but that’s really not a bad turn out for the first one, ever. I enjoyed chatting with Brian and Kyle and we decided it’s worth a shot to do it again.

We’ll be doing one in November and December for sure. I’ll post details as the dates approach for any Triangle readers out there…. and I know one person who I’m dragging along next time (you know who you are).

Check out manager-tools.com if you haven’t already and see what all the fuss is about.

I’m a big fan of the Manager Tools podcasts and some local folks on the discussion board are planning a meet-up tomorrow evening. 6pm at that Chicago Uno place in Brier Creek. Ask the hostess for “Manager Tools” if you’d like to come.

Good time for a free plug for the MT guys, if you’re a manager you really should check out their casts. It’s even on iTunes… IT manager folks, this goes especially for you.

Email drives far too much of our day and by taking control of it you’d be surprised how much time you can save, how better organized you can be, and how less interrupt driven your day can be. I’m going on 3 weeks now of an average inbox size of 0. That’s right, zero. And yes, I get hundreds of emails a day.

There’s all sorts of tips out there on managing your email. I’m not going to point to them all but I’ll explain what I’m doing. The point is to find a system that works and not let email control you. It’s an awesome tool and one I couldn’t imagine living without but I’ll never let it rule my day again. Here goes a loooooong post….

I’ve been using the free transcription services of Jott that Tom blogged about earlier this week. I’m amazed at how well it works and nothing beats it when you’re driving somewhere and want to make a note of something that popped in your head. Check out jott.com if you haven’t heard of it yet.