Many people who are promoted to a people management role find themselves in this position because they have been proven to be a subject matter expert and successful in a single contributor role.

When International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8th, it was an opportunity to reflect on the impact that women have had on my personal career.  It didn’t take long to realise that some amazing women have influenced some pivotal moments:

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”

Stephen Covey

The phrase ‘performance management’ often conjures up feelings of dread, the connotation being that this means managing somebody out of the business. Whilst sadly in some organisational cultures this proves to be the case, the good news is that many organisations work on the premise that we all need our performance to be managed, regardless of our experience and ability.

One of the most common and perfectly reasonable questions asked by people transitioning from a single contributor role to a management role is which management style(s) should I use?

It’s a weird old concept that time seems to fly when we’re having fun and we don’t want it to, yet when we would like the clock to tick down, time seems to drag its feet in excruciating fashion.

As Laura Vanderkam tells us in her engaging TED talk there are 168 hours in a week. If we factor in working a 40-hour week and sleeping for an average of 8 hours a night, that still leaves us with 72 hours a week for other things.