Better Management — The Manager Millennial

When A Manager is Uninterested in People Management

How do you deal with a people manager who’s uninterested in managing people? Let’s breakdown the motivations for people management to get at the why.

Management, Remote ManagementNicholas MirickAugust 31, 2023Management, good manager, bad managerComment

First, Be a Person

Let’s talk about professional Empathy

ManagementNicholas MirickAugust 10, 2023Management, Millennial, good manager, bad manager, empathy, EQComment

Critical Feedback Part 3: At the Right Time

For feedback to be effective it must be timely.

Providing feedback that someone will internalize is equal parts why, how and when. The When of providing feedback is important because the person receiving the feedback needs to be in a place where they directly associate behavior with consequence and outcome.

ManagementNicholas MirickMarch 3, 2020good manager, feedback, ManagementComment

Critical Feedback Part 2: For the Right Reasons

WHY you’re giving someone critical feedback is as important as the contents of the feedback. The right message can be amplified or undermined by the motivations of the person giving it — so let’s amplify it.

Nicholas MirickFebruary 13, 2020Comment

I Manage You, You're Pretty Good, Now Change

Every people manager, at some point, has asked another, more experienced, people manager, When do I get to stop dealing with immature people? Don’t they know this isn’t high school?? And the more experienced people manager laughs and says, I’ll let you know when it happens.

ManagementNicholas MirickFebruary 4, 2020feedback, Management, good manager Comment

How to Have Better One On One's (Part 2)

So now you’re having One on One’s regularly— how do you have a good One on One? How do you have a better One on One?

How to Have a Better One on One (Part 1)

One on One’s (1o1) are the core mechanic to people management. You can pulse your team, understand where they are, what challenges they’re facing and exchange critical information in a dedicated, recurring setting. Done well they mitigate or outright prevent crises and allow you to understand and motivate your team.

How do we have better One on Ones? Let’s get intentional. Let’s talk about what works and why it works—and why it doesn’t work.

ManagementNicholas MirickJanuary 21, 2020one on one, Management, remote management, betterComment

Why to Have One on Ones

One on One’s are a critical component of people management—both up and down. They’re the touchpoint with your reports and with your manager. They should be a central pillar for information transfer, coaching, utilization & capacity understanding, humanizing yourself and, critically, getting in front of things before it blows up and turns into turd pie.

In other words, One on One’s are the core mechanism for people management.

Nicholas MirickJanuary 13, 20201o1, remote management, management, Reactive, one on one, time management Comment

People Management for People Interested in People Management

Managing people is ultimately about three ingredients.

1) Know what motivates your people, and whether they are currently motivated

2) Give a shit about them and their career development

3) Act as a force multiplier

That’s it.

Nicholas MirickJanuary 8, 2020Management, remote management, Millennial, teaching, mentorshipComment

Why is Managing Millennials "Hard(er)"?

Millennials, moreso than any prior generation, have a fundamentally performative life experience. Being digital natives means more than simply “understanding the social” or “knowing how to Insta”: it means that we came of age on Facebook and Twitter and MySpace and Friendster and we are used to the presentation of information in an idealized world. When you went to high school and college viewing someone’s vacation photos or their posts from a Friday night, you get a false sense of Their Amazing Life—without having to view the gristly bits that comprise the reality of life.