Management Café

Following on from episode 44 where we discussed vulnerability and authenticity, today in the café we go deeper on how much of our true character should we show at work. Is it entirely our choice? Are there parts of ourself that shouldn't be in our workplace? This is such a nuanced topic as we have to juggle our level of self-awareness, our assessment of our work environment, the degree of comfort...

The pandemic changed workplace awareness of physical and mental wellbeing. So what does it look like in 2023? We discuss what managers can do to pro-actively improve wellbeing for their workers. This can be a challenge for leaders as wellbeing is something we experience at an individual level, but it is influenced by factors inside and outside the workplace. What is a manager to do? 0:10 min Did t...

Metrics are very alluring for managers. Our software tools are full of data and reporting... with just a few clicks we might get the magic mix of numbers that will give us control. But for staff it's a different story. Too often metrics are used as a kind of straight jacket. Work becomes narrowly defined, devoid of nuance and complexity. Targets creep ever higher. And as the pressure mounts, inevi...

For a long time the dominant narrative of leadership has been of fearless leaders who move from triumph to triumph without serious flaws or doubt. But in recent years there has been a move towards authentic leadership. Leaders who show vulnerability and who share their weaknesses as well as their strengths. Over coffee Pilar and Tim dig into authentic leadership, the benefits it can deliver for le...

We often need to experience some challenge in order to grow. But tension can easily spill over into destructive interactions. As leaders we need to demonstrate that we can challenge and be challenged. In this chat Pilar and Tim learn they have quite different thresholds for conflict. And they explore the difference between being challenged constructively vs destructively. 0:30 min Sometimes creati...

In today's coffee Pilar and Tim discuss the concept of Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO introduced by Ben Horowitz in 2011. Our companies and teams will all face difficult times where there is an existential threat or huge change looming. How do we lead through these challenges? Do we need a different leadership style to match the situation, and what is the impact "wartime leadership"? 3:50min Some peopl...

Pilar and Tim explore their experiences of being co-founders or co-managers, as well as being solely in charge. The co-founder dynamic is inevitably going to experience some challenges as a business has its ups and downs. The way that founders communicate, collaborate, challenge and complement each other has a huge impact on the culture of the company and its success. This coffee is, yet again, so...

This concept comes from Kate Murphy's excellent book " You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters ". For many of us silence can be challenging, it is often considered a sign that something is wrong. What happens when we approach the quiet ones with curiosity? 1:30min Who are the quiet ones? Why might they be quiet? 3:00 Tim shares a story of a manager who was often quiet for an u...

From the hidden power of the humble custard cream to the value of fancy restaurants, Pilar and Tim explore the role that food can play in our leadership practice. This is not discussed in business school curriculums, but something changes when we make the conscious step to stop our work activities so we can share food together. Eating together can be a powerful way to change the atmosphere of a wo...

What happens for managers when work moves away from real time meeting focussed and more towards asynchronous? Communication and team interaction can be as unique and nuanced as each individual human. So how do we navigate management when our team are spending large parts of their time working async? 1:30mins We talk about some of the pros and cons of asynchronous work. 6:00 Tim highlights the impo...

It's hard to imagine a manager without meetings. As leaders we don't just participate, we also need to run great meetings. All sorts of interesting and unique things can happen when people come together for a group discussion. And yet many of us have a love/hate relationship with meetings. 1:30mins Tim explains what he likes about meetings. 2:30 Pilar recalls the frustration that comes when the en...

When do we stop being a manager and cross into therapy? Understanding and analysing human behaviour is an essential skill for managers. But most managers aren't professionally trained psychologists. How should managers be emotionally supporting their direct reports and what lines should they not cross? 0:50mins Where do we draw boundaries as an employer and employee? 3:30 Is it the manager's job t...

Managers have a responsibility to help their people discover and sustain the best version of themselves. But is this just in the context of our specific role and responsibilities? Or can we use work as a place to practice being a better human being? Tim and Pilar dive into people development. 1:50mins What sort of environments are conducive to personal development? It can be different for each per...

Handing tasks and responsibility to others is at the core of management. This is easy in principle but sometimes hard in practice. Tim and Pilar discuss delegation over coffee.   2.00 mins. Does some of this loneliness come from feeling like we can't share as much with our team members as we'd like, and also they don't share as much with you as they might if you were a team member? Tim remembers t...

There's a degree of separation from your team members when you lead a team - and this sometimes can lead to feeling separated, and even lonely. Who should we rely on to get us through it? Pilar and Tim discuss this over coffee. 2.00 mins. Does some of this loneliness come from feeling like we can't share as much with our team members as we'd like, and also they don't share as much with you as they...

Management is a tough job. It's not for everyone. Managers need motivation to get up and do their job day after day. Tim and Pilar explore what keeps them going. 2:40mins Pilar's secret sauce is the joy of collaboration. She explains why this is important to her and details the wonderful behaviours she sees when a team collaborates really well. 7:00 We talk about the relationship between the team'...

One of the least fun aspects of management is raising issues of poor performance with team members. Tim and Pilar share their own experiences and learnings along the way. 2:00mins Giving performance feedback to a friend, one of the few occasions Pilar needed to seek advice and the one piece of advice that helped her have a difficult conversation. 4:30 What we've learned from the book Radical Cando...

What changes when you become a manager? Pilar and Tim continue talking about how boundaries and relationships shift when you move into leadership . 1.10mins It feels different to be promoted in a team where people already know you, than being promoted into a new team, where you start with a clean slate. With a new team you can change your behaviour if it helps you, but in a new team, the change wi...

What changes when you become a manager? In this episode Pilar and Tim explore how boundaries and relationships shift when you move into leadership, amongst many other things. 1:30 Typical paths into leadership roles and Tim shares his own journey. 3:20 Can managers be an unnecessary layer? Do all teams need a manager? 4:20 We go deep on what are the actual responsibilities of a manager. 8:10 The b...

Are we as competent as people think we are? In this episode Pilar and Tim dive into imposter syndrome . 1:30 We try to define imposter syndrome in our own experience 3:20 The positive aspects of imposter syndrome. Referencing an HBR article Pilar shared about how Impostor Syndrome Has Its Advantages . 5:30 We explore how imposter syndrome is about how we perceive our own competency within the cont...

Pilar and Tim share how they learn and develop their leadership practice. 1:50 Tim's largely self-taught experience of management 3:00 Where to look for information about being a good manager 4:00 We discuss role models and whether our role models are aware of their influence on us 5:10 Promoting managers based on skill vs seniority, should management be the main goal for being promoted? 6:30 Tim...

In this episode Pilar and Tim explore our first perceptions of management and how that influences the way we develop as leaders. To find your own style of management it helps to understand your beliefs about management and how they might change over time. For example even before we start working we form opinions about leadership via people like teachers and parents. We discuss how this translates...

In this first episode of our new season, Pilar and Tim give some background to their professional history. We talk about how our age and experience has influenced our leadership practice. For Tim much of it was learning on the job at Shield GEO and Pilar had leadership responsibility from an early age through theatre. We both share the belief that leadership should be helping people to grow and de...

Management Café is back... with a new co-host!  Meet Tim Burgess, reconnect with Pilar Orti and find out what we are planning for the new season of Management Café. 

A first for this podcast, Pilar has a conversation with a guest! It was recorded a while ago, but like all the Management Café episodes, the content is evergreen, so we hope you'll enjoy hearing from Anish HIndocha. This episode is brought to you by Virtual not Distant, where we help leaders and managers of remote teams. https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/ Anish Hindocha is a "lean consultant, with...