I recently asked which three tips you would give your boss.
Here’s a sneaky follow-up: What three tips would your boss and co-workers give you, to make yourself happier at work, if they could freely speak their minds?
Drop a comment, I’d really like to know.
Best advice I received from a co-worker (and my project manager at the time) was that everybody is allowed to make mistakes. It made me less stressed, happier at work and gave me courage to try new and exciting approaches even though it was sometimes riskier.
[Thanks to Steen for that advice in 1996.]
I wrote about 3 traits I’d take from a co worker of mine in response to the original “tips for your boss” thread. ( http://www.andotherstories.com/2006/10/06/traits-from-your-co-workers/ )
But to revise my answers:
1. Go that extra mile to show people you appreciate them. I have a co worker who is 6 time zones away, but every Friday at 5:30pm his time he will IM me to wish me a nice weekend.
2. Don’t start wars just to win battles.
3. Celebrate your victories, deal with your losses, but both as a team.
These may or may not make sense.. they just fixed the Mountain Dew machine here, and i’m making up for lost Dew.
here it goes:
1)be patient, results will come in the right time
2)foster relationships
3)don’t be afraid to make mistakes
There are a couple of advices that a former boss gave me that really changed my way of viewing life:
1.- Don’t worry. It’s only work.
2.- If OK to complain, but find two solutions for each problem and we’ll talk again.
As with the third… it was given by a co-worker, but I’m not really sure that I agree with it:
3.- You just care about your work. Don’t worry about how others are doing.
Best tips I received:
1) Just do it. I trust you.
2) leads other people on your way without them knowing about it. Still, let them think they found the solution by themselves. (by my father)
3) About code : Beautiful code == Easy to maintain & support.
About 1. That was about a project nobody wanted to even look at, my manager just had to get it done. Actually, I don’t think anyone even needed that project to be made : it had just a name, a title and an end date. I had to invent the needs, goals, budget .. Everything. So funny.
Just this week I had a job interview to become a project manager for a large project with the top management. One tip they gave me was that the problems in my project aren’t just mine, they share them with me.
Another I’ve been given by my manager which I’ve found useful:
Notify management about controversial advice I’m giving or if my advice is ignored. That way, they know what’s going on and if it backfires they share my responsibility.
A tip by a co-worker: if it’s stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.
Thanks for the great answers people!
It’s nice to see all this good advice floating around, most of it easy to implement.