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Management Skills, Tips, and Tactics

The Importance of Managing Up and How Crucial It is in Your Career

As I’ve progressed further along in my career, the importance of being able to manage upward has become clearer to me. If you think your relationship with your manager is a one-way street with the manager doing all the delegating and you doing all the following, think again. At its core, managing up isn’t just […]

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Skills, Tips, and Tactics

What does a good manager look like?

Managers come in all shapes and sizes.  They naturally have different styles and the junior consultants who are best at adjusting to them often have the most success. Of course, when you get to the very top of a consultancy or any other organisation, managers tend to be good.  Partners are partners because they are […]

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Management

The Future of Management (Part 1/3)

Back in January, I started working in an internal strategy function at Boston Consulting Group’s Digital Ventures. Due to the nature of my role, I was exposed to a vast array of leadership and management styles, most specifically Director, VP and Partner level. Having studied management in both my bachelor and master degree, I found […]

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Leadership

How To Avoid Five Common Leadership Mistakes

If you have recently been placed in a leadership or managerial position in your company, then you may need to change the way you approach work each day. The five most common mistakes discussed below are made by those in management in virtually every sector of the business world. Learning how to avoid them can […]

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Leadership

Management vs Leadership

Management requires smooth process, leadership requires clear vision Management is about running systems, processes, and people. Leadership is about taking action, and inspiring others to do so. Having a vision, and the ability to influence and motivate others to sail towards it. Your team needs both. If you have no managers, then key details, tasks and […]

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Excellence

The Hawthorne Effect: social forces affect productivity

GIVEN my lack of time lately, I thought that writing a short post on worker productivity would be amusingly appropriate. I am working 10/11 hour days, studying for the CFA, and writing this blog, among other things. Fun times! I recently stumbled across an idea called the “Hawthorne Effect”, which I thought it would be […]

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Leadership

Great managers select for talent

I am in the process of reading “First Break All the Rules” by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman. The book makes the insightful point that great managers understand the difference between skills, knowledge and talent: Skills are abilities that may be acquired by training. For example, a mathematics teacher must be skilled in arithmetic, a […]