What seems like many moons ago now, as I was preparing to take on my first role where I had the word “manager” in the title, I sought advice from my good friend RJ. He had been a manager for several years at that point. I asked him for one piece of advice to give me, and he said, “people leave.”

What? “People leave?” Is that it? What sounded oversimplified would resonate with me for years.

After I challenged him on this 2-word statement, he proceeded to detail to me what was behind it. People leave – they quit for whatever reason. In the short-term, it will have some impact on the organization, team, group, etc. (I’ll use “group” from here forward). But in the long-term, it should not, and that’s where the role of a manager comes into play to ensure the continuity of the group.

The more I thought about this, the more sense it made to me. Everything a manager does not only ensures the success of a group, but also prepares for when there changes in its members. From hiring people into it, to managing people and process to understanding what people do, the manager is the central figure that should understand what is going on all the time. How the manager executes can vary, and that’s a whole other topic for another time.

When people leave a group or want to leave a group, in my opinion it is too late to try to keep them. Many times managers spend too much time trying to keep someone and may even make a counteroffer, all in the name of keeping the group as it is. What they don’t realize is the very fact that a person wants to leave has already changed the group dynamic and trying to keep them may do more harm than good. If a person’s decision to leave is final, asking for a long period of time before they actually walk out the door also is not in the group’s best interest. The age-old “2-week notice” is not law, and should not be, and Jim Carlini says it better than I can.

Many managers oversee what work is done and don’t spend a lot of time on managing people. When a person is hired, you are not just bringing in a skillset, but a living, breathing human being with emotions and a life outside of the office. Keeping this in mind, and spending time on getting to know the person and keeping their best interests in mind, will lead to a more successful execution of their skillset. Or at least that is my first-hand experience over the years!

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After reading The 4-Hour Workweek, it is even sweeter to hear stories about people who decide not just to go for the brass ring, but to take it with all the might of Atlas. This afternoon I met such a person – John Gerard, who will be famous in 31 days.

I first heard about John and his story from my cousin Nina, who used to work with John, only later to hear about it from blogging guru Darren Rowse. You can read John’s story and why he is doing this cross-country trek to get to Hollywood, California from Syracuse, New York to meet Jay Leno on The Tonight Show on day 31 of his journey.

John was in Chicago for a few days and today I met up with him. He is someone like any of us, and he utilizing the Internet and his background in television to help fulfill this goal. Tomorrow morning (Thursday, September 5) he will be on the WGN-TV Morning Show, so if you are in Chicagoland be sure to see him live.

His Web site, famousin31days.com, features videos and information on his journey. Check back for progress on his trip and where he may be, which possibly could be near you.

Good luck John, and safe travels!

Diversions • (1) Comments • Permalink

I am finally introducing the world my very first blog, sourcegate.

This is an ongoing compilation project of technical tips, notes and Web sites I use and refer to in my capacity as an Internet consultant and entrepreneur. Rather than keep an offline record of these notes or store links as bookmarks, I am making this information – all non proprietary to Dunkirk Systems, of course – available for all. As I find resources or develop something of interest, I will post it there. I am also in the process of entering past bookmarks and notes and should be caught up soon.

As I said, this is my first blog. Long before I launched The Hot Iron, I started sourcegate using a different blog platform. When I discovered ExpressionEngine, I decided to shelve the old software and eventually migrate to the EE platform, and a little later than I had hoped it is now live.

You can subscribe to the feed or listen to it with the Odiogo feed. Commenting is also turned on, as I am interested if these tips are useful – or not – to you, or if you have any suggestions for a topic or category. If there is nothing of interest in sourcegate right now, check back later, as it will always expand as my mind expands!

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I just got in on the early bird registration for DOMAINfest, a conference for the domain name industry. It will be January 21-23 in Hollywood, CA. Many companies, consultants and individuals (commonly referred to as “domainers”) will be there.

As you may have read from my past posts on domain names, this is an area I have great interest in and spend much time working with clients in selecting and managing their domain names. I hope from the tracks and presentations to gain a greater insight into the industry, and meet many of the people in person who write the blogs I read on a regular basis.

And did I say it is in January in southern California? Not that it will be much different in temperature from Chicago!

Please let me know if you or anyone you know are going to DOMAINfest. Early bird registration ends at the end of the week.

Business • Domain Names • (0) Comments • Permalink

Congratulations to Dr. Pete Meyers for relaunching his blog, debabblog as User Effect, at usereffect.com. Where his former blog talked about demystifying technology, woven throughout his posts was usability and the operability of software and Web sites. This change is a natural one, and along with it introduces a nice clean design and a cool logo to boot. He has also carried forward his archive of blog posts and all of his current and past writings are available for your review and pondering.

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