My first full-time job after the university was in a commercial company that was owned by a tycoon. The atmosphere was toxic: employees were not allowed to use the elevators if the managers were using them, questioning anything was unheard of and training the new comers a completely foreign concept. The manager I worked for never spoke to me. Ever. She never even looked at me. Instead, a senior employee was responsible for me and the communication between me and my manager wa

The latest Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2025 report paints a sobering picture: Global employee engagement has dropped to 21% Manager engagement declined from 30% to 27% Female and young managers experienced the steepest declines Manager wellbeing is steadily eroding. And perhaps the most critical stat of all: 70% of a team's engagement is driven by the manager. So while everyone is feeling the pressure, managers are carrying the weight of two worlds — executive expect

Now that you got your first managerial position, I'd like to share some common pitfalls you might face and how to avoid them. Transition from peer to leader: This is a big one. New managers usually get their role because of their exceptional skills as individual contributors, excelling at hands-on work and independent execution. However, upon taking on a leadership role, a crucial shift in mindset is required – moving from being part of the team to leading the team. This diff

You just landed your first management role? Congratulations! Here are the major things that can help you succeed in it. The list is made mainly for people working in companies with classical pyramid or matrix organizational structures, but basic principles apply to all. Also, the sequence is not carved in stone as some of these items will be happening in parallel, so adjust it based on your specific situation. Identify the key stakeholders - All of them will fall into one of

Living in an ever faster world, it becomes increasingly difficult to squeeze in all our tasks into a single day. There just isn't enough time. But we can't manage time. Time is always the same: 60 min per hour, 24h per day, 7 days per week. What we can manage are activities we decide to dedicate the time to. One of the best way to evaluate what to deal with is the Eisenhower matrix. It's self explanatory and there are quite a lot of materials about it online, so I won't go in