#31533
There are crucial behaviors important people, successful executives, and true leaders use to move processes and people forward. These behaviors are the key ingredients of leadership. The more of these ingredients leaders take to heart, teach, and expect of others, the more power they will have to achieve their objectives.
Lukaszewski, James E. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Careers>Management>Business Communication
#24602
The Interdisciplinary Rodeo: How to Wrangle Diverse Professionals Without Getting Gored 
Interdisciplinary work is complicated by communication and collaboration problems. Technical communicators can serve as effective interdisciplinary team facilitators if they predict and prepare for the linguistic and political problems many interdisciplinary teams encounter. Effective preparation includes preliminary research to define key terms and identify political concerns. Interdisciplinary team facilitators must also establish their own role on the team and help other members understand the benefits and difficulties of interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, facilitators must establish a system to archive the work of the team.
Adlin, Tamara. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Management
#27870
The author discusses how managers can best prepare for an interview to ensure that the perfect candidate for the job is selected. The article also includes charts that can be used to assess a candidateï¿ï¿ï¿s performance in key areas such as tool skill level, knowledge of online help, and analytical ability.
Bailey, Elizabeth. Intercom (2006). Careers>Management>Interviewing
#24957
ISO Procedure Development: Using Kickoff Meetings as a Project Management Tool
ISO procedure manuals are sophisticated, dynamic documents that are developed as the result of a complex process. This panel focuses on an often overlooked but critical aspect of project management—the kickoff meeting. Kickoff meetings bring together all the key people and issues from the beginning, thus mitigating rework and problems later in the project. Kickoff meetings can be used to introduce and manage the ISO procedure development process: empowering the ISO procedure-development team, gathering information to capture best practice, and reviewing and validating information.
McCulley, Stephanie and Janice J. Rowan. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>Project Management>Standards
#24411
Job Descriptions and Job Details
Job-descriptions.org is a free resource for job descriptions and job details. Our website currently contains over 13,000 job descriptions. These jobs are divided into categories, then divisions, then groups and finally the job descriptions themselves.
#19570
The Juggling Act: A Manager's Artform
Handling multiple priorities, coordinating the efforts of various teams, and ensuring that different projects remain under control are essential to survival in a climate of resource limitation and fast-paced change. I could talk about tips on staying organized, how to deal with uncooperative or under-producing staff, fixing problem situations, handling irate clients, re-working schedules while maintaining key deliverables in the middle of a project, ensuring a team functions as it should—but these are really textbook concepts. There are a hundred courses that teach the latest techniques for handling these situations. Anyone can learn to be a good manager to some degree; the key is wanting to be one and putting yourself in the right frame of mind.
Holland, Anton. Writer's Block (1996). Careers>Management>Writing
#19520
Juggling Projects: Managing Multiple Technical Communication Projects
Managing multiple projects can seem like juggling eggs in front of a crowd of people—sometimes you wonder if you’re going to catch everything! Many managers have difficulty maintaining the progress of multiple projects without focusing on one project while the others fall by the wayside. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the most common mistakes managers make and suggest techniques for staying on top of multiple technical communication projects. Before you know it, you’ll be juggling like a professional… juggler, that is.
Wise, Mary and Molly Hammar. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Management>TC
#29373
Keep Pesky Business Types at Bay by Focusing on the Strategic Goal 
If you have ever been forced to deal with business types who have no technical know-how, then you know how these types can work against IT's progress. Here's how to improve your business/IT communication by concentrating on the strategic goals.
Hardin, Ken. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Business Communication>Project Management>Collaboration
#18352
Many of the problems that occur in a organization are the direct result of people failing to communicate. Faulty communication causes the most problems. It leads to confusion and can cause a good plan to fail. Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another. It involves a sender transmitting an idea to a receiver. Effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the sender intended to transmit. Studying the communication process is important because you coach, coordinate, counsel, evaluate, and supervise through this process. It is the chain of understanding that integrates the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side to side.
Clark, Donald. NWlink.com (1997). Careers>Management>Communication
#26926
Leadership in Collaboration: Filmmaking and Interaction Design
For projects of importance, you need divergent skills to succeed. It is not possible to find an individual with all of the skill sets needed, nor would you want to. To create a first rate website or software product, you need many tasks to be done in parallel, which means that more than one person has to be working at them. As soon as two or more people are involved, the dynamic for how decisions are made, and how work gets done, becomes important. Any group of people can do work together, but it takes the right approach and team philosophy for that group to produce good work. Collaboration is critical in any creative pursuit involving groups of people, from filmmaking, to urban architecture or even web and software development.
Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2002). Careers>Management>Collaboration>Interaction Design
#29108
Is there a difference in the dominant leadership style between technical and non-technical superiors? Which leadership style of superiors will give their subordinates more freedom on the job? By using House's Path-Goal Model [1] in a study involving a survey of subordinates of 100 technical and 100 non-technical companies in Singapore, I found that technical superiors tend to adopt a supportive leadership style, while non-technical superiors adopt a more achievement-oriented one. This manifests in significant differences between the two kinds of superiors in the extent of the leader's position power (formal authority), the degree of autonomy subordinates want, and the extent subordinates control their goal achievements.
Poon Teng Fatt, James. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Careers>Management>Technology
#30152
To better predict your staffing and schedule needs on future projects, you should keep a record of what you've done in the past. This paper presents a template for one way to formalize such records to ensure consistent reporting and to provide statistics in a way that is meaningful for future estimates. The workshop will present case studies to help you understand how to use the data in this report to estimate and schedule your next project.
Stevens, Dawn M. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Management>Case Studies
#29371
Lessons Learned the Hard Way in an Architectural Document Disaster
Delivering project reports in radically different formats gave the client a bad impression of this consulting firm. Here's how the staff remedied the situation and learned from their mistake.
Kalvar, Shannon T. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Consulting>Project Management>Reports
#31452
A Look at the Next Generation of Measurement
In boom times, companies can be pressured into spending lavishly to please their employees, providing a variety of perks in the belief that happy employees are productive employees. While this may be true, when leaner times come and businesses struggle to grow, the goal of employee satisfaction is put under greater scrutiny. Today, investments in employee-related plans and programmes must do more than satisfy employees. They must be able to provide a measurable return on investment.
Fralicx, Rod. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Careers>Management>Financial
#29346
Look Outside Conventional Techniques to Manage 'Geeks'
Traditional approaches to management won't work with knowledge workers, who are brilliant yet notoriously resistant to being managed.
Bowers, Toni. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Management>Collaboration
#31279
Looking in the Mirror and Seeing a "Bad Boss"
I never had trouble spotting a bad boss—until I would look in a mirror. My hair might have been combed, and my teeth nice and clean, but something was still wrong on the inside—and I didn't see it. In other areas of my professional development, I've been able to treat mistakes and bad decisions as "learning opportunities." The mistakes and bad decisions that I've made as a supervisor or manager haven't been as easy for me to forgive—because it really hurts to hurt people.
Keefe, Tom. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Careers>Management
#30076
Making a Big Business out of Technical Writing
Leveraging on the success of my business, DocuStar, this paper describes some of the strategies I have used to grow my one-person freelance gig into a business employing over 65 employees on our own premises and servicing over 200 hi-tech companies per year. While the profit margin may not match that of the up-and-coming dotcoms, the needs of the market foretell a solid and ever-growing future within the technical documentation niche. With a strong commitment to hard work, an adventurous excitement for conquest and a paramount and obsessive commitment to quality and integrity, technical writing can certainly be grown into a big business venture.
Sher, Barbara J. STC Proceedings (2001). Careers>Management>Writing>Technical Writing
#19896
Making a Big Business Out of Technical Writing
Leveraging on the success of my business, DocuStar, this paper describes some of the strategies I have used to grow my one-person freelance gig into a business employing over 65 employees on our own premises and servicing over 200 hi-tech companies per year. While the profit margin may not match that of the up-and-coming dotcoms, the needs of the market foretell a solid and ever-growing future within the technical documentation niche. With a strong commitment to hard work, an adventurous excitement for conquest and a paramount and obsessive commitment to quality and integrity, technical writing can certainly be grown into a big business venture.
Sher, Barbara J. STC Proceedings (2001). Careers>Management>Writing>Technical Writing
#20572
Making and Breaking Rules: A Manager's Viewpoint 
Contends that 'does it help communication?' is the ultimate question to ask in deciding whether to follow, bend, or break rules. States that managers need to help their staff members develop sound judgment and make defensible choices.
Zook, Lola M. Technical Communication Online (2003). Careers>Management
#19559
Making the Grade: Managers' Tips for Performing Staff Evaluations
Evaluations should be used to take a look at the overall picture, to review where an employee has been in terms of professional development, and to get an idea of where he or she is headed. By doing that, you can provide your staff with valuable advice and guidance. They will be able to grow, both professionally and personally, and you will have a much more effective member of your team. Carrying out an evaluation properly is not easy. Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of the experience.
Holland, Anton. Writer's Block (1995). Careers>Management>Writing
#31717
Making the Transition from Technical Writer to Manager
This article is a collage of ideas and experiences from some people who've made the leap from writer to manager. Although it's not a step-by-step guideline, it provides some compelling insight as to what individuals might expect as they transition into the management ranks. Even if you are an experienced manager, you might find these ideas helpful.
Capri, Steve. Writing Assistance (2007). Careers>Management>TC>Technical Writing
#31391
Making Your Old Brand New: How to Reinvigorate Your Brand With a Memorable Tagline
In the customer's mind, your brand is forever being weighed, measured, compared and tested. To ensure its continued vitality and effectiveness, refresh and reaffirm your brand on a routine basis. The question is: How can you breathe new life into your old brand without reinventing the wheel or busting your budget? Think tagline.
Swartz, Eric. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Careers>Management>Marketing
#27873
Kaizen is a Japanese phrase that means 'continuous improvement' and has long been used by Japanese managers. Find out how to apply this style to your work as a technical communicator and how kaizen can also be used effectively when working in a team.
Gopalakrishnan, Janani. Intercom (2006). Careers>Management>Project Management
#23033
Management Activities for Achieving Organizational Change and Improvement
Viewing your documentation or training group as a business entity is an important first step toward enabling organizational change and improvement. The actual business status of your organization - a company unto itself a profit center in a larger company, or a cost center in a larger company - matters not. It’s your view of things that will put you on the road to operating your group as a business.
Currie, Cynthia C. and Thomas J. Vallone. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Documentation>Management
#15163
Management Guidelines for Alternative Work Schedules
Offers guidance to managers on how to balance the needs of their businesses with the convenience of alternative work schedules, such as telecommuting, flextime, job sharing, compressed work weeks, and reduced hours.
