Data gives you a ton of insight into how effectively an organization is being managed. But you must understand what the data is telling you, and then act on it, if it’s to be useful. Read more.

I’ve hired a lot people in my higher education career. Before we begin searches, we sit down and map out the recruitment plan. We include everything from who will be involved in the hiring process to where we will advertise for the position to the timetable we expect to follow. Evidently, planning all of this is not what many organizations do or if they do plan, they don’t stick to the plan. Read more.

When Mabel was asked to do the job, she learned that Jack’s salary had been $125,000. Yet Mabel was offered $85,000 to do the same job—a $23,000 pay increase for her. She was told that the lower salary was due to a COVID-19-related decline in revenue. The organization just could not afford to pay Mabel what it had paid Jack.

She asked me if I thought the lower salary was gender-related. I had no clue, as I don’t know her boss. I also don’t know how hard her organization has been hit financially by COVID. It is plausible that her supervisor is being truthful with her. It’s also possible they thought the organization could pay her less because she’s a woman.

She loves the work and wants to continue in the position, and has gotten strong hints from her supervisor that he wants her to continue. So what should she do? Read more. 

When I think of my childhood, I remember having to wait until 6 p.m. or 10 p.m. to watch the news on television to learn what was going on in the world. But now we learn about something seconds after it happens.

We once had to wait, with great anticipation, for our favorite show on Thursday night. And the cliffhangers for those shows? We had to wait an entire season to find out what happened! In the age of Netflix, we can binge watch season after season in a weekend. We don’t have to wait for many things today.

Emails are a blessing and a curse when it comes to instant gratification. Most people will tell you that, in order to manage your time well, you should block out times of the day to attend to your emails. For example, maybe you begin the day cleaning up your email box from the last time you responded. And then later in the day, you attend to them in another time block (say, 2–2:30 or at the end of the workday). I know a few people who follow this model successfully. Read more.

Managers either work sequentially or concurrently. What do I mean? I’ll use my own experiences to illustrate. Either method can work, but what is best depends on what the organization needs.

Any manager should expect a learning curve, and a honeymoon period, when they start at a new job. People will cut you slack as you figure out what your job actually is and how to most effectively do it. But after three to six months, folks expect to start seeing some action. Perhaps new initiatives begin or a tough decision is made regarding how work is done. Read more.