Good managers deal with F words

After dealing with a variety of management personalities over the years I have realized the two things that all managers should know how to do properly are follow up and provide feedback. It took me a long time to realize these are two important aspects of communicating in the business world. Following up with employees keeps them on track and helps remind them what the company priorities are. Clearly providing the correct feedback to employees will let them know if they are doing the work properly. The last thing an employee wants is to be yelled at by a supervisor that did not emphasise how important a project was.

Managers that follow up are more likely to complete projects on time. Do not be a micro manager in meetings, but a weekly meeting of questions, comments, and concerns from both the manager and employees are beneficial to the team. This allows questions to be asked about specific tasks pertaining to the week and status updates of projects. Most employees will appreciate an open format as a team to work together and respond without judgement that they require assistance or guidance. During these meetings or one on one sessions the manager can get a feel of how the employee is progressing and re-prioritize tasks if the situation has changed or the employee has gotten off track.

Employees appreciate receiving positive feedback from managers and negative feedback if it communicated in a constructive manner. As a manager be sure to let your employees know how they are performing on tasks at regular intervals. Communicating this information clearly will allow employees to reinforce their performance or correct their behavior and processes. Employees appreciate knowing where they stand with their manager as far as their work is concerned.

Twidroyd's Awful Update

Twidroyd, a popular twitter client for android, has two great features that I haven't seen in their competitor's clients. First is the live preview function which allows you to open web links seamlessly within the app without using the android browser. Second, would be how their navigation bar was at the bottom.

Because phone screens have been increasing in size having the navigation bar at the bottom had been a tremendous time saver. The most recent update moved it to the top, which has become an inconvenience for its users.

Hopefully they get an update out quick to allow the users to toggle the navigation bar between the top and bottom.

Netflix, How could you?

I have been an avid Netflix user since inception. Originally signing up for the $14.99 plan to have three DVDs out at a time. During the initial rate hikes a few years ago I was grandfathered in with my current pricing. However, at the beginning of this year there was another round of increased rates and I was informed that my plan would no longer be valid. I reevaluated my needs and realized I could live with the one DVD plan for $9.99. Now Netflix, just a few months later, is increasing this same service to $15.98. The streaming was always a bonus to me because of the gross unavailability of new content. It was just something to do on the occasional late night that I had nothing going on. I will be certainly canceling the streaming portion of this service. And a company that once received $9.99 from me will now only get $7.99, and perhaps this will be canceled too. I think I can get more DVDs from Redbox in a month for my $8 than Netflix. How about something for us loyal customers who have been around for a while, Netflix?

I'm certain this will have an initial negative impact on the companies financials. But they are moving into South America soon and that should help bump back up their bottom line. Still this is not a good thing to do to their initial fanbase.