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• Monday, October 1, 2007 05:39 AM

  Managing This Team.....

  I worked in IT -- technical stuff. Been doing it for over 11 years now and I'm a woman. I have worked with and for men and women managers. Mostly THEY have been more concerned with moving up the corporate ladder than actually managing their teams. So what? There was always someone on the team (female or male) who stepped up rallied the troops and the jobs got done.

  Ignore the petty 'she won't eat lunch with me' and other frankly common female crap (sorry, but seen it WAY too often. And guys just do not do that!). Just don't engage. You are the manager, LW, MANAGE your team. Perhaps you might want to examine the composition of the team itself. Just because a group of workers have similar skill sets does not mean they will make a good team. It's your job to be aware of that when forming the team. If you inherited the team, then you should have reveiwed their resumes, reviews, and other feedback when you took over the team. You know perhaps your team isn't quite as skilled as you think and hid their fear behind petty little office battles.

  Right now I happen to manage a team of IT workers who are skilled AND all female. And my boss is female and her boss is female and HER boss is female. IMAGINE! And none of us play those stupid girly games. And we are all capable of doing our jobs -- we joke around and have private conversations but do not play these high school lunch room dramas.

  LW, YOU as the manager have to handle this. Female or male has nothing to do with it. Figure out why your team is not working. Disengage from the drama. Get rid of the trouble makers -- even if they happen to be your better workers. Cause if you don't, you can bet that one of those menopausal women is gunning for your job.

  Nancy

  —njn Read njn's other letters
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