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Hi everyone,
My name is John Frago an I'm an IT supervisor in a biotech company in Northern California. I've been with the company about 9 years and moved from manufacturing technician to business analyst to IT support and finally into management about four years ago. My team supports the validated hardware and applications used by manufacturing (these are the systems the FDA looks at during inspections).

My start in this role had some rough bits with some resentments to overcome and [b]a lot[/b] for me to learn. I've now taken my team through an outsourcing, a complete change in team responsibilities and absorbing employees from other IT departments. Sometimes I feel that being a manager is like making my way through a dark room. I was doing OK (and not bumping into the furniture too much) and then I came across Manager Tools and someone turned on the lights.

I revamped my one on ones, built much stronger relationships with my team, delegated, delegated and delegated a bit more. I've started doing real coaching and my meetings and brainstorming sessions have improved tremendously. The payoff was that last year my team met all it's metrics (exceeded some) and we identified and completed a project to save the company a good chunk of change and are beginning another, even larger, one this year.

Mark and Mike, I am absolutely thrilled to get your podcasts every week and I want you to know what a tremendous difference they've made in my life and career. More importantly, my reports have a better boss and are part of a team that is gaining respect and recognition for it's achievements.

Now I just have to work on my resume!

Thank you both.
John

One more thing...I'll see you in D.C. in April!

MattJBeckwith's picture
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Welcome to the forums John, where the Northern California group appears to be growing.

I like the "bumping into the furniture" analogy.

Congrats on hitting your goals last year.

frago's picture

Thanks Dave.
If enough of us get together, maybe we can convince Mark and Mike to do a meet-up in SF. Or maybe we can just do a meet-up on our own.