Manager Tools or Career Tools?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
in
General Questions and Comments

Forum:

I just moved into a new role as a Product Manager in my company from another department. As part of my development, I'm going to license one of the two podcasts. The problem is I can't decide which podcast, so I am requesting recommendations and advice? 

When I say 'Product Manager' there's two misnomers in that title. The first is the 'Product' part. We do have product responsibility, but we spend a lot of our time as project managers because we do not  have project  managers in lines of business (they're all in our tech organization). This new area is pushing me towards the Manager Tools because of the casts on projects and on politics. (Horstman's law of project management in action)

The other misnomer is the 'Manager'. I have no direct reports; so I won't be implementing the manager's trinity. What I do have is lots of meetings with my peers or higher. So that pushes me away from the Manager Tools. Coupled with the casts on Presentations and on your first 90 days, I'm torn between the two.

Any recommendations? 

Thanks.

Submitted by Shane MacQuarrie on Sunday July 21st, 2013 9:17 pm

Economie,
I think you will get more out of the MT than the career. 
I am an IC who does PM work and all of the casts on building relationships and inspiring those who work for you I have found to be invaluable. 
You may like the one so much that you decide to get them both, which will ultimately make you that much better. 
Mac
7121

Submitted by Christoph Eling on Monday July 22nd, 2013 4:23 am

I second that you should go for the Manager Tools podcasts.
In this series you have the casts about task assignment and project management. Just some examples of the casts included are

  • “Develop a Sense of Urgency in Your Team”,
  • “Assign Work AND Reporting”,
  • “How To Run A SPOT Project Kickoff Meeting” and
  • "Jump Starting Internal Customer Relationships".

I would choose Manager Tools over Career Tools.