Cool facts…

Sea Wolves can swim. A Killer Whale’s top fin is six feet tall. Killer Whales live in groups that hunt and travel together. Salmon fishes lay half a million eggs in a one square foot space.

A male black bear tries to eat a female black bear cub if he is unable to find food. An eagle mom needs to find a good male eagle that can find a lot of food. Because in summer it needs to lay healthy eggs. And if it lays two eggs, normally only one will survive.

A Sea Otter Mom has to get food fast when she has a baby; the reason is it has to stay warm. Sea Otters are the only marine animals that don’t have blubber. Also it will help a Sea Otter Mom to float on a kelp forest so it can get food fast. When a Sea Otters Mom is having her me time, the Baby Sea Otter needs to practice the basic skills for a sea otter to survive.

More than three quarters of Vancouver Island is the rainforest. Thunderstorms help Sea Wolves and other animals because it washes up dead animals but it does not help Sea Otters because a Sea Otters need to stay warm.

A black bear hibernates for at least five months. Gray Whales are bad for Sea Otters because Sea Otter eat clams. The Gray Whales cover the clam and they can also separate Sea Otter Babies and Moms. They do that when a Sea Otter Mom is down for food, they make waves that pushes the Baby Sea Otter away!

Salmons migrate every year and at that same time the biggest land meat eating animal wakes up from hibernation, a male black bear. He is hungry and so is a female black bear but the female black bear needs to hunt salmon carefully so the male black bear doesn’t eat the cubs. Wolves have been known to raid a rival’s den and even kill their pups.

One of The greatest threats bears face is from their own species .. The salmon migration is one of the biggest migrations in the world! And when the salmon migrate come a lot of hungry predators. More than a hundred different species eat the salmon. The salmons arrival starts off the new season.

September brings the first few storms. A lot of people like the environment for bike riding, hiking and camping. Vancouver Island has amazing lakes, oceans and absolutely amazing view

I hope you guys enjoyed the information I shared in this article and I plan to write more about different interesting topics in future. Thanks for reading this out!

Essa Ahmed

3rd Grade — Mill Run Elementary School

Alright — so being a Manager whether you would like to be dispensable or indispensable for your company, is actually a function of how much positive thought process you’ve gotten.

I was very excited about this recent promotion because it actually happened as a result of mid-year review after my last performance evaluation which was also done just 7 months back (in which I was promoted to Associate Business Lead role). But with all that excitement, I was equally alert and conscious about the new challenges and responsibilities I am supposed to undertake after getting to this point of the ladder.

Okay so let’s begin the game of what does it actually mean when you are deployed as a Manager of any team. Well, for me, a good manager leads from the front. He doesn’t actually need a designation to act like a leader. I always advise my colleagues to assume leadership even if it is not designated to you and this is the same formula which has made things so easy for me to rock my impression. Hold on. Isn’t it look like I am getting away from the original topic and going more into leadership lecture?

Answer is YES, I am getting into the leadership art which is not easy to learn but those who have learned it, have succeeded way beyond your imagination. I would love to contrast the responsibilities of a good manager with parents. Being a Father or Mother of your kids, you definitely want to see your kids growing day by day and want to see them confident and self-made, as similar as if you were no more in the picture and they can still live best on their own. In the same way, a good manager is actually supposed to manage and take care of his team not just for the sake of running day-to-day department operations but he is also supposed to ensure that each of his resources are getting equally trained and ready for the role that their manager is currently deployed on. And as a result, for any reason, if their manager goes out of the picture, the resources should be ready to run their own show. Trust me, if a manager can achieve this mark for his team, there is nothing like that and company will always count on that manager to build anything for the company.

Being a manager of functional testing team at Primatics Financial (www.primaticsfinancial.com), some of the key action items which I regularly check on my list are:

• Regular one-to-one meetings with each of my team members. This meeting should have flavors of both formal and informal questions.
• Constant knowledge sharing across each of my team members.
• Don’t delay on giving positive feedback and appreciate whenever your resources perform well in any given task.
• Make sure you and your resources are on the same page for at least next 2 years or so. This is called work with determination.
• Make sure all your resources are contributing to maintain a healthy, positive and collaborative environment.

Here is how I can summarize this whole message into one simple test point for a good manager. Next time when you go on your annual leaves and none of your resources calls you back for any assistance, believe me you’ve done it. Apparently, you’re dispensable but technically you’re not. Enjoy your journey as a true manager.

Originally published in December 2014 at https://eyuna.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/a-good-manager-is-always-dispensable/