One of the great beliefs we have as managers is that our job is to listen to our employees’ ideas and then go implement those that we find valuable. Sounds like a great idea. But as managers we know the reality is that a good many employee ideas just don’t make business sense. Read more…
In my new favorite book titled Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon, one of the chapters is about complaining. The chapter “Quit Picking Fights and Go Make Something.” regards a quote his wife told him one night when he was up late on Twitter trying to » Read More
Self-leadership depends upon your personality type If your innate personality and belief system does not comply with the leadership style you choose, your results will be less than desired. You will come across as being phony, hard to communicate with and will be uncomfortable in your own skin. To succeed, choose a leadership style that » Read More
Wouldn’t it be a dream if every employee could add $13,000 to the bottom line of your business each and every year? No need to dream because research shows that’s exactly what happens when an employee shifts from being disengaged to engaged. Read More…
If you don’t know Jack … you should meet him. Jack is a successful executive who is recently retired at the early age of 52 as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company that made a financial turn around from red to black on his watch. He was very proud of the achievement … and » Read More
“The boss told me this morning my decision to implement the new social media strategy wasn’t a good one.” “Did he say why he thought that way?” “He said I didn’t do enough research or involve the right stakeholders.” “Did you do those things?” “Sure, I did little research and talked to a couple people. » Read More
Harvard Business School is one of the oldest, most-acclaimed MBA-granting institutions in America. Its success relies heavily on case studies. Students read exhaustive write-ups of both monumental successes and abject failures, with the point being to learn what works—and what doesn’t. In the spirit of HBS’s “what doesn’t” case studies, here’s a list of the » Read More
You likely have heard the old adage in the business world, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” In generations past, networking typically involved shaking lots of hands and distributing a forest’s worth of business cards. However, in the rapidly changing global marketplace, some networking consultants promote an updated notion. They contend that » Read More
Writing a lot of words on a subject gets easy. Often you can simply write and write and (at least I) think that you’ll eventually say something important. I’ve often said too much. It might have been earlier in my career when I was selling or even more recently with my teenagers when their eyes » Read More
Often, managers who are good at Relating (asking, listening, coaching, including, and encouraging) shy away from Requiring activities (insisting on excellence, confronting poor or marginal performers, or just telling an employee what is expected or needed). Your job as a manager is to help employees achieve business goals and do outstanding work. To direct their efforts and help them deliver their best work, you need to be equally adept at Relating and Requiring skills. Are you?
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