Be Specific! How to see REAL Performance Improvement
Up your game, Tone it down, Chill out, Be more supportive, Adjust your attitude, Come to work on time, Stop abusing time and leave, Be more creative, Be a team player… These are all common, legitimate feedback given to staff who need to improve their performance in managerial and interactive skills. The feedback is also equally vague and generic and by themselves do […]
Want to be Great? Let your team members soar
Sid Daniels is an assistant Vice President for a company that employs 7,000 people nationwide. He has two veteran deputies below him who have proved their competence over a decade of service, providing IT solutions to local businesses as well as internally. Yet Sid, while using his deputies to cover for him in explaining technical information at board […]
Facing off with your Passive-Aggressive Managers
You might be a C-Suite level boss with many managers below you. Many in your management pool may carry over their personal dysfunctions into their work life. Truly, “Who you are is how you lead”.
Reverse-Engineering Your Worst Management Disasters
Reverse engineering is taking apart an object to see how it works in order to duplicate or enhance the object. – WhatIs.com Reverse engineering our disasters means really examining them, rather than sweeping them under the rug in embarrassment.We may be leaders. We may be managers, even at a high level. But being human, we will […]
Emotions at work: A great servant but a TERRIBLE master
Scenario: You wind up in the COO’s office for the umpteenth time for “the talk”. You are once again upbraided for your reactiveness at a recent team meeting. You know they’re right, but begin your defense with, “I know I shouldn’t have said that, but he just made me sooo (fill in the blank here)! […]
Prop or Drop? 7 Last- chance Fixes for Poor Performers
Some employees do such poor work, have such miserable ethics and are so obviously misaligned with the values of a company that they are relatively easy to fire. There is no second guessing by HR or your management peers. The subordinate’s colleagues are saying, “What took you so long?!” Most often, however, giving a series of […]
Gratitude – Humility that makes you Great
I received an unexpected blessing today when a young woman cashier at a bakery called me “mom” and said, “And you are mom because you paved the way for young (African-American) women like me. Thank you.” I was blown away and humbled by her lovely sentiment, the graciousness and self-awareness she displayed and the simple, yet […]
Power: Gollum couldn’t handle it; can you?
Lessons from the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) Trilogy The enduring popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fable trilogy, the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is owed to brilliant writing combined with themes everyone can relate to, from camaraderie to courage to romance to the abuse of power. The basic plot was the attempt by an alliance […]
Managing Your “Meeting Pouter”
You’re in your monthly strategic meeting when for the umpteenth time, Feng makes a snarky comment to a new suggestion. Everyone either glares at him with annoyance or audibly sighs. Here we go again! Will the boss ever say something to him?? While it may seem like a simple case of poor work ethic (which it sometimes […]
Preparing to LAUNCH; 10 Questions to answer before your next step up
How do you get from where you are at work to the upper management-level position where you want to be? We should all be aspiring to take that next step up if we are on the career ascent or returning to work after a long pause or reinventing ourselves in a new field or after a […]
