So many managers I talk with tell me that one great source of their frustration with the job, is obtaining a sense of accomplishment day-to-day. This is an experience I well remember and it never ceased being a challenge. The management… Read More ›
Exercising Responsibility
USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AT WORK: DOES IT MATTER MANAGERS?
Talk about a hot topic among managers in many of today’s workplaces. And here I use the term “social media” in its current contemporary sense to refer to formats like Facebook, Twitter, e-mailing, text messing etc. The question is, should… Read More ›
KNOWING THE LIMITS OF YOUR POWER
The job of a manager often strikes those of us who have done it as quite a conundrum: apparently straight forward, yet frequently complex; occasionally clear but often maddeningly ambiguous; and especially about having been granted power, yet often leaving… Read More ›
EXERCISING AUTHORITY: THE “IF NOT, THEN WHAT” MESSAGE
The best managers intuitively seem to understand that the less often they need to blatantly exercise their authority, the better. Frequent displays of management behavior, designed to impress and remind subordinates of “who is in charge”, generally have more negative,… Read More ›
MANAGERS WHO COMPLAIN TOO MUCH
Life is complicated, things do not always go our way, we are sometimes asked to live with and implement decisions we personally would not have made, our best laid plans often go awry, and “you know what” just happens. Because… Read More ›
HOW WELL AM I DOING MY JOB?
I frequently ask managers how they evaluate, or attempt to know, how they are doing in their jobs. What never ceases to surprise me is the number of respondents that are unable to provide anything but a rather vague “OK”… Read More ›
SPAN OF CONTROL
What is the best way to raise a child? What is the best investment strategy for long-term growth in the current economy? What car is the best choice for a young family of four? How much life insurance is enough?… Read More ›
WHO BEARS RESPONSIBILITY FOR A FIRING?
Employees — sometimes in large numbers — are laid off from organizations for a variety of reasons beyond the quality of their performance. Company mergers often result in large-scale employee reductions to achieve economies and eliminate duplication. Government organizations —… Read More ›
CHANGING A MANAGEMENT CULTURE
A common conversation I have with many of my senior, executive clients involves their desire to alter elements of their organization’s management culture and their frustration with how difficult they find that challenge. “Why is this so hard, take so… Read More ›
WINNING CONVERTS TO NEW IDEAS
In the previous two articles in which I focused upon the phenomenon of change, I focused on the mind-set and approach best suited for the task of challenging those outdated models of practice we can find in almost any organization… Read More ›
Insights on Managing and Leading 