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 ›
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 ›
Anything quantifiable — that is, reducible to numbers — is obviously a potential measure of how well an organization is doing. So profits and/or productive output, for example, are usually one valid measure of organizational performance. But numbers do not give… Read More ›
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 ›
I feel obliged to begin this article with a disclaimer. I am certainly not an expert on the behavioral differences between the genders, nor am I a leading authority on the many topics that comprise “diversity” issues. What I do… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
For many years, I have heard the phrase “TOUCHY FEELY” used by managers of both genders, to describe a variety of things and behaviors in the workplace. “Oh, you mean that touchy feely stuff’” or “I don’t do that touchy… Read More ›
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 ›
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upon the phenomenon of change, I focused on the mind-set and approach best suited for the task of challenging those outdated models of practice we can find in almost any organization… Read More ›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 