During my interviews with practicing managers, I normally ask them at some point “what keeps you awake at night”? While the substance of their concerns varies, they always have some answer. The point is, all managers take some of their… Read More ›
Self-Management
MANAGING YOUR FRUSTRATIONS
I’m sitting by Lake of the Woods in Northern Minnesota one recent morning, enjoying the sun rise, when I ask my sister-in-law about the most difficult part of her job as a sixth grade teacher. “Managing my frustrations”, she replied… Read More ›
WELCOMINGS AND GOODBYES
I have long been fascinated by the universal ceremonies and rituals that have grown up around the need to welcome new members into a group and to say goodbye when members leave. Almost every culture on earth seems to have… Read More ›
A MANAGER’S MANY HATS
In a recent blog, I characterized a manager’s usual day as fragmented; a series of occurences, meetings, requests for attention, instructions from above, and ad hoc problems often with little in common to connect them. This lack of coherence or consistency in the… Read More ›
WHY FOLLOW THROUGH REALLY MATTERS
During my management career, I watched numerous ideas, initiatives, and grand visions birthed, launched with great enthusiasm, often gobble up precious resources, and then simply fade into oblivion. Similarly, I observed the proverbial shelf as it gradually filled up with… Read More ›
GETTING IT RIGHT
When someone is selected to be a manager, there is an implicit understanding between them and their superiors that one of their most important responsibilities is to “get things right” whatever those things happen to be in their particular line of work…. Read More ›
DOES IT MATTER?
When our children were younger, departure day for a family vacation was quite a test for me. Having had many preparatory conversations about the limits of our car’s trunk space and having reached what I thought was a consensus on… Read More ›
THE SHADOW OF AUTHORITY
I first encountered the concept of a manager’s shadow at a seminar I attended in Boston some years ago. The presenter — a female corrections officer whose name, but not her message, I’ve long forgotten — was recounting the evolution… Read More ›
THE LIMITS OF CONTROL
Regardless of the statistics indicating the safety of air travel, why do most of us remain a bit jittery during take-offs and landings? Why does almost any surgery involving anesthesia seem so scary? Why does driving in extremely heavy fog,… Read More ›
BEING ACCOUNTABLE
On November 22, 1968 Japan Airlines Flight 2, a DC 8, was scheduled to land at San Francisco International airport. In heavy fog, its Captain Kohei Asoh, not adequately trained on the plane’s new flight director, landed his aircraft in San… Read More ›
Insights on Managing and Leading 