Yesterday morning I watched Germany’s national soccer team surprisingly exit the 2018 FIFA World Cup finishing last in their designated group. I am certain most of their fans remain in shock. Man for man they possessed as much raw talent as… Read More ›
empowering managers and leaders
THE POWER OF FOOD
You might ask what FOOD has to do with being an effective manager and leader? Consider the following scenario contained in my workshop for managers: In the past six months you have made some difficult management decisions clearly unpopular among many… Read More ›
TEAM PERFORMANCE: THE FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE OF FULFILLED HUMAN NEEDS
I have focused on the topic of teams several times in this series of articles. And indeed there has been enough written about the topic these past twenty-five years to fill an entire library shelf. I return to the subject here,… Read More ›
SEEING WHAT WE WANT TO SEE
2016 was quite a political year in the United Kingdom and the United States. The outcome of the UK’s BREXIT vote and the US Presidential election came as a shock to millions. Conventional wisdom, pundits, most of the political cognoscenti… Read More ›
HOW CAN I SCREW UP THIS SITUATION?
Perhaps this sounds like a strange question to ask yourself but believe me it has helped me avoid many a mistake as a manager and in my personal life. In any situation or management scenario there are numerous ways to… Read More ›
CONVERSATIONS BEAT PRESENTATIONS ANY DAY
When we hear the term presentation we tend to think of something prepared; something formal; something thought out and through ahead of time. In essence, something created in advance. We also tend to think of something of length rather than… Read More ›
GOOGLE’S WORK RULES
I’ve been on a reading kick of late and recently finished a book written by Google’s People Operations Director Laszlo Bock. Its title is Work Rules: Insights From Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live And Lead. It is… Read More ›
THE MANAGER’S MAGIC FORMULA
On several occasions in this series of articles I have used the phrase “there is no magic formula” to make the point that a given situation or problem has many potential avenues of redress, none of which carries the guarantee… Read More ›
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: ORGANIZE AROUND NETWORKS
“Networks, — social, neural, physical, metaphorical — enable connectedness and connectedness changes everything. Networks compress distances and time, that concentration speeds up life, and that, in turn, creates sociological and economic change” (“The New Victorian Age”, by Om Malik, Fast Company, May 2015, P. 38…. Read More ›
AN ETHICAL TRIP WIRE
Throughout human history, mankind has proven quite capable of ethical breaches that inflict harm on one another. Examples of everything from minor offenses to serious ethical lapses easily come to mind. Professional men and women with influence, power and authority over others,… Read More ›