People often think that for employees to perform well all they need are the appropriate ability and skills and the motivation to achieve great results. But there is a missing ingredient: opportunity. So says John Boudreau in a recent issue of Talent Management Magazine (p. 10). He is spot on. You can be well trained…
Many times we forget that bosses are also human. They are affected by the same emotions, concerns and challenges that we all have. By understanding them and realizing they are people too, we can use the same skills to communicate that we use with co-workers, employees, customers or family members. To get along with your…
The 2008 economic crisis was terrifying times, to say the least. Millions of jobs were lost and many people faced difficulty trying to obtain a new line of work. As a result, many struck out on their own, not by first choice, but really out of necessity. I applaud those individuals who took that route.…
“We’re all in sales” says author Daniel Pink. In fact, in a Gallup study people reported spending 40% of their time working in what Pink calls “non-sales selling,” convincing/influencing/moving people to decide or do that does not involve anyone making a purchase. Dan Pink is always intriguing. Let’s look at a few things his book…
The US and Canadian armies (among others, I’m sure) are famous for its post-event after action review (AAR). Whether it’s a mission, a tactical maneuver, or just a patrol, the individuals involved meet immediately afterward to debrief on how it went and what they can learn for the next time. This goal is to quickly…
Consider the following two versions of feedback given by a boss, in response to an employee leaving errors in an important report for the Board: “I’ve gone over your report and found you didn’t include the sidebar paragraph that explains Figure 6 on page 18. Please add it in right away and get the revised…
It seems to be a “no brainer” that better mid level managers and supervisors will, by the way they lead their people, yield better results. Yet this relationship has been very little researched, formally and academically. A study published in August, however, does shed some light on this. It is available through the (U.S.) National…
This post was triggered by a great post in the HBR Blog Network by Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman. This essence of their article is that most of the behaviors of so called “bad bosses” are, in their words, sins of omission, not commission. In other words, it’s more what the boss fails to do…
The trend these days is clearly for managers to take on more of a coaching role. But they still need to be the manager! These are two different roles. As a manager, you have stewardship for results in your area of operation. You ensure that your people are performing at an acceptable level and are…
Ego Problem #1 You’ve seen this individual many times. The employee who regularly shares with you how great he (she) is, what a terrific job he is doing (“I just made an awesome presentation.”), how much he knows (“Sorry to correct you but the research on this says…”). He refutes or deflects constructive feedback (“No,…
Admit it; you’ve had managers you wanted to see succeed and you’ve likely worked for others that you didn’t respect or trust. And you’ve had occasions where you threw everything you had at your job and other times where you dialed it back to idle. Managers and supervisors often think that the wages or salary…
The above image is taken from a great infographic on Techcrunch. It’s message is simple: The more you sit, the worse you’ll feel. Recent studies suggest that of all of our bad contemporary habits, sitting all day is a killer. With the rise of the information age, more of us earn a living sitting down,…
Historically, trainers and coaches rely on the trickle down method of impacting an organization: train or coach the boss and then everyone who reports to that person will change their behavior and the organization will benefit. Or sometimes the opposite approach is taken – put the staff/employees through training, thinking that will change things, only…
Front Line Leadership Tips for Supervisors, Team Leaders and Managers Sports coaching vs the Voodoo approach Historically, trainers and coaches rely on the trickle down method of impacting an organization: train or coach the boss and then everyone who reports to that person will change their behavior and the organization will benefit. Or sometimes the…
In his short, wonderful book, Helping, Edgar Schein presents us, whether we are a professional coach or a manager playing a coaching role, with three ways to respond to a request for coaching/mentoring help (or, for that matter, advice with a problem on the job). We can be: an expert resource who provides information or…
In my leadership workshops and keynote speeches I sometimes ask the group/audience to think of the best boss and worse boss they’ve ever had, what each did, and what effect it had on you. People come up with all kinds of descriptors and behaviors of both bosses. But one thing emerges about the best boss…
The most frequently cited quality of exceptional leaders is authenticity/integrity. With the best leaders, what you see is what you get, they walk their talk, and so forth. But situations arise that call upon the leader to fake it. They have to become an actor. They have to temporarily take on a persona different from…
Experience is the best teacher. Learning from your mistakes is powerful. Innovation requires taking risks. But how much tolerance should leaders have for repeated mistakes? What is the difference between someone on the learning curve versus an employee who is incompetent? This subject came up when I was chatting with the senior leader at one…
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill A story is told some years ago about a young energetic man who began work as a clerk in a hardware store. Like many old-time hardware stores, the inventory included thousands of dollars’ worth of items…
As you might imagine, as a paid expert on communication and leadership, I get some well earned ribbing at home from my wife Robin because of my poor listening skills as a husband and father. Once I made the comment that she just didn’t pay me as well as my client’s did for me to…