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…
Recently I spent two days teaching front-line managers in an installation service company how to have effective conversations around job performance. The training included an approach that was new to the managers and thus involved for them a new way of thinking. Instead of telling, they were to do a lot more asking of questions…
A Vice President I worked for years ago, reflecting on her rise to the C Suite, stated that she thought it was more stressful to be a middle manager than an executive. The difference, she said, is the senior leader has more autonomy over things than do managers further down in the hierarchy. We know…
The October 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review features “Big Data” as the theme. There are a number of articles of import for those leaders whose enterprise has access to large amounts of data–operational, market, what have you. They look at where the data is coming from, the increasing role it is playing in business…
A study a couple of years ago the Center for Creative Leadership asked 158 executives enrolled in their leadership development programs what are the three most critical challenges you currently face? Their responses clustered into 14 categories but the four most frequently mentioned were: Leading across multiple groups (building maintaining and leveraging relationships across all…
If you haven’t yet run across TED Talks, I heartily recommend you check them out. “TED” stands for technology, entertainment & design. The organization began way back in 1984 and calls itself “a nonprofit devoted to ideas worth spreading.” It holds two main conferences each spring, plus a global conference in the summer, and licenses…
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…
I don’t know about you but it pains me to see so many people in organizations not contributing near to what they are capable of. Many of course, for any multitude of reasons, just don’t want to, thank you very much. They are satisfied with average, with just enough. That’s a topic for another time.…
How often have you heard that our favorite topic is ourself? This is certainly true but a few people go overboard. We call them egocentric. At a neurotic level, they become narcissistic. This comes from the Greek character Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and remained there,…
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,…
How many of your employees are simply not engaged any more? Are there some who seem to just be going through the motions of their job? Yeah, they show up every day. They do the essential tasks. They don’t miss deadlines or cause any major screw ups. But something is clearly missing. The spark has…
I was working with a coaching client recently, “unpacking” the results of his Leadership Circle Profile (360˚ feedback assessment). While his profile was very positive–he is doing well as a leader–I was struck that on several less desirable factors (e.g. Passive, Critical, Arrogance) he scored himself high while his employees saw him as low, not…
We are hearing so often these days that there are tons of well-paying jobs for which companies simply can’t find qualified people. Of course, skilling up alone won’t solve the unemployment and underemployment problems we face. But we do need to skill up as an adult population. I think we all have a part to…
Research reported by Alex Pentland in the April issue of Harvard Business Review has revealed some interesting new information on effective teams. He and his group deployed “sociometric badges” in teams in 21 organizations. These devices are able to monitor on individual team members’ tone of voice, body language, frequency of initiating and responding, plus…
There is enough research on Employee Engagement to show that engaged employees give more “discretionary effort” (going above and beyond job expectations…without being told/asked) to their employer. Yet levels of engagement have not changed over the last ten years or so, through a period first of boom, then of bust. Consider this data from the…
Recently I heard a presentation by Jim Gibbons, President & CEO of Goodwill Industries. In it he said that “every job matters.” Every job has someone relying on the incumbent of the position to do their job well so that the other person can either: benefit or do their own job well. Your client/customer is…
I get some great ideas from my clients. In a recent coaching conversation my client and I were strategizing about how to fire up an employee in his 60’s with about two years left before retirement who was slacking off.. I suggested he challenge the individual to make the choice to make his last two…
Ever notice? When you ask someone how they’re doing, they rarely say “fine.” No, just about everybody says “busy.” Yeah, we’re so busy that we have to work all those extra hours–come in early, or work through lunch, or stay late, or pull a Saturday and/or a Sunday…or all of the above. Now, I’m not…
A manager I was coaching recently explained (away) the behavior of one of his supervisors: “He isn’t an angry person. He means well. It’s just that he’s often sharp with people. And sometimes they take it the wrong way. He’s really a good worker. I’ve told him that people can be intimidated by him, so…