When front line supervisors and managers are asked to share some of the characteristics of the best manager or supervisor they had ever worked for, they will include “supportive” on that list. One participant was even more emphatic – his best boss was focused on “helping” not “harping”. A boss who is constantly critical and…
When we head to the amusement park, a favorite game is Whack-a-mole where the little critters stick their heads up and you try to whack them with a mallet. The person with the highest score wins a prize. Management and supervision can be like playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole except there usually is no…
Today we look at the one or two bottom performing employees you might have on your team or in your company. It could be job performance related or it could be negativity or behavior problems. Can they be ‘fixed’ or should you let them go and move forward with hiring a replacement? An HR Manager…
A boss of mine early on in my career had a tough, almost bulldog, style. He was a pragmatic, no nonsense guy. He didn’t have a wide vocabulary and didn’t spend a lot of time talking about concepts. He was super loyal to the company and even more so to the branch of which he…
When I hear somebody sigh that life is hard, I am always tempted to ask, compared to what? – Sydney Harris What are the top challenges you face as a leader in your business or organization? In a list generated by Sheryl Nance-Nash at dailyfinance.com she provides the Top 10 Challenges for CEO’s in 2011.…
For at least 40 years we have had the idea of “lattice” organization as an alternative design to the traditional hierarchy which assumes employees all want to climb up the ladder. In lattice organizations (and, beyond W.L. Gore & Associates, there weren’t many of them out there back then), you could go in any direction–up,…
Gary Ridge, CEO of the highly successful company, WD-40 (the lubrication folks) believes that everyone in his firm should get an ‘A’ in goal achievement. Their performance management process reflects this emphasis…
What strategies will make YOU successful in business? A group of C-suite executives agreed that the key to a rising business career includes four main characteristics. They are described below in our series, “The 4-eyed employee” : So what are we talking about? The first “eye” or “I” attribute is the underlying foundation for business…
Busy, busy, busy. Rush, rush, rush. Meet with team–call shipping–update spread sheet–check emails–meet with boss–finalize report–make two more calls–work on client presentation–attend strategy update meeting–write up the minutes–analyze production data–read market trend report–and on and on and on. If you are right now saying to yourself this “this is my life,” you’re not alone. But…
High achievers are prone to enter a time in their career where they plateau or stall. Perhaps promotions are not coming as fast and furious as they once did or in some cases, they have achieved every goal they have set and have run out of challenges. Achievers will ask themselves, “Is this all there…
You seldom hear the word “fear” in management development workshops. Of course the word is not welcome anywhere in organizations. It’s the “F word” in offices and plants. Odd, isn’t it, since fear is always lurking in our workplaces, especially during the last few years of economic hell?
They say that employees vote with their feet. Research tells us a high percentage of employees leave companies because they have a problem with their direct supervisor or boss. And, if you ask employees, one of these key frustrations is a lack of clear job expectations. Imagine assembling a toy for your kids without the diagram/instructions. Or putting…
Should a leader apologize when he or she makes a mistake, or is it a sign of weakness? In the front line leadership course we have two case studies on balancing friendship and leadership. This is a unique situation faced by supervisors and team leaders who have been promoted from within. One case study deals…
People with a strong business and entrepreneurial sense are always praising the merits of focusing. They focus on their strategic priorities. They focus on the numbers, benchmarking wherever it makes sense. They focus on the company’s core values, unique selling proposition, and so on. They do so because it is the best way to optimize…
Trust is the foundation of all human interactions, and the cornerstone upon which high-performing organizational cultures are built. The Organizational Trust Index™ was developed by the Breckenridge Institute® as a method for measuring the level of trust in an organization and the degree to which an organization’s culture is either motivated by trust or driven…
It is mid afternoon. You are sitting at your desk trying to pull together this important proposal for your boss. It is due the day after tomorrow. As you wrestle with how to incorporate a complex spreadsheet from the finance department, you wonder when your quality analyst will bring in those last two key pieces…
We’ve all lived this before. Sally, the manager, asks her employee Gary to prepare a market analysis report for next week. Gary moans and says he doesn’t think he can do it by then . . . too much work and, besides, why not give it to Sherry who has a marketing background. The manager…
First there’s the suffocating volume of e-mails. That’s complaint number one. But the next biggest gripe I hear from my clients is that they are spending way too much time in meetings. Do any of these comments ring true about meetings where you work? too long no agenda (or, if there is one, we don’t…
They had a momentary pause of puzzlement when I asked them. So, I put the question to my audience again, “What is your current edge for development?” “What do you mean?” they ask. “I mean,” I say, “if you could snap your fingers and instantly improve significantly in one aspect of your work that would…
Are your employees clear about what you expect from their performance this year? I should be able to come in as a consultant, sit down one-on-one with any individual who reports to you and ask him or her, “What will constitute ‘fully satisfactory’ and ‘outstanding’ performance by you over the current year? Please describe it…