As times get more and more scary, don’t expect
your high performers to keep knowing the company
wants them.
Even if they kind of know they are one of the stars,
telling them becomes even more important when
things get ugly. Read More
Blog
Productive Conflict
I was leading a Career Day last week with a group of executives, and we were discussing the topic of how to get your team from the head-nodding, shallow agreement phase, to DOING what you are all talking about.
- Talking does not add value
- Unspoken disagreements do not add value
- Head nodding, then inaction does not add value.
Squeezing the Oil out of our Food Supply
I’m breaking form in this blog post to bring you something “off topic” which I found fascinating.
This is a summary if an interview I heard on NPR’s
Fresh Air with Michael Pollan.
Michael Pollan talked about the need to change our agricultural policies if we wanted to solve our oil dependency, environmental issues, healthcare issues, and economic crisis. Read More
Are you Leading or Managing?
A fundamental difference between
Management and Leadership is this:
- Making sure the work gets done = Management
- Increasing capacity of your team = Leadership
Team Capacity:
At day 1, your team has a certain capacity. It can deliver a certain amount of work, at a particular level
of quality, in a measured time frame. Read More
Should I stay or should I go?
Most of us at some time will get into
what I will call an “ugly job”
And in this economy many businesses
are just getting less fun, so there is
more “ugly” to go around.
But if your job is not so bad that
it’s causing lasting psychological
damage to you — it’s just kind of miserable —
Here are some reasons why you are not making a bad decision to stay, and may in fact start to feel good about hanging in there. Read More
Whose Brand is it Anyway?
- Brand is a Marketing job.
- Brand is about your “look” – your logo,
your colors, etc. - You build your Brand by advertising it
(and spending lots of money) - A good Brand = a logo you see all the time
Top Brand Truths:
- Behaviors communicate Brand.
Don't Bury the Lead
The Lead:
You will achieve more success
if you clarify the main point
for all of your communications,
and make it the first thing you say.
(You can stop reading here.)
“Don’t bury the lead” is good age-old advice, but not just for journalists and marketers. Read More
Service or Torture?
Be careful what you measure…
BMW serves as a good example
of a company that measures service vs.
providing it. But many companies fall
into this trap. Does yours?
Here is an example of what I mean:
My last car service:
- I felt bullied by the sales and service people when they told me, as they do each time, that I “have to give them a 5” when the survey people call.
Dealing with Problem Employees
Every moment you don’t deal with a problem employee, you are squandering credibility.
Your team and your boss all notice –your high performers in particular notice.
You just can’t hide it if you are tolerating poor performance or damaging behaviors, without imposing consequences. Read More
How's your Credibility?
I wish I had learned this lesson much earlier in my career:
- Credibility is a necessary factor in your success
- Good work alone does not build credibility
- Without credibility, everything else is harder
Or said another way, Credibility is a critical enabler to getting anything significant done. Read More
