It is almost impossible to imagine modern business, non-profit, or government work getting accomplished, without people gathering in a seemingly endless round of meetings every day. Meetings are so much a part of our everyday work life that we rarely ever question their necessity, although we complain about their number incessantly. The only thing that [...]
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WHEN SUBORDINATES ARE DOING THE BOSS’S WORK
January 11, 2012
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Delegate! Delegate! Delegate! It is almost impossible to take a management course or read a management book that does not drive home the importance of delegation, if a manager is to do her or his job properly and succeed. And when the discussion turns to managers who have delegation difficulties, these discussions tend to focus [...]
Read moreIDEAS THROUGH ASSOCIATION
October 25, 2011
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I am sometimes asked where I get my ideas for these blog articles. While a majority of then have come from my management experiences, I often get ideas from what I read on a regular basis and from the suggestions of my readers and subscribers. These last two categories were both relevant to the topic [...]
Read moreSOLVE DON’T PASS ON YOUR PROBLEMS
October 7, 2011
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I still vividly recall an early managerial faux pax of mine. I had reviewed a paper written by an esteemed colleague that I found flawed in several ways, yet I feared confronting him with my assessment because of the difference in our organizational status at the time. So I passed the product unchanged up the line [...]
Read morePERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR SUBORDINATES
August 17, 2011
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Imagine that out of compassion, you hire an unemployed friend into a position directly under your management supervision. In short order, you discover that your friend is having difficulty getting along with your other subordinates, that there are some serious performance problems, and that your friend is having difficulty getting to work on time. You [...]
Read moreCHANGE AND A SENSE OF LOSS
August 2, 2011
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A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop conducted by the current chairman emeritus and founder of the Levinson Institute — Psychologist Harry Levinson, Ph.D. — focused on the topic of organizational change. Early in my management career, the insights of Dr. Levinson contained in his monthly “Levinson Newsletter” were part [...]
Read moreA HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT
June 23, 2011
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Yesterday morning while having breakfast in one of my favorite business travel hotels, I could not help but overhear a conversation between the two individuals seated not more than three feet from me. The gist of the conversation involved workplace behavior that simply would be intolerable to most of us and I would hope any good [...]
Read moreEVALUATING SOMEBODY’S PERFORMANCE
June 19, 2011
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I have touched on this subject at various times in this blog. But I continue to have rather serious discussions with both managers and non-managers about how to evaluate somebody effectively and how to avoid creating a victim of ham-handedness at the end of the process. So at the risk of repeating myself somewhat, here [...]
Read moreTHE MANAGEMENT-STAFF RELATIONSHIP
June 3, 2011
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My motivation for writing this particular article comes from years of observing — and personally experiencing — both the good and the bad elements of the management-staff relationship. I begin with the players and note that the distinction between them is important. Managers are those in an organization who carry titles that distinguish them as [...]
Read moreTHE PRICE OF BAD MANAGEMENT
May 13, 2011
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There are quite a few professions where the consequences of mistakes, bad professional practices, or serious errors in judgment are quite easy for us to imagine. Air line pilots, surgeons, dentists, criminal lawyers, structural engineers, cruise line captains, and school bus drivers readily come to mind. Most of these professions require some form of insurance [...]
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