Imagine being called into your boss’s office and hearing one of the following statements: “I have some negative feedback for you and everybody feels the same way”; or “a number of your colleagues have told me that ……….”; or “I have been hearing from others that………..”. WOW! Don’t you just feel you are being “ganged […]
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Tag Archives: exercising authority
WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, ACKNOWLEDGE IT AND FAST
May 19, 2013 
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In September 2011, the American-based media provider Netflix announced that it planned to raise prices for its services and separate into two companies: a DVD mail order service it would call “Qwikster” and an internet streaming service that would retain the name Netflix. Customer response was almost immediate and extremely negative. Netflix estimates it lost […]
Read moreARE YOU THE RIGHT PERSON FOR YOUR JOB?
April 23, 2013 0 Comments
Many of the managers I have worked with over the years have never asked themselves if they were the right person for their current job. Having been selected for the position, they naturally assume they were the right choice. Others, however, perhaps less self-confident and self-assured, have let the “right person” thought enter their consciousness and […]
Read moreGENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES AT WORK
March 29, 2013 0 Comments
The March 24, 2013 edition of Businessweek contained an article by Marina Khidekel entitled “The Misery of Mentoring Millennials” (Etc. Section). Among the article’s highlights that caught my eye were the following: “For a new generation of workers, the idea of seeking out a single career confidant is as old-fashioned as a three-martini lunch.” “According […]
Read moreASKING QUESTIONS: PERHAPS YOUR MOST POWERFUL MANAGEMENT TOOL
March 8, 2013 3 Comments
“I keep six honest serving men they taught me all I knew, their names were what and where and when and how and why and who“ Rudyard Kipling In an earlier article in this series entitled “Untested Assumptions”, I described such assumptions as one of a manager’s worst enemies. Acting on untested assumptions […]
Read moreTHE BOSS WHO PLAYS FAVORITES: MANAGING POOR MANAGEMENT
February 22, 2013 0 Comments
Almost all of us who have managed others over the years, have had to deal with a boss whose own management style and set of management skills left something to be desired. Managing up — as it is called — is relatively easy when one’s boss has a skill set, style, and personality similar to […]
Read moreWANT A SENSE OF REAL ACCOMPLISHMENT? CHAMPION A FEW BIG GOALS
February 6, 2013 2 Comments
So many managers I talk with tell me that one great source of their frustration with the job, is obtaining a sense of accomplishment day-to-day. This is an experience I well remember and it never ceased being a challenge. The management job itself — with its never-ending onslaught of little, often unrelated matters confronting you – easily […]
Read moreTHE BOSS WHO CAN’T DECIDE: MANAGING POOR MANAGEMENT
January 11, 2013 0 Comments
Almost all of us who have managed others over the years, have had to deal with a boss whose own management style and set of management skills left something to be desired. Managing up — as it is called — is relatively easy when one’s boss has a skill set, style, and personality similar to […]
Read moreKNOWING THE LIMITS OF YOUR POWER
November 14, 2012 0 Comments
The job of a manager often strikes those of us who have done it as quite a conundrum: apparently straight forward, yet frequently complex; occasionally clear but often maddeningly ambiguous; and especially about having been granted power, yet often leaving one feeling rather powerless. Management is a constant balancing act. Managing successfully requires knowing what […]
Read moreEXERCISING AUTHORITY: THE “IF NOT, THEN WHAT” MESSAGE
October 2, 2012 0 Comments
The best managers intuitively seem to understand that the less often they need to blatantly exercise their authority, the better. Frequent displays of management behavior, designed to impress and remind subordinates of “who is in charge”, generally have more negative, than positive, consequences. Moreover, a manager really has to go to extreme lengths of avoiding […]
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