Archive | 2009

Choose Your Words Wisely

In research conducted by Accountemps, 150 senior executives from the nation’s 1000 largest companies were asked, “What is the most annoying or overused phrase or buzzword in the workplace today?” Their responses included the following: Leverage Reach out It is what it is Viral Game changer Disconnect Value-add Circle back Socialize Interface Cutting edge While…

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More Performance Management Quotes

A few more of my favorite performance management quotes: It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises—but only performance is reality. Harold S. Geneen, 1910-1997, communications executive The man who starts out going nowhere, generally gets there. Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955, author and pioneer in self-improvement and…

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Performance Management Defined (and Debated)

Throwing down the blogging gauntlet, Michael asks a simple – but provocative – question: How would […] you define Performance Management and what does it mean when it is successfully implemented? My initial reaction was to borrow a phrase from Justice Potter Stewart: I’m not sure I can define performance management, but I know it when I…

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Practicing slide:ology

As a marketing professional, the favorite part of my job is the time I spend with customers. This past week I was asked to host a senior government delegation in our Executive Briefing Center. Since the 45 minute slot was supposed to encourage conversation, I brought a single slide as a visual aid. Imagine my…

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Smooth-sailing Fallacy

In a McKinsey Quarterly article entitled “Management lessons from the financial crisis,” UCLA business professor Richard Rumelt coins the term smooth-sailing fallacy: This smooth-sailing fallacy arises when we mistake a measure for reality. Competent management always looks deeper than the numbers, deeper than the current measures. Incompetent management just focuses on the metrics, on the body…

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Enterprise Risk Oversight

A new report entitled the Current State of Enterprise Risk Oversight (alternately, here) has been published by several faculty members from the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Initiative at North Carolina State University.  For me, the conclusions are alarming, but perhaps not surprising: Despite the growing pressures for more effective risk oversight that are emerging from the…

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Lawn Activities, Yard Outcomes

Performance management continuously invades my personal life, whether it’s on airplanes, during mentoring, or at Thanksgiving dinner. Here’s another example: Not long after I moved into my previous house, a friendly neighbor came over to welcome me to the block. Amid advice on local stores and restaurants, he pointed out that my front lawn wasn’t…

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