In an article entire Solitude and Leadership, William Deresiewicz delivered this stinging indictment on the state of leadership in America: Why is it so often that the best people are stuck in the middle and the people who are running things—the leaders—are the mediocrities? Because excellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole….
Stanford University management professor Bob Sutton has written extensively about the impact of bad bosses in the workplace. I blogged about his book “The No Asshole Rule” and have been using his litmus test ‘Do people feel more or less energized after they talk to you?’ as guidance since I first heard him describe it….
After reading my MBWA 101 post, a colleague asked me if I had ever compiled a list of tips for new managers. He wanted to provide some concrete recommendations for a new mentee who had recently become a first line manager. Other than my own management philosophy, I’d never written anything down before so I…
There is a longstanding debate as to whether people are more motivated by financial or non-monetary incentives. The obvious answer is that not everyone can be incented the same way and not every situation warrants the same incentive. This may be an obvious answer but it isn’t a very useful one because it doesn’t give…
A few weeks ago, a newly minted manager asked my advice on how to best manage by walking around. I gave him an encouraging – but non-specific – answer. This post is my follow-up to his question. Wander frequently Your employees may worry that you’re spying on them the first few times that you show…
One of the tenets of my management guidelines is that I emphasize results over effort. With a focus on outcomes rather than activities, I recommend metrics that track impact (how much change occurred) rather than output (how much was produced). I don’t like to reward people for trying hard if they were working on the…
A little more than six months ago, I took a new role with a group that was described as in need of a “turn-around” and an “updated strategy and direction”. I was urged to introduce a new mission/vision, strategic objectives, and revised key performance indicators. Given my performance management background, this seemed like a reasonable…
I’m not sure how it happened, but one morning I woke up and “alignment” had turned into a dirty word treated with the same disdain as other corporate buzzwords such as synergy, paradigm shift, and collaboration. I hear executives going out of their way to disparage the word. Alignment is much maligned. Given that this…
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post that pointed out the benefits of management by walking around can be achieved without actually leaving your desk. Some examples are as follows: Management can mimic the shopping experience of a prospective customer by visiting a Web site and trying to find/buy a particular product. It’s…
I recently had the chance to take an entertaining and enlightening class from Bob Sutton, professor of management at Stanford University and author of the book “The No Asshole Rule.” By Professor Sutton’s definition, workplace assholes are employees who deliberately make co-workers feel bad about themselves and who are openly aggressive to others who have…