This weekend’s Wall Street Journal contained an article by former Chrysler and General Motors executive Bob Lutz called “Life Lessons from a Car Guy.” Lutz believes that different kinds of organizations require different kinds of leaders. A loosely-connected conglomerate like General Electric requires a leader with vision and portfolio management skills; investing/divesting lines of business,…
In a blog and twitter infected world, you would think that we have all learned to be brief. A never-ending parade of 50 slide ppt decks, run-on emails, and hour-plus lectures reminds me that we haven’t. It’s hard to get to the point. If you’re guilty of long emails or verbose marketing copy, remember the…
Most of us view work as a kind of economic transaction: people exchange labor for financial compensation. Depending on the job, increased quantity of labor (number of hours) or increased quality of labor (bonus or promotion) results in increased compensation. However, there is an increasing amount of research that shows that we are motivated not…
Sometimes you have to think outside the camel. At a recent management offsite, I adopted the phrase “Think different, act different” as a rallying cry for the team. I was trying to emphasize the dangers of group think so I reminded them of the story of ten monkeys in the cage. I didn’t just want…
One of my most popular blogs is “The No Asshole Rule” which was inspired by a class I took from Professor Robert Sutton. Sutton encourages companies to get rid of workplace assholes who deliberately make co-workers feel bad about themselves and who are openly aggressive to others with less power. While there’s a detailed on-line…
How did I do with my tongue-in-cheek 2010 New Year’s resolutions? Here’s a report card: 10. Less BlackBerry reading; more blackberry eating Fail. I read more BlackBerry emails than I ate blackberries. 9. Avoid 2010 meaning that I traveled to 20 cities on 10 airlines Partial credit. 16 cities on 6 airlines. 8. Leverage twitter…
There is an old saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s a catchy phrase that might be true. Researchers have shown that power – even artificial power – causes people to change their behavior. Stanford Professor Deborah Gruenfeld describes, When people feel powerful, they stop trying to ‘control themselves.’ What we think…
After the robust discussion on my 7 tips for new managers, I decided to add a few more tips: 8. “Do unto others” Treat employees the way that you would want to be treated. Never ask an employee to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. 9. “Turn chickens into pigs” During bacon and eggs breakfasts,…
Mentors, take note. You might not be doing your job. A 2008 Catalyst survey of 4000 high-potential men and women who graduated from top MBA programs revealed that women were paid nearly $5000 less in their first post-MBA job, had lower-level positions, and reported significantly less career satisfaction. (For more findings, see the HBR article “Women…
After many years as a performance management enthusiast, I sometimes forget how much confusion there still is around the topic. Since I’m a big believer that standardized language helps reduce confusion, I’ve decided to summarize some of my deeply held beliefs on performance management: An objective describes what you want to accomplish. For example, ‘win…