Two of my most popular posts (as measured by WordPress stats) are quotes about performance management (Feb 2009, Sept 2009). Given that popularity, I’ve listed even more performance management quotes: “An obstacle is what you see when you are no longer focused on the goal.” Anonymous (Anyone know who said this?) “Some people achieve the…
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…
Words matter. Using the the phrase software consumption rather than building, marketing, and selling software can allow you to re-imagine your business. Here’s one such story: I’m a fan of the logic model because it emphasizes outcome KPIs that monitor impact rather than output metrics that track activities. I also like strategy maps because they are simple…
“Which blogs are the most popular?” It’s a question I’ve started hearing again lately, especially as many of my work colleagues have begun experimenting with social media. This is an unanswerable measurement question, just like for analyst relations or marine terminal gates. To try to answer the question, many people cite Technorati’s Top Blogs (original link…
Speedlinking on management styles and 2010 predictions: New research from The Work Foundation suggests that outstanding performance comes from people-centric leadership rather than target-driven, micro-management. The authors observe that “outstanding leaders are focused on performance but they see people as the means of achieving great performance and themselves as enablers. They don’t seek out the limelight for…
I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions as the once-per-year goal settings usually come with unrealistic targets. Without reasonable goals, resolutions take a back seat to day-to-day realities. In fact, a recent Marist poll shows half of Americans make resolutions but only about 1/3 of those who do keep them for longer…
It’s the holiday season and I’m faced with my annual dilemma: How do I thank a small number of employees who have disproportionately supported the company’s and my own success over the last year? For most of my career, I’ve believed non-cash rewards were better than cash. After all, cash gets used for next months’ car…
Despite the fact that only two of my readers have pointed it out, it’s painfully obvious to me that I haven’t posted in two weeks. While two weeks isn’t very long, I pride myself on posting weekly and commited to measuring frequency of posting just a few months ago. The few days off I took for Thanksgiving…
A few weeks ago I got a chance to listen to Geoff Colvin talk about his new book, The Upside of the Downturn. Geoff, a long-time editor and columnist for Fortune Magazine, is an engaging speaker and he peppered his opening comments with headlines from that morning’s newspapers. He also made the intriguing claim death…