Seven fast, easy tips — inspired by Kahler Slater. They are excellent but are American companies willing to embrace them or do most feel that in an age where jobs are hard to come by they don’t do need to do much to make the workplace better ?
How do good managers make important decisions ?
Most decisions tend to get made in a climate of fear – where the rank-and-file are afraid to express an opinion that goes against what their bosses think. Fear creates a scarcity of good ideas, and a roadblock where tough issues get deferred rather than solved. Continue reading…
Linchpins: Just a book or a principle to live by
Seth Godin is one of my favorite business authors because he makes sense and thinks out of the box. Seth’s last book, called Linchpin, is an excellent read but after rereading it I started to wonder why there are so few people who embrace his Linchpin philosophy ? Continue reading…
Why you should give 110% at work
A lot of people talk about “personal branding” today. Frankly I’m not a big believer in personal branding because I don’t think a lot of employers care about it. What I do believe, however, is that your work is a direct reflection of who you are and the value you bring to your company. You can always try and change things but you should never ever throw in the towel and let your job become work. Continue reading…
What makes people think their manager is from hell
Sooner of later the chances are good that you’re going to work for the “boss from hell”. This is a person who seemingly is friendly to you and even says hello in the morning but behind your back they under mind you and play you against the people you work with. This type of boss is more interested in their own position and aspirations within the company and will blow with the wind rather than stand up for you. Here are some signs that you boss may have 666 written on his/her scalp: Continue reading…
What management traits make a successful marketer ?
Successful marketers play four roles, some of them unusual in marketing: Instigators challenge the status quo and look for new and better ways of doing things. Innovators turn marketplace insights into untested products, services, or solutions. Integrators build bridges across silos and functions and between the company and the market. Implementers execute on ideas. Continue reading…
Essential leadership skills
“The Wall Street Journal Essential Guide to Management” is an attempt to summarize the lessons of many of the management thinkers of our times, as well as the observations of the Journal’s reporters and editors, to provide a guide to best management practices. While there’s no silver bullet and no one-minute answers, the following general advice likely will serve you well in the coming years:
Stay flexible. Managers will need a flexible organization, so that it can be repositioned quickly to address new threats and master new challenges. You will have to be prepared to re-evaluate your mission, strategy and goals more frequently than before, in order to adjust to the uncertain and changing environment.
Devour data. Managers will need to have their “ears to the ground” in order to hear changes as they are coming. That means you’ll need to seek out fresh sources of information, intelligence and data. You’ll need to follow the example of leaders like A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, who required his top executives to go out into the field and talk to the ordinary women who use P&G products. Continue reading…
Corporations are bureaucracies and managers are bureaucrats
In recent years most of the greatest management stories have been not triumphs of the corporation, but triumphs over the corporation. Management icons of recent decades earned their reputations by attacking entrenched corporate cultures, bypassing corporate hierarchies, undermining corporate structures, and otherwise using the tactics of revolution in a desperate effort to make the elephants dance. The best corporate managers have become, in a sense, enemies of the corporation. Continue reading…
How to be a Linchpin in a matrix organization
Seth Godin, in his newest book Linchpin, makes a point of saying that to be a Linchpin and make a difference within an organization you have to be willing to “give up being loved”. But how can you afford to give up being loved when you work in a company that is a matrix organization and your performance review is based on feedback from others inside and outside your team ? Continue reading…