“Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome aboard our flight, leaving Port Columbus, Ohio, this evening on its way to New York’s La Guardia airport. Our flight time will be one hour and forty minutes.... Continue reading
Even the most moderate and democratic executives can morph into erratic, mercurial autocrats -- and they may not even be aware of their transformation or the havoc it wreaks. Here’s a sample scenario: A senior... Continue reading
I attended a conference recently that focused on embracing change to ensure sustainability in at-risk organizations. The sessions were substantive, relevant, and thought provoking. I took in two presentations back to back, both delivered by... Continue reading
It’s a fantastic thing to watch an organization grow and develop -- and to be able to talk about it publicly. I don’t usually blog about my clients directly, perhaps out of an excess of... Continue reading
Most organizations want to convey a particular image to the public, whether it signifies quality, or professionalism, or innovation. And when organizations put thought, care, and resources into crafting their image, they want it to... Continue reading
Most supervisors don’t actually spend the majority of their time developing their people. Instead, they’re often stuck in meetings -- which are sometimes about their people -- or handling paperwork, computer problems, and whatever other... Continue reading
A surprising number of companies no longer expect their senior managers to develop their people: They turn management development over to outsourced coaching firms instead. I’m a strong proponent of “coaching” for behavior change and... Continue reading
I was lucky to be a young manager at a time when it was still typical to be directed, trained, mentored, and generally developed by your senior managers. There were enough senior managers around that... Continue reading
Long, long ago, maybe back in the ’80s, “empowerment” was the hot new thing in workplaces. The word itself had a regenerative, creative, motivating sound. It held the possibility that, instead of laboring under bureaucratic... Continue reading
Perhaps we’ve trained customers to believe that they’re always right or “king” so thoroughly that some of them feel “special” enough to violate institutional norms with impunity. Some of the behavior I witnessed during a... Continue reading
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