Dear Tiger….Showing Up is Important

No doubt we have all read about Tiger Woods’ recent “adventure”.   I have been thinking that the negative publicity surrounding the incident must be agonizing for him and his family.  And yet, as a famous person and one who is a role model for so many there must be a message for him in there [...]

Casual Conversation in the Workplace…Something to Talk About

What’s your take on casual conversation in the workplace?  Do you encourage it?  Do you participate in it? Or, do you choose not to involve yourself in idle talk?
Indeed, some might think that spending time talking to people about this and that, serves little purpose but to waste time.  I think that having conversations, even [...]

The Performance Review & Some Ugly Truths

Last week, I wrote a post about “The Dreaded Performance Review”,something that everyone so loves to hate.
For a while, this blog post kind of just sat there.  Some people kindly picked it up on their Twitter radar but overall, I felt that its impact was, well, kind of flat.  So I, for one, was eager [...]

The Dreaded Performance Review

I think it is safe to say that the performance review is something that most people love to hate.  And I think we hate it because although it starts out with noble intentions it tends to degenerate into an exercise without meaning.   Leaders hate it because it becomes just another thing to do.  And employees [...]

Failure, the Other “F” Word

Failure. I don’t like it.  And, I defy anyone to put up a hand and volunteer if asked, “Okay, so who wants to fail today?”
The fact is though, unless we live in a bubble and do nothing, we are going to fail at something.  Failure is a part of living and, often, the very thing [...]

Leading By Example & Mistaken Beliefs

According to Albert Schweitzer, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing”.
If Albert is right about that, then leading by example, although a simple enough concept carries with it a pretty big impact.
On the face of it, to get it right, leaders must exhibit the behaviour they would like [...]

Employee Engagement & the Magic of Remembering

In a number of my previous blog posts, I made reference to the importance of listening and how this enhances the efficacy of communication.  A lot of other people talk about it too.  And that’s a good thing.
But I’m wondering how much of the information we get from listening do we actually remember when we’d [...]

Office Politics – The Bad, The Ugly & The Good

How often have you said something like, “I hate office politics. I just refuse to play that kind of game”?
If you said, “very often” you are likely in good company. It’s a topic that tends to make one cringe and yet, in any business involving more than, say, two people, it is simply a fact [...]

Tackling Problems – How big is your “O”?

In her blog post, The Problem with Problem Solving, Susan Mazza talks about the importance of identifying the real issue when problem solving.  It is a very perceptive post and one that cites a clear example of how time and money can be wasted because people have worked on the wrong problem.
This reminded me of [...]

Lack of Communication You Say?

Once upon a time, I worked with banking executives.  They were all very good, smart people with a wide range of talents, skills and personalities.  However, when faced with a problem that involved people this sentence always seemed to come up.
“It’s a lack of communication”
It was kind of a throwaway remark that, once said, [...]