Why Employment With You Is Intolerable
People often leave because they’re forced to - sacked, redundancy, or long-term illness. They also leave because they’re not happy where they are. They may want experiences they can’t get without leaving, or a promotion that’s not available in their current organisation. That said, it’s more than likely that their boss has become intolerable. What would make you - the manager - intolerable to work for? Lots of things.
Read moreWhat Level of Leadership Needs the Most Attention?
Birkman asks, “If you had to prioritise, then what level of leadership in your organisation do you need to give more attention to this year?” This is a good question because it forces you to narrow your focus from thinking about leadership generically to one that is specific to you and to consider it granularly. It’s much easier to think about leadership across an industry or even an organisation that it is to ask specific questions about it. In this article, we’re going to look at...
Read moreWeak Questions Leaders Ask
Questions may be the most powerful way to make progress on anything because they provoke thinking, and because the answers that result can give guidance for precise action. Of course, the key is to ask good questions, which is much easier said than done. That’s because all of us approach them with pre-conditions and assumptions. We all have things that we’re unwilling to change no matter what. The tendency is to take those things as given so much so that we forget that they are there. Th...
Read moreWhy Are You Trying to Be Like Everyone Else & How Can You Be Different?
There’s a remarkable tendency in all organisations to do what everyone else does. For all the rhetoric about being innovative, most of them are unwilling to stick their corporate necks out too far. It’s much more comfortable to be somewhere in the middle of the pack than to take the risk that they’ll be wrong by putting their heads above the proverbial parapet. This attitude is exemplified in five key areas, each of which reflects what everyone is does already or is trying to do: the in...
Read moreThe Case For Upsizing
You’ve heard of downsizing and rightsizing, but have you ever thought about upsizing? Many different terms have been used over the years to describe what amounts to the same thing: Changing the size of a business by making people redundant. The parts of organisations were rearranged by goals or means - production and sales or committees, departments, or divisions. Back and forth, and then back again. But no matter which one was emphasised, invariably people lost their jobs as a result. And...
Read moreThe Price You Pay When You Lose Your Way
Why are you in business? What’s your purpose? A typical answer is that you are in business to make money. If that’s the first thing that popped into your mind, then you’ve already lost your way. You’ve already forgotten why you’re in business. If you said that it’s because you spotted a gap in the market that you could fill, then you’re a little bit closer to the right answer, but still closer than you think to losing your way. Surprised? Here’s the right answer...
Read moreIs Employee Engagement Still Relevant?
In a recent, and very brief article, it was suggested that measures of work output should replace employee engagement metrics. The writer argued that in the past couple of decades, engagement increased by less than a half percent each year, and for that reason it ought to be scrapped. No doubt you see the flaw in such reasoning. The fact that improvements are comparatively minor year-on-year doesn’t make the thing being measured any less valuable. It may simply mean that new methods need to...
Read moreChallenges Managers Face
After a rollercoaster period of only working in the office, only working from home, working here, there, and everywhere: the dust is beginning to settle. As of this writing, all virus-related restrictions have been removed, including the so-called “guidelines” for working from home. It means that the decision about where employees do their work lies with the employer. The government can no longer be blamed. That said, many employers now recognise that people don’t need to be in the off...
Read moreConversations Managers Hate To Have
If you do a search online for the topic, ‘conversations managers hate to have,’ then you’ll find that the topic hasn’t been discussed much for quite a while. That’s a testament to just how adverse people are to these things. Sticking your head in the HR sand, however, won’t obviate the need for them. You still have to have them. And as unpleasant as they are, you can (and should) prepare for them so that they are the least disagreeable. There’s no sense in making conservations y...
Read moreWhat Do The Best CEOs Do?
In this article, you’ll learn what it is that the best CEOs do, and you won’t be surprised to learn that relationships lie at the root of its strength. That’s because without the willing cooperation of those in your organisation, your job will be much harder. We’ll consider a number of things that the best CEOs so in light of their ultimate leadership and authority. The first thing that needs to be said is that the best CEOs decide what it means to win. Of course, you could ar...
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