It is "lonely at the top?” For many, yes. As you move up the ladder in any field, your peer groups grow smaller, and that can be a very lonely feeling. Before you were promoted to a supervisory position, if you had a hard day or a difficult decision you needed to talk through, you probably had a variety of people to turn to: your immediate supervisor, your team members, your … [Read more...]
Friendship at Work? How to Make it a Benefit, Not a Problem
Eighty-two percent of people feel they have friends at work, but only 15 percent see those friendships as "real," says research conducted by Olivet Nazarene University. The survey of 3000 people across 21 industries sheds some light on how people perceive their coworkers. You can see more results here, but here are a few highlights: 71% don't consider any coworkers "best … [Read more...]
What Does “Professional” Really Mean?
"Professional." I hear leaders talk about that word often. They say “I want my team to be professionals” or “Why can’t they be more professional?” When I ask “What do you mean by 'professional'?” I typically receive stumbling answers that aren’t very clear or helpful. It is understandable that you want your team members to be professional. What isn’t OK, however, is … [Read more...]
Avoid These 7 “Flowbreakers” That Are Killing Your Productivity
If you're concerned about your own or your employees' productivity, you may be dealing with one of the following flowbreakers, say James Manktelow and Julian Birkinshaw, coauthors of Mind Tools for Managers: 100 Ways to Be a Better Boss. Keep reading to learn their advice for managing distractions so that you all can be more productive: Personal technology Smartphones and now … [Read more...]
How to Make an Impact as a Manager
After 30 years of working, reading and studying the topic of manager’s development the quote above is still my favorite when it comes time to characterize how managers need “to be” as they perform their roles. The great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu advised that the fundamental character of a “good manager” (He actually said leader but please allow me the poetic license!) is one … [Read more...]
9 Tips to Encourage a Group of Loners to Work Together
You are leading a team and some (maybe all) of the members see themselves as individual contributors, not necessarily members of a team. They state and show that they’d rather work alone, and prefer individual accomplishments and results over tying their fortunes to a team. You want a cohesive team. That is, a group collaborating freely and harnessing the synergy that comes … [Read more...]
The Most Important Thing You Can Do This Weekend
As a new manager, do you find it hard to stop thinking about work, even when you go to bed? Do you struggle to fall asleep because you worry about how your team will handle work the next day, how you will deal with a poor performer or what you must do to retain your top staff members? You aren't alone. Many new managers lose sleep over the stress of the job, especially managers … [Read more...]
The Secret to Success? Focusing on What You CAN Do
As I travel around the country to lead workshops, I often hear frustrations with or objections to some of the supervisory/leadership techniques and approaches that I advocate and teach. I seldom hear an outright disagreement with the general approach. Instead, people express their frustration or objection like this: “That sounds great, but … “I work in the … [Read more...]
4 Ways to Prevent Discrimination in Your Workplace
The concept of "sensitivity or anti-racial bias training" has been in the news a good bit lately, ever since the Starbucks' debacle back in April, when two black men were asked to leave a Philadelphia location, and then subsequently arrested, for doing what people across the country do at Starbucks all the time: sit, study, work, wait for others without ordering a thing. The … [Read more...]
Train Employees to Do More Than Just Offer Ideas
I love hearing people’s ideas. I love outside-of-the-box thinking, and I regularly—my teammates might think too regularly—ask for people’s input. So just to be clear, I want people to offer ideas. That said, I’m less than excited when people send ideas—and nothing more. They don’t offer any insight into how an idea will be executed. They don’t consider obstacles. In some … [Read more...]