Month: March 2014

  • You Should Add “Ego Risk” to the Risks You Are Managing

    Most companies have begun to see risk management as a separate and important discipline worthy of dedicated resources and specialized skills. We now recognize a much broader array of risk areas and look beyond financial risk to market risk, technical risk, and key person risk. There has recently also been increased focus on information security […]

  • Don’t Argue With Your Team, Argue FOR Your Viewpoint

    The best teams argue within a framework of collaboration. They understand the value of bringing different points of view to solving a problem and the importance of arguing in a way that builds trust rather than undermines it. Here are ten steps to building a collaborative environment for productive arguments.  Don’t argue WITH each other, […]

  • How Much Work is Enough? Are You Working Smart, Hard, or Long?

    On this topic, I have many more questions than answers. There are new kinds of vacation policies popping up, especially at new companies trying to establish a different kind of company culture. They have been experimenting with policies with no set formula for determining how much vacation you can take. It is up to the […]

  • Dealing with the Dangers of Hub and Spoke Management: All Roads Lead to …

    Some managers use a method that I call “hub and spoke management.” I am not a fan and here’s why. In this approach, the manager is the hub of all communication and the manager communicates with each direct report (and sometimes other employees) in separate private channels. In hub and spoke management “team” meetings, most […]