-
Confronting the Near Enemy: Is One Emotion Masquerading as Another?
One of the reasons I like reading fiction is that every now and then, an author will sneak a wonderful bit of wisdom into a story that grabs me in a way that is much more memorable than if I had read it in a textbook or journal article. Usually when I discover such a passage,…
-
What Am I Missing Here? Five Ways to Make the Invisible Visible
Have you ever been in a meeting where, based on what you see and hear, you expect the meeting to be playing out in one way but instead it is going in another direction entirely? You suspect something is going on beneath the surface and that you are missing something important that would make sense of…
-
First Three Steps on the Road to Becoming an Expert Manager of Experts
Since most of us are experts in only a few areas, it would seem that one of those areas ought to be managing other experts. Here are three steps to get you started. Step 1. Learn to respect expertise. We expect others to respect our own expertise, but frequently we don’t seem to respect the expertise…
-
Two Secrets to Discovering the Benefits of the Long View: From Deadlines to Lifelines
One of the most damaging corporate pathologies is the obsession with short term performance at the expense of longer term sustainability. A pervasive symptom of this pathology is the daily game of “Name That Deadline.” Your manager asks, when can I have your report or when will that project be done? You give a date with…
-
Give Your Idea to Someone Else to Run With – Sometimes a Horse Needs a Different Rider to Win
First, here’s a little exercise for your mind. An aging monarch decides it is time to name an heir to the throne. The monarch’s two children are identical twins and no one is now sure which one was born first. Both twins are excellent riders and each owns a very fast horse. So the monarch…
-
A Learning Opportunity in Flexibility and Determination for You and Your Team
Angela Duckworth’s presentations and research have spawned a lot of discussion over the last year on the dominant importance of sustained hard work in becoming successful. Her central conclusion is that perseverance (what she calls “grit”) is a better indicator of who will be successful than talent. Others have seized on her research as proof that the problem with…
-
The Proliferation of Undoable Jobs and How To Recognize Them
A friend was recently describing jobs that a head hunter was sending her way. The totally unrealistic scope, scale, and complexity of the jobs reminded me of a trend I observed a number of years ago which I started referring to as the “proliferation of undoable jobs.” What makes a job undoable? 1. Job titles…
-
Searching for Alternatives to Death by Powerpoint: The Single Slide Strategy
A friend sent me this link to an NPR story about the mind-numbing effects of powerpoint presentations. NPR interviewed various groups including physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider, CEOs at fortune 500 companies, and generals at the pentagon. Some of those interviewed have put an outright ban on powerpoint presentations at their meetings because they…
-
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…