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I recently played golf with someone I didn’t know prior to our playing together. As we walked down the first fairway, he asked, “What do you do?” Asking people what they do is a polite and socially acceptable way of getting to know them. It’s completely normal and completely appropriate. But in the workplace, what Continue reading It’s What You Deliver That Matters  For the past several months, I have been conducting research into the leadership of change to learn more about the role leadership plays in successful change. Frankly, I have been disappointed in what I have found. More accurately, I have been disappointed in what I haven’t found – an access to leadership. The primary focus of Continue reading Where Is the Access to Leadership? If you want to increase your personal leadership effectiveness, then you may want to adopt the following policy: It doesn’t exist if it isn’t written down. Most people are familiar with the cliché “out of sight, out of mind”. One way to interpret this cliché is that if we don’t have some way of remembering things Continue reading It Doesn’t Exist If It Isn’t Written Down MBA students frequently tell me they would be far more effective if only they had authority over certain people. Unfortunately, years of research, such as a forthcoming study in Organization Science, indicates that having authority may actually reduce a manager’s effectiveness, not improve it. When managers have authority over resources important to subordinates (e.g., hiring and Continue reading Does Authority Reduce Leader Effectiveness? Are you finding that some projects are not moving as fast as you need them to? Do you have some projects that are ‘behind’ and need to be accelerated? Are there people around you who are notoriously unreliable in keeping up their end of a project, no matter what you say to them? If you Continue reading Displays Support Accomplishment One reason people experience stress and feel that they have more to do than time in which to do it is because they are in an argument with The First Law of Accomplishment. The First Law of Accomplishment states: “The accomplishment of anything requires a sufficient period of time in which to accomplish it.” Its Continue reading Obeying the First Law of Accomplishment How do you synchronize work when you can’t talk to each other? What allows people to know who you are and what you are accountable for if you can’t tell them? One way is through the use of “signage” which refers to the use of any kind of visual graphic created to display information to Continue reading What Name Tag Will He Wear? It is said that when Caesar invaded England, he burned his boats to let his men know that there was no way home. The only options were victory or death. For most of us, the idea of cutting off all retreat is unnerving. We like to keep our options open, to have a back door Continue reading Burn the Boats I recently got an email from – let’s call him Paul – a manager updating me on his attempts to interrupt the “high priority” manipulation that is so prevalent in organizations. Turns out he is becoming increasingly successful everywhere except with his boss. Apparently Paul’s boss doesn’t realize how he is undermining himself. Here is what Continue reading Is Demanding “Now” Undermining Leadership? Why don’t people perform the way we expect them to? Perhaps you have asked yourself this question, or participated in a discussion with others related to it. Although there are many answers that could be provided, one that has recently caught my attention is the role of common ground. I was recently at a holiday dinner Continue reading Common Ground and Performance |
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