If you ever want an easy topic to generate debate among a management team, try: Meetings – A waste of time or an effective use of time? I’ve had several conversations with clients lately concerning meetings. Invariably, the newer or less effective managers have the position that meetings are a waste of time. However, my clients who are successful as managers find tremendous value in meetings. But let me be perfectly clear: They find tremendous value in meetings that are necessary, focused, and well managed. And we all know, most meetings don’t meet those criteria, and as a result,...
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Many business owners still believe their Human Resources (HR) department is primarily responsible for developing their respective organization’s future leaders. However, the longer business owners keep this limited mindset, the further behind their organizations become. You see, this crucial activity is not primarily HR’s responsibility, it’s theirs. And that scares the heck out of most business owners. So, as business owners, if developing our organization’s future leaders is our responsibility, how do it? How do we train and develop others to take over for us when we’re not trainers, teachers, or magicians? We need to take three major steps:...
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Recently a colleague asked me for advice to help him with one of his clients. My colleague’s been working with this particular client for several years, but it’s getting to a point of frustration where my colleague’s ready to walk away. The manager — or as my colleague now calls him — The Teflon King, is incredibly skilled at deflecting responsibility and accountability. He’s also amazingly skilled at bamboozaling the board of directors by not bringing issues to their attention that would show mismanagement on his part, pushing work and decisions to the board that he and his staff...
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