This past weekend, I was recovering from oral surgery that left it difficult for me to talk or to get much work done. As a result, I spent a lot of time sitting on my couch watching television. (Here’s a pic from my vantage point on the couch.) As I caught up on my favorite […]
Most of the conflict I have experienced in my life, both first and second hand, has not been the result of factual disagreement, but of differing perceptions. Every day we interact with others, “notice” their behavior, and then proceed to draw conclusions about what it is, what it means, etc. Our interpretations, and thus our […]
Ah, performance appraisals. Some people hate them and the rest hate them too. As a result, many organizations are questioning the need for performance appraisals and others have stopped doing them altogether. When done properly as part of an overall performance management program, appraisals are an opportunity to reward top performers, help redirect and develop […]
When you accept the title of leader, manager, supervisor, or any other title that puts you in charge of a group of people, you also accept the responsibility of providing feedback to those people. Great leaders accept this and take steps to learn to do it well. Cowardly leaders find all types of ways to avoid […]
While having lunch with my friend Beverly the other day, she was lamenting various employee challenges- from lack of personal responsibility to downright laziness. Case in point, the simple act of changing the toilet paper roll in the restroom. She just couldn’t understand how someone could be so lazy that they couldn’t take the 10 […]
Any parent can tell you the most annoying question kids ask is, “Why?” Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? Why do I have to take a bath? Although it may sometimes feel like kids ask these questions merely to annoy us, kids ask them because they’re trying to understand their world. […]
The other day I was facilitating a workshop for a group of attorneys on the subject of employee motivation. We’d just finished discussing the importance of showing appreciation and giving praise, when we had a short break. During the break I mentioned my difficulty finding an artist to create a one-frame comic for the chapter about […]
“Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”- Nathaniel Hawthorne Many people underestimate the power of words to create their reality and to impact the reality of others. Think about […]
Last week, I targeted advice givers and provided tips for offering advice in a way that makes it more palatable to the receiver. However, I know that not every advice giver reads my blog and even those who do will struggle to keep their opinions to themselves. Therefore, I thought I should follow-up this week […]
Okay, before I get started, I have to admit one of my many flaws: I DO NOT like being told what to do. My natural instinct when someone says, “You should. . .” or “You have to. . .” is to do the exact opposite. It’s not that I’m not open to advice or others’ […]
