Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
You can lack efficiency and effectiveness in how you communicate.
Or you can have both. Here’s how.
As background, it always helps to be clear about what you’re trying to communicate. Simply pass on information, or engage in a discussion and check for understanding? Ask for feedback, or do a data dump and run?
Great communication starts with focus about what you’re trying to accomplish, and what you’re trying to avoid.… Read the rest
Journalist (and Twitter friend) Kara Swisher noted regarding the Carol Bartz debacle that “there really is no good time to fire someone.”
I think Kara’s work is great, and I’d suggest otherwise.
There are good times to fire people.
Lord knows that as someone who worked as a corporate HR exec during the height of the restructuring boom in the 80’s and 90’s I’ve fired more people than I can count.… Read the rest
There are some advantages to being at the organizational top.
People below you on the business pyramid are unfailing polite, things sometimes happen on a suggestion and not a request, furniture is nicer and pay is usually greater. Tones are hushed, the carpet is deeper, and pleasantries are often the order not just of the day, but the minute.
Candor – the quality of being frank, open and sincere – is often missing in action.… Read the rest
Duke University men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyewski (pronounced /ʃəˈʃɛvski/shə-SHEV-ski) once noted after his Blue Devils got beat, “We lost, and that’s the main thing that went wrong.”
Hopefully you take have a little more introspection than the storied (and highly successful) Coach K. The fact of the matter is that losses – bumps in your smooth career road – are the types of things that likely boost your career downstream if two things happen: 1) the bumps mostly occur earlier in your career rather than later, and 2) you have the smarts to learn from them.… Read the rest