Category: Executive Coaching

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What Motivates: Gold, Glory, or God?

Motivation comes in many forms, and knowing what motivates the people you work with can make all the difference from “has done” to “has been.”

Pay, or as the HR people like to say, compensation, has turned out not to be the end-all-be-all for motivational purposes. As Dan Pink has ably exposed in his latest book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (and TED presentation here) research demonstrates that money in certain situations degrades, not improves, performance.… Read the rest

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The Problem with Assholes – and Why They Won’t Go Away

Stanford University professor Bob Sutton, whose work  I admire, authored the book “The No Assholes Rule.” Good book, great topic, and some wonderful thoughts about how to work with and / or avoid workplace assholes.

Unfortunately the “rule” doesn’t  work in most firms. And even while asshole behavior is corrosive and cancerous to the effectiveness of most companies, here’s why jerks and assholes will continue to exist in the workplace.… Read the rest

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The Trouble with Success

Given the choice between career success and career failure I’ll likely take success. Heck I’m like anyone else; who do you know who hates succeding?

The trouble with success – one of many – is that most of your learning comes from the bumps of failure, not the sweetness of accomplishment. The biggest derailer in my experience as an executive coach is a lack of smaller mistakes and failure early in someone’s career.… Read the rest