There are scholars who study group dynamics . . . that is, they study the way people behave and interact with one another in a group setting. These scholars sometimes talk about a thing called “the Messiah Complex.” This is a phenomenon that takes place when a group must confront a problem that is so
It’s lonely at the top, isn’t it?
You may be (or you are) the smartest guy in the room, but are you smarter than you plus everyone else in the room? Collectively, your employees have more experience than you do, and because they’re immersed in the nitty-gritty details of daily operations, they know things about the business that you don’t. They know
“If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem . . . break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.”
Dan Sullivan is the founder of The Strategic Coach, Inc. and the creator of The Strategic Coach Program . . . a program that helps already successful entrepreneurs become even more successful. He is also the author of more than 30 publications including one entitled “WhoNotHow.” In this particular publication, he teaches that procrastination is
Unpatriotic? Go back where you came from? Huh?
This is supposed to be a blog for small business owners and operators, right? So normally, we steer clear of political topics, but we believe some current political events have parallels in the business world. Be patient, stay tuned, and we’ll eventually get to the business point of this. Unless you’ve been in a coma
“The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions.”
“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” ~ Thomas Sowell “Has anyone ever said, ‘I wish I could go to more meetings today?’” ~ Matt Mullenweg “Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” ~ John Kenneth Galbraith I was going to say that meetings get a bad rap,
“The best ideas for improving a job come from those who do it every day.”
A lot has been written lately about “employee engagement” . . . some of it right here. The Gallup organization, which has studied it for many years, says employee engagement can be measured by the strength of the emotional connection an employee feels toward his or her company. If the employee sings the company song,
“Much of what we call management today consists of making it difficult for people to work.”
Noted business author and keynote speaker, Dan Pink, talks about motivation . . . a lot. He talks about what motivates us and what does not. He talks about which motivators work and which do not. One of his favorite topics is “if-then” motivators. “If you do this, then you’ll get that.” Those motivators grew
“Why Do Smart People Fail?”
Decision-making and leadership are two CEO skills inextricably entwined. It’s true that you can be a world class decision-maker and still be a lousy leader . . . that is, you can be a great decision-maker but still have other behavioral characteristics that disqualify you as a great leader. However, the reverse is not true.
“What Everybody Knows Is Frequently Wrong.”
In his book, “A Class With Drucker” William Cohen talks about the “lost lessons” he learned from renowned management guru, Peter Drucker, as a first-year graduate student in Drucker’s classroom. One of those lessons was to disregard so-called “conventional wisdom,” avoid being a crowd follower, and draw your own conclusions about a situation based on
Are you a bad boss? (Part 2)
My previous posting asked, “Are you a bad boss?” I then offered a number of bad boss behaviors (poor emotional control, indecisiveness, micromanaging, etc.) for your consideration. Well, I apparently missed a few. I have gotten some notes (from people, I assume, who are bad bosses themselves, who are recovering bad bosses, or who at
