Organisational success depends on leaders making smart decisions. And sometimes, that’s to delegate that decision to someone else. If you’ve worked with senior leaders who insist on being involved in (ahem, ‘making’) every decision in the organisation, you’ll know how frustrating, disempowering and unproductive it is. I’ve seen it at close hand, and it’s incredibly destructive. Perhaps like me, you’ve spent too long over some decisions that aren’t ultimately worth that amount of energy. As I’ve discovered, there are a… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Team Performance
From ‘alternating monologues’ to a dialogue!
March 19 2020At a time when the whole world seems to be under siege, good communication is perhaps more important than ever. When in communication with colleagues / associates, the ideal scenario would be that BOTH parties are wanting to move towards a satisfactory outcome. As we know, it sadly isn’t always that way. If you think of a recent discussion that didn’t reach a satisfactory (to both) conclusion, it could be that it wasn’t really a dialogue, but a… Read more »
It’s ‘Performance Management’, not footsteps in a dark alley!
September 10 2015The sound of footsteps… Being told ‘You’re going into performance management’ is typically about as much fun as hearing footsteps behind you in a dark alley. And neurological research demonstrates that the physical impact is similar – the ‘fight or flight’ response is pretty common. But I always get concerned for another reason when I hear that someone is about to be ‘Performance Managed’. This paints the picture of performance management as the big bogeyman of workplaces. And while often… Read more »
An evil plan – not one of the 5 key characteristics of effective leadership!
July 29 2014Bad news does travel. At a recent breakfast meeting I chatted with a CEO who reflected, uncomfortably but critically, on another leader in his field. This other CEO is apparently losing the respect of peers through behaviours that clash significantly with the respected culture and values of their industry. My companion felt (quite correctly) that even a half-good recruitment process would have pointed out some of the potential dangers of this appointment in advance. To deepen the problem, the board… Read more »
How do I select and manage to boost business performance?
August 25 2013Business success is really created by team effort. Two basic secrets to team member success have been identified in recent studies – and they are as obvious as ‘liking each other’ and ‘sharing similar worldviews’. Obvious maybe, but achieving them is another thing, as many of us know from our workplace experiences. Teams with low levels of trust or ‘liking’ tend to form sub-groups, cutting satisfaction and performance. But surprisingly, there’s evidence that even if team members don’t like… Read more »
