The question was posed to me recently by an executive level client. He was upset that his project managers didn’t seem to want to go beyond the way things were normally done. He wanted them to try different approaches and new ideas. The executive is an engineer and very experienced… Read More »How Do I Get My People To Be More Innovative?
He was a new supervisor and he seemed frustrated as we spoke. “Why do I have to ask people to do things? Shouldn’t I be able to just tell them to do it?” The short answer is, “Yes, you can tell them and they should respond.” But is that the… Read More »The Magic and Power of Please and Thank You
What can a collegiate-level cyber defense competition teach us about leadership? The answer, it seems, is “quite a bit.†A recent article (In Cyber Defense, Sometimes Communication Is Overrated, Defense Systems, Susan Miller Apr 27, 2018) described lessons-learned from the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. As the article’s title suggests,… Read More »Can your team have too much communication?
It was a cry of despair. The retail employee was waiting to find out if the store manager had decided to move her to a new position as she had requested. After listening to her story, I could see that she really wasn’t being impatient; her request had been made… Read More »How Long Does it Take to Make a Decision?
As a young Boy Scout, I enjoyed hiking and camping in the beautiful mountains of New Mexico. One area where we occasionally camped was near an irrigation canal that brought water to the dryer, lower elevations. We were always warned to stay away from the canal. Even though the surface… Read More »What is the Inside Scoop on Your Team?
The door opened and the doctor rushed into the exam room with my chart in his hand. Without looking at me he quickly said, “I’m going to tell you what’s wrong and what we need to do, then I’ll take a look at your records and examine you.” He hurriedly… Read More »A Story of Two Doctors
It was a Saturday morning and no other customers were at the pharmacy. My wife and I were at a large military hospital’s pharmacy to get a prescription filled. The gentleman at the counter looked at the prescription form I presented and said he could not fill it until eligibility… Read More »Are You Telling Your People to do Stupid Things?
Command and control (the beast) is not a popular form of leadership these days. Most of the time the method is unnecessary and a sign of a weak and insecure leader who knows no other way to be effective. The most effective leaders find some version of servant leadership (beauty)… Read More »Beauty and the Beast: Servant Leadership vs. Command and Control
Have you noticed a lack of social civility these days? Everywhere I look it seems people have self-selected into various camps and are not interested in what anyone else has to say. It seems impossible to have a civilized discussion on anything beyond the weather. This situation is affecting young… Read More »Five Ways to Encourage Conflict on Your Team