Coughlin’s Law: Bury the Dead
People leave, let’s get over it. Gone are the days when a man arrives for work in the factory two days after his high school graduation and leaves forty years later with a gold watch. The American career path hasn’t included this scenario since before Lyndon Johnson took office. [...]
Filed in Business Situations, Leadership Observations, Management Training No Responses yet
Leadership Lessons from the Public Sector
There are reasons some people are lifelong public servants and others work in the real world. Whether it’s the military, public education, a state legislature or a municipal government: a job void of profit responsibility is generally void of any true accountability. Without accountability, leadership can become unnecessary and [...]
Filed in Leadership Development, Leadership News and Views, Leadership Observations, Management Training No Responses yet
I don’t know about the best of times but these sure feel like the worst of them. It’s as close to Dickens’s London as I dare want to see us go. Dickens would have been hard pressed to pen an economic/social setting as ugly as the one we find ourselves in today. Eventually, we [...]
Filed in Leadership Development, Management Training No Responses yet
How Do You Deal With a New Boss?
One of our regular readers – and someone who asked our advice very early on in the legacy that has become AskTheManager.com – AngelCakes from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan recently provided us with both an update on her management career and a new dilemma.
When we first heard from AC, [...]
Filed in Business Situations, Leadership Development, Management Training No Responses yet
Sometimes You Have to be a Prick to Those Outside of Your Company
I just received the March 2009 purchase report from one of our company’s 50+ vendors who provide such recaps. This particular vendor chose to name the file MyCompanyMarch.xls. By “MyCompanyMarch,” I mean he put the name of my company and the month in [...]
Filed in Business Situations, Digression, Leadership Observations, Management Training No Responses yet
TheManager’s Leadership Book Review
In what may become a regular feature of AskTheManager.com, we tackle the sometimes thankless task of reviewing the work of a published author. While you could argue that we’ve provided book reviews in the past with our Ten Best Leadership Books or our Ten Best Decision Making Books lists, this time it’s [...]
Filed in Leadership Development, Management Training, Recommended Products No Responses yet
Too Much Technology…
When working to help an underperforming business unit (in my real job) grow their revenues, I always discover instances where the unit has purchased some widget, gadget or other magic bullet designed to help them sell more.
Although well-meaning, the manager who made this purchase generally believed against all his or her own [...]
Filed in Business Situations, Leadership Observations, Management Training, Sales Management 3 Comments so far
It’s not a Recession, It’s a Necession
Anyone bothering to pay attention to what’s happening with consumer spending in the current recession can note one trend: that is, even those consumers who are likely to be unaffected by the economic downturn are helping fuel the recession because they’ve gone into wallet lockdown. They’ve declared that we [...]
Filed in Leadership Development, Management Training One Response so far
