We recently received the comment below on our Young Managers – How Do They Lead Older Subordinates post: Hi, I am a female, 28 year older manager leading a mix team of 8 people who are 15-25 years older than me in finance operations. I have slightly different situation. I am an EXPAT from […]
I almost titled this post “Perfect Data Matters,” but because it is one of the most important blog posts I’ve made this year, and because that title is so stinking boring to you and your managers, it would guarantee the least amount of interaction. And that is sad. Perfect Data matters. As boring as […]
(WARNING: Salty language ahead. Do not continue reading if you plan to complain about the choice of words used in this post – they were chosen with great care to evoke a very specific meaning. Originally published by The Manager on LinkedIn.) Nobody likes a know-it-all. Nobody. I’m not talking about the know-it-alls who actually […]
Have you ever wondered why some businesses – even after being alerted to oncoming, meaningful risks and threats – never seem to change direction? Or why the managers in these institutions seem content with the same old-same old despite instructions from above to adapt or die? Often, the obstacles to making real changes (especially […]
Imagine you are an executive of a large corporation that competes in a number of verticals and enjoys a monopoly or near monopoly in many of these. Your company generally produces great products that meet the needs of many consumers. In some verticals your products are even considered best in class. While some people may […]
Low Hanging Fruit and the Cost of Perfection Imagine a small airplane flying low over a crowd at a baseball game. The door of the plane opens and a smiling man appears with a large sack. He turns the sack over just as the plane flies over the bleachers and millions of dollars in […]
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. Over […]
Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit Argh! I can hear my mother misquoting Vince Lombardi in my sleep: “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.” A simple saying that forced me to keep my word throughout my life – even when it cost me money. Why is it these simple clichés can hold such […]
Last night the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals to win the coveted Stanley Cup. Both teams deserved to be there, both played well throughout the season, and – as evidenced by a Game 7 in a best-of-seven-series – both teams were evenly matched. Both […]
The Effect of Ego on Leadership At AskTheManager.com we’ve always held to the belief that you can learn more from bad leadership examples than you can from the good ones. It’s not really cynical to think this way; in fact, we believe it’s quite healthy. It’s like seeking out the silver lining. We’ve learned so […]
Leading in the New Millennium: Pay for (Lack of) Performance “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair Although Sinclair’s words were uttered in 1935, they ring especially true when applied to the leadership void we face today. While Sinclair, a […]
Bloomberg The Emperor We wrote a few weeks ago about the seemingly unbelievable possibility that New York Mayor Michael “Nero” Bloomberg would seek to have the City Council overturn New York’s term limits law – opening the door for Bloomberg The Emperor to serve a third term. (To read that post, follow this link.) […]
Leadership Lessons from Mayor Bloomberg (and Other Emperors) We’ve often written in this Leadership Development blog about the important traits for good leaders. From intelligence to character, we’ve worked hard to identify those qualities that can help young managers become leaders and older leaders regain their edge. Over the course of these posts, we’ve […]
Leadership and Impartiality Of all the leadership development lessons we can learn from the 2008 Presidential Elections, there is probably none so clear as how the lack of impartiality equates to poor leadership. Interestingly, these lessons are not learned so much from the candidates –Obama, McCain, Biden and Palin most certainly lost their ability to […]
When we look deeply at Management Training and the plethora of business training resources, business books and self-help seminars meant to assist us in the quest for the Holy Grail of Leadership, it’s interesting that so few of these really speak to the root of the issue with bad managers. Whenever I’ve encountered a truly […]