I have long been fascinated by the concept of “talents” – those innate “gifts” that people have. I used to think that talent was mostly a creative, artistic ability as in playing an instrument well and seemingly effortlessly. Van Cliburn, Yo Yo Ma, Oscar Petersen, or Ella Fitzgerald for example. Or, think of world-class athletes [...]
The 8 Skills at Indy – Lessons – Part 4
Slightly more than a week has passed since we attended the Indianapolis 500 and time to finish reflecting on examples of The 8 Essential Skills in action. Skill 7 – Leading & Empowering: I saw examples of Leadership and Empowering behavior from the time we walked in the gate at IMS. With few exceptions, and I [...]
Why Managers Fail – 6
Recent posts have described five reasons why 40% of the superivors and managers moving into a new position are likely to fail within the first 18 months in the job. The sixth and final reason is: Maintaining an Inappropriate Work/Personal Life Balance Having balance in your life is generally viewed as desirable. It means taking [...]
Why Managers Fail – 5
Another reason the failure rate for supervisors and managers is so high has to do with your ability to do your job within the context of the organization’s culture and way of operating. The fifth reason cited by CCL’s research is: Lacking Internal Political Savvy We may complain about it, but the reality is what [...]
Why Managers Fail – 4
For someone who believes, as my colleague and coach Mary Jo Asmus does, that “it’s all about the relationships,” then this is a major cause of supervisors and managers derailing in their careers. Failing to Build Partnerships & Cooperative Work Relationships Most successful organizations have effectively broken down the walls or silos that once existed [...]
Ken & His Talents
Ken was a middle manager in a manufacturing company. He had a talent for communication – for vividly passing on to others the company’s and unit’s vision and strategy. Like most managers at his level he also had budget responsibilities, for which he had little talent or interest. Many companies would send Ken through a [...]
Why Managers Fail – 3
We live and operate in a rapidly changing world. Stepping into supervision for the first time is a combination of several emotions; excitement, uncertainty, a bit of fear. Taking Too Much Time to Learn the New Job This is the “not getting up to speed fast enough” problem. The days when managers were gradually brought [...]
Don’s Derailment
Don was a manufacturing expert whose personal style of being “one of the guys” on the shop floor (including crude language and hard-drinking, back-slapping, dirty-joke-telling, in-your-face, confrontational communication) helped him turn around the operations of a large manufacturing company. An expert in lean manufacturing, he had been popular with the work force while obtaining excellent [...]
Skill 8 – Growing Yourself
All of us have some ideas about how we’d like to grow and improve. You may want to get better at providing performance feedback to your employees and coaching them about your expectations. Or you may want to improve some aspect of your communications skills. Perhaps you want to improve your organizational, personal productivity, decision-making [...]
