The easiest way I can think of to illustrate the way our hardwiring influences and steers us in certain directions is to use my own hardwiring as an example. At the risk of telling you more about me than you might care to know, here goes: Personality Preferences – I’m an Extravert – outgoing, highly [...]
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 [...]
Why Managers Fail – 2
As noted in the last post, 40% of newly appointed managers and supervisors fail within the first 18 months. One of the major reasons is: Being Unwilling or Unable to Make Tough Decisions It’s normal to make your first decisions carefully and thoughtfully. After all, being newly promoted or hired means upper management will keep [...]
Lessons Learned?
The past couple of posts have dealt with real cases from our files, as they used to say on old cop TV shows. You’ll see these cases from time to time, and they will always have some sort of lesson we learned from dealing with the situation. We change the names, alter the industry, rearrange [...]
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 [...]
