Dear Madeleine, I am afraid I am a jerk. I currently have twelve direct reports and I swear, every single one of them is deficient. My wife is so sick of my complaining about what numbskulls they all are, she actually said “Have you ever considered that the problem might be you?” And honestly, I…
Dear Madeleine, Is it wrong to let someone go if they just aren’t performing? I have an employee that I originally hired because he seemed to have real promise. I like him a lot as a person, but he never quite “gets it right.” I have given him plenty of chances to improve, but his…
Unspoken expectations are a curse upon relationships. It’s a surefire way to guarantee you will have conflict and discord that leads to poor teamwork and collaboration in the workplace. Some time ago I was working with a CEO to help him improve the levels of trust and engagement in his company. He had recently hired…
About 25 years ago I was running my coaching business out of my home office. I had an assistant come to the house twice a week to run errands and do some light bookkeeping for me so I could keep my focus on building the business and coaching my clients. I don’t remember how it…
New survey data just published in the July/August issue of Training magazine shows a serious gap between employee desires and reality when it comes to goal setting, goal review, and performance feedback from their managers. More than 700 of the magazine’s subscribers were asked what they wanted out of their individual meetings with their managers…
Would you recognize an esox lucius if you saw one? Commonly called the Northern Pike, it is a 25-40 pound freshwater game fish. If you observe it in an aquarium, you realize quickly that this animal is the consummate carnivore. Its predatory style is to suspend itself very still in the water until a potential…
John Stahl-Wert, best-selling author and founder of The SHIP Company believes that challenging economic times provide an opportunity for individuals, teams, and companies to get better and to understand things more deeply. Yet, in his experience, “Many leaders and managers see times of restraint as a time to pressure people and provide less in terms…
Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, is being scrutinized and second-guessed for her decision to not allow employees to work from home starting in June. It’s easy for pundits to take pot shots from afar, but speaking as a manager who has struggled to find the right balance with this same issue, I’ve learned there isn’t…
If you want to drive great external customer service start by providing great internal customer service. Last week, I was invited to Orlando to deliver a speech at one of the Disney resorts. I had been working and traveling all week and showed up at 11:00 p.m. I was greeted at the car by Loren,…
In their latest post for Fast Company online, management experts Scott and Ken Blanchard share that, “One of the big mistakes we see among otherwise promising managers is the self-limiting belief that they have to choose between results and people, or between their own goals and the goals of others. We often hear these people say,…