Dear Madeleine, I run a large team of developers. I am really concerned about one young man who has been with me for about a year. My crew seems to party pretty hard on the weekends, which I figure is none of my business. The guy I am worried about negotiated at his first big…
I can’t get what I need. My boss doesn’t understand me. My organization’s systems don’t work. I don’t have the resources I need. My job doesn’t take advantage of my strengths. No one appreciates me. My boss micromanages me. There’s no room for me to grow. They don’t understand how much I could be contributing…
I’ve always appreciated this quote from famed author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: “Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” What good is building character only to have it erode due to a lack of maintenance? Coaching enables people to gain clarity about who they are,…
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Each of these one-word questions can push organizational leaders and their team members toward the clarity they need to achieve success. In this post I’d like to focus on who and what. When leaders set clear expectations, outcomes are much more likely to hit the mark. And it’s just…
A new study conducted by The Ken Blanchard Companies with 1,300 people in managerial and non-managerial roles found important correlations between an individual’s identification as a self leader and positive work behaviors. – People who exhibit the behaviors of a self leader are more likely to expend discretionary effort on behalf of their organizations. –…
“If your people don’t reach their full potential, neither will your organization,” says Susan Fowler, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies. “The bottom line depends on the front line.” “The research shows that the front line people are the ones who are essential to making your initiatives work—whether it’s implementing a change…
The negative, almost nasty, comment to one of my LinkedIn posts bugged me. I spent 30 minutes formulating a clever response and then, another 30 minutes trying to figure out how to post it. I could see the man’s comment in my notifications, but when I clicked “check it out” or “join the conversation,” I…
Dear Madeleine, I am an attorney with a state government agency. I run a team consisting of a few other attorneys and paralegals and administrators. I have been here four years and I love the office, my boss, and the work. About six months ago my boss hired a new person—who is a peer to…
Do you remember a time when you left a training session full of valuable knowledge that you were just itching to apply? Unfortunately, when you got back to your workplace, there was a pile of catch-up work that immediately became your top priority. And time out of the office had caused your inbox to explode.…
Dear Madeleine, I report to the general counsel of a large global organization and I have a team of seven attorneys. I routinely work at all hours of the night finishing projects my people committed to completing and then didn’t—and the deadline, of course, can’t slip. My husband says I let my people walk all…