Tag Archives: Communication

Three Questions to Advance Your Career

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80-john-beeson by John Beeson

 

 

 

In most organizations, professionals who want to move up get lots of feedback. Did you hit your numbers? Make your budget? How did you perform in managing a major project? Many companies provide you with so-called 360-degree feedback based on anonymous surveys from your boss, peers, and direct reports. And there is also, of course, your annual performance review. In reality, for managers seeking promotion, such feedback is of only marginal benefit because its frame of reference is how you’re doing in your current job, at your current level. To maximize your career progress, you need answers to three questions that focus on upward mobility — the answers to which are elusive in the vast majority of organizations. Continue reading →

Want Your Team to Perform Better? Try Positive Reinforcement.

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By Bill Sims, Jr.

Are you keeping up with your New Year’s resolution? If you’re like most folks, you’re probably hard at work on that new diet or workout program.

While you’re doing those next 25 crunches, ask yourself these questions: What’s my New Year’s resolution for my business? What are the exercises that will help me and my team perform better at work this year?

That answer is positive reinforcement. Continue reading →

Would You Play Golf on a Weekday Afternoon?

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80-karen-firestoneby Karen Firestone

Last summer, I was invited by a few friends to meet at 4 o’clock on a weekday to play a few holes of golf on a sunny afternoon.   As I got out of my car, a guy I know waved and said, “Hey, great to see you, but don’t you still work?”  (Yes.) Over on the driving range, another man I’ve known for years, came by and said, “So, you’ve finally decided to retire?”   (No.)

Since this was the first time in memory that I had left the office early (and it wasn’t even that early) for a fun activity, I wasn’t used to these questions. I realized, of course, that both men were professionals, as were most people on the golf course that weekday afternoon, and no one was asking them if they still were employed.  So why did they ask me? Continue reading →

Happy New Year

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As we all think about the new year starting, most of us make resolutions about what we want to change, hope for, or improve. I just read this wonderful article, which I guess we would now call a blog, if it were blogged… It was written by a comedian I have always enjoyed George Carlin.

 

 

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as our families and friends did.

SOMETHING TO PONDER: George Carlin Continue reading →

Is Leadership Born or Built?

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By James G. Clawson

In his book, “Executive Instinct,” Nigel Nicholson of the London Business School suggests that there may be a leadership gene — that some people are just driven to be in charge. But the University of Michigan’s Noel Tichy — in his book “The Leadership Engine” — declares that leadership style and abilities emerge from experience.

Yet another opinion comes from the former chief executive of a $40 billion business who claims that leadership is irrelevant — it’s all about designing the right employer contracts. Continue reading →