| A Note on Unanimity |
If you're hearing unanimity every day, you're being fooled and you're fooling yourself. |
| Avoid the Implied Promise |
If you can't deliver in the future but the employee heard a promise, you're a leader in trouble. |
| Beware The First Days |
A guide to avoiding the pitfalls of your first day on the job as a new leader. If you don't avoid them, they can haunt you later. |
| Beware the Great Classics |
Explains the misuse of recommended business practices that everyone knows you are supposed to do, but which get corrupted in practice. |
| Can I Really Do This? |
We tell leaders to muster moral courage and choose the harder right. But aren't there lots of reasons why somebody might never do that? Then what? |
| Dealing with HR Stuff |
Use your Human Resources professionals but don’t abdicate your "HR duties" in terms of rewards programs, MBWA, gathering employee input, and some special issues in hiring and firing. |
| Does the Org Chart Matter? |
Sure, you need one, because you have to know who works for whom. But if you pay too much attention to it, bad things will happen. |
| Diversity is No Easy Thing to Achieve |
The importance of true diversity and how to achieve it. It's a lot more than surrogate quota management. |
| Don't be a Chiseler |
Some expense-control practices can be short-sighted and harmful to morale in ways you may never discover. |
| Ethical Ambiguity, but No Time to Wait |
Leaders routinely have to deal with ethical ambiguity, trying to define the harder right, often without the benefits of time and copious information. |
| Everything is Subject to Change |
All the books tell you to expect change and learn how to lead your people through it but a lot of them are vague about how. We offer some specifics. |
| Exaggeration by Any Other Name |
It's ratings inflation on the annual performance review, and lots of other ways in which a leader can be fooled by overstatement. |
| Getting Between the Lines |
Helpful techniques to learn more about the potential employee you are interviewing while still respecting the applicant's rights. |
| Getting Inside Your Head...and Other Things Leaders Must Do |
You must learn to recognize the differences in values of your followers and find ways to get through to them. You must constantly evaluate yourself as well, including your emotional intelligence. |
| How Do You Like Me Now? |
You must be true to yourself and not be overly responsive to those who want you to change or be someone you're not, yet you must deal with the individual differences of your followers. |
| How to Drive Out Fear of Failure |
Not many good things will happen if people are afraid to fail. You can't drive out fear of failure with a speech now and then; it requires a sustained effort that touches many parts of a person's job. |
| Interpersonal Communication Matters More Than Ever |
The people you lead are different and there is not a cookie cutter approach that you can use with all of them. The need for effective interpersonal communication is with you every waking hour. |
| Isn't It All About Communication? |
It's not the speaker who determines if communication occurs; it's the receiver of the intended message. The perspectives of the receivers are everything. |
| It's Not My Job |
People don't start out intending to say that famous line. Why do they do it? Poor leadership? Or a job description that is too narrow? Is there any context in which "not my job" is a GOOD thing to say? |
| Just the Facts, Please |
Everyone wants major decisions to be fact-based, but is there NO room at all for intuition, the learnings of experience, or just a good hunch? |
| Meet the Press |
Some thoughts about how to handle the media when they come calling, sometimes friendly, sometimes not. |
| No Escaping the Details |
Understand the importance of delving into the appropriate level of detail and how to do it. The "big picture" is just not enough. |
| Quality in Name Only |
Many companies make their quality improvement programs sterile and employees are turned off. It doesn't have to be that way. |
| Slow Down, You Move Too Fast |
Not everything you do can be urgent. Hurrying all the time does great harm to those who want to follow you. |
| Teams and Their Leaders — Another Opinion |
Teamwork can do great things; pointless "teaming" can grind you to a halt. Learn the pitfalls of misusing teams. |
| The Main Idea is all about the People |
This is a capstone case that should cause each of you to pick up a mirror and see if there is a Leader of Character there. |
| Too Far Gone: What do I do when a trusted veteran leader fails? |
Sometimes it seems a veteran employee's attitude and work habits turn sour and nothing seems to work. Is this employee doomed? |
| We Need to Be Innovative. How Do We Do That? |
Innovation is essential. However, creating an environment that nurtures innovation is much easier said than done. |
| We Seem to be Slow Learners Around Here |
Are people making the same mistakes over and over? Is nobody learning in those After Action Reviews the leaders conduct? |
| We-They Mistakes Foul Morale |
There is a whole set of blunders leaders can commit and convince everyone that We are more important than They are, including some you've never thought about. |
| Weak Supervisors Need Attention |
Covers the harm done when a leader fails to address the problems caused when one supervisor in a group is weak. Also covers effective ways to use a job posting program and the dangers if you don't. |
| What Do You Say To A New Supervisor? |
Turn a new supervisor loose without a good orientation and problems will happen. How to get a new leader off on the right foot. |
| What Happens When the Millennials Come to Work? |
Some say this age group, now entering the workforce in large numbers, poses challenges an organization's leaders have never seen. |
| When Bad Actors Come to Work |
How to deal with jerks and bullies in the workplace, and how to keep them out if you can. |
| When They Get in Trouble |
If would be nice if employees never ran afoul of company policies, or of the law. But they do. Then you, the leader, must know what to do. |
| You Mean Perfect is not Really Optimal? |
There is always a trade-off and always an opportunity cost for a decision. The leader can learn something from the thinking discipline of the economist. When is "good enough" exactly what you want? |
