Book Review: To Sell is Human

February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel H. Pink

"We're all in sales" says author Daniel Pink. In fact, in a Gallup study people reported spending 40% of their time working in what Pink calls "non-sales selling," convincing/influencing/moving people to decide or do that does not involve anyone making a purchase. Dan Pink is always intriguing. Let's look at a few things his book has to say that apply to managers. In my experience, the higher a manager is in the hierarchy, the more frequently he/she engages in non-sales selling and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management, Communicating Tagged With: , , , , , ,

They Won’t Know if You Don’t Get it Right

October 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Recently I spent two days teaching front-line managers in an installation service company how to have effective conversations around job performance. The training included an approach that was new to the managers and thus involved for them a new way of thinking. Instead of telling, they were to do a lot more asking of questions and get the employee to take greater accountability. At the end of Day 2 I turned the meeting over to the Director of Field Operations to sum up and close. He left … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communicating, Leadership Development Tagged With: ,

Change Your Words, Change Their Minds

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I continue to be amazed by that fundamental truth about living: how we choose to see a situation dictates the choices we–and others–make about it. Take a look at this 2-minute clip that demonstrates it better than any more words I can write. You will be glad you did. How you choose to deliver feedback on an employee's performance will have a huge impact on how he/she responds to your message…acceptance, in the spirit of learning, denial, as a victim, or angry counter attack. How … [Read more...]

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Want to Collaborate? Choose Your Level

September 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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We hear so much about collaboration these days. Our work is more complex. The best solutions require input from diverse perspectives. We at Fulcrum Associates have just started working with a fascinating simulation learning event, Friday Night at the ER. In it participants experience the challenge of working in a system where the unit managers must ultimately collaborate in the interest of the whole system. Otherwise, when one unit/part gets the best results for itself, other units–which, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Building Accountability, Communicating, Team Work Tagged With: , , , ,

Up Your Self-Awareness to the Next Level

August 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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I am a fan of the theory and research linking one's level of adult development to one's effectiveness as a leader. One of the hallmarks of more highly developed human beings (and bosses too, of course, they being humans and all) is their degree of in-the-moment self-awareness. Let's look at just three levels of awareness: Some managers are not at all aware of their own behavior or its impact. For example, a manager who is curt and cool with her staff when they don't get right down to the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership Development Tagged With: , ,

Using a “Listening Tour”

March 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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One of our associates at Fulcrum Associates, Rick Maurer, is an expert in how to bring about change in an organization. Rick just written an insightful article that I think every manager would benefit from. Here is his piece, our first guest post on the Build Best Bosses blog. "How to Use a Listening Tour to Communicate, Learn What’s Going on, and Earn People’s Trust" Every executive knows that massive changes are often extremely difficult. Although you need to be adept at all … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Change Management, Communicating, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

It’s Scary How Easily We Slip into Judging Mode

December 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Mobius-Model

A number of years ago my wife and I attended a workshop on how to facilitate dialogue. The session was led by our colleagues Will Stockton and Marjorie Herdes of Mobius, Inc. They do tremendous work, especially facilitating large group and community dialogue sessions, using a "roadmap" they've evolved over the years which they call the Mobius Model. In the course of our workshop they facilitated a dialogue between us around something that had happened awhile back about which we had different … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communicating Tagged With: ,

Remember, Managers Focus in Two Directions

August 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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What is it that managers do? In his excellent recent book, Managing, Henry Mintzberg, the renowned expert in management and Professor of Management Studies at my alma mater (McGill), answers this question with a concise model. He says that managers get things done by operating: In two directions: inward towards his/her unit or team outward, toward the rest of the organization and beyond On three planes: information people action It brings to mind the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Communicating, Leadership Tagged With: , ,

TW 2010 Global Workforce Study-Comment #3

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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The final finding from the TowersWatson survey on which I want to shine a light has to do with treating each employee individually with respect to the constellation of attitudes, needs and motivators they bring to their job. Quoting the study, One of the most striking findings from this year's study is the variability in attitudes and expectations across the workforce. We saw differences in why people join or leave organizations, how they define a career, how much risk they are comfortable … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation Tagged With: , , ,

Time to Tune Your Radar in to Your Staff

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Over the last 18 months you've tried hard to keep as many of your people on the payroll as you could. Perhaps those who were retained felt a measure of gratitude for you heartfelt intention to preserve their jobs. Do they still feel these good feelings? It appears to depend on what you've been demanding from them since. And many organizations have been asking too much for too long. A recent study published by the Employee Engagement Survey company, Modern Survey, has detected a trend that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Leadership Tagged With: , , , ,