Alan Feirer I once had two coworkers, Mark and Sally. In DiSC-speak, Sally was a high I, and used many many many exclamation marks in her e-mails. I am not exaggerating when I say that one of Sally’s e-mails could consist of three sentences and 13 exclamation marks. Mark, on the other hand, was a high D. … Read more
Part two of two (read part one here) My daily list fits into the narrow confines of the column on the left hand side of each day’s page in my planner. But – sometimes life becomes so hectic, and the to-do list gets so long, that it’s time to switch methods. If you are working … Read more
If we are effective, we are probably quite busy. Many of us have tried different ways to stay organized, including electronic gadgets, pen and paper planners, whiteboards, etc. I’d like to share two ways that have worked for me. I’m sharing them here, because others who have adopted them have found quite useful. Both of … Read more
When I read the (rightly) popular Good to Great, I found myself agreeing with nearly everything in principle, but thought that some concepts were a little too idealistic for a small- to mid-sized organization. Massive businesses, like his examples, have more luxury to move people around, for example.
That’s why I had a touch of a problem with
One problem with email is that it is efficient for the writer, but usually ineffective for the reader. One way to minimize this mismatch is to
If you are a leader, it is your job to keep your people motivated, and stave off any demoralization.
But what if YOU lose your mojo due to some cranky folks in your organization? It’s so easy to be derailed by those one or two “downers” who complain, or scowl, or cross their arms at you all the time.
“Hey, Tom, if you could get some of those account reviews done by Thursday, that’d be great.” Sometimes to sound “nice”, we make requests like the one above. It’s casual (good), general (bad), with a deadline (good), but without a specific request (bad) or a way to measure (very bad). The result can descend into … Read more
Everyone has moments, or even periods, of insecurity.
Situation One:
Once, about 15 years ago, I was struggling to
This is the final installment of my summer “Top Five + One” series of blog “greatest hits.” Most people who read this blog do so for thoughts on effective leadership. There are some, however, who check it out in order to figure out if I’m a good match for their organization. So, here are the … Read more
These are my least-read posts. Maybe they hit on the wrong week for people, or the titles were bad, or I tweeted them at the wrong time, but I share them here because they need love, too. And they have value. Leaders increase effectiveness by changing things up Yeah, Effective Leaders have “Vision”, but What … Read more