I’ve always loved the coaching flowchart from “Coaching for Improved Work Performance.” When someone you lead has a performance issue, this flowchart will help you pinpoint the problem. But if you want a question to get closer to the truth more quickly, here’s a deceptively simple one: Is this a willingness gap or a knowledge … Read more
I wrote about The Inner Game in last week’s post. Here’s one concept which bears further exploration. The “work triangle” has three components: Performance, Learning, and Enjoyment. Gallwey’s premise is that we achieve our best work when Performance, Enjoyment, and Learning are balanced. But most organizational cultures focus on Performance to a major degree. What … Read more
If we’ve been in a room together, I have subjected you to this photo. I use it to demonstrate the maturity levels model and to serve as an analogy for how workplace annoyances and performance shortfalls affect our mindset and behaviors. In this article, there is talk of “descriptive norms,” the notion that our context … Read more
“Don’t bring me problems; bring me solutions.” Have you heard this? Have you said this? I hear this when I’m working with mangers, especially emerging leaders, but I rarely hear it from accomplished executives. Why is that? Because top-level leaders understand this: If the system works the way it is supposed to, the most capable, … Read more
This is one of the best articles I’ve read on this topic. You can tell it was written by someone with an advanced degree—there is some complexity in the language—but it is all in pursuit of precision, so I can get behind that. Something new I learned from this article: It works to pay managers … Read more
In my work with teams who make decisions together about tactics, strategy, and personnel, logical fallacies and cognitive biases show up, so I’m going to write a few posts about some of the most common. This is the eighth post in this series. You can find links to the first seven posts at the bottom … Read more
This article from a few months ago continues to hold my interest. Written pre-covid, the article makes this point: Asking, “What’s the ROI?” is dangerous if it’s your only consideration. Big data and the ease of collecting information can woo us into making decisions based only on numbers. Data is important, but values are more … Read more
In my work with teams who make decisions together about tactics, strategy, and personnel, logical fallacies and cognitive biases show up, so I’m going to write a few posts about some of the most common. This is the seventh post in this series. You can find links to the first six posts at the bottom … Read more
In my work with teams who make decisions together about tactics, strategy, and personnel, logical fallacies and cognitive biases show up, so I’m going to write a few posts about some of the most common. This is the sixth post in this series. You can find links to the first five posts at the bottom … Read more
Human beings don’t like uncertainty. Uncertainty brings with it a higher possibility of change, which humanity also doesn’t like. “The way it has always been” is a source of security and comfort; it quells our natural anxiety and makes life predictable. Change is difficult, because we unconsciously believe longevity equals good or best. The opposite … Read more