Avoid This Mistake When Managing Others You may already be a leader who directly supervises a team of professionals. If you don’t supervise anyone now, this most likely WILL happen as you increase your influence and effectiveness in your organization. Most good managers are good at directing the people they supervise. They tell their […]
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Disagreements can be unpleasant. Disagreeing the wrong way can create bad feelings and sour a relationship. Avoiding a disagreement can be just as bad. You can mislead the other person into believing you support their ideas, destroying trust when they realize their mistake. This doesn’t even have to have been an active attempt
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Own Your Mistakes…Without Excuses Apologies can be awkward. However, owning up to your mistakes in a very professional way is one of the most important career moves you can make! True leaders don’t hesitate to own up. Think of the famous Tylenol poisoning case. In many ways, Johnson & Johnson didn’t even make
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Have you ever been in a meeting where you were trying to influence the other person, and you noticed that they: Glanced at the computer screen while you spoke? Took phone calls or answered emails? Picked up items from the inbox to process? Got interrupted by a knock on the door? In any way seemed
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Master The Art of Asking Effective Questions My last two posts discussed the importance of paying attention to someone’s tension (their level of urgency) in order to influence them, and that for someone to act on your idea (or “buy” from you) their tension needs to reach the Threshold of Activation. If they are not
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My last post discussed the concept of “productive tension.” Tension can be defined as the urgency one feels to do something. To be effective with others you need to develop a keen awareness of where someone’s “threshold” is – specifically, their Threshold of Activation. What is the Threshold of Activation? The Threshold of
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What is Tension Anyway? The critical factor that determines what changes someone will make and when those changes occur is TENSION. Tension can be defined as the urgency one feels to do something. Tension determines what some will notice and what they will ignore. A key principle to remember is that people pay attention
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OK, I’m probably dating myself here…remember those Wendy’s commercials in the 1980’s, when a little old lady ordered competitors burgers, only to exclaim “Where’s the beef?” I’m reminded of those ads when I see resumes that say things like “results-oriented”, “highly motivated”, “outstanding communication skills”, and one of my favorites, “proven results in …” These are
“I have been in my current company for almost three years. Recently I was promoted. After the promotion, my responsibility stayed the same. I was told that there will be some increase within the next year due to the tight budget. I don’t really value this as compensation given the above facts. I expressed this
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My son ran into his High School AP Biology teacher at the grocery store yesterday. George was thrilled to see him, and told him how much he appreciated the thank you card Michael sent him for writing a recommendation letter in support of Michael’s scholarship application. George went on to say, “Out of the
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