Vivid Epiphany » Inspired Middle Management

Is Humiliation a Leadership Tool?

Carolann Jacobs — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:49:12 +0000

When I first got my Saint Bernard, Ponca, the biggest behavioral challenge we had was that she beat the other two dogs up. Bloodfang and Knight, the existing members of Team Dog, didn’t understand her boundaries and rules because their rules were different. One rule on Team Dog was that water is an infinite, shared resource because Alpha Dog kept them fully supplied.

Man (or Woman) Up! Curing the Epidemic of Weak Leadership

Carolann Jacobs — Wed, 05 May 2010 23:15:47 +0000

This morning I was attending the Young Women Executives Forum at the Tower Club, and today’s topic was Conflict Management. This is a topic that I hit with my coaching clients 100% of the time.

Managewhich Tip: Process-Focus Ain’t a Bad Thing

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:37:16 +0000

Photo by Nur Hussein - find the pic on Flickr, the story is hilarious!

We hear a lot about being results-focused and results-driven. Results are important, and somewhere along the way, we’ve lost sight of the importance of the journey.

Managewhich Tips: What is “Too Busy” Saying About You?

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:25:30 +0000

We’re all busy. And, being busy in our culture can be a badge of honor. Busy = Important.

“Busy” is also where Managewhiches get tripped up.

Case Study 1:
Jennifer was on the receiving end of some “unpleasant” news. Her company was cutting back on hours for its hourly employees and reorganizing some of its work, and everyone was informed that “changes were coming” via mass email. Jennifer’s hours were cut in half (as she discovered by looking in the system for her schedule) and some of her duties were reassigned (as she discovered in an unfortunate incident when she showed up to work and someone else was doing her job).

Managewhich’s Guide to the Annual Review

Carolann Jacobs — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:49:13 +0000

For many middle managers, it’s that time of year again. Fiscal year’s over and review time is upon us. I’m guessing that this is an unpleasant task for most of you, which is a shame.

Managewhich Question: Who the “mans” the Role of Policy Police?

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:15:26 +0000

“The rules make it fair for everyone,” a quote from one Managewhich who’s struggling with influencing and managing her peers.

The Managewhich was describing how other groups are rewarded for complaining (as opposed to problem-solving), how other managers were giving undocumented vacation days in exchange for excessive for overtime, and other “rule-breaking” perks. Her point of view is that the rules were put in place for a reason. She follows the rules, and it makes her look like the bad guy when she doesn’t break them and others do. She wants to influence her peers to follow the rules.

Tips for the Managewhich: Is What I’m Doing Resume-Worthy?

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:10:57 +0000

Photo by Thana Thaweeskulchai

Career Management groups are filled with people who haven’t progressed in their careers, and those are the folks who are having the toughest time landing new positions. Many of those fall into the category of being happy that they had a job, and so they did whatever was necessary to keep it. This is fear-based decision-making at it’s finest, and I say at it’s finest because the decision probably wasn’t that conscious for most of them.

Managewhich? What to do With Complete and Utter Incompetence

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:47:43 +0000

Photo by Ryan Schultz

Her name is Oblivia. She’s nice. People like her. And, she can’t get anything done.

Have you ever worked with someone who is Unconsciously Incompetent? That is to say, that they are so incompetent that they don’t even know that they are incompetent?

Manage Which? Up or Down (Part 3)

Carolann Jacobs — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:02:33 +0000

In the saga of Breeze and Hoover, so far Breeze has been able to minimize the number of times her team is derailed by Hoover’s ad hoc requests. We set up three circumstances for which she’ll will accept the mission.

Manage Which? Up or Down (Part 2)

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:41:40 +0000

Photo By Brian

Where we left off last post is that our Managewich, Breeze, gets urgent requests from her manager, Hoover, and Breeze habitually has managed down, meaning that she’s generally accepted the work and the consequences of doing it for herself and her team and has muddled through by either directing her team to do the work or doing it herself. I made a request of Breeze that she not accept work until one of three things has happened, the first being that she understands fully and completely how these reports and spreadsheets are going to be used and how they add value. So far, this has resulted in some relationship building with Hoover, and it’s reduced some of the distracting work. And, we’re not done yet.