Vivid Epiphany » Management

Leadership Development Gaps Derail Organizations and Careers

Carolann Jacobs — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:35:41 +0000

What happens when you or your organization have gaps in leadership development? Study after study shows that employees go the extra mile for managers who are highly effective leaders. What makes an effective leader?

Creating a Reality That Doesn’t Exist

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:54:13 +0000

As humans, we make sense of our world through story. In other words, we create a reality for ourselves that doesn’t exist, in reality.

I attended a workshop last weekend with Human Change Technology Expert, S. Lane Pierce, and he cited Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi the author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience who theorizes that we are bombarded with two million bits of input each second, and we process about 126 of them. We do that through a process of deleting, distorting and generalizing.

Can’t Stand Working With That Jerk

Carolann Jacobs — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:12:02 +0000

As a managewhich, one of the more frustrating challenges is dealing with people who do not play nicely together in the sandbox. Most of managewhich’s deal with it in one of three very ineffective ways:

The Fact and The Fundamental Lie (Part 3)

Carolann Jacobs — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:00:08 +0000

Photo by Tiffany Trewin

Where we left off in part two, Janice*, the manager of her company’s governance group, has provided Rhonda*, a program manager who works for Janice, with some feedback about her performance.

The Fact is Also the Fundamental Lie (Part Two)

Carolann Jacobs — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:00:28 +0000

Photo by Todd

In part one of this post, we left Janice* and Rhonda* in Janice’s office. Janice, the manager of her company’s governance group, is furious that Rhonda, who works for her, has been circumventing the process that the PMO is supposed to be enforcing. Furthermore, I’d learned in out initial complimentary consultation that Janice has built some resentment towards Rhonda because of some things she’s observed Rhonda doing over the last year, but Janice never addressed it.

The Fact is Also the Fundamental Lie (Part One)

Carolann Jacobs — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:08:04 +0000

Photo by Desiree Delgado

We humans are a complex bunch. We haven’t quite evolved to where our pre-frontal cortex can separate out fact from perception, as much as we might think and believe that we have. I haven’t. You haven’t.

Who Makes the Rules? Resolving Generational Conflicts at Work

Carolann Jacobs — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:00:37 +0000

Photo By Pedro Simões

Part of the resentment Baby Boomers have towards the younger generations in the workforce is the ease in which they express “What’s In It For Me?”

Quit Allowing Conflict to Derail your Productivity and Start Using it to Create! Part 1

Carolann Jacobs — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:00:33 +0000

Photo by Joe Pitz

I was chatting with a former work colleague the other day about her challenges implementing a Project Management Office (PMO). She’d come to me because I’ve had the experience multiple times in my former life, and it usually comes down to the same dynamic: