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Posts Tagged ‘Career Management’

Managewhich as Leader in Trying Times

Photo by Wendell

Photo by Wendell

Team,

Here’s an excerpt from “Breakthrough Leadership”  by Wayne Baker at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.  As you read it, I encourage you to think about how you can create this for the people who work with and for you.

“Extraordinary events–positive or negative–are temporary openings for breakthroughs in personal growth, organizational development, and human progress. Breakthrough leaders seize these moments to explore a world of new possibilities for themselves, for their organizations, for society.

For the Managewhich and Business Owner: Who’s a Team Player?

Photo by Joseph Shemuel

Photo by Joseph Shemuel

Team Player is one of those phrases that we all assume we have the same definition for.  It’s one of the performance management buzz-phrases that shows on reviews and on job descriptions.  And, we all think we know what it means, but do we?

Tips for the Managewhich: Is My Staff Doing Anything Resume-Worthy?

Photo by Klaus

Photo by Klaus

One of the more obvious clues that your group is on the chopping block is when you can’t figure out what real value your group adds.  That’s even more true when the company is reorganizing people into that group in ways that don’t make sense.  It’s a good thing for the managewhich to recognize this trend, and start managing up immediately, even if it seems like it is too late.

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

Photo by Thana Thaweeskulchai

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

Photo by Ryan Schultz

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?

It’s rare.  Most of us know when we really, truly suck at something.  However, there are times…

Manage Which? Up or Down (Part 3)

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.

First, she has to fully understand how the ad hoc report or spreadsheet will be used.  This forces Hoover to be clear about what he wants, and it also allows Breeze some input into how it’s produced.  This minimized rework when Hoover has asked for something that actually won’t give him what he wants, and sometimes Hoover realizes that he doesn’t need the work done at all.

Manage Which? Up or Down (Part 2)

Photo By Brian

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.

Manage Which? Up Or Down?

Photo by Daniel R. Blume

Photo by Daniel R. Blume

One of the recurring dilemmas for the Managewich is the balance between managing up and down.  Today we’re going to examine the phenomenon of  having to produce worthless crap that adds no value simply because the boss says so.

Take my friend Breeze. Her boss, Hoover, continually asks for this spreadsheet or that report, all of which demands that Breeze and her team drop whatever [productive] work they are doing to deliver this new requirement ASAP.

Managewich Tip: Negativity Doesn’t Work, So Quit Getting Sucked In

Photo by elain

Photo by elain

I had a great weekend.  As most of you know, Grow Your Business Grow Your Life LIVE! was in Dallas this past Friday and Saturday, and I was blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the behind the scenes planning and execution.  I say blessed because I got to spend time with bright, generous, kind people, and frankly it was uplifting.

Solving the Middle Manager’s Constant Dilemma: More To Do’s Than Time

Photo by Jalon Nichols

Photo by Jalon Nichols

Ugh, it’s been longer than I wanted it to be since my last post.

Notice that?

I’m beating myself up over something that didn’t get done.

Not very helpful, is it?  True statement, but not helpful.

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