Why Do Some Managers Ignore Poor Performance?

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The work of managing performance is simple and specific. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to make time for that work, or that it is the most fun part of a Manager’s job. But it IS part of the job.

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Stop Managing People, Step 2. Reconsider Those 1:1 Meetings

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Private conversations are useful in the workplace for some things, like hiring or re-positioning someone. But performance conversations – agreements for what people will deliver – are best done by the group. It builds teams, increases integrity, and improves “delivery performance”.

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Emotional Intelligence and Workplace Performance (Two Very Different Things)

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Workplace performance sometimes needs to be addressed more specifically, to clarify what you really want people to produce. Separating performance from personality might create the space for greater understanding of what performance means in your particular workplace.

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What You Want & By When: Managers, Leaders, and Schedules

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One manager in a recent MBA class was provoked by a discussion about the importance of using schedules, and offered her opinion on the difference between leaders and managers. “I want to be a leader,” she said, “not a manager. What does scheduling have to do with leadership?” Good question, actually. We were talking about […]

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Management #1. We Are All Performance Managers

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Management. What do you manage? What is “performance”? How do you improve it? You already know the answers – you do it all the time.

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How to Have People be “Purpose-Driven” At Work

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An article reporting on the Workforce Purpose Index findings says that companies with purpose-driven employees have better growth in revenue.  Their study found “three factors that contribute to an employee feeling like they have purpose at work: Independence; Influence when it comes to decision-making; and Recognition for their work. How do you get those things […]

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Lost Productivity: Is the Culprit Social Media or Sloppy Communication?

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Productivity is a big deal – the idea is to produce good hourly output at work, especially if you want to get a raise. An article (Why Your Facebook Habit At Work Makes Economists Worry) says that some people want to blame employees who are using social media for the recent drop in productivity. Another theory […]

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Micromanagement: Story #1

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A friend of mine is an accountant for a yoga-fitness studio, and last week he told me his studio owner is a “micro-manager”. I asked him what he meant – here’s what he said: “Patty is our studio owner who sometimes drops in on a yoga class, and if she thinks a student is doing a pose incorrectly, she will interrupt […]

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What’s the Source of the “Productivity Deficit”?

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The Marketplace newsletter has an answer for a question I hadn’t thought to ask: “Why are workers less productive?” It seems the output produced for each hour of labor worked (aka non-farm business productivity) dropped in the second quarter of 2015. It’s the third quarter in a row with a decline in US labor productivity. Innovations like smartphones and 3D printing […]

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Do As I Say! (or, Why We Don’t Get What We Want)

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People mostly do what you ask. So think about what you really want before you make a request.

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