“I wish I could fire this guy,” Evan told me. “I ask him to do something – I’m very specific – and then he doesn’t do it. I asked him to finish that survey and bring it back to me. I get nothing. Is he lazy? Or is he stupid?” I asked Evan to tell […]
I’ve heard two complaints recently that seem to come from the same root cause: reluctance to make a request. #1. A technical specialist– let’s call her Sara – tells me that both she and her Supervisor agree that the Senior Manager of their department is a jerk. This Senior Manager makes decisions without consulting the […]
Shawna has been a senior manager in a state government agency for years, and confessed that the people in her department seem to ignore many of their assignments and her requests for them to produce results. “In fact, it seems like they don’t even hear me.” She was right: they weren’t listening. “They don’t take […]
A manager in a recent Four Conversations training session approached me and asked, “One of my employees frequently fails to accomplish the things I delegate to him. Do you have any suggestions for improving his performance?” “Sure”, I replied, “but first, when you say he fails, what do you mean? Is he late, is the […]
Jeffrey and I recently led a leadership training session for a state agency. During that session, one of the questions participants wanted to address was “How do we get greater accountability from people.” The answer, you build it through the combined use of performance and closure conversations. Accountability is not a personal characteristic; it is […]
If you find yourself in a difficult position, make an unreasonable request – you might be surprised by the result. On Friday, April 13 Jeffrey received an unreasonable request from a colleague at Benedictine University. He asked if Jeffrey would come to Benedictine and teach an Executive Ph.D. course on organization change the following Wednesday, […]
A program director in one of the colleges here at Ohio State is paying the price for not having the appropriate conversations with his boss, the dean of the college. Kevin, as director of programs, is responsible for admissions into the undergraduate and graduate programs in his college. In a recent conversation, he pointed out […]
I was recently asked by a manager in one of my classes what she could do to increase her credibility. I told “Keep a Due List and follow up on it.” Most people have some form of a “To Do” list, which lets them know the things they have to do. But credibility and a […]
A project manager in a program I recently led asked “How can I best manage my people to accomplish a change?” I told him, “Don’t manage your people, manage the agreements you have with them.” Agreements are the foundation for performance. Many managers believe the key to getting things done is to appeal to people’s […]
One way to effectively manage a boss is to give her a deadline when she doesn’t give you one. One of the complaints I frequently get from managers in my MBA classes is that their bosses rarely say by when they want something done. Bosses say things like “when you get a chance”, “this week”, […]
Awarded "Best Management Book" by 800-CEO-READ.
Rated #5 "Best Business Book" by The Toronto Globe and Mail.