People are mad that Elaine avoids work – and sick of her “good excuses”. There are two different views about what their manager, Beth, should do: She should meet with Elaine at the start and end of every day to check on whether she’s doing her assignments or not. She should give assignments to everyone […]
How much time do we spend waiting for other people to do something? I know a guy who just had a new floor installed in his house, and he was waiting to hear from the installer about completing the job. The moldings that connected the floor – a beautiful bamboo – to the carpeted areas […]
Meredith Fineman titled her article, written in September 2013, “Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are”. I looked it up recently, after listening to a colleague go on – and on – about how many appointments he had, how many deadlines, and how many staff had been cut in his organization. He told me […]
Now you know: motivation is really only about having people take action and produce results, with a commitment to honoring their word to you. It’s not about getting people to “feel” a certain way so they’ll like you enough to do something. And it’s not about your own personality or charisma somehow inspiring them to […]
“Motivation” is about motion – getting something, or someone, to move. Our research shows that the type of conversation you use will materially impact the likelihood of your success. Here’s how it works. Conversation for Understanding ONLY – Likelihood of Success = LOW. Using an Understanding Conversation on its own is the least likely to […]
“Nobody is accountable here,” Shelly told me. “I used to work in a company where people kept track of their requests and promises, and they were responsible for making sure they got what they needed and did what they said they would do.” I’ve heard this more than once, of course: some people are just […]
“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 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 […]
Awarded "Best Management Book" by 800-CEO-READ.
Rated #5 "Best Business Book" by The Toronto Globe and Mail.