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, […]
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”, […]
This is from Laurie, even though it says the author is Jeffrey. I see why performance conversations are such a confront: saying publicly what I’ll do and by when would be fine if I was sure nobody was listening! So, I have created a timeline for getting my “management is missing” summaries – including solutions […]
The June 12th Dilbert comic strip (below) gives a good example of the difference between an understanding conversation and a performance conversation. Dilbert, probably like many of us, assumes that explaining what is needed to someone who’s job it is to do it should be sufficient to get it accomplished. He is wrong. If you […]
Do you use deadlines when you make requests? Deadlines are one of the most powerful tools for accomplishment you can use. They give people information that allows them to organize and prioritize the work they have. Without due dates, people aren’t sure when they should work on things. As a result, work gets postponed, no […]
Have you ever wanted to reduce, if not end, unproductive complaints? One way to do that is to implement a policy that people only complain to those who can do something about the complaint. Complaints are prevalent in organizations. People complain about the weather, about their work, about their coworkers, and about their boss(es). Although […]
Don’t risk being held to account for things you don’t know about. Take the time to find out what people really expect you to do, and what they expect you to deliver. If they don’t tell you, ask. It’s part of getting and giving a good promise and is key to effective performance conversations. I […]
When given a deadline you know you really cannot meet, propose an alternative you can meet – that’s called making a counteroffer. If you don’t counteroffer when you know something cannot be done, you’re setting up yourself and others for failure. What do you do when someone asks you to do something you know you […]
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