Should you reward success? Rewarding success is the obvious thing to do. Slaps on the back, public praise, bonuses and honours come easily to us. People expect to be rewarded for good performance. If you reward success then people will strive to give you more of it. It would be madness to reward failure, or […]
Sloppy, Overconfident or Just Plain Dishonest?
Clarity Have you ever sat in a meeting listening to somebody very senior and thought; “I have no idea what you are talking about”? Do you enjoy watching corporate warriors use powerpoint slides to explain strategic imperatives? Or do they leave you worrying that you are plain thick? You are not alone Laura Rittenhouse started […]
Information Overload
A broken valve In the early hours of the morning on March 28th 1979, a valve broke on a water pipe. That pipe was at the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The failure resulted in the most serious nuclear incident that the USA has ever seen. Chain reaction The broken valve led to […]
The Ultimate Management Skill
Communication is easy There are only three things to worry about: The sender — the person transmitting the message The environment — the medium the message passes through The listener — the person who receives the message Assuming a dialogue is called for (dialogues being a good thing), the sender and listener can swap places. […]
Good Boss, Bad Boss
What makes a good boss? Julian Birkinshaw wanted to know. After pondering the question for a while, he came to the conclusion that the best way to find out was to ask some employees. They are the people most capable of defining what a good or bad boss looks like — we have all worked for a nightmare or […]