Steve Jobs may have been a controversial leader – but a smart one. And there was something that he understood particularly well and used as a foundation for his management approach.
Tag: leadership
Really, What Makes an Effective Executive?
Whenever I ask this question, I always hear the usual sacred mixture of “integrity,” “willpower,” “leadership,” and, of course, “charisma.” The most promising HiPos would proudly throw in “emotional intelligence.” Those fuzzy buzzwords are supposed to make all aspiring executives salivate but none answers the question or offers at least a practical first step. For […]
Project Managers Not PMPs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Project Management and PMP Certification
If you are a manager of any level, you probably expect to become a good manager. As we are all accidental project managers because we have to manage a project every once in a while, so we should all be able to benefit from this course. And I say “we” because I will be learning through your feedback.
Fifty Years of Shareholder Value
Here’s what Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies, at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal, thinks about shareholder value today: “Shareholder value has nothing to do with human values.”
Post-Lockdown Employee Engagement Survey
As we start seeing the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, we realize that we are not going to get back to normal. The new normal will be different. The pandemic crisis has been an “up-or-out” test for most businesses. Only the teams that have engaged employees will come out stronger. As a […]
Productivity, Happiness, Engagement and IQ
I merged and analyzed the available data on GDP (per capita), national IQs, happiness, and employee engagement worldwide, for 93 countries. My goal is to come up with practical suggestions to business leaders; thus, these observations are focused more on qualitative results and trends than on the “scientificity” of the idea. Here are my observations focused on qualitative results and trends.
Working From Home During COVID Lockdown
Working from home may be hard at first, especially if #WFH is not your thing. Individual circumstances make it difficult to follow the mass-media advice. Would it not be better to just do your job conscientiously? Do your best. It is not that complicated: use common sense and stay human.
If you continue doing your best during this involuntary shutdown, you’ll get a head start over the competitors after this emergency is over – soon.
Maslow Revisited. Part One: Hierarchy of Needs.
Today, almost 50 years after Maslow’s death, all of us remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: a multicolored pyramid. However, Maslow never used the pyramid to illustrate his theory. Moreover, there are no steps.
p up in our brain but without much further details. So here are the details for you.
Behind the Glassdoor Reviews
Glassdoor reviews and comments are very reliable. If you are considering a role with a new company, the Glassdoor reviews are your starting point. And if you are in a leadership position and care about your business, these anonymous reviews left by your colleagues may help you run the business better.
Four Stages of a Successful Change Project
Change is NOT the only constant. The failure rate of change projects seems to stay constant as well, at about 70%. In order to be successful, change leaders need to realize that every change project must go through these four stages – rejection, objection, perception, adoption – and the first two stages may temporarily bring the performance down, which kills the key players’ desire to continue the change effort.