Culture

It’s hard to believe but Stack Ranking has found its way back into corporations as a means for motivating employees. What will it take for leaders to understand that this practice doesn’t work and in…

Jack Welch joined the fray about Microsoft’s abandoning “rank and yank” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Jack Welch: ’Rank and Yank’? That’s Not How It’s Done.” Welch now says that rank…

While I understand the appeal of zero tolerance policies in that they allow difficult decisions about behavior to be dispatched easily and quickly, the decision to expel a child from school or to…

President Obama says he wants ideas.  How about this one?  The government will designate a fixed dollar amount to be deducted from each taxpayer each year.  This fund will be…

Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Meg Whitman has rekindled the debate over whether to telecommute with a memo urging employees to show up at the office more often. She wrote that “HP needs all hands…

Recently I heard Charles Barkley on ESPN radio, but he wasn't talking basketball. He was talking about Justin Bieber and how Bieber’s life is gradually unraveling. It’s been a slow shaping process…

When will they learn?  I wrote my book Oops! 13 management practices that waste time and money in 2009 and the one that has caught the most attention is Performance Appraisal. An article by Will…

There is always a lot of buzz surrounding leaders– what makes an effective one, are they born or made, and why do some transform into bad bosses.  Yet the most common trending topic today seems…

Update: It’s been announced that the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a Baby boy.  The UK government has changed the 300-year-old laws on royal succession to ensure that a first born…

Can you believe it! J.C. Penney hired a therapist to help employees cope with the firing of former CEO Ron Johnson. I need to add this to my next edition of OOPS: 13 Management Practices that Waste…

Maybe it is because I turned 78 last week, but it seems that every day I read something or see something on TV that drives me crazy. Even though by the usual standards, I am at the age where people…

When I first started working in a call center, I asked a supervisor of thirty years to estimate how many change initiatives she had seen in her career. I shouldn’t have been surprised when she said…

Patricia Bays Haroski who worked for her father in a State Farm Insurance Agency in Deerfield, IL, registered October 16 as Boss's Day with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1958. She chose October 16…

A big mistake leaders make when implementing change is spending too much time trying to get buy-in.This well intentioned approach not only delays getting to the change that matters but creates severe…

“{The corporate budgeting process} sucks the energy, time, fun, and big dreams out of an organization. It hides opportunity and stunts growth. It brings out the most unproductive behaviors in an…

As the NCAA delivered its sentence to Penn State University and its football team last week, it’s natural to think about those who will be most affected by the consequences; the players and their new…

Are you frustrated when desired change doesn’t stick?  Creating sustainable and accelerated change requires a daily focus.  How then do we connect our todays with the end of the year?…

I’m amazed at the epidemic of firefighting that has taken over organizations. Stretched organizations are asking people to do more with less and to maintain or grow the business, yet these same…