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Even if your workers are working for a paycheck, it’s wise to learn from those who are leading volunteers.
I’ve learned a whole lot from volunteer-driven organizations, and am currently involved with several myself. In that environment, if people aren’t getting their needs met, they can simply walk away. This is one of the natural things about leading these kinds of groups.
When you’re giving someone their pay every week or two, it’s easy to fall into the trap that their loyalty will continue as long as the pay and benefits are good.
Not true.
Read the rest of this entry »As the leader, it’s your job to address mistakes and imperfections.
That can be SO tough, because of course you want to maintain certain standards and push towards a more ideal future.
And, let’s be honest, there can be a bit of ego involved. Especially if this is the organization that you started.
Read the rest of this entry »As the boss, you think your role is to tell everyone else what to do. And it kinda is, in a way.
The trap is to think that it makes you more important than the other people. It doesn’t. Sure, your decisions might be complex and challenging. But you’re probably not the one who is actually, directly, delivering value for the customer.
And if you look at the big picture, ALL work is worthy of respect and honor. Even the planning you do.
Read the rest of this entry »Yeah, I’ll confess: I’m an engineer.
So it’s fascinating to me that I’m much deeper now into the “people side” of business. I love that people are SO much more challenging to work with!
A never ending cascade of depth and complication. But my engineering side does come out, because I tend to see everything as a process which can be designed and improved.
If only people were that simple.
Read the rest of this entry »Sometimes it’s your job to communicate the bad news. It might be one of the toughest things you have to do.
There are plenty of resources which give great advice for doing this in personal circumstances, like when you have to say that a loved one has died. But I’m surprised that there isn’t as much help for doing this in the work context.
Over the years I’ve had to both receive and give bad news on the job, sometimes on the same day. I thought I’d share some principles which have helped me.
Read the rest of this entry »Your employees and partners are looking to you for direction. Perhaps you’re also looking for direction “upstairs”, whether that’s bosses, industry leaders, regulators, or whoever.
But there are many ways that top-down direction can fail:
Read the rest of this entry »My article last week got me reflecting more about ambiguity in general. Because it’s not just about risk analysis, but dealing in an environment which is unpredictable. Where every action – or inaction – can lead to unexpected results.
It feels more important right now, because the whole world seems more unpredictable than before. But I would argue that it’s not substantially different than before, and in fact things are stabilizing after surviving the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic experience.
Read the rest of this entry »By now you’ve probably heard the term “quiet quitting.” It describes an employee who’s just putting in the time and doing the bare minimum.
It’s not a new concept, though. I’ve known many disengaged employees (or volunteers or partners) over the course of my career. So I’m not sure if the number has increased.
Or maybe we just created a term for it.
Read the rest of this entry »You’ve been working hard on this impending change. You worked out the kinks, and you figured out what order you need to talk to people. Managers first, then key employees, then key partners, then the broader population.
And you’ve been getting your mind around this for – what, three months now? Seems like it’s taken forever. But we’re almost ready to make the Big Announcement and move forward.
After screwing this up many times, I finally learned a lesson. And it’s very simple:
Read the rest of this entry »Being a leader can be lonely. You feel like you are being watched all the time and you have to act like you have it all together.
I get that.
But here’s the challenge: to ask for help when you need it. Which takes a little vulnerability.
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The Values-Based Business 