‘Personal Skills’ Archives
Old Technology Displaces New Technology
In a recent coaching session, a long-time client expressed frustrations at keeping track of all of his day-to-day tasks, especially the little items of following through with people he had met. He felt that lots of useful new and old contacts were languishing because he had not followed up on items brought up during a discussion or emails. They [...]
Proven Checklist for Business Success – How Do You Put Them Into Action?
I receive a regular email titled, "Management Intelligence...... from Edward de Bono and Robert Heller" ((http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/)) . Their most recent email was "Management Intelligence: A proven checklist for business success". Here is the checklist they provided: "DO YOU... IMPROVE basic, measured efficiencies [...]
Podcast – Delegation (Outsourcing) and Keeping a Focus on Strategy and Results
Delegation and Outsourcing Share a Common Management Focus on What Needs To be Done, What Are the Results Required, and When?
Delegation (Outsourcing) and Keeping a Focus on Strategy and Results
Yesterday I was scanning through the Tweets from my friend Bruce Peters and came across a reference to a blog posting by Bernadette Doyle, "Discern Your Strengths - Delegate The Rest". Its always good to return to these complementary concepts – strengths and delegation (outsourcing), so I read on. Ms. Doyle's concatenation of "delegation" [...]
Podcast – Three Counter-Intuitive Steps to Becoming a More Effective Manager
Be a More Effective Manager - stop answering those questions, seize your time, and it's your fault
TED Talk by Tim Brown of IDEO – Why Design Is Big Again
I have not read Tim Brown's book Change By Design, but this TED talk strikes me as very valuable in itself. I look forward to reading the book which has just been published. The focus on involving end users, rapid prototyping, systems thinking resonates for me. Lean practitioners will find much in common here. It is great to hear a designer talk [...]
Three Counter-Intuitive Steps to Becoming a More Effective Manager
Become a More Effective Manager - Three Counter-Intuitive Steps In the world of planning and strategy, there is a truism that too much planning, too much detail, too much analysis, leads to inaction, to a loss of opportunity. Along the same line of observation, in the world of learning to becoming a more effective manager, there can be too [...]
Learning To Be Effective – comments on Kelley’s How To Be a Star At Work
Learning to be an effective manager is almost entirely a self-guided learning enterprise. Almost no business schools even approach the topic despite the hundreds of courses they offer on almost every functional aspect of management ((see Henry Mintzberg, Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development, [...]
Getting Things Done by David Allen – a revisit
I have used David Allen's book, Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity (Penguin: NY 2001) both personally and with clients for a number of years. Recently I volunteered to lead a discussion of the book's approach to personal productivity with the Greater Boston Business Network. This provoked me to re-read the book in [...]
Managing Key Personnel – Do What Is Inevitable – evasion and self-deception will not work
Recently I was speaking with the owner of a financial services firm. She has 15 people in her organization which is now almost 18 years old. By any measure a successful firm. She told me about one person who has been with the firm for eight years. The owner described this person as the most professional and reliable person in the organization. [...]
