Management
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Admitting Mistakes
https://hbr.org/2015/10/a-simple-formula-for-changing-our-behavior?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. The linked Harvard Business Review article is, in my mind, more about making mistakes than changing behavior. According to the article, the main focus of confronting someone who made a mistake is: Identify the problem State what needs to happen Offer to help This does make sense and the article goes into detail about what to do and what not to do. For me, the more important management issue is to admit when you are wrong early and often. It sets an example. The worst thing you can do is attempt to pass the blame or even worse cover it up. By…
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First, fire all the bosses…
In response to: https://aeon.co/essays/no-boss-no-thanks-why-managers-are-more-important-than-ever?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=atom-feed One thing the Un-CEO is about is quashing fads. Too many business practices are here today and gone tomorrow leaving uncertainty and limited productivity in their wake. The “No Bosses/Flat Organization” fad is one of the latest. I’ve already argued against using sales quotas as a way to “manage” a sales team and I’ll say data in general is a bad manager. For real happiness and productivity employees (teammates, humans in general) need autonomy, mastery and purpose (as spelled out by Daniel Pink). Good bosses can help instill that. Self-organizing groups can only get so far. Natural leaders will emerge even in boss-less groups, but then…
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Add 50% to your Value
https://hbr.org/2019/07/the-art-of-persuasion-hasnt-changed-in-2000-years?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social Yes, it’s a very click-bait title, but also very true. In this HBR article they discuss the keys to conversation and persuasion as relayed by Aristotle and Warren Buffett. According to the article, Warren Buffet ” once told business students that improving their communication skills would boost their professional value by 50% — instantly.” At once that seems hard to believe, but upon reflection makes total sense. How you communicate is how the world perceives you and either limits or enhances the opportunities you have. Take the words to heart especially where the article discusses creating a story. Use this every time. Every powerpoint where you’re trying to persuade should include…
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Leadership with Integrity
https://hbr.org/2019/07/leading-with-trust Leading with trust and integrity was never more important than it is now. With many people working from home, motivation can be difficult for all of us. Personally I would much rather get back to day-to-day operations than worrying about the health and welfare of our employees and their families. Sometimes I get bogged down by the weight of it all. The thing I’ve done that been most helpful to me has been one-on-one video calls with my fellow teammates. They are quick 2-10 minute calls to just catch up. I don’t know if it’s helped them at all, but it’s helped me tremendously. We made the call early…
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Customer Service and Profits
“American consumers spend, on average, 13 hours per year in calling queue. According to a 2010 study by Mike Desmarais in the journal Cost Management, …” Customer Service. According to this Harvard Business Review article, many companies provide sub-par customer service knowingly as a way to increase profits. Mostly the article talks about customer service related to receiving some sort of restitution – a rebate, return or other redress. Their logic is that if you present the consumer with more hoops to jump through, they are less likely to make it all the way to the end where they receive satisfaction and you have saved yourself the cost of that redress. My question is,…
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The Circus of Performance Reviews
“Out of all of the methods used to rate and grade employees, the dreaded annual or semiannual performance reviews are especially unhelpful and potentially harmful…” Performance Reviews. I’m not sure who hates performance reviews more – the managers who have to give them or the employees who have to receive them. They are loathsome all around. The well written and well-researched article from www.knowablemagazine.org is full of alternatives. The best alternative, however, is the hardest to implement: daily evaluation and feedback. Does that mean I have to actually talk to my employees? Yes. Yes it does. It very specifically means daily interaction. If you have more than about a dozen…
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Growth via Simplicity
“The lesson: Growth is best achieved by making things simpler for your customer rather than for you.” Another great article from Harvard Business Review (register to read full articles). The McDonalds case study is illuminating and I’ll let you read it, but the real less is making your product work for your customer, not for you. I love that stat that says 64% of cunsumers say they would pay more for a simpler and more convenient experience. That reminds me of a recent tweet where a large desk phone manufacturer showed a video of a user ordering a pizza via the browser on the desk phone. My response was…
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Role of Luck in Business
There was a lot of talk about luck this summer! Mostly due to this paper outlining a well-done lab experiment on luck. Additionally the MIT Technology Review (a great resource for business information, especially if you are looking for advice and commentary with a technology bent) had additional analysis. Especially in America, we see success as the natural fallout of talent + hard work. But does hard work always (or every) guarantee success? How about talent? If so, how do they factor in? If I work 10% more than you (44 hours vs. 40 hours) will I earn 10% more? How about investors who earn 1,000 times what some people…
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Creativity and Boredom
You find business advice in some of the most interesting places. Take this video for example: https://youtu.be/UzO56i7nUBs It’s by a YouTube artist know as Chris Ramsay. I found his channel one day looking at puzzle solutions. I have a friend, let’s call him David, who loves puzzles (as do I), but he’s always frustrated that he solves them too quickly – this is NOT a problem I have. I was hoping to find some puzzles that were real stumpers to challenge David with. Chris’s channel did not disappoint. Chris has an easy demeanor onscreen and walks you through his solving process. He also has quite a few videos on magic…
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Why Employees Quit their Job
In his book DRiVE, Daniel Pink takes a scientific view of what actually motivates us. The answer is simple: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. (Interestingly, money is not on that list. You need to make enough money to make it a non-issue, but after that, we are motivated by Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.) Autonomy in that we have some say over how we do our job, Mastery in that we are given the opportunity to learn and grow in our profession, and Purpose in that we are working for a greater good. In a recent Harvard Business Review post, they come to similar conclusions as to why people quit their jobs.…
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