Is it better to be a leader or a manager? This is a burning question as leader/managers try to find the right balance. Some practice situational leadership/management which involves assuming different roles as the situation or context requires. Some practice one role predominantly, such as participatory or directive management. Pursuing and sharing leadership with others …
Andy Grove of Intel and Bill Gates of Microsoft are the major voices of high-tech values and success. Both believe that fear of complacency and stagnation is good for business and good for people. Fear provides the mechanisms for overcoming inertia and for stimulating forward movement. Grove’s ideas are heresy in the politically charged world, …
Peter Drucker, the preeminent management guru, says Taylorism has been: “the most lasting contribution America has made to Western thought since The Federalist Papers.”[i] Frederick W. Taylor launched his Principles of Scientific Management in 1911, which forever changed how work is done. Taylor’s principles from work specialization, project/task orientation to bonus/incentive plans are part of …
The need to continue pleasing and exciting customers is now a conventional wisdom. But, is it really true? As much as customer focus is important, too many companies are still managed by priorities and politics that don’t matter to the customer or that generate income. The Boston Consulting Group surveyed businesses and concluded that 95 …
So you’re a technical wizard in accounting, finance, or engineering. Only one problem! You don’t have much people skills. Get them or they’ll kill you. Nearly one-quarter of the executives in high-tech jobs are in deep trouble due to poor people skills. In information intensive companies, people are promoted based on technical skills. But, an …
Integrity, maturity, and energy Business acumen People acumen Organizational acumen Curiosity, intellectual capacity, and a global mindset Superior judgment Insatiable appetite for accomplishment and results Powerful motivation to grow and convert learning to practice.[i] [i] Charan, Ram and Colvin, Geoffrey, “Why CEOs Fail,” Fortune Magazine, June 21, 1999, p. 78.
When a major organizational change hits, there are three types of people: Supporters 10% Fence sitters 60% Resisters 30%
Brand U’s understand that we are all accountable to someone and if we don’t perform, well… Chief Executive Officers are beholden to boards of directors and shareholders. And if they don’t perform, next … About two-thirds of the CEOs believe their successors will come from outside the company. Why? Companies often think that out-of-the-box thinkers/doers …
Level 1. Effectiveness – Doing things right Level 2. Efficiency – Doing the right things Level 3. Improving – Doing things better Level 4. Cutting – Doing away with things Level 5. Copying – Doing things other people are doing Level 6. Different – Doing things no one else is doing Level 7. Impossible – …
When did management begin? In the last 50, 500, or even 5000 years? Some say the great public works projects such as the Great Wall of China or the Egyptian pyramids were project managed. The root of the word ‘management’ is the Latin manus, meaning ‘hand,’ ‘power,’ or ‘jurisdiction. Interesting. So if you’re a hired …