Three Most Common Traps In Project Management

In Susanne Madsen’s book, The Power Of Project Leadership, she recommends that you do not fall prey to these three most common traps in project management:

Managing tasks, events and processes at the expense of leading people.
Being reactive and focusing on the urgent rather than the important.
Believing you have to know it all and doing it all instead of looking to the team for solutions and innovative ideas.

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Why Your Middle Managers Are So Important

The book, Power To The Middle , shows how managers are the crucial link between a company’s ground floor and top brass. “Too often company leaders view middle managers in a negative light as expendable employees who can slow down productivity and overall strategy,” explain the book’s authors and McKinsey partners Bill Schaninger , Bryan Hancock , and Emily Field . “However, new KcKinsey research reveals that this outdated perspective needs to change and that well-developed managers are the strategy that companies must prioritize to succeed today,” they add. Most importantly, by the end of their book, the authors sum up their insights and provide a playbook that will help senior leaders let go of the command-and-control mindset that has hobbled their managers for so long. The authors define middle managers as the people who are at least once removed from the front line and at least a layer below the senior lead...

How To Survive, Reset And Then Thrive

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Read Good To Great

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" Frustration in the workplace is a silent killer," claim authors Mark Royal and Tom Agnew in their terrific book, The Enemy of Engagement . Further, "in an organizational context, frustration is not as simple as failing to get something you want. Rather, it involves the inability to succeed in your role due to organizational barriers or the inability to bring the bulk of your individual talents, skills, and abilities to your job." Royal and Agnew further explain that a staggering number of highly motivated, engaged, and loyal employees quit trying--or quit, period---because they feel frustrated . And what's causing all that frustration? It's lack of enablement . According to Royal and Agnew, as employees grow in experience in their roles, they begin to focus less on learning the ropes and more on achieving desired results. In the process, they are increasingly confronted with enablement constraints that limit their ability to get their ...

4 Questions To Ask An Employee When He Quits

As a leader, it's critical that you understand the real reasons employees leave your company. To do that, you need to ask specific questions that may not be ones you currently include in your exit interviews. Fortunately, Richard Finnegan , shares in his book, Rethinking Retention in Good Times and Bad , four key questions you should include in your exit interviews : Why did you decide to leave us? Of all the things you've told me, what is the top thing that caused you to resign? It's great that you've found such a good opportunity, but why did you look? What one thing could we have done that would have caused you to stay? Your goal is to learn the most important leave reason rather than learn which three or five things contributed to your employee's decision to leave. The four questions above will help you learn the most important reason.

A Good Reason To Begin Volunteering On January 20

As the nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 20 , volunteer or make the decision to volunteer in your community. King routinely asked “What are you doing for others,” and January 20th is the ideal day to ask yourself that question. The federal holiday was first observed 27 years ago and in 1994 Congress designated it as a National Day of Service, inspired by King’s words, “ everybody can be great because anybody can serve .” You can turn to Volunteer Match to find volunteer opportunities right in your neighborhood or nearby surrounding area. Visit the web site, type in your city's name and the types of volunteering opportunities that interest you most, and you will be presented with a variety of organizations seeking volunteers. And, if you are a leader in the workplace, encourage your employees and team members to volunteer in the community as individuals. Or, organize volunteer afternoons or evenings for your employees.

How To Energize Your Work And Life

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How To Be A Superboss

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Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

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