When discussing with clients how to lead subordinates, one question that arises often is, how much initiative should my people show? In their classic HBR article, Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey? Oncken and Wass lay out a five-level scale of managerial initiative (1 – 5 in the figure). My clients’ staff are more [...]
... helping leadership emerge
Category Archives: productivity
No Agenda = No Meeting
Seth Godin recently distilled a great list about getting serious about your meeting problem. It highlights the problem that many people in companies face: being in meetings all day. If you’ve wondered when the work gets done, for some people the answer is that they have forgotten what work involves. The day is taken up [...]
The Art of Hosting
Approaches such as Open Space support the emergence of leadership in organizations. Some people think it’s enough to apply Open Space’s simple structure and wonderful things will happen. This is not always the case, the intention behind the method is important.
I worked with a client in July and we used Open Space for part of [...]
Why You Need The No Asshole Rule
McKinsey offers an excerpt entitled Building The Civilized Workplace (you need to register in order to read this) from Robert Sutton’s new book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace And Surviving One That Isn’t. The article includes a checklist for the most common behaviours as well as what jerks can cost your business, [...]
The $650 Billion Question
Today’s New York Times reports on the latest research findings on multitasking and workplace interruption. Neuroscientists have a better idea of how much efficiency is lost when people attempt to handle even two tasks at the same time, so even that hands-free set for your mobile phone is no help when driving. It seems like [...]
