Articles

‘Friendly Mergers’ – A Look Inside

Sam’s company is going to merge. The other company is about the same size and in a complimentary market. The financial benefits from the merger are obvious as the merger will open up new sales areas for products and services. And, the expected business increase means that no employees will be laid off. The boards of directors and the executives, of both companies, have looked at the financials and everyone is eager to proceed. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, a

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What Message Are You Sending?

On my way home from our recent vacation, I watched a father interacting with his three young children. It was 5:30 am at the Los Angeles International Airport where we were all enduring layovers enroute to our destinations. The children were in the 3-8 years of age and were very excited about their trip. Being typical young children, they were pummeling their father with questions. When do we leave? What kind of airplane will we fly on? When will we

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Using High Tech? Don’t Forget the Boundaries!

When I was a child I lived in a rural area in Wyoming.  We had a post office, but no grocery store or gas station – those were 50 miles away in the nearest town.  I vividly remember when got our first telephone.  It was a party-line, which meant that three families shared the phone line – each family having their own distinctive ring pattern.  Having a phone was such a novelty that we all jumped whenever we heard our

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Want Breakthroughs? Change-Up Your Thinking!

Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”  What does it take to create ‘new thinking’? Can we just decide to think differently? Does it take a stimulus or new conditions? I mentally reviewed the times when I had made a breakthrough in thinking, performance, or perspective – or, when I had solved a tough problem that had been nagging me for a time. I found that a combination of

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Customer ‘Relationship’ Management

In conversation with a tech client a couple of weeks ago, she told me of the need to increase the development and skills of her Customer Relationship Managers. To make sure that I was familiar with this type of role, I looked up the definition. TechTarget defines customer relationship management as ‘a term that refers to practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle – with the goal of

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Positive Feedback Only – What’s Up With That?

In a recent Wall Street Journal, I read an article entitled “Everything Is Awesome! Why You Can’t Tell Employees That They Are Doing a Bad Job”. The article covered the growing trend of ‘Accentuate the Positive’ – only telling employees positive things during their performance reviews. It cited that employers fear that they will crush employees’ confidence and erode performance, and said that they are asking managers to ease up on harsh feedback. I wondered about several things when I

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Scoring Points With Karma

Have you ever had one of those days when you think that society is going to hell in a hand basket? When you have been cut off on the freeway or someone has cut in front of you in line – after you had been waiting for 20 minutes? No one even seems to say ‘please’ or ‘thank-you’ any longer – you wonder if common courtesy is a dinosaur. When these situations happen to me, I usually yell at the

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Rewards – Is Your Team Aligned For Success?

Daniel Pink, the author of Free Agent Nation says, “Typically, if you reward something, you get more of it. You punish something, you get less of it.” I see this motivational scheme in every organization that I work with. When rewards are done well, magic can happen. Teams can achieve far more than they ever thought possible. However, when parts of this equation aren’t well aligned, then the entire motivational scheme comes into question. Unintended behaviors and actions happen –

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Practicing the Art of Listening – and Reaping Its Benefits

What the world really needs are more good listeners.  Most people don’t really listen.  What we really need is a lot more people listening with real skill.  Now this doesn’t mean to listen in a way that listens just long enough to tell them why they are wrong.  It’s not about half listening to what they are saying so you can get the information you need while you are busy forming your rebuttal. It’s not about appearing to listen so

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Stack the Deck for Success

Sally is considering taking a new position as a department manager in her company – but is she ready?  Does she have what it takes to be successful?  She is excited about the prospect and the fact that her company believes she is ready for more and different responsibilities.  She has 5 years of technical experience and this new position would give her a promotion and also give her the chance to manage people.  In her previous positions, she achieved

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