effectiveness

AYE Conference

Although I am no longer a host, I recommend the annual Amplifying Your Effectiveness (AYE) Conference.  The focus is around individual, team and organizational effectiveness. Esther Schindler, a reporter for CIO Magazine, participated at the 2006 conference and said the following about it on CIO.com’s Information Collective Blog: …it was a breath of fresh air [...]

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Gandhi and Change Agents

Mahatma Gandhi epitomizes the effective change agent. In my opinion, he was not only the Twentieth Century’s greatest change agent but also its greatest leader. Are you looking for change agents in your organization? Let’s explore desirable qualities for change agents exemplified by Gandhi. He believed in the Hindu religion, which, from what I understand, [...]

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The Effective Project Manager

What do effective project managers realize? If a project fails, it’s the PM’s fault. If a project succeeds, the PM credits the team for the success.

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Be Ashamed of Your Silence

Robert, a project manager, told me he uses the weekly project status meeting as a bully pulpit to shame any member of the team who didn’t satisfy their task deadlines. I’ve seen him in action — his face becomes grotesque as he verbally assaults his teammates. I believe it’s wrong for Rob or anyone else [...]

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Elements of Effective Management

I am fortunate to have worked on a team led by Anne Cawley early in my career. Experience working with her enabled me to know, rather than speculate, about the power of an effective manager. What elements of her management style made her effective? Congruence: She conversed with members of her team as equals rather [...]

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Elements of Effective Communication

If you want to be a more effective communicator, keep your conversations focused on these three elements – HERE NOW US Conversations containing the opposites of the above elements – THERE THEN THEM – will lead to ineffective communication. For instance in a meeting of managers, Ineffective: “They (the testers) didn’t test the application properly [...]

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Rethinking Employee Rewards 3 of 3

My first post on rewarding employees explored the importance of providing a reward that is meaningful to the recipient. My second post explored the purpose of rewards, the timing of rewards, and my thoughts about rewarding all the members of a team rather than a few individual members of the team. In this final post [...]

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Rethinking Employee Rewards, Part 1

I surveyed ten of my colleagues from different high-tech companies about the state of employee rewards programs at their company. One colleague told me about the outstanding reward programs where he works. The other nine colleagues told me something much different. Their feedback is easily summarized as follows: “Our reward programs are pathetic!” What’s the [...]

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Best Practice Assertion

How many times have you heard a supplier assert that they offer a technique that is a “best practice?” What do they mean? How do you test whether a technique is a best practice? The words “best practice” is hyperbole used by suppliers to make a technique sound more attractive. That’s a harsh statement, but [...]

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Dealing with Method Zealots

Has a member of your team become completely concerned about how something is done rather than whether it is done? Is it a problem when someone is completely focused is on how something is done? What do you do about it? A good starting point for exploring these questions is a quote from John Gardner’s [...]

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