Over the holidays a friend (I’ll call her Linda) who works in retail took me aside to vent about one of her colleagues. This individual (let’s call him Stan) managed to press every imaginable button on Linda’s personal control panel.



First of all, he was very talented and he knew it. Stan ranked among the top team managers in her firm. His mastery of particular product lines was unassailable. Everyone looked up to him for his expertise. Therein was part of the problem. Stan could not… Continue

Not long ago a director of a mid-sized consumer goods retailer asked me to help her resolve a conflict between two of her managers, Sarah and Carl. Sarah was focused, driven and had a reputation for getting what she wanted, no matter what. Her most important project was in jeopardy. Despite her sincere efforts at negotiating in good faith, she could not get Carl, the manager of IT for her region, to support her. Her project required a significant level of teamwork. Everyone in the region would… Continue

For anyone who manages staff, getting the best out of your people can be a continual struggle. How can you reward good performance in a way that will guarantee continued improvement? How can you ensure that poor performance is turned around? Even during a recession, fear of losing one’s job at best only leads to compliance with minimum performance standards. Sullen compliance is no substitute for enthusiasm and excellence. Fear is not very good as a motivator of discretionary effort.… Continue

Ellen, a business owner in the service sector with a staff of 40 employees, was overwhelmed by my question: “What could you do to create momentum about the changes you want to see around here without spending money or taking people away from their jobs?” The two of us were near the end of a long meeting on what she could do to improve her bottom line. The issues of falling revenue, customer dissatisfaction, aggressive competition and poor teamwork were welded together like sheet metal in a… Continue