The Success Effect

Frances Hesselbein, former chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of the USA, talks about the importance of mission in The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg: "Mission is the reason for being. The most successful organization has a compelling mission statement and is the sole reason that organization exists. People are looking for significance in their lives. They want meaning beyond a paycheck."
More Management Wisdom

Bringing Home the Business

It’s okay to put one caller on hold and take another call when you are at home juggling soccer schedules, knitting seminars and chasing a cable guy, but never, ever consider doing the same while working from home on the job, says Kim T. Gordon in Bringing Home the Business (Perigee): "Never use Call Waiting on a business line - it flies in the face of your efforts to put your customers first."
More Management Wisdom

The Welch Way

Jack Welch, former chief executive and chairman at General Electric, always sought out employees and managers who viewed change as opportunity, says Jeffrey A. Krames in The Welch Way: 24 Lessons from the World's Greatest CEO (McGraw-Hill): "When a manager asked Welch to tell him when he would be able to tell his employees that change is over, the GE chairman responded: change is never over."
More Management Wisdom

Bringing Home the Business

Instead of participating in numerous community events, choose one or two events and participate in a way that draws strong attention to your business, suggests Kim T. Gordon in Bringing Home the Business: The 30 Truths Every Home Business Owner Must Know (Perigee): “Pick only those events that will allow your company's name to stand out and be recognized by a crowd that consists of your customers and prospects.”
More Management Wisdom

Leonardo da Vinci

It is a very good plan every now and then to go away and have a little relaxation…When you come back to the work your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose the power of judgment.

Leonardo da Vinci

More Management Wisdom

Surviving Your Boss

When given a task by a boss, cast a net to colleagues for a broader perspective, suggests Ann D. Clark, Ph.D. and Patt Perkins in Surviving Your Boss: How to Cope with Office Politics and Get on with Your Job (Kensington Publishing). There are traps to avoid, however: “Don’t fall prey to cutting down your boss when you make these inquiries. Gossip and backbiting, no matter how satisfying at the moment, will generally backfire.”
More Management Wisdom

David Mamet on communication

People may or may not say what they mean. But they always say something designed to get what they want.

David Mamet, American playwright, talking about communication

More Management Wisdom

The Success Effect

In The Success Effect (S&R) by John Eckberg, marketing guru Doug Hall of Eureka! Institute talks about small business survival: "There's nothing sadder in my mind than a business person having a dream, starting their own business and then giving it up because it's not worth the effort. Offer customers an overt benefit, do what you say, then be dramatically different."
More Management Wisdom

How Great Decisions Get Made

It is perilous to leave co-workers or subordinates out of the decision-making process, says Don Maruska and Margaret J. Wheatley, authors of How Great Decisions Get Made (AMACOM Books): “When those who have been left out express their dissension, as they almost inevitably do, the group can’t move forward. Instead, it splits apart.”
More Management Wisdom

Crossing the Unknown Sea

In Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity (Berkley), author David Whyte suggests that anybody who has the time and initiative to even think of or consider the meaning of his work is a privileged person indeed: “Our great hope in wrestling with the unknown we must learn to call our life and our work, is to find a way to call on our courage for all the unknowns yet to come.”
More Management Wisdom

The Quest for Authentic Power

In The Quest for Authentic Power (Berrett-Koehler) by G. Ross Lawford, the author suggests that an ounce of intention is better than a pound of perspiration. In other words, take time to clarify goals and motivation before starting on tasks. “You’ll find that the conversion of intention into reality requires much less effort than you are accustomed to exerting. A thought is powerful in its own right.”
More Management Wisdom

Ovid

You can learn from anyone even your enemy.
Ovid

More Management Wisdom

John F. Kennedy Jr.

The late John F. Kennedy Jr. never lost his common touch, according to Awakening the Buddhist Heart by Lama Surya Das. Once, when a messenger arrived at the offices of the magazine George, Kennedy, the publisher, noticed his hand was shaking. “Why?" Kennedy asked. “Because you're an historic figure,” came the reply. Kennedy shrugged it off: “I'm just a person like you.” Stay grounded and real. All are equal in the light of eternity.
More Management Wisdom

Fast Read Time Management

It's important that a manager not be threatened when a worker is idle, says Lesley Bolton, author of Fast Read Time Management (Adams Media): “Resist the temptation to assign busywork to keep them moving. You waste their time, and you waste your time thinking up the work, explaining and supervising it, and pretending to care about it when it's done. You'll also be eroding their trust in you and your decisions.”
More Management Wisdom

Semco program

Companies should consider a Semco program, a Brazilian firm of 3,000 with virtually no turnover. In The Seven-Day Weekend (Portfolio/Penguin) author and Semco CEO Ricardo Semler details Seen From Below. Workers anonymously fill out a questionnaire, and rankings are shared: "We believe it is in (a manager's) best interest to realize when subordinates are not happy. People will not follow someone they don’t respect.”
More Management Wisdom

How can I help you?

Almost all committed employees answer the telephone with a question: how can I help you? What people are really doing with that greeting is seeking to identify the purpose of the call, says Jana Kemp, author of No! How One Simple Word can Transform Your Life (AMACOM): “Unless you know the purpose of a request, how can you prepare a response?”
More Management Wisdom

Homer Simpson

You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try.

Homer Simpson
More Management Wisdom

Aha! Moment

One of the biggest challenges for any executive is to recognize an Aha! Moment while engaged in a task. In The Art of Business by Stan David and David McIntosh (Berrett-Koehler). Find “retrospective” epiphanies: “Now you’ve got to vet your big idea. It starts with a hunch, develops through exploration and simmerings, crystallizes in an insight and is turned into something real through patient, steady effort.”
More Management Wisdom

Madonna

I have a very organized mind – an excellent memory. I’m able to intuitively feel things out. You have to pay attention to details, and you have to really be in touch with your intuition. - Madonna

More Management Wisdom

Blue Ocean Strategy

To encourage massive change within an organization, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, authors of Blue Ocean Strategy (Harvard Business School Press) advise a kingpin approach: “Concentrate efforts on kingpins, the key influencers, the people inside an organization who are natural leaders, well respected and persuasive. As with kingpins in bowling, when you hit them straight on, all the other pins come toppling down.”
More Management Wisdom

Q-12 Advantage initiative

The Gallup Organization's Q-12 Advantage initiative puts responsibility for achievement clearly on companies. Workers will respond, the organization found, as long as they are given the materials and equipment to do their jobs the right way.

More Management Wisdom

I Ching

Great effort is required to arrest decay and restore vigor. One must exercise deliberation, plan carefully before making a move and be alert in guarding against relapse following a renaissance.

I Ching

More Management Wisdom

Carp on the Fly

Landing a new corporate client is not much different than catching a carp on a dry fly. In Carp on the Fly: A Flyfishing Guide (Johnson Books), authors Barry Reynolds, Brad Befus and John Berryman suggest a number of steps to catch a carp. Instead of carp, substitute client: “Know how to locate carp and what carp eat. And know what flies presentation tactics are effective.”
More Management Wisdom

The Success Effect

In The Success Effect, Patrick Lencioni, president of the Table Group, a management consulting firm, talks about the power of discord: "Intel actually teaches classes in constructive conflict to employees because they don't want people to waste time in meetings, nodding their heads and smiling, and then walking out into the hallway and saying, “I think this is stupid.”
More Management Wisdom

What's Important Now

Emotions can be a great help, says John Kuypers, in What's Important Now (Present Living & Learning). Keep them under control: “Your feelings must be available to you yet they must not overwhelm you. When you can achieve this state of presence, your emotions become an invaluable tool that will help you feel safe and secure, confident and ready to do what's important now for you.”
More Management Wisdom

Women leaders

Caliper, a Princeton, N.J.-based management-consulting company surveyd 60 women leaders from some of the top companies in the United Kingdom and the United States and compared the results with findings about men. Women leaders have higher marks than men for flexibility in response, sociability and empathy.
More Management Wisdom

Francis Ford Coppola

Get into situations in which failure isn't an option.
Francis Ford Coppola

More Management Wisdom

Jump Start Your Business Brain

In Jump Start Your Business Brain: Scientific Ideas and Advice That Will Immediately Double Your Business Success Rate (Clerisy) author Doug Hall, founder and chief executive of Eureka! Ranch, reports that finding an approach that is truly new should be the mission of all companies that seek innovation. If the idea is not new, then it is copycat, and 80 percent of all copycat efforts fail.
More Management Wisdom

Maximum Influence

Getting a would-be client to be committed to your service starts with questions, says Kurt W. Mortensen in Maximum Influence (AMACOM): “Simple phrases such as ‘I need your help,’ ‘How would you do this,’ ‘Do you think I’m doing it right’ or ‘Do you have any ideas’ can immediately spark the interest of your listener,” Mortensen says. “Watch how the other person brightens up when you ask for his or her advice.”
More Management Wisdom

The Worst-Case Scenario

Is your cubicle the size of a shoe – and not a shoe store? Add personal touches but nothing works better than a couple of mirrors, says Joshua Piven. Brenda Brown and David Borgenicht, authors of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Work (Chronicle Books). “Hang a large mirror on the cubicle wall for spaciousness. Add a stick-on wide-angle mirror to your monitor to see if someone is peering from behind.”
More Management Wisdom