Women are their own toughest critics

Women are their own toughest critics, says Mary Lou Quinlan, founder of Just Ask A Women and author of Time Off For Good Behavior (Broadway Books): "We never let ourselves off the hook. That internal pressure is the greatest one of all."
More Management Wisdom

Women vs. Men

Women leaders have an edge over male leaders who have similar jobs and stature, according to Caliper a Princeton, N.J.-based management-consulting firm. On attributes like mental strength, assertiveness, persuasiveness, empathy and risk? Women came away stronger than men in the Caliper study.
More Management Wisdom

Weirdos in the Workplace

Talented individuals not only march to a different drummer, they have a percussion section tagging along, insists John Putzier, author of Weirdos in the Workplace (Financial Times-Prentice Hall): “They do not look in the mirror and ask themselves, ‘How do others see me?’ They don’t care! It rarely enters their mind. They succeed both in spite of and because of their low self-monitoring behavior.”
More Management Wisdom

Public speaking

Public speaking is terrifying but that fear can be overcome, according to Jessica Selasky and her mother Dorothy Lynn in the book Your Public Speaking Workout: "Visualize yourself enjoying the moment. We don't want to teach people how to speak in public. We want to teach people how to speak in public and how to enjoy it and be present in the moment. That's our goal."

More Management Wisdom

Your Public Speaking Workout

Even difficult audiences want speakers to succeed, say Jessica Selasky and her mother Dorothy Lynn in Your Public Speaking Workout: "Audiences will give you a certain amount of time at the beginning of the speech to let you succeed." But if you're still acting nervous after, say, two minutes? "That's when they'll turn on you."

More Management Wisdom

Let me tell you a story

If you are giving a presentation and you see that the audience's attention is flagging, try this trick. Pause and say "Let me tell you a story," suggests Jessica Selasky and her mother, Dorothy Lynn in their book Your Public Speaking Workout. "You'll get the audience's complete attention because everybody likes a story."

More Management Wisdom

Q-12 Advantage

A top priority for the Gallup Organization's Q-12 Advantage is at least once a week, given recognition and praise for doing good work.


More Management Wisdom

Execution and details

"Contrary to popular opinion, I think success is not based on concept,'' says Brad Saltz, former chief financial officer for Houston's, a chain of 45 restaurants once based in Phoenix that posted $200 million in annual revenues. "It's based on execution - on carrying through with the highest standards and paying attention to details.''

More Management Wisdom

Then they lose

Kelin Gersick, senior partner of Lansberg, Gersick & Associates, a New Haven, Conn., consulting and research firm, finds a common reason why many companies fail: “they do not transfer to the future. The seniors don't make strategic or financial investments to remain competitive. They lose the edge. They lose market share. They lose profits. Then they lose - period.''

More Management Wisdom

Leadership for the Ages

One curse of large organizations is that everyone tends to feel like a subordinate, David P. Hanna says in Leadership for the Ages (Executive Excellence): "As soon as we begin to think I'm not in charge, we tend to act out of compliance rather than using our best judgment and doing our best in all situations," he says. "We stop thinking about the purpose of our work, being content to merely do our job."
More Management Wisdom

Nonprofits

What can private companies learn from nonprofits? Plenty, says Frances Hesselbein, former chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts. Have an effective board of directors, create a mission to mobilize employees and remember that workers want success and crave significance.
More Management Wisdom

Dr. Seuss

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
Dr. Seuss
More Management Wisdom

People

People join companies - but they leave managers and supervisors.
More Management Wisdom

Building a Business the Buddhist Way

Building a Business the Buddhist Way by Geri Larkin (Celestial Arts; $12.95): "Ask your existing or potential customers who your competitors are and what they like and don't like about them. If your competitors are other companies, go to trade shows to scope them out. Get industry newsletters. Order something from them."
More Management Wisdom

Q-12 Advantage

According to Gallup Organization's Q-12 Advantage, employees respond when they believe that a supervisor (or someone at work) cares about them as a person, when someone at work encourages their development and when their opinions seem to count.

More Management Wisdom

Your Public Speaking Workout

Jessica Selasky and her mother, Dorothy Lynn, have given hundreds of seminars on public speaking and wrote the book Your Public Speaking Workout: Exercise Your Body Parts. Top concern for public speaking? Be natural: "And be prepared. Be enthusiastic."
More Management Wisdom

Workers love a leader who can laugh

A survey from Robert Half International, the world’s largest staffing service, found that workers love a leader who can laugh - 97 percent of people polled felt it was critical for managers to have a sense of humor and 87 percent said their manager does.


More Management Wisdom

Family-owned companies in turmoil

For family-owned companies in turmoil, advisor Kelin Gersick suggests a long walk: "(Principals) need to look at what the fight is doing to the children and the grandchildren and what it is doing to their financial security. Generations don't have to put aside their disagreement. But they do need to keep it from becoming destructive to their common interests."
More Management Wisdom