Many people I have worked with over the years have tried to tell me what the biggest problem was with whatever company we were working for. No company is perfect; there is always some sort of organizational friction. Technical people thought it was because we didn’t have the latest tools or equipment. The creative types […]

Now that we’ve established the realities of being a manager, what are the real rewards?  Being a manager is a tough job, so what keeps us going?  It’s not power, money or being able to get your own way all the time and you’ll likely be expected to lend a hand to the team from […]

Often in professional development discussions young team members bring up the topic of becoming a manager.  My first question is always, “Why?”  As the conversation continues, I usually have to practice the 5 Why’s to get to the heart of the matter and I can share the truth about being a manager. As a manager, […]

Improving team engagement and motivation has been a hot topic for me this week.  It has become clear that the team at one of our suppliers is not performing as expected because the team’s engagement with the product and the job is not where it needs to be.  They are doing the functional part of […]

I caught up with an old friend one evening while I was on a business trip in southern California earlier this week.  After spending most of her career in larger companies with mature processes, she had recently joined a company still in the start-up phase.  While she has learned to appreciate that “putting steel in […]

If a process or a product hasn’t been going well for a while, frustration builds and some leaders try to fix it  by looking for solutions from wherever and from whomever they can.  This results in multiple parallel conversations and/or the team chasing after a dozen or more perceived solutions to the problem.  While everyone […]