I recently conducted a workshop on leadership and communication styles, something I do regularly. A number of participants worked in the same organization, most were attending individually. Afterwards, as I gathered my materials and prepared to leave, one of the participants re-entered the room and asked to talk with me for a few minutes. Read More
At the end of the day, many of us cruise through our inbox hoping to quickly respond to email messages, lightening the load for the next day. If you’re on the receiving end of the response, you can usually tell by the tone and structure of the reply if it was done hurriedly. And likely, because you’ve done this yourself, you can empathize with the sender. Read More
Much was made in the media about Mary Barra being selected as the next CEO of General Motors. She is the first woman to run a major auto manufacturing company, and in that industry at the age of 51 she is relatively young.
Having grown up in Detroit, I was also interested that she attended General Motor’s Institute where some of my high school friends also received their engineering degrees. It was prestigious to attend GMI because it guaranteed a first rate education, a job at GM after graduating, and apprentice/intern jobs during the summer while you were a student. Not a bad deal. Read More
Lisa leads a project team consisting of six people that includes Sam. Sam produces consistently good work and is well liked by everyone, but frequently, he presents a piece of work to Lisa and hears the following statement, “That’s not what I was looking for.” Of course they both are frustrated when this occurs and together review what was said, what was heard, and then try to restate and clarify the misunderstandings and move on. Eventually, Lisa is pleased with Sam’s work. To be clear, it’s not the quality of the work that is in question: Sam does good quality work; but it truly is not what Lisa was looking for. Read More