“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” What is true of “men” in Edmund Burke’s famous quote is true of any social unit – communities, companies, governments. I believe most humans are good, and the vast majority are not intentionally bad. With a few exceptions (step […]
Culture
Leading in Crisis (4) – Be open
Out of 7 roles of authority, business leaders currently rank last in public opinion of response to the Covid Crisis. Behind journalists. Behind government leaders. Why is that? My guess would be that it’s because most are doing a shocking job of listening to and looking after their teams. It’s really hard to look after […]
On the need to pay more attention
Yesterday morning, I saw Sally Helgesen talk about her new book, “How Women Rise”. I went with 2 ladies I work with who I thought might find it interesting. For me, I was hoping to better understand some challenges that many women face in rising to senior leadership roles, so I could think how I […]
Being too nice to terminate someone’s employment creates bigger problems
I remember the first time I had to deal with a team member who wasn’t meeting the needs of his role. We’d gone through the support, the training, trying to find another role. But ultimately none of that worked. So I took the next step. Which was to sit on it for a few months. […]
Is your team telling you what they think or what they think you want to hear?
I had a tough decision to make, and I sought the advice of a senior member of my team. He told me what he thought. As he was more knowledgeable in that space than I was (or ever will be TBH), I went with his advice. It didn’t work out. As we reviewed what happened, […]