Your boss is going to make a mistake at some point. And you might be the lucky one who notices. The question is, what should you do about it, and how do you handle it?
First, it’s important to make sure you’re raising appropriate concerns at the proper time and in a productive way. Happily, there are some basic dos and don’ts you can follow to guide you through this potentially sticky situation.
First off, I hate using the term micromanager, it is so negative. Before deciding to write this post, I read a few articles just to make sure my experience matched the general consensus regarding micromanagement. I certainly do not want to throw this term out without consideration of what it represents. My conclusion is still that unfortunately I did find myself working for a micromanager, and just like the term, it was a negative experience. Given all of that, here are few lessons I was able to gleam from the whole thing…
This first lesson was a difficult one. Evaluation and feedback are fundamental values to the way I work and recognizing when feedback was more about the person giving it than about me was difficult. There are three instances when I decided to reject feedback.
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Not doing your budget sounds like a massive weight off your shoulders, even saying the words sounds great. Hearing the word “budget” makes any CFO’s stomach turn.
“In preparing for battle I’ve always found that plans are useless, but planning is essential.” Dwight Eisenhower
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Based on my pricing strategy consulting experience, I’ve pulled together five aspects that differentiate the companies dedicated to pricing excellence from those that can only hope to catch-up. Although specific situations vary, I’ve noticed these pricing best practices time and time again:
When salespeople are encouraged and empowered to get to know their customers, and what they want, well, it leads to the growth of decentralized knowledge that’s critical to sales success, but also useful to the rest of the company.
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Imagine yourself rediscovering your favorite book for the first time. Remember that feeling when you couldn’t put it down no matter how late in the night it was? Remember folding the book in half and cracking the spine as you turned from page to page wondering what would happen next. You loved that book. You felt that every word was strategically placed for your eyes and your eyes only.
I rekindled that feeling as I leafed through a book that has been collecting dust for three years.
Read MoreJust about every organization today wants to be more creative. But just like “innovation”, the word “creativity” means something different for every organization.
For example, when you look at incredibly creative companies like Pixar or IDEO, you can see a lot of differences in their creative processes and outcomes. They go about creativity in very different ways. But what they have in common is a culture where creativity is both expected and rewarded.
Fundamentally, creativity is about being Culture First; it’s about creating a very intentional way of being that leads to the creative result.
When you manage knowledge workers — especially developers and other IT staff — you encounter a lot of introverts. They like to work on their own, prefer quiet and solitude, and enjoy digging into problems.
While some of these folks learn to push past their discomfort, as a rule introverts don’t speak up in meetings, nor do they jump at a chance to present or lead collaboration sessions. They’re often overlooked in favor of more extroverted employees — and that’s risky business.
Read MoreThe greatest technology for a creative person is neither an app nor a device, it is paper.
As we begin the new year, I wanted to share this analog system with you which I created called The Creativity Notebook, so that it can transform your world the way it has mine.
Tis’ the season to talk about marketing trends and predictions for 2017. And this year, the online community is delivering in spades.
Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I find predictions and trends posts fascinating because I love the preview of what’s to come.
Read MoreImagine standing in a wind tunnel: you’re doing your best just to keep upright, the noise is overwhelming, and you can’t really see, hear or make sense of whatever someone is shouting at you. That’s how busy people operate, day in and day out. Days jammed with meetings, email, there’s always something they need to urgently respond to, get on that conference call, finish yet another presentation. Have you ever tried scheduling fun with busy people?
I was this person. I lived on busy: I had three careers going in parallel, a family, and a deluge of emails spilling out of my inbox daily, so much so, I couldn’t even force myself to put the phone down in the evening. It’s just that, well.. Life was happening to me. I wasn’t happening to life.
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