Game playing at work, if done right, can turbocharge performance in the workplace. Business, after all, is a game. We compete with others to win profits, or to go on a quest to attain a grand result.
Leaders who do nothing about bad team members are the worst, according to Joe Montana. He would know, having been on Bill Walsh’s 49ers during a 10 year peak performance period.
I’m a big advocate of structured meetings, but some teams can feel choked by too much facilitation—as though they can’t talk informally, like they used to.
CEOs and CFOs must deliver a carefully crafted duet when they communicate to the team, balancing optimistic messages and cautionary ones.
All types of organizations watch high-potential employees walk out the door because their views aren’t heard. Even members of a top management team can flee to other organizations after too many instances in which the CEO discounted their ideas, unable to shake the command-and-control leadership style.
There are thousands of Lance Armstrong-like people working in companies today. People who have a win at any cost approach, who poison teams, destroy a company’s sustainability and ultimately harm the company’s mission.
Is there a Lance Armstrong on your management team?
Robert Sher’s Radio Interview on the “Think Bigger Radio Show” in October 2012, prompted this brief.
Please click here to read the flyer.
Hard fought battles in politics and business leave people bitter and angry at those who opposed their view. That’s bad for business.
Not unlike Obama and Romney, we business leaders must keep leading even after the battle is over. Our job: to rebuild an environment of mutual respect–even between companies.
Olympic athletes are NOT satisfied until they win their medal, so they work like crazy before competing. My newest Forbes.com post asserts that dissatisfied employees are essential. Not dissatisfied with their boss, their company or their job, but dissatisfied with the level of progress toward their goals. It lays out five key elements to keeping them in a healthy state of dissatisfaction.
Increasing performance, reviewing performance, and rewarding performance are tough subjects that must be handled skillfully. Microsoft’s stack ranking of employees has been a topic of a number of posts recently that isn’t working out too well when it comes to their employees’ innovation. So how does the middle market company practice these evaluative techniques without alienating their employees or stifling the essential creativity necessary for growth?
Robert Sher is founding principal of CEO to CEO, a consulting firm of former chief executives that improves the leadership infrastructure of midsized companies seeking to accelerate their performance. He was chief executive of Bentley Publishing Group from 1984 to 2006 and steered the firm to become a leading player in its industry (decorative art publishing).