performance management
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“No One Ever Told Me”
I make a mean apple crisp. I’m locally famous for it. My daughter, the pickiest of picky eaters, would never even try it, asking for vanilla ice cream instead. Then finally, one Thanksgiving while she was home from college, she accepted her helping of apple crisp with delight. I asked what changed, and she replied with a straight face, “No one ever told me how good it was!” Oops, guess I missed that lesson in Parenting, 101. It got me thinking about the value of lived experience to expand one's perspective. I have seen many “No one ever told me” examples during my career that point to the importance of…
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Workplace Bullies
Bullying in the workplace is a serious problem that doesn't get enough attention. Having experienced workplace bullying, I can attest that it makes work life unbearable. It affects workers, productivity, and culture in significant ways, but is too often ignored. In our consulting work at Leadership Bridges we often (but certainly not always) find that organizations experiencing dysfunction also have a history of harassment and bullying. Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, Gary Namie, and Ruth Namie, in their article Workplace Bullying: Causes, Consequences, and Corrections, define workplace bullying as "repeated, health-harming mistreatment that takes one or more of the following forms: verbal abuse; offensive conduct and behaviors that are threatening, humiliating or intimidating;…
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The tainted star
We’ve all met them. Many of us have worked with them. And sometimes we have had to fire them. The “them” I am talking about are those star performers who also have issues relating to those around them. If you give this star an assignment they can perform independently, they excel. But once you pair them with others, the trouble begins. You often don’t recognize the signs quickly either. In my experience, these stars tend to be self-starters. they have great skills in project management, research, and follow through. On the one hand, you appreciate how well they perform the tasks and projects you assign them. But conversely they tend…