the realities and joys of being in leadership and management roles
Yes, I changed the person’s name and reworded some sentences to protect the company’s identity. No, this is not my current or any former employer. If pressed for time, skip to the bottom for some questions to think about. RE: Considering Leaving the Firm Hi Elina, I hope you and your family are doing well. Of course, Anh and I would love to catch up over dinner next month. Based on your email, I understand that you are considering leaving…
I am a strong advocate for the power of key performance indicators (KPIs). These indicators help guide and focus departments, act as leverage when requesting resources, and provide insight when diagnosing trends before they become significant problems. They apply as much to a personal level of accountability as they do for a department or company. I am re-reading Andy Grove’s book, High Output Management, and he has an excellent chapter covering KPI concepts. In chapter 2, there are many pearls…
It is a common practice to build rapport before entering into a deeper conversation (Coupland, 2003). Often referred to as “small talk,” it is an opportunity for the parties to get to know each other on a personal level before getting down to a substantive discussion. It seems that many people engage in this practice automatically as a cultural norm and to get over the initial anxiety of beginning a new conversation. In a negotiation or other business dialogue, it…
I know that it is troublesome that everyone else, “but us,” have such a terrible memory and inability to remember details. However, there is more going on when we dig into this commonplace challenge. Humans develop mental models, cognitive maps, frames, internal scripts, and other processing methods to understand the environment and situational context albeit with frequent misunderstanding and imprecise perceptions (Tversky, 1993). Even with these accuracy challenges, the automatic use of mental shortcuts is a power element of our…